10 Places To Find New Readers For Your Blog
Everyone is looking for new readers for their blog! I don’t care if you’re getting 1 million unique visitors a day, you are still looking for ways increase your reach across the internet! So I am going to take a quick look at 10 easy ways that you can find new readers for your blog.
- Comment Your Commenters
Usually when a blogger comments on your post it is because it is of relevance to them and their blog. So why not stop on over at their blog also, return the favour and see if you can grab some of their readers. If you are in a similar niche, chances are you will gain quite a few new readers from this method!
- Step Outside Your Niche
I have found the goldmine for getting new readers for my blog was to step outside of my niche when commenting on blogs. Sure a lot of my readers are ‘MMO’ or ‘blog about blogging’ bloggers, but I also have a lot of general bloggers, mum bloggers and dad bloggers, who may not be as focused on making money but want to learn how to improve their blogging.What I did to find these blogs was to do A LOT of blog hopping, where I’d visit the commenter of one blog, then the commenter of that blog etc etc, and this chain would lead me to niche blogs that I would not normally visit! Become active outside of your niche!
- Forums
Forums are another tool for getting new readers I absolutely love! That is because it really does work. For me one blog alone is usually one of my highest referers each month – and I am not even as active their as I used to be.For me, being in the internet marketing/MMO/ blog about blogging niche, I focus on webmaster forums. The pick for me is Digital Point because the community is massive and they have a link to you latest blog post from each post you make on the forum! Another growing blog in my niche is BlogPremiere which also provides me with a nice amount of new traffic!
- Google
Search engines are great ways to increase your traffic because although it takes a while to happen, when it does, it is a constant flow that continues to work for you – even when you’re sleeping!The keys to generating search engine traffic from your blog posts is:
- Optimise Your Posts For Keywords
- Put Your Keywords In Titles
- Talk About What Is Popular
- Use Keyword Tools Like Micro Niche Finder
- Social Bookmarking
I must say this is something I tried to work out, but still havn’t. However saying that, I know a lot of bloggers that have had massive (and I mean massive) influxes of traffic from social bookmarking websites like DIGG and Stumble.
If anyone has a post where they explain how to be successful in Social Bookmarking, feel free to link to it in a comment below! - Guest Blogging
If you are looking to expand out of just commenting on blogs and want to show readers your quality of posting before they visit your blog, then guest posting is for you. There are a lot of bloggers that would love for you to make a guest post on their blog. In fact I probably get at least one email a week asking if I will do a guest post.A lot of bloggers are busy and would love a hand to lighten the posting load. This is your opportunity to show other bloggers readers why they need to be reading your blog also. One thing thought, do not right about you and your blog. Provide quality content that will benefit your host blog as well.
A few blogs I have guest posted on are:
- Hold A Contest
This has to be one of the most popular ways for bloggers to quickly increase their readers and thast because it works! I have run as well as been apart of my fair shar of competitions and each time I have seen a nice increase in my traffic stats, comments per post, and rss feed count.There are a lot of differnt types of contests so here are a few to get to you thinking:
- Self Hosted Contest
This is where the contest is for your blog only, and you offer prizes for things like:- Random Email Subsribers (To boost feed count)
- Random Commenters (Boost traffic and comment counts)
- Challenge/Word Game (To get readers coming back)
- Multiple Blogger Contests
This is where you are competing against other bloggers for a prize yourself, and usually involves you providing incentives and contests for your visitors. A couple of examples of this are:
- Self Hosted Contest
- Give Away Something
Giving something to your readers has to be one of the best ways of keeping them. I am sure you have seen all the blogs giving away a free product (usually an ebook) to every reader who subscribers to their blog.The reason they do this is because people love getting things for free and if the ebook is something that interests them then they will quickly give up their email address to get it! And most bloggers know that people are usually way to lazy to take the time to unsubscribe to things!
- Submit Posts To Article Directories
This is something I have been doing on and off since I started with internet marketing and bloggging about 18 months ago. All I can say is it works! I haev had one article have over 12,000 views and a couple more each with a few thousand view each. This is a great way to get free traffic for about 2 mintues work. I usually just submit to EzineArticles, but there are 100’s of other article directories if you want to spend the time to submit.Andrew Hanson wrote a great post about success in article marketing – where he tells us of a friend that has had over 200,000 article views! Read it here…
- Entrecard
Now I wouldn’t say that Entrecard is the best source of traffic, but any traffic is good traffic right? Now you could just go search for lists of blogs with the entrecard widget to drop, but why not be a bit more efficient and look for lists of blogs that promise to return the favour?
