Blogging isn’t always the easiest of businesses to get into.
Whether you’re doing it purely for the love of it, for personal branding, as a career, or alongside a business you are competing against thousands of other channels, written and otherwise.
This means that you have to be competitive.
Your readers have a limited time that they can spend on the internet and you if you want a greater share of that time, you have to work for it.
These are a few methods that can help you get there.
Stick to your Purpose
When you’re blogging, it’s easy to feel your priorities being tugged in one way or the other.
You might think that you would be able to reach a bigger audience moving your focus to something you have less interest in.
You might think that there are more opportunities for monetization elsewhere.
But the truth is that your readers are going to pay attention to the consistency of a blog.
Figure out early what the purpose of your blog is and stick to it.
This doesn’t mean you can’t branch out, but you need to have a genuine core to all of the content you produce.
Readers need to believe in what you are giving them if they’re going to stick with it for a long time.
Lead with Value First
That’s not to say that the purposes of a blog should be purely for the satisfaction of the writer.
If you want readers, then you should certainly keep in mind what kind of value your content has to them. In fact,
In fact, value should be the starting point of every post you make.
If your readers show a positive response to the ups and downs and turns of your life, then feel free to keep them updated. Otherwise, think first about what posts offer the most to them.
Do they offer sound advice? Do they highlight a deal they will be genuinely interested in? Is a viewpoint piece that hopes to inform or to support them? Before you spend all your time working on a post, identify the value first.
Add the personal touch
In contrast to the last point, it’s important to recognize that blogging isn’t a straightforward transaction of time and clicks for information.
The personalities behind a blog do matter as well. They are the why they choose to get opinions and information from you and not from other sources that very well might be saying similar things.
Your readers need to yearn to keep reading your content. To that end, don’t feel like you have to stifle the voice you’ve found for yourself.
Make your writing easy enough for your target audience and personable. Show empathy for your readers and don’t shy away from developing a more intimate approach with your writing at time goes on.
Engage your Readers
A connection to your readers shouldn’t only exist in the form of lip-service and a more casual writing style for certain posts, either.
You should genuinely attempt to engage them more often.
If someone likes your content, that might not be enough to keep them coming and to turn them into a true fan of the blog.
If you add the emotional value of direct interaction with them, however, it creates a bond that is as true in their mind as it is in your page counts.
Reply to them when they comment on your blog. Aim occasional posts at getting feedback or inviting them to take part. Remember that blogs are about communication and that said communication can only go one-way for so long.
Make Use of Social Media
Setting up social media accounts for the blog and the personality behind them offer you much more direct ways to be the center of an online community, as well.
But they are good for more than just engaging with your readers. It’s a rookie mistake to neglect the power of sharing through the social world.
Giving some pride of place to ‘Share’ features for social media on your site is a start. You should also think about how you distribute and curate not only your own content but use your social media channel as a filter to keep them engaged in the stuff you know is going to interest them.
Give your Posts a Better Platform
You never know who is going to find your posts interesting.
If you’re a diverse enough writer, you can approach your field of choice from as much a variety of directions to attract readers that you might never have expected.
But beyond finding your target markets, how do you get their attention?
Organic marketing is the answer.
See 103 experts explain how to learn SEO and start giving your posts a platform that offers them not only more general visibility through search engines but gives them the ability to intelligently target people based on their use of keywords.
Other means of organic marketing are just as effective, costing you little as they get more results over time.
Don’t be Afraid of a Little Flash
When it comes to organic marketing jumping out at first-time readers who might not otherwise visit your site, you should consider learning a little from the world of clickbait.
Their use of snazzy titles that snatch attention and bring clicks can be of great use to you.
This is a great way to get flashy with your content along with using engaging images when you share your posts on social media to grab attention visually first.
Just make sure you have worthwhile content behind the title. If you raise a question in the title, the post should be all about answering it, not leaving readers frustrated that they wasted their time following up on that captured attention.
If you raise a question in the title, the post should be all about answering it, not leaving readers frustrated that they’ve wasted their time following up on that captured attention.
Use Different Kinds of Content
It’s a blog, so you should expect to do some writing on regular basis.
However, the internet is a multimedia experience and if you don’t want readers getting bored, then you might want to consider that writing might not always be the best way to communicate your message.
For instance, if your blog revolves around looking at products, then producing video hands-on reviews might give a more in-depth and informative look at how it really is to experience said product.
If you tend to produce posts that make use of a lot of data to make a point, then you can also create a digest version in the form of an infographic.
Switch up how you deliver your content from time to time.
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