10 ways to grow your blog
1. It seems so simple, but be consistent
Sticking to a schedule makes readers come back for more and helps you stay on topic. My schedule is loose but I consistently blog Monday through Friday…Monday is Making Monday Marvelous Tuesday-Friday I post craft/ diy tutorials or round ups. They are always related to what is happening in my life at the moment. When I get an idea for a post, I start a new post immediately, create a title, and save as a draft. That way every time I open my dashboard, I see the idea and don’t forget. I have a minimum of 10 drafts, and 10 scheduled posts at any given time!
2. Social Media
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| see at the bottom where it says “9 hours ago via Networked blogs” |
3. Linky parties helped C.R.A.F.T. grow the most in the beginning
I linked up to THIS list of parties every. single. week. for a good 6 months. Being persistent is something I’ve always been good at…the squeaky wheel gets the grease, right ? Keep linking up, and you will get featured! Exposure was key for C.R.A.F.T. Once people know how awesome your blog is, they’ll come back for more!
4. Start your own linky party
It stinks that you have to pay now, but it is only $20 bucks a year. I use inlinkz. In the beginning, and sometimes still now, I will come a cross a blog I’ve never been to with an awesome tutorial, and just leave a little note and the M.M.M. url for the week…something like:
“WOW! What a great idea! (say something personal, for example… I’m so doing this in my bathroom!) Please come on over and link this idea up to M.M.M. !”
5. Blog swaps, guest posting, and submitting projects
It never hurts to ask 🙂 C.R.A.F.T. has done a ton of blog swapping over the past 16 months. Blog swaps are a win- win! Rachel @ One Pretty Thing features a TON of crafts–email her and let her know about your projects! I’ve also had good luck with submitting projects to Apartment Therapy and Craft Gossip.
6. Music and Word Verification
Here are 2 things that will instantly make your blog better, in my humble opinion. Turn off your music and turn off your word verification for comments. This will get you more comments!
7. Create a full disclosure statement
Post it somewhere on your blog. After all, it’s the law!
8. Collaborate
And meet up with other bloggers. Comment on other blogs, go to conferences (loved bloggy boot camp), and set up blog dates with like mined ladies in your area. It’s FUN and good for your blog!
9. Business cards
Whether you’re blog is business now or you want it to be someday…carry these with you all the time. You never know when blog talk will begin. Here are the very first business cards I made out of cereal boxes. Update: I made new business cards!
10. Start a series and ask other blogs of similar size and interest to join
I recently used google docs to help organize Creating Really Awesome Free Trips and it was greatness. Google Docs allows everybody to see everything and edit it. C.R.A.F.T. has hosted 5 on Friday and Creating Really Awesome Free Trips. I removed their emails for the picture…but see how organized it is, but you can see the layout of the Google Doc screenshot below.
UPDATE:
How to Grow your Blog- Part 2
How to Grow your Blog- Part 3
How to Make Money Blogging
10 Blog Lessons Learned from 2011
How to make your blogger blog a dot.com
Comments & Reviews
What GREAT advice from a seasoned blogger to a newbie! Thanks so MUCH for compiling this…off to read more now!
Jamie! I love this! Thanks so much for taking the time to put these together. They are so helpful and I will be coming back to look at these as I try to improve my blog.
Not why my comment repeated itself, lol. But I wanted to let you know that I mentioned this post in my blog with a link. You have been so helpful, thank you. http://realcraftymama.blogspot.com/2011/08/late-nights-amping-up-my-blog.html
Thank you so much for this post. I've learned so much. Love your blog btw.Thank you so much for this post. I've learned so much. Love your blog btw.
Great list of pointers Jaimie!
I could not agree with you more about linking up. Consistency IS key!
I started linking up consistently to a long list of great weekly memes. I became very committed to this back in December.
Was it successful?
Well, June of 2010 my blog was getting 3,000 pageviews per month.
June of 2011 my site is getting 26,000 pageviews per month.
My top ten referring sites are all sites that I link up to every week.
You be the judge. 🙂
Thank you for posting this – it's SOOOO helpful and now it's like I have all your awesome emails in one place! It's nice to know that I'm not the only one overwhelmed and confused by this stuff… : )
What a helpful post! I have a new blog and was wondering what is the next step to grow it. I mean, I love to make things, but it takes time to blog and so having readers would be nice. Sort of reinforcing my craft addiction… I am going to read your tips until I memorize them! thanks!
Thank you so much for posting this Jamie! I am a new blogger and I love reading advice from the seasoned veterans.
Thanks for all the tips! This summer I will try everything you listed and see what happens. 🙂
I already Twitter. And I love Pinterest! Did you know you can have a "follow me" blinkie for Pinterest??
I don't do any DIY, just make cards and scrapbook pages, but I love to browse blogs. I am amazed at all the creative ideas!
Thanks for sharing this! I'm new to blogging and am looking for all the help I can get!
thanks Jamie!
i'm no expert, but sounds to me like you got all the points!
(i still don't like twitter, but it's an 'age' thing!!!! ahahah!!!)
I'm so happy y'all found this post helpful 🙂 Does anyone have anymore good ideas I left off the list?
AMEN to #7! Didn't know about #8! Great post!
Thanks for this. Very informative. I just transferred 4 blogger blogs over to wordpress and now I have to grow everything all over again. Ugh…but I don't regret it. Fortunately, they were relatively new blogs.
Anyway, I'll definitely check out the things you listed that I'm not currently doing.
Cheers,
Tracy Screaming Sardine
This is great stuff, Jamie! Thanks for sharing so many great tips – I had no idea about the disclosure statement either.
Thank you, this post is so very helpful. I have been blogging for a little over a month… I started one because I love creating DIY projects and wanted to share them, but I don't know anything about how to make mine successful. Thanks for sharing your knowledge 🙂
Connie @ Salvage Savvy
This is so helpful! Thank you for posting this.
danielle
These are some really great suggestions! I totally agree with joining in on the Link Parties. That's where most of my followers have come from 🙂
Also, I tried to share your link on my FB page (Happy Baby Designs) but it flagged it as "abusive" material!?! I sent a message to dispute it so hopefully it will get corrected.
I just wanna say THANK YOU for this. Great tips. SO SO TRUE. It was extremely kind of you to put it out there for newbies trying to learn the ropes. I couldn't have said it better. I may be a fairly new blogger but every single thing you mentioned works. SO thanks!!
–Mary Beth @ Nothing But Country
Love this post! So many great ideas!!!!
Thank you!
-emily
nestnestingnested.blogspot
This post is fantastic and SO helpful because I'd really like to grow my blog into something more than it is. I actually just started doing Twitter yesterday and I've pondered doing a facebook page but do you think there's a certain size you need to be before that's effective?
What great ideas! I'm new at the whole blogging thing so thanks for posting.