Your favorite bloggers are working hard to offer you the best content out there. They are doing in-depth research, they are testing their assumptions, they are gathering and analyzing data in order to offer correct information, solid sources and engaging content.
Believe me when I say that it’s not easy to be relevant. You need to invest many hours of work in order to satisfy needs or to solve the problems of your audience.
Us, the bloggers, we are doing all these things for you. We love you, really we do. But we also have some expectations from you, especially when we really deliver value.
What do bloggers want from their audience?
First of all, bloggers need gratitude. You can show your gratitude in different ways. From commenting articles, to promoting a blogger’s work or even to the point when you build a working relationship with your favorite blogger. So here are 11 ways to show your gratitude & say thank you to blogger
1. Share a link on Facebook, Twitter or other social media site
It matters a lot, even though you probably don’t realize it. It helps push one’s articles further into the web and gain more readers and more hype about one’s ideas. It also helps bloggers become more credible. It’s a difference of perception when you see an article with 10 tweets/15 likes and an article with 200 tweets and 500 likes. Which article are you “tempted” to share?
When you are sharing a link, you are helping with what is called “social proof”. Social proof is a very important effect in the social space and usually can make a difference between a successful blogger and one that is still trying to reach a tipping point.
So help us bloggers out and share our articles more, especially if we deserve it.
2. Comment articles
The conversation has left the web. It moved onto Facebook or Twitter. The blogs are starting to get fewer and fewer comments by the year, but many readers don’t know the fact that at least 20% of the value of an article lies into the comment section.
An article will rank higher in Google SERPs, it will get more hype, maybe one user has a resource that he can share in the comment section, also that article can also start a debate. Comments really add value. I strongly believe that the whole reason of that article is to generate a conversation.
If you don’t have comments, the article will have some loose ends and you will not provide value for those experienced readers that usually find value in the conversation.
Also, lots of comments are a sign of interactivity, and I’m sure you don’t want another boring blog.
Please comment this article and join the conversation, I’m sure that you will find a few different ways to say thank you to your favorite blogger.
3. Link to your blogger
This is one of biggest and most important way to THANK YOU for your “services”. You can help with the following:
- rank higher for specific keywords in Google
- reach new audience
- establish authority
- social proof
… and these are just 4 ways that prove that you are an awesome reader. Giving a link to a blogger is like saying “Hey Google, I trust this guy, please give him a boost in SERPs and in traffic.” Also, If you really, really like someone, you can put his website address in your blogroll section, then your link will become an asset in his or hers link building strategy.
4. Offer some feedback
You don’t necessarily need to help out with all of the above points. You can also give some specific feedback and help out with other issues related to a blog.
You can help out with:
- design feedback
- copywriting feedback
- content feedback
- general overview
There are many ways to say thank you and help a blogger out in the same time. Test the theme of your favorite blogger and probably you will find some issues or bugs. So, please help create a better blogging experience for you and for other readers.
Also, if a blogger is not native English speaker (a blogger like me) you probably will find some typos or some grammar mistakes, so point them out and help make this article the best article written by a guy who’s not native in English.
5. Share some trust through Email
I strongly believe that email is one of the most powerful forms of communication that we have available (left) on the Internet. Email gained a special place in our life. We use email more and more in our daily life. Sometimes we get frustrated because we a full inbox, sometimes we get a lot of incredible tips and maintain relationships through email.
Email is so effective that probloggers strongly believe that the money is in the mailing list, and I believe them.
Because of the above reasons, I believe that you are making a great favor by sharing a link via electronic mail. It’s probably the best way to say to a friend: “dude I trust this blogger, he delivers me so much value that I want to share his articles everywhere, including to all my friends, via email.”
6. Subscribe to newsletter/RSS Feed
Even though the click through rates in RSS feeds are very low, it’s still important to know that you have a loyal audience that read you and that can pass on your message throughout the web.
Also it’s good to know that you are so relevant that people want to read you often and they are doing extra actions to become a loyal reader (like subscribing to newsletters/rss feeds).
So, if you really want to show some gratitude, subscribe to SEJ and pass on the message of this article.
The same rule of gratitude applies to the newsletter list. Help a blogger become more relevant, because he can view and analyze the stats and see if you are reading his emails and you are clicking on his links. You will help improve his content and increase his newsletter’s impact.
