Why Building A Blogging Community Is More Important

by Guest Blogger on August 18, 2011

Justice Wordlaw IV is the creator of GenYRants which is a blog that offers resources and tools to generation-y to expand their brand and self development.

When you start out blogging you’re going to hear a lot of different things on what you should be concentrating on first.

You should focus on SEO, keywords, search engine marketing, building backlinks, or having a great commenting system. But, those things are great and will have to be taken care of in time but when starting out blogging or even trying to expand on your blog your focus should be building and creating a community around your blog.

You can have about 1000 incoming links that rank you high on Alexa but if no one is ever reading or interacting with your blog it means nothing. I started out blogging in 2009 and when I first started out I thought that if my entire focus was not on SEO that my blog would die and no one would ever find me. Well, as you would probably assume my entire focus was on SEO and I got a lot of backlinks and I ranked high for great keywords but I started to realize that no one was commenting on blog posts and my bounce rate was entirely too high.

One day I was out in a Starbucks and was just looking around at everyone conversing and realized that their were so many people working on different tasks in a group.

It made me think that some of the best work is sometimes done when in a group of people that think and act like you.

I took that mindset and brought it into blogging and how having a community of like minded people is the one focus that I should concentrate on first with starting out in the blogosphere.

Building a solid interacting community online is something that you won’t be advised to do when starting out online unless you have a mentor that tells you to or by examples of other great bloggers. You won’t be told to create a brand and a buzz that will have people going bonkers over your blog posts as Christian has on Smart Boy Designs. But, that’s what you should be doing though. When you start to think of the idea of creating a community you want to WHY you should create one and how you should grow that community in a unique way to get the best benefits for both your community and your brand.

When I first created GenYRants the idea of the community is to offer generation-y the opportunity to voice their opinions on topics that they feel are important. With doing that we then expand on our community by offering great resources and tools that gen-y should be using to network and explore within our generation. The hardest part was to distinguish the unique side of the community and how we are going to be different from other blogs and companies that focus their attention on generation-y.

That’s what you should be thinking of when building your community.

What are you going to offer them that no one else is and how are you going to make it unique for them that they feel special when visiting your site each time.

So, when you look at your blogging community look to see what you’re offering them that is unique? What brand and voice are you creating to make your blog unique?

If you are having trouble with building a community for your blog look into expanding your social media into different areas. Build a LinkedIn group so that you can build a professional community to gather different ideas and perspectives. You’re going to have to think outside of the box with creating your community. The normal pushing content and guest blogging is a great way but you want to build a sustainable community as you would a business by trying different social platforms to create and grow your community.

Justice Wordlaw IV is the creator of GenYRants which is a blog that offers resources and tools to generation-y to expand their brand and self development.

Tagged as: blogging community, building a blogging community, justice wordlaw IV, the importance of building a blogging community, why building a blogging community is more important

Buffer

{ 30 comments… read them below or add one }

Eddie Gear August 18, 2011 at 7:09 am

Now that is what I call as Building a Tribe. If you happen to get your hand on Seth Godin’s book, he very clearly tells what you need to do to make it big. Or at least for me its to build a tribe and voice one view.
Eddie Gear recently posted..PR4 CommentLuv Enabled Blogs – 85

Justice Wordlaw IV Twitter: Justicewordlaw August 18, 2011 at 8:53 am

Yeah, I read that book and that was the beginning grounds to creating a tribe of people. That’s one of the most important things that you could do for yourself. Thanks for checking out my post.
Justice Wordlaw IV recently posted..Deloitte & Touche: Your Corporate Version of the Harvard Law Student With a Jump Shot

Christian Hollingsworth Twitter: smartboydesigns August 18, 2011 at 8:54 am

What I like about Seth is that he really pinpoints those key ingredients that are going to make you successful. He helps you to understand and “grasp” how to make it happen, what to do, and what to expect.

Justice Wordlaw IV Twitter: Justicewordlaw August 18, 2011 at 8:56 am: Yeah, Seth offers a really good idea on what you should be doing. When I finally got a grasp of what he was really trying to get across I knew I had success on the way.
Justice Wordlaw IV recently posted..Deloitte & Touche: Your Corporate Version of the Harvard Law Student With a Jump Shot

Reply

Christian Hollingsworth Twitter: smartboydesigns August 18, 2011 at 8:58 am

Justice, what are some ways people can start “right” and develop those key things that are going to set them apart from others?

