Get Social
Contents
- Share on social networks
- Read and comment on other blogs
- Link to other blogs
- Make it easy for visitors to follow your blog
- Use appropriate tags
- Bug your real-life friends
- Relax, it takes time
Related
One of the best ways to attract new visitors to your blog is to write high-quality content frequently, but there are also a multitude of ways to spread the word about your site. Here are a few of our top suggestions:
Share on social networks
Tell people on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks about your new post. You can do this using WordPress.com’s Publicize feature, which will automatically tell your Facebook friends and Twitter followers as soon as you publish a new post.
Read and comment on other blogs
Check out Freshly Pressed and our Topics to find people who share your interests. Then follow their blog and get to know them a bit. When you see an article that interests you, click through to their site and leave a comment with your thoughts.
Link to other blogs
Other folks love getting links just like you. Remember, blogging is all about people. When you link to another blogger or blog entry, that blog’s owner will often find your blog through their stats.
Make it easy for visitors to follow your blog
Adding the Follow Blog Widget to your sidebar allows your readers sign up to receive email notifications for each post you publish.
Use appropriate tags
Attach appropriate categories and tags to your entries and people may find your blog through those. Be careful not to use too many tags though — between 5 and 15 tags and/or categories is a good number. Beyond 15, your post actually becomes less likely to be featured in the WordPress.com topic listings.
Bug your real-life friends
Encourage friends and family to read your blog: send them reminder emails when you update and talk to them about it when you meet in person. Better still, encourage them to sign up for updates using the Follow Blog Widget. Often having a really small audience of people you care about is better than having a million visitors and not knowing any of them.
Relax, it takes time
Even if you do all of the above religiously, you probably won’t develop a huge following overnight. Like anything worth doing, building a sizable audience takes time. Many of the bloggers you admire have probably been at it for at least a year. Stick with it, and don’t get discouraged by a slow start — everyone starts slow. Remember that it’s not the size of your audience, it’s how much you care about them and they care about you.
