Your MLM blog is an ideal vehicle for initiating conversations, something we as network marketers should be practicing continually. I’m going to tell you how you can easily make this happen a whole lot more effectively than you might be doing right now.
Usually you choose a topic and write a post, so starts the conversation.
At the end of your post you ask for comments, often by posing a question or asking your readers for their response to your topic. When people respond we now have mini dialogues happening.
Hopefully you reply to their comments, however this is often where the conversation comes to an abrupt end.
Not much of a conversation to be honest so could it have gone deeper and what could you have done differently to encourage this?
Choose conversation worthy topics is a good start.
Learn to write in such a way that you engage people’s emotions. This is the art of copywriting. When people are moved by your post they will be more likely to leave a comment, in other words enter into conversation with you.
Ask an open ended question at the end of your post. These are questions that ask for opinions. Your objective is to engage them in conversation about your topic.
When you reply to their comment, if it’s appropriate finish your comment by asking another question related to what they have said. Remember the person who asks questions controls the dialogue and that must you.
If you don’t relay your comment back to them how do they know what you have said? Don’t you want them to know that you have responded to their comment? Of course you do, otherwise what is the point of doing it?
People do not have time to go back to your post to see what you wrote, you have to make it easy for them. You do this by using a automated system that will send them an email to inform them of what you have said.
There are a few commenting plug ins to choose from. Disqus is popular but personally I don’t like this system because it interferes with allowing my site to be a ‘do follow’ blog.
If you don’t know what I am speaking about then I suggest you read my good friend Josh Garcia‘s posts on this, in particular, What Everybody Ought to Know About Do Follow Blogs and his follow up post about how to identify a ‘do follow’ blog. I also like to use the Comment Luv plug in which is also not compatible with Disqus.
I suggest you use a simple free plug in called Comment Reply Notification which is available for download in your WordPress Admin area and does the job brilliantly. I know a lot of people use a plug in that sends a thank you email but which does not supply your comment back to the person. This is better than no acknowledgment at all but frankly why use something that does half a job?
When the person receives your email there’s a chance, depending on the topic, whether you have asked a question again and whether they are interested enough, that they will go back to your MLM blog and reply again. At some point the conversation has to end but doing what I have suggested above will ensure that you have done as much as possible to keep the conversation going till then.
What do you do to keep the conversations flowing on your blog? Do you have any other tips to add to this topic? If you do, leave then in the comments area and let’s see where the conversations go…
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Hi Marcus,
Thanks for sharing the creative engaging tactics. A blog can be such a powerful tool when it creates a 2 way conversation.
I feel that asking open ended questions in your post is a fine way to encourage conversations.
Another tip is to ask multiple questions. Pepper in a question mid-post, then end your post with another question or 2. If your reader overlooks one question they rarely overlook a second.
Ryan Biddulph
[Reply]
Marcus Baker Reply:
August 5th, 2010 at 3:54 am
Hi Ryan,
I think sometimes we forget that we can utilize a blog as vehicle for conversation. I know I do. I like the multiple questions idea as it gives people more choices too. I very seldom visit a blog without leaving a comment and yet I notice a lot of people who visit blogs don’t, why do you think this is the case?
~Marcus
[Reply]
Ryan Biddulph Reply:
August 5th, 2010 at 10:06 am
Marcus, I think that the general mental hurry that people suffer from causes them not to take the time to leave a comment. They don’t see the benefit in building relationships with bloggers by simply taking a minute to engage because they are too busy doing others things, many of which aren’t as effective as leaving thoughtful and relevant comments.
It’s also a lack of Big Picture thinking. My fortunes changed quickly when I learned to read a post and add value to it in the form of a comment. Pretty simple stuff.
RB
[Reply]
Marcus Baker Reply:
August 5th, 2010 at 6:15 pm
Yeah I think you are spot on with your observations Ryan.
Sometimes we don’t realize the treasure we already have because we are too busy looking for the treasure we can’t see. (Hmmm sounds like one of your quotes.. Ryan.. you see the effect you are having one me?? ha ha)
And once again when you give to others, in whatever way this is, even as a valuable content on a blog, you are adding to the vibration for abundance to come back to you in much greater measure.
Thanks for your answer Ryan. If anybody else has something to add to this, feel free.
Hey Marcus,
First let me start by saying, thanks for sharing my post on your blog.
Now, this is a great topic. I like to write in a way that starts a conversation at the end of the post. If I’m writing a ‘How To’ then at the end of the post I like to ask a question to engage the readers or so they can add more to what I’ve written.
It’s powerful when you have a good informative conversation going in the comments section.
Chat with you later…
Josh
Josh Garcia recently posted..5 Steps You Should Take When Utilizing Article Marketing
[Reply]
Marcus Baker Reply:
August 5th, 2010 at 3:50 am
Hi Josh,
Absolutely, you covered the “do follow” topic brilliantly. “How To” type posts are good for getting input at the end as you say. By the way just lately I have noticed that most top bloggers blogs are set as “no follow”, is there a good reason why this is so?
~Marcus
[Reply]
Hey Marcus,
Excellent information, as usual. I am adding the “Comment Reply Notification” plug-in immediately.
Thanks,
Rusty
Rusty recently posted..5 Ways To Establish Trust In Your Internet Business
[Reply]
Marcus Baker Reply:
August 5th, 2010 at 3:35 am
Hello Rusty,
Thanks for your comment my friend. The plugin is pretty straight forward to set up but let me know if you encounter any problems.
~Marcus
[Reply]
Hey Marcus,
start a conversation in your blog will have people keep coming back to your blog. This is a great, fun way to get to know the people that visit your blog and yet grow at the same time. Leaving an open question not only benefit you but also the commenters on your posts as well. Thanks for sharing!!
