What Does It Take To Build A Reliable Blogging Community?

How To Build A Blogging CommunityHave you ever wonder about what it takes to build a reliable blogging community?  I know I have.

As a matter of fact, the very reason why I’m writing this post today is because this past couple of weeks I’ve been wanting to take my three blogs and throw them out of the window!

Well, maybe not, but sometimes, you ask yourself some questions and your feelings take the best out of you.

Why am I saying this?

Well, read on to find out where I’m coming from.

What Happens to your Blog when You Neglect it for a Week?

Well, as most of you know, I moved three weeks ago and because of it and some other things that I had to do attend to, as well as the fact that I didn’t have the internet at home for a few days, I wasn’t able to post on any of my blogs or comment on other blogs either.  All together I was pretty much off the internet for 9 days.

The result of this is that my blogs’ comments went way down, and really made me wonder, what does it take to build a reliable blogging community?

How fragile are our blogs if they go back to ghost towns again after leaving them for a week?  What happens to your blogging community if you can’t visit other blogs and comment on them for a while?

What’s interesting in my case is that some great bloggers had mentioned me and my blogs over the past recent weeks, but it didn’t seem to make up for it either.  So, really, I’m asking you, what does it take to build a reliable blogging community?

Is the Fact that other Bloggers Talk about you Enough?

While having other bloggers talking about you is great and heartwarming, and makes you do your little dance in your living room, it’s not enough to bring a huge crowd to your blog in order to build a reliable blogging community.

Why am I saying this?

In the past few weeks I’ve been mentioned and appear on some very successful blogs such as AdrienneSmith.net, WebSearchSocial.com, and this past week DeeAnnRice.com.  Then, recently I’ve also guest posted on SuejPrice.com and Aha-Now.com.

While this is something I’m so happy and grateful for (and may all these wonderful ladies by blessed) people were still not motivated to come to my blogs as much as I would have like it.  People are busy and go back to their old habits, and it’s not because they visit you once that they will get back.  No, it takes more than that to make them stick.

Yet, I wanted to ask you the question; do you see an increase in traffic and comments when someone mentions you on their blog?  Please, be frank, and let us know.

After thinking this over and over this week, here are 3 ingredients that I think are vital in order to build a reliable blogging community.

I have to admit that because of my schedule, I haven’t been able to do any of the following well so far.

# 1 – Being Constantly Involved in Social Media

I think that if you’re not constantly involved in social media, you’re cutting yourself short in being able to bring traffic to your blog and build a reliable blogging community.

But what does being involved in social media really means?

Well, it’s a bit different in each social media platform, I guess, but let’s talk about the two main ones as an example, Facebook and Twitter.

Facebook

For example, on Facebook you’re supposed to post pictures, videos, questions, quotes, and other interesting things on a regular basis. Regular basis really means every day if you can.

Then, on top of that you’re supposed to get to know people better, try to find out what they do, ask them questions, and communicate with them to build a relationship with them.

When you invite someone to be your friend, you’re not supposed to just say “want to be friend”? But introduce yourself with a more personal message.

Then again, you can look for groups in your niche and try to insert yourself in them by developing more relationships.

And there’s much more you could do.

I calculated that in order to do this, it would take at least an hour of my time on Facebook every day.  And I’m not only talking about putting a picture, here and a quote there. Don’t forget that you must count the time that it will take you to look for and prepare such picture, quote, etc, before you could actually post it on Facebook as well.

All these take time.

Twitter

On twitter, you need to tweet at least a dozen times a day, but more is better. Then you need to thank all those who tweeted your stuff, and thank those who are following you.  Besides just tweeting links, you can also tweet questions, thoughts, quotations, and other things.

You can also retweet some interesting tweets and try to build relationships on the twitter community.

There you have it. You can actually add another 45 minutes to an hour a day for twitter after the hour you’ve spent that hour on Facebook.

Maybe some of you may say, no, I’m not spending that much time on Facebook and Twitter.  Well, after a while you might not, but when you start out you most probably will.  For me right now, that’s what it takes.

The truth of the matter is that when you’re as busy as I am it’s darn tough to do!

