Advice From Bloggers Please!

[Lady Gray]

Hi all

I'm new to Specktra an new to blogging and I'm really enjoying both!

I'm just wondering any experienced bloggers could offer any advice on a) keeping the blog interesting and b) how to attract readers? Whilst I am enjoying blogging, it'd be nice to feel I'm not just writing to no one! I do have seven followers but wondered if there was something I was missing regarding attracting more readers.

Any advice/criticism gratefully received!

Thanks in advance

Charlie

 

[gildedangel]

The best way to attract more readers is to interact with your blogging community. For example; my blogging niche is nails/nail art. So I take the time to comment on other nail bloggers posts and I follow lots of other nail blogs. Participating in the community not only brings you more readers; but it makes the blogging experience a lot more fun when you start to get to know others. So interact with others who have blogs that are similar in topic to yours.

To keep a blog interesting, firstly you have to love what you blog about. If you get bored with it, your readers are going to be able to tell. Also, don't make every single post hugely long, most people who read blogs read a lot of blogs, so keep the posts small-medium in length. Also, be sure to include posts about you! Readers love to get to know the authors better! Participate in tags and "get to know you" stuff. Also a little variety to your posts is helpful. If you post about the exact same kind of thing everyday, readers will get bored. I hoped this helps, good luck!

 

[Lady Gray]

Thats great, I've been trying to get more involved with the community, I guess I must try harder and post on other peoples blogs more often!

Excellent advice, thanks so much for taking the time to reply

 

[kelly2509t]

I agree with what gildedangel said! Just comment, comment, comment on other people's blogs. Also try entering competitions to get your name out there. You've just gotta work hard on your blog and not to be disappointed if you don't get that many followers at first. Don't give up because you'll have lots of fun doing it

 

[Lady Gray]

Thanks so much. I've spent all evening looking for blogs to follow so I'm getting there! Thanks so much!

 

[Lady Gray]

If anyone wants to link me to their blogs to read please do! I'm obsessed!

 

[fingie]

Mine is super new, so there isn't much to read yet (lol) but if u want the link is in my siggy

I'm going to check yours out now!

 

[Lady Gray]

I'm following you now - that cardigan is awesome!

 

[fingie]

Aww thank you! I was so excited to find it after seeing ones online for like $50

 

[Shadowy Lady]

Honestly, the best way in my opinion is to keep the contents of your blog fresh and comment on others blogs as well.

I have had my blog for a year now and am finally reaching 100 followers.
Reason being, I have a very busy lifestyle and though I follow many blogs, I don't always have time to comment on all of them. Hence my blog hasn't grown as much as some of the others. But in the end of the day I have made my priorities. It's nice to have a big blog with 500+ followers but then that would feel like work to me. My blog is my escape from work and I'm happy with that

Oh, my blog is in my signature, come and check me out

 

[Lady Gray]

Thank you Shadowy Lady. As soon as I'm finished here I'm off to look at yours. I am making a big effort to visit other peoples blogs and comment

 

[hello_kitty]

It's good to keep it updated fairly regularly.. this gets people coming back, and also search engines crawl stuff that is updated frequently more than stuff that isn't. And getting picked up by google and other search engines will help you get readers... I do my blog mostly for myself and a few close friends, but I've gotten really indexed on google so I get all sorts of hits. You can usually put code in from googleanalytics.com and it'll show you all your traffic and where it's coming from.

 

[Shanti]

This thread is quite helpful ^^
My blog doesn't have much right now... I'm just getting started... but it's in my siggy. =) It's mostly going to be a beauty blog featuring Asian cosmetics brands and such.
Feel free to check it out!

 

[LMD84]

honestly i would say be original! so many bloggers post the same things and it gets boring

maybe find something that interests you to post on as well as beauty related things. maybe if you have a pet that you love, include some pictures and stories about that. because all beauty and nothing else doesn't hold my attention.

also as others have said - be passionate about what you're doing! if you sound bored and just copy and paste info then people won't want to read it! include your opinions and let your personality shine through!

 

[tangledrose]

Would you ladies mind telling me what blog community to join? I'm not sure if that the right way to word that! The most user friendly, WYSIWYG kind of format. And customisable. I look forward to recommendations.

 

[hello_kitty]

I used blogspot for a long time... it's fairly customizable and easy to use, and great if you don't want to deal with getting server/hosting space.

 

[gildedangel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tangledrose Would you ladies mind telling me what blog community to join? I'm not sure if that the right way to word that! The most user friendly, WYSIWYG kind of format. And customisable. I look forward to recommendations.

I use blogspot, it is very user friendly and lots of other bloggers use it. It is really easy to find templates and change the coding and make it look exactly like you want.

 

[Lady Gray]

Thank you everyone for the tips, I'm taking it all on board and really appreciate it.

Can I ask if those of you offering advice about updating regularly/being interesting/talking about my life etc have looked at my blog and think I'm not doing whatever it is that you've recommended? Reason I ask is that I think I am but perhaps I'm not and I'm just super boring and I'd love to know if you've looked and thought, oh that needs more "whatever" or if you haven't looked and you're offering general advice if that makes any sense at all!

Thank you all anyway, I really appreciate it.

 

[computergirl200]

My advice is to just be yourself, write about what interests you and what your love. I love blogs- it's like having a magazine everyday

My link is in my sig too so if anyone wants to say hi...!

 

[luvsic]

I'll follow you Lady Gray!

I also have a blog. I don't have many (lol, I have like 3 literally...and that's stretching it) followers yet, but I think one of the main reasons is because I'm on livejournal and my blog is currently integrated with my regular journal. I don't want to bother with making a new one until I gain some followers. Haha. I might move to blogspot when I do.

However, what I can recommend has already been recommended, pretty much: write about what you love, and don't feel forced to write about things just to gain readers! As long as you love writing your blog and keep up with it, at least you'll be enjoying it! To gain followers, I'm still trying to figure it out myself! A few girls on specktra kindly started following me, because sometimes I post in the fashion section (I hope that's allowed! lol) so we shall see where that goes.

Anyway, good luck to you!