Most bloggers come online, with new hopes of making it with ease just to find out that their hopes are almost dashing away, there is no achievement, there is no traffic, they are not just happy.
The way you treat your community reflects the amount of growth in readership your blog will see. Young entrepreneur Onibalusi Bamidele shares the 5 main tactics he uses to build powerful readership on his own blogs.
You have to build an audience behind your blog before can have “any form” of success. Before you can get your audience, you need traffic. Below are some great tips to get traffic to your blog and also build a loyal audience around yourself that are always ready to hear what you say.
1. Quality Content
You might be a video blogger, or maybe you post updates on your blog in text format. The mode of presenting the information you have is not what matters but the quality of information you have.
Let me ask you this question: why is it that your readers are coming to your blog and not the millions other blogs on the internet? Is it just to come and read what they have read numerous times before? Your blog should be unique; it should have what will separate it from any other blog in the whole universe.
Are you just posting on your blog to tell your readers how your relationship with your girlfriend went that weekend? Is it to tell them stories they can otherwise read elsewhere? What is the main focus of your blog?
It is always a good option to be personal, but your readers don’t always care. They don’t necessarily care about what you want either. They only care about themselves (just like any other person does) and what you can provide to them. Your readers will only stay on your blog if you have quality information for them.
2. Personality
I doubt you visit any corporate blogs, unless you still work for one. Your readers want somebody to relate to, somebody like them. They don’t want to speak to another type of company, they want to speak to YOU.
Lack of a good writing personality will go a long way to affect you. Bloggers that show little to no personality often result in casual readers, and they hardly get loyal readers. What some of your readers want in your blog is a person, not just great content. Some people find it difficult to relate with information that is not related to a true success story.
You should also have an about page that gives some basic (not too much) information about you. This has a long way to go because I saw a significant increase in traffic and subscriber on my blog when I created my about page. Be personal on your blog, you are not a company after all.
3. Frequency
So many people don’t care about this thing called posting frequency (how often you update your blog).
Some people only write once a month (which is a very risky move if you are starting out). You are not Maki from Dosh Dosh; it is very disastrous to not update your blog regularly.
Let me tell you a short story.
I have a personal blog and another blog in the technology niche that runs completely on auto-pilot. My technology blog automatically updates each hour while my personal blog is updated three times a week (with valuable content of course) manually.
The results of these two different approaches to the community on my blogs is that:
- My technology blog receives much less traffic (about 200 unique visitors this month).
- My personal blog receives thousands of hits a week.
Because there is little to no interaction between myself and my community, it’s obvious that it would receive less attention than my personal blog, where I respond to comments and inject myself into my articles.
Your readers want regularly updated content. Satisfy them with this and you will reap great rewards in terms of traffic, feed subscribers, mailing list subscribers, loyal readers, and the best of all — friendships.
4. Networking
#1, 2 and 3 are for keeping your readers; they have to be in place before you start looking for website traffic. Networking is a great way to get traffic to your blog. After having a blog, it is only you who will be the first reader.
A good method of finding people who will eventually become loyal readers is to go out and network with others.
Try to network with other bloggers and their readers by guest posting for them and also by commenting on their blog. You can also network with people outside your niche through forums and social networking sites.
It is very important to know that that social networking sites only favors those that are ready to help others and not just themselves, it is also important to promote others people’s post on social networking sites.
5. Guest Posting
Another method that can be used to generate traffic to your blog is by guest posting for other bloggers in your niche. Guest posting, if used effectively, can help you draw both traffic and loyal readers to your blog.
The problem most people face when trying to guest post is the fear of their article being rejected. Being someone who has written over 100 guest posts, I can tell you there is no way you can do without some of your articles being rejected. Some bloggers will even take ages to reply to you but your requests, but you will get used to it over time.
When guest posting, it is very important to know the type of blog you are guest posting for. What benefits does it have for you?
You can’t expect to have success at guest posting for a blog with almost no visitors a day. It is also important to not attempt a guest post for only big blogs because the majority of them might not even get to you or might eventually reject your guest posts.
Big blogs (we’re talking ProBlogger big) have some standards they want everybody to adhere to due to a plethora of other guest post submissions.
Try to make it balanced so that you won’t feel dejected if all your blog posts are rejected. Guest posting is good and it is one of the best ways to get free high quality traffic to your blog.
Editor’s Note: Learn From my Experience
I recently submitted a guest post to ProBlogger. I followed all of the best practices for submitting guest posts and wrote a very professional proposal message. However, I was declined due to the heavy amount of guest posts he already receives. What did I do? I submitted it elsewhere. And it got accepted. So it’s not the end of the world if you get rejected. - Alex
Getting traffic to a blog is easy, but building an audience is not. Using the above tips effectively will help you achieve success with your blog.
How do you build the community on your blog?
27 Discussions
I’ve been building community by letting my voice come through in my writing, getting out in the community and commenting on blogs/social media, and interacting with everyone who comments on my site. Community building is pretty easy if a person just treats others online with the same courtesies as they would offline. Unless of course they’re nasty offline
Jean Sarauer´s last blog ..When Bad Things Happen to Good Bloggers
Hi Jean,
Exactly! You are absolutely right.
Networking is the key.
Thanks a lot for the nice comment,
-Onibalusi
I agree with all points. Specially Guest Posting is really very helpful for the promotion of a blog.
