It is a truth universally acknowledged that if one has a blog, one is in want of readers. We want people to stop by and read our stories, hear our messages, see our videos, listen to our podcasts. We want to connect, we want to share, and we want to engage.
But sometimes we get stuck in a rut marketing ourselves to our audiences. It might be from a lack of time to spare, it might be from fear of the unknown – but it happens more often than we think. It’s usually always a good idea to give yourself a bit of a shake-up and move out of your comfort zone, (even if you’re only taking baby steps) but it can be another thing entirely actually doing it.
Proven traffic-drivers and ways to engage your readership are talked about a lot. There are tons of articles on what social media platform might be best for you, how to write a great comment so you get noticed on other people’s blogs, and how to be seen. Why not take a tip you’ve never used before and give it a go?
Think Outside the Box
Different things work for different people, but some of us also are guilty of sticking to our old favourites. What I’m suggesting is we look outside our usual channels and see if something might be useful. What are new bloggers doing that we aren’t? (Darren’s post on reviewing blogs as part of your research is a great start). What are bloggers in different niches doing? Is Instagram worth a shot to broaden your brand? Are we neglecting what Facebook can offer? Should we get started on Pinterest? Have we forgotten about Twitter? (I have!).
Let’s do a little experiment. Let’s take a new tactic that’s working well for someone else and give it our best shot. It might be successful and we have a new trick in our arsenal. It might get lost in the arctic wasteland of the internet. But we’ll have learned something, and will have more of an understanding of where our readers are and where new ones could be.
Stacey Roberts is the content ninja at ProBlogger.net, and the blogger behind Veggie Mama. Can be found making play-dough, reading The Cat in the Hat for the eleventh time, and avoiding the laundry. See evidence on Instagram here, on Facebook here, and twitter @veggie_mama.
Thinking inside the box will only allow you to repeat the same results, however, sometimes the best content comes a little outside your traditional niche and it’s important to test things out. Thanks for the write up !
You’re welcome! I’m really trying to think differently to my normal ways. I hope it sparks a new way of doing things!
yup ! totaly agree with u
Awesome post Stacey! I know that I need to look beyond my own ideas for fresh blogging tips, and this post was great encouragement for me. I think I am going to use my other channels (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) to expand my blog’s reach. Thanks for the post!
I know, I’m trying to get a handle on using LinkedIn better as well!
Linkedin is one of the best Medium..!
Maybe it’s not new in the blog world, but it’s new for me. I started a feature on my blog called “Golf Blog Foursome.” Each week I read somewhere between 15-20 different golf blogs and pick four of the best articles and then write a little blurb about each including a link back to there blog. I then reach out and say something simple like “Hello, I included your article in my new feature……” I then Tweet out links and use Facebook, Google+ and Pinterest to promote the post. I am tracking how much traffic I might get from other people retweets and the like… I think it’s worth the try and something I have never done before!
I like the idea, how you seen good results from it yet?
Hi Stacey,
Your view on this topic is point blank. The blogging sphere is one full of surprises,especially as regards to what could trigger traffic. Experimenting with new ideas can be fulfilling.
There is no harm in thinking out of the box and trying out new methods of sharing content and doing blog promotion. Its just important that bloggers apply the will power to follow suit and do something new!
I have shared this comment in kingged.com – the content syndication, aggregation, and social bookmarking website for Internet marketers and bloggers, where this post was found and “kingged”.
Sunday – kingged.com contributor
http://kingged.com/do-something-different-today-to-help-grow-your-blog/
1 tiny little change makes the difference.
I switched up my theme; well not too tiny a change, but it took about an hour to do for my web designer.
After that 1 hour I saw a massive shift; I became a branding powerhouse, with brand.com interviewing me, was asked to speak at NYU and I decided to release my first product too, after receiving a confident charge with my new theme.
All it took was a seemingly tiny nudge, doing something different.
Thanks!
Just yesterday i read an article somewhere that said people can grow their blog by thinking big, i objected and said no that you can not grow your blog more than it is already if you think big.
The only way to grow a blog is to think differently. Thinking differently will make you stand out, it will put you on a path where every other person is just following and you are leading and that way you can command a lot of influence to make a significant change.
Thinking differently makes the difference not thinking big. Thanks for sharing.
I found this post on Kingged.com and also left a comment on it.
