The Reader Appreciation Project

I quit!

Ok, not really. But how many times have you told yourself that when it comes to blogging?

If you’ve been in the blogging game long enough, you probably know quite a few bloggers who have quit.

Some quit because:

• Subscribers weren’t growing
• Traffic wasn’t increasing
• No money was coming in
• Their page rank took a hit or was too low
• Their site was blacklisted by Google
• They received too many negative comments
• They didn’t receive enough comments
• They were burnt out
• They were too busy (school, work)
• They had personal obligations (child, spouse, parents)
• And more…

Within the past two weeks I’ve read a few posts that I consider rather thought-provoking. One was about a blogger’s responsibility to the readers, and the other was about blogging pains. Both expressed confusion for what the future held for their blog and their readership. And believe me, I share the same thoughts constantly.

And confusion over the future, or lack of purpose, is intimidating. Even Lorelle VanFossen says it’s a good reason to stop blogging:

Stop blogging if you don’t have a purpose: Honestly, you don’t have to blog if you don’t want to, and if you don’t know what to blog about, don’t. If your blog has no purpose, stop blogging.

You can probably relate to Lorelle’s quote. It’s hard to find purpose on a blog. And it’s demoralizing when a purpose can’t be found.

While at WordCamp, one phrase from Liz Strauss was a huge motivator. The phrase? “They come for you.”

You are the one unique value on your blog.

The information is everywhere. But you are the one who molds it, shapes it, and brings your experience to it.

As Liz puts it, readers come to a blog to read your stuff. And if it’s a multi-author blog such as this one, readers come for your writing, and perhaps others’.

Because, as Liz puts it, “Information — straight, clear information — is all over the Internet. But you aren’t.”

Conclusion

People will quit blogging. It’s a fact of life. Some blogs have just run their course.

But for those questioning why they should keep going, perhaps it’s for those readers that are coming just for you.

I’ve thought about quitting many times. But it’s often the readers that keep me going.

When we talk about Reader Appreciation we generally mean appreciating the people who read, and comment, on our own blogs. In much the same way as a parent knows his or her child to be gifted, I am sure we all consider our own readers to be intelligent, personable, and much like ourselves, but what about the readers of other blogs?

The Bad

I’ve lost count of the number of sites I have stopped visiting because of the readers. I’m sure you can think of several sites off the top of your head where the readers routinely indulge in OS flame wars, sexism, racism, stupidity, or are generally unable to string together enough words to form a cohesive, or rational, argument.

So if readers can make such a negative difference can they also make a positive difference and turn their comments into an essential part of a site? I think they can, and I have a site in mind.

The Good

I am a big fan of Formula 1 motor racing. I never miss a race or a qualifying session, and there is so much to discuss that I talk about it, read about it, or think about it every day. A significant amount of this discussion happens at F1 Fanatic

When you open your feed list I imagine you do the same thing as I do: go straight to your favourite blogs and check out their content, leaving the rest for later, or at least after you have read the favourites. Am I right?

With F1 Fanatic, however, I found that I actually lose out by doing this.

If I come to a post late in the day I find between ten and twenty comments featuring extra thoughts, more information, and different viewpoints. If I get there first I miss all of that. The readers provide so much added value that it is better to wait.

For me this blog stands out for me as a prime example of how a blogger and their readers can work together to create something larger than the sum of its parts, how great the conversation with a blogger can be, and how a reader focussed blog can prosper.

The Contributory

Blog communities like these probably owe as much to the blogger for fostering the relationship as they do to the readers for coming back and commenting in the spirit that was intended. It may be that this is the natural result of great content, a great subject, and great reader appreciation.

As a reader in these communities, which sites do you value more because of the contributions of other readers? How much of this effect do you think is down to the blogger, and how much to the reader? And do you think it is possible for a blogger to achieve this without appreciating his readers?

Hello everyone. Today I’ll be interviewing the creator of Jeffro2pt0, Jeff. Jeffro 2pt0 is a site that revolves around talking about the emergence of the newer web and blog applications, and related technologies. Jeffro 2pt0 is an increasingly popular site which blends in a lot of interactive elements to show readers what other readers are doing on and around the site.

Because of the different initiatives Jeff is taking around the site, it is becoming more and more important to keep the reader’s level of comfort in mind. Jeff has also been a supported of RA Project for a while now. So far, Jeffro 2pt0 seems to be doing well in keeping up with what the readers want, in terms of the readers having enough tools to interact with Jeff and one another around the site. I decided to interview Jeff as he seems to be good at making sure that the things he rolls out on his site are well planned, or at least are under control, which can affect reader appreciation a lot in my view.

One of the things you may notice is that the questions can sometimes be very specific and long, or a bit general and short. This style of mine allows for more input and output from generally the person asking the question and mainly the person explaining the things as an answer.

Interview with Jeffro2pto – Readers, comments, interactions, and beyond

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