Well hopefully that should keep you all going for a while! Those are my 10 tips to get more readers, but I would love to know what you do. Especially if you have had success in social bookmarking!
IMO, contests, commenting and forums are the top 3 of those 10
I have had great success commenting and with forums, not so much contests though, as I am yet to hold a proper one yet – maybe soon :)
Otooos last blog post..List Of Blogs With Top Commentators Widget
Look like a post built for social networks/digg/stumbleUpon…YOu know 10 tips, etc.;) Just kidding mate, that’s what your post is about!
I love to comment and it brings traffic to my blog as well as new readers. I also use BlogCatalog in a very good way to get new readers…
Ben – frogstr.coms last blog post..Google loves fast hosts
Otooo – Commenting and forums are great. I am hoping to be a part of a contest soon, as I am hoping to crack 500 readers by the end of the year!
Ben – Well maybe this is the post to break my social bookmarking drought :D
Good information. I would like to choose forum posting, social bookmark, & article directory submission. These are inreasing rapidly today in internet world.
One common for all is Google. Great source of free traffic.
Article Directorys last blog post..Quick Fixes In Hard Financial Times
This is a great information especially for newbies. I find time to do all what you have mentioned but I focus ore on #s 1~3, especially forum posting. Yes, DP is one of the best. I am an active member of around 8 forums, and I can also recommend Sitepoint.
I am also an Expert Writer of Ezine Articles but have not received positive results in article directory submission.
About Entrecard, hhhmmm…Actually, I am leaving the site after more than 10 months of being an active member. I just made a separate post about it on my Humane Blogging Tips blog.
Lastly, I am not making it big on social sites but I can recommend articles from Problogger, Dosh Dosh and Copyblogger which one can find useful tips about Digg and SU.
Angel Cualas last blog post..Why a Family Business fails
What happened to your top commentator widget?? I was winning!! lol
Wonderful post. Post like these always inspire me to go out and promote. It can be very rewarding.
Ben Morenos last blog post..9 Very Important Wordpress Blog Design Tips
I am actually doing nos. 1,2,3,4,7. I found out that #1 is the most effect way to boost traffic and get new readers.
Husseins last blog post..September 2008 Top Commentators
Good list, how about pay per click :)? It’s something I’m going to experiment with. Not until around November though….
Clog Moneys last blog post..Income Report
Thanks for the comments!
Ben – It restarts the count at the beginning of each month to make it fair on everyone :D
Clog Money – I have never tried ppc for blogs, but I’m sure it could work well especially if you directed them to a landing page where they are asked to subscribe for a free gift!
I definitely agree with your first point, the one thing that matters to me is my readers. This month I am working heavily on blog commenting, so I shall tell you how it goes.
Danny Coopers last blog post..Paid Links – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Great list. I always love posts like this!
Salwas last blog post..Who uses twitter?!
Great list Tom.
I don’t like using social networks or entrecard all that much because well the bring eyes to your site, but they are generally there for short periods of time and don’t usually convert to subscribers.
I am not saying it is impossible to gain subscribers from either method, I am just saying that they don’t work as well as forums, contests, and commenting.
Adam
Adam – Creadivs last blog post..Risk As It Relates To Blogging
Entrecard doesn’t seem to be very good at all!
I’ve only used to for almost a week, but adverts seem to only get 5 clicks maximum. All the traffic comes from other EC users dropping, which isn’t great =\
Richards last blog post..Google PR update! – Techizr.com now PR 3
I haven’t had massive success yet, but I will sure be using some of these methods in the near future…you mention some things that I have never thought of before.
Nicks last blog post..Cycling 4 A Cure & Running America
Great post here Tom. :)
I’ve done all of those except for one: guest blogging. I actually wrote a guest post on John Cow, but that was it. I don’t ever remember doing another one. I guess I’ll have to do more. :)
Sly from SlyVisions dot Coms last blog post..Comment King of September 2008
Great post Tom. I’ve not really actively been looking for new readers with any of the above, but I plan on changing that this month! I do currently comment on other blogs but that’s mainly just because I want to rather than fishing for new readers.
