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This is the second part of a series of guides on how to succeed with blogging. This guide was written by the team at FastWebHost.com who have helped thousands of blogs setup and achieve success over the last 10 years.
How to Grow your Blog Readership
In part 1 of this series (link) we’ve covered how to build your blog, and how to create pages and posts. Today we’ll show you how you can get more people to start reading those posts and pages on a regular basis.
There are 2 general ways to grow your readership - the organic or natural approach where people find your blog, and the paid approach where you pay someone to help them find your blog. We’ll go over both.
The Natural Way
Search Traffic
Quick! You need to learn to fold a shirt the fastest way. What do you do? You googled it didn’t you? Some of you also searched for it on youtube, but most of you googled it.
Search is the core of the internet. Anytime someone wants to learn something new, it starts with a search. So if you’d like to be known for something, you need to make sure you’re showing up in searches.
We call this optimizing for SEO, and we’ve got a lot of resources on this here: https://www.fastwebhost.com/tutorials/cat/search-engine-optimization/
Word of Mouth
The other natural ways for people to find out about you is if someone told them about it. That’s the social aspect of blogging, or word of mouth.
So how do you get more word of mouth traffic? Get on social media. People are already on social media, and they will see it. Your current readers and followers will see the update on their news feeds and click to come to your blog. Some will share the post with their own personal networks.
To get shares you have to do more than just post the link in a status update though. Each platform is different, so you’ll need to optimize your post for each.
For example, we’ve found the most effective way to share on Facebook is with a commentary or a related thought that brings people in and makes them want to learn more. On Pinterest a more descriptive image and tags are far more important.
Be Interesting
Now in order for people to share your content and show it to their friends it has to be one thing above all else: I-N-T-E-R-E-S-T-I-N-G
There are 3 ways to achieve that in a blog.
Exciting Titles and Feature Images
The title is the first thing people see and yes we do judge a blog post by it’s title. A boring title means no one will click it to read the whole thing, while an exciting title will. The same applies to your feature image - the one that shows up in your archives and your social media shares.
Here’s a great example:
See that? Great title and great image. The number of social shares in the corner is an added boost.
The title is the last thing you should write. Finish the entire post, then come back to write a title. Think about how you can make it more engaging so the readers are compelled to click.
Be Useful
Interesting content gets shared more often, but the most shares come from practically useful content.
It makes sense. The latest celebrity gossip is fun and all, but if you’re going to take the effort to share something it’s likely to be something that others in your network will find useful.
So how do you become more useful?
- Give people an exact solution to a problem, not 50 different things they might try
- Give detailed actionable steps they can follow, and stay away from theoretical stuff (unless theory is the point of your blog)
- Provide lots of examples and case studies to prove your points
- Show exact numbers wherever possible. Lose 20 pounds in 60 days, not lose weight fast.
Exciting People
Again, people are reading your blog because they care about what you think. Now some people don’t care about what you think, but what if someone they cared about did? Or what if you were writing about someone they cared about.
Here are some ways to get exciting people on your blog.
- Interview someone important in your field, which is what Mixergy does for small businesses
- Guest blog on a different bloggers site, such as George Minton’s article on Photododo
- Analyze something someone famous said or did
When Elon Musk said he was reading Twelve Against the Gods, it sold out on amazon within a day, and prices of used books jumped up from $.99 to $99.99. Clearly, we care about what important people think. This presents a great opportunity for you to get in on the action and drive traffic to your blog.
Exciting perspectives
Everyone’s already written everything about the latest iPhone, and the latest Elon Musk book. Adding your voice to the noise is just that - noise.
If you’d like to stand out you need to say something no one else is saying. Take a unique stand on an issue, or voice your opinions differently.
Have a unique way of saying things. For example Oliver Emberton likes illustrating his points, while Mark Manson enjoys swearing at them, and David Wong mostly makes fun of them.
The important thing is to have a solid stand on a topic that people care about, and expressing it with style and force.
The Paid Way
The Paid way of getting traffic is easy. Post to social media and boost your posts. Add to a content aggregator and pay them to spread it around.
The trouble is, you might get some readers this way, but you won’t keep them for very long. And if you can’t hang on to them then what’s the point?
That’s why you need to start getting readers the natural way, and only use the paid way to amplify your reach.
Back to Work
And now you know how to write better blog posts and get more regular readers. Now it’s time to get back to writing again.
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Next up on the How to Succeed with Blogging series: How to make money from your blog.
