In every bloggers life comes a special day – the day they first launch a new blog. Now unless you went out and purchased someone else’s blog chances are your blog launched with only one very loyal reader – you. Maybe a few days later you received a few hits when you told your sister, father, girlfriend and best friend about your new blog but that’s about as far as you went when it comes to finding readers.Here are the top 10 techniques new bloggers can use to find readers.
These are tips specifically for new bloggers, those people who have next-to-no audience at the moment and want to get the ball rolling.
It helps if you work on this list from top to bottom as each technique builds on the previous step to help you create momentum. Eventually once you establish enough momentum you gain what is called “traction”, which is a large enough audience base (about 500 readers a day is good) that you no longer have to work too hard on finding new readers. Instead your current loyal readers do the work for you through word of mouth.Top 10 Tips
10. Write at least five major “pillar” articles. A pillar article is usually a tutorial style article aimed to teach your audience something. Generally they are longer than 500 words and have lots of very practical tips or advice. This article you are currently reading could be considered a pillar article since it is very practical and a good “how-to” lesson. This style of article has long term appeal, stays current (it isn’t news or time dependent) and offers real value and insight. The more pillars you have on your blog the better.
9. Write one new blog post per day minimum. Not every post has to be a pillar, but you should work on getting those five pillars done at the same time as you keep your blog fresh with a daily news or short article style post. The important thing here is to demonstrate to first time visitors that your blog is updated all the time so they feel that if they come back tomorrow they will likely find something new. This causes them to bookmark your site or subscribe to your blog feed.
You don’t have to produce one post per day all the time but it is important you do when your blog is brand new. Once you get traction you still need to keep the fresh content coming but your loyal audience will be more forgiving if you slow down to a few per week instead. The first few months are critical so the more content you can produce at this time the better.
8. Use a proper domain name. If you are serious about blogging be serious about what you call your blog. In order for people to easily spread the word about your blog you need an easily rememberable domain name. People often talk about blogs they like when they are speaking to friends in the real world (that’s the offline world, you remember that place right?) so you need to make it easy for them to spread the word and pass on your URL. Try and get a .com if you can and focus on small easy to remember domains rather than worry about having the correct keywords (of course if you can get great keywords and easy to remember then you’ve done a good job!).
7. Start commenting on other blogs. Once you have your pillar articles and your daily fresh smaller articles your blog is ready to be exposed to the world. One of the best ways to find the right type of reader for your blog is to comment on other people’s blogs. You should aim to comment on blogs focused on a similar niche topic to yours since the readers there will be more likely to be interested in your blog.
Most blog commenting systems allow you to have your name/title linked to your blog when you leave a comment. This is how people find your blog. If you are a prolific commentor and always have something valuable to say then people will be interested to read more of your work and hence click through to visit your blog.
6. Trackback and link to other blogs in your blog posts. A trackback is sort of like a blog conversation. When you write a new article to your blog and it links or references another blogger’s article you can do a trackback to their entry. What this does is leave a truncated summary of your blog post on their blog entry – it’s sort of like your blog telling someone else’s blog that you wrote an article mentioning them. Trackbacks often appear like comments.
This is a good technique because like leaving comments a trackback leaves a link from another blog back to yours for readers to follow, but it also does something very important – it gets the attention of another blogger. The other blogger will come and read your post eager to see what you wrote about them. They may then become a loyal reader of yours or at least monitor you and if you are lucky some time down the road they may do a post linking to your blog bringing in more new readers.
5. Encourage comments on your own blog. One of the most powerful ways to convince someone to become a loyal reader is to show there are other loyal readers already following your work. If they see people commenting on your blog then they infer that your content must be good since you have readers so they should stick around and see what all the fuss is about. To encourage comments you can simply pose a question in a blog post. Be sure to always respond to comments as well so you can keep the conversation going.
4. Submit your latest pillar article to a blog carnival. A blog carnival is a post in a blog that summarizes a collection of articles from many different blogs on a specific topic. The idea is to collect some of the best content on a topic in a given week. Often many other blogs link back to a carnival host and as such the people that have articles featured in the carnival enjoy a spike in new readers.
