HubSpot's Inbound Internet Marketing Blog

Keyword Optimization: The Cure for Search Overload Syndrome

Magdalena Georgieva — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 07:24:00 GMT

Microsoft's Bing suggested that we suffer from search overload syndrome. If that's true, marketers have a lot of work ahead of them in terms of keyword optimization.

Business owner in the liquor industry Fran Murdy recently got a preview of that work. "I'm in desperate need of help to find keywords for my business," wrote Fran in a forum discussion on InboundMarketing.com. Soon afterward, fellow marketers offered their suggestions for a good keyword optimization strategy:

Conduct Keyword Research

"Keyword research is the beginning and end game for a well optimized site," Anthony Howard wrote in the forum discussion. Brainstorm ideas and create a list of action-oriented keywords appealing to your target audience. Offer the most relevant content for your buyer persona.

"I'd recommend that you step back from trying to find keywords for the product you sell, and ask yourself, 'What content will attract my buyer?'" suggested Pete Caputa. That will guide you in the right direction and help you produce searchable content.

Use Keyword Discovery Resources

The more tools for keyword suggestions you use, the richer your set of ideas will be. HubSpot's Keyword Grader is our favorite, but you could also try Wordtracker and KeywordDiscovery. You can use SemRush to explore your competitors' strategy and monitor a word's average volume of searches.

Pick the Low-Hanging Fruit

One way to do this is to target the people who are already searching for you. There is somebody out there who is looking up your brand online or is actively interested in your industry- or location-specific niche.

For instance, if you run a bed and breakfast in the village of Cataumet on Cape Cod, your low-hanging fruit would be "bed breakfast Cataumet." There aren't many bed and breakfasts in Cataumet, so the competition to rank for this keyword will be low.

Measure Keyword Performance

Once you have started using certain keyword phrases, don't stop measuring their performance. Web 2.0 is more real-time than ever and enables quick changes in organic search and trending topics. Track the keywords driving actual traffic and leads to your site and keep producing relevant content. Filter out the unsuccessful ones and adjust your keyword selection accordingly.

Experiment With Pay Per Click

In some cases PPC campaigns can be a good way to build traffic and inbound links related to specific keywords you're trying to rank for. Of course, PPC is an expensive long-term marketing strategy.

Image Credit: carobe

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Interview With Copyblogger Founder, Brian Clark

Rory Stanton — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:00:00 GMT

Brian Clark is the founder of Copyblogger, a blog about using copywriting and social media for online marketing. It now has over 60,000 subscribers and is ranked as a top blog on Advertising Age and Technorati.

1. How did Copyblogger get started? What made you think a blog about copywriting would be so successful?

I didn't think a blog about copywriting would be successful, but I did think a blog about the intersection of copywriting and blogging might have a shot. Put another way, it's the intersection of content and marketing, and I had been using online content marketing since 1999 to sell everything from professional services to software. Now the term "content marketing" has come into vogue, and that's what Copyblogger has really always been about.

2. What are the three most important things you've done to help you build your blog -- to build subscriptions, inbound links, and recommendations from other bloggers?

1. Great content that is designed to spread.
2. An understanding of how social media works and changes.
3. Real relationships with those who can help get the word out.

3. How should bloggers balance the desire for a broad audience with the need to focus on a specific topic? Too specific, and your audience is limited; too broad, and you'll have few original insights to offer.

It's true that being too specific can hurt you, but only in the extreme. A strong focused niche audience will prove more valuable than a general unfocused audience of larger size. One shouldn't water things down as far as subject matter or personality just to attract a larger audience.

4. Marketers are very concerned with the quality of the traffic on their site. What can you do as a business blogger to make sure you have quality traffic?

Stay on topic. Find a way to make your content sexy AND on point rather than going off track to attract traffic that is ultimately worthless.

5. Many bloggers deliberately post controversial opinions in order to gain attention. Is this a good strategy for a small business blogger?

