How to Snap Readers out of Passive Lurking to Become Engaged

 In episode 112, I introduced the four stages of warming your readers up. In episode 113, I talk about how to get the first eyeball to your blog. In episode 114, I talk about getting people to give your blog a second look and become interested. In episode 115, I talk about how to get readers to subscribe and connect with you. This is crucial for building an ongoing relationship with your audience.
Today, I am talking about the final step which is getting engagement.
In the process of getting readers warmed up, we have people who subscribe, but they often never actually comment or connect or engage with us. Today, I will be giving strategies for getting our readers to talk back to us.

Next week, In episode 117, I will be going over a case study that pulls together all four stages, and I will be interviewing somebody who has developed a system for taking people from becoming aware to becoming fully engaged.
We need to be the community that we want to have. If we want engagement, we need to be engaging. This is the challenge that bloggers have. Help your readers to get onboard – onboarding, helping your readers to get onboard with your blog Set up an autoresponder with an email list Email list of Ytravel Blog Thanks you for joining (Email #1)Tells a little bit about what the email will be used forSets expectations of when emails will be sentEncourages people to add email to address listGives free audio download (optin)They invite their readers to applyEmail #2 – Similar things generosityHow they are going to help their readersSuggestion of 3 links, to get the readers back to the siteThey point out useful stuffAnother invitation to replyEmail #3 – They really tap into the pain of their readers and give them a series of posts to helpCreate engaging content as part of your regular production Ask for engagementCreate blog posts that are all about engagement – A discussion postDigital Photography School – How would you photograph a funeral? I wrote a post about this question and opened it up to my readersThis goes beyond getting a comment, it shows my readers that I am interested in helping other readersWeekly Challenge – Modes of Transportation On Digital Photography School we issue a weekly challenge to our readersI would do these writing challenges on ProBlogger tooRun a poll or survey and share the results in another postHave a weekly editorial strategy and focus on different areas – attention, quick wins, engagementPersonal mediums are effective – live streaming is very engagingEngagement is about you, your readers, and your readers to each other When I live stream readers leave comments for each otherTwitter Chat having a # party allows readers to engage with one anotherReal life events – tweetups and meetups and having readers come togetherOur annual events – the relationships formed are amazingContent Events – A series that goes for longer than a week Engagement levels went through the roof because there was a challenge and then an invitation to shareReaders were engaging with one anotherThis brought a lot of life to my blog and built stickinessPeople respond well to events – fear of missing out, defined start and endVanessa’s Blog Style and Shenanigans Vanessa’s Last Challenge EventVanessa runs events on instagram featuring a color or print for someone to wear and show a photo of themselves wearing thatEvery week of the event traffic goes up and engagement goes through the roofDan Norris 7 Day Startup Dan wrote the book 7 Day Startup and runs WP CurveDan has 7 Day Startup ChallengesHe creates content everyday for 7 daysHe invites people to consume that content through facebook groupsHe then gets his readers to do something for each dayAt the end of the day, they launch somethingThen at the end of the challenge, he invites people to join his paid programThis is a great way to get people from lurking to being very engagedMany of these people also sign up for the membership site and buy
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