Blogging about blogging. Again. 
In a previous post, we talked about Tips For Promoting With Social Media, and promised a followup post on the topic of connecting with your readers.
When I tell people I have blogs where I write articles and stories, they often give me a quizzical or blank look. Many don’t know websites are often blogs, probably because they don’t understand there is really very little difference between the two. Occasionally they’re bold enough to ask, “What is a blog?”. I used to say ‘It’s a web page on the front end of my web site where I post articles or stories I write’. Still, the blank look would persist. Now I tell them it’s a dynamic web page with constantly updating content.
That seems to work much better.
One important difference between a website and a blog is the ability to provide updates of the dynamic content in a variety of ways. I still get a lot of questions from folks about how they can receive the content or updates without checking my site all the time. They don’t necessarily want to go to it several times a week to see if I’ve written something new. This post will explain the many ways you can offer for your readers to connect with you, and provide a simple explanation for those who aren’t familiar with the methods to receive updated content.
RSS Feed – This enables you to choose a variety of ways in which to receive updates on posts. See that little orange button in the top of your browser (in the URL line in Firefox, or near the top right side of the menu bar in IE), or the little gray icon next to “Posts” at the very top of this page, or better still, the orange button in the cluster of social media icons in the top right column? Click on it and take your pick of several options for receiving updates such as Google Reader, My Yahoo, Live Bookmarks, etc.
Twitter – The little blue button with the”t” right next to the orange one in the cluster of social media icons mentioned above. Add me, if you haven’t already – we totally need friends followers. We will follow you back - as long as you don’t look like a total sales mill.
Facebook Page - This is a great way to connect with readers who are more visually oriented. (This is my personal preference for social media.) You can get our updates by ‘liking’ our Facebook page. Click the blue ‘F’ in the social media cluster in the top right column.
Email Updates by Feedburner – There are other services such as Aweber, but Google’s Feedburner is free and does much more than we know. You can sign up for our posts via email by entering your email address in the right column. We promise not to spam you.
Formspring.me - This is a small box you add to your site for your readers to contact you with short questions or comments. It’s similar to email, but your reader can submit the question anonymously, if you allow it.
Comments – Almost all bloggers love comments. We sure do. The Comment Luv plugin is a great way to connect with other bloggers as it will show a link to their website or their latest post. We try to reply to each comment, and start a conversation. We believe in building relationships with our readers. One caveat: Spammers love it for the same reason that they also can post a link to their spam site or splog (a spam blog). To avoid this annoyance, we highly recommend Askimet. It catches all of the spam we get here, which is a considerable amount.
Since we’ve just mentioned a couple of them above, coming soon: Our Favorite WordPress Plugins.
Follow The Squirrel!