HOW CAN I GET MORE BLOG FOLLOWERS?
You're writing blog posts, putting them out there - but nobody is listening. So what do you do?
The most important thing to remember when it comes to getting more blog followers or increasing your traffic is to know your audience and create content for them.
And I know a lot of you are just getting your blogs up and running which also means you don’t want to be spending a lot of money on this either.
Blog followers aren’t really like social media followers. Social media posts get engagement right in an instant. As soon as you post an update you’re getting likes, comments and shares.
With your blog traffic and followers, it’s more of a long term game. And you need to learn how to play that game the right way.
In order to do that you need to create content around keywords that people are actually searching for, so you can be found by your target audience.
And to do that, I'm going to teach you a simple six-step strategy.
#1 | CREATE A CONTENT STRATEGY
I know some bloggers prefer to be spontaneous, but I truly believe that you have to have this down if you want to get the right followers and traffic coming to your blog.
So here are a few things to remember when it comes to your content strategy.
Prepare for internal linking
You want to keep people on your website for as long as possible and internal linking is the best way to do that. If you’ve got a new blog post and you want it to do well, you can go back to all your old blog posts and add a link to your new blog post within those where relevant.
This will keep people on your site for longer which will increase your traffic, followers and authority.
Think about your keyword
For every blog post you create you should pick a focus keyword for it. Now you want to aim for a long-tail keyword. So let’s say you’re a food blogger.
You could just write a blog post on how to cook. Or, you could write a blog post on how to cook vegan. Or you could go even deeper and write a blog post on how to cook vegan meals, or how to cook vegan for beginners.
The more specific you are the better.
Focus on trends
It’s like anything. If you talk about a trending top or a hot product or a big influencer, you’re going to get more views and followers because more people are going to be talking about it.
You could do a blog post on “how to blog like such-a-person” and mention an influencer. If you let them know you’ve created this, it’s pretty likely they’re gonna share it.
#2 | CHECK OUT YOUR COMPETITION
There are lots of people in every niche who are blogging and I know that can feel intimidating. So how can you stand out?
You use your own experience and your own expertise.
What I want you to do is create a list of all the blogs you know that are in your niche.
Then check them out on social media and see:
- What content people are interacting with
- What content people aren’t interacting with as much
- What you can add and how you can make it better
#3 | MAKE YOUR INTRODUCTIONS AMAZING
One of the biggest mistakes you can make with your blog posts is doing a really long introduction. People have come to your blog post for a reason. They want to be inspired, entertained or educated.
Focus on getting to that as soon as possible with your content so people actually read your whole post.
A great formula to follow is: situation - problem - result.
Start off by outlining a situation and hooking your readers into that so they can relate to it.
Then you go onto enhance the problem that’s being caused in this situation.
And finally, you show your reader the result that they could get if they read your blog post. What are they going to get out of this specific post?
So for example, if I was writing a blog post on this topic (how to get more blog followers), it would look like this:
- Situation: we all want more blog followers
- Problem: there’s so much noise out there that it’s hard to stand out
- Result: by the end of this blog post, you’ll have the exact process to get more blog followers
Include all those things into your introduction and then get into the meat of your content.
#4 | INTERLINK
What I mean by interlinking your blog posts is making sure that when you look at your editorial calendar, you can see how all your blog posts link together.
So you write a blog post on how to get more blog followers. Then you write another post on how to increase your SEO strategy and write another post on how to increase your traffic.
They all interlink and cross-promote with each other.
If you do that and link to your other blog posts within a specific post? It increases your sessions, pageviews, and it also increases time on your site.
So think about how you can cross-promote and make sure your blog posts flow from one to another.
#5 | CONTRIBUTION
You need to find the right “thing” to contribute to. Luckily, there are so many blogs, websites, and publications out there that will allow you to share your voice.
I'd also focus on making connections rather than trying to sell yourself.
For instance, I have a digital magazine called Blogging Breakthrough that is purely run by contributors. But the people that contribute haven’t just come out of the blue. They’re people that have built up a connection with me and who have reached out to me on social media before. That really works.
And make it easy for the person you want to contribute too. Don’t just email them and ask a general question. Tell them what you’ve got in mind for your blog post so the person doesn’t have any option but to say yes.
#6 | SORT A SOCIAL MEDIA POSTING SCHEDULE
This is going to be key if you want more blog followers, because nobody is going to see your blog posts unless you actually promote them.
On the day that you publish a post on your blog you want to share it:
- Multiple times on Twitter
- On your Instagram feed
- In your Instagram Story
- To Facebook
- In Facebook groups where there’s a promo thread
- Wherever you can on Pinterest
This will boost the views on your content, generate more engagement on each of your social platforms and drive more traffic to your site as a whole.
And then what you want to do is KEEP sharing it. The average lifespan of a tweet is only 18 minutes. You need to share it the next day, the next week, the next month and so on.
I’d love to hear your feedback - leave it in the comments below, and if you liked these tips, let me know how you’re going to implement them.
Remember to always be working on growing your blog followers so you can get one step closer to a breakthrough.
