You may have the best blog design and top notch content updated regularly on your blog. But, it is of no use if there are no new eye-balls or repeat visitors to consume the fresh and amazing content you would post.
Blogging today, has gained momentum due its endless benefits.
Be it a small entrepreneur or big enterprise, everyone seems to be blogging these days to leverage advantages of content marketing.
With all the hard work poured in, how would you ensure your blog gets a steady, consistent readership and increase blogger traffic?
What are the factors that will create a loyal readership base?
Read on, today we would cover proven techniques that would help immensely in growing your blog readership.
Broadly, we would cover:
- Guest Post – Why It Is Important?
- Blog Commenting – A Killer Tactic.
- The Importance of Pillar Post – A Must Strategy.
- Need of Subscription Box for Newsletter
- Why Offer A Valuable Freebie?
- Know Your Target Audience – Does It Really Help?
- Reveal Your Personality – Importance of Personal Touch
- Need for Crisp & Appealing Blog Design.
1.Guest Post-Know the Importance.
Guest Posting is one the proven method followed by almost every blogger today to get traffic and elevate the readership base.
Generally, it takes time to draft the content to be submitted on others site as there are strict guidelines to be adhered. However, we cannot ignore the endless benefits of Guest Post.
Here is the gist of benefits:
- Assist in growing your blog audience
- A High-Quality
- Builds Your Credibility.
- Ensures Conversion .Raises Reputation.
- Provides an Opportunity to Network .
- Triggers Relationship Building with Fellow Bloggers.
Also Read: 5 Rich Benefits Of Guest Post
To start with, aim to post on the blogs which are new, build your confidence and then target blogs of big influencers which has the potential of unlimited traffic due to huge readership they possess.
- Blog Commenting – A Must Tactic
Commenting on other blogs is said to a super technique to get targeted visitors to the blog. If done rightly, generates an avalanche of website traffic and if done haphazardly ruins reputation of your site.
5 Reasons you should focus on blog commenting:
- It Ensures Targeted Visitor.
- Provides Limitless Branding Opportunities.
- Builds Your Credibility.
- Enhances Your Reputation in Blogosphere.
- Portrays You as Authoritative Figure
Must Read: Learn the Correct Ways to Post a Comment on Blog with 9 Effective Methods to Drive Insane Traffic
- Pillar Post – Crucial TechniqueThese days you must have seen blogs with lengthy post blended with rich, valuable content and catchy graphics. These are termed as Pillar Post, at times Epic Post.Having a Pillar Post not only keep the visitor engaged on your blog but also has SEO benefits. Search engines will give you brownie points if you have lengthy posts. Generally, post length of 1000 plus words can be qualified as Epic PostYou should aim for content which is:
- Valuable to Your Readers.
- Aids Readers to Solve Some Problem.
- Assist Them To Improvise Certain Skill or Technique.
- Guides Them To Perform Tasks.
- A Compilation of Useful Resource Should also help.
- eMail Subscription Box –A Lead Magnet
You should have email subscription option on the most noticeable section of your blog. Offer a convenience to your visitors to enjoy the latest post directly in the email inbox.
There are two methods of delivery:
A: A brief overview of your blog post with a link that entices the reader to click and visit the blog.
B: To deliver entire content in the email body .The only disadvantage is – your images may not render correctly in email body which might lose its effectiveness.
Another way to capture an email of your visitor is to offer a high-quality info product – a report or an eBook as a freebie in exchange for an email. Once you do that, send a notification of every new post to visitors or at times, a promotional kind of email of your own product or a product you recommend.
But, be careful when you are promoting as over promotion can switch off the interest of subscribers and they might opt-out from subscription.
To sum-up, having email subscription box:
- Will build an army of repeated and loyal readers.
- Provides a convenience to readers to stay updated on your blog post through email.
- Acts as a direct communication channel for readers to reach you and build strong connect.
