Wednesday, December 17, 2008

How to Grow the Group?

I have been wondering what I can do to increase the number of people who come and read my blog and leave comments and questions. I would greatly enjoy and benefit from more views and discussions and studies.

What is a good way to bring more people together to discuss things of a spiritual nature on a blog?

Thus far there are two people who I constantly communicate with through my blog and theirs. The way I connected with these two is through searching out their blogs and leaving comments, which opened up a dialogue.

The problem I've run into is that it is hard to find the blogs of sincere Christians out there who are seeking God's truth through His word, rather than simply defending their own beliefs. Is it that there are so few people out there who have blogs and who have a mind kept open to learning from the Bible?

I thank God for you two, Deb and "Author" (by the way, what is your name?). You two are my efellowship, and I love it. I hope the group can grow, both in number and in knowledge. :-)

God bless you and keep you!

6 comments:

  1. There is no shortcut to building traffic, though I can share some tips I have learned. It can be very time-consuming. Right now I have some time on my hands, so I can do it.

    Basically, I look for bloggers and post comments when appropriate on their blogs. I learn by trial and error what is most effective.

    I use Google search, select "More..." link at the top to get a blog search, and then fill in the blanks. Generally, I restrict my search to the domain blogspot.com to only get blogger blogs because my blogger id makes it easy to post in a way that makes it easy for the other blogger to find my blog. I select recent blogs by date. Then I enter various keywords that will help me find relevant posts, such as "sabbath", "Bible", etc. I look for blogs with posts I can comment on, then I post my comments to some of them. Only occasionally does one of them result in traffic to my site.

    If I had money for advertising, I could spend money to build traffic. But that can be expensive, and I cannot afford it now. Google offers pay-per-click search advertising. You can run ads and only pay when someone clicks on your ad to go to your blog (or website - this is not a blogger service but a Google service anyone can use to advertise any sites - mostly it is used by business to advertise business sites). Typical click rates might be 50 cents, though it varies. So if I had money to burn, I could post a posting to my blog on the Sabbath, then run an ad that says "The Sabbath - is it still in force for Christians?" When someone searches Google for the term "Sabbath", they will see my ad, and if they click on it, I pay fifty cents and they go to my posting in my blog on the Sabbath. So for maybe ten dollars I can get maybe 20 people to see my post on the Sabbath (who are searching on the word "Sabbath" anyway, so they must be interested in that subject). I never tried that with blogs, but it would probably work. But I can't afford to spend money that way. So I spend my time instead.

    I have published a book called Preaching the Gospel. This book is for the general public but also for some people in my Church, and there are reasons why some in that Church have been suspicious of members who may seem to be building a following for themselves at the expense of others. These suspicions towards others are often warranted because some have done just that. One of the reasons I publish my book anonymously, using just my email identity as author@ptgbook.org, is that I want to try to head off suspicion that I am doing this for personal gain. I do not want this to be a stumbling block for some that would hurt the credibility of my book. I want them to read and evaluate my book on its own merits, checking the scriptural references and believing what the Bible says, not what I or any man says. My name would not mean anything to anyone anyway. With some people in that Church (not all), there has been too much of a focus sometimes on personalities and not enough on the Bible. Also, I put my book in the public domain, not copyrighted, to help make clear I have nothing to sell.

    Anyway, this is part of the reason I prefer to just be "author".

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  2. I applaud your effort to keep attention away from yourself and direct it simply to the message you put forth in your book. I can understand why you use simply "author" now.

    You know, I have used the same method of searching for blogs on google to try to create a network of Christians seeking truth through study. It is indeed long and tedious sometimes, as it seems there are 1,000 blogs against truth for every 1 blog for it. But every once in a while I find a diamond while searching.

    Thank you for taking the time to share your tips on growing the group.

    God bless you and keep you

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  3. I will tell you a few things that I have decided concerning this issue. First of all, I keep reminding myself that the reason I have my blogs is not to convince others or attract them to believe just the way I do but to simply report what God is showing me each day. I am not saying everyone's blog is for this purpose or should be. But that is how I come to it. I am leaving it up to God to guide people to whatever I post as He sees fit. He is very capable of using whatever He has shared with me for someone else without even me knowing it or getting involved.
    Of course I too wish that I could connect more with people who are open-minded and wanting to search the Bible for truth without hidden agendas or preconceived assumptions. But again I have to leave that up to God to arrange.
    I will say that I have found a number of very inspiring blogs some of which I follow very regularly. I find many of them by following the links from the ones that I enjoy or happen across and the networks become very large very quickly. I then sort through them as I have time and bookmark the ones that feel compelling for me personally and sometimes even put them as links from my own blogs.
    As for trying to get more traffic, while part of me desires that alot, another part of me senses that maybe it feeds my pride and that is not necessarily a healthy thing. So when the hits seem to dry up I remember that my first priority is enjoying the presence and personal tutoring of the angels and the Spirit and then simply making available what I am learning for God to use however and whenever He chooses. I keep my focus on deepening my intimacy with God and the satisfaction I receive is ever deepening.

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  4. Clay Feet, (is that a reference to the image in Daniel?)

    Thank you for the comments, I can relate to a lot of what you're saying. It is definitely wise for us to keep on the lookout for pride, as you said, when examining our reasons for wanting to bring more people into our studies.

    I have found one of the most effective tools for gathering people to study with is prayer.

    One day, I prayed for God to send people to my blog for fellowship, within 10 minutes someone posted a comment and we continue to comment back and forth still!

    God is great, my friend. Thank you again for stopping by, I hope we can continue to dialogue!

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  5. It takes time to build up a following, and what has worked best for me is leaving comments on like-minded blogs as a means of initiating a conversation.

    I agree with Clay that we have to be careful of pride. I have other blogs which I've put more time and effort into; on good days my spirits soar, when hits are low I can get down in the dumps, even think of shutting down my blog. This is pride, pure and simple.

    Then . . . out of the blue someone writes me and thanks me for writing truth, and tells me how much my words have helped, and I remember, "Oh yeah, God made me a writer. I shouldn't concern myself with numbers. One soul is priceless."

    This reminds me of King David: wasn't he the one who numbered his people when God told him not to?

    Anyway, I think that if you write truth you will draw some who desire truth (like attracts like.) They may be few in number, but hasn't it always been that way when one has integrity and speaks the truth about life and about their own stumble-bum ways--and most of all, about God?

    I love your blog myself; I was so excited to receive your first comment! It amazed me that you are an Adventist but never put me down for having left the church. See, you've already influenced one person for good, and probably more than you realize.

    One other thing I've learned through blogging is that many will visit my blog, and never comment. Or they may visit for half a year and then finally leave a comment letting me know how long they've been reading me.

    Feedback, I need feedback people!

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  6. Deb, thank you so much for the encouraging words, you have no idea how much it lifted my spirit to hear you say that I've influenced for good. I love having you to fellowship with! You are a blessing (and an answer to my prayer, like 5 minutes after I prayed!)

    As you can see I started posted some Bible studies that I went through when I became a Christian 4 years ago, I hope they will help someone.

    You're right, true Christians will always be few in numbers. I guess that's why I so treasure the few I'm able to fellowship with.

    Was it David? I know what you're talking about but I'm not sure who it was either LOL. Another reason to get back into my Bible! ;-p

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