Jessica,

I would love to grow my subscribers but am unsure how?  Do you have any ideas or tips on how to increase my readership?  Thanks!
Laura, Pink Like The Color

Laura,

I get this question a lot.

The best way to start building your subscriber list is to offer your readers, both loyal and those stopping by, a reason to keep coming back for more.  This begins with having a strong voice your readers can relate to as well as consistently having great content.

Some ideas to give your readers, both casual and loyal, a reason to subscribe and not wanting to miss a post include:

• Offering a series that is relevant to your niche and educates your audience.  My blog saw tremendous growth after publishing my 15 Days of Marketing series and this series still remains popular even several months later.  So if you are a food blog you could write a series around summer recipes or around a set of ingredients where you use leftovers over the week.  Or, if you're a parenting blog, you could offer a series around activities for kids the week after school lets out.  And remember, it doesn't have to be 15 days...it can be a week, a month...whatever makes sense for your topic.  Just make sure that once you set up your series, you don't let it fall by the wayside as this can backfire and defeats the whole purpose.


• Start refining your blog's niche.  This won't make sense for every blog, but if you cover a variety a topics within one niche try not to go outside of said niche.  For me, I know I subscribe to blogs that I know will give me consistent information I can use.


• Keep in mind that while having a large number of subscribers sounds great that if you are niche, your numbers might be smaller because your content is so focused.  This is a good thing!


• Entrench yourself in communities that share the same passion for topics that you do.  You'll discover great blogs to subscribe to and make it easy for others to do the same.

The best rule of thumb is to treat your blog like a community, not a subscriber list or traffic numbers, do this and your following will grow organically.

I promise.

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