Sherman
Sherman Smith recently posted..THE POWER QUESTIONS EQUALS SPONSORING
[Reply]
Marcus Baker Reply:
August 5th, 2010 at 3:34 am
Hi Sherman,
Since people are already visiting one’s blog I just reckon one might as well try and extend the conversation as much as possible.
~Marcus
[Reply]
Hi Marcus,
This is a great tip and one that will make me think more about my reply. Just need to sort out my “dofollow” plugin.
Thanks for sharing.
Tristram Lodge
Tristram Lodge recently posted..40 Speeches- 2 Minutes – Get Inspired
[Reply]
Marcus Baker Reply:
August 5th, 2010 at 3:26 am
Hi Tristram,
Thanks for leaving your comment.
Are you having problems with the plug in or do you mean you just need to get it installed?
~Marcus
[Reply]
Tristram Lodge Reply:
August 5th, 2010 at 3:06 pm
Hi Marcus,
I have the “DoFollow” plugin installed and active but I follow what Josh Garcia said in his video post last week but the links are on the comment but everyone still comes up a “nofollow”
Tristram
[Reply]
Marcus Baker Reply:
August 5th, 2010 at 5:31 pm
Wow I wonder why that is? Perhaps you should speak to Josh since he is very up on this topic.
The joy of Internet marketing includes having to deal with technical issues and although I can navigate my way around some of these it can be frustrating at times. I hope you resolve this and I’m sorry I don’t have an answer for you.
~Marcus
Hi Marcus,
Thanks for sharing your tips for continuing the conversation. I’m going to install the comment reply plug in you suggest right away. Also, thanks for sharing the link to Josh’s post. I read his original post but had not gotten around to asking him how to identify do-follow blogs.
You have a nice blog going here. Where do you find the time to do all the research to support your posts?
Have a great evening,
Susan
Susan Redmon recently posted..MLSP Wednesday Webinar Overbooked! New arrangements announced – August 4- 2010
[Reply]
Marcus Baker Reply:
August 5th, 2010 at 3:24 am
Hello Susan,
Lovely to have you visit. Thanks too for your comment about my blog and leaving this comment too. I appreciate it.
That’s a great question actually Susan. It’s really time consuming to be honest and sometimes I am really pushed to find the time too. I do keep an going swipe file however and whenever I come across an idea or material I think could lead to a post in some way I save in there. A lot of it I never use but it’s always there just in case.
Do you have any tips yourself to share in this regard?
~Marcus
[Reply]
Great! Another plugin to go look at. It isn’t like I don’t have enough already. Sheesh!
Actually, thanks for the great recommendation. I’m looking forward to trying out the plugin and seeing where it goes. I’ve been all about getting people more active on my blog since hearing that activity is one of the things that Google is looking at now in its indexing. Plus it is a great way to get to know some fascinating people.
Wayne Woodworth recently posted..Network Marketing Doesn’t Make Money
[Reply]
Marcus Baker Reply:
August 5th, 2010 at 6:01 pm
Hi Wayne,
I know how you feel when it comes to plugins. I can be a bit ‘plugin happy’ too at times.
This one is essential I think so you’ll like it a lot.
Extended commenting is the obvious way to get more activity happening on your blog. Running competitions is also very useful as is putting a poll (another plug in – ha ha) on you blog – do you think you could use either or both of these ideas too?
~Marcus
[Reply]
Wayne Woodworth Reply:
August 6th, 2010 at 11:30 am
Plugins are cool. It is a whole lot easier than trying to decipher the PHP code in WordPress and the themes to make the changes that you want. Which option do you suggest for “Email notify the parent commenter when his comment was replied” in the Comment Reply Notification settings?
What plugin do you recommend for polls?
Wayne Woodworth recently posted..Network Marketing Doesn’t Make Money
[Reply]
Marcus Baker Reply:
August 6th, 2010 at 7:03 pm
Hi Wayne,
I use the option – “Anyone Replies” right now which is useful if more than one person joins in on a conversation thread. This way others know when a comment has been left and can respond if they choose to.
As for polls, the plugin I have used is “WP-Polls” which seemed to be the best at the time but you might want to search for polls plugins and see what’s available. Maybe someone else reading this comment has a suggestion too.
~Marcus
Hey Marcus
Some great advice on engaging your readers.
In gmail I have a folder that automatically collects all comment responses so that I can comment back where appropriate.
Another technique is to subscribe to the Comments RSS feed. I wonder how many people actually do that.
Peter Fuller MBA recently posted..Attention this book will make you MONEY
[Reply]
Marcus Baker Reply:
August 5th, 2010 at 5:39 pm
Hi Peter,
Thanks for adding more value here my friend. Subscribing to Comments RSS is a great idea.
It does not surprise me that you deal with comments in the way you do as I can tell you are a very organized marketer. I think being like this saves one an enormous amount of time. Perhaps some of your organizational ideas could become some future posts?
~Marcus
[Reply]
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Marcus
You make some real good points. So often people just post and rant and when you get to the end you wonder what the whole point of the post was to start off with.
Thanks for sharing.
Mike Howard recently posted..Email Marketing Tips That Get You Great Results
[Reply]
Marcus Baker Reply:
December 13th, 2010 at 7:24 pm
Hi Mike,
Great to have you visit and comment here, thank you.
~Marcus
[Reply]
Very interesting tips. Haven’t heard this one before. Thanks,keep up the great posts.
[Reply]
Marcus Baker Reply:
July 11th, 2011 at 9:28 pm
Hi Bob,
Thanks for your feedback.
~Marcus
[Reply]