Remember the good old days? – When blogging was the only game in town and you could rely on a handful of faithful readers to help spread the word about your blog? Well, sadly to say, them days are gone – long gone. And every technique used to become a popular blogger 10 years ago just wouldn’t work now.
It’s seems like nowadays every man and his dog have a blog, like literally, dogs now have blogs!
The game has changed. If you aren’t a millionaire senator’s wife, like Arianna Huffington, it can be quite tough to build an army of followers. But sit back; we are going to let you in on the secrets the top bloggers swear by to getting your first 1,000 subscribers in no time at all!
1,000 is the goal
One of the first goals in the blogging world is getting noticed and reaching that milestone of 1,000 subscribers. But do you know why 1,000? Is it because it’s a nice, well rounded easy to remember number?
Well, not exactly.
1,000 subscribers is the indication of this highly reassuring fact: You are doing it right.
It clues you to know that it won’t be long before you ‘make it’ (whatever that means for you). The tipping point starts to happen, momentum starts kicking in and all of a sudden, the whole process gets so much easier!
When you reach the 1k milestone you will see your fans taking some of the heavy load in bringing new visitors. Your blog begins to build a reputation. Your posts begin to get noticed without you having to work so hard in getting them out there.
Now before you jump out of your seat blinded by excitement, we are not saying this happens overnight. It takes some time to build a loyal audience. The majority of blogs don’t take off like rockets. You build slowly at first, and then the snowball effect comes into play leading to quick growth.
But the question still remains – how do you attract your first 1,000 subscribers? Don’t fret. If you’re not finding the audience you want yet, we can show you how.
Your Target Audience
You cannot attract 1,000 subscribers if you don’t know whom you want to attract in the first place.
Who is your ideal audience?
You really need to hit this nail on the head before you can truly begin to attract subscribers. Are they male or female? How old are they? Where do they live? How much money do they make? What are their interests? There are many pointers you need to think about.
Write these questions down and discuss them with your team. Once you have answered the questions, you should then have an idea of who your primary audience is. However, this is just the basics. For ultimate results, we need to dig deeper.
Your next move is to see what blogs your target audience are reading.
Conjure up a list of 5-10 blogs that are popular right now with your target audience. This will also come in handy when you start promoting yours. Check out the comments section. What are the readers saying? What are they asking? What are the recurring thoughts and questions that come up? What can you help with?
Basically, you need to investigate exactly what is it that keeps your audience up at night. To have a blog that is successful and helps bring your business more clients, you need to know your readers better than they know themselves.
Spending time on these factors will truly set your blog apart from the rest. The most common reason blogs fail is due to the fact that they are not clear on whom the blog is actually for.
Credibility and social proof
When a new visitor lands on your blog you need to convince them that this is the place to be and well, that your blog is the best thing since sliced bread – as the saying goes.
Let’s look at it this way – when you visit a blog for the first time, and it’s booming with activity, you instantly think, wow, this seems like a good place to explore. People then begin tweeting, sharing and commenting. Other users on social media will then assume that the content is really good without reading a single word.
However, on the other hand, when a blog looks like a ghost town, visitors instantly decide that the articles simply aren’t worth checking out. That’s the reality, however unfortunate it might be. This is why it’s crucial to get some social proof.
If you’ve been featured in other blogs, whether it’s a guest blog post or an interview, then make sure you show this on your blog. A great way of doing this is through the ‘as seen on’ method, with the logos of websites or magazines you have appeared on. This will give you instant credibility – perfect for enticing readers.
Also, don’t forget to share client testimonials. It’s pointless having glowing testimonials about you and your business if nobody can see them. List what nice things people are saying about you. Show off your list of clients. People don’t want to be the only ones signing up to your list or buying from you. Once they see that people are purchasing with you, they will too.
Offer a Freebie
A great way of attracting new visitors to your blog is with a freebie – something visitors will grab with both hands!
But before you fill your mind with all the things you can offer for free, you need to remember something – your target market.
Many blogs make the mistake of creating a freebie of a broad topic, hoping to attract a wide variety of people – the more people that visit the better right? Wrong. You could invite 5,000 new visitors to your site with a general freebie, but how many of these will actually become leads? We are guessing not many.
However, if you offer something more specific, something that your target audience needs, the better your chances of getting the right audience on your list.
If you are a personal trainer specializing in fat loss, look at your ideal reader and then think about creating something that would appeal to them specifically.
Ok, your freebie offer may not attract a lot of people but that’s not always a bad thing. Attracting a large general audience is great but as soon as you start trying to sell your service, most of them will instantly unsubscribe. It’s best to cut out the middleman and eliminate these people from day one.
Remember, you want your email list to be full of high quality people who will are more likely to become clients.
You don’t have to spend hours creating your offer. A great freebie can be as simple as a downloadable e-book, video tutorial/how to, printable checklist or worksheet.
As long as you choose a problem your audience are interested in solving, they will respond.
Content is Key!
This should be a given really but, only publish content that is top notch. Provide content that’s easy on the eye and concisely written. Create headlines that grab your reader’s attention and entice them to open your posts.
Here is a great rule: Spend 20% of your time creating the content and then 80% promoting it. When your blog is the new kid on the block, this really helps to establish it.
Create content that develops authority and drives in more traffic. By posting fresh, engaging content, you are creating great brand awareness and truly positioning yourself as an expert. You are also showing how different your blog is from your competitors at the same time.
Promoting Your Articles
Let’s all admit it, we’ve all dreamt about one of our blog posts going viral out of nowhere, trending on Twitter and even drawing in the odd celebrity’s attention. Oh what a dream it is – but unfortunately reality doesn’t often work that way.
Yes it can very well happen, but the problem is you can’t orchestrate it. You don’t have a say in what goes viral, you can’t decide if it’s going to be something you have written. You have to rely on other methods such as guest blogging, social media and perhaps some advertising.
A big priority is to build relationships with influencers in your niche. Comment on their blog posts. Maybe arrange an interview with them. Over time, you can count on them to help you get more shares and traffic. The become partners, as such. If they tweet out your post, share it on your Facebook or Google+ page. This will close to guarantee a lot of attention coming your way.
Create some noise on social media
Sometimes, social media can become a prison. It can feel like you’re trapped for endless amount of time trying to get the treasured retweets, likes and shares. There are so many choices, do you tweet, do you post on Facebook, and is it worthy of putting on Pinterest? It can be a nightmare!
The best advice we can give you is to focus on one and do it well. Spend your time mastering one platform at a time and building a presence on that platform before moving onto the next. This will help your businesses digital marketing in the long run.
And there you have it – our guide on how to gain 1,000 blog subscribers. Yes, we know it’s quite a lot to take in, but remember you can always come back to this post and gather notes etc. or even better, you download our FREE eBook here.
Now, let’s go out there and get them subscribers!
