HOW TO INCREASE YOUR READERSHIP

Posted on March 23, 2004 by Dave Pollard
Blog Pop Chart
My Blogging Table of Contents has six articles to help you assess and improve the quality of your blog, and attune it to the interests of your target audience. The “What the Blogosphere Wants More Of” list way down at the bottom of my right sidebar has some more ideas. This article distils it all down to the ten things you can do that are most likely to increase your readership, and keep it growing. Marketing 101 for Blogs.

THE TOP FIVE WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR BLOG…

Marketing is useless if you don’t have a good ‘product’. Here are five ways to ensure you do.

  1. Provide something unique: There are so many blogs out there, even if you’re writing brilliantly, you won’t attract an audience if someone who’s already more widely-read is writing on the same subjects. First-hand accounts or data, original research, surveys, original ideas, original graphics or photos or artwork, all help establish your uniqueness. World O’Crap, one of the newest and yet most popular Salon blogs, is written by a liberal who almost exclusively frequents right-wing conservative blogs and news sites, catches them in lies and exaggerations and inconsistencies, and then writes biting, hilarious satire about them. Unique, brilliant, and very funny.
  2. Provide something valuable: Give readers a high ‘return on their investment’ in reading your blog by (a) entertaining them, (b) teaching or helping them to do something (lessons learned etc.), (c) informing them about something they need to know about, (d) giving them a ‘take-away’ (checklist, great quote, useful tool, etc. — something that will cause them to immediately bookmark or blogroll or write about your site and revisit it often), (e) saving them time (distilling something down, analyzing it, researching it), or (f) providing deep insight about what something means (great graphics can help do this).
  3. Be first: The first person to write about a particular topic will probably get a large share of traffic about it. Even if a more popular blog picks up on it, they’re likely to link to you and send even more readers your way. First-hand accounts, on-the-spot photos, comments from people who were at the scene of breaking news all make fascinating reading. Even the first reviews and synopses of new movies and books usually attract a lot of attention.
  4. Do your research: Invest time to learn as much as possible about what you’re going to write about. Spend much more time reading and researching than you do writing. Check your facts. Learn to use search engines powerfully, so no time is wasted looking for just the right information. Don’t neglect primary research — stuff you get from offline sources like real people, in-depth television reports, people you can call or survey to get information that isn’t available on the Web. Always cite and if possible link to your sources. Dig for great finds, stuff that isn’t on the first page of the Google results, information that you need to go through multiple links to find, information embedded in the many databases that are online but aren’t Googled at all. And never lie or exaggerate.
  5. Learn to write very well: Master the art of story-telling. Learn to be brief without being too dense. Write in a conversational, accessible, friendly style. Eschew obscure and intimidating words, like ‘eschew’ (it means ‘avoid’ ;-) Ask people you trust to comment on your writing style. Use point form, examples, restatements for clarity. Be natural. Learn the 39 steps for story-writing; most of them apply to non-fiction, too. Have fun, be loose, show your emotion. Try to avoid clichˆÉ¬©s.


… AND THE TOP FIVE WAYS TO ATTRACT MORE ATTENTION TO IT

Once you’ve got a world class ‘product’, here’s how to get people to look at it.

