This month I am participating in a blog networking group hosted by Kristy of
Runaway Bridal Planner.
I stumbled across Kristy's blog awhile back and started reading it on a regular basis. I enjoy the topics she blogs about each week and even on a daily basis. She has created a group for a bunch of bloggers to come together and grow our blogs. Be sure and check out her website to see the list of all the other blogger's participating. Because I'm always trying to find ways to grow my blog I thought I would share a few tips with you that have helped me.
- Stop worrying and be yourself. Write about what you are passionate about and don't worry about what you are "supposed" to talk about. It's your blog and if people don't want to read it, they won't. Let people know you are human. Share your personal experiences and a little bit about your life.
- Build up your social media accounts. Use your social media accounts to draw traffic to your blog. Use creative titles that makes the want reader click to read your blog post. Use hashtags. Hashtags are useful as people use them to search topics that are of interest to them. I'm constantly searching hashtags such as #trimom #triathlete #swimbikerun or #ironmantraining on Twitter and Instagram. I have stumbled across new pages that I may have not otherwise found by using these hastags.
- Socialize. Once you do find those people with similar interests, network and socialize with them. Read their blogs and comment. Most likely those people will return to your blog and comment back. Join blog-hops (like this one) or link-ups. Offer to host a link-up or do a guest post on another blog every now and then. The more your blog is out in cyberworld, the more people will have the chance to stumble across it. Find and join on-line communities with other like-minded bloggers.
- Create Pinterest worthy pictures. Create a few images in your blog post with titles and be sure to have your blog name watermarked in those images. This way when someone goes to pin your photo, your blog name is there. I admit I'm still trying to embrace Pinterest. I hardly ever use it but that is about to change. From what I have read Pinterest is now becoming the number one source for blog traffic. So use a photo editing site and create pretty pictures!
- Link your old posts into your new posts. Imagine that every visitor to your blog is new. When creating a post and you refer to something you have blogged about before, use a hyper link to direct back to that post. This way you increase traffic on that particular post and increase the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) of the original post.
As I mentioned I am still trying to find ways to grow my blog. I know there are so many other great tips out there from bloggers who have thousands of subscribers. If you know of any additional ways, please leave me a comment below. I will take all the help I can get!
