You’ve taken the plunge and started a blog. Are you finding that “build it and they will come” — the tagline from 1989’s Field of Dreams — worked well for the magical baseball field, but not so much for your blog traffic?
Attracting visitors doesn’t require sorcery, just some know-how and dedication. Today, we’ve got five tips for growing your audience, whether you’re blogging for fun or profit.
Blog your passion
“To be interesting, be interested.” — Dale Carnegie
Enthusiasm is contagious — you can’t help but be energized by someone who is deeply interested in something. What subjects do you love to talk about? Ashton Ritchie loves gardening and lawn care. A prolific blogger, he’s published over 650 posts since 2011 on everything from growing the perfect lawn to ridding your garden of pests at Tips from Ashton Ritchie. His lively, well-tended blog attracts hundreds of visitors each day.
It’s OK to be vulnerable
Nobody is perfect and humans take comfort in knowing that they’re not alone. We all struggle at various times in our life, though sometimes we’re reluctant to share those tough times with the world. Sometimes, the post that creates the strongest connections with your followers is the one that’s the scariest to write. In this roundtable at The Daily Post, blogger Michelle recounts a harrowing time in her life and the trepidation and fear she faced after she decided to blog about it. She and her post received a deluge of support.
But I felt like the story wanted to be told, so I took a deep breath and clicked the button…
… and then immediately had second thoughts: what kind of judgment was I opening myself up to? As it turned out, none at all. Not only did people appreciate the post for what it was, but I got emails, tweets, text messages, and comments from readers, friends, coworkers, and total strangers thanking me for writing it. It ended up being a cathartic experience that made me more fearless as a writer.
Make it easy to follow your blog
Here’s how to add a widget to your site.
At The Garden Diary, blogger Teresa places the Follow Blog widget at the top of the sidebar on all her site pages. No matter which post or page visitors land on, they’re greeted with a prominent invitation to subscribe to receive posts via email. Nearly 10,000 subscribers can’t be wrong!
Turn comments into a community
Feeling shy? Not sure what to say? Here are some tips on how to keep the conversation going.
As a blogger, you love getting thoughtful comments on your posts, but did you know that your commenters enjoy hearing from you, too? At Gallivance, a travel adventure blog, Terri and James Vance have created a lively comment section by replying to visitors who take the time to share thoughts on their posts. Their site boasts thousands of comments across nearly 600 posts.
Broadcast your posts on social media
Here’s how to connect your blog to your favorite social networks using Publicize. Premium and Business plan subscribers have the option to reshare their posts multiple times via Publicize.
“Post, promote, repeat” is a strong strategy to attract site visitors from other communities on the internet. Our sister site Longreads publishes several posts per day. Each post gets tweeted multiple times post-publication to reach new readers in different timezones and maximize the number of people who see it on Twitter. Salient quotes draw readers in, while relevant hashtags help Twitter users find posts of interest to them.
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love this!
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Good to know. Thanks for the tips 😉
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I am new IN blog writing and find it very helpful dear. THUMBS UP👍
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Consistency is also key. I am trying to remember that as I dive back into the blogging world.
visit me: gialately.com.
My latest post engages readers in a discussion re: social media.
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Learned a lot, thanks.
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Very helpful tips. Thank you. If anyone sees this… Make sure you check out my blog 💛💛🦋
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I am an artist blogger and I have been writing once a week with this approach of me writing like a journal. Think diary of a wimpy kid. I blog about my projects and notes that I want to remember. I have started a plan and it’s 2 months and I have gained 20 followers but I struggle with really understanding if I am on the right track. I focus on content and being a fan.
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Great thoughts, Krista. It’s all about PEOPLE! Entertaining, education, and building community with…people.
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These tips are so helpful especially for a new blogger like me! I will definitely be using these! 🙂
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I am new here as well.. passionate about PRAYER and hoping these tips will boost my confidence and get me some followers on The Lord’s side
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Thanks for the advice, i am passionate about my job, hence starting my blog, i have just 2 followers atm but i will carry on blogging and interacting with others!! Onwards and upwards!!
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Brilliant… Short and sweet..easy to take on board when one doesn’t get on with technology.. Now can you pls explain Category pages and in easy terms how to set it up. I have gone through WP instructions…. Yet still can’t suss it….. 🙂
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This was very insightful! Thank for the information 🙂
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i just published my second post after a year of procastination. Adding a widget seems like a really good idea. Thank you.
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Really needed to read this! Awesome tips!
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This post was very helpful for me as a new blogger! Thank you
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I find it very helpful.
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Thanks for the helpful tips. At times I do feel like I am an ant in a desert, and the desert is WordPress. 😉
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This post has been pretty helpful to me. So far I’ve just been posting content, hoping it’ll get discovered on its own if it’s good enough. But clearly, there’s so much more to blogging than just posting the content. Thanks for your insights on blog marketing and boasting audience. Appreciate it!
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Good advice. Thank you
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I liked it – quick read and very helpful.
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Hi, thanks for the great tips. I’m making it a goal to be found on Discoverer someday-
LiveFree2SailFast.com
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Really interesting! Thank you Girl Boss!!
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Very helpful! I just published my first blog entry a few days ago 🙂
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Really amazing piece of content!
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Thanks for nice suggestion I’ll try to do
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Thanks for sharing your ideas
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i like this post!
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Great tips very helpful thanks 🙂
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I am a new blogger, (about 4 hours on this) but this was a nice read. I hope it helps me.
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I needed these tips from a long time! Thank you so much for sharing them. Very well written 😊
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Thanks for writing this
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Thank you! Just starting out x
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Thanks this is really useful!
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Great information thank you.
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These tips are really beneficial especially for us students whom are new to this and did this for academic purposes and later become a hobby. =
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Thank you for posting this. I’m just starting out, live for a week, and it gives me hope.
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