Boost Your Blog Readership In 4 Steps
Blogging March 23rd, 2007You’ve chosen a domain name, launched a blog, and decided on a stat tracking application - now’s the time to put Mint into use and start building up your RSS subscribers.
Link To Other Related Blogs
It doesn’t matter if you write about Apple technology, dogs, or life at university, there are always going to be blogs covering similar areas. Find these sites and spend some time browsing their archives, looking for articles of interest.
When you stumble across interesting pieces, don’t just read them, but blog about the article you stumbled on. Do more than just leave a link, write a few hundred words providing your views on the matter in hand, and adding some helpful related comments to stretch the discussion.
Comment, Comment, Comment
Does the word comment mean anything to you? It should. Start voicing your opinion on current news in your field via other blogs. Make sure your comments are large, well thought out, and well constructed.
Make detailed comments, comments you would be proud of for people to read. Many will see your insightful comment on an article, and click you name which links back to your site. Not so much instant traffic, but it helps build up your reputation in a specific field.
Get Personal
If you’re just going to be blogging the news and nothing else, stop. Readers can find this elsewhere. You are running a blog, not a website. A blog is an outlet for you to create original content with an original and personal twist to it.
Don’t be afraid to get personal in terms of trial and error, experiments, and previous experience in your posts. Let your opinion be known, give your readers an in-sign to the real “you”. It will ultimately make your blog more interesting to read, and you will developer a much stronger link with your community.
Communicate With Your Readers
Communication is one of the most vital aspects about blogging. If you get an email from a reader, reply to it as soon as possible. If you have a reader asking a question over IM, be helpful and friendly while trying to help them with their problem.
Identify loyal commenters and email them, start conversations, connect with them. Without these loyal readers and commenters, the main reasons of blogging is gone - developing friendships.
How many blog subscribers do you have?
March 23rd, 2007 at 8:10 am
Great post Glenn. I have actually followed many of these steps with my own blog. It’s worked out pretty well. The last one is, in my opinion, the most important. It’s more rewarding for me to talk to a few loyal readers than to see a big number on my stats page from a Digg story.
If I would say one part that I don’t do well, it’s the first point. I normally don’t blog about current news or rumors, so it’s not as easy to post something linking to another blog without it turning into a sort of “me too” post. Also, I’ve had less time to comment on other blogs because my own blog takes up the time!
March 23rd, 2007 at 8:35 am
This is great advice. I try to focus a lot of my time with these points. You are absolutely right about it being a “blog” and not a news site. Getting to know someone who’s been there or has their own opinion is a great spin on things.
I have a few loyal readers and they are great to work with. Communication is a huge key to unlocking more readers, and an over all great experience. Nice post! I’ll be sure to keep these points in mind.
March 23rd, 2007 at 8:38 am
15 RSS readers at the moment. Not tons but enough.
March 23rd, 2007 at 8:55 am
I’m going to have to disagree over Mint. I installed it and found that it heavily, VERY heavily hinders the load speed. It slows it to a crawl. It may have been the few plugins that I installed, but I’ve noticed the exact same thing on your blog, Glenn. I chose to remove it immediately once I realized it was the cause for the major slowdown.
March 23rd, 2007 at 10:24 am
I want a blog…
March 23rd, 2007 at 10:49 am
No idea how many people subscribe - with no idea of how to check it either.
In complete opposition to how this article says about comments, I’m just going to say: nice post. The rest was covered by Kiro and wphj.
March 23rd, 2007 at 11:09 am
Steffan, I subscribed to your blog.
March 23rd, 2007 at 1:37 pm
I think it’s nothing to do with mint, that’s just mediatemple’s gridserver which is really slow.
Anyway good points, Glenn. I prefer reading your blog checking it via browser rather than using RSS reader.
March 23rd, 2007 at 2:39 pm
I’m using DreamHost. :P I’m pretty sure it’s Mint, it was fine before I installed it.
March 23rd, 2007 at 4:58 pm
Hey, cheers alej744.
March 23rd, 2007 at 7:24 pm
Communication is the most important to me but interaction as well. I’m running a book exchange review blog where people can post their own review and it creates a very interesting climate of collaboration with an interested audience.
If you’re interested go and check it out ;-p
http://www.readerswithoutborders.com
Very interesting blog Glenn.
March 23rd, 2007 at 8:46 pm
Great advice Glenn. I’ve been implementing many of these measures already on my blog, and have seen improved success. Though I do need to focus more on the personal aspect of Blogging, It’s very difficult though, especially with technology related blogs. I also need to take more time to comment on other blogs, but I guess I’m doing that right now :D
March 23rd, 2007 at 9:51 pm
I am always impressed by how intelligently this young man can express his thoughts! Keep up the good work!
I shall endeavor, as well, to create compelling content as you have!
March 24th, 2007 at 3:30 am
Good post, Glenn. I came across this site about a month ago and every new post has been pretty good…
At first when I saw the title in my RSS reader, I thought it was going to be another “don’t suck” type post that so many other blogs do. Instead, there’s plenty of legitimate points and it spells out some things that we do naturally, but never give a thought to. Of course, I guess this counts as “Comment, comment, comment”.
Keep up the good work!
March 24th, 2007 at 8:16 am
Great post! Thanks for the tips. I’ve been trying to get my readership up for a while now and when I finally do I get caught up in school and don’t post as often. I’m going to try your tips though and also try to blog more often!
March 24th, 2007 at 5:30 pm
Excellent tips Glenn.
My biggest issue is wanting to be ‘big and authoritative’.
Long tutorials and conjecture seem to be far less popular than simple two paragraph tips or even a simple discussion of which is better, A or B.
It’s hard to not try to overcompensate to try to stand out, and it’s certainly disheartening to spend hours writing something only to see it flutter by unnoticed, while elsewhere a link to a 3 year old commercial gets 100k hits.
:)
But we shall persevere, and this too shall pass. Thanks again for the great article, and the continued quality writing.
March 25th, 2007 at 4:30 am
Thanks for the advice Glen. :)
November 12th, 2007 at 11:19 am
I’ve got 38 subscribed readers and I’m sure these tips will defiantly help that number boost up a lot.
I’m trying that tip, “Comment, Comment, Comment” right now :P
December 22nd, 2007 at 7:29 am
Cool…
December 24th, 2007 at 6:22 am
Good post. I try to follow “rules” but I always end up doing something completely different…
January 3rd, 2008 at 5:57 pm
interesting
March 5th, 2008 at 7:27 am
thanks. I’m going to have to try this when I get home