  1. Use other media to pull people to your blog: Don’t just write great stuff and wait to be discovered. Use e-mails (sparingly, selectively) to tell people you think might be interested in reading your blog about a particular article you’ve written. Make comments on others’ blogs and include your blog URL when you do. Try to find an A-lister or two who might be interested in one of your articles, and e-mail them (just be aware many others are also looking for A-listers’ attention, so do so sparingly and be patient). Or just comment, early and frequently, on A-listers’ posts (first commenter on any new A-lister post often draws a lot of traffic). Join and participate in discussion groups, always leaving your blog URL at the end of every message. Contribute to e-magazines, either online versions of hard-copy periodicals like Ms., or specialized online journals like Virtual Occoquan. Use outgoing links on your blog and blogroll to articles and blogs written by people you’d like to have as readers: Chances are, they’ll note you when they look at their inbound links list and come over to see what you said about them. And when people write to you, always answer, always acknowledge that they took the time, and always include your URL in your response. But don’t feed the trolls (i.e. don’t reply to readers who write hurtful, malicious or baiting comments or e-mails) or you’ll have readers you don’t want.
  2. Write, at least sometimes, about ‘hot’ topics: You don’t have to be a Googleslut to occasionally get some special buzz on a topic everyone is talking about. Being very focused on narrow, deep topics will get you a faithful readership, but not a particularly large one. Writing about something popular from time to time, especially if you do so before everyone else is writing about it, and say something unique or insightful, will broaden your audience, and bring in what Malcolm Gladwell calls connectors, people who can bring their entire, large networks of potential new readers to see your blog.
  3. Make a great first impression: The average reader who links to your site looks at 1.5 pages and stays 90 seconds. Google hits command a small fraction of even that attention span. That’s how long you have to make an impression that will bring them back. A memorable look, a powerful theme, easy navigation, legibility, making sure your links work and that you’ve spellchecked, using clear headings, clever, attractive graphics, summarizing your long posts, making sure your page doesn’t take too long to load — all these things help create a great first impression, and give your blog what’s called ‘stickiness’. The longer they stay, the more they’ll remember and the more likely they’ll come back.
  4. Learn by studying who’s reading what, and what works: I look at the end of each day who’s been reading How to Save the World (most blogs have a ‘referrer log‘ tool that lists your visitors; services like SiteMeter also provide this information). If I don’t recognize a reader by their URL, I’ll go to their site to see who they are and what brought them to my site (and often say ‘thanks for visiting’ while I’m there). And I track total popularity three ways (see chart above): Average hits/day per the Salon Rankings list, Number of Inbound Blogs per Technorati Cosmos (I also visit any new additions to my Inbound Blogs list), and Number of people subscribed to my RSS feed per Dave Winer’s Who Subscribes List. I know that when I write about certain subjects like blogging or business innovation, I’ll get a spike in hits. But I also know my posts on other subjects, like the environment, economics, and social networking, have different and loyal audiences, who I’d lose if I narrowed the focus of this blog. And some things, like poetry and short stories, I post despite knowing they have a very small audience, because the few comments I do get are essential to improving my writing skills. And because I love writing them.
  5. Get outside more: Real Live Preacher, consistently one of the three most popular Salon Blogs, deliberately seeks out (looking at the Recent Updates List for unfamiliar blog names) and welcomes and helps new bloggers — a tremendous way to get grateful new readers for his smartly written, well-laid-out blog. By using blog directories like EatonWeb or lists like Technorati’s Current Events (or just typing a topic of interest in Technorati’s search bar) you can find other bloggers interested in the same things you are, and connect with them. Or explore the blogrolls of blogs you like. When you find a ‘like mind’, link to them, e-mail them, comment on their weblog, or otherwise let them know you exist and where to find you. But don’t be pushy and overtly ask them to link to you — just let them know where you are, and they’ll come around.

And finally: Be patient — Viral marketing is very effective but takes time to work. Stick with what you’re doing, especially if people are complimenting you — word will spread, and the audience will come. And be yourself. If you try to affect a style that isn’t ‘you’ it will come off as forced or dishonest.

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59 Responses to HOW TO INCREASE YOUR READERSHIP

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  1. Ivan says:
    March 23, 2004 at 17:31

    Really enjoyed this one, Dave — well done.

  2. Darren says:
    March 23, 2004 at 17:34

    First post! Just kidding. That’s all excellent advice. The most difficult to follow and most often ignored point is ‘use other media’. You might expand this to read ‘promote your site in the off-line world’. A significant portion of my readership are friends and family, friends of friends, and friends of friends of friends. This experience is becoming increasingly common: At a friend’s party, I met a friend of a friend for the first time. They knew lots about me, because they’d been reading my site. It’s was a tad eerie.

  3. Darren says:
    March 23, 2004 at 17:38

    Bah, pipped at the post by 2 minutes and 42 seconds.