I’ll no doubt be trying out some of the other points on the list. Thanks.
Chriss last blog post..September Online Earnings
My traffic from Google at the moment is extremely poor, but then again I don’t have alot of content..I suppose it should increase over the next few months.
Danny Coopers last blog post..Paid Links – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
@ Tom – I’ll be a sponsor of the contest if u want – pop us an email
Otooos last blog post..Be A Top Commentator And Win
Tom, your EC advert is extremely cheap at the moment!
16 EC for 24 hours worth of 125×125 advert is good value. :p
Richards last blog post..Google PR update! – Techizr.com now PR 3
Richard – I have to agree! its on the fold, and highly visible! 16 credits is a bargain! I see you took it as an opportunity :D
Good tips. I have been thinking about forums lately. any suggestions?
The biggest source of traffic for me has always been from blog commenting while forum marketing is what I’m moving myself into right now.
Still figuring out the right way to do article marketing…
Yan
Blog for Beginnerss last blog post..The Best 15 SEO Tools At Your Disposal
Forum marketing is a big source of traffic for me ..this is a great list book marked it
Techology is growing so rapid all of those techniques work. EC has had a vast ammount of traffic recently so it worth a try but Search engine and forums are the main ways to attract new readers.
i like the idea of stepping outside your niche. one other great thing about it is that you learn something new, and it makes time online less repetitive and boring.
koujis last blog post..haiku poems: money (credit cards)
I’m also thinking of a contest, but if you or anyone is holding one now, I’m happy to offer 1000 EC credits for a sponsor spot. Just let me know.
100kjobs last blog post..While The Economy Is In Recession, The Blog World Is Bubbling Up
Sorry, forgot to say, this is a great post. Well done Tom!
100kjobs last blog post..While The Economy Is In Recession, The Blog World Is Bubbling Up
I luv blogging contests.They are used for SEo and lots of traffic can be invited.Even commeting is a good one.
Harishs last blog post..Sunday Link Luv-September 28
I’m been focusing on SEO traffic recently, and I must say that Google is highly valued on my list from now on :) .
IronBloggers last blog post..IronBloggers First Contest Ever $1000+ Prizes
Bad thing about submitting an article to a article directory is sometimes, people get the mis-interpretation and think “I’ll copy and paste.” In reality, you should modify your article slightly so Google doesn’t slap you with a “duplicate content” and possibly DE-index your site or penalize the article directory responsible for it.
Dustins last blog post..Issues Browsing in Internet Explorer
Wow,Thanks for Google for providing me a good information.
Standout Blogger has the 10 easiest steps for overcoming the traffic.
Rosie
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Social Bookmarking
All this is interesting, but maybe a bit too good to be true. Consider for example the fact that many people just don’t want to share information or knowledge.The features that make a blog an ideal tool for emergent knowledge management is speed, flexibility, interactivity, and ability to spread information outward.
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cynthia jacquline
Social Bookmarking
In my opinion this is an interesting article through which i gathered a lot of information.
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Taylor
Social Bookmarking
bingo is best site for entertainment.
johns last blog post..Ski Chalet
this is really nice way to get followers ….
i will try this in my blog…
i don’t know why , but i think that blogs are loosing their credibility , with all the paid stuff we find on them
write something interesting and new readers will come automatically :)
Great advice! Will take into account when I try to find new readers.
I think commenting on related blogs can get a good number of readers. Participating in populr forums is also a good way.
Teen Blogger´s last blog ..Is The Recession Damaging Your Blogging Success?
Forums and blog commenting are my favorites.Doing track backs is very effective as well because you will get your keywords in the link back.When you comment on blogs, you often get your name only as the link and this is not so effective unless you are well known on the internet.
Here´s a video about doing track backs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCCq3K7XpEI
Tom – marketing tips´s last blog ..New FTC Guidelines For Internet Marketers
I think my blog is totally missing out on item #4. How do I optimize my posts for keywords?
It’s hard being old…
Karen´s last blog ..Buying a Home in a Grocery Store