Think you have great content and not enough readers? Beyond focusing on great content for your intended target audience, here are several additional ways to get more people reading and following your blog.
Use your social networks
Just because they’re following you elsewhere doesn’t mean they subscribe to your RSS feed, or know when you’ve written something new. Use tools such as dlvr.it to automatically add new blog posts to your designated social channels, with unique tracking URLs so you know which social networks are most effective at driving traffic.
Invite comments & reaction
The most basic advice is to ask a question or two at the end of the post. Explicitly invite your readers to comment, let them know you want their opinion, and they’ll be more likely to come back again if they feel they’re own voices will be heard. In your social networks, be explicit that you’re looking for feedback on an idea or opinion. This may drive more traffic than simply sharing the headline and link.
Say something controversial
No surprise that controversial content gets read and shared more often. Take a side, back it up with research and/or reasoning, and consider sharing the post directly with those who both agree with you and likely disagree. Those who agree will more likely share it with their friends & followers, and those who disagree may very well send their own followers to argue with you in the comments. But that’s what you want, right?
Write about and link to others who are likely to talk about it
Don’t assume that others who care about the same topic are going to read your post or automatically find it in their Google Alerts and Alltop searches. Send them links, ask for their opinions, invite them to your comments. Target especially those who may have their own blogs, social networks with followers, or occasional aggregated news summaries of stories and opinions they particularly like.
Find others talking about the same topic & add a link back
There’s nothing wrong with finding other content similar to yours (or at least on the same topic), offering a summary opinion in the comments section, and linking back to your own longer perspective on your blog. There’s a difference between blatantly fishing for links with a quick sentence and link-back, and a thoughtful response specifically to the third-party post and a contextual reference to your own piece. The first is spam, the second is participation.
Make following you easier
Does your blog post template make it easy for readers to follow you? Is your RSS feed, social handles, and an invitation to subscribe via email prominent, ideally above the fold on the page? Make it easy and more likely that people will come back again.
Repurpose & cross-sell
Take your really good content and publish it in multiple formats. Turn a great blog post (or series of related blog posts) into a Webinar, video or best practices guide. These can be shared on a variety of additional channels – Vimeo, YouTube, SlideShare and more – to tap into a whole new audience for your blog.
Tell the aggregators you’re there
In every industry and niche, there are publishers who focus on curation of other great content from across the Web. Find these curators and make sure they know about you. Register your site on Alltop, submit it to newsletter editors, and otherwise build relationships with the online curators who represent a significant channel of new readers on an ongoing basis.
Be patient
This stuff doesn’t all work all of the time, and it doesn’t happen all at once. The most important thing you can do is continue to produce great content. The rest will work itself out.
http://www.heinzmarketing.com
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