However, I’m no dummy and I’m fully aware that this is probably the main reason that those blogs of mine are still not where I want them to be.

#2 – Being Constantly Involved On Other Blogs

Now, let’s be honest, unless you’ve reached the status of “the almighty blogger”, if you are not constant on other blogs, your own blog will suffer from it. In my case, it really didn’t take much, did it?

At the same time, this is a bit of a double-edge sword, and I’ve got to ask myself the question. Is there actually a single person who is REALLY coming to my blogs because they truly like what’s in there or is it more like a favor?

If this is the case, how can I fix this, and what’s missing in my content?  I take 100% responsibility for this.

This is a truly honest question that I’ve been asking myself for a little while now.  Honestly, I’ve not come up with THE answer yet, so if you do have it, please, let me know. I’d love to hear it.  Any suggestion is valuable to me.

# 3 – Go Constantly out of your Way

Now after you’ve spent about 5 hours a week on social media and another hour a day visiting and commenting on blogs, you might feel that it’s enough to assure a reliable blogging community, right? Well, not necessarily.

Once you’ve done this, you can, and really should go a step further, and try building more of a one on one relationship with your readers.

For me this is the most desirable step, because I’m more of a one on one type person than a social media geek. And I’ve gotten more rewards from people that I really know personally than anyone else.  I think that we can all say that, as a matter of fact.

It takes some solid connections in order to build a reliable blogging community that will be with you and your blog no matter what. Yet it does take time, I have to say that for me, it’s not always easy.

Yes, it takes work and commitment to be able to build a reliable blogging community that will support your blog in a meaningful way.

But as I am taking this over to you, please, let me know what you think about all this, in the comments below.

 

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34 thoughts on “What Does It Take To Build A Reliable Blogging Community?”

  1. Hi Sylviane,

    A reliable blogging community? WOW! This is hard to find and even harder to create. Why? The word “reliable” is very interesting. In the land where there are no values and no stability, where Change rules and you must constantly fight for attention you cannot expect to find a reliable community.
    The modern society destroyed stability in favor of change. Sooner or later they will discover the hard way (by suffering) that too much change is as bad as too little change.
    What does it take to have a reliable community?

    1. You need to have a targeted niche. In a targeted niche you will find people with the same values as yours. Connection will be easier and last longer.
    2. You need quality people. Educated, resistant to change, value-oriented. Hard to find! You must search for them, identify them and take them to your community, one by one. Long, difficult, painful but very rewarding on a long run. When you find such a person, keep him or her. NEVER lose that person.
    3. Direct connections: skype, google hangouts etc.
    4. Common projects (not only blogging but a lot of other different things).
    5. People with similar habits.

    Most important thing:
    You must have something of value to offer people. A message, a soul etc., something that will make people remember you, something that will make people want to connect with you.
    Spend some time every day to know you better, spend some time every day to improve yourself, to make yourself a better person. Spend some time every day to help somebody without asking anything in return.
    When your soul will shine like star, people will feel you, will be attracted and will come to you without any reason just because they feel Something in you. You will never be alone.
    Be light and everybody will come to you !

    Have a nice day
    Silviu invites you to read..Blog Commenting Results. Case Study 1My Profile

    1. Hi Silviu,

      Wow, thank you for your very deep into details comment. Very much appreciated.

      However, at the beginning of it you sound a bit on the negative side not believing that a reliable blogging community does exist at all. I think that in order to get something, you need to believe in it first. As a matter of fact, I don’t think, I know it to be so.

      So, I do believe that there such think as a reliable blogging community, however, it can’t be only one sided. I mean by this that you need to give first in order to receive, and like in a marriage it’s something that needs to be entertained regularly.

      I agree that too much change is as bad as no change at all. Too much of anything is usually not a good thing.

      Thank you for your great input.

