The biggest question any new blogger will have when starting out is how to attract readers and get more traffic to their blog.

Although it’s fair to say that this question is the easiest to ask, as well as answer, I want to tweak the first part from ‘how to attract readers’ to ‘how to attract your ideal audience,’ which should immediately help you work smarter, rather than harder.

When starting out, try your best to step away from the idea that you want people to ‘visit and read’ your blog, because, as you may know, it’s easy to read a post and move on with no intentions of returning. We should all want our readers to not only visit and read, but join the family and be impressed enough to subscribe and follow our blogs for future posts.

The mission should be to inform and leave people with knowledge that they may not have known or could ultimately benefit from, which is a surefire way to gain both loyal and supportive followers.

With that said, I wanted to touch briefly on three different things that you should be doing in order to get traffic to your blog from, again, your ‘ideal audience.’ This includes:

— Creating quality branded Images + Infographics
— Creating + featuring pillar content for your ‘ideal audience’
— Sharing strategically-worded social media posts + tags

Sounds pretty heavy, right? I promise you it’s an easy concept to grasp. Make sure to Contact me if you have any further questions about these three topics!

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Creating quality images + infographics

First off, I wanted to share some insight on the importance of quality images for both your site and content. One of the main reasons why your ideal audience may not be interested in what you have to offer is, not only the overall appearance of your site but the consistent quality of the images you use throughout your posts.

If you have an already saturated niche and want to appeal to a specific community of readers, high-quality images, digital content, guides, and presentations of any sort are key in order to see a difference in your site’s traffic.

One pretty incredible online-based visual content tool, Visme.co , reached out to me to familiarize myself with their site's premium account features. While using Visme, I was able to get a grasp of what they have to offer their users and how handy their tool is for both bloggers and online entrepreneurs alike.

Creating downloads and digital content for your audience, to better absorb the information you have to offer, is the first step to not only growing your following but attracting loyal readers to continuously choose YOU to teach or inform them.

With Visme’s large amount (70+ and growing) of infographic and image templates, I was able to create multiple shareable social media images along with digital downloads that can be attached to future guides and posts. 

What easily sets apart this online tool from other websites is a combination of their simple, yet powerful, animation engine and text editor. Take a look below at one of my projects to see some of my favorite features found on Visme.co: (click the image to see the animation attached) 

Created using Visme. The Easy Visual Communication Tool.

 

Considering all of the incredible features on this one platform, I am both impressed and excited for what this site has to offer along with the future content I know I will be able to create for my audience. I was able to customize just about every aspect of my animated graphic shown above, as well as create an eye-catching feature image that you see at the top of this page.  Overall, the ease of use and editing features of Visme made my life MUCH easier compared to other known online editing sites that restrict features even with their paid plans. Within only a few hours using this tool, I genuinely recommend it for all of my creatives out there that need ONE catch-all site to create content they can trust will impress their visitors. 

So, after explaining where you can go for those high-quality images, animated graphics, and presentations, it’s time to consider WHAT you'll be offering alongside your creations which, conveniently, leads to my next point.

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Create + feature ‘pillar content’ for your audience

When I first started, I didn’t understand what ‘pillar content’ was and why it mattered to my initial lifestyle blog. If you’ve kept up with me on my journey recently, you would see that I’ve attached the ‘blogging tips’ topic to my already long list of categories.

Quick Tip: Subscribe to The Intentional Newsletter to stay updated on the launch of my NEW WEBSITE, Blogging Bosses, which will house all of my posts for new bloggers who are interested in creating websites of their own!

I will keep this section seemingly short due to another post coming up on the topic, with emphasis on how important it is to actually HAVE pillar content easily visible and available to your visitors.

Months ago, I had a checklist and guide for college students that offered moving tips and tricks along with related posts on how to make the best of a new semester. This was a project that was informative to my readers, during the popular ‘back to school’ season, but also an opportunity for visitors to read other content I had to offer after initially checking me out for my free guide.

Pillar content doesn’t always need to be downloadable worksheet or checklist, but, at the least, a guide or series of posts that you want to be known for within your niche’s community. This, for example, can be a series of posts for college students that act as a ‘survival guide’ covering multiple topics. I’ve also seen plenty of ‘start a blog’ post series’ as well as extremely in-depth guides filled with tips and lessons that readers can benefit from.

To decide what type of pillar content you should create or showcase on your blog, consider these things:

—What is something your ‘ideal audience’ needs or will need in the future?
—What do you think your audience is currently looking for?
—Is there a topic that is underrepresented in your community / niche?
—Is there a creative way to include your brand identity and unique voice into a common series that your readers will enjoy?

With that last point, I wanted to give an example because I think it’s important to understand that your brand identity and voice (the ‘personality’ you put into your blog / business) can make or break your blog’s traffic.

