Converting First Time Visitors into Regular Readers: Day 5 of ProBlogger’s 31 Days Project
Day Five of ProBlogger’s 31 Days to Building a Better Blog has several suggestions on how to convert one-off visitors to your site into regular readers.
In reading through this post, I realized why I was having so much difficulty following the organization of ProBlogger’s 31 Days Project. Basically, instead of following a pre-ordained 31-day schedule of topics, ProBlogger instead told readers that he was going to blog on blogs for 31 days, and he encouraged them to participate. He facilitated the discussion, throwing out ideas and engaging readers in conversation. The organization was therefore a bit fluid, but in doing so, he was harvesting regular readers.
Here are his tips on turning first time visitors into regular readers:
- Create Conversation. When posting, invite comments, and when you get comments, respond.
- Build Anticipation. Inform readers when you intend to continue blogging on a certain topic with a series of regular posts. They’ll be more apt to return if they know they can expect to find new content on a topic they’ve enjoyed.
- Partner with Readers. Give them some participation in your blog, beyond commenting. Encourage them to interact not only with you, but with other readers.
- Engage Readers’ Senses. Liven up the look and feel of your blog to set yourself apart from everyone else.
- Get Permission to Remind Readers You Exist. Invite readers to sign up for a newsletter that will allow you to reach out to them on a regular basis instead of counting on them to return to you. I plan to use this to remind readers when I switch “seasons” of blogging. Right now, I’m doing a lot of blogging about Tennessee football, but I know some readers just aren’t in that. After football season is over, I’ll send out something noting of the switch in topics.
By the way, I didn’t get a lot of mileage out of social bookmarking for whatever reason.