Justice Wordlaw IV Twitter: Justicewordlaw August 18, 2011 at 9:00 am: Write down 5 different things you like about a community or tribe that you’re apart of right now and how you can implement those into your own blog or community. Then offer your community one great incentive for being apart of your community that will make them feel amazing as soon as they hit the “like” button on your Facebook page or leave a comment on your blog.
Justice Wordlaw IV recently posted..Deloitte & Touche: Your Corporate Version of the Harvard Law Student With a Jump Shot

Reply

Jack August 18, 2011 at 9:03 am

I agree.

Building a Community is very important for a blog.

I also thing if you have something to share with them that is valuable, then having a community to give it out to is no-brainer. The difficult thing is when can’t think of anything valuable to share.
Jack recently posted..4 Things You Could Do When Being Attacked!

Justice Wordlaw IV Twitter: Justicewordlaw August 18, 2011 at 9:13 am: That was a problem with me when I first started out. I thought of nothing to share that might be valuable. So, then I thought about letting the readers and potential community I was trying to build share their thoughts and opinions which meant it was valuable to them.
Justice Wordlaw IV recently posted..Deloitte & Touche: Your Corporate Version of the Harvard Law Student With a Jump Shot

Reply

Demetri August 18, 2011 at 10:56 am

Sounds like a chapter out of Think and Grow Rich, Napolean Hill. The mastermind group is what is attributed to Henry Ford and Franklin Roosevelt’s success.

Justice Wordlaw IV Twitter: Justicewordlaw August 18, 2011 at 11:25 am: Yeah, the idea of a master mind group is another great thing that you could do for yourself. One of the best things that I started to do earlier this year.
Justice Wordlaw IV recently posted..Deloitte & Touche: Your Corporate Version of the Harvard Law Student With a Jump Shot

Reply

yogizilla August 18, 2011 at 1:08 pm

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: people are more receptive today to communities where they feel needed, wanted, and involved… Tribes may work for some but two-way communication and interaction, engagement, is the way to go for most of us.. Especially if you claim to love people and have a spirit of servitude.

Personally, I’ve been trying to carve out more time to help others and, if they want to reciprocate, even better.. If not, I’ll “keep it moving” with a smile on my face! =oD
yogizilla recently posted..Laurinda Won’t Share Her Scotch With Me (Pssst… Sharing *IS* Caring!)

Justice Wordlaw IV Twitter: Justicewordlaw August 18, 2011 at 5:51 pm: Thanks for stopping by and offering your thoughts on this. You’re correct with more people wanting to be apart of a community that they can share their voice and opinion on topics. As long as you can offer an open communication line for everyone most would be happy.
Justice Wordlaw IV recently posted..Deloitte & Touche: Your Corporate Version of the Harvard Law Student With a Jump Shot

Reply

Angela Artemis/Poweredbyintuition August 18, 2011 at 3:53 pm

Great article Justice.
I got the exact opposite advice when I started. I was told don’t think about SEO – just write great articles and you’ll attract a following – which I did. The trouble was that I wasn’t ranking anywhere on Google so, it was hard to grow my subscribers with very little traffic. Now I now you do need to do a combination of both to have a successful blog.
Angela Artemis/Poweredbyintuition recently posted..Karma, Being Present and the Path to Eternal Happiness

Justice Wordlaw IV Twitter: Justicewordlaw August 18, 2011 at 5:53 pm: Thanks for stopping by and you’re right your going to need both to really have a successful blog. What I did for GenYRants was outsource the seo and backlinks to another company while I focus attention on growing a brand and putting out solid articles for the community.
Justice Wordlaw IV recently posted..Does Your Google Circles Look Dead Yet?

Reply

Franziska San Pedro August 18, 2011 at 7:11 pm

Hi Christian,

I definitely agree with you! Adding keywords and looking at SEO is something you can still do later once your blog is up and running. I found that my online friends are very forgiving if my blog -at times- doesn’t look great or buttons are missing when I am updating or redoing the theme.

Showing up is all that matters, connecting, talking, chatting, giving and taking advice, learning, growing… Most of the “essentials” like SEO, you learn along the way anyways when you’re interacting with people online. They are important but not the most important!

