How To Get A Following In Blogging

Your blog is live, you're publishing great content, you're on social media, you're using keywords effectively but you just don't seem to be getting any traction.

Or maybe you're getting some traffic, but you're struggling to convert this into real followers who want to read everything you're publishing. So how can you get more blog followers?

Or maybe you are just wondering how to get traffic to your blog or how to get people to read your blog?

And you may have also read this post last year and realised that things have changed. That's right I added THREE more epic ways in which you can gain blog followers FAST! Plus I answer some of your burning questions on how to get followers on your blog! So keep reading to get the latest!

One of the quickest and easiest ways to get people to read your blog and get your blog noticed is simply to gain additional followers. There is nothing difficult about how to increase blog followers, you just need a plan and then to work on it. You can do this in a number of ways, including by attracting more followers to your social media accounts and by converting casual readers who land on your site into followers.

Of course, it's not just social media where you want followers, but the nirvana of followers is those who join your email list.

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An email subscriber is gold and worth far more than a follower on social media or a page view.

Once someone is on your email list, this is your chance to convert them from a follower to a loyal fan who keeps returning to your blog week after week. This is the turning point when it becomes much easier to monetise your blog and your readership.

So I'll be covering exactly this – not just showing you how to get more blog followers and how to gain blog followers FAST, but how to make sure you are turning them into dedicated subscribers.

In this tutorial, I am going to walk you through how to increase traffic to your blog with 31 epic techniques that you can action on your blog for HUGE results.

This tutorial is for you if you:

already have a blog and social media accounts
want to know how to get people to follow your blog
want to know how do bloggers get followers
are ready to focus on how to gain followers on social media
want to grow your email list with a focus on driving traffic to your blog.

Let's get YOU started and grow your follower count TODAY!

Take action to get new followers RIGHT NOW. Click here to download a checklist of the 8 Steps To Dramatically Increase Email Subscribers In One Day

31 Epic Ways To Get More Followers Today – And Turn Them Into Passionate Fans

How To Grow Blog Followers 31 Epic Ways To Get More Followers Today

You will learn...

The five steps to gaining more followers and converting them into loyal fans
Why the RIGHT followers are more important than gaining RANDOM followers
How to identify who the RIGHT blog followers are?
31 epic ways to find more followers: How to get blog followers
How to turn your followers into dedicated, passionate fans

The five steps for gaining more followers and converting them into loyal fans

When working on how to increase followers and how to get blog traffic, there are five steps to keep in mind.

Determining who your target audience is
Writing quality content that attracts this audience
Gaining followers among your target audience that will love your content
Turning these readers and followers into subscribers
Using email to communicate with your subscribers and convert them into steadfast, passionate and loyal fans

But, I'll warn you now.

Learning how to get a blog following doesn't happen overnight.

You are going to have to work at this. As I know from my own repeated experiences, if you concentrate on this you WILL notice that it makes a big positive difference to your follower numbers, your traffic – and your income.

Want to know how you can make this happen? Read on.

Why the RIGHT followers are more important than gaining RANDOM followers

It is REALLY important when you are blogging to fully analyse the purpose of any task that you do.

This isn't just because you have limited time, but this is especially important when you are working out how to get more traffic to your blog and even more so if you want to make money from your blog.

Figuring out how to get many followers isn't anywhere near the best strategy.

This is because you need the RIGHT followers.

Random followers are unlikely to give you any real benefit apart from adding to your follower count when you're talking to brands.

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Random followers don't add anything. They can even harm you.

On platforms like Facebook,the number of followers who will see your posts depends on how many of those followers interact with your posts.

This is because when you post on Facebook, Facebook will start by showing your post only to a small subset of your audience. Then, depending on how many of them engage with your content, it will decide how many more people to show it to (if anyone).

So if you have 10,000 likes on your Facebook page – but only 1000 of those likes come from people who actually interact with your posts then there is a good chance that very few of those people will ever see your posts. Facebook may only show it initially to a subset that only consists of those 9000 people who don't care and who don't interact at all.

This means that it's not going to help you get traffic to your blog. It's not going to help you monetise your blog. It's only going to hinder you. And you would be far better off if your Facebook page just had 1000 likes from followers who love your blog and interact with your Facebook content.

Keep this in mind when you are working through this list of how to gain more followers.

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You ONLY want the right followers.

Who are the RIGHT blog followers?

The real question is,who is your target audience? Who are the people who you write your content for?

The first step in working this out is to picture your ideal customer. (And bear in mind you may have more than one) Who is the model person that you want reading your blog? Ask yourself these questions.

Who are they?
Are they male/female?
Where do they live?
How old are they?
Do they have kids?
What are their hobbies/interests?
Do they work? Are they studying? Are they retired?

I recommend writing down a detailed description of a typical person you see as your customer. Give them a name. Describe them in detail. This is your customer avatar or buyer persona – it's a fictional character who represents the characteristics of your buyer, your client, your customer, your reader – the person who reads your blog and takes action as a result of your content.

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Knowing who reads your blog is REALLY important, so you can write for them

Creating Buyer Personas and Your Customer Avatar

Build out the characteristics of your customer.

Write down where they spend time online.
Do they use Facebook? Pinterest? Instagram?
Would they rather watch videos or read text?
What do they want to know in your niche?
How can you help them?

