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. Great tips 🙂 I’ve just started my blog with the intention of helping other students, but I guess I need them to find my blog so I can help them! Thanks!

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  4. This is exactly what I’ve been looking for! Thanks for the info 🙂 I’ve just created a blog rochellebfernando.wordpress.com and would love if you could check it out and let me know what you think?

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  5. I usually write from a coffee shop with a good cinnamon dolce latte by my side and then BAM! Real thoughts, I notice most people want to sound appealing but that only makes their writing pretentious and dull, life isn’t a steady line so why pretend it is? Let’s get real.

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  7. Well, I feel a little silly that I wasn’t quite sure about the term “Roundup” but I looked it up. Now I think I’ll do an entry for my readers featuring the favorite articles I’ve posted thus far. Thank you!

    PS, Regarding the last 201: Do you have a Best Of section? Where is it located?

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  8. I started writing as I way to communicate my feelings right now. Right now it is very personal and I find that the more I write, the easier it is sharing those details. It makes it more authentic, gets people to read.
    I only wish I knew how to garner those initial readers who will help me expand my base.
    Today was a shift in direction, not sure if it is a one time thing or it I’m just opening up.

    Looking Back to How it Began

    But I like the advice, hopefully my newness to this will benefit!

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  10. Thanks for this great advice. I really get a huge buzz from posting on my site and getting a good response. I can’t wait for my community of followers to grow and see where blogging takes me.

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  12. Thanks for the tips! I’m new to blogging and don’t always know what to write, I shall take on board these tips 🙂

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  16. Thank you for the idea of a round-up! I’m going to definitely try that on a monthly basis since I usually publish weekly. I said “usually” because I’m currently behind schedule! Had a very busy month. A round-up would have been a great thing to do!Always love your tips! I’ve followed every one of them and they ring true!

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  17. I have about 3,000 followers now, although I’m pretty sure a large number of them click “Follow” and never visit again. What I do notice is that some days are more busy than others, and publish a post at the wrong time, and it will struggle to get noticed even by your ‘regulars.’ Over the time I’ve blogged, my readership has grown, but the constituents of it has changed as people vanish from the Blogosphere and are replaced by new visitors.

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  19. Great tips! What I find is that although people like the posts they don’t often comment with either advise or simply their opinions – if anyone goes onto my blog then please give constructive advise (I didn’t intend to spam there – a genuine accident)

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  23. You must have read my mind with number 1 & 2… I have to push some of those thoughts away because I find they hold me back and I get blog ‘stage fright’!!

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  27. I loved this article! Thank you 🙂 I’m only im the beginning of my blogging journey.. Wait… It has been months already! And I think on my even earlier stages I fell into the trap of feeling that I need to be constantly posting to be noticed 🙂

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  29. Thank you for the amazing tips! It’s hard not to care how many people you have following you, and it’s even harder to to fall prey to your instinct to try to please them to keep them reading!!

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  30. Great piece of advice especially for new bloggers. The one element that holds the most truth is to stay true to yourself. Readers follow for all sorts of reasons but one thing is true, they stick around because you have something to say and they like what you’re saying. Staying true to your voice can be challenging and some posts won’t receive new followers whereas others might receive many. It’s alright. Just keep on writing and never give up. I really like your article. Thanks for sharing.

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