If you want to attract a strong readership for your blog, it’s
obvious that you need to create great content. But that’s not sufficient:
amazing content that doesn’t get read might as well not exist. To build a
thriving blog, you also need to learn to drive traffic to it.
So what methods do the experts use? We’ve compiled a list of 13
tried and true ways to build your audience.
1.
Incorporate social influencers into your blog posts
(where relevant). Writing about, say, social media? If you cite a
prominent example like Gary Vaynerchuk, it’s a win-win: your post has
more credibility because you’ve cited a specific example, and the thought
leader in question may be inclined to promote the blog among his or her
communities, since it mentions them favorably. Same goes for any niche
community, whether you’re citing socially-savvy surfers or sushi chefs.
2.
Add a link to your latest article in your Twitter bio
and ask for retweets. Use your Twitter “real estate” by linking to your latest
article in your Twitter bio. You can also drive social sharing by specifically
asking others to retweet it. (If you create huge amounts of content, you can’t
do this all the time, but it’s powerful when used sparingly.) Indeed, astudy by Social Bakers of thousands of
brands on Twitter found that users who asked their followers to “RT” their
tweet received 73.48 average retweets per tweet. Compare that with just 2.09
retweets for those without a call-to-action.
3.
Send your article out in a blast email or newsletter to
your contacts. If you have an e-newsletter (and it’s still one of the most powerful marketing tools today),
include links to your blog posts. Your subscribers already like what you do;
this nudge can remind them to check out your blog.
4. Add a link into your email signature inviting people to
read your latest blog post. Think about how many people you email on a daily
basis, new and old. This simple practice reminds them you have a blog, and may
intrigue them enough to click the link.
5. Send your blog post to relevant
people/organizations/blogs that would be interested in reading it and sharing
it with their networks. You can simply send a message such as, “I recently
published an article on the top apps for entrepreneurs and thought your readers
might find it interesting.” Offer to reciprocate by sharing or linking to
a relevant post of theirs. Daniel’s writer friend Brian Honigman occasionally
emails him with a specific ask: will Daniel share an article Brian has written
on social media? If Brian were to merely tweet out his article, many people
(including Daniel) might miss it, but an email request cuts through the
clutter.
6.
Send your blog post out to any person or entity
mentioned. It’s not just social influencers – if you mention a local bakery
or car dealership or a software company in your post, send them a link and
alert them. It’s likely they’ll be interested in reading and promoting it, as
well.
7.
Share your article on other social networks. Pinterest,
Vine, Storify, Digg, Quora, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Care2 are just some of the
many options for sharing your work.
8.
Share your article on social bookmarking sites. Plenty to choose
from here, as well: Newsana is a new, good site, and you should also
consider Paper.li, Delicious, Ebaumsworld, Newsvine, Scoop.it, Technorati,
and more.
9.
Tweet your post multiple times, with different teaser
quotes. The first time you tweet about your new post, merely make it
the title of your article (“13 Innovative Ways to Drive More Traffic to Your
Blog”). The second time, you can quote from the article or summarize key points
(“Tip to increase blog readership – send a link to anyone you mention in your
post”). For your third, you can pose a question (“Do you want to dramatically
increase your blog readership?”). This prevents you from looking like a
spammer, and different headlines may capture different readers.
10.
Leverage Google
Authorship. As SEO expert Jayson DeMers has discussed, signing up
for Google Authorship allows your author profile to appear by your posts and
connects it with your Google+ profile.
11.
Utilize LinkedIn groups. Post the
blog via relevant LinkedIn groups. You can join up to 50 groups and many have
thousands upon thousands of members—dramatically increasing your potential
reach. For instance, if you’re a woman in social media who lives in New York,
you might consider joining the “Social Media Marketing” group, with over half a
million members.
12.
Include visual content and videos. Study after study has found people engage
more with images, infographics, videos, and the like. It’s a powerful way to
get readers connected.
13.
Make your blog SEO friendly. Include a
headline that users might search for in Google, such as a “how to.” Repeat
keywords from your headline in your post (but not too frequently, or you’ll
look like a spammer). And make sure to link to credible outside sources and
think about how you can truly add value to the reader. What Google and other
search engines seek to prioritize is quality information.
By
Dorie Clark and Daniel Vahab