As I said, you will likely have more than one of these ideal customers. We call them buyer personas. So get going. Write down their characteristics, their demographics, their likely actions. If you want to go really in-depth on buyer personas – this is a great easy and informative read.

Why We Are Doing This?

What is important is that at the end of this, you understand who it is that your blog is for which will give you a better idea of how to attract them and what you should be doing on your blog and social media to aid in this. If you don't know who these readers are then it's much harder to attract them. So take a while and focus on who they are.

31 epic ways to get more followers: How to get blog followers

Only now that you have a clear idea of who you want to attract is it time to start working on gaining more followers.

Here are 31 epic ways that you can grow your blog follower base and drive the right type of traffic to your blog…

1. Join Blogging Groups to Increase Your Blog Followers

In any business environment, there are peer support groups and blogging is no different. It just happens that most peer support is virtual when it comes to blogging groups. Joining a peer support group for bloggers in your niche can be a vital lifeline for your blog's and your well-being.

You can find blogging groups on all the social networks, but the most engaging of them can be found on Facebook. Each individual group will have their own rules of engagement, so be sure to follow them, but use them to network – we are all here to learn and support each other. I'm a big believer that the marketplace is big enough for all of us and it is still growing.

One of the most supportive blogging groups that I know of is, of course, the Digital Nomad Wannabe Facebook Group. We have more than 9,000 members, many are regularly active and the group has an amazing community spirit.

Don't just look at your blog niche either when it comes to blogging support groups – look at your local area, things you write about, technical problems you are having. There really is a group for everything.

What's your favourite blogging support group? Share in the comments and let's help the whole community!

2. Connect your immediate network AKA Your Friends IRL to increase your blog fans.

While I've spent quite a lot of time above discussing how important it is for your followers to be the right focused followers, I'm actually going to start by suggesting that your nearest and dearest are a great place to start driving your follower numbers up. Stay with me a moment.

That's right. Your family. Your friends IRL. The folks who love you. Blog and all.

Do they all know about your blog? Read it? Share it?

And while I know the introverts among you may well react in horror to my suggestion that you share your blog with your loved ones, look at it this way. You're aiming to build a wider network of passionate, enthusiastic fans. Who better than those who are already fans of yours in real life? It's obviously best if they meet the criteria of your target audience too.

Sharing your content with these fans and having them share your content is one of the best ways to gain followers.

3. How to Promote Your Blog (and Gain Followers) Using Guest Posting

Guest posting on other blogs is a great way to increase the reach of your blog and one of the best ways that I know of how to promote your blog. Guest posting on an appropriate site not only gives you the opportunity to bring new potential readers to your work but also increases potentially high-value links to your site.

A great guest post should feature your expertise, provide links to more detailed content that you've written. Guest posting also brings other benefits to your blog – which I wrote about here.

4. Jump on the Blog Collaboration Bandwagon to find new blog followers

If you were in my recent link building challenge you can't have missed the hundreds of blog collaborations that were taking place. Taking part in collaborations is a superb way to increase links to your site, but also to gain additional interested and focused blog followers.

The best way to approach blog collaborations when your goal is to increase your blog followers is to ensure that you take part in collaborations that have relevance to your blog. Be sure that the link that you submit for your collaboration has appropriate lead magnets, subscription boxes and is a GREAT resource. There's more on lead magnets and subscriptions later in THIS tutorial.

You can read more about collaborations in my tutorial on Blog Collaborations.

5. Appear on podcasts, interviews and videos to earn new followers

In the scope of your networking with other bloggers, publishers and professionals take a look for those who publish podcasts, interviews and videos. This might also be outside of your normal network, but it can bring you to a whole other audience that you haven't considered.

Take the example of one of my Build Blog Freedom students, Sarah. Her Gen X travel blog includes content about Bansko, Bulgaria, as that's where she spends her downtime. Connecting with a well-established provider of services and information on this ski resort, Sarah was interviewed for a popular ski resort podcast that was then syndicated through other regions in Bulgaria and on the Sofia Globe newspaper, hosted on iTunes and Soundcloud.

The audience for the podcast was primarily investors and long-term expat residents of Bulgaria – not normally readers who would go looking for Gen X travel blogs, but who fit the buyer persona that Sarah was searching for.

You can easily search for podcasts in the following places:

Stitcher
Soundcloud
iTunes
TuneIn

When you are interviewed, you are likely to get a link to your blog and also the opportunity to mention it during the interview. I highly recommend that instead of just linking to your home page that you link to a landing page that is compelling and appropriate to the content you share.

For example, for an interview on your home town, you could create a landing page that has a relevant lead magnet to give people more information on that topic.

6. Read and Comment on other Blogs to gain followers fast

I've already discussed joining blogging groups, where you'll get to network with like-minded individuals and all learn from each other. I learn so much from other professionals and I do allocate an amount of my time each week to reading expert content from other people.

Reading content from other sources is always a great source of information- and it can help you frame your own content more effectively. Think someone did a good job? Drop them a comment. Have an opposing point of view? Start a conversation. Most blogs will allow you to include a URL to your homepage or an appropriate post on your site. Make your comments engaging, the content interesting and you'll intrigue and attract not just the writer of the blog you've commented on, but also their readers too. But you have to take the time to make your commentary relevant, engaging and I'm absolutely NOT suggesting that you're just looking to get links from comments.

Engage, communicate and form a relationship!

