Is your blog xenodochial?

Over the course of this past month, if you’ve been participating in the A-Z Challenge in particular, you’ve likely gained some new followers, maybe lost a few (hopefully not, though!), and perhaps made some new bloggy friends.

But what if you haven’t?

In the unlikely event that you haven’t seen an increase in traffic to your blog (not always characterized by comments, as it seems participants for the A-Z Challenge have a bit of blog fatigue these days… but that doesn’t mean they’re not reading your posts), you may want to consider whether your blog is, in fact, xenodochial.

Which means what, exactly?

Someone who is xenodochial is kindly or hospitable to strangers. Ah! Now it makes sense.

A few things to consider:

• Does your blogger profile link back to your blog, so bloggers can click through your comment and return the favor?
• Does your blog use those horrible surprise captchas? (I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve commented and clicked away, only to see the surprise captcha pop up as the page closed…)
• Do you comment back on your own posts? (I know, I’ve been horrible at this lately… but at minimum, responding to questions is the polite thing to do!)
• Do your posts contain a balance of personal information and practical information? It’s all well and good to post WIP updates, but if that’s all your posts consist of, you may find yourself losing readers.
• Do your posts invite response? Asking a question or making a final, summative statement prompts new visitors to interact with you… and if they feel comfortable commenting, they’re likely to return.

Just a few quick little things can help make your blog more xenodochial—which is always a good thing. You want people to stick around!

I know there are other things you can do to invite readers into your little bloggy world… what would you add to this list?