What good is a blog without readers? Anyone can create a blog, the trick is creating a following as well.
If you are blogging for fun you may not care whether it gets any views or not; but if you are blogging for income or promotion each visitor is gold.
The following is a list of ways to build a loyal following for your blog: 1.
Are You Publishing on a Regular Basis? Keeping a regular schedule of publishing will keep your blog fresh and new.
It will also encourage readers to regularly visit your blog because they will expect to have a good read waiting for them.
Publishing frequently is also viewed favorably by search engines.
You are more likely to climb the ranks if you always have a stream of fresh content being posted.
2.
Does Your Blog Have a Topic? In order to get a following of readers who really care about what you have to say you need to cater to them by writing about a topic they want to read about.
Pick a niche and write about it so that people who are interested in the topic will visit back frequently.
Not having a focus can be detrimental to keeping the attention of your readers.
Just make sure you are writing about a topic that interests you as well so that you do not dread putting in the work.
3.
Are Your Post Titles Meaningful? Clear, targeted post titles have a twofold benefit.
First, it shows the reader exactly what your post is about without having to read through an entire post.
Second, it has SEO benefits.
If you have a keyword-focused title it can be picked up by search engines for a traffic generating search.
4.
Is Your Blog Interactive? Blogs are created to share information and ideas...
and to interact! If your posts are getting comments you should comment back.
Interact with your readers.
Make them feel like they are a part of the site so that they will come back for more.
5.
Are You Showing Off Your Best Posts? The more you write the deeper and deeper some of your posts get buried.
You may have some invaluable information in post you wrote last year.
If you do not bring it to new readers' attention they may never see it.
It is a good idea to highlight your best or most popular posts in a section of your blog (preferably on the side bar).
6.
How Easy is it to Navigate Your Blog? Making navigation simple for your readers creates for a more enjoyable experience for them.
If you make it easy for them to get to related posts or to popular pages they will be happier visiting your blog.
7.
Do You Stop Posting? You should avoid dry-spells where you do not make a post for an extended period of time.
If a new reader (or even an old one) comes to your blog and sees that there have been no new posts for a few weeks they may get disappointed.
Even worse, they may think that you have stopped updating your blog altogether.
If you are expecting to not be by your computer for a while you can always create a bank of posts and schedule them to auto-post over the period.
This gives the illusion that you are there updating your blog.
Keep your readers interested and they will reward you by coming back.
Apply these tips and you will be on your way to building a successful blog in no time.