Thinking differently – outside the box – is a challenge for me. But it’s certainly worth the time and struggle. I think more than getting in a rut trying to market myself, I get in a rut thinking I don’t have enough to offer to other readers. Coming up with something a little different might be a way for me to feel that I have more to offer.
Thanks for the advice, Stacey!
Thinking outside the box is great for those bloggers who keep trying the same thing repeatedly and it just does not seem to work!
I love that podcast thing very much, thinking of launching a podcast channel lolz…! Any way nice information
and linkedin work for me verymuch.
Thank you Stacey,
It’s a very optimistic post. And I do agree that we should use social media (I prefer Twitter and Facebook).
It’s really cool to think outside the box, but it also means that you have to get out of your comfort-zone and do something new. Some bloggers are afraid of changes, and eventually, readers forget about them.
Like the idea engage the social web, its so important that you find where your readers are hanging out.
But the problem is it is really difficult to think outside the box. Specially when you are so much into a thing, you forget to thing anything apart from it..
Great article Stacey! I had been plodding away for two years with my daily take on European soccer being a huge fan and living in Spain helped to keep the interest alive, but using Facebook and Twitter I was having a hard time gaining traffic with the site stuck around the 100 to 200 hundred hits a day level.
I was producing a minimum of five-fresh articles a day that were relevant news topics on what was happening in the world of soccer yet with so much competition I just was not getting anywhere as far as growing traffic was concerned until a friend of mine in Africa that I collaborated with suggested I submit my site to a soccer news feed to help promote my articles.
I followed the rules to have my site accepted by them last July, and then gave up on ever hearing from them until just last month when they wrote to say my site had been accepted.
It has been a month now since my articles first appeared on their feed and my traffic went from 5,000 hits a month to 57,000 hits a month.
My goal now is to get listed on Google News and hopefully we will continue to grow which goes to show when you think you have hit a brick wall there are still ways around it.
it is true, often we fail in old habits and we forget to think outside the box
Thinking differently will make stand out, it will put you on a path where every other person is just following and you are leading and that way you can command a lot of influence to make a significant change.
I think this is a great idea! Everyonce in a while in a realationship even if it with a blog its good to spice things up. Also to try new things and that works out better maybe not go back to old ways.I am going to take a look at harnessing pinterest and instragram
yup, creative and innovative ideas, I think we need to think creatively how to grow our blog and make it unique, no copy paste conten (including spun articles), so we have a different blog from the other’s blog
in 2014 social media give more traffic and ROI
Yes a new and fresh article will help you to get more and more traffic.. and also how it written
I am constantly watching what others are doing on their blogs to come up with new and fresh ways of getting subscribers. I’ve gotten some great ideas this way.
I’m gonna try this. I am terrible with coming up with new ideas for my blog and always seem to need inspiration. Thanks for the tip.
I have found that trying new strategies to grow my blog and then taking the time to reflect on what worked and what didn’t has been a great method for learning and increasing traffic.
1 tiny little change makes the difference.
I switched up my theme; well not too tiny a change, but it took about an hour to do for my web designer.
After that 1 hour I saw a massive shift; I became a branding powerhouse, with brand.com interviewing me, was asked to speak at NYU and I decided to release my first product too, after receiving a confident charge with my new theme.
All it took was a seemingly tiny nudge, doing something different.
Thanks!
Your blogging life never ends. Each day you learn new. So trying new each day is a nice idea, Hope your tips will help my blog! Thanks
Thinking outside the box is a great idea to make your blog go viral and also to create a buzz around it.
Most times a new blogger want his/her blog to look like a successful blog, but being different from the crowd these days is what helps to work.
Great Post Stacey,
Yes If some one want to be a successful Blogger. He She should think Outside the box. and will implement those things that can be useful for anyone.
Only in that way some one can have the results what every bloggers wants.
Thanks to share.
I mainly work on Facebook and Twitter – I would love to use Instagram more but I don’t like the “mobile only” platform – while it’s great for viewing it is very limiting for business.
Ironic, I sit with the other side of the problem.I am a newby and am trying every and anything and hope something sticks.Sometimes I get some results but not always sure from what. So my new style is to try something new, stay with it and if no results move on to the next. Might not be out of the box for old hands but it is for me.
Thank you Stacey
I love that podcast thing very much, I love that podcast thing very much, nice information thanks