  4. Phil Ringnalda says:
    March 23, 2004 at 20:07

    Numbers 11 and 12, meant in the nicest way possible (because I’m sure I’m in a glass house, too):Make it as easy as possible to get from a permalinked post to other posts (previous and next posts/archive periods, or related posts, or all-time favorite posts) and to your main page. I tried your blog title, expecting it to be linked, then your photos, expecting them to be a linked logo, and now I’m wondering if there’s any way to get from this post to your blog’s front page short of hacking some stuff off the URL. Ah, third look: one of two or three hundred identical appearing links on the right side.Make sure that every page on your site supports RSS autodiscovery: I know I’ve come in to your blog before on links to very good posts, thought I should subscribe, clicked a bookmarklet to subscribe in Bloglines, had the page with the one post I’ve seen replaced with a “no feeds found” page from Bloglines, and decided to just move on. This time, my memory of being here before was strong enough to make me go digging for the HOME link, and try again, but given how sticky getting someone to subscribe to your RSS is, it’s worth taking the time to make it as easy as possible.

  5. Sallie says:
    March 24, 2004 at 04:52

    Great INFO. Thank-you. I will read it, breath-it-in and try to apply it…. all with a the-newbee smile “i” carry and post about.

  6. O RLY YA RLY says:
    March 24, 2004 at 10:45

    *notices two trackbacks and five comments already*…or write a post about how to increase your readership

  7. Robin Good says:
    March 25, 2004 at 02:22

    Dave my most sincere kudos for another excellent one! Nonetheless your great job at this let me contribute a few extra important items to this:*making sure your links work = use the free LinkSleuth (if you are on a PC) http://www.snafu.de/~tilman/xenulink.html to check them weekly. *spellchecked = use a spell-checking enabled editing tool to prepare your posts offline like wBloggar, or UltraEdit, or copy and paste all content into your favourite editor for spell-checking before posting.*using clear headings = utilize strong and popular keywords in the initial part of the title and keep titles within five to six words for maximum impact. *clever, attractive graphics = avoid thinking in terms of “attractive”. Design charts that are easy to understand, not overly colorful and as simple as they need to be to carry out your messages effectively. *making sure your page doesn’t take too long = 40-50 KB file size for all your HTML, javascripts, CSS is what you should be striving for if you really care about a worldwide audience. If serving only people on high-speed connections then it is fine to have an 80-150 KB home page. *a great first impression = first impressions are important, and the way to provide the best of them is not to hide the best things you have . Make sure your great content, essays and guides are easily reachable from those who don’t know you yet. *’stickiness’ = stickiness is created when readers of your site find so much benefit in what you offer that they want to come back for more. The question to ask is then: “What are you really offering that would make them come back for more?” *Integrate comments and trackbacks into your main article pages. This is part of the conversation and needs not to eb relegated to a separate, hard-to-find small window like this one. Frequently, contributions and references offered in the Comments area are as valuableor more than the article itself. This can be done effectively in many ways. Here is one example:http://tinyurl.com/2t6sy*Yes, make RSS autodiscovery a reality. It is just a pain to have to find the trackback URL when one is writing about you.*Last but not least, increase your exposure and visibility by making your RSS feed accessible and reachable from the main directories and blog search engines. An excellent free online resource to find out how and where to do this is my own RSSTop55 at: http://tinyurl.com/3eb5j

  8. Mark Maynard says:
    March 26, 2004 at 07:27

    Maybe it’s too obvious to even mention, but you left sex off the list. My stats went through the roof once I hired two attractive young models to play my wife and me… They come over once a month for photo shoots and then I scatter the images over a month of posts. It works incredibly well. -Mark

  9. shari says:
    March 28, 2004 at 14:41

    Just a thought. It seems that some of top blogs have encouraged community. The readers talk to each other in the comments. dKos even has a second tier system allowing readers to be bloggers. So I would say another attribute of a successful blog is the human element: does the blog have readers that connect/communicate/dialogue with each other? It’s interesting the link between this post and your most recent one: The Essence of Knowledge. Trust is important in cultivating readership. And it leads to a community of readers.

  10. Thanks says:
    March 29, 2004 at 06:07

    Most useful. I’ve been looking for some info like this for a long time.