I think positioning yourself so that some will love you and others will ignore you or even dislike you is smart. If you stand for something strongly, that will naturally happen. And if you do that, you don't have to purposefully be controversial. Often bloggers attract the wrong kind of audience when they purposefully try to be controversial in an opportunistic way. Stand for what you beleive in and don't back down, and things will naturally happen without being ugly.

6. Business bloggers need to get value out of their blog. What's the best way to get this value -- and to measure it?

Sell something and count how much money you make. ;-)

7. What are your favorite business blogs? Why?

Seth Godin - Always thought provoking ideas about smart marketing.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/

Chris Brogan - For a popular business blogger, he has an amazing "beginner's mind" that allows for any and all possibilities.

http://www.chrisbrogan.com/

Michel Fortin - Just a damn good copywriter who also seems to get social media.

http://www.michelfortin.com/

SEO Book - Aaron Wall is an SEO ninja, but he also understands that ranking well in search engines is a function of strong marketing and an understanding of human psychology.

http://www.seobook.com/

Louis Gray - For those who can't deal with the noise from Tech Crunch et al, Louis tells you what's important about Web 2.0 and new tech.

http://www.louisgray.com/live/

8. What do you read online regularly?

See above. The rest of the time I'm reading books. And often, they have nothing to do with marketing or business. That's where my best ideas come from.

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Why Your Email Needs Social Media (and How to Do It Right)

Ellie Mirman — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 06:55:00 GMT

Why Your Email Needs Social Media

It's no secret that email marketing is an effective and inexpensive lead generation channel. But while email is effective, it is limited by the size of your email list. This may sound obvious and unexceptional, but social media does not experience the same limitation.

Whereas with email, your reach is equal to your list size, with social media, your reach is equal to your followers/fans/subscribers plus all of their connections. This is because the nature of social media is to consume and share content.

For example, if HubSpot posts an update to our Facebook page, I (a fan) see that content. Then if I go and comment on that update, that activity is published to my profile and all of my connections see that update. As another example, if HubSpot tweets a link to our latest blog post, our followers see that tweet. Then so many of them retweet that content to share it with all of their followers - expanding our reach to our second order connections. And so on.

In essence, social media gives legs to your content to expand your reach beyond your existing database. While your content is hopefully already so great that people want to share it, social media makes it a lot easier to do so.

How to Do It Right

Now, how can you leverage social media for your email marketing?

Step 1: Figure out which social media sites your customers and potential customers use. Whether you believe it or not, your customers are online talking about you and your industry. Figure out which sites they use the most. Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are great places to start for most businesses.

Step 2: Set up profiles on each of these websites. It's free and just requires your time. And, it's best to reserve your company name on all of these sites immediately, before someone else takes them.

Step 3: Add links in your emails to follow or subscribe to your social media profiles. The people already subscribing to your emails are great candidates for following you in social media, you just need to let them know that you're there. Social media also gets a leg up on email in that an email address may not stick with someone as they move from one job to another, but social media profiles and subscriptions will.

Step 4: Add links in your emails to post your content to these social media sites. Make it easy for your recipients to share the content with their networks on these social media sites.

Step 5: Integrate social media at all stages of the communication. Follow the user from the email to the landing page and conversion.

The Results

Since integrating social media more into our email campaigns, we've seen an uptick in the (1) number of mentions in social media (specifically for our webinars or other email content), (2) number of subscribers to our social media profiles, and (3) amount of traffic and leads from social media sites (for this lead generation type of content) due to that buzz on these sites.

How have you integrated social media into your email marketing? What kind of impact has it had on the success of your email campaigns?

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How We Doin? The HubSpot Blog Gets Its Grades.

Rick Burnes — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 06:17:00 GMT

Since we're launching Blog Grader over at blog.grader.com this morning, today on this blog I'm sharing our report card.

So how we doin?

Right now we get a B+ -- an 89 out of 100.

