If you’re looking to start a profitable blog in 2023, the one major element you cannot do without is your readers.
No matter how good of a writer you may be, your blog can’t thrive if people aren’t reading it.
If your purpose for blogging is that it’s an enjoyable hobby for you, then number of readers you have is less important. Of course, everyone loves to have plenty of readers and feel heard. However, if you’re blogging mainly out of enjoyment and to share your thoughts with the world, the number of readers you have won’t make or break your blog.
But for those of you who are looking to turn your blogs into a business, the key factor in that is your audience.
In this post, I’m going to cover everything I’ve learned so far about using social media to get readers to your blog.
Change your mindset about your blog
The first thing you can do when you’re looking to start promoting your blog is stop thinking of it like a blog.
Of course, it is still a blog but if you want to start profiting off it you’re going to have to change your mindset and take a different approach.
Think of your blog like a business
Your goal here is to learn how to market your blog like a business owner would market their business.
You can start to do this by thinking like a business owner. Realize that every potential reader will become a potential customer.
It’s extremely important that you start going out of your way to gain traffic for your site. Especially in the beginning, Google’s search engine isn’t enough. You need to intentionally promote yourself and draw readers in to your writing.
Be sure to sound authentic
Authenticity is one of the main factors that keeps people coming back to your blog. Readers want to know that you have their best interest in mind and want to provide value for them.
They certainly do not want to think that you just want to profit off of them.
The trick for this is to advertise yourself without sounding like an add.
Readers aren’t interested in content that seems spammy. Or, content that’s not providing any value but rather trying to sell them something.
When you start promoting your blog, it’s important to highlight the value within your posts that your audience can benefit from.
Pick a social media platform
In order to promote your blog on social media, you first need to choose a social media platform to promote yourself on.
I recommend starting with just one social media platform. That way you can focus all your attention in just one spot, which helps prevent you from spreading yourself too thin.
Research different platforms
It may be worth your time to research how different social media platforms work. Generally, most social media platforms have the same idea. They’ll get your post out there to your target audience with consistency and time.
However, some platforms have some key differences. Most platforms have different features that you might prefer and find more helpful when it comes to promoting content.
For example, some allow you to create a business account, others allow you to create and run adds, and others will track each posts performance for you.
All of these features can come in handy when you’re promoting your blog. It’s best to know your options and decide which platform you think would work best for you.
Talk to other bloggers
One of the best ways to become successful is to take advice from people who have already done what you’re looking to do. Talk to, read about, or listen to what platforms other bloggers use and what works for them.
You’ll find tips on how to use these sites and how to successfully grow your account on them.
For me personally, I prefer to grow my blog with Pinterest. I think Pinterest is the best option for growing a blog for everyone. I’d recommend anyone use it whether they have blogging experience or are just getting started.
Some reasons why I love Pinterest
It has a search engine just like Google
This means that your posts will show up at the top of the page when someone makes a search, depending on your use of Pinterest SEO. This is a great way for your content to get eyes on it without you having to do much.
By using the right strategies over time, you can gain traction in Pinterest’s search engine and rank higher or lower depending on your use of Pinterest SEO.
It’s extremely visual
The primary feature of Pinterest is that it’s image based. If you can become good at designing appealing images, your content will do great on Pinterest.
This means you don’t need to be good at writing or anything else, you just need to design an image.
You can add the link directly to your post
This is hands down my favorite part of Pinterest. You can add a link directly to every post you make. And every post you make can have a different link.
Whereas most other social media platforms usually only allow for a link to your blogs home page on the main screen.
Although Pinterest has that too, you can also link to the blog post you’re promoting directly in your Pinterest post.
I think that’s awesome.
It’s extremely user friendly
All that you need for each post is an image, a small description, a title, and a link. You don’t have to show your face, make or edit videos, or do any talking. It doesn’t get much easier than that.
Additionally, I don’t find it confusing or hard to use at all. Everything is self explanatory and the app functions well.
Create a content schedule
Once you’ve decided what platform you’re going to use, the next thing you’ll want to do is decide when you’re going to post.
Generally, to grow on social media you’ll need to post once a day. Sometimes more but rarely less.
To grow my Pinterest account, I was posting about once a day for almost a month. Just recently I found out it’s recommend I post about three to five times a day to grow the account as quickly as possible.
My account was still growing at first, but I guess I needed to be creating A LOT more content than I was if I wanted to get big.
I would say the best way to decide how often you should post is to ask yourself two questions. 1) how quickly do you want to grow and 2) how often can you create high quality content. These are the two primary goals you’ll need to meet. It’s best to establish those before you make a posting plan.
I would always say posting more is better, but it’s also important not to post too often. Some platforms might view this as spam and can either lower your reach or ban your account completely. This definitely would not help increase your reach.
Post consistently
Once you’ve decided on how often you should be posting, the next step is to actually stick to that. You should be posting a lot and consistently.
It’s going to take a long time for your social media account to grow. And most likely even longer for your blog to grow. This is going to require a lot of relentless hard work while feeling like you’re getting no where.
The key to overcoming that is to just STAY CONSISTENT.
I can’t emphasize enough how important consistency is in order to grow a presence online. The more consistently you post high quality, keyword high content, the more you establish yourself on any platform.
After this, your posts will be boosted, they’ll land high on search pages, and more readers will get eyes on your posts.
Consistently working hard to post high quality content will gain you credibility and validity with whatever platform you use. So just remember to keep working hard and stay consistent and eventually you’ll get to where you want to be.