To find the right blog carnival for your blog, do a search at http://blogcarnival.com/.
3. Submit your blog to blogtopsites.com. To be honest this tip is not going to bring in a flood of new readers but it’s so easy to do and only takes five minutes so it’s worth the effort. Go to Blog Top Sites, find the appropriate category for your blog and submit it. You have to copy and paste a couple of lines of code on to your blog so you can rank and then sit back and watch the traffic come in. You will probably only get 1-10 incoming readers per day with this technique but over time it can build up as you climb the rankings. It all helps!
2. Submit your articles to EzineArticles.com. This is another tip that doesn’t bring in hundreds of new visitors immediately (although it can if you keep doing it) but it’s worthwhile because you simply leverage what you already have – your pillar articles. Once a week or so take one of your pillar articles and submit it to Ezine Articles. Your article then becomes available to other people who can republish your article on their website or in their newsletter.
How you benefit is through what is called your “Resource Box”. You create your own resource box which is like a signature file where you include one to two sentences and link back to your website (or blog in this case). Anyone who publishes your article has to include your resource box so you get incoming links. If someone with a large newsletter publishes your article you can get a lot of new readers at once.
1. Write more pillar articles. Everything you do above will help you to find blog readers however all of the techniques I’ve listed only work when you have strong pillars in place. Without them if you do everything above you may bring in readers but they won’t stay or bother to come back. Aim for one solid pillar article per week and by the end of the year you will have a database of over 50 fantastic feature articles that will work hard for you to bring in more and more readers.
This article was by Yaro Starak, a professional blogger and my blog mentor. He is the leader of the Blog Mastermind mentoring program designed to teach bloggers how to earn a full time income blogging part time.To get more information about Blog Mastermind click this link:
http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com/go.php?offer=lindagc&pid=1
March 9th, 2010 at 7:37 pm
Some really strategic blogging ideas here that go a long way for you and as always something to duplicate for massive exposure and success
.-= Andrew Gallagher´s last blog ..Building Large Downlines: How to Massively Increase Your Working efforts =-.
March 9th, 2010 at 7:59 pm
Thank you Andrew! Coming from you that is a true compliment! I know how much you know!
March 10th, 2010 at 8:11 pm
Hi Linda. First time reader and have been very impressed by your blog! I am a big fan of Yaro as well. Katie Freiling introduced me to him last summer. This is great information to share with everyone and anyone interested in becoming a relevant blogger.
Thanks for your efforts here, Linda. Keep up the great work.
Chip
.-= Chip Wilson´s last blog ..Social Syndication – Leveraging Tribes and Human Psychology to Build Your Online Business =-.
March 10th, 2010 at 9:27 pm
Thank you Chip! I’m a great fan of Katie too! Thank you for visiting my blog!
March 11th, 2010 at 5:37 pm
I wanted to thank you for this excellent read!! I surely enjoyed every single small little bit of it. I’ve you bookmarked your site to check out the new stuff you post.
March 13th, 2010 at 3:54 pm
Howdie Angela! The law of attraction at work! I’m glad you’re here! When you come back, check out http://lindagraceonline.com/get-the-focus-on-you/ and get a Gravatar! Then we’ll all be able to see who you are!!
March 11th, 2010 at 6:30 pm
Hey! I found your site by mistake. I was looking in Google for PDF software that I had already purchased when I came upon your site, I must say your site is pretty cool I just love the theme, its amazing!. I don’t have the time this minute to fully read your site but I have bookmarked it and also signed up for your RSS feed. I’ll back in a day or two. thanks for a awesome site.
March 13th, 2010 at 3:51 pm
Hey Carmela! I’m glad you happened on my blog! I’m glad you’ll be back, next time check out http://lindagraceonline.com/get-the-focus-on-you/ and get a Gravatar! Then we’ll all be able to see who you are!!