7. Get Readers for your Blog with your email signature

Everyone who's reading this has an email address and therefore has a piece of white space that they probably use EVERYDAY where they can be promoting their blog. You could simply add a link in your email signature to your blog. If you have a logo you could add that too, but I think that's WAY too passive if you're serious about in this quest of how to bring traffic to your blog.

You can drive more followers and subscriptions to your blog by being much more proactive in your email signature. Here are some suggestions as to how to get followers fast using your email signature.

Update your signature each time you add a new post
Treat this in the same way that you do affiliate links use proactive – action taking language. That's right – put a call to action in your signature!
- Read my blog!
- Check out the latest post!
- Find out what I thought about <insert topic of blog post>

8. Find new blog followers with Bloglovin

Citing itself as the leading destination where readers can discover and consume fashion and lifestyle content, Bloglovin shows YOUR posts in a Bloglovin frame. That means that reads on Bloglovin count in your analytics and your adverts are shown. Bloglovin grabs your content from your sites RSS feed, so there is no additional work for you to do. Seriously.

As Bloglovin is using your RSS feed it may be that blog sees the referral sources as "FeedBurner" or "feed", but this isn't duplicate content and there's no effort required by you.

Bloglovin sends a daily email to their members with all the posts from the blog that the member follows. Again, no effort from you. Members can choose to be notified each time their favourite blogs have a new post. So how do you use Bloglovin to get more followers?

Well, it's easy. Encourage your existing followers to follow your blog through the Bloglovin frame. The more followers you have via Bloglovin, the more often you appear in their algorithms and popular pages and, well, the more people see you and – as your content is simply amazing, the more followers you get.

Get started with Bloglovin here

Must do's for BlogLovin

Claim your user ID – e.g. www.bloglovin.com/@sharonjgourlay
Write your profile / about (240 characters with spaces)
Claim your blog (i.e. your website) and add it to your profile (details here)
You will likely want to follow some other blogs on Bloglovin too.

8a. How to Get Followers on Blogger

That's right, this is an a) rather than a separate number and that's because getting more blogger followers is similar to the process that you'd follow on BlogLovin. And to be fair, if you read my content you know that I'm 100% WordPress for my blogs, however… If you are using Google's Blogger for your blog then this is for you. And it's all about how to get followers on Blogger FAST.

Just add the "followers gadget" to your blog. How to increase followers on blogger is as easy as that. This is going to allow people who are reading your blog through blogger to easily and quickly follow your blog! And it's going to take you seconds to set up. Go on, give it a go!

If you're on wordpress, you may be wondering about how to get blog followers on wordpress, but I generally find that wordpress followers come naturally through following the other tips in this list. I always recommend using self-hosted wordpress, as without this, you'll find you are very limited with how you can monetise your blog in the long run. If you're wondering how to gain followers on wordpress, then I recommend choosing some of the strategies outlined in this post to grow your blog readership overall.

9. Use Medium to get new followers for your blog

Medium is an online publishing platform with more than 60 million regular daily users. It's described as Twitter for long-form content which is no surprise as it was created by Ev Williams, co-founder of Twitter.

It's a really easy platform to use and can be part of a good strategy for how to get followers on a blog. You don't even have to publish your content natively on Medium. You can just import it directly from your website and republish it on the Medium platform.

And NO. There are no duplicate content penalties because you're not duplicating content by doing this. You're syndicating it – so long as you import it correctly, which if you do, will automatically add canonical links to protect your original content – and boost your SEO.

Why do this on Medium? Medium already has an audience of 60 million active users. Each day. And chances are those 60 million aren't following your blog. Your goal is to convert some of the site's readers into YOUR audience and doing that is simple.

Set up your account
Connect your social media accounts
Import your existing content (under Stories in the drop down under your photo)
Aim to get people to click on the Medium hearts icon for your story, which recommends it to other people
Use hashtags to get more followers and to make it easier to be grouped into a specific niche
The more hearts you get the better you rank and the more visible your story becomes

Get 200 likes in less than 24 hours and you'll likely end up as one of the stories of the day, which means you'll be on the front page of Medium and possibly in the daily digest email.

10. How to Make Your Blog Popular Using LinkedIn Publishing

I've mentioned syndication of content a whole lot in this tutorial and that's for a very good reason. There are VERY few people who have the same network of people on each of their social networks, or publishing platforms. People who consume content from Medium tend to be different from those who follow your emails and they're different again to those who go looking for answers on Quora.

We are all time-limited, but approaching each of these networks as a separate set of people is a GREAT way to grow your blog followers faster. LinkedIn is no different and can be a great place to get more followers for your blog.

Publishing your content on the LinkedIn platform is a manual process. You will have to copy and paste it into the LinkedIn Publisher. And this is very different to just sharing an update from your blog to LinkedIn.

People (and there are more than 562 million people on LinkedIn) can see your LinkedIn published content without knowing who you are, yet only those who you are connected with will see the update that you post to your LinkedIn news feed.

I know and fully understand the challenges of content syndication, but Google does seem to give preference to ANY site over and above LinkedIn when the content is a copy and does not give penalties. So syndicating your content on LinkedIn gets you a whole different audience and opens you up to more traffic.

