More Blogging Tips: Cooking with Gas - Write in ways that encourage comments
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In the movie we saw Julie end a few of her early posts wondering if her readers were out there. That's a little extreme, and not recommended if you write a company blog, or any kind of blog that you want to look professional. But there are ways to entice your readers to respond to what you've written without begging.
Try summarizing an entry in which you relate your opinion of something, and then adding "What do you think?" with a suggestion to leave a comment. You'll no doubt find other ways to encourage comments that work particularly well with your blog's topic.
Be persistent in achieving your goal
Julie came close to giving up once or twice, but to judge from the movie, she never threw in the towel completely. Early on, her own mother didn't understand why she was doing it, but she kept it up anyway. Persistence pays; in Julie's case, it paid off quite literally.
Whether or not you've revealed your actual goal to your readers, you should be persistent in achieving it. This might mean changing your tactics based on the feedback you get. It might mean thinking outside the box and doing things you've never done before (like killing a lobster, or holding contests on your site).
In an extreme case, it might mean changing your goal, if your original goal turns out not to be realistic. But that shouldn't be your first instinct. If you took a look at your goal originally and outlined a path to achieving it that seemed reasonable at the time, stick with it unless you later found out that your first analysis was completely unreasonable.
Remember, some goals simply take a long time to achieve. As one example, it's taken me 17 months to lose 47 pounds, and I have another 5 pounds to go before I achieve my goal. I plateaued twice for so long that it was tempting to give up, but I persisted with what I was doing and made it this far. You can bet I'm not giving up. If your goal is reasonable, or even requires you to stretch a little, you shouldn't either.
Next: Patience isn't its own reward >>
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