  2. Hello Sylviane,
    I’ll say being constant is one thing and making your blog social is another.

    Some weeks back, my laptop was broken for like a week, No means of internet that week and i did not made any post that week. I thought that i am going to loose my valuable traffic and my loyalists but to my surprise, i got mail from my readers and asking whats the problem and i also got bulk of comments on my blog posts…

    Now what i am trying to say is; as long as you provide what the people truly need, they will always come back for more. Thanks and do have a lovely week 🙂
    Babanature invites you to read..Google Plus Comment System For WordPress BlogsMy Profile

    1. Hi Babanature,

      Thank you for your example. I totally agree with this. I’m glad that you didn’t lose your readers during that black out! You must have done the right thing.

      Thanks for your feedback.

  3. I honestly feel for you Sylviane because I know how much you have going on. You work full-time, you’re a freelance and ghost writer, you have three blogs to keep up which means visiting other blogs and commenting in order to get them to yours and you just moved.

    Now as you know, I went on vacation not once but twice last month within two weeks time. Yikes!!! What was I thinking! I was not able to get online accept to respond to comments on my posts and I’ve been playing catch up ever since to visit theirs.

    But I can see what you’re talking about here and what it really does take to build a sustainable and reliable blogging community.

    I’m with you on that I do it much better by building those one on one relationships. Now have I been able to achieve that through every single person that comments on my blog? No but we have had some sort of communication outside of my my blog and I even mean possibly email or one of the social media sites. I do my best to try and get to know that person so that I can help them or even ask about them on a personal level. We know how much people appreciate that.

    I think you’re doing a good job considering everything you have on your plate so don’t beat yourself up. I visit your blogs because I love what you share but most of all I do consider you a good friend and I want to support you.

    Before I forget, I appreciate the mention here. I don’t want to forget to let you know about that. I just say keep up the good work and I’ll just knock some sense into those people’s heads that aren’t coming back by on a regular basis. You share great stuff Sylviane, on all your blogs.

    Thanks for sharing this with us today, great topic for discussion.

    Enjoy your week.

    ~Adrienne
    Adrienne invites you to read..The Next Step To Creating SuccessMy Profile

    1. Hi Adrienne,

      Well you are definitely in the top three best supporters of my blogs with Donna Merrill and Sue Price which I can’t forget either, but you were the first one:) I hope I’m not going to make anyone else mad, but you’re my 3 most reliable 🙂 on all 3.

      Recently I’ve been missing Carol Lynn Which has always been a top support of all my blogs too, but she is a busy lady.

      For the most part, I’m OK, but these past few days I was really asking myself the question, how to I find my public?

      Recently, someone was telling me I see some blogs that don’t even have great content and yet, they have a tremendous following. I don’t know how they do it! I don’t know either, but I’ve seen that too.

      In my case, I think I need to spend more time on those social media for sure. I need to be more organized I guess. Soon I’m going to have some vacations before and after the 4th of July and I’m planning on organizing and do some things that I usually have a hard time to do.

      Thanks for your support, Adrienne

  4. I know how you feel Sylviane!

    As you know, I have been busy also selling my home, now packing and then moving to another State all together! I haven’t sent as much time on Social Media these days as I used to, but I manage to try.

    I can honestly say that I come to all of your blogs because they interest me. I love the way you write. I may have missed one or two but that’s because I’ve been off the grid. This blog, the subconscious mind blog and your France blog all are fun to read. Hey I’m getting an education each time I visit all your blogs.

    Some people come to our blogs because we made a commitment to a tribe or a blogging alliance. And that’s a pretty good way to keep people coming.

    As for new people coming in – I have a few from Triberr, but when I am on a guest post, very few come to mine.

    I really don’t know where you find the time and energy to do it all. A job, your writing, your three blogs? Yikes…I cannot keep up with one blog.

    As for Social Sites – It is important to be on them. What I do with Triberr is keep it up while I’m on the computer and take 5 minute intervals to go to it in between my writing. Facebook – well I was there more often, but lately I just go there three times a day for only 15 minutes tops. I don’t even know half the people on my wall he he.

    I will engage here and there, but i don’t make it a big project.

    Take a deep breath! Ahhhhh

    Donna
    Donna Merrill invites you to read..People Should Know These Things!My Profile

    1. Ah Donna,

      I was just telling Adrienne, that you, her and Sue are my top three because you go on each blog, and I really love you for that gals, and appreciate it.