7. Recommend a blogger to professionals/friends (offline)
If you already recommended a blogger via email, I salute you and I’m sure that blogger is grateful. Please enter a comment and I will thank you personally for taking action on building value for this article.
You don’t have to only recommend through links, via email, or by sharing articles. YOU can make a big impact by talking about a blogger’s content in the real life. If some people will never reach this blog or will never read this article, that doesn’t mean we cannot help them out or solve their problems. You can become a bridge between a blog and your friends or networking buddies and help them solve their problems.
I’m guessing that they won’t mind to reach proper solutions.
Also, I’m supposing that you already know that word-of-mouth is the most effective marketing tactic. Nothing can compare as an impact with real peer-to-peer recommendation, and when a close friend does this recommendation, than it’s made to stick.
8. Submit articles to social bookmarking sites
Reddit, Digg, Stumbleupon and many other social bookmarking sites represent great sources of traffic. Although you can’t really (properly) convert traffic generated by bookmarking sites, you can achieve a great level of awareness and gain some new readers.
It is in a blogger’s interest to diversify sources of traffic. What happens when most of your traffic is generated by Google and you get banned because you did something unorthodox or you pushed on somebody’s buttons?
That’s why bloggers rely on other sources of traffic, like social networking sites, microblogging platforms or social bookmarking sites.
So, if you really liked this article give it a push on Stumbleupon and recommend your friends on SU to give it a push also.
The act of you promoting a cool link is actually an opportunity for you because you are posting valuable content and you are promoting stuff that matter. If you do this all the time, then you will gather more followers on different social bookmarking sites.
For every blogger, every new source of traffic helps achieve one’s objectives and it motivates to create resources that are more useful.
9. Invite a blogger to an offline event
I like to promote good practices not only in the online medium, but also in the offline. I’m not preaching good habits only for my online audience, but also for people that have offline activities.
Value is provided to everyone who is interested in high quality content or specific tips & tricks.
Also, offline events are an incredible opportunity for networking, for making new friends and for meeting new people. You never know whom you are going to meet. You need to have an open mind when it comes with real life interactions.
Some bloggers really want to participate in offline events and engage in speaking gigs in front of a relevant audience. So if you really want to help a blogger spread out a message invite him to an event, he will help you promote that event, increase the quality and probably do a follow-up article about what happened. Also, you can create a really valuable relation between you and that blogger.
10. Hire a blogger
Requesting my services for a fee is like saying to my face: “Dude, you are so freaking awesome that I want to pay you to do stuff that you love.” Of course, a blogger wants to work with you when you see the benefit to acquiring paid services from people whom blog from passion. Also the perceived and offered value are higher than just digesting free content from that blogger. From my own experience, when I offered my services for a fee I delivered more than was required, actually I kind of under-promised and over-delivered.
So if you really want to make a blogger happy and say thank you in an awesome way, you should start building a professional relationship with him.
11. Buy your blogger a cup of joe/gift
Maybe the ads from a blog aren’t relevant for you.
Maybe the product that the blogger built for you isn’t something you want to buy, or at least not now.
Maybe you just want to show your gratitude different from the above methods.
I recommend you to buy your favorite blogger, a cup of joe or a soda, it depends on what he likes or just simply buy him a gift. You can buy that blogger a book, or a gadget, whatever you feel that he will like.
You can show gratitude in different ways, far more original than those described by me, but don’t forget to show gratitude in the first place.
Because the conversation left the blog, you are left with more passive or high-reward alternative to show your gratitude. Use the one you feel is appropriate for you..
When someone is doing something nice for you it’s only polite that you do the same for that someone.
Conclusion
So now, you know how to thank your favorite blogger. Choose 2-3 ways and apply them today. Go out and make your favorite blogger happy today.
I talked mostly from my own experience, other blogger probably prefer other methods or don’t approve of those described before. It doesn’t really matter if my methods are great or not, I just want people to show more gratitude in the first place.
So help a blogger out and contribute with your own methods or give me some feedback on my personal view on how a reader can show gratitude to his favorite blogger.
Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.
11 Ways to Show Your Gratitude & Say Thank You to a Blogger