Submit Guest Posts´s last blog ..Tech Start-Up Web Hosting Tips
Hi,
you are absolutely right.
Thanks a lot for the nice comment,
-Onibalusi
Nice list! I would have to say out of all of them, frequency is the most important in my book. The only way an audience is going to build around your blog is if they know how often to go to your site. Whether you update 5 times a day, once a day, or 3 times a week doesn’t matter a whole lot. What matters is that you stick to the same schedule and don’t mess your readers up!
Blogger Den´s last blog ..Making Time for Social Media
Hi,
Exactly! You are absolutely right.
Another thing, don’t expect to get the same traffic as someone who is posting everyday when you are only posting once in a month.
Thanks a lot for the nice comment,
-Onibalusi
People will not return to a blog unless they are getting something out of it. Give people something they are looking for.
Links from social websites can also bring in lots of “pop in” traffic. I popped in just now from a link on Twitter.
Steve Howe´s last blog ..May 13, Central Coast Weddings – Best Places to Get Married
Hi Steve,
You are absolutely right!
Thanks a lot for the nice comment,
-Onibalusi
Hey Onibalusi,
Awesome Post bro.
“You are not Maki from Dosh Dosh” Grreat !!!
Frequency and Networking are most important for me.
Thanks for this great post.
Regards,
Dev
Dev @ Blogging Tips´s last blog ..Are you blogging the wrong way?
Hi Dev,
You are absolutely right.
Frequency matters a lot, while networking is the key to traffic because every traffic generation strategy revolves around it.
Thanks a lot for the nice comment,
-Onibalusi
This is a great article, very informative. All of these tips are important when building up an audience. Posting frequency will keep readers coming back. Great Post!
wpBlast´s last blog ..Sites Powered by WordPress #2
Hi Wpblast,
You are absolutely right.
Thanks a lot for the nice comment,
-Onibalusi
I think posting frequency greatly matter for engage visitors on our blog. Hesham from famous blogger nicely maintain his posting frequency for which he is getting many comment and also traffic.
chandan´s last blog ..7 Best Work At Home Marketplace For Freelancer
Frequency is always one that baffled me and that hardest one to be consistent with.
Glen´s last blog ..HostGator – Special Offer! $9.94 Off Hosting!
Hi Glen,
Frequency is the problem most bloggers face, you can definitely overcome it. Try your best and you will get there.
Thanks a lot for the nice comment,
-Onibalusi
Guest posting is absolutely perfect for me, it is easy to promote something through guest posts. I got many followers and readers after my single post is published on another famous blog.
Reza Winandar´s last blog ..5 Types of Comments That Attract Attention
Great post, it’s a fact that it is not easy to make money online, it takes work and a lot of dedication, but it is a very viable business.
JR @ Internet Marketing´s last blog ..Make Money Online With Adsense Properly – Google Banning Many Websites
Hi JR,
You are absolutely right!
Thanks a lot for the nice comment,
-Onibalusi
I’ve never met an automatic device I liked, what do you use?
Dennis Edell | Direct Sales marketing´s last blog ..Web Income Experiments DotCom Wins Hands-Down!
Hi Dennis,
Pls, I don’t understand what you mean?
Thanks a lot,
-Onibalusi
You said you auto post content to some blogs, what do you use for that?
Dennis Edell | Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..Web Income Experiments DotCom Wins Hands-Down!
Hi Dennis,
Pls don’t get me wrong.
I said I have TWO blogs. My main blog and an autoblog. The purpose of my autoblog is to help me make money online while my main blog is to build a name, brand and community.
Concerning the autoblog, I use WP-robot elite.
I will advice you not to host an autoblog on a shared server, it got me suspended which affected my main blog making me lose hundreds of visitors in just one day.
Thanks a lot,
-Onibalusi
I’d never run an auto blog, i was just curious what you were using for it.
Dennis Edell | Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..Web Income Experiments DotCom Wins Hands-Down!
The best part about blogging is that you don’t have to kill yourself trying to keep up with all of these as you’ll find you make a good habit out of them.
If you plan to write based on a schedule make sure you keep it. Think of how many blogs you’ve subscribed to, checking your RSS only to find there wasn’t an update; you felt disappointed just a little didn’t you? Your readers feel the same when you miss your post schedule.
Quality content is a given and really doesn’t need to be consideration for your blog; just do it. But don’t just write great content, write content which also represents your voice. Your visitors are there to hear what YOU have to say not something that is slapped together using copy and paste. Inject your own experience in what you write about, say something funny, hell, just tell a story.
And never forget that the community is build when we’re all involved. If you write a guest post on another blog, reply back to people commenting (great job Onibalusi). To stand out in the blogging community you need to be active, show you care and intend to be apart of it all.
Great post.
Murlu´s last blog ..How To Choose A Domain Name For Your Blog
Hi Murlu,
Exactly, you must be consistent and unique.
Thanks a lot for the nice comment,
-Onibalusi
It’s always great to guest post for large blogs, but you can settle for the ones that are not too small, but growing fast, and get in before the blog blows up to benefit from it all.
Brandon Connell´s last blog ..The best wordpress monetization plugin available
these points are valid…
i would add,genuinely help people and speak to their needs…we are all motivated by what we will likely get..people will always come around when they know they will get something worth their time…
mk akan´s last blog ..Tools and Websites for Getting Blog Post Ideas
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