Maria’s Guides

A few tips for WordPress.com bloggers interested in attracting more readers to their blogs.

I’ve been doing a lot of work with WordPress.com lately, preparing some new training material to cover the new features and revised administrator interface. Part of my new material is a list of tips for WordPress.com bloggers who want to attract more readers. Here’s the list:

• Create original, well-written content. Too many blogs just rehash what’s already out there on the Web. But if your content is new and original, you’re more likely to attract readers who want fresh information or a different, independent point of view.
• Blog regularly. If you’re serious about attracting readers, you’ll need to post new content at least a few times a week. Be committed and you’ll be rewarded with a strong following.
• Stay focused. Studies have shown that popular blogs have one thing in common: they focus on a limited number of topics. Readers find this attractive because they know that if one of your posts interests them, they’re likely to find other posts that also interest them. This simply isn’t true if your blog covers a very wide range of topics.
• Comment on other people’s blogs. When you comment, you often have the opportunity to include a link to your site. If your comment is thoughtful and appropriate, you might encourage others to come visit your site.
• Share your blog URL everywhere you can. Three good places is on business cards, letterhead, and your e-mail signature. I bet you can think of a few more places if you try hard enough.
• Use appropriate keywords in your blog posts. Key words are picked up by WordPress.com. If you apply an appropriate keyword, WordPress.com visitors may discover your blog when exploring a keyword.
• Enable the Related Links extras feature of WordPress. This includes your blog among those blogs that can appear in related posts list on other WordPress.com blogs.

What do you think? Can you apply these tips to your blogging activity?