Are you looking for ways to improve your blog? I know that I am. Since starting this blog nearly a year ago, I’ve tried many things to gain followers, make money, and become a rock star blogger {well, in my own mind, at least}. There are things that I’ve been wildly successful with, and other things that I have {prematurely} thrown in the towel. If you want to gain followers, and encourage your readers to interact with you, consider implementing a few of my techniques and tips:
Choose a font that is easy to read. Script fonts are often difficult to see on a computer screen. Keep it simple. You don’t want to strain your readers eyes. Stay away from dark backgrounds with light colored font. It’s difficult to read posts that have a black background with white text.
Make it easy for me to follow your blog. If you’re looking to gain followers, don’t make your readers hunt to find a way to follow you. Keep everything together on your sidebar. Chances are, if I don’t see it right away, no matter how fabulous your post on meeting Matthew McConaughey was, I’m not going to become your newest follower. {Well, maybe if you’re giving away a meet-and-greet with him, I’d hunt!}
Turn off word verification. Go ahead, do it. The spam filters are able to catch nearly ALL of the spam – and if one does get through you’re able to DELETE it! If you’re using WordPress, consider using the Akismet plug-in to filter your spam.
Comment, comment, comment. If you want to gain followers, you have to put yourself out there. A great way to do that is visit other blogs and comment on posts that you ACTUALLY enjoyed reading. Don’t leave lame “I’m a new follower” comments, give the writer a compliment. Everyone loves those.
Take a class or two. Consider joining Blogelina’s Profitable Blogging Online Class and get 4 weeks of helpful info on monetizing your blog!
Network, network, network. Create a {free} Facebook page for your blog. Sign up for a {free} Twitter account. Use LinkedIn? Add your blog there, too!
While we’re on the topic of networking, I’d like to invite bloggers who are not currently members of Triberr to join one of my new tribes. If you’re interested, please leave a comment below with your twitter handle and I’ll send you an invite. {Author’s Note: I have since deleted my Triberr account. The community was no longer working for me.}
I’m thinking of starting a new series here featuring tips to improving your blog. What do you think? Is this an area of interest for you? I’d love your feedback in the form of a comment below.
Hi!
I’m your newest follower from Friday Blog hop! Would love for you to stop by and consider following me back!
Have a wonderful weekend!
blessings,
Jill
I’d love more tips on improving my blog. I’m a bit plateaued right now, so anything to keep getting better is great.:)
Thanks! I actually just turned verification etc off for comments yesterday. Everyone can comment now please! lol
I’m a big fan of that idea!!!
A lot of those are even more important if you’re doing giveaways. If I can’t find your follow buttons quickly, I’m going to leave. If you don’t have Rafflecopter and have captcha on every option, I’m going to leave.
I agree!
Some Great Advice! I recently signed up with Blogelina myself! If you haven’t yet, Please Follow back Parga’s Junkyard Blogand on facebook as well as on my new networking site Like it Ladder Thanks!
Great tips! Totally interested in a series on improving my blog!
I’d love to read more about blogging tips!
Hi Emily,
I would like to learn more about your Tribberr.
Hope you are well.
I sent you a Triberr invite via Twitter DM!
Wow! I wish more bloggers read your tips. I find it very annoying when bloggers ask for followers, but I can’t find their “Join this Site”. I did not know they had online blogging classes. Of course, I should not be surprised. I’m glad I stopped by from KarmaBloggers to follow you.
I have a hard time with commenting on other blogs! Mainly because I havent made time, but it’s so key to getting your blog read! I’m on triber too! Although I cant get my twitter account work with it. Another point is to comment back to your commenters! People love knowing they have been heard!
What a great blog with a lot of helpful and insightful hints and tips for blogging. Looking forward to reading more and gathering some great ideas for my own blog!
Newest follower from the blog hop and following via twitter and GFC.
Have a wonderful weekend!
http://singlemominspiration.blogspot.com/
Visiting you from the Alexa Drop Hop. I enjoyed reading your blogging tips. I’ve never heard of Triberr before. I’d be interested in learning more. My twitter is @dervin2006. Thanks!
I enjoyed reading this segment it had great information. I am not a part of Tiberr and would love to join if it will help my blog out. My twitter ID is CouponClippinTX. I would also like for you to come by my blog and become a follower. Thanks for the information and I look forward to reading more on your blog.
These tips are all fantastic! I love your blog, it’s very easy to get around on and to understand! Someday I’d like to start my own blog, it seems like fun… but also a lot of work i’m sure! I can’t even imagine!
