10 Ways to Build Readership for your Blog

So you have started blogging. Few of your closest IL friends have even commented on your blog. However, that is not enough to keep you going for the long haul. What will motivate you to continue and improve your blogging is a steady and increasing readership for your blog. You need to build a good number (at least 100+) of regular readers for your blog who will provide the feedback, encouragement and motivation to continue blogging. Following are 9 time-tested ways to build your blog readership.

Before we get to the “9 ways” list, there are a couple of things that are tickets to entry. Without these two, nothing else matters.

a. Write compelling content - This is pretty obvious. At the end of the day, readers will come to your blog repeatedly only if your content is useful, unique, entertaining and well-written. Make them feel that reading through your blog was worthwhile. With every blog entry, your objective should be to give an “Ah ha” experience to the reader. If you do that, they will soon be telling all their friends about your blog and spreading the word for you. (Also see Are readers enjoying your blog? 5 simple ways to measure the quality of your blog)

b. Write regularly - It is hard to build regular readership with one-off blog entries. You want your readers to form a habit of visiting your blog at a regular interval. You will achieve that only if you blog at a predictable schedule (e.g. a new entry every Monday) and consistently stick to that schedule.

Once the above two are taken care of, the following 9 techniques can help build strong readership for your blog.

1. Interlink your blog postings – In each of your blog entries, if relevant, reference your other blog entries and link to them. Say something like, “In my last blog, I talked about the 5 ways to measure quality of your blog. Here, I want to talk about the 9 ways to build readership for your blog”

2. Add a link in your forum signature – Indusladies.com has a very vibrant discussion forum. Use that to drive traffic to your blog. In your forum signature, add a link to your blog. If you write attention-getting titles for your blog entries, put the blog title in your forum signature. You can extend this technique to forums other than Indusladies.com as well (if it doesn’t violate that forum’s rules).

3. Encourage comments – When a new reader glances at your blog and finds that there are several comments on it, they view this as an indication of the quality of your blog. Only good blogs evoke user responses. It’s a good practice to end your blog asking a question or encouraging readers to share their opinion. Respond to every comment individually as it shows your respect for the commenter’s time and thoughts. Also, your involvement in the conversation increases the willingness of your readers to “participate”.

4. Comment on other people’s blogs – Find blogs that are similar to yours and make thoughtful comments on them. Most blogs will allow you to leave a link in the name/signature or as part of the comment. That is how others find out about your blog. Be careful not to scribble a line, just to get your link. That is not polite.

5. Add a link to your blog in your personal email signature – This is an effortless way to let many people to know about your blog. Once you set it up, this technique will work to drive traffic without you even consciously thinking about it.

6. Get link from other bloggers – I am sure that most of you visit and read other blogs. Ask for a link to your blog in their blog roll. If you ask politely, most bloggers will oblige your request.

7. Write an effective, attention-getting title for your blog entry – 99% of the people make the decision to read a blog by reading the blog title. For your blog entry to be read, you should spend the time to think about a title that hooks the reader’s attention and motivates them to read on. On the other hand, make sure that you payoff the title with good content in the body of your blog entry.

8. Ask readers to email your blog entry to their friends – At the bottom right of every blog, there is a icon for readers to email your blog entry to their friends. As you end your blog entry, ask readers to email your blog entry to their friends. You can also do this as part of your comments section. If someone comments on your blog saying that they enjoyed it, you can respond something like “I am glad you liked it. Can you please email (use the icon on the bottom right of the blog entry) this blog entry to your friends so they can enjoy it as as well?”

9. Request them to subscribe to your blog – Once a new reader stumbles upon your blog and have a stellar reading experience, you want to capitalize on that and make them a regular reader of your blog. The way to do that is by asking them to subscribe to your blog. By subscribing to your blog, members will get instantaneously notified of any new blog entry you make. There is a “Subscribe to this Blog” link to the left of all your blog entries. There is also a “Subscribe to Blog Entry” link at the bottom right of all your blog entries. The first one subscribes the reader to your blog and the second one subscribes the reader to the specific blog entry.

10. Register in blog directories - Many readers go to blog directories to discover new and interesting blogs. Register your blog in as many directories are possible. Following are two good ones for Indian blogs - www.blogadda.com and www.indiblogger.in.

If you follow these techniques for building readership, you will soon make a name for yourself and a loyal following for your blog.

Finally, are there any other techniques that have worked for you as a blogger, please share it in the comments section below so everyone could benefit from it.