March 24th, 2010 at 9:12 pm
For just looking for like minded people I pulled a needle out of the haystack!! I do have a blog but toil with even the small things like populating the darn thing, a friend help me and it is somewhat different than WP. I have written a few articles that “I” thought had merit as that was the only way I can stay on task, lol. NIce meeting you and Im sure I will be returning to pick up all the nuggets I see laying around. THANKS and glad to know you
March 25th, 2010 at 3:13 pm
Thanks Rick! I know you know how to get a gravatar, and I know who you are and what you look like~ so let everyone else know~ connect your picture to the email you left with this comment! I’ll refresh your memory! Go to: http://lindagraceonline.com/get-the-focus-on-you/
March 25th, 2010 at 3:50 pm
Hi Linda,
As a new Blogger this a post that gave me great information that I can use. I will print it out and keep it handy!. Thanks so much.
March 25th, 2010 at 10:21 pm
Thank you for visiting my blog! Yaro Starak is a gifted entrepreneur! He has given me permission to post this fabulous paper on my blog. Did you get his book Blog Profits Blueprint? If not, you can get it here: http://lindagraceonline.com/the-journey/
March 27th, 2010 at 1:17 pm
I keep forgetting that I can submit to ezine. Gotta do that one. Thanks
.-= Bill Cowan´s last blog ..Motivational Tip #3 Dare To Dream =-.
March 28th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
We both need to!
March 31st, 2010 at 3:16 am
Fairly interesting post. Couldn’t be written much better. Browsing this post reminds me of my old friend. She always kept talking about this. I will forward this post and I’m pretty sure it will be a good read for ‘em. Thanks for sharing!
April 9th, 2010 at 5:41 pm
Hi Linda,
Another great article, and one that I need as a newbie blogger. I still need to post more often, but I’m making a schedule of topics to cover. Thanks for the tips on blog carnivals and submitting to blogtopsites – I hadn’t heard of them.
Take care,
Larry
.-= Larry Akers´s last blog ..Does Hypnosis Work For IBS? =-.
May 13th, 2010 at 2:42 am
Hi Linda,
This is a great reference list for new bloggers and a few handy hits or reminders for even the most advanced bloggers
Cheers,
Lynn
.-= Lynn Glaser´s last blog ..Tribe Concept Teaser – Here’s What Can Be Achieved =-.
August 17th, 2011 at 9:59 am
Increasing blog traffic is a common objective for many. This is more often than not taken as a sign you are a good blogger. However, it’s also critical to consider and think about is that the best blog sites are the ones that develop reader loyalty. Loyalty can be derived from how well the site is managed in terms of content and creating a sense of community.
August 22nd, 2011 at 9:00 pm
I agree Jeff,
I’m just learning GoogleAdSense connection to my Analytics so I can see what my readers are interested in! I started blogging over two years ago, and it took me this long to narrow down my niche!
Linda
October 4th, 2011 at 6:41 am
Hi Linda,
I must really thank you for this wonderful article you’ve posted up. A lot of us are still learning the ropes and tips like these is such a big help. I think most of us would be lost if it weren’t for articles that are available on the internet such as yours.
Cheers!
Amanda recently posted..Italian Language Lessons Made Easy
October 5th, 2011 at 1:11 pm
Amanda,
I learned the same way! My first mentors were Jodie Thompson and Kimberly Castleberry!
Linda
November 8th, 2011 at 5:15 pm
Thanks for these traffic tips!
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November 18th, 2011 at 4:32 am
I love these tips!
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January 16th, 2012 at 9:18 am
Have you ever considered writing an ebook or guest authoring on other websites? I have a blog centered on the same information you discuss and would love to have you share some stories/information. I know my audience would enjoy your work. If you’re even remotely interested, feel free to send me an e mail.
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January 16th, 2012 at 10:02 am
Lacey,
I appreciate the offer! Unfortunately I have too many things going on right now that I can’t even think of adding more!
Linda
January 17th, 2012 at 7:23 pm
Hey there! Would you mind if I share your blog with my myspace group? There’s a lot of people that I think would really appreciate your content. Please let me know. Cheers
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January 18th, 2012 at 5:16 pm
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January 29th, 2012 at 5:35 pm
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February 3rd, 2012 at 4:40 pm
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