The Top Reason No One Reads Your Blog And How To Solve It
One of the most burning topics bloggers, both beginners and veterans, are always trying to get better at is website traffic. After all, if you started an independent blog, made sure to design it perfectly and spent hours and hours filling it with high quality killer content that people would want to read, then it’s important to you that the world {or at least your target audience 🙂 } knows it exists.
There are many different ways to create traffic to the website, and often beginner bloggers skip the most basic and easiest tactics to create traffic to their blog.
You're really not alone, my friend, it's a very common mistake among new bloggers.
If you’re a new blogger you don’t have to spend your precious time roaming the internet to find all the ways possible to generate traffic to your site. You still don’t need to know all the ways.
There’s no doubt that in the future, when you’ll want to increase traffic to your blog {especially if you also plan on making it a source of income}, you can use more complex tactics to bring a new and fresh audience to your blog; But if you've recently started your blog and your Google analytics account {if you don’t have one yet, check this post to find out why you must use it} shows you that around twenty people have accessed your site today – it should turn on a red light.
Think about your circle of family, friends and acquaintances… How many people are in this circle? If you take the friends you’ve accumulated on Facebook and Instagram over the years, you can reach at least a few hundred people, right?
So how can it be that the traffic isn’t already flowing into your blog right now?…
It’s very simple – no one knows it exists!
Wait a second, I know what you’re thinking – “But the niche of my blog doesn’t interest all of the people in my social circles, not all of them are my target audience.”. You're absolutely right, don’t expect everyone who knows you to be a regular reader of your blog. But think about all of the people in your social circles who are interested in what you have to say on the blog, and add to them people who aren’t necessarily your target audience, but will see your blog at some point and will mention it to someone who might be a future reader 🙂
In this post you’ll learn the two basic methods to increase the initial traffic to your website, and fast!
Shall we start? 🙂
1. Don’t be afraid to promote yourself
I know that one of the scariest steps for bloggers is to declare to the world that they have a blog. This fear is completely understandable since you’re revealing a new side of you and your personality and you don’t know how people will respond to this. The main concerns are – what will people say? Will they make fun of me? It's very possible that some people will raise an eyebrow – and that's fine, not everyone has to love what you do. I can’t promise you that everyone will be by your side and will encourage you to continue this crazy journey, but as they say – “A lion does not lose sleep over the opinions of sheep.”. You have no idea how many looks I got when I first told people about my blog… but as you see two years later, it didn’t stop me! 🙂
If you decided to start a blog, that already shows that you have a very brave side, and if you believe in what you’re doing, you should ignore the opinions of people who don’t understand you and go for it with all of your strength!
The bottom line – you must market your blog because no one will do it for you {at least not initially}.
For starters, I recommend that you use the tools you already have to market your blog to your closest social circle – Facebook, Instagram and even your e-mail.
Your personal profile is a great place to start telling the world that you have a new blog and that everyone’s invited to check it out. You don’t have to beg people to read the content you upload to the blog, but get them to click on the link using a snippet of several lines that explains what the post is about, or simply copy one interesting paragraph from the post in the blog and write that the rest can be read by clicking on the link. Chances are that people who know you will be curious to see what this new thing you created is, and who knows – they may even share the post themselves! 🙂 In addition, don’t forget to take advantage of your intro to write a little about your blog and direct people to look through it.
For starters, even if you've decided to start a separate Instagram account for your blog, I suggest that you re-edit the bio of your personal Instagram. This is the place to write that you have a blog, what it’s about and give a link directly to your blog. In addition, you should market your new blog in posts that you upload to Instagram. Share {in your feed and stories} an image of your new logo with a short text that explains that you've started a new blog that invites people to take a peek at it, as well as interesting pictures from the posts you've already posted on the blog {or promos for future ones} with relevant hashtags for the niche and, of course, a referral to the blog.
Using your personal e-mail to promote your blog is so trivial that you may have simply forgotten it altogether. The first thing you should do to promote your blog via e-mail is simply add the URL and logo to your signature. Second, even if you don’t have many contacts in your e-mail, I recommend that you send a short e-mail that presents the new blog and invites the reader to view it. True, this e-mail may reach people who have nothing to do with your blog’s niche, but they may pass it on to relevant people {people keep sending me e-mails like this and many times I find myself following new websites that I wouldn’t have reached any other way}.
2. Start Mingling
After you've exposed yourself and your new blog to your social circle, it's time to start mingling with your target audience. Try to imagine your “ideal reader” – what are their interests? Where do they hang out? What activities do they like participating in? Which social networks are they using?
If you've already created your ideal persona for your readers while working on your branding, just use that persona 🙂
You may be shy and the very thought of mingling puts you in a state of stress. Don’t worry – you can do the mingling in daily situations as well as through the Internet :
1. In everyday situations –
Physically participate in activities {classes, lectures, courses} where you can mingle with your target audience. Create conversations with people who seem interesting to you, and tell them a little about you, about your blog and what it's about, and why you think it would interest them to read it. For example, if your blog is about DIY, why not take a one-time creative workshop where you can meet people who will love to hear about your blog? Or if you have a blog about financial issues, you can meet people with similar interests in money management lectures, for example.
2. In social networks –
Be active on social networks where your target audience spends time on. If you can find your target audience regarding particular topics in Facebook groups, participate in the discussions, answer the questions raised in the group and publish relevant content from your blog {if the rules of the group allow this, of course); If your target audience spends time on Instagram, follow those who you love the content they post, respond to them and “like” their posts {not only celebrities and people with hundreds of thousands of followers, but more people who are really aware that you are interacting with them}.
3. In other blogs –
Become more interested and comment on other bloggers' posts. This way you’ll also interact with people who really understand what it means to be a blogger, and someone may get to your blog following a comment that you left {just don’t forget to leave a link to your blog in the comment!} 🙂
What are the ways you promote your blog? I'd love to hear in the comments!
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2 Responses
As a fresh blogger, I loved this post!
Usually I use facebook and instagram, but also I have found that google + fashion related communities are great for advertising my blog as well!
Thanks Agate! Glad you enjoyed it 🙂