In the first week of May, you heard from several bloggers with unique perspectives on how they grew their readership into a force to be reckoned with. It was the fourth Theme Week we’ve held here on ProBlogger this year, and it was an interesting one. We had discussions about introducing forums, how to get people to read your personal blog, how to drive traffic to a startup blog, and how to create a beautiful blog that people can’t help but share with their friends. And while everyone had different advice, they all agreed on these three tips:
Top Three Takeaways from Finding Readers Week
1. Relationships
The universal sentiment was honour your reader. Give them great content and be approachable. DJ from SteamFeed says to “nurture them”. Talk to real people in real ways.
Mrs Woog agrees, saying she writes like she speaks, and that resonates with her readers. She likes to interact with her readers both on the blog and on her Facebook page. She says that she’ll start the conversations, and watch them develop – even seeing readers chat with each other. She advises being available to respond to your readers, and carve out time especially to do so.
Corinne took interacting with her readers to a whole new level when she shared her number-one tip for finding readers – to comment on other people’s blogs. She dedicated hours to doing this, and in turn, was rewarded with a highly-engaged readership who have a real sense of community. She then took it one step further and added forums for her readers to interact.
In addition to having great content delivered on a great platform that inspires sharing, Dustin recommends “writing for real people”, and said having a voice that people can relate to is crucial in growing your readership. He also advises having a reader profile so you know to whom you are talking.
2. Consistency
Whether it’s honing your voice and practising your writing often like Mrs Woog, or posting consistently so your readers know what to expect, like DJ, keeping a rhythm was important across the board. Be reliable. Be dependable. Make blogging and writing a priority. Keep at it. Sound the same in every post. Be recognizable everywhere. Corinne was consistent in commenting on others’ blogs, and that was a successful strategy. Dustin was consistent with the visual experience his readers would receive every time they clicked over to his site. When readers know what to expect (and they know they’ll get an honest, authentic voice), they’ll come back for more.
3. Be Where Your Readers Are
It can be an uphill battle throwing your blog to the internet and hoping it gets seen. A strategy that works better is to hang out online in the places your readers hang out. Or where your potential readers hang out. For some of you, that might be Instagram. For a majority, it will be Facebook. Your cohort might be the people who keep G+ rolling. Wherever they are, that’s where you can be. Mrs Woog is active on Facebook, using it as a tool to converse with her readership as well as a place to promote her new posts. DJ recommends syndicating your blog to other sites, and marketing it well. Corinne thinks Twitter is pretty useless for her blog, so went elsewhere for readers. And Dustin believes the right social media channels make all the difference. He advises to ignore the people saying you should be on all of them, and instead focus on cultivating a couple that really drive results. Above all, though, it has to be a platform you enjoy using.
I know I learned a few new things from such different perspectives – did something resonate with you, too?
Great post, Stacey! Over the years I’ve noticed some of my most valuable readers (the ones that sign up for my newsletters, share my content, and purchase my affiliate offers) are the ones I’ve taken the time to really get myself involved with. When you get yourself involved with your readers, they will get involved with you and great things happen.
Thanks for sharing!
I agree, that investment in relationships makes all the difference. Plus it’s fun!
I am new to blogging and really motivated to see your post writing style. I want to say thanks to you. I am going to use this method of writing post in my blogging career. I wish you write more motivating and quality content like this.
Thanks For Sharing This !!
Yes! That’s the universal truth to create community. Obviously Relationships is the main point to do that also understanding reader is important thing but it’s not easy for everyone. To create good Community needs more practice also more time.
Thanks for share.
I agree :)
When the 1% who have built enormous lists tell the 99% who don’t, that it’s easy – is it really? Then you do, to find – it is!
Seems like to lose weight or to gain fortune – there are a gazillion ways to build your list. Some, like here, sounding (much) better than others. The key, I think, is to choose ONE – then keep choosing until you find the one that works, for you – because there are ‘only’ 24 hours in a day, and two might be one too many.
It is very important to hang out where our readers are. Certainly, it could be overwhelming! But it is totally important and cannot be neglected for petty reasons.
Second most important thing is consistency – trying out any traffic generation tip for a week and giving up coz you don’t find the results won’t cut it. Consistently trying out a new strategy will not only give results but will also help build up a solid traffic strategy for the long term.
Bang on Darren, relationship is the key which defines the success in blogging business. The content, the interaction and the value of the blog resonates with the good relationship.
Consistency helps in making readers expect the content at the right time, this way they can even make themselves free to read the post.
There seems no logic to posting all the feeds in facebook if one has million followers in twitter. One needs to analyze their audience social media websites and be more active in that social website only.
Great article, I found it on kingged.
Sure, something did resonate with me, and that is “value”. From the takeaways of relationship, consistency, and being where the readers are, I easily see value been transferred from a blog the readers!
To explain this better, finding readers involves creating dependable contents that readers would interact with and have their problems solved.
I have left this comment in kingged.com – the content syndication and social marketing platform for Internet marketers, where this post was shared.
Sunday – kingged.com contributor
http://kingged.com/top-takeaways-finding-readers-week-today-create-community/
I agree with all the three tips above but from a realistic point of view, for someone who has a day job and is starting out an affiliate blog, it’s one step at a time. The content and its consistency comes first and foremost, and over time I would be looking to bring the other aspects into the game too.
And about relationships, that’s true in the real world too, isn’t it?
I enjoyed this post.
I was surprised to read a blogger didn’t get much use out of Twitter. It’s the perfect place to write short form content and ask people questions.
Great post. I think good idea to create community is to go OFFLINE :-) I mean if you’re a blogger and you have some readers, you can meet them in real world or participate in offline events connected with blogging and internet. People should know you’re a normal person, not just an anonymous writer. Then the buzz marketing begins :)
It is important to build your community, for your content will not go viral if you don’t have them. There are many suggestions and tips with regard to this topic, and you can actually find it anywhere on the web. I must agree that these three tips given above are the most common. Building reader’s relationship, being consistent and interacting with your readers – these three are all valuable in creating your own community. I suggest you to be active in various social media platforms. This is the place where you can leverage the most and perhaps a place where you can start at.
Darren,
Many thanks for your theme weeks. You’ve given me an opportunity to both go deep into the content yet roll it up with the summaries like this one. From this, I’ve put together a list of key words and associated headlines to keep the key points in front of me as I write each next post. Example
– Voice: your voice needs to be clear, consistent and above else, your own
– Conversation: write the way you talk – light fast, simple
etc.
Keep it coming!