Rabid Blog Audience Building: 4 Steps You Must Follow

January 27th, 2009 by Easton Ellsworth

Have you ever had trouble getting people to fall in love with your blog?

If you’re wondering how to get an enthusiastic audience to come to your blog over and over, this simple guide is for you.

Rabid means intensely passionate. A rabid fan is worth 100 casual readers. Maybe even 1,000.

Without rabid fans, your blog will fall short of its potential and your business will suffer as a result.

Building a rabid audience is like building a community: it can be hard work, but it’s well worth the effort.

Step 1: Create a mouth-foaming object.

In my Blog Community Building guide, I call this an “object of adoration.” It’s the centerpiece at the dining table. It’s the campfire at the campfire. It’s the glistening bowl of Toasty Oh’s, milk splashing in from the sky, in the middle of the cereal box.

It’s something to gather around and talk about. Something to focus on.

Something people can get rabid about.

These MFOs or OOAs work best when they create a gathering place around you and your products/services.

Step 2: Get lots of toothpicks.

And cut your object in pieces and stick the toothpicks in the pieces and hand them out to everyone. As they walk away chomping, call out, “Tell your friends!” Better yet, say it with a smile as they curiously take your offering from your warm hand.

Step 3: Watch for the foamers.

They’re out there. It’s a scientific fact of nature. Someone who sees what you’ve done, who’s tasted what you’ve concocted, will discover it and experience an epiphany of ecstasy. They’re baking soda and your stuff is vinegar.

Look closely, though. Sometimes the foam bubbles only on the inside.

Step 4: Reward Rabidity.

Rabidity is unbridled excitement.

Scene 1: It’s Christmas morning at 4:13 am and you’re 5 years old and Mommy and Daddy still haven’t woken up. The unspoiled wilderness of unopened joy awaits. You’re not just foaming. You’re frothing like a freshly made root beer float.

Scene 2, Fantasy: By 6:13 in the morning you’ve thundered through every last shred of wrapping. You glance upward plaintively at your loving parents. They snap their fingers and POOF! A brand-new mountain of gifts materializes before your dinner-plate eyes. Rabidity rewarded.

Scene 2, Reality: 10 o’clock came and went and all Mommy and Daddy got you among the shimmering boxes, bows, and bags was undies and socks. Rabidity rejected.

Which Scene 2 would you rather watch?

Which Scene 2 are your rabid blog lovers watching?

Rabidity is easy to reward. Just give them more, more, more.

That’s one of my favorite books to read to the kids. Especially the part where …

See, now you’re curious. If I don’t reward that smidgen of rabidity, I’m rejecting it. There is no middle ground with foamers.

Especially the part where Little Guy’s Daddy catches that baby up and smooches him right on the belly button.

What kid isn’t gonna laugh and beg, “More, More, More?”

That’s It … Lather, Rinse, Repeat

That’s it. Do those four things and you’ve started to build a rabid blog audience.

In coming weeks I’ll share more detail on each of these steps.

images by Dictionary.com and liber

---

Related Articles

1. Blog Audience Building in 37 Words
2. 5 Surefire Steps to Better Blog Content
3. Blog Community Building Teleseminar: Register Now
4. Blog Marketing: Who is Your Target Audience?
5. Guide: How to Improve Your Blog Community