Popular Blogs – More Than Meets The Eye
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Every blogger knows and follows the popular blogs, those run by blogging gurus like Darren Rowse or Seth Godin. That’s right, I’m talking about REAL popular blogs. We can learn a lot from these blogging greats but we need to use a little common sense.
Guru Bloggers And Us
Most of us don’t already have over a hundred thousand subscribers, a staff working for us or a line of bloggers a mile long waiting to post quality content on our blogs. And let’s not forget the almost endless budget. So why would we think we could follow the same path when Guru Bloggers are in another World?
I’ll give a quick example of what NOT to follow, and one example of what we should follow.
What NOT To follow
Have you ever noticed that the more popular a blog gets, the less personal interaction the blogger has with his/her readers? There’s a reason for that; and it’s something they can get away with, for the most part, when most of us can’t. That’s because they have already built a dedicated following. So we cannot look at the popular blogs and follow everything they do; we need to get there first. Oh yeah, that reason I mentioned… They work their butts off, staff or not, and a lot is demanded of them. If Darren or Seth replied to every comment, as they came in every few seconds, there would be no time for anything else.
HOW To Follow The Popular Bloggers
Like I said, we can learn a lot from these popular blogs, we just need to know what to look for. For example, yesterday Darren Rowse asked his 56 thousand Google+ followers what they’d like to see as far as blogging topics in 2012. That’s a great question and I’d love to ask my followers the same question but look at the response he got.
Those are a lot of amazing answers. I can take those requested topics and run with them myself – and I will. All you have to do is find your “Darren Rowse” in whatever your blogging niche is. The responses, in both social media and blogs, are very important and if you’re not reading the comments by your peers, you are losing out big time.
Thanks For Reading – Over To You
What do you take from the popular blogs? Do you read blog and social media comments/replies? What’s that best advice you have seen and who’s your mentor? Your comments and questions are important here.
About Brian D. Hawkins
Hey Brian, cool article and discussion. I’ve watched Darren over the past few years. I don’t read his blog but I have watched what he’s been up to. It always amazes me how little people respond back online. You know for someone who has 56,000 people why only 32 comments? To me that is a sad number and something everyone should be paying attention to because this to me means opportunity and if you play your cards right Brian and produce these articles under similar topics you may take some traffic and increase your own reader base.
Donât get me wrong Iâm sure if I was to ask the same question I would get maybe 1 or 2 comments heâs doing far better than I it just seems to be a low response from someone with almost 60,000 people in his circle.
I was thinking the same thing Brian, that is a pretty low response with that many followers.
Brian,
This is a great point. Specifically when you see these big blogging doing things like turning off comments completely or talking about how answering comments may not be very.
It may not be…for them.
Like you pointed out, they HAVE the followers. But the best way to build a girl followers today is to actual interaction. You can’t get away with simply posting an article and expecting people to fall at your feet and praise you. At least not until you reach that guru status.
Being a ‘real” person and interacting even if it takes up a couple hours every day is a definite important part of the equation.
Thanks Steve, that’s another great example of “what not to follow” when it comes to things like closing comments. I do that on niche/AdSense sites but we’re looking for something entirely different on traditional blogs.
I’m even more a of newbie than I thought! Using the suggested topics from megablogs is a great idea! Certainly where I am now I would never ever have thought of it. But I shall be doing something similar from now on. Thank you for insights. Much appreciated.
KC
Glad to help KC 🙂
Darren Rowse pro blogger is my one of the favorite blog.i follow that blog with using RSS email subscription.i doe’s not like to miss any posts from Darren.nice share Brian 🙂
Thanks Sai, it’s all about what we do with the lessons we learn.
I really love the way you act for these things, I mean how you use their question and their readers answer for your side.. I’ll do the same 😀 hehehe~
For me when i get stuck from finding a good topic to write about, I directly go to an article that relevant to my niche that in a popular blog like copyblogger then I read through the comments, this is the best way that i use to determine people problems to write about.
Thanks for the post 😀
Thanks Faissal. It’s true, comments are a great source for thinking up content as well as developing new relationships. Sometimes I’ll start writing a comment that goes too long or starts moving off topic and I’ll end up re-writing that comment and use the original as the beginning of a blog post. It’s the comments that gets us thinking.
What’s the main difference between us, common bloggers from guys such as Darren Rowse? What makes him get tons of traffic? Is it just his amazing content?
I enjoy and learn tips from your blog each week. I also have a blog on my businesses web-site, so I am familiar with what I think is helpful and exciting blogs on abbot’s limousine web site, just to appeal to no one. I get very disappointed, as a junior blogger, I see very few comments on our page. I have come to think that their is a lot of waisted content out here that folks are too busy to take advantage of. Talent goes to waist when nobody has emotional connection to the blogger, and feels like a response will be appreciated!
Hi Paul, I started to reply to your comment here but I was so inspired by it that I am writing a blog post on the entire issue. Stay tuned, I’ll send you a note once I get it together. I believe it’s an important issue.
