YOUR BLOG

There is absolutely no point in trying to grow your subscriber list if your blog is not worth subscribing to. This begs the question: What makes a blog worth subscribing to?

After many years of blogging, and reading thousands of blog posts there are a few things that stand out that makes someone want to subscribe to your blog:

Design
The blog post itself Social proof
You

Design

The first thing a reader will see when they come to your blog is the whole blog itself. They won't see anything specifically until after a second or two. So their eyes will take in the whole page before starting to focus on something that's eye catching.

So your design will be judged within the first second of reaching your page, literally the first second.
Lets take a look at what a reader sees the first time they visit your page:

The image is obviously blurred but that's what we see for the first few milliseconds of visiting a site. Notice, even thought the image is blurred, that your eyes are drawn toward a particular part of the site, usually the top left hand side of the page, which is the heading:

As you can see I have kept the blog quite minimalist above the fold (the part of the page you see before having to scroll down to view more).

Let's take a look at another site which has a lot more going on:

 

This site is a headache waiting to happen. You don't know where your eyes should go, the moving images in the background are very off putting and within 1 second of reaching this page you would probably click away.
You can see the difference between the two pages and how your eyes move much more smoothly over the first site.

So design is important when it comes to your blog. This is not an ebook telling you how to design your blog so I can't tell you how to do that, I am not a designer, I can only tell you what works for me. Even my site is not a great design, it needs to be a little warmer and a little more navigable, but it works at the moment.

Here are a few things to consider when looking for a blog theme for your blog:

 

Does it catch your eye?

Remember I said you have around 1 second to make an impact. If you can afford a blog theme designer by all means hire one, but with lots of great blog themes out there for free and even better ones for a small amount there's no excuse for a really bad blog design.

Some places I would try:

 

themeforest.net (paid)

 

Wordpress.org (Free)

 

Diythemes.com (Paid)

 

Wordpressthemebase.com (Free)

 

Load time

Another important aspect of the design is that it should load quickly, so don't have too many widgets loaded into your blog theme, this will turn visitors away from your blog before they even have a chance to read what you have to say.

Too many ads

If your blog has too many ads then it's going to look like you're in it for the money and not bothered about the reader at all. If you're going to have ads, have them below the fold where new visitors will not see them immediately.

Keep your content the focus of attention

Your content is the reason you are trying to get readers to your blog, to show them that you what you are writing is worth reading. Make sure your content is prominent, as close to the top left hand side of the blog as possible.

Ease of navigation

Readers will not always enter your blog via the front page and will often find it from the search engines. So your blog has to be easily navigable from all of your pages. Typically your sidebar will have a lot of useful links: top posts, categories, popular posts, etc.

The blog post itself

 

Back in 2006 Seth Godin wrote this about writing a blog post:

An appropriate illustration,
A useful topic, easily broadened to be useful to a large number of readers, Simple language with no useless jargon,
Not too long,
Focusing on something that people have previously taken for granted, That initially creates emotional resistance,
Then causes a light bulb go go off
and finally,
Causes the reader to look at the world differently all day long.

The same holds true for today. We can simplify it down to:

 

Great image to go with the post

The image you have to go with the post is the first thing a reader will see when they decide to read a post of yours. If the image does not look professional or interesting in some way they will click away.

I love a blog called ChangefulStorm, not because of the poetry, but because every image the owner, Neva, puts up is just beautiful. If the images were not good I don't think I would have bothered with the blog and got to know the owner better.

Great headline that tells you exactly what the post is about

 

Look at these two headlines and ask yourself what one would you click on if you were looking to get more readers to your blog:

 

Getting More Traffic
How to Get 963 Extra Readers to Your Blog Every Day Starting Today

The second headline, although a little long, would grab your attention straight away because of the preciseness. It tells you exactly how many extra readers you can expect, where to, how often and when.

Great first paragraph that will tell you what the rest of the post is about

 

Okay, you've managed to get a new reader to like your image, like the headline and they have started the first paragraph.

 

Your first paragraph is crucial in getting the reader to keep reading, once you got past this part you have almost got them hooked and willing to read more.

Your first paragraph should contain what the reader can expect to get from the rest of the post. You are effectively saying to the reader: Here is why you should read this post, here is what you are going to get from it and here is what results you can expect after reading this post.

Here is the first paragraph in a post I wrote called: The magic Inside of You

 

I’d like to tell you a story if you’re willing to read on, I think it can change your thinking and could change your life.

 

That one paragraph tells you what to expect (a story), what to expect (change your thinking) and what results you will get (change your life).

