10+ Ways to Build Audience for Your Blog
The very idea of a blog is that, there is someone in the world listening to what you say. It is a medium to express ones thoughts, ideas and feelings. Having someone to read is as important as having something to read. Building loyal audience is an important job for any publisher.
Here are some practical ways in which you can drive huge traffic into your blog and build a sound reader base. But before you start, make sure that you have both Feed subscription and Email subscription options ready for a reader and make sure that your blog is presentable.
#1. Blog for Your Readers not Money
Time is the leading reason that blogs don’t grow to their full potential. You need to be able to be in it for the long-term, not to quickly generate an income from. If you write posts that people enjoy reading, they will reward you by returning to your blog regularly and become your loyal readers.
#2. Target the Right Crowd
If you look at your analytics and demographics, make sure that your visitors are coming from the “target” area – a group of people who have their own blogs or websites – who will likely spread word about your site, linking to it and sharing your resource to their readers.
#3. Social Networking and Social Bookmarking Sites
Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Social bookmarking sites like Digg can bring a massive traffic. These are places where publishers are readers meet and that’s where the big fishes are. Get active in there are get good inflow.
#4. Guest Posts
Writing guest posts increases credibility and drives readers. Most popular blogs invite guest writers to write on topics related to their main content. The host blog gives full credit to you for the content, along with a link to your blog. So you will get a high PR backlink, more credibility as a publisher, and valuable readers.
#5. Read and Comment on Popular blogs
Commenting on other blog draws the attention of other readers along with building a rapport with the publisher. Some blogs have top commentator widget which gives do-follow links. But never comment for the sake of commenting. Give useful and logical comments when needed and get all the three advantages (readers, backlinks and rapport).
#6. Stay Informed
Subscribe to several relevant RSS feeds and Email subscription on your topic. When news happens, break it on your blog. This has the added advantage of making your blog more searchable and you’ll have a better chance of attracting an audience if you cover topics that are consistently on the cusp of what’s happening. Another tool I would recommend is to use Google Trends.
#7. Participate in Forums
Reply to forums and include a link to your blog with every reply. You can also show off your old posts (Not links alone) in active forums and get good feedback.
#8. Blog Sharing and Interest Groups
There are many Yahoo and Google groups that share blogs. Besides submitting your blog to such groups, send full length previously published posts to them. Include a link to the original content at the end of the mail (ex. Source: http//themelib.com/). If the reader finds the mail useful he will definitely check the link and join the email subscription. Do not forward links alone or partial content as they might violate the group ethics.
#9. Popularize a List of Your Favorite Posts
Create a list of your popular and favorite posts and publish it as a new post. Now share this post on Social networking sites, book marking sites and forums. This can attract readers of various interests and bring in all kinds of traffic.
#10. Personal Invitations
It is not difficult to find out people who might be interested in your blog. You might meet them at work, or at school or even while you travel. Include your blog in your card; they will definitely check it out.
Conclusion
Traffic and readership grows in an exponential scale. It might be hard to get readers at the start, but as your blog grows popular they will start coming in groups. Deliver quality content regularly and the flow will never stop.
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great post, thanks for the tips, right now I am trying to participate in more forums and I’ve emailed a few people on guest posts.
i only post some freebies news to my weblog reader.comment on other blog or forum are quite less for me.
Great post! I have had a lot of success with a lot of those tips. My favorites are finding good blogs (like this one
) to comment on, joining communities with message boards, and social bookmarking. I would like to hear more about the social bookmarking though. I have never really been able to get as a much as others do out of it.
Speaking of the right crowd, blogging about something too specific would tend to limit your audience. But if you blog about a very broad range of topics, readers won’t know what to expect from your blog they wont waste time reading everyting you write.
I never thought about the Google Trend idea. I also have to start getting business cards so people I meet will remember to check out my site.
These are great tips my friend and I am using some of them already, but I have not heard of Google Trends and I will check that one out. I appreciate your hard word in finding this info to relay to all of us. I do not take it for granted. Already looking forward to your next post!
Friends 4 Life!
I never thought to use Yahoo and Google group to build audience. Maybe I’ll give it a try.
Hi,
The Google trend thing is new to me, thanks for mentioning that. I will have to do some homework on that.
I don’t post a lot on forums at all, it’s not my kind of thing. I am a moderator at One Theme though, I kind of help out where I can as I’m using their theme.
The personal invitation is a big thing for me, I spread the word as much as possible to others. My family do not usually use the net a lot, but I am trying to encourage them to use it more. I have just gotten my brother to post a bit on my blog hoping he will do it more. They take baby steps when it comes to the net.
Thanks for the great tips.
great post and thanks for your 10 Tipps
Nice,I get some Idea,I am a new blogger,this post really help me out…thanks.
Nice post. But It’s too hard to do all 10 ways.
If a newbie saw this list, he’s probably die. I mean, you can’t just start out with everything, you have to focus on one thing, master it, then move on….
Correct. One should concentrate on one factor at start and then move on
For #5… Can you recommend some good forums? I only know about a few really popular ones like digitalpoint. What are some others you would participate in?
Google for, “PR Forum List” and you will get what you need
We should focus on link building apart from the above mentioned points… Content is the king but but for that content to really become a king, we should also try to optimize our blogs/websites..
@Rick: Send me your email. I will email you the list of 120 do follow forums.
Thanks Jack. Couldn’t find your contact info on your blog. You can email me at goodhostinfo@gmail.com or visit goodhost.org
cheers.
Great post and straight to the point. My blog is new and I have follow almost half of the ways as above. I guess it is still too early to see the actual result of my blog yet.
Clever tips,everyone can get some results if he tries to check them out in practice.
How legitimate are the blogs on actual social sites like facebook? It seems like you’d be limiting your audiance to just your facebook ‘friends’.
Social bookmarking and social networking sites are really very significant to build a good amount of audience for your blog.
These are really useful advices. I think that all of that tips come to targeting your audience, weather it is through social networks by creating targeted groups or guest posts, or another.
Building a good strong reader base should be your main goal, then once you’ve done that you can monetize. But it has to be that way, not the other way around.
Good post. I’m a new blogger and I’m working really hard at creating a worthwile blog. Thanks for the info
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