1. Produce consistent, quality content. People visit a blog more often if they know they can count on it being updated regularly. Consistently commit to posting at least three times a week, and you’ll be well on your way to growing your readership.

2. Make it very simple for people to sign up. If someone subscribes to your blog feed or email newsletter, they are much more likely to remember your blog on a regular basis.

Make it very obvious in your blog’s sidebar how to subscribe, and occasionally remind your readers of the ease and benefits of subscribing (giving something away as a subscription reward doesn’t hurt either!)

3. Comment on other blogs. A great way to encourage people to visit your own blog is to leave interesting comments on other blogs. If people like your comment, they are very likely to click on your name and visit your blog.

However, make sure that your comment adds value to the discussion. Don’t just say “great post!” and then leave your link. Comments that sound like an infomercial for your blog or have no other purpose than to try to get people to click on your blog are not something bloggers or blog readers appreciate.

4. Write guest posts. Many, many blogs (including this one!) readily accept well-written, relevant guest posts, and it’s one of the most effective ways to introduce your blog and writing style to a new audience. As a bonus, if the blog you guest post on has high traffic and ranks high in search engines, having a link or two to your blog on that blog will also increase your search engine rankings.

When submitting a guest post, make sure you follow that blog’s guest posting guidelines and read it carefully before submitting (you wouldn’t believe how many guest posts we get that are riddled with blatant typos!). If you are rejected, don’t take it personally. I’ve rejected a lot of terrific guest posts over the years, usually because I felt they were better suited to a different audience than myself. Instead, submit it to another blog for consideration.

5. Participate in Weekly Memes. Blog memes are the weekly link opportunities that many blogs host, such as Works-For-Me Wednesday. There are thousands of different memes out there, and this provides a great opportunity to attract new visitors to your blog.

I recommend that you try to engage in one or two different memes each week when you’re just starting out. Track your traffic after participating to see which ones are most successful and attract the most visitors.

And just my personal opinion here: don’t link up to 25 different memes in one post. It looks tacky and I think it dilutes the effectiveness of your post.

6. Gifts for hosts. Readers love freebies. It’s a way to build buzz for your site, give something back to your readers, and get additional traffic by linking to giveaway links.

If there’s one thing I want to encourage with giveaways, it’s this: don’t go overboard and don’t make people jump through a bunch of hoops to participate. Granted, it was two things, but I think both are vital to the success of the draw.

Gifts are great, in moderation. Unless your blog is primarily a product review blog, more than a 10-20% ratio of giveaways to regular posts is probably too much. And make it easy for people to get in. I promise your readers will appreciate it.

As a side note: be honest in your reviews if you include them with a product. If you didn’t love something, there’s no need to brag about it.

Your readers appreciate honesty and directness. Show pros and cons. But, as I learned the hard way, if you only have critical things to say about a product, it’s probably best to skip the giveaway altogether, since most companies aren’t really excited about sponsoring a giveaway where the blogger just posts. a very negative product review.

Many new bloggers think that you have to have a great blog or super secret sources to be able to host giveaways on your blog. But guess that! There is no super secret society that one has to be admitted to in order to run sweepstakes. It is also not necessary to have substantial traffic.

No matter the size of your blog, there are thousands of companies that would love to offer your readers a freebie. Oh really. And once you get started with freebies, you’ll probably quickly discover that there are far more opportunities than you have the time and space for!

How do you start offering gifts?

(1) Give something of your own. When I was very new to blogging and didn’t know any better, I often paid for my own freebies. In fact, he often gave away products that he personally owned and no longer needed.

While this isn’t ideal, it’s a great way to “get your feet wet” when it comes to gift giving. When you approach a business about running a giveaway (see next point), you’ll likely be more successful in getting a giveaway if you can show them that you’ve run sweepstakes successfully in the past.

If you use Swagbucks (and if you don’t, what are you waiting for?), you might consider giving away a gift card that you’ve earned through them. That way, it won’t cost you real money out of pocket. And readers love gift card giveaways.

