A lot of people come into the blogging world with the idea that they’ll have thousands of readers, advertisers and sponsors in a month. However that’s not how it works and many writers are put off when they don’t get a decent following to their blog.
I’m a big believer that you should do what you love whether you
have a big audience or not, however it is always nice to know you have peoples
support and user generated content, or UGC, always comes in handy!
So for those of you who are looking to raise your websites
stats, I've come up with five easy ways you can grow your audience!
1: Learn how to engage your audience
By this I mean not only learning what your reader wants, but
also how to deliver it to them. Firstly to know what your reader wants you’ll
have to know your reader. To do this you need to create your target audience,
are you interested in beauty, fashion, movies, cooking? Whatever it is stick to
your theme as much as you can.
This way you will gain a set demographic audience, e.g. cooking
blogs will gain chefs, cooking enthusiasts and domestic goddesses/gods. A beauty
blog will attract make-up artists, beauticians and those looking for advice in
their beauty routine.
Once you have done this you can target your audience
directly. A super easy way of doing this is sharing your posts on Twitter,
Facebook, Bloglovin’ etc. But just writing ‘check out my new post’ is not enough.
If you are going to promote your site sell what you’re writing to the reader,
e.g. “Check out my review of the new Bobbi Brown make-up brushes” or “Want to
know what I thought of the new Bobbi Brown make-up brushes? Then take a look at
my blog”.
This way you will target an audience who are searching for
key words or phrases as well as your normal readers and followers. This will
also make your blog posts more search engine friendly – this brings me onto the
second point.
2: Do not fear the hashtag
I cannot tell you how important hash-tagging is when it
comes to blogging! So many people have this strange idea that using hashtags is
frowned upon and people will judge you for using it, this is incorrect, plain
and simple.
Just sharing your latest post isn't enough and using hash
tags is the best way to target your audience directly. You can’t expect people
to just miraculously see your website, you have to put your work out there for
people to be able to see it.
So if you are a beauty blogger try sharing your latest link
along with a catchy line and the hash tags: #bblogger #BobbiBrown #beautyblog
if that is what you are writing about. Using relevant hashtags is the easiest
way to get your chosen audiences to click your links. It will again help with
search engine optimising.
At the same time don’t go crazy with the hashtags. You don’t
#need #to #hashtag #every #single #word. As you can see it just looks messy and
unprofessional – so not the look you are going for.
3: Invest time and effort
Getting people to click your links isn't all you need to be
a success though. You want them to click on a post and then enjoy it so much
they follow or subscribe, or at least read a bit more of your work!
To do this you have to make sure you are providing good
quality content. Three paragraph posts with spelling mistakes and grammatical errors
will put your readers off and portray you as an unreliable source. I advise
writing your post on a programme like Microsoft Word instead of directly onto
your blog, this way you can run it through a reliable spell check as well as
the standard one on your internet browser.
Also if you can get someone else to read over your post
before you publish it you should. Just because it makes sense to you does not
mean it will make sense to everyone so getting a friend or family member on
board to be your copy-taster is a good idea.
The same goes for pictures. If you display a blurry image
where it is hard to make out the subject then people won’t want to look any further
than your first post. You don’t need an expensive DLSR to take good photos, all
the pictures on my site are taken with the IPhone 5c. All you need to take a decent
picture is good lighting (preferably natural light), a plain background that
won’t distract or hide the pictures subject and a steady hand.
These factors along with a clean, non-cluttered blog
template are sure to keep the reader’s attention that you have worked so hard
to attract.
4: Make your blog attractive
This is such an easy step to take but one bloggers often
neglect. The best way to get people to read your blog is to make it look good.
Both Blogger and WordPress offer hundreds of free templates that you can choose
for your blog to make it look more attractive. All you have to do is select
design and the sites will guide you from there.
Alternatively you can use sites like Pipdig who offer to
redesign your whole blog for you. You can choose one of their standard designs
or a custom job, their prices currently start from around £29.
5: Be a team player
This is perhaps the most important part of being a blogger.
You can’t become successful without help. If you are one of these people who
expect others to write on your posts, follow you and share your work without
doing anything in return then you will not get far in the blogging world.
Blogging is a social game, it’s designed to bring people
together and share ideas so you can’t expect everyone to love you and your blog
if you don’t return that love to an extent.
Try following other bloggers, commenting on their posts and sharing
their work and most will return the favour. This way you will grow your
readership and probably make some great friends in the process. I know I have
made a lot of close friends through blogging and that was by striking up
conversations on blogs and Twitter.
Blogging has a strong community and it is important to be a
part of this community instead of isolating yourself from it to seem cool – it won’t
work and you will get left behind.
I hope this post has helped any blogging new-comers or those
of you just wanting to grow your existing audience! Let me know in a comment
below if the post helped with your blogging experience or if you have any more
tips for newbie bloggers!