7 Tips to Get More Blog Readers and Keep Them

Do you want to get more blog readers? for what reason do you want them? and what do they have to be a regular reader of your blog? There are answers to all these questions. Increasing blog readers is not an easy job as you think, but if you’re done that then you need not worry about the traffic of your blog. As gaining more readers helps to get more blog traffic, so it’s now important to increase blog readers. Here I’m going to share some ways of increasing your blog’s readership.
While getting traffic to your blog, you should target more on converting those traffic into readers. One of the easiest ways to convert traffic into readers is by getting targeted traffic and working on a niche site. This is one major issue with many newbie bloggers, who starts blogging on Multi-niche topic. Having a niche blog will not only help you in getting more page views but also search engines will give more visibility to your blog. So, let's assume you have done everything correctly till now and getting decent traffic from search engines. Now, it’s time to take your blog to the next level and get more blog readers who subscribe to your blog. So what kind of traffic and what other tips will help you in getting more readers?

Useful Tips for Getting More Blog Readers and Subscribers:

I know SEO is a Key player in running a successful blog, but as a Blogger first thing you need to keep in mind is Blog readership is more important than SEO. Especially, in 2012 when Social media signals and other factors are taking control of site ranking, creating a user-oriented Website or blog will help you to get more success. You can always refer to Saikat's guide on how to write for readers and search engines, which will help you to create a balance between these two.
So, let's start with our quick guide on How to get more blog readers and what changes you can make today to see the noticeable difference.

Publish articles for other blogs ( Guest Posting ) 

Guest posting is one of the best methods used by many bloggers for increasing their blog readers. Don’t think that Guest posting is a waste of time, guest posting has many benefits, it helps you get more traffic for your blog and you’ll get more blog readers and subscribers. It is the easy way for gaining readers, so don’t avoid Guest posting.
There are many benefits of guest posting which start from Getting a backlink, getting referral traffic and most important getting targeted traffic. Instead of writing guest posts on any blog, I suggest you target niche blogs and blogs that are similar to yours. This will help you in getting targeted referral traffic which will convert better than any other traffic source.
If you are completely new to Guest blogging, you should check out SML's earlier guide on How to craft a guest posting campaign for success, this will help any newbie or pro to get started with a planned campaign.

Blog commenting:

Branding is very crucial for any blog and here I’m not talking about your logo and your design. I’m talking about one of the easiest and most effective ways of marketing your blog and driving traffic and recognition. Commenting on other blogs will not only help in networking, but it will also help in getting referral traffic.
Though, your comment should be really out of the box and make sure your Gravatar image is noticeable. There are many techniques which you can follow for example, Try to be the first one to comment on new blog posts, comment on top blogs in your niche and comment because you like to add more value to useful content. Your comment should show your personality and your knowledge.

Write about a Hot topic in your niche 

People always love to get some interesting info(s), So browse the internet as much as you can and Find a hot topic that is on demand. After choosing the topic, write big detailed info about it and publish. This makes a new visitor visit your blog daily ( regular blog reader ). Try to be the first one in your niche to cover an important and trending topic. One easy way to achieve this is by setting up Google Alert or subscribing to an email newsletter of official product pages.

Being the first one to break news and cover it in detail will help you to get more recognition among other key players in your niche and some high-quality links to your site. The Key here is, to cover something which everyone is looking for and offer in-depth coverage of the topic.

Integrate Subscription options for updates

There are many email subscription services on the Internet, which help your reader to get the latest article of your blog directly to their Inbox. So have an email subscription box in your blog in the right places [ keep it in a place where the people notice most ], and give an attractive description for your subscription box like, ” Want to be a Problogger in 30 days? Subscribe to our blog and get all our Problogging tips delivered to your inbox”. It attracts people and they’ll subscribe to your blog. This is one of the most effective ways to get more blog readers by converting that one-time traffic into subscribers and regular readers.
Also, don’t limit yourself to one subscription service. People around the globe use different ways to keep track of news, that includes Twitter, Facebook, Content syndication sites and many more. You can refer to our earlier guide on Must have subscription options for your blog.

Use Social media as a traffic and Branding Weapon

Social Media is one of the easiest ways to get new readers for your blog, because, social media has more than a Million users, some of the users may also be interested in your blog’s niche, and they will be a reader of your blog. This is an Old Method but a Gold One for gaining blog readers. You should check out the benefits of Social media marketing in Blogging.
Now best Promotion comes when your readers are sharing articles. This will help you to get more blog readers who are interested in your niche and a part of the Social group of your existing readers. Also, never forget the evergreen content which you have written in past. Make a list of all existing posts which performed really well and work on promoting those old posts again on Social media sites. You can use the Social Metrics plugin in WordPress, to see the existing share count of your all posts and find posts which are easy to promote.

Blog design and layout:

We all know, “Don’t judge a book by its cover” but at the same time “First impression is the last impression”. And this fits perfectly with Blogging. Having a high-quality content blog will help you to get more recognition but having a blog with a unique and clutter-free design will help further.
Instead of working on adding lots of ads, work on adding fewer but premium ads at the most effective position. Offer a very neat and clean interface and an easy way to navigate your blog. Work on optimizing the speed of your blog and make sure all essential elements are well placed.  You can read a useful guide here on How to make your blog more attractive which will help you to take your website to the next level.

Dedicated Subscription page:

This is something which you can learn from Aetwork and it will help you to get more targeted blog readers. Having a dedicated page or post with various subscription options will help you further.
Also, you can write occasional posts to remind your readers to subscribe to your blog on various social media sites. You can always republish the subscription reminder posts with a noindex tag every 2-3 months and help new visitors quickly become a reader of your blog.
I’m sure these are just not the only ways to get more blog readers and there are many other tips and techniques which you can implement on your blog. But, before you work on optimizing your site, I would say start with one thing at a time and see how effective it’s turning out to be for you. For example, many people are not great with commenting or guest posting, in that case, work on other suggestions which work and help you take your blog to the next level.

If you have more suggestions or tips to share, do let me know via comments. If you find these tips effective and useful, do share them with your social circle on Google Plus and Twitter. 

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