(2) Approach businesses and ask if they will be holding a raffle. If you don’t have companies knocking on your door asking you to do a giveaway with them, start being proactive! Have a product or website that you love, write to them and ask if they would consider running a giveaway on your blog. It is easy!

Be professional, be concise, and be sure to clearly explain how running a giveaway on your blog would be a win for your business. I recommend that you share your blog stats with them, link to a recent giveaway you’ve run, and share why you think your product or website is a good fit for your blog audience. Also, you’d say upfront two ideas you have for a gift, but you’d also convey that you’re open to any other ideas they might have.

(3) Request a contact from another blogger who has run a giveaway. Did any of your blogger friends run a giveaway with a company that you think would also be a perfect fit for your blog? Ask them if they would be willing to give you their contact at that company.

Now please don’t abuse this idea! Most bloggers are happy to share their contacts with you, but don’t expect or demand that they must share all their contacts with you, as most bloggers work hard to build relationships with public relations and advertising companies. But if they’re willing to share, this can be a great way to get a direct contact for a person at a company or PR agency who is likely interested in blogging giveaways.

(4) Respond to a press release with a giveaway pitch. Once you’ve been blogging for a while, you’ll often start receiving press releases about new products from companies and PR agencies. If you’re interested in the product and think it would be a great fit for your blog audience, consider responding and offering a freebie. Companies are sending out press releases to draw attention to their product, so they’ll often bite into a giveaway release.

7. Interact on Facebook and Twitter.

The beautiful thing about a Facebook page is that when someone interacts with your page, they appear on their personal page. Many people have told me that they originally found my blog through a friend on Facebook.

Also, my Facebook page is one of the biggest traffic generators to my blog every month.

A successful Facebook page does not remain inactive. It should be updated at least once a day, preferably several times a day. Post links to all your blog posts, share posts from the archives, and add the occasional image or fun story, quote, or question in real time. The more you interact with your fans, the better.

By the way, I recommend posting your links manually to Facebook, rather than using an auto post setting. This not only allows you to see if people are commenting or leaving questions, but it also shows up more easily in people’s feeds (auto-posting tends to hide posts so people never see them).

8. Link liberally to other bloggers.

Want to know a way to get people to find your blog? Link to your blog!

Most bloggers track their stats and backlinks and click to see if someone has linked to them. They may end up bonding with you if they like what they see.

Now, I’m not advocating a “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” mentality, but I do know that some bloggers are so afraid that they might lose traffic if they link to another blog. I have found the exact opposite to be true.

If you find a great blog or blog post that you think your readers will love, please share it on your blog or Facebook page! Don’t keep something good to yourself.

9. Network with other bloggers.

Back when I started blogging, if you blogged semi-consistently and were even remotely interesting, you had no problem getting readers. Today, there are many more blogs and it is much more difficult to increase the number of readers. One of the key components, apart from a lot of the other things we’ve discussed in this series, is networking with other bloggers.

I have learned everything I know about blogging from more experienced and wise people. They have given me advice, taught me things I would never have discovered on my own, encouraged me when I was feeling exhausted or discouraged, and challenged me to improve as a blogger and writer.

Find bloggers you can connect with (either online or in your local area) to share ideas, hold each other accountable, and share new things you’re learning or experiencing. These friendships can be invaluable, and it’s also nice to spend time with people who “get” what all this blogging is about!

Partner with other bloggers to create a series.

10. Create a community.

Ultimately, if you want to increase your readership, you need to be there for them. Don’t write a post and then disappear and let readers talk to each other in the comments. Answer the questions asked and interact with your readers on a regular basis. In fact, when you are just starting out, you can try to reply to all the comments that are left. It encourages people to stay and makes them feel part of a community.

Even if you can’t reply to every comment, whatever you do, don’t show up just to reply to commenters. As Jon Acuff says, “If you only reply to idiots on your blog, you will eventually create a blog that only idiots will read.” It’s totally fine to explain yourself to those who misinterpreted your post or took offense, but it’s much more important to respond to faithful and encouraging commenters. They care a lot more about you than some obnoxious anonymous commenter staying overnight.

Also, listen to your readers: ask for their advice, welcome their feedback, and let them know how much you appreciate it.

Health

DO!