My Top 5 blogging tips to grow your blog.

I know! First and foremost, almost everyone says ‘be consistent‘, and your blog will grow. This is so so cliche so feel free to roll your eyes.

While it isn’t entirely false, (atleast it keeps your blog afresh with contents to keep your existing followers/readers going), it isn’t just about consistency when it comes to growing your blog! It is a tip but not a TOP tip for me. If you keep writing consistently and your traffic/engagement isn’t growing, hold on! It’s time to try a few more tricks.

Writing a blog post and hitting publish everyday won’t grow your blog. Remember you also need to put it out there to have more eyes on them, have visitors return, perhaps more shares on your posts and possibly convert those visitors to followers. Promoting your blog posts will certainly help get you more visibility.

However, promotions plus consistent writing isn’t equal to blog growth. They’re great, yes. But If you promote a blog post and get a visitor to click on it but then the content is appalling, he/she might not return to read your blog. sad, but true!

We hear  ‘Content is key‘. Another cliche, Yep! I quite agree. But your content should be beneficial, informative, or even entertaining. If you aren’t providing these, (even if you think you are), you might want to pause a bit on consistency and promotions and re-strategize. You definitely should be ADDING VALUE.

By the way, I’m no ‘guru‘ or expert blogger, but there’s no magic to it. We’re here to learn and improve so if you have a few more tips, please feel free to share with us in the comments!
That said, I think everyone would love to write about what his/her audience would love to read so a few ways to grow your blog is:

1 Understand your audience:

If you’ve been writing consistently and it’s not resonating with your audience, perhaps you should pause and do some research. Understanding your audience means you should be a member of the tribe you’re trying to lead and try to understand what type of contents they’ll love to read. What type of content gets more reactions? What type of content is more relatable? What type of content would they love to see more? Remember you’re not writing for yourself alone so you have to get ideas from the audience too. From the comments, social media, by asking questions, etc. If you gain a better idea of what blog content resonates with your audience, then you can use it to grow your blog. This doesn’t mean you should write posts that do not interest you but when you’re coming up with new post ideas, evaluate the ones that can resonate with your audience too.

2 Stay true to your voice:

It isn’t much about what you say, but how you say it. Your voice is unique. Readers would want to relate with your personality so write like yourself. Pour your heart out. Your ideas, your thoughts, your opinions, put them into words that are relatable in your own voice. If you can read your own post and relate with it, then chances are, some others are going to do the same too. It’s your blog, your little space on the internet- own it! I think people enjoy blogs when they can relate with the person behind it. So write contents that you yourself would want to read.

” There’s no one alive, you’re than you”!

Don’t try to sound like that blogger you admire. Don’t copy-cat. Be you!

3 Build an amazing call–to–action:

A blog is interactive yeah? Encourage interaction. People love to interact so finish your posts with a call-to action. Most people will finish reading a post and turn blind eyes to your side bar or other recent posts so ask for feedbacks, respond to and like meaningful comments or contributions, point to your other related posts, be nice and friendly. That’s how to build a community. Make commenting easy too. I discovered that some blogs would require you to register first before you’d be able to leave a comment and people don’t like to be pressured into that. Chances are, if people can interact on your blog easily and positively, they’ll come back for more. Isn’t that what you want?

4 Get Social:

Social media is a powerful tool to grow your blog. A lot of my readers come from there. Don’t fail to notify your fans of your latest posts. You can hook your blog’s feed to update your followers too. My posts automatically publishes on Facebook and Twitteronce it goes live and I do have some people hit up to see what’s new. You could also share some of your updated posts and let your followers know of the posts they probably missed. Please help grow my following on Instagram  (Please?) It’s relatively a new account and I do follow back.

Apart from social media, getting social also entails networking with other influencers too. You could gain some exposures that’ll help grow your blog. Leave meaningful comments on other blogs, guest post, contribute to a topic of discussion, (with a back link ofcourse!).

5 Lastly, Give yourself grace! Be teach–able.

Don’t be too hard on yourself, Rome was not built in a day. You may not see immediate results, your stats may not boom immediately. Don’t give up yet, hard work surely (but sometimes slowly) pays off! If you find your right voice and you’re passionate about your blog, that’s the fuel you need. To help grow a community around your blog, you should do it in your own style and your own way, with your readers in mind. I personally don’t think there’s a ‘right’ approach or an abracadabra to blogging. It is dynamic and no one knows it all. So don’t be afraid to show what you know. Blogging isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme. Sometimes it takes time to get recognized. If you’re open to learning and improving, not only would you be growing but your blog too!

That’s not all, find out if you’ve been putting  your readers/potential visitors off by doing these awful things. More blogging tips there!

There you go guys, Like I said, these are my top five. There are definitely more. So what tip is your favorite? I’m quite sure there are other tips that are tops for you you might wanna share? Please do so in the comments. I always love to hear from you.
Don’t forget to also share this post with others!

See you soon,
Jessica Ijay Hugo.