Love your thoughts,

Franziska San Pedro
The Abstract Impressionist Artress
Franziska San Pedro recently posted..Creative WordPress Themes For Artists

Vitaly Tennant Twitter: vitalyvt August 18, 2011 at 8:27 pm

Great thoughts in this post Justice, totally agree about establishing a community. It’s always nice to see interactions going on within a blog/site. Which shows a level of involvement and dedication from the readers. Since I’ve started out, I have always focused on SEO, backlinks, etc. Which is arguable (I like to get paid), in this retrospect because to me the interactions that go behind the scenes get the most work done so to say (opt ins for example). It’s good to network and really know who has your support when it comes to monetization. Which is what most of us are all after at the end of the day. This is one of those things that can be opinionated, but my hat goes off to those that not only get a lot of uniques but interactions (shares & comments) as well. Which in-turn help the SEO. Again, it’s a two way street.
Going back to the original thought; building a community is definitely something that one should ultimately strive for.
Hats off for a great guest post Justice.
Vitaly Tennant recently posted..Utopia – The Perfect Government

Justice Wordlaw IV Twitter: Justicewordlaw August 19, 2011 at 6:29 am: Thanks for stopping by and offering your thoughts on the topic and you’re right about that it’s a two way street with blogging and monetization. I enjoy increasing backlinks and understanding seo but I love the feeling of having a long thread of comments with engaging conversation as well. Thanks for stopping by.
Justice Wordlaw IV recently posted..Does Your Google Circles Look Dead Yet?

Reply

Dave Lucas August 19, 2011 at 4:48 am

Commenter Eddie mentioned the word “TRIBE” – I recall signing up for something I think was called Tribe that was supposed to bring bloggers together… guess it petered out!

I loved MyBlogLog for its community spirit – of course, yahoo pulled the plug on it…

Bloggers have to be careful to build a real COMMUNITY – and not a CLIQUE – I know of a few blogs where you see 30-50 comments on very post but on closer inspection, those comments are divided among 3 other bloggers and the host blogger… and way at the bottom the site counter says ‘you are the third visitor today” – and it’s an hour until midnight!

I did everything I could think of (but never succeeded) to try to build a blog like the one LaShawn Barber published in the mid-2000′s when she was mostly a “political blogger.” I envied her “comments” area, which was more like an interactive forum: 30 to 200 comments on each post – every one from a UNIQUE visitor!

Lastly, SOCIAL MEDIA is NOT the best way to build a blog community, although it is a useful tool. There are a lot of bloggers who shun social media – a lot of “A-list” bloggers whose digital friendship is far more valuable than a thousand flakey facebook frtiends or twitter followers!

Justice Wordlaw IV Twitter: Justicewordlaw August 19, 2011 at 6:43 pm: I have ran by a couple of blogs that used the two vs. three person technique to grow their comments on their blog which I found very interesting. Social media is one of the best ways to build a community online. With some of the top bloggers any in niche they focus their attention on their blog which is their central platform but without the use of social media how is more people going to be involved with your blog? If no one could share your blog posts at all to different networks how are you suppose to expand?
Justice Wordlaw IV recently posted..Create A Product & Don’t Let Fear Take Over

Reply

Jens P. Berget Twitter: berget August 20, 2011 at 4:19 am

Hi Christian,

I’ve read Seth Godin’s book, and I’ve been reading what Marcus Sheridan have been writing about lately (especially when it comes to him asking for help). It’s amazing how tribes work, but building one is probably a lot harder than most people understand.

I don’t think that it’s only about unique and quality information. It’s more about connecting, talking and support.

I really enjoy it when a blogger just asks a single question, one sentence, and they get a long discussion going. I believe in support and talking to each and every one. Some tribes get big, too big, and leave some members all alone. To me, quality of the tribe is defined on how each member is taken care of and if people actually listen to them.

Jens

Tim Griffin August 20, 2011 at 6:58 am

Justice,
Thanks for that. It was exactly what I needed to hear.
I’ve been thinking about this since first reading and recalled Chris Pirillo’s statement at a WordPress Camp San Francisco. It went something like this,

“you don’t create community, it either is or it isn’t”

How does this relate to your post? Well, I think what happened when you changed priorities from doing all the techy SEO stuff and the like, you began focusing on human readers and discovered a community of likeminded people. They were there all along. Just needed to more clearly hear the invitation to participate. And to know that their voice was going to land in a place where it made sense. For them and the readers.

