The First Steps to Marketing Your Blog
The process of starting a blog is relatively easy – you log onto a free host and begin sharing your personal expertise with the online world. Weekly columns turn into daily posts as your circle of readers grows from your mother and close friends to a more expansive set of enthusiasts. Your pulse quickens with each comment notification and every new viewer feels like a personal victory – suddenly you’ve caught the blogging bug.
At some point to be successful in the blogosphere, effort needs to put toward growing your audience. How do you draw people to your site, keep them there and turn them into loyal followers? Here are a few tips for growing and maintaining a strong reader base.
Find Your People
The first step to growing a successful online presence is to find your people. Who are you writing for? Is it the single working mother who would love your tips on time management? Is it gardening enthusiasts who flock to your site for the best tomato growing advice?
Determine your audience and cater to your niche. Your readers will continue to return to your blog if you’re providing actionable, helpful content that appeals to their interests. Once you’ve found your people, focus on getting to know them. Follow your readers so you can better determine what topics appeal to your core demographic. Engaging with your followers will help them feel invested in your site and make them more likely to become loyalists.
Sharing is Caring
Make it as easy as possible for readers to spread your blog content to their circle of influence. This includes setting up share buttons at the bottom of your posts that automatically generate content for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn and any accounts you associate with your website.
On the flip side, spread content you find interesting – including sharing your own. It’s important to be connected on social media and develop a diverse online presence. You’re more likely to gain new readers by circulating your website across several different mediums. An RSS feed is another great way to keep your audience engaged – there are a variety of generators that make creating RSS code fast and easy.
Be a Guest
One simple way to grow your audience is to guest post on other blogs that fit into your niche. By expanding your reach and branching onto other sites you’ll gain access to a host of readers that may otherwise be unfamiliar with your blog. Also allowing others to guest post on your site will create a good relationship within your online community and may bring new eyes your way as well.
Use All Resources
Chances are most of your readers haven’t explored all the content on your site. Email marketing (as long as it’s opt-in only) can be highly targeted and provide subscribers with additional site content they may have otherwise missed. It’s also a great way to stay engaged with readers who have already expressed an interest in hearing from you by “opting in” to your correspondence.
Do your research before blasting your contact list with emails. Check out The Small Business Guide to Email Marketing for helpful tips on creating a campaign that effectively targets your intended recipients.
Don’t Be a Slow Poke
If your website is taking too long to load or contains errors you will immediately lose readers. No one likes to stare at a blank loading screen when trying to access content. There are a million other things vying for your reader’s attention and your website needs to fulfill user expectations in order to remain relevant. Consider using CDN services which will optimize your blog for the fastest load times and in turn keep readers engaged while making your content easily accessible.
Marketing your blog is a challenge for even the savviest of webmasters; however, by leveraging the above suggestions you can take the first steps towards growing a powerhouse group of readers who will continue to visit your site again and again.
Rob Toledo resides in the great Pacific Northwest where he spends most of his weekends hiking, camping and enjoying the rain as much as possible. He also spends a lot of time working on his side project Chess Club or enjoying a cup of delicious coffee. He can be reached on Twitter @stentontoledo.