On YouTube, I have a series called #10MTT: Ten Minute Tea Time, where I sit and talk for ten minutes about whatever topic I feel fits the season, most current event or trend. This is a seemingly normal thing to do on YouTube and isn’t necessarily taken seriously because there usually isn’t a NAME for these types of videos.

By including my own personalized name and making those ten-minute videos into a series, I make it known to my subscribers that those videos are both set apart and unique to my channel.

So, with both quality images and pillar content on your site, how are you going to get readers to your blog through social media? What kind of strategy should you have to market yourself smarter and in ways that will attract your actual ‘ideal audience?’

Strategically-worded social media posts + tags

One thing I feel grew slowly when first starting my blog was my social media following and engagement. I found myself posting the same type of selfie with empty captions and a few irrelevant hashtags. (Speaking mainly on Instagram and Twitter).

The first thing I changed and started incorporating into my social media routine was the use of hashtags related to my niche, and strategic-wording in order to attract new readers. I searched on Pinterest, ‘Hashtags for Instagram’ and ‘Hashtags for Twitter’ to find a variety of posts that are dedicated to listing the best tags for your blog’s overall topic, as well as popular tags that could help with engagement. Follow me on Pinterest to access hundreds of helpful pins on blogging, social media marketing and entrepreneurism! 

Below is a screenshot from my notes with the general hashtags I use for my Instagram that I copy and paste into my comments after sharing each picture. For twitter, I will interchangeably use the same tags listed over time, because, as you know, there are only so many characters one can include in each tweet.

The five dots were placed in order to hide those hashtags from view, which I highly recommend you do as well for a cleaner overall ‘look’ on each (Instagram) post.

As you can see, I’ve included tags that are directed towards both my niche and themes or topics that I know my audience may also be interested in. When figuring out which tags to use for certain posts, think about:

What your main niche is + what you do

For example, I love using -blogger at the end of a ‘community’ to attract readers that are into blog posts for that specific topic. Above you see I like to use #collegeblogger, #millennialblogger #christianblogger, #lifestyleblogger, along with others not included in the image to make it easier for interested readers to find my site and content. 

Blog networks you may know / be a part of

I usually add #Blackbloggersunited, #blackgirlswhoblog and #hercampus to not only interact with bloggers in similar networks but make myself visible to people interested in bloggers who are participating in that community.

Popular hashtag communities (somewhat related to your niche)

This is generally your chance to add whatever other tags you like, as long as they relate to your community in some way. There’s no issue with adding certain hashtags that point to your city or university, for example, just as long as those ‘random’ tags are accompanied by communities that people search on a regular basis. For these extra tags, I like to use #naturalhair and other related tags to capture that communities attention, as well as #gritandvirtue, #entrepreneur, #thatsdarling and #flashesofdelight which are two extremely popular tags for just about ANYONE with a cute and quality image to share.

As mentioned above, along with adding relevant hashtags, I’ve started working on strategically-worded captions to further ‘capture’ the attention of those that see my tweets or pictures. The word ‘strategically’ is a pretty fancy word to use considering how easy it is to explain.

Simply put, start writing interesting captions with call-to-actions that are both visible and desirable! Offer something to those who see your posts that could benefit them, which ties into the importance of the tags you end up using. If you’re trying to reach new bloggers, offer to ‘show them reliable ways to make money as a new blogger’ or create a ‘guide to establishing an online presence,’ and so on.

Quick Tip: Make sure to be choosy with how obvious your call-to-action is. Some posts can be strictly for reminding your social following about a post you have to offer, whereas others would rack up more engagement with a quick and witty story, followed by, what I like to call, your 'shameless plug.'

People want what you have to offer, it’s all about reaching them (tags) and letting them know why they should go to YOU for that information (captions).

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Once you’ve established your branded images, pillar content and social media strategy, you will be on your way towards growth with both your blog’s traffic and reader engagement.

Trust me, I know it may seem like a lot of work at first, but, coming from someone who has learned everything through trial and error, grounding yourself with quality over quantity is what makes you most memorable in the long run.

If you want to learn more about Visme and their online visual content tool, check them out and consider their Premium Plan for just $7 per month if you’re serious about creating quality digital content for your audience to enjoy. I was genuinely impressed with all of their features and time-saving editing hacks that made it easy for me to be creative. (Watch the video provided below if you are interested in learning more). 

That is all I have for right now, with plenty of other topics on my mind that I’m sure will be posted within the next couple weeks! Remember to Subscribe to my Newsletter to stay updated on Blogging Bosses’ release and some possible freebies *cough* that might come with that launch!

Pin this post on Pinterest to share the love and get to work! Good things come to those who want it, so start actively working FOR your ideal audience and improve your blog over time. Soon enough, your traffic will increase and more opportunities will make their way to you. 

Stay Focused, 

- Miss Lynn