I had so much fun talking about blogging in last week's Tips that I'm going to do it some more today! Today's focus is on building relationships. That's why I chose the pic above. It's a picture of me and two of my closest girl-friends. Left to right we have Kat, Bethie, and myself :) That was taken Valentines Day Night. My hubby and I had gone out for a date earlier that day and he quite sweetly let me go out in the evening with my single girlfriends. Isn't my hubby sweet?Ok, talking about my wonderful hubby is NOT the point of this post. Don't get me wrong, I could go on and on, but that wouldn't be much of a tip now would it?
Seriously though, building relationships is key to having a successful on-line business. I'd say probably 90% of my sales are to people that I've built some sort of connection with. That's a pretty high number!
So how does that apply to blogging? Well there are a few things you can do.
1. Reply to your comments! Go to their blog or e-mail them back. Even if it's just a quick "thanks."
2. Find other blogs to follow and don't just read and leave, give them a comment!
3. From time to time do a post that requires reader interaction. That could be a contest or even just asking a simple question.
Lastly - be consistant! I try hard to respond to all my comments in some way shape or form, and I think I've really seen a difference since I started doing that. Now sometimes I won't respond to a comment if I'm really sick, or if that person has been catching up on my blog and left me four comments in a day, but I do get to the majority of them. Some times with a response to their comment, other times by leaving them a comment on their blog.
Thought for the day: Time invested in building strong relationships is time invested well :)