      I am fully aware that no one owns me anything and I’m glad to have people who do come, but I’m still looking for ways to attract a public that would need what I have to share. I know it’s a process.

      Thank you so much for appreciating my content, Donna. Have a great week 🙂

  5. hey Sylviane,

    I’m with you on this. I remember when I first started, i was constantly on other peoples blog. Then I got the advice to just blog everyday and people will come to you.

    So I did that. I got a little traffic. And I mean a little. But to no avail my blog suffered a lot from when I was active on other people’s blog. I did however post in different groups and social media sites each time I publish a post, but I didn’t work that well. Plus I wasn’t that active on social media.

    So in all it’s a combination of things. But to get the most out of blogging with little time, I found that if you blog often, find a couple of great people where you can consistly share each other’s blog, and keep a strong a strong connection with them, then you’ll definitely have build a strong community. What one person lack, or in your case, you were offline for a week, then the others can pick up.

    1. Hi Sherman,

      What happened to your avatar? Yes, more time than not it’s all about doing different things, trials and errors until we see an increase. But what I would say in my case is that the increase is not constant from down to up it’s more up and down kind of thing.

      Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

  6. Hi Sylviane,
    How are you doing? I’m sorry I’ve not been around for a while now, I was sick some weeks ago and now, I’m writing exam in school.

    You see, this is the same question i keep asking myself too. If people will not be coming to our blog unless we comment on their blogs then, something is wrong and need to be figured out ASAP.

    When you comment on someone’s blog and he comes back and comment on yours, it becomes a favour and that’s why most of us are not making good money with adsense and some other programs we’re promoting on our site because, most of our visitors are also bloggers who happen to know much about adsense and therefore, will never click :).

    For sometime now, I’ve not been commenting much on blogs but, my traffic is still ok and I’m still getting some comments and that’s because I’ve started optimizing my posts for SEO.

    The best thing is to also target some Search Engine traffic because, those visitors are still newbies searching for solutions and if they found the answer on your blog, they will most likely become a repeat visitor and will also be clicking on your ads.

    Its also good to get involved on Social Media sites and also some blogging communities.

    If we cannot get visitors when we did not comment on other blogs then, we’re still doing a full time job and we need to do something about it.

    Thanks for sharing.
    Theodore Nwangene invites you to read..5 Main Sources To Find Images For Your Blog PostsMy Profile

    1. Hi Theodore,

      You don’t have to apologize. I can say the same, I haven’t been on blogs regularly lately either. I’m sorry you were sick and I’m glad you’re better.

      Yes, this issue THE reason why we should still worry about ranking on search engine is that genuine people who really need the info on our blog will actually find us.

      Our blogs really need those other bloggers that come and comment on our posts, but it can’t be all the traffic we get. We need to get that traffic that either is going to click on our ads or use our services. There’s no doubt about that.

      Thank you for your input and for coming and commenting here 🙂

  7. Hi Sylviane,

    I find this is a timely topic and honestly, applies for everyone I know 🙂 My blogging friends very focused and they seem do a lot more in this scenario.

    Actually I do enjoy social media and being there. I don’t keep time limit there, but as I focus on the priority list, I do finish ’em off each day. Rest will go for stopping by on blogs, other activities I’m involved in and why not, write posts for mine too. If you take a look at Social Media experts, they never keep their fans idle. In that case, scheduling helps a lot even you are away 🙂 You know, Buffer, HootSuite etc.

    Earlier I used to stop by on blogs on the day the posts being published. For example, I stop by on yours Monday or else Tuesday morning, but now I have a different story as I’m involved in another work which steals my time.

    In that case, I have to give priority for ones who comment on my posts and then onto blogs I used to visit. Sometimes I have to do it all in the weekend, However I don’t forget to visit ’em all at the end of the week. Even I had to limit posting once a week for my blog too. I feel overwhelmed if I push myself too much Sylviane. I don’t want blogging to interfere me and just need it to keep it as a hobby like I started 🙂 Hobbies should be enjoyable not pressurizing, nah?

