This postWhen starting to blog for the first time, one of your early questions is probably how to get people to actually come and read what you’ve written. Now, I’m not an expert, but here’s how I grew my readership from one (me) to 25 (or so; it fluctuates). (Somebody else can write a post on how to bump it up from 25 readers to 25,000. :P)
And no, there’s no royal road to readership. But if you’re Elvis or George W. Bush or Britney Spears or some other celebrity, finding readers won’t be as hard for you. We’ll assume you’re not famous like that. (If you are, leave a comment! ;))
1. Read other blogs. Sign up for a free Bloglines account and subscribe to the blogs you enjoy reading. But how do I find new blogs, you may ask. Search on Technorati or Sphere. Also, when you find a blog you like, see if they have a blogroll (links to other blogs). It’s all about connections.
2. Comment on those blogs. Join the discussion, don’t just lurk in the shadows. When you do comment (intelligently and politely, of course, but that’s a given), make sure you fill in the URL to your blog.
3. Respond to comments on your own blog. When you start getting readers and they start commenting, make sure you reply! There are two ways to respond to a comment — through another comment or through a post — and you’ll have to use your judgment as to which deserves the full treatment, but if you decide to respond with a new post (which I usually do when my reply would be longer than is normal for a comment), at least leave a little comment saying you’re going to post about it. Be civil, friendly, and fun. And try not to take forever to reply to comments. (Yeah, I’m occasionally not so good about that. :))
4. Get a Feedburner feed. Feedburner will ping search engines when you write a new post (Publicize->PingShot), and that brings in traffic.
5. Use Technorati tags. Technorati’s one of the big blog search engines, and when you add tags more people can find your blog. (See the green icon at the bottom of this post? That’s what I’m talking about.)
6. Self-promote, somewhat shamelessly. Add a link to your blog in your e-mail signature. Mention it when you talk with friends. If you have a business card, be sure to put it on there. Word will spread. But don’t be egotistical and stuck-up about it. Which brings us to…
7. Be cool. Have a sense of humor. Be open, honest, and down to earth. Be yourself. (I suppose “be yourself” trumps the others, so if you’re not cool, funny, open, honest, or down to earth, I guess this doesn’t apply. ;))
8. Write often. Decide how regularly you can write, and then stick with it. If your posting schedule is erratic and unreliable, it’s harder to build up a readership. Don’t let any long gaps go by without notifying your readers when they can expect the next post.
9. Write what you’d like to read. Write with passion. Don’t write a blog because someone else wants you to; write a blog because you have something to say. Say it loud, say it clear, and don’t be afraid. It’s okay to be opinionated. It’s also okay to be wrong on occasion. (Believe me, I know!) Write about something you love. As long as you do that, you’ll never be boring.
And finally:
10. Have fun. Don’t stress about it. Don’t expect to make money through blogging, either. It can happen, I suppose, but your blog will be soooooo much better if you’re doing it for the love of it and not for money. If it takes a while to build up a base of readers, so be it. If you’re not enjoying it, figure out what’s taking the fun out of it and then fix it.
There are, of course, other ways to get more traffic, like name-dropping, but you don’t want a horde of migrant readers stampeding through — you want to grow a community of readers who come back time and again. If you write it, they will come. [By “it,” we mean a quality blog. If you write drivel, your only company will be the flies and mosquitoes.]
Anyway, if you have any other ideas, leave ’em in the comments.
