Outdoor Blog Marketing 101 - Fill The Parking Lot, part 1

7 July 2007

Outdoor Blog Marketing 101 - Fill The Parking Lot, part 1

Posted by Darrell under: Blogging About The Outdoors .

Fill up the parking lot! In the world of retail, there is a well known tool for bringing customers in the door “Fill up the parking lot”. It has something to do with making your potential customer feel comfortable and secure. No one, except maybe Michael Jackson, wants to be the only person in a store. You feel more comfortable if others are there, too.

An empty parking lot usually stays empty. Put a few cars in front of the door, though, and whalah! you’ll have people start trickling in. I’ve known people to take this to the extreme. Some businesses require that all of their employees park in the spaces directly in front of the store. This seems like a ridiculous idea. However, in a retail environment it has been proven to work. People like entering a ‘busy’ store.

I once knew a guy that bought a bunch of used cars and parked them around the front of his store. This idea wasn’t the best, though, because the kind of car you can afford to buy to just have ’sitting’ around doesn’t do much to make your potential customers feel ’safe’.

So, what is my point? What does parking in front of the store have to do with your blog? The point is simply to ‘Make your visitor feel comfortable’. Make them feel safe and comfortable entering your site and digging a little deeper.

How? How do you park out front and fill up the parking lot?

One way is to have comments on your blog. Comments by other vistors will make your newest visitors feel comfortable and might even encourage them to comment. Think about it for a minute. When you visit a new blog, do you feel comfortable when you see that others have commented on whatever post you are are reading? At the minimum, you have to appreciate that the blog actually allows comments!

You are probably now thinking “What a waste of my time. I wish I hadn’t even bothered reading this piece of *%@# post! Parking cars, for heavens sake! And, to top it all off, I’m supposed to get comments! I have no control of other people commenting on my blog!”

Wrong, wrong, and wrong again. This is IMPORTANT. Fill up your parking lot and make your visitors feel comfortable. Get comments. You are in TOTAL control of this. Still don’t believe me? Take a look at the Gunslinger blog. Don’t forget to come back and finish reading this post, though. Its important!

Almost every post on the gunslinger blog has comments from visitors! Why? Having decent content and well written informative posts definitely doesn’t hurt anything (but that is another subject for another time), but the reason Kristine receives so many comments is because she does a great job of leaving comments. Kristine obviously allots time each day (I’d love to know how much) to browse the blogs of her fellow outdoor bloggers and she comments on what she reads. Quite simple - yet highly effective!

You probably read posts on several blogs each day, too. Why not take 20 extra seconds and leave a comment? That comment allows the site owner to know that you were there (knowing someone is reading what you write is a big encouragement) and chances are that when he or she next visits your site - a comment will be left.

Besides the obvious benefits of building a relationship between bloggers and creating a strong community of sites via links, those comments help make new visitors to your blog (especially the ones that are hopefully arriving via organic search results) who don’t know anything about you or your blog feel comfortable on your site. You’ve filled up your parking lot by helping fill the parking lot of your fellow outdoor bloggers!

There are other ways, too, that your virtual parking lot can be filled up and I’ll talk about them soon. AND, don’t forget, let me know what you think about this post - Comment!

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8 Comments so far...

Othmar Vohringer Says:

7 July 2007 at 8:30 am.

Good post Darrell. I like the analogy of a superstore parking lot. As you said in your article, this is true for a blog too. In my opinion is it also important that the blogger replies to the comments made by visitors. A reply to the comments strengthens the bond between reader and writer and makes the reader feel appreciated.

Looking forward to your next “Blog Marketing” article

-Othmar Vohringer-

Moose Says:

7 July 2007 at 8:43 pm.

Personally I avoid crowded stores if I can. Your lack of comments maybe as simple as people may not realize they can leave comments. Your comment link is just a small dot and nothing that tells the reader that you can leave a comment. By simple adding the word comment next to the link it might help. Interesting Post.
-Moose-

Kristine Shreve Says:

8 July 2007 at 12:32 pm.

Darrell,

Great post (and not just because you mentioned me). I’ve always firmly believed that the way to get support is to support others. You have to offer the support genuinely though, not just as a means of getting what you want. I comment on other blogs when I find things that are interesting or well written, or which pique my curiousity. I always want to know more, and the only way to know is to ask.

As for how long it takes, that depends. I usually spend a couple hours a day, in bits and pieces. I also try to make sure that I leave substantive comments. Anyone can go to a blog and leave a comment like “Nice Post!” but that’s not much help. I’m much more interested in discussions.

I would also agree with Othmar that replying to those who comment is a big part of the equation. Part of making people feel welcome is acknowledging that they’ve visited. Plus, your comment could spark a return comment.

Darrell Says:

9 July 2007 at 10:42 am.

Othmar & Kristine, I appreciate your mention of replying to comments. I’ve been amiss at doing this, but agree that it is important and can help spark discussion or maybe even a debate (which isn’t a bad thing).

Moose, thanks for the suggestion of adding the word ‘comment’ next to the link. It is amazing how something seemingly obvious is often overlooked. I APPRECIATE that you pointed it out. I understand wanting to ‘avoid’ crowded stores. But, in a retail environment crowds often create a frenzy which helps fill the cash register. I, too, run away fast when a store is too crowded. However, my wife will wade right in without hesitation!