Always post to your blog first
Consider whether your content is relevant to LinkedIn
Change the headline slightly (consider that this is a more business-oriented audience)
Always add a link at the top of the post saying "this post was originally published on yourblog.com" with a link back to the original post on your blog.
Consider posting just a subset of your post to LinkedIn, pausing your article with a "…the full article can be found at yourblog.com" with a link to the original post.
Use hashtags with caution when you are publishing an article as while the article can be edited, the hashtags cannot be removed. Members can find your article by searching for hashtags. They do NOT need to be connected to you to find your published article
Always ask at the bottom of your LinkedIn published post for LinkedIn likes – which, in a similar fashion to Medium and Bloglovin will hit the algorithms and have your post appearing in front of more eyes.

11. How to Get Visitors to your Blog Using LinkedIn Groups

In the same way that Facebook Groups are a great source of blogger and professional support and networking, LinkedIn Groups are another answer for how to get readers for your blog. Again, I find that the people I meet and network within LinkedIn Groups are a different subset of bloggers, digital nomads and professionals to those that I meet in Facebook Groups.

There are LinkedIn Groups for EVERYTHING from blog sharing, to technical assistance, groups for certain cities, regions and countries. Search for groups, share content, make connections.

It is not always possible with the free login to LinkedIn to send messages to members that you are not connected to, however, if you are both in the same group you can private message other members.

I don't recommend that you message everyone in your groups asking for followers, simply that you use this powerful tool to reach out to relevant individuals, network, make connections and share and follow each other's content for a mutually beneficial result.

12. How to Make your Blog Popular Using Quora

Quora is a question-and-answer website. You can sign up to it here. The community of users ask questions, answer them, edit them and organize them. There are questions on all topics. There's an upvoting system where the higher ranked your answer, the more people will see it. Most people who hang out on Quora are different to those people currently following your blog.

Set up a profile, set your key interests and expertise and start answering questions. Establish your expertise in an area (this is going to take a while as you answer questions, but I suggest you do little and often). Make sure your blog URL is in your profile – or even better make it a link to a specific landing page that focuses on signing readers up to your blog while giving them valuable information.

Quora DNW - how to get more followers on wordpress blog

What you REALLY need to focus on in Quora to earn more followers is optimising your bio or profile. Think of it in terms of your Quora website home page. Make sure it's got

A good photo
A fabulous compelling and relevant offer
Social validation (i.e. add your social profiles)
Got any good references? "As seen in Forbes" for instance? Get it on your profile.
If you already have some great answers on Quora – highlight them in your profile.
If it's been longer than 6 months since you wrote your profile or (horrors) you didn't put any content in it, go back and give it a shot with my points here in mind.

When you answer questions – be sure to give them the breadcrumbs of an answer and lead them back to your website with a more in-depth answer on your blog. This works best if you are answering questions where you have an in-depth post on your site already.

If you're an active writer of blog collaborations approach Quora in exactly the same way. Write 150-300 words and include a link back to your more considered, in-depth post, which of course will include your optins and subscription sign-ups.

I have found that the audience I attract on Quora is significantly different to the audience I have on my website and in my Facebook Group.

13. How to Get a Blog Noticed by Following your Target Audience on Twitter.

Do you follow your target audience on Twitter? Or just your competitors?

You might learn a lot by following your competitors, but you'll get a lot more appropriate blog followers on Twitter by following your target audience. I talked earlier about writing down who your customer avatar or buyer persona is in identifying your target audience. If you can find and follow just a few of your target audience on Twitter then Twitter will do the rest for you.

When you follow individual accounts on Twitter, the Twitter algorithm will outline accounts like those you have just followed, so you can follow them too, and this is a good idea when looking for ways for how to get more followers on your blog.

Twitter then alerts those accounts that you've followed that you've done that. And, I think my job is done here. Yours is to make sure that your Twitter profile is amazing, that you share fabulous content and are engaging. And I know you're great at that!

14. The Stalk "Your Competition on Twitter" To Gain Followers Approach

Those people who are reading your competitor's blog posts, following their blogs and engaging with them on Twitter could be your followers too. Spend a little time checking out who shares your competitor's content.

Now, in this world where we are all sharing each other's content, this might be a little like finding the proverbial needle in the haystack, so don't spend too much time on this, but if you truly believe that your post on XYZ is better than what has been tweeted, drop it on Twitter and tag them.

You can find them easily by using the advanced search on Twitter with the following search strings

"Via (Twitter Handle of Competitor)"
"By (Twitter Handle of Competitor)"

15. How to Grow Your Blog Followers Using a Pinned Tweet on Twitter

Having a great profile on Twitter is one of the best ways to get Twitter followers. However, if you're wanting to know how to get a lot of blog followers on Twitter then you should look seriously at pinning Tweets to your profile.

When a tweet is pinned it appears permanently at the top of your profile's timeline (until you replace it with another pinned tweet). This might seem like a very simple thing to do, but in the same way that more likes and hearts take your content to the top of the algorithm winning stakes on sites like medium and Bloglovin, amplifying a popular tweet does exactly the same. This is one of the best ways to get followers to your blog from Twitter with minimal effort.

Pin a tweet to

Capitalize on a trend
Promote your current campaign
Pin a tweet to a high performing landing page on your website

Think of the pinned tweet space as additional high value digital real estate that you can use to huge benefit in your quest of how to get a lot of followers on Twitter!

16. Tweet your blog posts multiple times

The lifespan of a Tweet ranges from 18 minutes to 2.5 hours depending on which data you trust. Either way, it's not long at all. The chances are that your twitter followers are going to completely miss your content until you post it again. And again.

