Naturally speaking most people connect with each other through some sort of group. Online, offline, on purpose or happenstance, we connect through groups. If you find yourself in a bar and you meet someone, it is because you’re both participating in the group of people that chose to meet up at that particular bar that night. If the bar wasn’t organizing you as a group then you wouldn’t have met.
We seek out groups of our peers. They aren’t necessarily your customers, your consumers, your readers. They are people like you. If you’re meeting up in a group of bloggers, well then most of the people that meet you will be bloggers. Sure they read blogs, but most of their time is actually spent blogging, not reading.
Bloggers blog and readers read and if you’re looking for readers how do you find them? They aren’t attending the blog meetups that you are, those are other fellow bloggers. They aren’t in social media gatherings either, they aren’t participating in online communities for bloggers either. Those people are all bloggers, just like you! Lets break up the different types of meeting organizers and find your readers.
Blog Group Organizers for Bloggers
Recognize who’s organizing what group. Here’s a list of common group organizers that will bring together bloggers in the mindset of blogging. Bloggers are not likely to read your blog, or spend very much time reading your blog, so be mindful when approaching members of these groups that they are more likely to respond as a blogger, not a blog reader.
- Bloggers.com – Well the name says it all, but you would be surprised at how many people join bloggers.com and ask other bloggers to read their blog.
- FuelMyBlog.com – A social meetup for bloggers, not much reading is going on in that site, but operates much like bloggers.com where bloggers log in and ask other bloggers to read their blog.
- BlogCatalog.com – Another group organizer full of bloggers and spammers requesting you to read their blog, some decent reviews and some people participate but not much.
Blog Group Organizers for Blog Readers
When it comes to finding blog readers you’ve got to dig a little deeper and much more narrowly. These people are looking for information on a particular topic most of the time and so you’ll find them when they find you in a group based on that topic. This is the essence of group content sharing. These types of sites will find you readers:
- Technorati.com – A great directory that is narrow enough to list your blog alongside other blogs in a particular topic
- Facebook Groups – Find and join a facebook group in your niche and you’re bound to find readers
- Syndication Services – Get your articles out there, if they are part of a syndication service they are more likely to get picked up by subscribers, categorized and placed in a group of related information feeds and distributed on news sites in your category
With a little bit of marketing and some creativity you will find your readers, just don’t forget that they probably aren’t your bloggers. If you’re hanging out with a bunch of bloggers, don’t get upset that none of them are reading your blog, for they are writing their own blog instead!
