Articles, tips and suggestions on things that you can do to support conversation on and around your blog, and build a sense of community.
THINK ABOUT WHAT COMMUNITY MEANS FOR YOU
There’s a general trend towards conversational blogging and building a community site, but you don’t have to blog in that way (and indeed lots of people don’t). It’s worth thinking about whether you really want to develop this aspect before you start, not least as there’s quite a lot of time, effort and energy that will be involved if you do.
Reading: Some Reasons Why You Might *Not* Want a Community Blog
ENGAGING READERS, AND ATTRACTING COMMENTS
A post written after a year of blogging, with ideas, tips and suggestions based on what had worked in terms of encouraging and attracting more people to comment at Confident Writing.
Reading: How To Attract More Comments on Your Blog
WRITING WITH COMMENTS IN MIND
If you want to generate conversation and build community, you’ll need to adapt your writing style to leave more ‘room’ for your readers. This takes a bit of adjusting to, including shifting your mindset so you’re less of an authority, and more of a host, encouraging and inviting the views and perspectives of others.
Reading: How to Write with Comments in Mind
GET RID OF OBSTACLES TO COMMENTS
You might be writing a lot of good and engaging comment - but making it hard in practical ways for people to stop and share a comment or reflection with you. This article lists some of the common barriers to leaving a comment - it’s worth checking your own site and settings to see whether any of these are getting in the way of conversation on *your* site.
Reading: Are You Making It Hard For People To Comment?
SET A COMMENT POLICY FOR YOUR BLOG
Most bloggers want to ‘get’ more comments, but once they do start coming in you’ll be faced with some questions and possibly tricky issues about which ones to alter, edit, delete or leave happily as they are. This post explores some of the questions you should be thinking about, with resources on some of the technical (and possibly legal) issues you need to think about too.
Reading: 10 Things to Think About in Relation to Your Comment Policy
Other Resources to Look Into:
Blog Writing Style and Improving Readability
When You’re Stuck In the Middle of Blogging
and the archive of articles on Blog Writing with Confidence and Building Conversation and Community.