So if you want to know how to generate traffic to your blog from Twitter you need to think about repeating your message without sounding like you're spamming the network.

It does look bad, however, posting the same tweet time after time, so I suggest you get creative. Write 3 to 5 different versions of the same content to promote each blog post. And then you can recycle them in a loop in a month or more time.

If you're using an automated tool like Postcron or SmarterQueue, the tool will be able to identify the best time of day to schedule your tweets at and maximise your presence.

17. How to Get Followers Fast Using Twitter Hashtags

Tweeters don't necessarily know who you are, but they know what they want to read. They often follow certain hashtags. Those wanting to visit my home city of Melbourne, for instance, will follow and look for #VisitMelbourne.

So if you're wanting to reach new potential followers, you need to understand the hashtags and search criteria that they're using. It could take you a little research, but it's well worth the effort.

Suggestions of hashtags to use to drive followers on Twitter

Destination tourist sites – e.g. #VisitMelbourne
Brands – e.g. #Qantas
Sporting Team – e.g. #Wallabies #SpringTour18

18. Get Exposure and Blog Followers with Twitter Chats

A Twitter chat is a regular virtual event – usually weekly – run by hosts who pose several questions with a related hashtag for interested Tweeters to reply. Many Twitter chats are sponsored by brands and then taken over by prominent Tweeters who run the chat for them. Twitter chats usually last 60 minutes and it's quick-fire Q&A and you'll need to set aside time and prepare.

You can find a Twitter chat on pretty much any topic. In any time zone. Google and search in Twitter is your friend. Or if you're stuck, then ask the question in the DigitalNomadWannabe Facebook Group and someone will know the answer!

I would seriously recommend watching a twitter chat first to see how it works and what works well and prepare for the topic when you are going to get involved. Twitter chats are much more fun if you're prepared. Be ready with photos, links to posts and, of course, answers to questions!

Twitter chats are a great way to enhance your social profile and gain new twitter and blog followers. Here's how I recommend that you manage them

Prepare by watching a Twitter chat before you join in one
Block off your time for the Twitter chat you'll be joining in. You'll need to focus for the entirety of the chat. They usually last an hour.
Make sure your Twitter profile is up to date and includes a compelling link.
Pin one of your more popular tweets to your profile.
Use a tool like Tweetdeck to show you all the tweets with the Twitter chat hashtag in a single column.
Have your blog open in a separate tab or window, so you can easily grab links
Have your photos ready and available to add if needed
Don't just answer the question – comment on and reply to other bloggers.
Follow all the relevant bloggers in the Twitter chat (and most will follow you back)

Can't find a Twitter chat that meets your niche? Start your own! Get together with a few people from one of your link building groups and get out there and break some ground!

19. Using Pinterest "Following" to Generate More Blog Followers

There are a number of techniques in Pinterest that can be used to add more followers to your blog and I'm going to start with the most simple and free one.

The easiest is to find your competitors on Pinterest. For the purposes of this example, I'll assume that DigitalNomadWannabe on Pinterest is your competitor

Head on over to your competitors Pinterest profile and scroll to their follower's list. Now off you go. Follow their followers. If they have an interest in your competition it's logical to assume that they will have an interest in your offering – so make sure that profile is up to date and compelling and that you have an offer in your profile.

I'll add a note of caution – sometimes Pinterest accounts aren't just focused on one niche – the easiest example is that of the travel blogging industry, where many combine travel blogging with providing training on how to blog (!?! ) so you won't always get the followers that you necessarily want.

It won't happen immediately, but my repeated experience is that is going to increase your Pinterest followers and then your Pinterest saves, then clicks and then the traffic that you get on your website and your blog followers.

20. How to Get Lots of Followers Using Pinterest Group Boards

Each social network has a set of specific activities that you can undertake in order to drive blog followers. Pinterest is no exception. Think of Pinterest Group Boards as the collaboration of the Pinning world. You're not writing content as you would for a blog collaboration, but sharing your relevant pins to the boards.

There are always rules about how many pins you should pin and how many of the pins on the group board you should pin to your own boards, check each board.

There are a heap of great resources on Pinterest Group boards, so I'm not going to reinvent it here – one of the best resources on how to find them, join them and use Pinterest group boards is here.

I find they take my content to new markets that I wouldn't tend to reach myself and as I'm pinning to them using Tailwind the effort that I extend is minimal.

21. Use Tailwind Tribes to grow blog followers with Pinterest

Tailwind is a Pinterest scheduler, probably the best one out there. It's certainly the industry standard one. This means you can schedule pins to pin to multiple boards on a predefined schedule. Tailwind Tribes is a tool that lets you connect with other marketers – you'll have a steady and good source of content to share and your fellow Tribe members will share your content too.

Tailwind is a paid-for tool, but for me, it's invaluable for managing Pinterest.

Sign up for Tailwind and get access to Tribes now!

However, it's not expensive, and the base level use provides you access to 5 tribes, which lets you share up to 30 pins in 30 days. (There are further upgrade options available to share more and join more Tribes).

Tribes are a great way to have other people in your niche further sharing your content and contributing to the Pinterest algorithm to get your pins trending and, if you're lucky, viral in the network. This, in turn, brings increased blog views and blog followers.

22. How to Get Blog Readers by Creating Short Editorials on Instagram

In the same way that I've suggested above using the highlights of your new blog post in a video sequence, do the same as a combination of images.

