Eight Blog Growth Tips For Beginners

First, a disclaimer.  I certainly don’t claim to be a hugely successful blogger – not yet anyway!  My numbers are decent but nowhere close to the dizzy heights some bloggers reach, but they have grown.  And that growth is a really powerful encouragement when you’re blogging, no matter how large or small.

Blogging can be frustrating sometimes. It’s very competitive and getting your stuff simply seen takes a lot of hard work. In the time I’ve been ploughing away I have picked up some brilliant tips from inspirational bloggers, You Baby Me Mummy in particular, which have helped improve my stats and get my message out there.

I’ve put together a list of the things I’ve picked up that have worked for me. I’m definitely not saying do all of this at once as it would likely take over your life, but I’ve been blogging for nearly two years and these are the steps I’ve taken during that time.

Post regularly

This is pretty obvious but so difficult at times, as between family life and our day jobs writing time can be very limited.  However, it does make a big difference.  I increased from posting once a fortnight to two to three times a week and I quickly noticed a steady increase in views (which makes a lot of sense!).

Join Linkys

Linkys are brilliant for getting other bloggers to read and share your posts, and a good way to make blogging friends (which is also a really useful tip!). But bear in mind it is time consuming because in order to participate you (quite rightly!) need to follow the specific rules of the linky. These usually include commenting on or sharing several other posts.

Facebook sharing groups

Facebook groups for bloggers are a brilliant way to get your content shared, across various platforms, and to make meaningful connections with other bloggers.  I’m a member of several but my two current favourites are Blogger Club UK and UK Awesome Bloggers.

Photos & Images

My photography is definitely my weakness and something I plan on working on this year.  Where relevant, I use stock images instead of my own.  Images can make a huge difference to your post, and should also be included on all your social media posts too.

Schedule Tweets

Twitter is by far the social media platform I get most views from.  However, because it moves so quickly it’s impossible to get your post seen if you’re only Tweeting it out once or twice a day. I use Social Oomph to schedule each post to go out every few hours and this means loads more people see it and share it.  What’s great is that after the initial scheduling I don’t have do anything else! Social Oomph does have a small monthly fee unfortunately but I think it’s completely worth it.  I used Hootsuite in the past for free but Social Oomph is much better and easier for saving time.

Run giveaways (and share them in the right places)

My biggest views by far come from running giveaways. Once you’re established you can approach brands to see if they are willing to give you something to give away to your readers. Then use Rafflecopter to set up the giveaway and generate the code to put on your post. I then share my giveaway on competition websites and Facebook freebie/competition groups.

Go self-hosted

I did this early last year and I’m so glad.  It’s a lot easier to set up than I expected (and I’m not a technical person!), it really improves the look, functionality and flexibility of your blog and it’s required for paid brand work.  There is a small cost involved but it’s very minimal.

Ask for retweets

This a little controversial. I’ve read some posts where folks have really complained about being Tweeted at by someone they don’t know and asked to share. But then I’ve also heard other big bloggers say they don’t mind at all and love to help others. For me, I choose people or organisations with big followings who are in the field I’m writing about and I hope will therefore be interesting in my post. For example, I might tweet a post about PND to Mind and ask for a RT in the hope they share it with their many followers. I think as long as you don’t do this too often, you always say thank you and you aren’t spamming or being a pain then it’s fine. And why not RT something of theirs to show your appreciation?  One good turn, etc.  It really helps to get further RTs and new followers.

It’s easy to get caught up in views and stats but ultimately you have to blog because you love it. There are no words for how much blogging has given me and the numbers are just a tiny part of it.

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