Blogging can open you up to a whole new world of income and reputation online. However, none of that can happen until you start building your readership. A blog is never an effective tool if there aren’t any people reading what you have to say. It’s important to choose your topic wisely and write great content, but it’s just as important to promote your blog to get the readers that you need.
1. Make sure your blog is ready.
Before you start promoting your blog, you need to make sure that it’s ready. Be sure your template looks professional. Fill the sidebars with important information. Make sure that your links are all working properly. Create an about page, a privacy policy page and other important pages that relate to your blog’s purpose. Create several posts in the major categories of your blog so your blog appears to be active. People are more likely to comment and subscribe if there is a lot of content there for them to interact with.
2. Write insightful comments on related blogs.
It’s important to comment on other people’s blogs, but it’s even more important to make sure that those comments are worthwhile and insightful. Posting “great blog, I see your point” is completely worthless. It’s not going to attract the attention of the host blogger and it’s not going to attract attention of other commentators.
3. Use Twitter and Facebook effectively
These social networking platforms are wildly popular and can put you in touch with people in your niche. However, there is a right way and a wrong way to use Twitter and Facebook. The wrong way is to only post when you have a new blog post. There’s no point in using these platforms if you aren’t going to really interact. Both Twitter and Facebook users have a low tolerance for overly promotional material. Be sure to balance your updates with questions, information about you and general friendly behavior.
4. Write your blog titles for search engines AND people.
Search engine traffic is a good way to get traffic for your blog, but you’ll only build your readership if you keep your reader in mind. People are more likely to click on a link or share a story if the title is something that they find interesting. For example, this post could be called “5 Steps to Promote Your Blog” but that title is kind of bland. The title I used shows why there is a benefit to promoting your blog.
5. Create a community on your blog.
People are more likely to come back to your blog if they feel welcome and feel like they are part of a community. Besides encouraging your readers to leave comments, you can respond to comments, run contests, offer free courses from your blog….all of these things can be combined together in order to make your blog more welcoming and more community oriented.
What are some of the most effective techniques you’ve found for increasing the readership of your blog?
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