How Turn Your Readers Into Your Friends

screenshot Of reader Lens
We bloggers believe that there is the art of making money online, right? Would you believe that there is also the art of making friends online? And do you think you'd become a better blogger when you combine those two? Well you may have to answer the questions together with me.

Readers and Visitors are Readers and Visitors

True. Our blog visitors and readers contribute much to our traffic. But they just remain visitors and readers when we don't try to interact with them. We all want our visitors to come often but we want it more when they comment and engage in meaningful discussions with us and with their fellow readers.

How To Make Friends With Your Blog Visitors

* Answer to their comments
* Visit their blogs and drop some sensible comments
* Find them on social communities
* Regularly engage in conversations with them whether in your blog or even in Yahoo! Messenger or somewhere else
* Treat them more as your friends than your blog visitors
* Be reasonably friendly all the time
* Meet those in your locale


Why Turn Your Readers Into Your Friends?

There are many reasons why each one of us would want to turn our readers into our friends. It all depends on what we want to do or achieve. Possibly the best effect that this could bring is that you will strengthen your online presence more. You would also get more unforced and sensible comments. From analysis, it is obvious that your friends would visit and comment more on your blog than just regular visitors who may be considered as mere passers-by. Take this real world example: who would be likely to comment on your new shirt, strangers or friends? The answer is obvious. In the blogosphere, friends will not just comment for the sake of commenting but will comment for the sake of suggesting, clarifying or affirming ideas.

Choose Your Friends & Know Your Boundaries

But like the real world, making friends don't come in a snap. It is also best to consider who to make friends with. You may end up on people shooing you away. Find those whose interests are compatible with yours - at least you won't find a hard time striking up conversations interesting to both parties. You could find those with the same niche, same age, same gender, same hobbies or whatever is the same in both of you.

When making friends with somebody online, always make sure you know your boundaries. Be careful not to be too fast in opening up personal issues. And by the way, making friends online don't only mean the professional way. You could be friends - the real meaning of friends.


Final Say

You don't have to befriend everyone. Trying to befriend everyone is not a good move. You end up befriending no one at all if that's the case. Again, it is your own preference whether to convert your visitors to your friends or let them stay as they are. We can say that in real life having many friends brings very many good things. It is time to test the theory in the online world. Just don't forget to be real all the time.