10 ways to increase your followers

Increasing the numbers of followers is one of those vexing blogging topics that has many people obsessing over stats, comparing themselves with others, and Googling for the best strategies to bring in more people.

The good news is that there is no magic formula to increasing readers; all it takes is time and effort. Time both in the length of time your blog has been active and the amount of time you spend on the effort.

Effort must be focused on both keeping the existing followers and attracting new followers. Below are some tips to remember and ideas to try and if you do all of this consistently for several months, you will definitely increase your followers.

1. Be ready.

First you need to think about what would happen if your blog were featured on the front page of the biggest newspaper in the country. You would have a lot of curious people clicking to your blog, and potentially, a lot of new followers. Is your site ready? Or will they take one look and click away because of lack of interesting content or poor design?

Whether you’re new at blogging or you’ve been doing it several years, have a look at your site every now and then to make sure it’s ready for those fantastic moments that happen from time to time when your blog has been spotted by a journalist, or reTweeted by someone with many thousands of followers and brought to the attention of a much wider audience than you usually have.

Or perhaps you’re interested in monetizing your blog. You’ll have a much better chance of success if your blog is in top form when a PR or brand representative stops by to have a look.

And don’t be afraid to change things and play around with your design and content. Definitely don’t get stressed if it isn’t in top form constantly, just try to keep it looking good as often as you can.

2. Create good content.

Good content can be an everyday story turned into something funny and entertaining, great recipes, useful tips, fun ideas or incredible photos. All kinds of topics and themes can be turned into great content. Susanna started a fascinating topic over on the BritMums forum: Would you read your own blog? That’s an excellent editing technique to start with when writing your posts.

Don’t forget, your About page really needs great content as much as your posts.

3. Design well.

When you walk into a shop or a restaurant and it’s a bit shabby and uninteresting you don’t really want to spend much time there. Not unless you really, really like the content. But when you walk into a place that is pretty or striking, then its fun to stay there for a while, browse, see what else is there. It’s no different with a blog.

You don’t have to pay for a designer, just do a little playing around with the look yourself. Or, pay a designer for parts of it, such as a header or logo.

Part of good design is easy navigation. Include a menu bar so people can easily visit other parts of your site and return to the home page again.

Another essential part of good design is making it easy for visitors to follow, so include easy to find follow options such as an RSS button and an email form.

Oh, and be careful with ads both in the main page and in the sidebar. Not only does this look distracting and a bit messy, but also Google’s new algorhythms mean Google will penalize you for too many ads and your blog won’t appear as high on the search engine results. You want to appear on the first or second page of search results so more people will click onto your site.

4. Engage.

Once you’ve caught the visitors’ attention by your fantastic content and lovely design, you need to keep their attention.

Ask a question at the end of your post to continue the conversation—“do you have any more tips on recycling?” Or ask readers for advice, “I still struggle with time management as a parent—anyone have any suggestions on how I can feed my family and do homework and…”

When people leave comments, reply to their comments. Readers check back more often that you might suspect. And even if they don’t, other readers will see that you reply to comments and that will make them feel more like leaving one. The conversation you have in your comments enhances your post.

Engagement doesn’t stop with your post and website. Visit the blogs of people who leave comments. If they’re a new commenter thank them for stopping by then comment on their post. Get into a Twitter discussion about the same topic; throw in a link to your post every now and then (but not too often) for people who want to see more on the subject.

If you meet other bloggers face to face, stay in touch with them. The extra connection you have from the real life meeting will mean they are not only more likely to follow you, but to tell others about you.

5. Guest post.

One of the best ways of gaining new readers is writing relevant guest posts. I emphasise relevant because convincing people from outside your niche to spend their precious time normally used for visiting blogs in their niche, to visit your blog is much more difficult than convincing people who are already interested in your niche to stop by and see what else you have.

Guest post on both other relevant blogs and larger sites, like BritMums. Look for sites in your niche that may have a different readership, or many more followers. If you have 56 followers, a guest post on the BritMums Blog with thousands of followers will greatly increase your exposure!

Often bloggers will do a guest post exchange. Or, if you want your post to go to a bigger site, read through their recent archive and see what has already been covered, look for any gaps, and send in a proposal for a post.

Writing a guest post is not usually a paid assignment. When you guest post you are doing so to increase your audience and hopefully the new audience clicks to your blog. You will also get your name in more places on the Internet, which increases your visibility.

You usually put a link back to your blog in the post or author bio and this is a valuable, free backlink to your blog. The more links back to your site you have, the better your PageRank—especially if from a bigger blog with a high Page Rank.

6. Follow others.

When visiting other blogs, click on one of the follow methods—email sub, RSS reader, Networked blogs, and follow them. Then leave a comment about their post and add that you’re a new follower. I don’t always know when someone has started to follow me and it’s nice to be told so I can go check out his or her blog as well when I next have opportunity.

7. Revisit blogs.

Don’t assume one visit and a quick comment will inspire the blogger to follow you back. You need to leave a series of meaningful comments on another blog, creating that wonderful engagement.

8. Get involved.

Be seen. If you are everywhere after a while people will simply click on your link out of curiosity. Find a couple of forums (more if you have time) where you can visit frequently and get involved in conversations. Engage! If people ask a question that you can answer, do so. Be helpful and interesting.

9. Become an expert.

At something, anything!

I don’t just mean an expert at casseroles, or a cake decorating phenomena, or a children’s yoga instructor, or a travel guru or a true green thumb. Look at everything in your life and find something you know well. Do you absolutely love reading trashy romances?  Call yourself the Trashy Romance Mum (or Dad!) and write reviews of your favourite books mixed in with tales of parenting duties clashing with your hobby—the time when you caught your nine year old reading one she found in your bedroom, or the difficulties of trying to read a really exciting bit while also trying to nurse a child home ill from school, or whatever.

Becoming known as an expert in your field will draw in more followers.

10. Remember the readers.

Remember to keep your regulars happy but think of ways to bring in new readers (and convert them to followers).

Don’t be afraid to try new things on the regular readers, but try to keep giving them the content they’ve come to your site for.

Don’t exclude new people with too many in-jokes or memes, and if you do include these, also include a link to the source so people can get caught up if they’re interested.

Bonus tip.

Above all, show people how much you love blogging and writing about your subjects and your passion will win many followers!

 Check back tomorrow for a post from Jody Brettkelly on hosting giveaways on your blog!