Oct 23, 2014 / Traffic & Growth

Great, you have followers. Now what?

You have what most bloggers hope for: regular readers. What happens now? Keep these four tips in mind to hang on to your readers and attract some new ones.

For most of us, the thrill of clicking “publish” on a blog post has a less-pleasant side effect: the dread that it will fall alone in the online forest, unread and unheard. Eventually, though, someone else will wander through your neck of the woods — probably a few someones. Followers!

Now what?

Keep up the good work.

When we realize we have an actual, not-just-our-best-friend audience, some of us freeze up a little. It’s one thing to publish a post, but another to know that people — strangers, even! — are actually paying attention. Many bloggers fall into one of two common traps that seem like smart decisions, but undermine your success.

  1. Pushing yourself to post more frequently. Your audience already likes your current pace, and making yourself blog more will only lead to burnout. If you’re inspired to create more, awesome! But there’s no need to force it for your audience.
  2. Trying to write for your new audience (or trying to appeal to as many new readers as possible). Your readers relate to your voice. They care about what you have to say, and how you say it. Whatever you’re doing is already appealing to them; trying to be who you think we want to see mutes your natural voice, and trying to be all things to all readers leaves you with a diluted, perspective-less blog.

It’s great to have readers. It’s great to want to have more readers. You’ll get them by staying true to yourself, your voice, and your blogging goals.

Pay attention to your stats.

Think this seems at odds with what I just said about staying true to yourself? I don’t! Using your stats helps you optimize posting times, or teaches you what topics your readers want to hear more about. You still have to decide on topics, create those posts, and make sure they’re in line with your blog and voice.

In the early days of a blog, stats are not much more than a momentary ego boost — if you only had three viewers last week, it’s hard to use that as data to grow your blog.

Once you have some regular readers, you can begin digging into that data to make the most of your posts. Are there days of the week that are consistently high-traffic for you? Publish your next big piece on that day. Are there topics that are more or less popular? Use that information to plan your next few posts. Do you have a lot of readers from a particular country? Think about why they might be drawn to your blog. You can use all this data to inform your publishing schedule and maximize your readership. (Ready to go deeper into your stats? Check out our five-part series.)

Consider a roundup feature or newsletter.

Your regulars might still miss out on a post here and here. A weekly or monthly roundup post is an easy way to highlight your best content and share other links you love. The internet can feel like a noisy place, with endless sites and stories completing for our attention. A roundup post curates some of that content for your readers, helping them focus on the can’t-miss.  It’s also an easy thing for them to share with their own networks, helping grow yours.

If a roundup doesn’t feel like something that works for your blog, email can also be an effective tool — check out our primer on email newsletters.

Don’t stop engaging.

Your readers are drawn to your personality and perspective, but chances are you nudged them toward you by reading and commenting on other blogs, participating in blogging communities, or reaching out on social networks.

It’s great to have readers. It’s great to want to have more readers. You’ll get them by staying true to yourself, your voice, and your blogging goals.

Don’t stop just because you’ve hit 100 followers (or 1,000, or 10,000). The blogging community is a living ecosystem that’s constantly growing and shifting. To keep your place in it and contribute to that growth, keep up the engagement that helped your readers find you in the first place. We’re all responsible for the care and feeding of our blogosphere.

Whether you’re using stats to your advantage, sending out your inaugural monthly newsletter, or planning a weekly feature to take advantage of high-traffic days, never forget why you started blogging and what you hope to get out of it. Keep that in your sights while you work on building up your readership, and you won’t go wrong.

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  2. This post came at the right time for me because:
    a) I was thinking that I should start posting more often/daily
    b) I should start writing about things that people find may find more interesting. Of course, I am not even sure what people want.

    Thanks for the post.

    Liked by 2 people

  4. I am rubbish at keeping up with my ‘reader’ and commenting… I just about write a post regularly and keep up with the social media side. I can see why my ‘following’ is suffering but I can’t seem to find the time to ‘fix’ this! Round and round I go! : /

    Liked by 2 people

  8. I don’t understand them ruddy stats things, all bar charts and percentages. I never understood them when I was at school, so I’m not going to start understanding them now that I am dead. All I know is that there are more American flags than there are Union jacks in my stats these days. Which is funny, because I never really appealed to the yanks during the war… Not like our Madge did any road.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Hi Maria, i really liked your blog and enjoyed reading your posts. They are varied, entertaining and you get your points across well so i don’t know why your followers aren’t sticking around 😬

      Having said that, you got yourself a new follower 😊

      Liked by 1 person

  10. Very helpful tips! For both new/beginning and advanced bloggers. I especially liked the part where you say that you always need to engage with your readers regardless of how many followers you have. People like te be seen and acknowledged

    Liked by 1 person

  15. 🙂 Thanks for this advice. – I read somewhere that WordPress now has the Google Analytics feature incorporated?

    Could you teach a little more about how to actually read the statistics and what what is hidden in them?

    Thank you! 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  18. Great advice! Being new to the whole blogging thing, it can be tough to remember to just write and be myself. Still finding my voice, but these tips definitely help. Thank you!

    Liked by 1 person

  21. Although I’d prefer my blog to be unheard and unread by most people, these tips are actually helpful. Thanks.

    Like

  22. Like some others, I don’t write for followers, I write for me, to get my ideas out there. Funny, but many times I post something, and get a couple of new followers. My blog is Calling-all-RushBabes, but I still don’t get very many! Go figure!

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  24. Very insightful. Making commenting a habit is an absolute must.

    Just one query: is there a certain time to wait before you use your stats; ie- first 1000 views, first 10 subscribers, first 2 months or do you just go with your intuition on this one?

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