    We need a reliable community, but the first is about our blog and content, no? 🙂 I think we gotta give what community needs. They expecting us to give something new. Popular sites do generate content more frequently and people attract there to find something new each day. Mostly they have to do, ’cause their blog is another strategy in their business.

    If we talk about Adrienne, I think she’s the one get most comments on each post 🙂 She put lot of effort and time to return the favor and next time, that bloggers pop up and comment on her next post too. She just do a wonderful job in building relationships 😉

    I’m really fortunate enough to have loyal readers including you, who understand others very well and I’d say they are generous givers.

    I always look back and happy about today 🙂 Earlier, though I had much traffic, it was few comments and none of ’em were loyal readers. We lose and gain, but it’s the nature. The thing about blogging is we can win just after losing it 😉

    Well, that’s how I look at it Sylviane 🙂 You have a wonderful week there dear…

    Cheers…
    Mayura invites you to read..12+ Helpful Blogging Tips for Pet BloggersMy Profile

    1. Hi Mayura, and thank you for your well thought out comment as always.

      I know we are all busy and I understand that you are too. I also try to go to your blog as soon as I can, and for once I beat you to it this time 🙂

      I will keep making any effort necessary to improve my traffic and my content as well of course.

      Thanks for coming.

  8. Hi Sylviane,

    I really value reading this post because this is something I’m totally struggling with at the moment. I think building a loyal and consistent network of followers is crucial, but incredibly hard work and time-consuming – certainly it is the way I’m going about it! The difficulty I find is the amount of time it takes to read and comment on all the blogs I want to – some days I’ve found that doing that, plus keeping up with all the social media messages on FB, Twitter and G+, is as much as I have time for, and I know I’m not spending enough time creating content, which should be my key activity.

    Like you, I sometimes worry about what motivates some of the people to come and comment on my blog – I’m sure some bloggers only visit to get the ComLuv link back to their sites, which I find very depressing.

    I identify very much with Mayura’s comment about not wanting blogging to become a pressure – I think it’s a challenge to balance the amount of time we spend on all the different activities that blogging involves. I don’t think I’ve got that right at the moment – it’s something I’m going to have to work on and get smarter at, for sure.

    I sometimes feel bad when I realise there’s a blog I haven’t visited for ages, but I just physically can’t manage to comment on as many as I’d like to – that’s partly because when I do leave a comment, I always give it a lot of thought, and that takes time.

    Regardless of the impact on my traffic and rankings, the thing I absolutely value the most (and which keeps me going when I have a week like the one I’ve just had!) is the genuine interaction with bloggers like you – real conversations with real people I feel I’m slowly getting to know as friends, even if we only meet in cyberspace.

    Thanks for sharing your thoughts and feelings on this, Sylviane – this post made me feel much less alone.

    Sue
    Sue Neal invites you to read..Are Your Blog Posts Missing This Vital Ingredient?My Profile

    1. Hi Sue,

      I so agree with you as well. Sometimes I know that I’m reading blogs and commenting when I actually should be doing other things that are more “money related” so to speak, but what can I do. I DO NOT want to get off the wagon of blogging community. I think that my comments and interactions with other bloggers is vital for the survival of my blogs, so I keep doing it as much as I can.

      Does it take time? You bet it does. That I don’t know how to to around, yet.

      But such is life, I guess. We’ve got to do what it takes, and we’ve got to set priorities when it’s necessary as well.

      I appreciate your input and experience on this topic very much.

      As we speak, I see more bloggers coming back today, and you included 🙂 Thank you.

  9. Hi Sylviane,

    I hear you loud and clear. It’s really frustrating to see the traffic goes down on our blogs. I didn’t take days off or anything and I am consistent but I also see that traffic is going down. It is really time consuming and I try to be on all blogs of those who come and visit my blog and leave a comment but still I see my traffic going down.

    I think we are missing an ingredient here and that’s what I am working on right now to narrow my niche and target hungry prospects who really wants what I offer. I think targeting other bloggers is not enough to build a reliable community. Although it is beneficial to build those relationships but I feel we are only doing it to get the favor back as Theodore also mentioned in his comment. What we need are those hungry traffic who are searching and looking for what we offer and if they find it, they will stick.