- A ZERO cost promotional campaign which guarantees the highest
- Offer a Freebie Worth 1000s of Dollars.It takes seconds for a new visitor on your blog to judge whether it’s worth to spend time. You have seconds to capture his attention.
Why not create bait by offering a freebie which is valuable, readable and easy-to-understand?
How about,
- Giving away a ‘How To’ Report?
- A comprehensive ‘guide’ to achieve some task?
- List of useful resources?
- Something that eases out his pain or worry?
An approach of giving away freebie – typically an eBook or PDF report, in exchange for an email is proven technique to grab a lead. It’s a human tendency and natural instinct, to latch on something which is free and valuable.
Once, visitor signs-up , provide him with a link through email to download the freebie. Do not bombard with emails in the beginning and avoid sending any promotional stuff.
Our objective should be to warm up subscriber with to the point, valuable, concise information that will build trustworthiness and stamps your authority on the subject.
Quick Tip: Have a content enriched eBook which as anchor text pointing to resources which are free and to products and tools you are an affiliate. Also, encourage your subscriber to share the copy of the report .Have links to your Pillar post within the content.
- Know Your Target Audience – Deliver Something What Users Wish To Consume.
You need create reader persona before you start framing your content. It makes a huge difference when you write for yourself and when you write for your audience.
Understand basic demographics such as – age, gender, location, income religion etc. The best resource to derive this information is Alexa.com (a free tool) .All you need to do is enter competitors’ website URL and gets results.
Next, we have to find their likings and content they are hungry for.
Listed below are few simpler techniques…
- Browse Popular Forums In your Niche: Look closely the question asked in forums. Eyeball threads which have the highest user engagement. This will give an indication on hot topics you may wish to write about.
- Visit Q&A sites: Question and Answers sites are the best resources to get blog post ideas. You may type the main keyword and get a listing of questions asked .How about writing a detailed blog post on the FAQ type of blog post which answers all these questions at once.
- Reveal Your Personality – Importance of Personal Touch
Blogging is all about connection and networking. Every visitor of your blog should know the person who has written such an amazing content.
Unless you reveal your true identity, no matter how much effort you take, readers would always feel detached as they don’t know the person who is churning out invaluable content day-in and day out.
To establish this personal touch, always have an author bio at the end of the blog post. Include a section on the blog wherein you can describe yourself along with your picture. With this readers would have strong connect with you and always appreciate your work.
Since, we are talking about close connect with visitors, make sure every comment posted is replied with satisfactory answer or appreciated or extend your gratitude towards them.
- Blog Design – Why It Is Important?
You may have work hard to publish super content on your blog, but, it is no use if your blog design is not aligned to user’s needs and expectation.
In today`s era, search engines are programmed to rank sites which have best user experience.
How do we ensure our blog has an optimum, crisp and appealing design?
Here are few must-have elements to ensure every visitor of our blog enjoys his stay and turns to repeat visitor.
- Ensure Loading Time of Site is Tweaked.2-3 seconds load time is considered as acceptable.
- Make sure Good Readability– Foreground and background colours should be wisely chosen. Visitor should not be strained to read content we have published.
- Avoid Unnecessary Distractions– Do not overuse placement of ADS all over. This distracts readers and they tend to lose focus from content.
- Avoid Large Headers – It advisable to use small dimension headers as readers with small screen sizes can easily read the content without scrolling.
- Emphasize on Strong Navigation – User should be able discover the content with ease. Quick navigation to ‘Most Viewed Post’ ,’Trending Post’ or ‘Most Shared Post’ will keep users engaged longer time and increase your page views.
- Integrate Social Media Networks-This would ensure your content is spread on social networks. (Social signals are must for higher rankings)
- Use Catchy & Low Size Images – Have visuals accompanied with content as readers will able to comprehend and relate the content easily.
Here… we end our compilation proven tips to increase readership of our blog. Let me know your views and insights…I may have missed something.
Look forward for your most valuable comments and feedback.
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