Blogging is easy. Put your knowledge into a great article and hit “post”, then sit back and relax while readers pour in, commenting, sharing, and automatically convert into profit…
That’s how we want it to work out, but unfortunately, this is not a reality for most blogs and websites.
It’s not uncommon for blogs, even excellent ones with great design and awesome content, to fade away into the recesses of the internet. The blogger hits adversity then gets frustrated and eventually gives up…
Don’t let this be you! Here are 10 creative blogging tips to help you spark interest in your blog, engage your readers, gain more followers, and keep your blog from vanishing into internet purgatory.
1. Get out there and build your network!
Networking are one of the most important things to expand a business, or in this case, a readership.
It’s not a new trick by any means, but there are ways to be creative with it and open yourself up to meet more people, make valuable connections, and spread your message to a larger audience.
Put yourself in places where you’ll meet like-minded
with the same interests, or even fellow bloggers.
You can do this by joining online forums, social media groups, networks or other communities. You can also get more involved in person, perhaps attend or host relevant events in your area etc.
Not only should you meet new people and expand your network, you should also provide value to people’s lives.
Serve your audience, be a friend, be useful, and be genuinely interested in their interests and success, and some day, somehow, they will reward you in return.
2. Seek out guest blogging opportunities
Guest blogging is an excellent way to get noticed and establish a name for yourself, and pull readers into your own work from content you’ve created for others.
In fact, Jeff Goins at Goins, Writer was able to get 10,000 subscribers in 18 months once he started guest blogging. And when I asked mr. Ramsay Taplin aka Blog Tyrant about guest blogging he replied this:
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“Guest posts are still the best thing.
My whole business is built off the back of them.”
– Ramsay Taplin
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Guest blogging allows you to build relationships with a new audience and expand your readership with it, and the backlinks that follows with it will over time build value to your own SEO.
Allowing other bloggers to write content for your blog can also be a good idea, especially if they are established and influential bloggers that can bring their own readership with them.
See also: All You Need to Know to Write and Pitch a Successful Guest Posting
3. Expand your social media horizons
There are many other options out there to promote your blog besides Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Linkedin, which are flooded with bloggers and marketers. It’s easy to get overlooked in a big sea of posts. Here are some other less overcrowded social media platforms that has proven to be valuable to other creative marketers:
Tumblr is a micro-blogging website, and it’s wildly popular among people 25 and younger.
Quora is a Q&A website and a great way to showcase your knowledge and draw readers who may want to learn more from someone with your expertise.
Instagram can be great for creating exposure. Simply share a photo or graphic from your blog with a link.
Pinterest, another great place for visual content sharing. A creative strategy is to pin your blog post to a distributor board, so they and their followers will see it..
4. Don’t be afraid to make videos
Videos can do a great deal to spark interest in your blog. You could create a video of yourself discussing the blog post or a relevant topic and share it on YouTube with a link to your blog.
YouTube’s potential for exposure is huge, and many have become very successful through video blogging.
Vine is also a valuable tool for meeting your ideas and messages out in short clips, generating curiosity and a buzz around your products and services, which helps to drive more people to your blog.
Putting yourself out there in the form of video can greatly improve the connection your audience feels with you as well as your content, making it more personal and memorable.
There’s a great guide over at IncomeDiary called: 21 Ways to Dominate Youtube: The Ultimate Guide.
5. Make your blog eye-catching with graphics
Photos, infographics, illustrations. These are all wonderful, creative tools for making your blog stand out more, and can generate more traffic through search engines via image searches.
It’s no surprise that people connect with pictures, so a good photograph could make a huge difference in a blog post’s ability to capture attention at first glance.
Take for example, the popular blog The Minimalists. They feature simple, black and white photographs to accompany their blog posts which focus on the minimalist lifestyle. It’s a unique and creative approach, which, combined with their valuable information, has drawn millions of readers and been featured on major news channels and websites.
Another guy that’s done well with graphics is Brian Dean at Backlinko. See how he uses guestographics to get traffic and valuable backlinks.
6. Slideshows-not just for business presentations
If you have a lot of wonderful graphics on your blog, a great place to spread it is through SlideShare, which draws over 50 million visitors a month. Here you can create an overview of your blog posts and share it as a slideshow, with links that bring others to your blog.
Pam Moore of Marketing Nutz uses SlideShare with great success. At the end of a blog post on her website, she embedded the link to SlideShare, where she also has links to more of her content.
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7. Get your readers involved
Surveys are a fantastic way to not only get people engaged in your blog, but also help provide you with feedback on a topic, or the blog itself. People love to be involved in stuff and seem to enjoy taking surveys.
Linda Formichelli, who runs Renegade Writer, discovered the power of surveys when she put out her first and got 380 responses. The responses made her realize what her readers wanted and she was able to deliver, which made her blog grow even more.
8. Let your voice be heard with Podcasts![]()
Something that could set you apart from others is providing a podcast. You could record yourself reading your articles or relevant topics and upload to iTunes.
This can help you reach out to a broader audience, including those who would rather listen to something than to read it in plain text.
Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income has found great success in using Podcasts for exposure and to expand his successful business. His blog currently has over 100,000 subscribers!
9. Write and publish ebooks
Ebooks are a great tool and allow you to be very creative. You could compile a series of blog posts or just write more extensively about a topic related to your blog. Having this available as a PDF download gives your readers something they can take away.
Most bloggers these days use e-books, including myself, and everyone mentioned in this article. E-books are a simple, creative tool for bloggers to offer more to their readers and in turn, increase traffic.
Here’s how I promote my ebook offer:
10. Be generous with giveaways and contests
Everyone loves free stuff. Giveaways and contests are always fun, and always draw people. You can offer up a free download of your e-book as a gift for subscribing. Or you could run a contest in which the prize is a book, service, or something else of value.
Linda Formichelli from Renegade Writers discovered this with her survey. The incentive she offered for taking the survey was a suite of her e-books. This led to a huge engagement in her survey and generated not only more traffic, but also ideas of new programs to launch.
Besides having content worth reading, there are many ways to create buzz around your blog and expand your reach for potential readers. Consistency is key, but putting your own creativity and thinking outside the box will surely make you stand out among the virtual herd.
Do you have any creative blogging tips to spark more interest in your blog and make it stand out? Perhaps you even have some experience with some of these techniques? Please let us know in the comments.
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