 

There are other ways to start blog posts:

Asking a question (usually rhetorical) Making a bold statement
Get the reader to imagine something Share a quote or anecdote

Break the post up with headers and bullet points

First time readers to your blog will often scan the first blog post to see if it's interesting. the only way they can do this is if the blog post has a heading, subtitles and possibly bullet points.

Nobody wants to read 1000 words without there beaing some kind of break for the eyes.

Imagine going to a blog post and seeing a sea of words before you without anything to tell you what the post is about apart from the header (and it has to be a good header). when you write posts without subtitles, images, bullet points etc you are almost forcing the reader to read your first paragraph, and guess what, nobody likes to feel forced to do anything. Make it easy on your reader and add in sub headings,, quotes, bullet points, images, etc.
There is one exception to this and that is if you write very short pieces likes Seth Godin then there is no need for the above, but generally most bloggers write between 500 - 1500 words of content in each post.

End the post with a call to action

Invite your readers to join in the conversation by asking them to. A simple 'Let me know what you think' is enough to elicit some comments to your blog. the more comments you have on your blog posts the more social proof you have. We will speak a little more about social proof later on.

A good, well structured, blog post is critical to your success of becoming a blogger so master the art of writing great blog posts. Copy the masters and see how they construct their blogs posts and deconstruct it to suit your own style of writing.

Social Proof

 

Whether we like it or not social proof plays a key role when readers decide if it's worth staying on your blog long enough to get to know you.

We are social animals and if a lot of people have already made a decision about something then it's a short cut to thinking for us. With regards to blogs, if I visit a new blog and I see it has 10,000 subscribers, I immediately think there must be something about the blog that others like and I will give it a little more attention than I would if it only had 35 subscribers. The less time I spend having to make decisions about whether or not to read a blog the more time I have to read more blogs and social proof cuts down, dramatically, my thinking time.

What is social proof?

Social proof is anything that shows other people/readers have already decided they like you/blog and have taken an action of some kind, usually by subscribing, tweeting, bookmarking, thumbing up etc.

Some social proof indicators are:

Your subscriber count
Your comment count on your posts The number of Facebook fans you have The number of tweets to a post The numbers of SU likes you have had The number of Diggs to a post
Your Alexa ranking

And the list goes on and on.

By writing great content, which is useful and helps others in their field of interest you will be able to increase your social proof. By networking with other bloggers in your field of interest you will be able to increase your social proof.

you can of course game the system and get more Tweets, Diggs, Facebook likes, thumbs up etc, however it's harder to game the system than to actually focus on the quality of your work and the quality of your network.

You

 

Believe it or not readers subscribe to your blog because of the person who is writing it, mainly you.

Whenever you become popular in your field people automatically turn to you and try and emulate what you are doing and how you are doing it. They also want to have your attributes and look up to you, and respect you. In essence they want to be you, that may sound a little weird but it's true.

If you have a compelling story or are a little different and you have a little success you will gain a lot of subscribers simply for being you.

this is when you realise that you have to blog with integrity and be authentic both to your readers and to yourself. There is no point in having a blog about a loving marriage if you're out having affairs all over town. when you are true to yourself and are writing from the heart it will shine through in your blog and others in your field will automatically be attracted to you and you will quickly gain a respect.

Being with you

When a subscriber subscribes to your blog it is a way of getting to know you a little better, they feel a little closer to you and have more of a sense of loyalty toward you.

This is another reason to act with integrity and authenticity. the more popular you become the more you are scrutinized, much like the celebrities being scrutinized by the press.

You have a gift

You have a gift and it's unfair to keep this gift to yourself. If you are a blogger and keep up with your writing and try your best to perfect your craft you will develop your gift into something that can be shared with thousands of people around the world. Don't underestimate your influence when you start to gain more subscribers.

It is your responsibility to share this gift with others without expecting anything in return. When you get to the stage that you have given so much then it's time to start making money for yourself to keep developing this gift. even if you write an ebook after a year or two of blogging and start selling it for $15, you are still sharing your gift, but also helping yourself.

A lot of people think that they shouldn't start selling from their blog, that's nonsense. As long as your are not just in it for the money and what you are selling or promoting is going to help someone, then selling your items is a must if you want to continue to develop and keep in touch with your subscribers.

Part of your tribe

A lot of readers will subscribe to your blog simply because they feel they have connected with you and want to be part of the community you have going at your blog, whether that be with the comments you get or the forum you build it doesn't matter. Making readers feel welcome and replying to each comment is a must for making readers part of your community.

Well that's it for the whole blog thing, I could write a hell of a lot more about 'Your Blog' and how you can make it better to entice more readers to subscribe but I think you get the picture just now.

i want to go on and give you some concrete tips for getting more subscribers by using some of the methods I have employed to reach 10,000 subscribers.