Start with the problem that your blog post addresses then the next image should be your solution and then, of course, the URL of your blog post. Don't forget to update the link to your blog in your bio and use #linkinbio

Use a tool like Canva or Crello to create the images and use stylised text if you need to but try and add imagery to at least your second image.

23. How to gain blog followers using Instagram Stories

Many bloggers focus on Instagram independently – almost as a separate entity from their blog. And it is true that you can make your living from Instagram, the internet is littered with stories of success. Here I'm going to focus on how to get your blog seen and how to grow traffic to your blog from Instagram.

If you just want to know how to grow your Instagram followers then this is not the post for you. However, if you're wondering how do bloggers get followers on Instagram, then using Instagram Stories is a useful strategy that you may want to consider.

Instagram is one of the best apps available to get more followers to your blog. As I've repeated several times, you really need to consider that your audience is different on all of these different networks. Even your own usage will vary between social networks, so treat each network differently.

There are key elements to growing your blog followers with Instagram. So I'm going to assume that you are already doing the following 5 things on Instagram to set up your blog for following.

You've got a cool, well written and interesting Instagram bio which is accurate and compelling. It should have a call to action and a link to your blog.
Post interesting photos with a creative commentary
Invite a conversation in your commentary
Not every photo you post has to be an amazing sunset or fabulous interior design shot, give your readers some behind the scenes of your life – make it personal
Be consistent. It's much better to post once a day rather than 20 photos in a day then nothing for weeks. (You can use scheduling tools from companies like Tailwind to do this)

Instagram lets you post 15-second videos, these are Instagram Stories. Think of how much you can cover in 15 seconds. Can you cover the highlights of your new blog post? Leave people wanting more? Of course, you can!

And don't you go worrying about facing the camera – if you don't feel comfortable with that, then why not use screenshots or quotes from your post.

24. How to get Blog Readers from YouTube

My blog here on Digital Nomad Wannabe is very different from my travel blog and the audience is also very very different, so when I was considering how to drive traffic to my blog today I had to consider how my audience interacts and what my audience want.

The content that the audience of Digital Nomad Wannabe consumes is instructional, informative and clear on how to do things. Many of the posts you'll find here are augmented by a video – that's because in many respects when you're using a software tool or explaining how to undertake a task a show and tell is just the easiest way for audiences to understand.

YouTube is where I host all of my instructional videos. Even the Facebook Lives that I share in this group as saved and uploaded to YouTube. YouTube has a massive search engine for videos and to maximise your chances of driving traffic from YouTube to your blog and increases your blog followers, you need to make sure you've covered some basics.

YouTube Video Basics

Script your video or at least practice it
Be sure to embed your logo and URL into the video
In terms of content – ALWAYS frame it in this way
- Tell them what you're going to tell them
- Tell them
- Tell them what you told them
Open each video with the same branding message and imagery for consistency
Always wrap up with a call to action

This is absolutely the BEST structure for success in ANY presentation – whether it's video or face to face.

Now onto the best way to get more followers from YouTube.

To start with, you're going to use the power of the spoken word and tell people exactly what you want them to do. This can be a simple line in your script "Follow my blog post" after you've thanked people for watching the post – "Follow my blog for more detailed information" is a good way to get more followers for your site.

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Use YouTube to Tell People EXACTLY what you want them to do

Then when you have uploaded your video – step 2 of how to get fast followers from YouTube is to ensure that your video description box is completed. Treat this as where you need to put all the keywords you want this to be found for – but ensure it's in written English. Include your blog URL in this description box and make sure that there is a call to action too.

Why not subscribe to my YouTube channel and get alerts whenever I post new video content too?

25. How to Get More Followers on Facebook Using Groups

When people talk about how to get more followers on social media they usually mean Facebook. And what they really want to ask is how to get Facebook followers to their pages. Facebook pages used to provide good engagement for brands and blogs.

But times change. It's no longer a good idea to focus on working out how to get more followers on Facebook pages. You should be investing your time in a Facebook Group. You can read more about why I think you should do this in my post on using Facebook Groups to grow your tribe.

There are 2 primary reasons that Facebook Groups are better than Facebook Pages

Facebook advertises Facebook Groups for Free
Facebook Groups and Engagement in them are thriving. Facebook pages are dying.

You'll get a great connection with your community and a huge amount of feedback on what you need to do to move your blog forward. Having a Facebook Group will raise your authority and if it's your group you can sell in it too. Facebook Groups work really well to help prove your value and you can make your Facebook Group profitable.

But what my experiences with my Facebook Groups and my blogs tell me is that you won't necessarily get a heap more blog followers. But the followers you do get will convert quicker and more profitably. And that, people, is nirvana and EXACTLY what you want.

26. How to get more blog readers using Facebook Ads

Most of the methods described in this post are free and will only cost you your time. However, once you are already making money from your blog and have clear revenue streams set up, it can be worth spending a small amount of money on advertising to grow your blog following and increase your income.

Facebook Ads are a great way to grow your audience and customers, and one of the best things is you can start out small. You can spend just a dollar a day to experiment with Facebook Ads and see if they are going to help you achieve your blogging goals. If you are just getting started with advertising on Facebook to grow your blog, I recommend starting with a small budget. It's not worth spending a lot and then finding out that it was not a success. Rather, it's better to start small.

