So you have opened a blog and have started writing. You wrote a piece and clicked the publish button and Lo! Your new shiny blog post is there for all to see. But wait, who’s there to see it? Did you notice something missing? That’s right, you have no viewers or visitors to your blog.
But that’s alright as you are just starting out and this is only your first blog post; things will get better over time. And they do – you get visits each day and more so on some days than others, but even after all of this, you just can’t seem to get a consistent number of visitors each month. Does this story sound too familiar?
If you are a blogger who has had some amount of experience, this tale is well-worn and known. Many Bloggers struggle to Improve Blog Loyalty. This is a classic case of not having a developed audience that is loyal to you. In other words, the people that read your blog are there quite by accident, and the worst part is even when they do not read much of what you have written and exited the blog quickly. The truth is, you do not have many people who are really interested in what you write and are not bothered to bookmark your blog to return to it at some point in time. In short, to reiterate, you have no loyal audience for your blog.
This does not mean that you are a bad writer or that you are not passionate enough or knowledgeable enough about what you write, but it does mean that you do lack the proper marketing skills to promote the work you are doing as a blogger. You have to understand that blogging is not only about how well you can write but also about how well you can make people perceive that your blog is worth their while and is beneficial to them. Only then can you grow and sustain a loyal audience that trusts and respects your opinions.
Here are the things you need to do to improve your audience retention and maintain a loyal readership for your blog.
5 Steps to Improve Blog Loyalty
1) Have Realistic Expectations and Set Goals
Do not expect to be an overnight success with a magical shortcut – there isn’t one. Thus, it is best for you to tone down your expectations to a more realistic level. This means that you need to proceed with an experimental approach at the early stages.
Set goals small and keep increasing them as you gain popularity. How small you will actually set your initial goals depends not only on the type of blog you are writing – and the relevant competition that is already present – but also on your actual geographical location and your target audience for the blog.
2) Communicate
It is important to communicate with the visitors on your blog. You can include frequent shout-outs to them in the post and encourage them to leave comments to your posts.
You can also start exclusive discussions on various topics which are distinct from the blog posts and participate in them yourself. Also, make sure to take an interest in the comments and to input well thought out replies to them so that your readers know and feel that you are important to them.
3) Make Use of Other Platforms
Many popular bloggers became popular not because of their blog alone, but due to their presence in other media. When you see a blogger on other social media’s, he is probably making an attempt to Improve Blog Loyalty amongst users of that social media. This includes but is not limited to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Podcasts and Email Newsletters.
You need to make use of the social media outlets to make sure that your work is known and present it in such a manner that it is perceived as important and relevant. Remember that there are many others who are doing the same work as you are and thus you have to go that extra mile to reap that extra fruit.
4) Determine your Model
Blogging does not mean that you have to have a written blog. As the present trends are showing, the world responds more to the visual medium than to the written word. In that scenario, people will respond to your efforts more if you start a YouTube channel and put out short videos on various topics, which are then discussed at great length in a blog post to which you share a link in the video description itself.
This is an effective technique to build a strong online presence and to maintain a loyal audience base. The catch here is that most of your audience will come from watching the videos and your blog will become secondary to the video posts. This is why it is important to determine a model for yourself so as to decide upon the priority in which social media and the actual blog will be employed.
5) Hold Contests for Visitors and Do Giveaways
You need to engage with the visitors to your blog on a regular basis. In addition to replying to comments and holding discussions, you will also benefit from organizing contests and doing giveaways of merchandise for your visitors which will enhance their chances of repeat visits, thereby making them a loyal audience.
You can do giveaways as contest prizes or standalone as well. These types of events should ideally be hosted every month or once every two months as too much of this will result in your blog being perceived as spammy and low on actual quality content.
A loyal audience goes a long way in improving the popularity and the general perception about a blog. However, developing and then maintaining a sizeable loyal audience requires a fair amount of hard work and a judicious mix of marketing acumen and proper planning for the future. However, this is a fruitful labor that will give returns in the long run and is, therefore, an important exercise to be conducted by any blogger that aims to grow his presence online and to sustain it for any length of time.
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