I think that's pretty good, especially considering that we're working within the constraints of a company blog. Of course, there's a lot of work to do.

To get a sense of exactly where that work needs to be done -- and to give you a full status report on the blog -- I put our grades in the context of some of the blogs we read regularly and admire:

Site	Blog Grade	Traffic Rank	Page Rank	Indexed Pages	Inbound Links
sethgodin.typepad.com	92	8,410	7	4,320	1,840,142
www.chrisbrogan.com	91	19,793	6	3,720	420,672
www.micropersuasion.com	91	52,023	7	5,750	595,266
blog.hubspot.com	88	6,535	5	1,150	46,385
www.toprankblog.com	88	17,980	6	3,340	785,905
www.copyblogger.com	87	8,717	6	930	801,510
www.webinknow.com	83	70,786	6	934	131,920

What's all this tell you? And what can you learn from it so that you can benchmark your own blog?

Above all, it shows that it doesn't make sense to judge your blog by a single metric. Look at a variety of metrics, and decide which are the most important for your purposes.

Here's a rundown of each of the metrics I've included above:

Traffic Rank is important if you're concerned with the visitors to your site, as many advertising-funded sites are. Lower is better.
Page Rank is a very rough assment of raw SEO power, according to Google. It's on a 1-10 scale. Higher is better.
Indexed Pages is a measure of the volume of content visible to search engines. More is better.
Inbound Links is a rough proxy for SEO authority (search engines use inbound links to help sort results). It's also an indication of the extent to which your blog is used as a reference. A higher number is better.

Here are a few numbers that aren't listed above, but are also important:

Comments indicate the level of engagement on the blog. Higher is better.
Subscriptions indicate the level of the blog's reach. More subscriptions is better.

So which one of these numbers should you be focused on most? It depends on what your blog's goals are, but I try to keep track of all of them for this blog. Of course, now that we have a Blog Grade that weights all of them, I'll be focusing more on that.

How's your report card? Which metrics are you focused on improving for your blog?

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"Baby Got Leads" New Inbound Marketing Music Video

Pamela Seiple — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 05:13:00 GMT

Behold our newest music video about rapping marketer, Sir Convert-A-Lot and his obsession with lead conversion and inbound marketing. Original lyrics sung to Sir Mix-A-Lot's "Baby Got Back."

Who knew marketing could be so fly?

"Baby Got Leads"
By HubSpot's Rebecca Corliss

Oh my god, Karen, look at his leads
They are sooo hot... Ugh.
He looks like one of those inbound marketers
Those leads... they wanna buy... like right now.
They're just so... ORGANIC!

I like hot leads and I cannot lie
You marketers can't deny
When a lead converts on a target landing page
Cause my offer's all the rage
I get sprung
Write a blog post next
Cause you know that text gets indexed
Make content they can't stop sharing
My podcasts the music's blaring
Oh baby I wanna convertcha
It's fine. Won't hutcha
Organic Google searchers
Makes those leads you got
"Me-Me so nurtured"

Form-filled out break through
You say you wanna get in my queue?
Cold Calling? Appalling
Cause you know my leads come crawling

Come to my website
You found me? Yeah that's right
Leads
Speed
Call-to-action is all they need

I'm tired of marketing teams
Who say outbound is their thang
Take the average rep and ask them that
Inbound's where it's at
So Sales Teams (Yeah)
Sales Teams (Yeah)
Are your leads all gonna close?
(Hell yeah!)
So turn around. Follow up.
Even prospects got to shout.
Baby got leads.

