To effectively build a strong audience for your blog, you need to clearly define the purpose of your blog. Who are you trying to reach? What message are you trying to convey? Your content needs to be of value to your audience. You may find it helpful to read other blogs with similar content to get ideas for yours.
Your audience will abandon you if you don’t blog regularly. Be consistent. I can tell you from personal experience that when I’ve slacked off and use the hit-or-miss method of blogging, my readership dwindles. When I post regularly, my audience grows. If possible, post at least weekly. It’s very helpful to create a reserve of blogs and schedule them ahead of time for times when you don’t have time to write. Some choose to spend a block of time monthly to create all their posts at once and then schedule them out over the month.
Your posts will catch your audience’s eye if they have good titles. For more information on how to create attention-grabbing titles, read this guest post by my friend Deb Lamb. Another way to grab attention is to include a photo or image.
Invite your audience to comment on your blog. Yes, this does mean you’ll need to moderate comments. Use a tool like Askismet to catch most spam comments and you won’t spend too much time moderating junk comments. Allowing comments allows a way for your audience to interact with you and each other.
Please share your thoughts below.
People are using the long form Linkedin posts as their blog. Do you feel like that is a worthwhile activity? Or should one maintain their personal website/blog?
Hi Laura. Thank you for your questions. I do feel that it is a worthwhile activity to post using the long form at LinkedIn. However, I would suggest this be in addition to maintaining a website/blog.
Many of our clients repost their blog posts at LinkedIn. Some just excerpt enough to provide value and then end their post at LinkedIn with a link back to the full post at their website.
The report LinkedIn sends out weekly for those posts is very valuable in seeing what topics get the most attention and comments so you can then determine what readers want you to write about.
I hope that answer your questions. Feel free to ask for more clarification if needed.
Thanks! Sue