This post was guest blogged by Ryan McLean of Smarter Wealth, the smart way to wealth.
Everyone that has ever had an A-List blog started out as a struggling blogger or entrepreneur. Everyone who made the big time with business in any sphere started out as a struggling entrepreneur.
The problem is a lot of people get stuck in the ‘struggling’ and never make it to being ‘successful’. Personally I have been stuck in the struggling for quite some time now. But I am now taking the necessary steps I need to take in order to build my blog from being a struggling with blog with less than 100 subscribers to a blog with over 1,000 subscribers.
If you have already made the big time then this is not for you. I have not made the big time yet (I want to be honest with you), but I am on my way. But if you haven’t made the big time yet and you are stuck in the ‘struggling’ area earning less than your fare share of income then this post (and this blog is for you).
So lets go ahead and talking about breaking the barrier because so few people tend to break it. Many give up before they break through and start seeing some real success. These tips are things I am doing to ensure that I break through.
What Is The Barrier?
The barrier is your cap, it is the roof above your head. Your blog or business grows to a certain point and then it seems to be capped. The grows slows down or stops completely and you don’t see any breakthrough.
In a blog this is the start of the blog. It is slow starting a blog, no one knows you, you aren’t in the search engines and you have less than 100 readers so no one is going to link back to you. Once you break this 100 reader mark then it starts to become easier because there are more people reading your blog so more people will link to your blog and it will grow faster (this is exponential growth).
So How Can You Break The Barrier?
Some count it as luck to be a blogger with a large readership. However, I do not. I believe there are specific things that can help you become a successful blogger. These tips I am about to give you are not the standard tips about building a blog such as build great content, connect with readers etc. This is about taking your blog from a great blog with no readers to a great blog with readers (and lots of them). It is assumed you know the basics about blogging.
Guest Post A Lot
Take advantage of the traffic other blogs have. Bloggers love people to guest post because it gives them a break from writing content. Make sure you write top quality posts to be submitted as guest posts and then submit them to bloggers starting at the top down. By this I ean starting with the big bloggers who have a huge readership (such as John Chow) then if they say no move down to bloggers with less traffic. This way you can try and get the most for your post.
Tip: When guest posting make sure your posts on your blog are engaging so the new readers coming through will stick around.
Run a Viral Competition
Running a competition is a great way to break the barrier in your blog. The most important thing is to run a Viral competition. A viral competition is a competition that spreads like a virus. Give people entries for blogging about your competition or linking to your competition. This gets the word out and more people will become involved in your blog.
Tip: When starting out don’t aim to get everyone to subscribe to your RSS get everyone to link to your blog. Then the new traffic will automatically subscribe to your RSS is your content is good.
Comment Like There is No Tomorrow
Commenting is a great way to get your blog notice both by the writer of the blog and the readers. When you comment you should always comment like you would guest post. Don’t spam, but write useful comments, then people will visit your site.
The more comments you have around the web the easier it is for people to find and access your website. It also helps in your search engine rankings.
Tip: Being the first one to comment will give you more exposure. Use an RSS reader that automatically updates every 30 minutes or less so you can know when new posts come through and you can comment.
Reinvest Into Your Blog
When you earn money from your blog don’t spend it but reinvest it into making it better. Get a custom design, get an ebook cover made up, pay for some advertising to your site. If you continually reinvest into your site then it will continue to grow giving your more to reinvest into.
Tip: Adbrite offers full page advertising for as little as $0.001 per impression.
Respond To Your Readers
People who never respond to their readers grow their blogs a lot slower than people that respond to their readers. I make an effort to respond to every single comment on my blog. I want my readers to know I am there to help them and I want to build a community. This helps keep readers coming back to your blog and means that you can build it up over time and break that barrier
Be Generous
If you give you will also receive. The blog-o-sphere runs so well because so many people link to each other. If you want a blog to give some exposure to you then give some to them. Link to them and (especially if they are a smaller blog) they will link back to you (or at least check out your site). When you give something of value to people then they feel a certain obligation to give something back. Use this to your advantage and give as much link love and free site reviews as you can and you will likely get some back.
The hardest thing to do in blogging is blogging when your site isn’t growing like you want it to. Do these things and it is likely that you will take your small blog from a small blog to a big blog. Then once your blog is bigger it is easier to make it even bigger.