BABY GOT LEADS

Credits

Production:
Direction, Lyrics and Video Editing: Rebecca Corliss (@repcor)
Music Mixing: Dan Abdinoor (@abdinoor)

Cast
Sir Convert-A-Lot: Vas Leckas (@vleckas)
Lead Bro: Brian Cantwell (@cantwell)
Lead Lady #1: Karen Rubin (@karenrubin)
Lead Lady #2: Rebecca Corliss
Ensemble: The @HubSpot Team

"Baby Got Leads" by HubSpot is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

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New Survey Shows 71% of Respondents Review Products Online

Magdalena Georgieva — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 15:52:00 GMT

Yesterday the interactive marketing agency Razorfish released a survey indicating that 71% of its 1,000 respondents share product and service recommendations in the social mediasphere at least once every few months.

According to the data, 29% of the surveyed share product views online at least every few weeks and 10% do so at least every few days.

"Conversations about brands, products and services are increasingly woven into the interactions of social networks as a means to connect with others, and these conversations have great influence even though people aren't consciously asking about brand opinions," reports the survey. Today, independent bloggers and social influencers have become key factors in making purchase decisions online.

What does that mean for marketers? Here are my four takeaways from the survey:

(1) Establish an Authentic Online Presence

If you are authentic, people will volunteer to spread the good word about your product. Social networking is much like traditional word-of-mouth. Your connections will open up once you adopt a credible and trustworthy voice for your business. "These voices will need to be more engaging, personal, humble, authentic and participatory than traditional advertising messages," suggests the survey.

(2) Don't Push Things, Do Things

Instead of pushing messages the way you would with traditional advertising, try to do things for your target audience. Change your mindset about how trust works across different online channels. "Brands can't simply push messages anymore," reports the survey. "Consumers don't have time for one-way messages -- they are too busy influencing each other across every stage of the marketing funnel, across industries and product price points."

(3) Develop Net Sentiments

The survey suggests that brands should develop net sentiments. Razorfish describes these as "the degree to which consumers like or dislike your brand when they talk to each other about you online." In order to spur positive conversations, you need to be provoking positive sentiments.

(4) Monitor Your Level of Engagement

In order to keep the net sentiments positive, you need to be tracking your brand's performance in the blogosphere, social mediasphere and various discussion forums. Monitor the level of consumer engagement on a regular basis. By keeping track of the conversations revolving around your brand, you can respond to requests and remain active. "Being an active brand means that each day you interact with your consumers based on how they interact with you and with each other," suggests the survey.

The future of social influence marketing is knocking on your door. Are you there?

Image Credit: Razorfish

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Interview with Scott Monty, Global Digital Communications Manager at Ford

Rory Stanton — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 07:09:00 GMT

Scott Monty is the Global Digital & Multimedia Communications Manager at Ford Motor Company. He is an expert in the corporate use of social media and was named one of the Top 25 Internet Marketing Leaders & Innovators by iMedia. He is serving as a Judge of the SAMMY Awards this year and the author of The Social Media Marketing Blog.

1. How did you become involved in social media?

I attended some marketing industry events and began reading some blogs about the changing communications culture, and eventually started writing my own (the Social Media Marketing Blog) in 2006. While I was working for a B2B marketing agency in Boston, I tried building a social media practice there, based on what I was learning; but B2B typically lags B2C in most trends, and social media was barely even on the B2C radar at the time. I left and joined Crayon, focusing on strategic social media consulting to large companies; and then Ford picked me up.

2. What do you do as the Digital Communications Manager of Ford Motor Company?

I'm in charge of leading our social media efforts globally, as well as leading a team of web publishers that handle a number of internal and external sites, and our broadcast team that is responsible for placements on TV and radio. The role is both internally and externally facing, as we gear up our employees to become digital representatives of Ford, and as we continue to build awareness and improve the perception of Ford Motor Company with the public.

As you can imagine, the job is multifaceted and involves not only engaging with customers in real time over a number of social networks, but it also involves providing leadership to the The Ford Story team as we evolve it into our social media hub, and interaction and coaching with a number of internal departments as they gain interest in using social media for their teams.

3. You have worked in a variety of industries: Are there limitations to the effectiveness of social media marketing depending on the industry?

