You have seen their blogs. They have at least twenty comments and more on posts throughout their blog. A-list bloggers are masters at conversation and community. I’m talking about bloggers like Darren Rowse, the Copyblogger team and Chris Brogan. Sure, you read their blogs and maybe you comment on them. However, you haven’t figured out how to do what they do to make your blog grow.

Am I right?

So, how can you use some of their blogging skill? It’s like “reading like a writer.” Writers research other writers’ work to use what works in their own writing. It can be fiction or nonfiction. It’s a time-tested fact that learning and modeling others’ work will improve your own. So, let’s see what we can learn from A-list bloggers.

Writing A-list Content

Every A-list blogger has their own “house style” for their content. Magazines have it and so do well-known blogs. Darren Rowse of Problogger recently produced a scorecard for bloggers to use in all of their posts. In Third Tribe, members recognize him as the content king because he focuses on delivering quality in all of his posts.

Creating A-list content isn’t hard. You simply have to decide on the direction for the post every time. Write it as if you are writing to one reader. If you imagine them sitting at the kitchen table with you conversing, the better your post. It’s like you are talking to them in reality. That’s how to create A-list content. You have time to edit your post and clean up and confusion before sending it out into the world.

Keep the Comments Rolling

Picture comments on a blog like you would a garage sale. If you are out and see a garage sale that has no cars and little stuff out, it’s likely that you will not stop. Now, later if you see a garage sale (or the same one) with five cars there and people looking through the stuff, you are more likely to stop. Why? Well it’s the law of attraction in a sense. You wonder what you are missing by not stopping at the garage sale when people are looking at the stuff. If there is no one there, you can easily brush it off and move on to the next one.

Many bloggers have trouble building comments on their blog. Even Copyblogger faced this when first starting out. If you take a look at some of the posts from 2008, you will see that many do not have one comment on them.

So, what do you do? Create a group of bloggers that support each other. Find bloggers that are up and coming and you resonate with you. Support each other by commenting on each others’ blog posts every week. You will find that more readers will join into the discussion when you have regular comments.

Guest Post, Please

Guest posting is a popular way to drive traffic to your blog. All you have to do is ask. A-list bloggers and smaller blogs will appreciate you guest posting. It gives their audience a fresh face and content, according to Jon Morrow, associate editor of Copyblogger. Morrow offers classes on guest posting.

When you guest post, you gain readers from an already set up blog that take interest in your content and post. It’s as effective (if not more) compared to ranking in Google. However, if you can have high rank and guest posts, your business is all set!

Doing these three items for your blog will set the ball rolling for you to be an A-list blogger. It takes time and dedication.

What else have you noticed A-list bloggers do?

photo credit: technotheory