The first blog I ever started was a “lifestyle design” one (a la Tim Ferriss style) back in college.
It failed. Miserably.
I had the hardest time connecting with other bloggers and getting people to the site. I couldn’t understand why people weren’t coming and commenting – the content was good, so what was the problem.
I pondered this for years until I had my “a-ha” moment. It was after I had started my company and was getting a blog going to help drive traffic and build a fan base. I was running into the same problems as before, but this time I went ahead and tested every factor I could – post times, page design, methods of sharing, etc.
I finally figured out the 3 things that affect whether you blog is a dud like my first one or raking in the visitors (and $$).
1. Give Them a Reason To Subscribe
If you don’t even have a subscription box on your blog you might as well go back to blogging 101 right now. But, if you’re like most of the blogs I see – you have the box, but you haven’t given people any reason to subscribe. Whether you’re having them sign up for your newsletter, e-book, or blog feed people want to know what’s in it for them. It’s up to you to tell them! I changed our e-mail subscribe box to ‘6 reasons to subscribe’ and saw a 78% increase in subscribers just that week.
Spell it out for your readers – Why should they get your blog posts or anything else? Will it get them advance notice? Amazing content they can’t get anywhere else? Exclusive products? Tell them why and watch your numbers skyrocket.
2. People Like What’s Popular
I’m guessing you show people that visit your blog what your most popular posts are via the “Popular Posts” plugin – am I right? If you don’t, download and install that now. You’ll be able to see the bounce rate decrease as people click around through the popular posts and stay for longer.
The only problem is that those posts (which are the ones with the most all time views) will tend to remain the most popular. So, do what I did and make sure to add the related posts plugin . It will show posts that are related using their algorithm and give your readers another way to find the great content you offer that isn’t on the all time most popular list.
3. Stay Social But Not Too Social
I figured with all the hype over social media that I absolutely must have those social icons all over my blog so that my readers could talk with me anytime they wanted, wherever they wanted – you did too, right?
WRONG.
Think about it… You spend all this time growing your page traffic and getting people to your blog – why would you offer them pretty icons that send them away from it?
Get rid of those icons or at least move them to a less prominent spot and watch your bounce rate drop. But, don’t get rid of the option to have your readers share your content via social media. Leave the plugins that allow quick sharing to the major sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc – I use Sexy Sharing plugin , but there are literally a million different options out there.
What else have you found makes a big difference? Let me know with a comment below!