I think the limitations depend on the customers - if they're not involved on the social web, then it doesn't make sense for a business to try to reach them that way. But as far as industries trying to get a foothold, in my experience, the more highly regulated industries are the ones that are dragging their feet the most. And in terms of effectiveness, it goes back to how social media addresses the business goals that companies have set out. If the goal is to drive sales of Acme Company's widget, and people don't respond to direct marketing attempts on Twitter or Facebook, then maybe the goal is not at parity with the tool.

4. If you are a small business, is it better to host an online community on your own website or to participate on other online communities and reach people that way?

Yes. :-)

People will always congregate where they feel the most comfortable. Companies that will succeed in this place will participate in those external places as well as that provide a hub that can act as a center of conversation. And the ones that are really thinking ahead are the ones that provide an aggregation of external chatter on their very own hub.

5. You claimed that "people trust people like themselves the most" in the article, "What Matters in Most Word-of-Mouth Marketing?," what ways can a marketer or business owner be universally "trustworthy," or like the entire audience, to build an online community's trust?

I don't think there's such a thing as "universally trustworthy." However, I do believe that consistency is important, as well as the need to show people -- rather than tell them -- what you're doing. In addition, if employees are trained well and can speak on behalf of companies in an informed way, their own networks will become more aware of what the companies are doing. What this equates to over time is a spirit of trustworthiness.

6. With the volume of social media available and the various channels in which to participate online, what tactics can smaller companies use to get people to stick and be loyal to their sites?

The only thing that matters is good content. Provide what your customers want and they'll keep coming back. Create it in every form, test it out, pull what doesn't work, and don't be afraid to experiment.

7. Business bloggers are encouraged to produce valuable content to increase user engagement with their site, how can businesses benchmark their social media communications against their competitors?

Interesting question. Personally, I don't think it's terribly valuable to dwell on. It's kind of like trying to determine which parent a child loves more based on how they interact with each parent. My advice would be that businesses should focus on how well their customers are engaging with them, not with someone else. Naturally, it pays to observe what competitors are doing, but ultimately, if you know your customers and are listening to them, it shouldn't matter what the competition is doing

8. Given that you deal with both complaints and praise about Ford online, what is your advice on negative comment management on the internet?

Know when it's appropriate to jump in; not every comment requires a response. In Ford's case, 9 times out of 10, the community will take care of it for us. In other cases, it may not rise to the level of urgency or importance to need a reply.

9. What is the best viral marketing campaign you have seen in 2009?

Honestly, I don't have time to keep up with everything. I'm doing all I can to focus on the job at hand at Ford. I'm sure your readers will forgive me if I plead ignorance on this one.

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HubSpot TV - Make Content Creation Your Super Power

Rebecca Corliss — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 10:30:00 GMT

Episode #48 - July 10th, 2009
(Episode Length: 19 minutes, 53 seconds)

Intro

How to interact on Twitter: @repcor, @karenrubin with www.HubSpot.tv in your tweet.
Also, new section "Let's Ask Twitter" -- watch out for it later in the show!
Subscribe in iTunes: http://itunes.hubspot.tv
Watch out for our new music video on Tuesday, brought to you by @repcor! (Starring HubSpotters @vleckas and @cantwell!)

Doing It Right: WeSeed

Game created by Peak6, a financial services company
The game is a fun, free, risk-free way for real people to learn about the stock market; gain knowledge, experience, and confidence; and empower themselves to take control of their financial lives.

Headlines

Public Relations is Social Relations

Spinning the Web: P.R. in Silicon Valley
Good PR pros need to develop huge networks of people on Twitter and major blogs to be effective.
Marketing Takeaway: Don't limit your PR outreach to traditional media, your best influencers in social media could be more effective!

New Section: Let's Ask Twitter

Where do you go to find influencers online?

CP&B Put's It All Out There

Crispin Porter + Bogusky, an advertising design factory
Giant digital fishing net... Collects Twitter, News and Blogs!
Marketing Takeaway: Don't be afraid to try new things or break new ground when generating buzz about your business.