Using Facebook Ads can help your content get seen by more of your followers, and their clever retargeting can help you target exactly who your ideal customer avatar is, as we discussed at the beginning of this post. You can read more about strategies to use Facebook Ads to grow your blog here.

27. Use Blog Sharing Groups to boost your blog follower numbers

There is a related but different type of Facebook Group that provides immeasurable benefit when it comes to adding blog followers. Facebook Blog Sharing Groups are literally just that. Their existence is for bloggers to share each other's posts and cross-promote each other's content.

You'll need to abide by the rules of each individual group. These are usually related to reciprocal sharing and/or following of posts and blogs. The easiest way to find blog sharing groups is simply to search on Facebook, but here's a list of 15 blog sharing and blog following groups to get you started

Share Your Blog + Tips and Tricks
Share Your Posts
Blog Share
Share Your Blog Post
Blog Post Sharing
Travel Bloggers Social Media Sharing
Blog Share
Travel Bloggers Media Share
Share & Promote Your Blog
Blog Beginners, Share Blog Post, Grow Blogging
Kid Blog Share (Parenting Blogs)
Share Your Travel Blog
BlogShare
Bloggers Share & Engage – lifestyle, fashion & beauty bloggers
I Need Blog Followers

28. SEO

When I originally wrote this article, I wrote about SEO as a way to gain blog followers and said "I've left this until last" as this is an evergreen way to add blog followers. SEO is absolutely a superb way to grow blog followers, and is my favourite answer to the question "how to get people to read my blog", but it's been a year since I wrote this and I have three more ways in which you can gain epic followers, but first, SEO.

You can't get blog followers if people can't find you. This is and has been for years my number 1 way of how to get traffic to my blog.

And when I'm not satisfied (whoever is?) with my traffic and I want to work on how to get MORE traffic to my blog this is where I come. SEO. Search Engine Optimisation.

Using all the SEO techniques that I touch on in my tutorials on DigitalNomadWannabe.com and that you can learn in detail in my Build Blog Freedom Fast Track is my number one way to get more blog followers.

When I talk about using SEO to increase blog followers here's what I mean:

Making sure the keywords appeal to your target audience
Crafting a compelling headline that contains keywords
Ensuring your permalinks have longevity and SEO juice
Writing the best-darn meta description ever
Utilising varieties of the keywords (and multiple keywords) throughout the blog post
Ensuring that your headings contain relevant keywords
Making sure that images contain alt text
That your first 100 words are well written and persuasive

These are just some of the SEO Techniques that you can apply to grow your blog followers. There is a lot more detail here.

29. Ensure your content is seriously relevant to gain engaged blog followers

One of the changes we've seen in the past year from Google is that they're taking relevancy much more seriously. Your chances of ranking in search results are much higher if you and your content are more relevant. (I wrote about Relevancy in depth here.)

Your chances of gaining and retaining engaged blog followers also increase if your content is relevant to them.

Think of it this way. If your readers expect you to write about Children's books and you then start writing about Sports Cars then the chances are that your engaged followers are going to drop off.

Readers in that respect are no different from Google. They find your content and they come to your blog for a reason. If your content doesn't have a clear purpose it's hard for you to be relevant to your audience.

Being relevant means not just relevant in the content of a single post but also the content that surrounds and supports it. This is integral in not just how to gain more blog followers but to keep them.

30. Gain Blog Followers by being up to date

Every piece of content you write for your blog has a shelf life. Because things change. If you're a travel blogger then prices, opening times and bus schedules change. If you're a beauty blogger then techniques and products change. If you write about SEO, (hey, that's me!) then change is constant.

There is a HUGE requirement when it comes to gaining and retaining blog followers in being up to date.

That's why I make a massive effort at least once a year to review all of my content. And that's why I'm updating this post now. Because you are my reader and you deserve the best piece of content on this topic that I can produce.

Keeping content up to date can be a long and sometimes boring job. But it's a great opportunity to let your current followers know that you've made changes and the act of updating the content is going to give you an SEO boost too! It's a great answer to how to get followers to your blog (and then keep them there).

31. Use Keysearch Opportunity Finder to gain Blog Followers

For this update of this post, I've added another of my favourite tools in the entire world. Keysearch. If you're a regular reader you'll know how much I love this solution. And I just love some of the changes that they've made to it to provide even MORE functionality.

I specifically love Opportunity Finder, because that's exactly what it is. It's included as part of your regular subscription to Keysearch and it helps you to find opportunities for

Guest Posts
Forums
Other Bloggers

So if you're looking for places to engage within communities or forums where you'll be able to show your expertise and gain blog followers, or if you're trying to find sites that are looking for guest posts then this is the place to come. It'll even surface networking and blog commenting opportunities with influencers in your niche.

Try it and let me know how you get on!

The One Thing You Shouldn't Do to Try and Gain Blog Followers

We've all seen it, probably on Twitter, definitely on spam emails and probably also on Facebook and Instagram as well. The advertisements for "free blog followers", all too easy guides to how to start a blog and get followers.

This is the one thing you shouldn't do. Don't buy blog followers.

Short term gains like this lead to long term pain. You want blog followers who are engaged with you, who want your content, who click on your content. Buying lists of followers doesn't give you that. And besides, didn't I just share 31 EPIC ways to gain blog followers?

Now what you need to do is turn them into fabulous fans and subscribers!

