A long time reader asked me how I built up such a large readership in just one year. When I started this blog last April, I had two people reading, Pipe Tobacco and Annabel. I thought I would share some tips to help you build up a readership for your blog as well.
- A little known fact about blogger is how to manipulate the next blog button. Every time you publish your blog it pings Weblogs.com and puts you in the queue for the next blog to come up for people to browse. I downloaded JitBit macro recorder on my spare computer and set it up to automatically republish my latest blog post every minute. Be careful with this though or you will be blacklisted as a splog (spam blog). This was bringing in an average 5000 readers a day to my blog.
- Comment on other blogs. I take an hour every day and hit the next blog button and read other people's blogs and comment on what they have to say. Make sure that your comment is relevant to the blog post of the author and that it is sincere or it will just be viewed as spam. I have met some of the coolest and most endearing readers by doing this. Laura of 2 LMZ farms comes to mind.
- Look at some of the popular blogs such as Waiter Rant and emulate what they do. I realized a long time ago that writing dialogue could make a rather mundane day or interaction seem interesting and fun to read. Waiter taught me this.
- Sign up for all the major blog directories such a Blogarama, Blog Catalogue, Blog Shares, etc. These social networking sites bring in a few readers everyday and maybe one or two will stick around.
- Ping all the major blog search engines after publishing every post. There are over fifty blog search engines and programs such as Blog Blaster make this a simple click and forget affair. This causes these search engine's spiders to come and crawl your blog. One of my biggest search hits is "Car Living" about the time last summer I lived in my car for a few weeks.
- What about traffic exchanges such as BlogExplosion? There are several of these services and they are bullshit in my opinion. Thrifty people must surf for credits and visit a blog for 30 seconds to earn a half credit. Each full credit brings you one visitor to your blog, but they can't directly bookmark your blog to come back. They have to do it through a proprietary service offered by the traffic exchange. I also feel the fact that lazy or time constrained bloggers can just buy thousands of credits thus spamming the browsing experience causing it to be tedious to earn credits the old fashioned way. I've tried this and it brought no traffic to my blog that consisted of lasting and contributing readers. Don't waste your time or hard earned money.
- Lastly, blog for fun and they will come. I wouldn't blog if I just didn't love writing and sharing it with others. The comments I get every day from my blogging friends brings me immeasurable joy. Thank you all for reading and the time you take by interacting with the blog and improving the quality of my life. I hope this little write up was helpful. Now go and blog so I will have something to read! :0)
13 comments:
It is really impressive how fast you increased your readership. I think you can contribute a good portion of your success to be going a good story teller. Thanks for posting tips on how to help others.
Hi, Andrew - I adore your blog - you are a wonderful writer - you have a way of communicating everyday events with such clarity and feeling and insight. Always check out your blog first thing when I'm on the computer. Reading your messages makes me feel more connected to my own life and what is important. Lots of hugs.
Carol
I do not care for this technical stuff. I came here from another blog that linked you. I read and came back to read more. That's the secret. And a kind of brutal honesty in your writing that can not be emulated.
I enjoyed reading this blog. Apart from it being a little different from your normal, it is educational. I am interested in getting my numbers up even though I seem to have done quite well since I started, I certainly can't complain. Good one once again!
Like a dog I learn new tricks. Thanks Andrew. :)
Thanks for all the good info, Andrew. I appreciate it when you share your expertise with us! (Oh, and I don't find those ads at all annoying... life doesn't come neat and clean, so why should pages?!
Andrew, honey you have got me hook, line and sinker. I'm addicted to your blog. You capture my attention the first time I read your blog. I'm not kidding, you write a book and I'm the first one in line. Everytime I turn around I'm checking out your blog. Keep up the good work, you just don't know how it enlightens my day just read your work.
Have a good weekend and a safe and happy holiday.
Laura
You are a natural to be a teacher. You break down the information so that others can understand and seem to have the patience with others.
I miss your photos of nature scenes. You have a good eye for comoposition both in the written word and the visual.
You're awesome!
Great suggestions but I think a bit part of it is that you are a talented writer and a joy to read!
Okay, I admit it.....I am addicted to your blog. I find it humorous, gentle, honest, intriguing, painful and downright a joy to read. Thank you for your ability to bring people from all over the states, together, for a moment in time.
Goodluck Andrew, you matter to me!!!
I found your blog through the next button...so glad I did!!!
Thanks for the tips! You are really a wealth of info.
I ended up linking you on mine although I am somewhat sad that you never comment on mine. :) No worries.
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