    I like your blog Sylviane and every time I visit your blog I learn from it. You always provide high quality and valuable content that keeps me returning. Even this post resonated with me as I feel as frustrated as you are.

    Thanks Sylviane for sharing your feelings and thoughts with all of us. Have a great week.

    Be Blessed,

    Neamat
    Neamat Tawadrous invites you to read..10 Tips To Earn Respect In BusinessMy Profile

    1. Hi Neamat,

      I see now because of this post that other people like you feel this way too.

      I think that a blog has two faces. One is building a blogging community with other bloggers, but one has to be to do with building “real” traffic, so to speak – people who actually NEED us and our services. No doubt these don’t happen overnight and it takes time and effort.

      Don’t get discouraged, though, I’m sure you’ll get better and better as your content is really good and valuable. That’s why I always come too 🙂

      Thank you for mentioning your own experience here.

  10. Hi Sylviane,
    I enjoyed the post. I’m still learning my way around blogging, so I’m not certain what “expert” advice I can offer, I can definitely share a couple of thoughts on what I read here.
    As far as whether or not people are coming to your blog because of content or needing a favor – that may be different for everyone. Some may start off visiting you for the “favor” and realize they do enjoy the content while others may specifically come by because they saw a particular subject matter they wanted info on and therefore, remain a loyal reader.
    In either case, it’s win/win.
    I know for me, I’ll visit blogs that have something to do with whatever I happen to be connected to at the time…and that could be a wide range of subject matters. It’s the only way my visit – and comment can be truly authentic.However, I am here today because I wanted to read what you wrote about and I’m very happy I did.I got a lot out of it and I know I’ll be back 🙂
    Dana invites you to read..Being the Example – A Way to Save the WorldMy Profile

    1. Hi Dana,

      I first noticed your new face on my Twitter and than saw your comment here. Welcome and gald you made it here.

      There’s no doubt that people will come to your blog for a wide range of reasons, and they’re all good, I guess, but the toughest thing is to keep them as regular.

      Thanks for coming, again and I will come visit you as well.

  11. This is definitely an interesting post Sylviane and I appreciate you being straight forward and sharing your thoughts about this because I’m sure there are plenty of bloggers out there who may have experienced this, myself included.

    Even the comments left by others are interesting to read. It seems everyone agrees being sociable and building relationships along with consistent and great content is key to building a reliable blogging community but like Neamat said, there’s got to be a missing link somewhere if we’re doing all that and yet traffic suffers the moment we’re not visibly online.

    Being social and blog hopping as I’ve heard it referred to is the most time consuming part of the job. There are times it takes me well into the night. But I’m glad to do it. It’s my way of showing support to bloggers who have taught me something, who I’ve developed a friendship with or in a lot of cases both.

    Thanks for a wonderful post Sylviane. I know I’m always coming back! 🙂
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    1. Hi Corina,

      Well, first of all, I wanted to let you know that you’ve been noticed on my blog and since you’ve started, you’ve come very regularly and I appreciate that.

      Like you, blog hopping, reading, and commenting takes me will into the night too, and sometimes I’ve got to stop because I get up early in the morning. It’s a job 🙂

      Like you and Neamat, I also feel that there’s a missing link somewhere and hope to find it.

      Thanks for your support as always.

  12. Actually to build a blog community content quality is main important factor to get traffic to blog. If the user got fresh, unique and great quality content, then no need to worry about traffic it will come directly spreading by those users.

