If you have started a new blog you want to get traffic flowing to it as soon as possible.
There are strategies that can help this happen very quickly if you are prepared to spend the time implementing them.
Once you have built a following, as long as you keep your blog refreshed and interesting, these strategies will help your blog to grow even further.
When the following is large enough, some companies will be happy to pay you to allow them to advertise on your blog.
This can be done directly with the companies themselves or through a platform such as Google Ads.
Start With Social Media
Make sure to set up a profile on all the popular social media sites. You can post on them every day with a link to your blog.
Do not be overly promotional, as this will make users just scroll past your post.
Try to make them interesting and then people will be more likely to click on your link to find out more.
Make it easy for your post to be shared because if a user likes it this is the quickest way for them to pass it on to other people.
You can set up automatic posts to Twitter, Facebook, and various other platforms so that the amount of time you have to spend is reduced.
When people start to comment ensure you reply to them all. Even if they are disagreeing with what you are saying about your blog, be diplomatic and positive every time.
This will build trust in your blog, and more people will become followers.
Do not think that every post has to be written content. Videos and images are well received on social media, especially if they are light-hearted or funny.
Even the most serious of bloggers can find some humor, as they know this can often be the thing to bring you many new followers.
If you are unsure of the best way to promote your blog, perhaps you should look at completing an MBA in marketing by Walsh University.
This is an online course that can be completed in less than a year. It will teach you all you need to know about marketing your blog on social media as well as in other ways.
Add Something New Every Day
A blog needs to have something new added to it every day, or why would viewers keep going back to it?
This might seem like a lot of work, but you can get around this to some extent by inviting other like-minded people to write a guest blog.
In this way, you will build relationships with other bloggers, and you can help each other’s sites by putting items that link back to your own.
You need to reply to every comment that appears at the end of a blog so that people realize you value their opinions.
Always be as helpful as you can.
While you are loading new content, do not forget to keep a check on your archives.
Has a law changed that affects something you have written?
Has a new product been introduced that makes your post outdated?
There are many things that can make your archives be incorrect, and that will make followers lose trust in you if they go back to read some of your older blogs.
Use SEO
Google and other search engines are very clever. They will pick up on keywords in your blog if people search them.
The more searches you get, the further up their rankings you will move. As it is said that most people don’t move past page 3 of their searches you want to be as high as you can.
Search engine optimization is most successful when your content is relevant and up to date. It has advanced so much in the last few years that now it can also include data from videos, images and your social media.
It was Bill Gates that coined the phrase ‘Content is King’ and it still is. The only difference from when he said that many years ago is that now all types of content matter, not just the written word.
This is also another reason for putting something new on your blog every day.
The search engines like fresh content, and if yours does not have something new on it they will think your site has become irrelevant and will drop your ranking place.
If your site is operated through WordPress, for instance, this will help you to see if the SEO is good enough by giving you pointers about having keywords in subheadings and the number of times the keywords are shown.
You do have to install a plugin such as Yoast or All-in-one SEO Pack, but these can be a great way of ensuring you are making the most of your SEO.
It is also important to research keywords before you decide on which ones to use.
There are tools such as Google keyword planner or KWFinder to help you make sure your keywords are relevant and popular searches.
Interviews
If you can interview other people in the industry your blog is about, this can be a great way of attracting viewers.
Think in terms of names known within the industry or other well-known bloggers and post the interaction to your site.
It is best to raise questions that will solve problems for your followers, but steer clear of anything too controversial as this can drive followers away.
Make Your Site User-Friendly
Your site needs to be user-friendly and easy to navigate or users will not stay to look at the content.
As well as the blogs have pages such as ‘About’ and tell your story there so people understand why you write the things you do.
Viewers love stories, and this will always get them to stay and read more.
It is estimated that you have just 4 seconds to engage new viewers and if your site is not user-friendly they will move onto to somewhere else before that 4 seconds is up.
Make your site attractive to look at, as then more viewers are likely to stay for a closer inspection, and to read more of the content.
Many studies have shown that a good web design helps to build trust with viewers, and this is vital as your site will be the first impression they have of your blog.
Your site should also be responsive to all types of devices.
More and more mobile devices are being used and in some parts of the world, Africa being a typical example, where 98% of Internet use is on mobile phones.
In the US the percentage of Internet use on mobiles compared to desktops is just over 50%, but it is rising all the time.
This could mean that having an app for people to access your blog could be useful, as the easier it is to reach your site, the more viewers will do so.
Run A Contest
Host a contest on social media and make sharing your content one of the entry rules.
This has proven to expand the reach of sites extremely quickly, and as long as the prize is something people want, it can bring huge numbers of new viewers to your blog.
It seems the two prizes that attract the most attention are something to do with travel or technology, but other prizes can work well too.
You may also want to consider some free gifts, as most viewers love to get something that has not cost them anything.
You could offer something small in return for their email address, for example.
Build An Email List
Email marketing fell out of favor for a while, but it was soon realized how the potential of reaching many people was being missed out on and now it is back as ones of the favorites of marketers.
Sending out a regular newsletter to your followers keeps your name in the frame, and if in each email you include a link to your new blogs, emails can work very well.
Build a list of all the emails you can and then use a site such as MailChimp to send them out for you.
With platforms like this, you create the email and it is then automatically sent to everyone on your mailing list.
Most of these sites will handle up to a couple of thousand free, but even when you exceed that, their charges tend to be quite low.
Make Your Blog A Success
Having a successful blog does not just happen on its own. You will need to work hard at it, especially to initially get it off the ground.
Once you have many followers that, having a blog can be very rewarding financially and personally.
You may well find there are far more people that think the same ways as you, and of course, you will have some that disagree with everything you say.
Interacting with them all can be fun and fulfilling, but this will only happen if your blog gets noticed in the first place.