  11. th0m says:
    March 29, 2004 at 06:18

    It’s obvious! Write an article like this!!! hehehe…

  12. Stephen VanDyke says:
    March 29, 2004 at 09:20

    I’m utterly convinced that if you say anything good or bad about blogging in a coherent manner, people will link to you. I was linked out the wazoo for creating a silly infographic on how news travels. I think you’ve put it all very eloquently, I’ll be linking of course :)

  13. kara says:
    March 29, 2004 at 11:51

    Dave your my #1 A-lister!Enjoy the variety of your posts.

  14. Marion Burkimsher says:
    April 5, 2004 at 07:47

    An excellent summary. My blog (lentinfrance.blogspot.com) is pretty obscure (Bible text in French with translation of unusual words, some comment – quite often politcal or provocative, some diary of family life in France and usually a picture). It could have a great niche, just need to find niche readers who want to improve their French/English! Are there any geek folk looking for my niche?

  15. Happy and Blue says:
    July 13, 2005 at 11:34

    Well written and informative. Thanks..

  16. Mike Rubin says:
    November 3, 2005 at 14:52

    That was an awesome recap. Exactly what I was looking for. I am fairly new to the whole blog thing but I already love it. You seem like an A lister. Would you mind checking out my blog and giving me a little advice.Thanks and best of luck.Sincerely,Mike Rubinwww.therubinreview.com

  17. Five Things says:
    April 13, 2006 at 20:49

    Great ideas here, thanks for sharing!

  18. Angela says:
    October 16, 2006 at 09:49

    I think this is a good start… :DThanks for your help!

  19. abhiroop says:
    June 11, 2007 at 09:54

    wonderful tips, I am a new blogger and struggling in my own way to get established as blogger and this post was a great boost to my confidence.

  20. lizzie2uk says:
    July 6, 2007 at 18:31

    Great tips. I’m a new blogger too and it is a really steep learning curve when it comes getting visitors! Thanks.

  21. Happysurfer says:
    July 23, 2007 at 09:05

    A most interesting read and great tips. Thank you.

  22. Kavita says:
    July 25, 2007 at 15:42

    An excellent write up and I have implemented same at my blog forStock Market Tips and Money Making Ideas From Websites Which pays.

  23. Kavita says:
    July 25, 2007 at 15:45

    I have implemented your strategy on my blog.

  24. festiva says:
    September 5, 2007 at 23:31

    Great post. Get people you know to link to your site at their websites too. A cross link will help in Google search ranking. Make your domain keyword rich by simply inserting hyphens to separate words in your domain name. Yahoo! gives more relevance to sites with keywords in their domain name. Thanks again for THE TOP FIVE WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR BLOG… article. It is indeed useful throughout!!festiva

  25. arjun says:
    September 18, 2007 at 08:35

    That was an extremely helpful and concise compilation of means to improve blogs and make them more easily readable and of relevance to people at large.Thank you :)

  26. Don Pennington says:
    October 8, 2007 at 15:22

    Dude! What a great topic. Great advice too. Very down to earth and accurate. I’m kinda new to this so I truly appreciate it.

  27. noel a. noel says:
    October 27, 2007 at 18:36

    hi I got a lot of ideas from your blog, could you take a look at my blog coz im new in blogging and I want to increase my readership.

  28. jessie says:
    December 4, 2007 at 11:00

    hi! this post is good. i have learned a lot from this… keep blogging posts like this pal… u sure can help more like me who is new to blogging.

  29. N.C.Yathindran says:
    December 5, 2007 at 14:25

    Would you care to exchange links with me????