  13. Hi Sylviane,
    I can certainly relate to what you are saying. Here’s my take (in my learning curve) on this problem with traffic: A blog is both social and technical. There are technical areas that cannot be ignored. These technical areas are what can bring more traffic to your content.
    My next blog post will be about some of the tools I use to optimize my time and also get new traffic to my blog.
    Penguin 2.0 was just launched and I really think it’s had an effect on traffic in general. That may be a double whammy for you since you took time in the same time frame.
    The keyword competition is very important. I’ve heard it said the keyword is about 20% of the equation for more traffic. I’ve seen this on my own blog and after a year still get traffic to a specific keyword I wrote about over a year ago…beginners luck.
    As I was reading your blog post I could tell you are very stressed out about the time issue..(aren’t we all).have you ever thought about a virtual assistant?
    You’re doing a lot to say the least…I recently had to reevaluate my schedule and made a few changes….I also now am using an editorial calender so I know 6 weeks in advance what my next blog post will be….this for me is a huge time saver.
    I hope you feel better soon about your blogs..don’t throw them out the window…you are a gifted writer!
    Tonya

    1. Hi Tonya,

      I appreciate your insight here.

      Well, yes, even now keywords are still important as long as your material pops up for such keyword of course. There’s keywords but there’s competition as well, and I’ve noticed that as well. But, yes, your right, they are important and we shouldn’t bypass them by any mean.

      My friend Carol Lynn came up with a calendar to schedule blog posts, but I’m yet to have downloaded it. I know that I should do that.

      No, I’ve never tried a virtual assistant. I guess I should check that one out too.

      I have some time off coming up and there’s lot of things that I’ve listed that I will put in motion then. I know it will help me a great deal.

      Thank you for your great suggestions and I will be sure to read your next post 🙂

  14. Hi Sylviane,

    I can feel your frustrations and understand them 100%

    As you know I’ve had loads of time off myself and felt the effects of it. I was just getting my blog to where I wanted it to be and BAMM my health issue kicked in and took me off line.

    First it was a week, then 2 then 3 and before I knew it I was laid up for EIGHT MONTHS. I just started getting back to work and my mum was taken ill so we spent another 2 weeks by her side until she sadly passed away.

    That took me another month before I got anywhere near my blog and even then I didn’t feel like socialising so I had spring clean…. Then low and behold my bloody health issue starts again and puts me back to bed for another week.

    Here I am this week playing catch up yet again and it is time consuming and to be honest I’m not getting anything constructive done.

    During my time off I had fantastic support from the blogging community, yourself included, who came and offered support, guest posts and repeatedly commented on the posts without expecting (or receiving) return comments.

    I’m truly touched by all the support I received and it really did help me through a year of headaches.

    I’ve spent most evenings this week replying to social media mentions and believe me it’s taking me more than an hour on each site and that’s valuable time being spent but we do need to do it.

    Don’t give up girl, your writing is spot on, your tips always help us and your content always makes us think.

    I apologise for not being around as much as I should be but as you know I’ve been off line.

    Best of luck to you Sylviane,
    Barry
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    1. Hi Barry,

      Please, don’t apologize and I’m sorry about your mom. A

      As they say, when it rains it pours.

      I wasn’t sure where you were with your health now. I’ve seen you around more, so I thought you were better, but I didn’t know you had other issues again. I hope everything is getting better for good, now.

      I can only imagine how being off your blog almost a year did for it. Still I think that you’re doing fine all things considered. People haven’t forgotten you, ya know 🙂

      Thank you for your encouragement and kind words.

  15. Hi Sylviane,

    I just found your blog through Adrienne’s comments and I’m really enjoying your content so far. This was an insightful post and something that got me thinking.

    You know, I think one thing that you can do when things like this happen (and you know ahead of time and can prepare) is get a couple of blog posts pre-written and loaded up to publish. You could also load up a few things in Hootesuite or another social media content management system to go out during that time.

    Though it won’t be the same as doing more personal networking like we do by visiting blogs and participating in our communities, it can certainly help.

    I think that the good news is that even though you may have been absent for a week from your blog, the community you’ve created is still there and the time and effort that you’ve put into creating what you have can be easily re-awakened if you know what I mean.

    Anyway, great post and I’ll be back to do some more reading here later on.
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    1. Hi Hermine, and so nice to meet you.

      Yes, of course I should have written posts in advanced but because of my crazy schedule it just wasn’t possible unless I’d used some of my sleep to do it and I just couldn’t.

      Anyway, I should have done it way, way in advance when I could, but that didn’t happened either.

