It always feels like a fantastic idea to start a lifestyle blog. You feel like you have plenty to share with the world, and that you’ll have no problem drawing readers to your website. However, as many bloggers have found in the past, it’s never that easy. While some strike lucky, you can’t just start writing and expect people to come. Instead, you need to give your readers what they want.
How To Give Your Readers What They Want
Listen To Feedback
Feedback is a useful tool that can help first-time business owners or bloggers get their formula just right. One of the easiest ways to get this feedback is through comments at the bottom of your posts. Here, you encourage your readers to tell you what they liked and what they didn’t like. As everyone loves to have a voice online, they will be happy to tell you the truth.
However, there is a danger. Blog post comments can risk spam and abuse, or even nonsensical bot comments that aren’t of any use to you. If it gets too much, use automatic moderation software or disable comments altogether.
Make The Content Relevant
You can find the answer to pretty much anything online, and this makes it difficult to determine the type of content you should create. Even when you think you’ve had a fantastic idea, you realize it’s been done before, and this is disheartening.
But, even if there are already articles about desirable destinations or how to save money on your bills, you can still provide your experience. As this is unique entirely to you, you can still talk about things your readers can’t learn anywhere else and tap into their desires to tell a story.
Design a Beautiful Website
Your website design will be the first thing that your readers notice when they come to your blog, so you need to ensure that it looks good. A website that’s easy on the eyes will keep people engaged, and this means they’ll spend longer on your site, reading as much as you have to offer them.
Website builders like WordPress or Squarespace come with a variety of templates that you can use if you’re just getting started. These are okay and generally inoffensive, but the larger your following becomes, the more professional you will want your website to look. Besides this, a simple template risks looking like all other blogs, and you want something that will stand out.
Don’t Be Afraid to Promote Yourself
It can feel a little uncomfortable to engage in endless self-promotion, but if you want to draw people to your website, it’s something you need to do. There are plenty of ways for you to promote yourself through social media, whether it’s including your website URL in your profile or sharing new posts on your other social feeds.
This is not the only way to do this, though. Guest posts on other blogs are another useful way to promote yourself, especially if these websites have a larger following. Don’t be afraid to reach out to these bloggers or websites that cover similar things to you, as they can dramatically boost your readership and help you improve your blog.
Track The Metrics
Tracking metrics doesn’t always seem relevant to people who run a blog for fun, but it is one of the best ways to help you give your readers what they want and boost engagement. If you’ve never tracked metrics before, you won’t know where to begin, or even what the numbers mean.
If you’re using your blog to bring in some extra income with a pay-per-click setup, you should make sure you have all of your PPC results at one place. This will give you all the information you need about what content is working and what isn’t popular so you can adjust your approach.
Read Other Blogs
Finally, you won’t be able to appeal to your desired readership if you don’t know what they want to read. For this, don’t be afraid to visit other blogs in a similar sphere to you. If you want to write about traveling, follow and comment on travel blogs. If you prefer to share financial advice, there are plenty of financial blogs for all budgets across the internet.
You can also use this to get to know other bloggers, which will also spread your name around and attract readers.
Hungry For More
Building a following on a blog, or with any type of social media such as Instagram or Twitter, can do wonders for your small business. This success will come from understanding your audience and ensuring you give them what they want through a combination of quality content, tireless promotion, and regular engagement.
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