8 Ways To Grow Your Blog & Gain A Massive Following

If you’re trying to take your blog to the next level, there are a number of strategies you can experiment with. In this post, I shared with you 8 ways to grow your blog & gain a massive following.

For a blog to grow, you must gain a following of people who are interested in your content. Followers are important for a blog and a blogger and the loyal ones are who can increase traffic for a blog. No matter how much traffic your blog may already have, you can always use a little more!

Over the last few years, I’ve been able to accumulate quite a bit of traffic to my blog and grow the number of loyal followers I have. I have gone through the ropes and tested quite a few different strategies. Some of those strategies have worked effectively while others have failed miserably. I’m here to help shorten the education process for you by sharing some of my most helpful tips when it comes to growing a blog!

Here are 8 ways to grow your blog & gain a massive following:

1. Engage With Other Bloggers In Your Niche

Believe it or not, one of the most effective strategies for growing my blog has been networking with other bloggers in the entrepreneurship sphere. By doing so, not only did I get to build meaningful relationships, but I got to learn a lot about the community. At the end of the day, every niche has its own community.

When you start networking with other bloggers, you’ll notice that you’ll get more traffic, shares and engagement on your blog. Don’t think of other bloggers in your niche as competitors, but rather see how you guys can partner up in a beneficial manner. Develop a strong relationship with other bloggers and figure out ways to help each other while creating a mutual benefit.

2. Contribute To Top Publications In Your Niche

Whether it’s other blogs or major publications in your niche, you can contribute to other blogs as a ‘guest author’. This is a mutually beneficial partnership for both sides. You benefit because you get to push your content out to a new audience while the publication has the benefit of getting fresh content for their website.

Once you have established a strong relationship with other bloggers, you can easily reach out to them and see if you guys can trade content. This is one way to grow your audience and followers. Contributing guest posts to top blogs in your niche is a highly efficient to grow your own blog.

3. Consistent Posting

Bloggers who gain more followers are those who consistently post on their blog. Let me give you an example. One year ago, I was extremely busy with speaking engagements and my businesses that I wasn’t able to pay as much attention to my blog. I was creating about 1-2 posts per week. Fast-forward to 2017, I’ve been able to post around 3-4 times a week and my traffic has increased by 50% since last year.

The math is really simple. The more content you post, the more exposure your blog will get enabling you to get more traffic and followers. The only thing to keep in mind when posting more frequently is to maintain the same level of quality. Don’t focus on quantity unless the quality is also consistent.

4. Publish Content Your Audience Wants to Read

A big mistake many new bloggers make is too often focusing only on the content they are interested in sharing. However, if you want to generate a following and grow your blog, you have to focus on your audience. What kind of content do they want? What kind of things do they want to learn from you?

Survey your audience and communicate with them to figure out what they want to read. Some of my best performing blog topics came from creating polls on my Facebook or Twitter pages. Not only that, but I’ll frequently ask my audience what they want me to discuss in future blog posts and I’ll create content around that. When you take time to understand your audience, the results will be much better!

5. Encourage Social Sharing

The fastest and most affordable way to grow your blog is to create content that is shareable through social media. One of the fastest ways my blog grew early on was because my followers were sharing my content with their audience. There are a few different ways that you can encourage social sharing.

First and foremost, you always want to make it easy for your audience to share your posts. Utilize a social sharing bar and include all of the social networks. On my blog, people can easily share my posts on any major social network with the bar that follows them on the left side. In addition to that, share each of your new posts on social networks so that people can easily re-share your content or engage with your posts.

6. Respond To Comments & Questions

Engaging with your audience is one of the most crucial things for bloggers to do. Recognizing and acknowledging your readers is something that will help you build meaningful relationships that will eventually grow your following. Engage with your readers and be thoughtful.

Whether the comment deserves a response of not, always find a way to reply. If someone says something like “Great post”, don’t just ignore it. Acknolwedge them through the comments and thank them for the kind words. One of my most successful strategies has to been always reply back to everyone who reaches out to me.

7. Build An Email List

Many bloggers say that their email list is the most valuable part of their blog. If someone is willing to subscribe to their email list, they feel that it is a user that is extremely valuable. There are a few ways to build an email list really easily for a blog.

The strategy that worked best for me was to give something away for FREE in exchange for their email addresses. On my blog, I share a FREE ebook with my audience that can be downloaded in exchange for an email address. By building an email list, you can bring in recurring traffic and utilize it to generate more income.

8. Have An Excellent Blog Design

The design of your blog is extremely important if you want to grow your audience. While most blogs are focused around content, the visual display you place your content in is also just as important. I’ve been to some blogs that have been so bland that I feel like I’m reading an essay off of a Text Edit document.

It becomes very hard to focus and I simply can’t focus on the content. Do you think I’m going to come back to read their next blog post? You guessed it right, I’m definitely not coming back. Create a simple design and survey your audience to see what they like and don’t like about your design. Implement those changes and create a visual experience that is comforting for your audience.

Conclusion

If you’re trying to take your blog to the next level, there are a number of strategies you can experiment with. In this post, I shared with you 8 ways to grow your blog & gain a massive following.