      I’m glad you found me, and I will certainly come see you as well over the weekend and check what you have.

  16. Hi Sylviane,

    Long time no see! I’m glad I stopped by and read this particular blog because you said a lot of things that I could relate to and also found interesting.

    First of all, you are not alone when it comes to dropping traffic and comments if you’re not constantly around blogging and promoting. Believe me, I just went through the same thing. The past few weeks I haven’t been online much and I haven’t even been promoting our blog the way I usually do and what happened? Traffic went down. It was a good lesson because I don’t think many of us are in a position where our blogs could just “run themselves”. You know, maybe if you’re Mashable you could do that? But for average small business people, the web is busy and crowded and if we are not RIGHT THERE then people can forget us and move on to the next thing. So it’s really important that we are front and center – it’s not only our content, it’s US that people want to see.

    As for being on Facebook and Twitter and things like that… same thing. You have to be around, talking to people, posting stuff. It is a lot of work and takes time, you’re right about that.

    BUT! Here is what I think is important and encouraging… in my experience, when I disappear for a while, even if things start to sink a bit and people forget about me… when I come back, everyone is welcoming and happy and we sort of pick up where we left off. Then they read my blogs, we chat online and things go back to “normal”. Everyone is busy. Everyone has a lot of other stuff going on in their lives. Nobody can keep up with everybody all the time, so sometimes there’s a bit of “out of sight, out of mind”. I don’t think we need to take it personally. It’s just a matter of surviving in a crazy world. But when we show up and people see us again, then we see the interactions and traffic and everything go up again. It’s like everyone welcomes us home and says “nice to see you again” and then we keep going. At least that is how I have looked at it because there are ups and downs, but things never stay down.

    Ok, one last thing, and sorry for writing you a whole blog post here 🙂

    I know what you mean about getting comments from people only because you commented on their blogs, and when you stop they stop. So you feel like they aren’t really interested. And…. I hate to say it but you are probably right. The same thing happened to me. When I stopped commenting on people’s blogs from the Facebook comment group, almost everyone disappeared even though they had been commenting on my blog every day as long as I was doing it too. So I thought… this is just a false sense of traffic and commenting. Since then I have only visited the blogs that I really enjoy and the people that I feel I have a better relationship with – like you – and I let the rest of them slide. But that’s ok because if the only reason people are visiting and commenting is because I did first, then that’s not really the best way to build a loyal audience, is it? But people like you, you still show up when you can! And I appreciate that. So I have less comments but when people DO comment then I know its genuine.

    So! I hope that helped a little. Anyway I still enjoy all your blogs and I don’t come here just because I have to 🙂 Sometimes I get busier than others but that doesn’t mean I won’t come back!

    I hope things pick up for you soon, I know they will!
    Carol Lynn invites you to read..3 Things Your Competitors Love To Hear You SayMy Profile

    1. Hi Carol,

      Wow, you sure did make up for you absence on this one comment;)

      Yes, Carol, I still went to read your posts. I know I missed some because I moved and now I’m with no computer for 3 days, because I just purchased an brand new machine and they’ve been transferring data forever now 🙂 I’m writing this comment reply from another computer.

      Indeed, if people come to your blog ONLY because you come to their, then it really defeats the purpose and where are the “real” relationships? I try my best to still come to your blog despite my being unusually busy and beside the fact that you had not posted on our facebook comment group, because I really enjoy your posts. They are really helpful and even you write about something that doesn’t directly concern me I still learn a lot.

      Thank you for mentioning all that, so I can see that I’m not the only one with this type of situation.

      Again, nice to see you here and I hope I’ll finally have my computer back (new) today! Have a great week!

  17. Hi,Sylviane-I feel connection on social networks as well as One to one connection, will give you and your blog a better exposure. To build more reliable community, You personalty have to reliable. If you are reliable for to someone. they will automatically become reliable to yours. Commenting in other blogs may show your reliability to other bloggers and may the will return the favor. You have to active, not only on facebook, twitter but pinterest, stumbleupon, linkedin. Thank You for sharing the post.
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