Everyone wants to know how to get more readers for their blog, myself included.

Because, after all, if you’re not reading my blog, you’re missing out!

Right?

Recently, I realized that I have some pretty committed readers, though they may be small in number. And maybe, just maybe, I should focus on interacting with them before I go out and worry about everyone else who isn’t reading my blog.

This goes along with a marketing principle I once learned: it’s far less expensive to keep a current customer than to gain a new customer.

Now, I’m not spending a whole lot of money to get readers. But time…time IS money, especially in my world.

Here are some of my tips:

• Make sure you are interacting with the readers you already have. Respond to their comments, invite them to leave comments, engage them.
• Interact with other people’s blogs. Leave comments. Link to them. Share the love.
• Get known for something. Maybe you have a great conversion story or a unique perspective on something. Differentiate yourself.

Also, I say this a lot to people who ask me about blogging, but you need to be reading blogs. What works for other people? How can you make it work for you?

What tips do you have? Or what questions do you have about gaining readership?

Sarah Reinhard, author of Welcome Baby Jesus: Advent & Christmas Reflections for Families, is a Catholic wife, mom, and certifiably addicted blogger who can be found online at SnoringScholar.com.

At the Catholic Writers Conference Online, I led a chat called “Beyond the Blog.” It was great fun, and the discussion turned to how someone would know if they should or should not blog.

It seems that all writers think they must blog. After quite a few years as a blogger, I disagree. Loudly. Often. With a list in hand.

Blogging can take a lot of time. It can be tiresome. It can drag you down.

These are all reasons why I advise people (including writers) to discern carefully–and often, if you are blogging already–about whether it’s worth the investment.

In that chat a few weeks ago, someone asked me how they would know if they should blog or not. I started listing some of the indicators that would signal, to me, that blogging was a no-go. I’ll share them here, and invite you to add to them in the com-box.

1. You will get so obsessed you lose sight of your primary vocation.

2. You will not have ANY TIME for your regular writing.

3. You have NO INTEREST in it.

4. You will embarrass your family, yourself, or people you love (perhaps by sharing stories that you shouldn’t).

5. You feel like you can only do one thing well, and blogging ain’t it.

6. You don’t write well without an editor or editing help. (Maybe a group blog would be a better choice for you, or one where there is someone to guide your writing a bit.)

7. You will not be able to keep other commitments.

8. You can’t juggle things, such as the interactions that are part of the blogging realm.

9. You can’t keep up your own commitment to the blog

10. You will end up quitting