How to Keep Loyal Readers from Falling Out of Love with Your Blog

It's something that probably every blogger has thought about at one time or another.  Are my loyal readers still engaged?  It's hard to attract and keep regular readers.  You work hard for that, so do what you can to keep them a fan.  I was a loyal reader to a blog....we'll call VB because I'm not the kind of girl to put someone on blast.  I read VB for three years, and, in fact, that was the first blog I ever read.  Suddenly, I stopped reading.  I realized, she does not care at all about her readers, so why should I be a reader?  Why did I lose my engagement?  I'll tell ya why.

Check out my Uh-Uh List of things that bloggers should avoid in order to keep their loyal readers.

Uh-Uh #1 - Less & Less Updating -- > We are all guilty of going through spurts where we update less, so this is in conjunction with the other Uh-Uh's because life happens.  Posting less and less AND lowering your quality is a big no.  This particular blog went from some good, high-quality posts close to 5 times a week to a couple outfit posts using an iPhone camera with unedited pictures.  If you can't post as often, keep the quality.  Have great content and high-quality images, but less often.

Uh-Uh #2 - One-sided Social Media -- > Don't leave your social media accounts unused as a blogger.  VB has accounts on all social media, but never updates.  In social media world, she looks like she doesn't exist.  Occasionally, she'll post to IG, but she rarely engages with her commenters.  Try and comment back on some of the comments you receive, if not all.  It's a nice way to say, "Hi, I see you - thanks for following!"

Uh-Uh #3 - No Comment Replies -- > I do totally understand that it is difficult to reply back to all comments.  But, maybe some?  Show your readers that you care about them, and reply back.  Even if it's just a smiley face.  Give them something to acknowledge they took time to write to you, and that's pretty nice of them.

Uh-Uh #4 - No Follows -- > My husband once said, "look at that baller!  He follows 9 people and has 9 million followers."  I responded, "No, he's a d-bag.  He thinks no one else is worth listening to?"  I'm not advocating a follow for follow.  That's pretty spammy.  I'm just saying, look at your followers, if they have interesting stuff, follow back.  Your readers and followers have awesome stuff to say too.  A marketing plus?  Following them will give you better insight into what they want to read and what services appeal to them.

While I completely understand that bloggers have lives outside of their blog, if you're lucky enough to have a solid following, give them your loyalty back.  Do what you can to keep them engaged.  It is a gift to be able to touch so many people through blogging.  The fact that someone took the time out of their busy day to read your (or my) blog, is awesome and cool and sweet and great.  Be awesome and cool and sweet and great back through quality content and engagement.

Thank you for reading!  You're awesome and cool and sweet and great for doing so ;)