Converting your blog readers into subscribers

Having followers is great but having subscribers is GOLD. It's a bit like that saying where a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

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Only an email address of a reader is worth 100 social media likes and 20 page views 🙂

Social media channels come and go, algorithms change but anemail list is yours.

You own that access to your audience and don't have the risk of losing it. As you are working on growing your blog followers, it's really important you also work on converting these followers into subscribers.

It's much easier to communicate with your audience and grow a connection via email – more about that in turning your followers into loyal fans below!

Email is also the (second) best technique for driving traffic to your blog. (You seriously can't expect me to put ANYTHING other than SEO as number 1!!??)

You can also use email to get followers fast across all your social media accounts as you can simply email your subscribers and ask them to follow you.

So now I've sold you on growing your subscribers, how do you turn that blog traffic into your email subscribers?

Lead magnets.

Lead Magnet: A specific deliverable, an incentive that you offer to potential readers in return for their contact information. Sometimes called a content upgrade or opt-in offer.

It's really important that your lead magnet is something that would appeal to your target audience (as they are the ones you want on your email list, not random people). Don't make the mistake of running a lead magnet with the chance to win a free Amazon voucher – you may grow your list exponentially, but you WILL learn what serious list cleaning feels like!

Simple lead magnets often work the best. They can be some type of content upgrade – like me saying click here to download a checklist of the 8 Steps To Dramatically Increase Email Subscribers In One Day or a more general topic that could work anywhere across your site.

What Are Good Lead Magnets?

Trial Subscriptions
Samples
A free chapter in your eBook – like mine here
A white paper if your blog is technical or a guide to an activity
A newsletter
A free consultation
A timetable that isn't available online
A checklist to help with a process or some type of cheat sheet

If you're struggling for ideas on a great lead magnet, why not come over to the DigitalNomadWannabe Facebook Group and brainstorm or ask for ideas.

Once you've figured out your lead magnets, then you then need subscriber boxes – which are simply the place where readers enter their email address like this:

Join the DNW community here for the best tutorials, tips and tricks to grow your blog

I recommend having these many places – in posts, below posts, as pop-ups and as clickable links.

You can read much more about creating lead magnets and using subscriber boxes to dramatically increase your email subscribers in the tutorial here. This post is a really detailed explanation about lead magnet creation and using subscriber boxes and I REALLY suggest you read it.

Convert your followers into subscribers – with a landing page

Converting your followers into subscribers can be done with lead magnets as I described above, but landing pages can also play a huge role.

Let's start with the basics. What is a Landing Page?

A landing page can be any page that someone lands on after they click an online marketing call to action. They're often linked to social media, email marketing campaigns or SEO campaigns. Their entire goal is to convert the reader. In this instance, we want to convert the reader subscribing to our blog.

Want to see an example? Here's the landing page for the free chapter of my ebook.

Well isn't any page on your website just a landing page?

No.

A landing page is focused on one single message. It has one goal. To convert the visitor (in this scenario) to your blog. A landing page won't have any distractions, like links or affiliate marketing – the whole focus is on converting the reader.

You should emphasise the benefits of what you're giving the reader.

How many Landing Pages do you need?

You should have a landing page for each campaign that you run to drive subscribers. Readers who respond to an advert on Facebook are likely to react differently to readers on Twitter, or Pinterest, or LinkedIn. Treat these subsets of your audience differently and address the segments individually and you will reap the rewards.

Share your landing pages regularly on social media channels – with an emphasis on the benefits that you bring and you will drive subscribers. Use key spots like the button on a Facebook page or a pinned tweet on Twitter

Turning your followers into passionate, loyal fans

It's fabulous to have lots of blog followers but what's even better is when you have passionate, loyal fans.

Passionate fans are the best. They not only are likely to read all your posts, use your affiliate links and buy your products, but they are also likely to shout about how great your blog is from the rooftops.

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Meaning they can actually be the best way to get more likes and followers.

They are also fabulous for motivation to keep doing a great job on your blog.

There is nothing that compares to when I receive an email from or meet a passionate fan and I realise just what an impact I have with my blog.

It keeps me going when I'm having a bad day or my blog isn't going exactly how I want.

One passionate fan is worth many blog followers and casual readers. The best way to get passionate, enthusiastic fans is by having great content that is targeted to exactly what your audience wants and then to grow a relationship with them via email.

It's just so much easier to communicate regularly with your audience using email rather than social posts that they may not see or blog posts that they may forget to check.

Always be trying to convert your followers into subscribers.

Welcome Your Fans

I recommend having a welcome sequence of emails that automatically sends when people first subscribe to your email list. In these emails, you show your reader who you are, how you can help them and start helping them by taking them to your best content (you can read more about how to do this and download a template here).

Then you should communicate regularly to remind them who you are and how you can keep helping them. More about this here.

Final words

Phew! We have covered a ton of information about how to get a lot of followers – and how to convert these into more blog traffic, subscribers and passionate fans.

This is not something you are going to be able to implement overnight. However, doing any of these tasks will help you with getting traffic to your blog. So take it one step at a time, concentrate on your target audience, work on growing your blog followers and you can get there!

Find more posts on getting more blog traffic here.

Any questions? Comment below or ask them in the DNW Facebook group (join here!).

Don't forget that you can download your free checklist of the 8 Steps To Dramatically Increase Email Subscribers In One Day by clicking here.