I just started blogging a couple of months ago and I love it! I would love to have a staff full of bloggers and line writers working for me but to honest that is not going to happen anytime soon. I’m amazed at how many people follow some blogs, wish I could get a thousand and I’d be in heaven.
Well hang in there Tom, that’s what we all strive for.
I’m one of the loyal followers of Darren Rowse and he’s indeed one amazing blog guru. I do read social media comments and i find it really useful since it gives me an idea on what to write about.
IMO, to make us like them, we should act like them and think like them..act and think like Darren and give out the very best to come up with a very engaging content to our readers.
I don’t fully agree with that concept Herbert. They’re at a different level than most of us and a lot of things have changed since they started and gained the traction. This isn’t a bad thing, just something that has to be recognized. We all have to find our own way and perhaps we can help one another along the way.
If I had a blog then I would create quality articles like them so that I can build some reputation and start building loyal readers like they already have. 🙂
I would like to copy their promotion and marketing techniques as many bloggers provide good article to read on but still they’re not getting regular traffic. That means marketing is quite essential in the success of any blog.
I believe that’s part of the package Aaron, along with other factors that we need to find and address.
very valuable post! The only thing with which I disagree is that not always when a blog becomes popular, it looses its personal interaction with readers. Sometimes it doesn’t happen, and there are bloggers who try to devote much attention to every reader
I agree Jeanie. I’m just saying if you are getting two or three hundred comments per post and your blog is publishing several posts a day, comment replies are going to be few and far between.
What you classify as a popular blog? There are some that I follow that are amazing, but they would not be considered “a-list” bloggers.
Hi Nokian, there’s no hard and fast definition of a popular blog and I don’t want to take anything away from hard working bloggers but, for this issue, I’m referring to those few that are at the top of the ladder. Those blogs generating $20,000+/month and managed with a staff of people. We can’t take the exact same steps they are anymore than your local barber shop can repeat the steps taken by General Motors. That’s not to say we can’t learn from the A-listers, we can learn a lot.
I kinnda given up when it comes to guru bloggers. I don’t read them anymore, I don’t care much about them. I simply don’t see the benefits anymore, I’m not talking about the bloggers you mentioned above but in general I tend not to follow “gurus” and “experts”, they tend to “know everything” and their communities are terrible, full of fan boys waiting for someone to say something remotely bad about their “god”.
I can read the same stuff eventually on less popular blogs, in one way or the other.
Hi Cristian, I totally understand your feelings. I actually have a lot of respect for many of them and I’m subscribed to most.
I do agree we can find some of the best content on “less popular” blogs. I guess some of that could be due to hundreds of bloggers lined up to get their content published on the big boy’s blogs and a lot of that content really isn’t that good. Seriously, how many “5/8/12 Steps To Effective SEO” posts do we need?
Darren Rowse and the true gurus deserve all the interest in what they have to say (and ask). Still, when it comes to the Web, following isn’t something even they would recommend. So you’ve got it right Brian, the up and coming hungry bloggers have to innovate instead of copy. As Yogi Berra said, “No one goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”
Hi Astro, Innovate instead of copy is great advice. Nice use of the Yogiism.
Some of the best advice I’ve been given by many was to build a list and for the longest I neglected this important aspect, but once I started building one I understood ❗
Something else comes to mind for some reason…John Chow once wrote how he used to inject traffic from time to time via Google adwords except he wouldn’t buy clicks, he would buy impressions. If it takes the average person to see your marketing message 5 to 7 times then buying impressions only makes sense as it seems that even if a person doesn’t click the ad they will at least remember it due it being “impressed” upon their subconscious mind so many times 💡
Just my 2cents from a couple of things I got from popular bloggers..
Hi Caleb, John Chow is another big one. I don’t know how long you’ve been blogging but years back he got himself suspended from Google search for a long time and had to find other methods of driving traffic. That had to have been a challenge but he still climbed to become a very popular blog. He’s back in Google’s good graces now but that had to have been a pretty tough learning experience.
BTW, I’m trying to comment on your blog but before I can get the comment out I get redirected to a sales page on 5iphon.com.I see you are getting other comments so it might be on my end. Also, I think I opted into your list but was taken to another sales page so I’m not sure if it went through. There’s a lot going on over there. lol
Yea I read that in his free ebook and I’m not sure if his mentioning of the buying impressions tactic was before or after that fiasco 😕
Your comment which I responded to and signup went through. The redirecting occurs automatically because of a special plugin that redirects on certain pages whenever your mouse hovers a certain amount of pix near the x on your browser or tab..
As for “alot going on over there”, we’ll just file that under TESTING IN PROGRESS 🙂
Yeah, I figured it out Caleb. lol I was moving the mouse up there in the middle of my comment and causing the page to redirect. I got it to go through and I also received the confirm message so I’m on your list now. All is good.
Great post Brian. I am following your blog not just because you are popular but because I learn so many things every time I visit your blog 🙂
Thank you for your recommendations. Definitely a useful list. Iâm glad youâve been enjoying the blog. I like your blog.