Bathing Suits On Facebook?

Personal details of new UK spy chief on Facebook
David Milliband, (incoming head of Britain's international spy agency) wears a speedo...apparently.
Marketing Takeaway: Manage your social media profiles and what content others are publishing about you.

Google Announces Their Own Operating System

Introducing the Google Chrome OS
Specifically targeted at Netbooks
Direct competition to Microsoft?
Marketing Takeaway 1: Don't worry about it with regards to your marketing. If it becomes a big enough deal, we'll let you know.
Marketing Takeaway 2: If you can offer free tools that people will use on an every day basis, it helps insert your brand into their everyday lives.

United Breaks Guitars

Dave Carroll: United Breaks Guitars (YouTube Video)
1.5 Million Views
Angry United Airlines customer gets attention with YouTube complaint
DaveCarrollMusic.com
Marketing Takeaway: Don't undermine the power of your consumers. Listen to them because the internet makes it much easier for them to be heard!

Forum Fodder

From Dan Ronken: "Initially closing off comments?" What is your opinion on closing off comments until a decent amount of readership is built? If I see a blog with large number of posts and no comments on any of them, it feels less engaging to me.
Responses: "Closing off comments is like shutting the door in someone's face or walking into a room and only talking about yourself and then leaving."
"No comment is like Communism."
"To me, a blog w/o a commenting option is a newspaper, and we all know how those are doing"
Seth Godin - "I think comments are terrific, and they are the key attraction for some blogs and some bloggers. Not for me, though. First, I feel compelled to clarify or to answer every objection or to point out every flaw in reasoning. Second, it takes way too much of my time to even think about them, never mind curate them. And finally, and most important for you, it permanently changes the way I write. Instead of writing for everyone, I find myself writing in anticipation of the commenters.... So, given a choice between a blog with comments or no blog at all, I think I'd have to choose the latter."

Marketing Tip of the Week: Empower your audience to create content for good! Even better if your best influencers create content too!

Closing

Happy Birthday HubSpot TV CoProducer, @abdinoor and VP Sales Mark Roberge!

Missed last week's episode on July 2, 2009? View it here: Star Spangled Banner Ads and Blogging

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Marketing Headlines of the Week: Outsmart the Clock

Lauren Brown — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 09:34:00 GMT

It's easy to get distracted.

Emails, phone calls, text messages, family, friends, something is always coming up to get you off course. When the days have only 24 hours, it may seem impossible to get everything done.

The solution is simple. Learn to choose your tasks and use your time efficiently, a lesson that resonates among this week's top five news stories from InboundMarketing.com:

1. Post Twitter Messages As Your LinkedIn Status
Author: Guido Jansen

Lesson: One Is Enough
We all know social media can be overwhelming, even for those who work with it daily. One of the main contentions people have with social media is that it tends to be a time drain. If a company has accounts on six different social networks, but a limited amount of time, it's hard to update everywhere.

Jansen has put together a slide show about ways to connect updates from one social network to another; his example shows how to relay a Twitter update to LinkedIn. Programs like Digsby or Ping.fm that update multiple accounts at once are great for users short on time; one update is all you need to reach your networks.

2. Practical Solutions for Measuring Marketing and ROI
Author: Stacie Chalmers

Lesson: Planning is Key
An easy step to skim over, planning the goals and messages of your marketing campaign is an essential foundation. As Chalmers says, "Often marketers will blame a particular marketing tactic when really it was the message. You need to know what your goals are, who your customers are and what they want, before you even begin an effective marketing campaign."

A good foundation now could mean a better ROI in the future, as long as you are willing to continue to review, reassess and evolve the campaign in line with your company's goals and your customers' needs.