  30. ian says:
    December 6, 2007 at 22:32

    i think it’s good for me. thks

  31. Andrea Back says:
    February 6, 2008 at 17:01

    I studied your sidebar wishlist “what the blogosphere wants more of” and compared it to what I want to offer in my newborn blog and to represent in the “categories” I provide for targeted access to the content. I wonder what you think about two types of content/posts, whether you consider them of interest for the readers and bloggers in this b-sphere and what “rank” they would have in a top-20 list of your’s:- Questions: Open issues that a blogger voices. Issues about which a blogger seeks deep conversation. Complex issues which are candidates for research questions. – Meta-reflexions: Sort of critical reflection and meta-information about the blog and the blogging. At least in scientific work, to spend some intellectual energy on “critical self-reflection” is mandatory. Isn’t that also interesting to read and think about?My blogpost is in German:http://www.business20.ch/2008/02/06/kundenorientierte-kategorisierung-der-blogposts-gemass-pollards-what-the-blogosphere-wants-more-of/

  32. Mrs. Polly says:
    February 11, 2008 at 13:02

    What a terrific website! Thanks, especially for the list of what blog readers want. I felt a bit intimidated after looking at some of the technologically savvy blogs of your other readers, but you encourage me to think that my newborn blog will find its way, even if right now it is just learning to crawl, or be crawled.

  33. Gaje Master says:
    February 13, 2008 at 22:05

    I truly liked this post. It had a lot great information on it and was very helpful. I started my blog a while back and was doing great until my site had a malfunction and I had to start over from scratch. I ended up loosing everything on my site including my readers and now I am working on a great comeback so hopefully I will have my blog back into shape and get more traffic and readers. Thanks for everything.

  34. Ruby says:
    February 23, 2008 at 12:28

    very informative..thanks a lot for sharing

  35. kerslyn says:
    March 2, 2008 at 12:17

    hi! thanks for the very comprehensive and helpful tips.:-)

  36. Brett Schulte says:
    March 9, 2008 at 21:26

    Dave,I’ve been browsing a lot of blog posts with tips on how to increase readership, and I have to say yours has been one of the better ones. Through trial and error, I managed to catch on to some of these myself (be unique, provide value, use other media) and also some of the obvious things like using blog catalogs, signing up at Technorati, etc. However, you’ve gone in a bit of a different direction than most of the advice articles I’ve read and I’m going to use some of your suggestions which never crossed my mind. Thanks!Brett S.

  37. Blond says:
    May 21, 2008 at 10:43

    Thanks for these great tips! I saw you had lots of links up. Would you add mine as well? I will put a link up to you on my blog.Thanks.

  38. Adi Grahito says:
    June 13, 2008 at 05:54

    Thanks, I get this tips from Blogvertise. Hoping that this link will have a good effect to my blog.

  39. Adi Grahito says:
    June 13, 2008 at 06:03

    Other My blog also need to read, about automobile show in Beijing, new car model and engine http://mobileandmotor.blogspot.com/ Thanks again.

  40. ngurahojet says:
    July 15, 2008 at 04:17

    Good Idea to Blogging,useful

  41. Great Music Blog says:
    August 12, 2008 at 13:07

    Wow, its really helpful, with detail steps

  42. PinoyCopywriter says:
    August 20, 2008 at 05:39

    This is a great article for someone like myself who wants to increase my blog readership. I’ve been doing a couple of the points you’ve stated here. I’ll do the others.Thanks again for this.

  43. muhibudi says:
    September 6, 2008 at 23:46

    nice post!. thank’s this’i very helpful for me.

  44. agoasenegal says:
    September 10, 2008 at 07:48

    great post!! I have been for such tips and guidance and ur suggestions were very clearly laid out to help beginnersw like me. I like ur style of listing down things, something i would love to follow. great work!cheers…

  45. Rob says:
    October 11, 2008 at 08:27

    In spite of being around for several years, this article is still current and very useful. Excellent insight. Thank you.

  46. pojokteknologi says:
    October 25, 2008 at 13:47

    hello all ,how to make our blog can get higher google PR

  47. fedhz says:
    December 10, 2008 at 17:05

    Hi! Thank you so much for those tips. I’ll be reading them every once in a while to remind me how I should write properly. ^^

  48. Ben Thomas says:
    April 10, 2009 at 17:20

    Very useful thankyou some great tips

  49. bayu200687 says:
    July 6, 2009 at 21:37

    very useful info. thanx

  50. DJ Rem says:
    July 14, 2009 at 21:07

    this is one big learning site!…i’ve learned a lot, by the way, thanks!Hope to post good posts someday…Can you give me more infos? Thanks! Good day! Have a great time!

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