When you’ve been blogging a while, you start to get asked the same questions over and over again. Most people want to know how to make money from their blog, but one of the other main questions I get asked a lot is ‘How do you grow your blog’?
Everyone wants more traffic, a bigger audience and more return in some form for the time they invest into their blogs. So I thought I’d share some tips and tricks I’ve learned over the years for growing your blog.
- Write about what you love and keep writing – Being truthful and honest is so important. Now that doesn’t mean you have to share EVERYTHING about your life, but be authentic in the parts you do share. Write about what you love and your passion for the topic will shine through. People can tell the difference between people writing purely for SEO or those writing purely what they think will be a hit post, and those who are genuinely interested and passionate. Don’t lose faith if you don’t get immediate traction. These things take time, so keep improving your skills and most importantly keep going.
- Content is King – You will hear this phrase so much in blogging circles. However, it’s true. Try to make sure your posts are giving something to the reader; either useful information, solving a problem they may have or giving something of yourself away. A post about even the most mundane event, if written with passion and sentiment can be a great post. You have to open yourself up.
- Quantity is Queen – I have just coined this phrase! You need to read this article by Neil Patel, giving details of his blog figures and corresponding number of posts he published. He found the highest rewards gained by posting three times a day! Now let’s not go crazy, but there is no doubt that traffic and amount of content positively correlate.
- Offer value – Give your readers something useful, be someone they can rely on for great, reliable information or inspire them in some way.
- Evergreen content – Evergreen content is content that is always useful or interesting to readers; content that is timeless. My most successful evergreen posts are Blogging: A Full Time Job?, Blogging as Therapy plus all of my blogging tips posts. Creating content like this gives you a constant source of traffic.
- Attractive images – If you’re writing a personal post, then gorgeous images will catch the eye and attract people to your blog and your post. If the post is potentially ‘useful’ then make sure the images are Pinterest friendly! Remember text on the picture, will make people pin it. Why not customise your Pin it button. I have such a fun customised Pin it button over on my other site – themamapreneurrevolution.com.
- Write in a conversational style – Write as if you are talking to a friend, ask questions and build a relationship with your readers. Make them want to come back to your blog again. Dictating your blog posts can be a great way to ‘write’ like you speak!
- Support your readers – What do your readers want to read? Try to fill the demand. I was getting asked a lot of blogging questions, so I started producing content around blogging. It also helps that I am passionate about blogging and love writing about the nuts and bolts of it.
- Write a crowdsourced post – Writing a crowd sourced post, will give you a high chance of retweets and shares, as the people featured will probably share the post for you.
- Pinterest Group Boards – Pinterest is where it’s at. While Tribes are awesome group boards are awesome too. You’re sharing your content into a collaborative board which may have hundreds of thousands of followers…. it’s just simple maths. The more eyes on your pins the better.
- Be original – I admit this is difficult. In a blogosphere which is saturated with blogs, thinking of a totally original idea might prove difficult. I think it’s natural and inevitable that we will repeat each others content and ideas. However, how you deal with the topic will be unique to you and your voice. When I was putting together the Linky List, I hit a stumbling block. After spending hours putting the information together, I stumbled across another blogger who had written a similar post. My first reaction was disappointment, worrying that maybe I shouldn’t post mine. Then, I decided not to waste the effort, I took comfort that mine was arranged differently, in a way that made more sense to me and was more thorough. I posted it and that post has done VERY well for me. It’s mentioned by others on social media regularly with people tweeting others the link. So, it was worth going ahead and being confident in the originality of my take on the idea.
- SEO – This is so important! You need to make sure you are doing your keyword research, then that you are using these keywords properly in your posts. Doing this means your content will be found my those who are using search engines.
- Run Giveaways – Like it or not giveaways will give you a boost in stats. They might not lead to engaged blog readers, but they will help numbers. If you want engaged readers (don’t we all!) then think carefully about the products you are giving away. An iPhone or iPad will attract everyone and ideally you want to attract a particular group of people, those who would be interested in your content.
- Respond to comments – Readers need to feel valued to return to your blog. If they’re always leaving comments on your blog and you give nothing to them, they will probably stop visiting or at least stop leaving comments. You might not think people go back to check whether you have responded (they probably don’t!) BUT the next person who reads your post will see you respond and they will be more likely to leave a comment.
- Focus on the User Experience – Put yourself in the shoes of your readers. If you were to land on your blog for the first time would you know what to do? Where to go? Could you find the most important content? You need to answer these questions honestly and start stripping off the elements which aren’t vital. If you give people too many options on one page, chances are they won’t act on anything at all! Less is often more!
- Give people a reason to sign up – Building your email list is SOOO IMPORTANT. You don’t own your social media followers but you DO own your email list. You need to incentivise them to sign up and join your list.
- Clear social media buttons – Clear social media buttons (please!) make it easy for people to follow you.
- Use sharing buttons – I use Shareaholic (WP Plugin) which puts sharing options at the end of every post. More shares equal more potential views.
- Give away your secrets – I will use my blogging posts as as example. I could keep my blogging tips to myself, but I believe together we are stronger. I like to share the information I have and by giving this information away, I get great views in return and feel I am supporting some of the community.
- Hustle – To grow your blog successfully you need to hustle. That press release you just ignore, should be responded to. Someone offered you a review you didn’t want to do, don’t ignore it. Respond, start a conversation and see where it takes you. Email your PR contacts every so often and just ask if they have any suitable opportunities. I hear people say they don’t want to bother people, but as long as you don’t pester people it is fine. You can guarantee if you aren’t emailing, then someone else is and they’re getting the work!
- Work hard – I mean REALLY hard! To grow at a significant rate, you need to put the hours in. I work on my blog 7 days a week, I write every morning, every evening and in any breaks I get during the day. If we are driving to a day out, I will be working in the passenger seat. A serious amount of graft is required to see results.
- Say yes – In another breath I will advocate saying no to small reviews that take your time. However, when you start blogging, saying yes to smaller giveaways and reviews can get you noticed. Do them well and people will notice you; hopefully they will then lead to bigger opportunities.
- Collaborate with other bloggers/sites – Tap into other bloggers networks by working with them. Collaborate on a linky, a giveaway, start a tribe, make connections.
- Comment comment comment – I mentioned it earlier, but it is so important I have put it in again! Go comment!
- Share other’s work – Sharing other people’s posts is a nice thing to do, but it also means people are more likely to share yours. I never share with the intention of getting something back, but people like to say thank you. Remember together we are stronger.
- Comment/engage on social media – Comment on people’s social networks, leave a nice comment on a IG post, respond on Twitter and Facebook status, get involved and your network will grow. Engagement, builds real relationships.
- Be visible – Blogging is a remote, sometimes solitary experience. However, being visible and present for your readers/following helps to create a community. If you regularly drop off-line for days on end, it will be hard to keep conversations and relationships going.
There you go, my top tips for growing your blog. I hope they help you grow your blog even more. What do you think are important factors in growing your blog?
