Making a Beginner Blog Successful - Guest Post

Hello, Tales of an Unlikely Mother readers! I’m Laura, and I blog over at Between the Lines. Darlena contacted me a few weeks ago about guest posting. She asked me to blog about how to make a blog successful, and while some people prefer to take notes and really think about something such as this topic before talking about it, I have decided I’m going to wing it.

Yep. I’m going to wing it.

I have been blogging since I was young. When I say young, I mean about 12 years old. I blogged over at LiveJournal, where I had a large group of friends, and I quickly became a huge fan of this posting-things-publicly-and-getting-responses thing. How fun is it to vent, and get feedback from people? Some people don’t care about that stuff. Me, I enjoy it.

I like to share my life, which is why I have been doing this for about 13 years. Some simple math will show my current age. :) I decided to leave LiveJournal in 2008, and I started a blog at Blogger. My blog was called Life of an Army Wife at the time. I was a newlywed, and my husband had just deployed to Iraq. I was alone in our two-bedroom apartment, just me and our little Maltese-Bichon pup, Samson, and I needed a public outlet.

I began to blog there, and my numbers slowly (and I do mean slowly) crept up. 1…4…5…10…19…22…29. I didn’t really mind. That number honestly didn’t mean much to me. I was just happy to be sharing my life publicly, and keeping my husband in the know while overseas.

Once my reader count got higher, I decided to register a domain name, but when I did that, I decided to go ahead and change my whole blog around. I became Between the Lines, and I registered betweenthelinesblog.net. I had over 100 readers at that time.

Today I have over 300 readers. No matter what your reader number is, if you’re striving to get more of them, today I’m here to share my tips on doing that.

1.    Guest blog. Yep, just like this. You can either wait for someone to ask you to guest blog – which could be a long time – or you can offer. Ask to guest blog on someone else’s blog. Ask THEM to guest blog on YOUR blog. Both of these methods bring readers to your blog.

2.    Comment! Don’t just sit behind your computer screen and lurk. No one likes a lurker. Show your face. Comment on peoples’ blogs because not only will that blogger click to see what you’re all about, but THEIR readers will, too! This is a HUGE way to get people to notice your blog. You don’t have to plug your blog in the comment. Just say hi, comment on whatever they posted...just poke your head out and say hello.

3.    Join networks. There are all kinds of blogging communities out there to join. They are helpful. Use them!

4.    Tell people about your blog. That’s easy, right?

5.    Join Twitter! Some people think Twitter is silly and pointless, but for bloggers, it can be a great way to make friends and reach people! I love it for that purpose.

6.    Post regularly. People like to keep up with you, so, keep everyone updated. By regularly, I’m talking a few times a week. To start out, it doesn’t have to be every single day – though that would be nice – but a few times a week is good.

7.    Share. I mean…more than just words all the time. People like visuals. Pictures. Graphics. Recipes. That cool craft you just made from Pinterest.

8.    Join link-ups! There are a lot of weekly link-ups out there. Join one…or two…or ten. Whether it’s a photo challenge or a simple “Top Ten Tuesday” meme where you talk about your top ten favorite things, join them! By doing so, you’ll gain readers who saw your link on the host’s website.

Be patient with blogging. Be regular. Share. Join. Comment.

If you ARE a newer blogger, and you’re looking for a layout to catch peoples’ eyes, I would love to help you out! I just started offering blog designs for a very reasonable price. November is also the first month I’m taking sponsors. What’s a sponsor, you ask? For a small monthly fee, I’ll place your blog’s ad (or your business, or whatever) on my sidebar. Many other blogs do this, too, so, check them out. The entire month, it will remain there, and any visitors to my blog will see it. If it catches their eye, you may have a new reader or two…or more.

I hope these free (okay, and even the one that costs a little money, if you’re interested in going that route) tips will be useful to you in becoming a successful blogger!

Have a happy Wednesday, and I hope to see you around my neck of the woods some time! Stop over and say hi. :)

-Laura