Blog
Gathering Your Blog Audience
1. Pick a topic in a niche that has good demand
What is the sense of blogging on a topic that no one cares about? If you’re blogging for fun or just blogging to fulfill a desire to write and publish your feelings . . . then go ahead and blog about whatever you want. But if your intent is to help other people in a specific niche and get paid for your value, you need to focus on a topic that is currently in demand.
The topic of your blog doesn’t need to have massive demand. In fact, many of the most successful blogs are in very tight niches where you would not suppose there is major demand. But for a moment, consider the “reach” of the Internet . . .
“Internet users. As of June 2018, 55.1% of the world’s population has internet access. In 2015, the International Telecommunication Union estimated about 3.2 billion people, or almost half of the world’s population, would be online by the end of the year.” Source: Wikipedia.org
Even some minor niches have enough targeted prospects to make for a good sized audience for a blogger!
2. Offer high quality content
By “high quality” content, I mean you should blog about topics that are relevant to the wants and desires of your audience. To find out what they want, follow these steps:
- Find out what types of information products they’re already buying – then write blog posts on the same topic.
- Use a keyword tool (like WordTracker) to find out what topics people in your niche are looking for.
- Drop by busy niche forums and other blogs in the niche to see which topics are generating the most views and discussion.
- Survey your readers to find out what they want.
- Visit Amazon books to see what niche topics are popular and selling well.
- Visit the “Dummies” book site and see if there are books on the niche topic
- Visit your local bookstore or Magazines(dot)com and see if there are magazines devoted to the topic
3. Update frequently
Sometimes people start a blog, post a flurry of articles and then abandon the blog for months at a time. If you allow dated posts, then your visitors aren’t likely to come back again if they notice that you don’t update regularly.
What you need to do is commit to posting to your blog at least once a week. If you don’t want to be chained to your blog like this, then create the content ahead of time and automatically “drip” it to your readers. Alternatively, hire a ghostwriter to both create the content and post it.
Point is, you need to post often to keep your blog from looking like a deserted island.
4. Create regular features
Here’s a great way to turn a one-time visitor into a repeat visitor. Specifically, by creating “regular features” and multi-part blog posts that your visitors can look forward to.
Example: Maybe you create a seven-part article about how to make money with pay per click marketing. Maybe you space it out so that you’re posting one or two articles per week. You can bet that your readers will return at least once a week just to finish reading the series.
Another way to get more visitors is by creating a regular feature, such as a “tip of the week” feature or even a “questions from our readers” feature.
There are lots of other ways to add regular features – brainstorm and get a little creative and you will find some great ideas.
5. Write about hot topics
One way to get a surge of traffic and increase in your blog popularity is by writing about hot or even controversial topics. You can include relevant keywords and “ping” the blog directories (like technorati.com) to make sure that those who are searching for the hot topic see your post.
Another way to leverage a hot topic is by joining in on the blogosphere conversation. Simply find a popular blog discussing a hot topic, and use a trackback to add your response.
6. Get someone influential to endorse your blog
Finally, you can get others to visit your blog by first getting someone influential in your niche to endorse you (and your blog). You can do this indirectly, such as by offering to be a guest author on the other person’s blog. You can also ask your joint venture partners to directly endorse you on their blogs and in their newsletters (and you’ll return the favor).
It’s free advertising. In addition, it’s also extremely powerful because you’re using social proof to increase your readership.
There you have it. You just discovered five smart and proven ways to get others to visit your blog – and to visit it again and again! Your next step is to take action on these suggestions. Starting today; apply these tips . . . and keep an eye on your traffic logs!
To your online business success,
Steve Browne
www.SteveBrowneDirect.com