3. Increasing Your Exposure With Guest Blogging Author: Lisa Barone

Lesson: Blog Without A Blog
In her article, Barone gives advice on how to start guest blogging, or writing one-time posts for others blogs. She suggests contacting bloggers already in your network, doing Technorati and Google searches for blogs relevant to your industry, and finding user generated blogs.

You may not have be ready or have time for your own blog, but as Barone points out in her article, writing blog posts for others can be just as good for exposure, driving traffic, and thought leadership- and it takes less time than maintaining a blog yourself, you just have to do a little research.

4. Why Businesses Should Podcast
Author: Marketing Profs

Lesson: Build It, and They Might Come (If You Promote It)
Not all companies have leaped into the new media craze with the same vigor of companies like Zappos, Comcast and Dunkin' Donuts. But in this video, Christopher Penn, cofounder of Podcamp, talks about why he feels more businesses should reach out throught podcasting.

Whether audio or visual, Penn says podcasting can be a great medium of communication for companies whose messages may not translate as well in print. Penn gives the example of a cooking show: audio may not be a good option, but video is an effective way of promoting a company or brand by teaching viewers about new foods and sharing recipes.

5. What Do All These "Friends" Add Up To Anyway?
Author: Kari Dunn Saratovsky

Lesson: Focus On Interaction, Not Numbers
Many companies boast large numbers of followers, friends and fans on social networking sites. In her blog post, Saratovsky discusses how these seemingly high numbers can actually translate into a low amount of interaction, with most activity being more like a "broadcast" rather than a conversation.

This comparison proves that numbers can mean very little if a company is not effectively communicating its message and interacting with its network. It's the old adage of placing the emphasis on "quality, not quantity."

Photo Credit: Robbert van der Steeg

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Stop Obsessing over Number of Blog Comments

Magdalena Georgieva — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 17:23:00 GMT

I am obsessed with blog comments. I count them and recount them. I see their number as a sign that people are genuinely interested in my content.

Comments, however, are not necessarily an objective indicator of engagement. Their number, big or small, can be misleading. But is shutting down comments a way to avoid getting misled?

Internet marketer Dan Ronken recently started an InboundMarketing.com forum discussion about whether "closing off comments until a decent amount of readership is built" is a good approach. An extensive blog without comments, he suggested, "feels less engaging."

"Leave them open," advised him forum participant Brian Rogers. "I wouldn't shut off comments as that would delay when people start commenting!" Brian wrote. Here are five other tips that emerged from the forum.

Give Readers Rights

Give your readers the rights they deserve. Readers want to know that they have certain rights even though they might not actually use them. Blogging is about expressing opinions and enabling free speech. This can be achieved only if you leave the communication channels open. As Rick Burnes wrote, "For users, the ability to comment is far more apparent than the ratio comments/posts."

Engage Known People First

Get your friends and personal connections involved in your blog. This will create the foundations of your reading and commenting culture. In addition, it will give you valuable feedback for improvement. "If you're worried about no comments," Brian noted, "once you get the blog going, email some of your good friends to go in there and leave some comments to spur the conversation."

Reward Loyal Readers

Reward your loyal readers by allowing them to comment on your posts and participate in your conversations. They might be a small crowd but they are on your blog and are there to learn and interact. By not nurturing your existing relationships, you might lose your most loyal readership.

Pursue What's Authentic

Comments are important as long as they are authentic. Often times, no comments can be more authentic than lots of comments. Anne-Marie McReynolds suggested that we should be aware of the different motives behind commenting. "Is commenting really about building authentic relationships or about SEO (i.e. backlinks)?" she asked.

Stop Anticipating Comments

Don't blog in anticipation of the commenters' feedback. Keep your focus on what got you started on the blog post. Seth Godin explains that expectations for responses permanently change the writing style. "Instead of writing for everyone, I find myself writing in anticipation of the commenters," he noticed.

In other words, obsessing over the number of your blog comments is like every other obsession--it leads to unproductivity.

Photo Credit: earnest70six

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