As a blogger, you don’t always know how to engage your audience.
But then there are some bloggers who have thousands of raving fans!
How do they do that?
Carly of MommyOnPurpose.com and BloggingLikeYouMeanIt.com is one of the most successful bloggers out there.
Her blogging style is so unique, she’s got a great sense of humor, she’s witty, she’s quirky but she’s also one of the smartest and astute bloggers.
She is the most unassuming and genuine person.
She has a raving fan base but she is also so well respected in the blogging community.
Carly makes 6 figures blogging but you rarely see her self-promote her stuff.
But maybe she doesn’t even need to do that.
And that’s because she has the most engaged audience you will ever see.
So, I thought of inviting her to discuss why it’s so important to nurture the relationship with your audience and build up an engaged fan base instead of constantly relying on new traffic or worrying about changes in the algorithms.
If you missed our live interview, you can watch the replay here!
If you’re in a bit of a rush at the moment, don’t sweat it! You can always pin it for later!
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Carly is a full-time mom and full-time blogger at Mommy on Purpose. After realizing her own dream of being a work from home mom (with no boss), she is passionate about helping others do the same. You can learn more about her blog monetization journey here on her blog income report page.
Could you tell us a bit about your blog and your background and/or expertise?
I started blogging 3.5 years ago. It didn’t take long for me to make a full-time income, and I grew the basis of my business on Pinterest. Right now I have a mommy blog which makes me a full-time income via ads and affiliate sales. I have no email list. I do not engage these readers – which makes it very very hard to SCALE that income… it’s all traffic driven.
But, I also have a blogging audience. These are my engaged people, and this is what makes my business sustainable – because the business is not at all reliant on traffic or algorithms. Only relationships (which is FAR more in my control than algorithms!)
Why engaging your audience is so important?
Because your sales come from REAL people, and people buy from people.
Having a relationship with your audience will make you real money that is SUSTAINABLE faster than anything else. If your audience is engaged, you don’t have to worry about things like algorithm changes because your audience will seek you out and they will buy from you because they trust you.
What are the easiest ways or platforms or channels to engage your audience?
I personally think that the best (easiest) ways to engage your audience (for the average blogger) are email, Facebook GROUPS, and Instagram.
My Engaging Your Audience course includes training on each of these methods / platforms.
What are your 3 best tips on engaging your audience?
The important thing to remember is you cannot engage your audience on your blog. Your blog is just a way for you to initially connect with the right people – but it’s a one-way connection and you’re not as able to nurture a relationship there.. Choose your favorite social media platform and engage your audience there!
Respond thoughtfully every time someone reaches out to you – regardless of the platform. Taking a few minutes out of your day can make a true lifetime fan, so it’s worth it!
Remember that YOU have to start the conversation. You cannot expect your audience to reach out to you for no reason – they want to understand what YOU can offer them. You will have to work a little before getting them to engage.
Taking a few minutes out of your day can make a true lifetime fan!
What are the most common mistakes bloggers make in the way they engage or fail to engage their audience and what would you recommend doing instead?
Not segmenting your list. This is SO important. You should not be emailing your decluttering audience about parenting tips. They don’t want parenting tips, and they’ll tune you right out! Segmenting and targeting your audience will help you make sure you’re reaching the people who are actually interested in what you’re telling them.
Not understanding pain points. This is another BIG one. Remember – we are there to solve our audience’s problems, Not the other way around. Every post you write, product you create, and email optin should fit into solving for one of your avatars problems.
People think that you engage your audience on your blog – but this is never the case. This is where you can attract the kind of people you want, but there is no way for you two to be able to engage with each other back and forth. Some bloggers think commenting is appropriate engagement – but how many times do you go back to check the comment section after leaving a blog comment? It’s just not something that people do.
Remember - we are there to solve our audience’s problems. Not the other way around.
Can you tell us more about your ‘Engaging Your Audience’ e-course?
I see so many bloggers get stuck at the ad-income-ceiling place.
This is where they’ve made what they can make via ad income, and they are struggling to grow their income past that point.
I wanted to help bloggers break the ad-income-ceiling, so I created a resource to teach you how to engage your audience to further grow your income – WITHOUT depending on traffic.
Where can we go to learn more?
You can find my blog at mommyonpurpose.com. My courses (including Engaging Your Audience) can be found at blogginglikeyoumeanit.com and you can use the coupon code NEWBLOGGERS10 for 10$ off!
Hope this expert interview gives you a better understanding of why it’s so important that you engage your audience.
You can check out Carly’s course Engaging Your Audience 👉 HERE
You can find the other courses mentioned during the interview 👉 HERE
If you want to watch the next expert interviews live you can join our Facebook group Blogging for New Bloggers here.
You can check out upcoming expert interviews in our event calendar here.
And if you have any questions for Carly on how to engage your audience, feel free to leave it in the comment section below.
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3 thoughts on “How to Engage your Audience (Expert Interview)”
Hi Lucrezia,
Carly shares awesome engagement tips in timely fashion for me. I doubled down on engaging quite a bit last week. Comments open again. Bonding more deeply with my readers. Genuinely, it is the way to succeed as a blogger.
Ryan
Hi Lucrezia,
I found this post thought provoking. It came at a good time because I have been thinking about the whole process of engagement.
I think that I fall into that list of bloggers who haven’t segmented my past lists. I found that once I started to do that the ROI’s were more beneficial. These quick tips by Carly are fantastic. Thanks!
Thank you for sharing this interview – it is super useful. I always love hearing Carly’s thoughts 🙂