“Choose a font that is easy to read.” Yes, that is so important. Some blogs I visit do not have a pleasing font, easy to read font. Great tips, thank you!
These seem like very basic tips, but most are crucial to success of almost any website. Readable font….yes please!
I have thought about starting a blog, but I decided to wait until after I finished my dissertation and found a job. I still love reading about how to make a blog.
I used to sell Tupperware and I wanted to run my business primarily online. I wish I’d discovered all the great blog tips then. I might have been more successful at growing my business.
Thanks for starting this series! I want to start a blog so these are great tips tor me, especially making it easy for others to follow me and turning off word verification! I hate searching someone’s blog yo follow them and I really hate word verification lol!
I don’t have a blog (not enough hours in the day to keep up with one!) but if I ever decide to start one, these are some good pointers! I especially love the Turn off word verification! That is one of my pet peeves! I will usually stay away from blogs that use it (unless it’s a really good giveaway!).
i agree about the word verification. It is so annoying!
This is one great, well-thought-out article! Every one of these suggestions are something I as a reader not a blog owner get frustrated with. The biggest frustration I have is ones that use comment verification, particularly the one that has two different shaded boxes in which to try to determine the words contained within. With my failing eyesight (I am only 52) I have to try sometimes 6 times before I enter the correct words and numbers. Thanks for the chance to vent–
I think I am going to be visiting this series for blog help ALOT. I am new to it and I am VERY confused alot of the time. You just might be able to create a miracle here if I can get it all figured out. Thanks for doing this 😉
I Like the black background more for some reason. Thank you. Jerri Davis
I don’t have a blog but these are some great tips. I have been wanting to try to start one and these tips are definitely something to keep in mind. Especially the font tip!!
Thank you so much for doing this – I’m new to blogs, and this is very helpful. I agree, have everything on the sidebar. If I can’t find it quickly, I leave the page.
taking a class is a good idea
i use linkedin but haven’t had muchnetworking luck
As a blog reader, I would just like to say yes, yes, yes to the first three tips. I’m much more likely to read a blog regularly if the blogger makes it visually easy to read and easy to follow via RSS. And I’m much more likely to comment if I don’t have to go through the word verification process. Your blog also loads really quickly, which is a huge plus, believe me!!
I agree with the suggestion about fonts and backgrounds. If a blog is hard to read I figure why bother? These are so many others out there. kristiedonelson(at)gmail(dot)com Thank you.
i like to stay engaged on blogs. keeps me in the loop!
I don’t have a blog but my daughter is considering one. I’m definitely going to share this with her. I’m so in agreement with word and comment verification. Nothing drives me crazier then that . I enjoyed your tips. Especially the black backgrounds with the light words. I won’t even try anymore. Thanks for some good pointers and I think you should keep this up. 🙂
Carol L
I’ve been thinking about starting my own blog. Thank you for the helpful tips!
Thank you for the tips on improving a blog. I am not a blogger currently but I have considered starting. I definitely agree about the white text on a black background. It hurts my eyes!
Thanks so much for the great tips. I am thinking about starthing a blog and will be bookmarking this page and your series for future reference.
I agree with choosing a font that is easy to read. Sometimes fonts clash with backgrounds and it makes them so difficult to read. Thanks for the tips
I’d say those were great tips! I totally agree on the font thing! Some are so hard to read that I just give up! And I can’t stand a black background with white font! Makes my eyes hurt!
I always waver back and forth about seriously committing to a blog. I’m an avid blog reader, but have never gotten it together enough to start my own blog. This post is full of useful tips that might just convince me I can do it 🙂
These are great tips! I especially like the tip to make the font easy to read. I hate when it is hard to read a blog because of the font, or if the color of the words make it hard to read. Really good advice.
I agree with the word verification. It totally turns me off to commenting. Some of those words are hard to read and I just give up! Thanks for posting these tips!
The name of your blog is the biggest draw… Hilarious and true!! Also good point about making the layout clear and everything easy to find.
These are great tips for old and new bloggers alike. I don’t personally have a blog, but I follow and read a lot and I like when they are easy to read. Also, lately, I have been entering several contests that require yout to follow the blog or like them on facebook and its so easy when all the links work and they are visible.
I completely agree that you should turn off word verification! I have personally tried to leave a comment, and seen that word verification was required. I chose not to leave comments on that site. It is annoying and I frequently get it wrong the first time. Excellent tips.