Takes some real effort to identify your community, hone your content and overall message of your site. Way to go man!

Tim

Justice Wordlaw IV Twitter: Justicewordlaw August 20, 2011 at 5:42 pm: Thanks for stopping by Tim. With your quote you’re true about what you have said. The community was always there you just have to listen and be ready to interact with them. Have a great one.
Justice Wordlaw IV recently posted..Why You Should Invest in The Stock Market Right Now

Reply

Laurinda Shaver August 20, 2011 at 8:22 am

I love this quote !!!!

“What are you going to offer them that no one else is and how are you going to make it unique for them that they feel special when visiting your site each time.”

It is going up on my idea board. Simple and keeps you focused!! Thank you for that.
Laurinda Shaver recently posted..My assumptions questioned. Daily.

Justice Wordlaw IV Twitter: Justicewordlaw August 20, 2011 at 5:43 pm: Thanks for stopping by Laurinda. Offering something unique and special is something I really try and focus on for the community. I would like for them to receive that special feeling each time. Thanks for stopping by.
Justice Wordlaw IV recently posted..Why You Should Invest in The Stock Market Right Now

Reply

Gemma Thompson August 21, 2011 at 12:09 am

Hi Justice (and everyone else!)

Some good points raised in your blog and some great points added in the comments, so thank you, all of you
I have found social media useful in building a community, up to now my focus on doing so has been based on creating communities that have a large number of businesses that are in my target market and are also geographically close to each other.
I share my posts within these groups, and have gained a strong following from this and lots of comments – just not necessarily on my blog!
I know I need to focus on getting more of these comments actually on my blog and your post has given me the idea of creating a Facebook community that will do that for each other.
But, me being a touch lazy, does anyone know of a plugin that can farm the comments people may add elsewhere (like Facebook) and re-plant them on your blog?…
Thanks again, look forward to reading more comments!
Gemma Thompson recently posted..Making your blog a chart-topper!

Justice Wordlaw IV Twitter: Justicewordlaw August 21, 2011 at 6:49 am: Hello,

Thanks for stopping by and offering your thoughts and building a community on your blog is something that you’re going to want to do. But, to drag over the comments that might be on another platform is not going to happen so you’re going to have to be proactive with switching your comments from various sources and bring them into one main source (your blog). You could use Facebook comments as your commenting system for your blog since then their friends could potentially see they left a comment on your blog. Their is a great commenting system Livefyre that I use for my commenting system. You can check it out on my blog to see how you like it.
Justice Wordlaw IV recently posted..Why You Should Invest in The Stock Market Right Now

Reply

James St. John August 21, 2011 at 8:43 pm

Having stepped into the blogging water just within the past few months, I have stumbled a bit through the whole seo/building a community issue. I have also found it important to strike a balance between the two.
I think the reason we often focus on SEO is because it tends to be a bit easier than building community. Personally, I would prefer to build community and participate in an ongoing productive conversation. It is a slow process, however, and tends to have some land-mines along the way. It also attracts a great number of spammers, which is a bit of a bother.
Like Laurinda, I love the quote, “What are you going to offer them that no one else is and how are you going to make it unique for them that they feel special when visiting your site each time.” My hope is that I daily moving into that realm. Thanks for the insight and inspiration.
James St. John recently posted..Conversion Fest Week Three

Justice Wordlaw IV Twitter: Justicewordlaw August 22, 2011 at 7:43 pm: Thanks for stopping by James and you’re probably right with the idea of seo being easier then building a community because it is. What I have suggested to a lot of people if you could is to just outsource the seo/backlinking process of your blog to someone on elance or odeask and focus your productive attention on building a community around your blog. Hope you have fun with growing your community. I would love to hear the progress that you take along the way.
Justice Wordlaw IV recently posted..My Parents Don’t Believe Me That I’m An Entrepreneur

Reply

Amna Jawad September 4, 2011 at 6:45 am

Yes, Building community is important, i prefer building community at start on SEO work, although SEO is important too but community will help you make SEO easy.
Amna Jawad recently posted..Writing Short Report