How To Grow A Blog: Everything You Need To Know
Hello everyone! Wayne here and today I want to share everything you need to know on how to grow a blog. Despite all the competition in the field of blogging, it is still possible to grow a blog and rise to the occasion.
This will be your primary spot for everything you need to know about growing a blog. In this how to grow a blog guide I go over how to measure the growth of a blog, the types of traffic that comes to a blog, and I share 10 of the best tips for growing a blog.
By the end of this article you will have everything you need along with all of the knowledge to grow a blog, Excited yet? Let’s jump in and go over everything you need to know on how to grow a blog.
Disclaimer: Some of the links in this article are affiliate links where I earn commission from qualifying purchases. However, I will never recommend a product or service I don’t have 100% faith in. Enjoy!
Content
Introduction to Growing A Blog
There are a lot of ways to grow a blog, and that is a good thing! More options means more opportunities to grow.
The growth strategy for your blog should include plans to increase all forms of traffic, as well as utilizing each growth technique that can help increase SEO and page views for your site.
In this article I will discuss the three primary forms of web traffic and I will share 10 blog growth techniques that I use to grow my blogs.
First let’s start off with how to measure website growth to begin with.
How To Measure The Growth of a Website
When it comes to measuring the growth of a blog, you’ll want to use two helpful web tools from Google.
These tools are completely free to use, so you can get started utilizing them right away! Here are the two tools I recommend utilizing right now, as well as one that can help you take your website to the next level.
Tools For Measuring Website Growth:
- Google Search Console
- Google Analytics
- Keyword Research Tools
Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a helpful tool for measuring the growth of a website. Through the Google Search Console you can check the performance of your website, which can be viewed through variable lengths of time. There is also a Site Overview section that highlights top-performing content.
Let’s go over both of these sections now.
Google Search Console – Performance
Through Google Search Console you can view stats for your website such as total clicks, total impressions, average click-through-rate (CTR), and average position on Google. This can all be found from the Performance tab.
Additionally, Google Search Console can breakdown the traffic from different sources such as pages, videos, images, Google News, Google Discover, and more. This can be very helpful for seeing where and how your website is found.
Google Search Console – Site Overview
The Site Overview tab on Google Search Console allows you to see the all-time page views for your site as well as monthly stats for page views and average page view duration of your content.
Note: Average page view duration is the the average amount of time a visitor spends on your pages. This is one of the many factors Google uses to rate the quality of a website.
In the Site Overview tab you can also find what content from your website is currently trending or is top-performing. This can be helpful for recognizing what content on your website performs best.
Additionally, within the Site Overview tab, you can find stats for your website’s top traffic channels. These traffic channels include organic search, social media, direct traffic, paid traffic, and referrals. These stats are important for understanding where your traffic comes from, and what traffic channels you can work on increasing.
There is another useful function within Google Search Console that I want to highlight before we move on to the next section of this guide.
Google Search Console – URL Inspection
Through Google Search Console you can run a URL Inspection on any page on the site. This is used to request indexing a page on Google. I highly recommend utilizing this after publishing any new post or page on your website.
Additionally, you can utilize the URL Inspection functionality to doublecheck if a post is properly indexed on Google. This is just one of the many functions that makes Google Search Console the best friend of any website or blog manager.
Now let’s discuss another useful tool for measuring website growth, Google Analytics.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is another great way to measure the growth of a website.
The best part about Google Analytics is that is it much more numbers focused than Google Search Console. Within Google Analytics you can easily create graphs and charts to easily convey the growth of a website.
Let’s go over some of the helpful sections within Google Analytic.
Google Analytics – Home
From the home tab on Google Analytics you can find stats for users, new users, total revenue, and average engagement time. These stats are all very important for understanding the growth and value of a website.
Additionally, you can see stats for users in the last 30 minutes. This is a quick way to see some up-to-date stats, which is great for inspecting the growth of your website in present time. Google Analytics will even breakdown the top Countries your content is performing well in.
Google Analytics – Reports
Within the Google Analytics reports tab, you can view various statistics for a website. Similar to the Google Analytics home page, you’ll find stats for users, new users, total revenue, and average engagement time, but that’s not all.
Through Google Analytics Reports you can find insights, where visitors come from (direct, organic search, organic social, referral, etc.), users by Country, user activity, and more.
These statistics can help you better understand where your traffic comes from (both from the web and geographical location) and the activity of the visitors while on the site.
Google Analytics – Explore
Through the Google Analytics Explore tab, you can create charts, tables, and other figures to explore and display the statistics from a website. This is great for visually displaying and presenting data regarding users, revenue, average engagement time, and more.
I would recommend playing around with the options here and seeing what fits your presentation style the most.
Lastly, I want to quickly go over another way to measure web growth that I will discuss in further detail later in this article.
Keyword Research Tools
Keyword Research Tools like Semrush are perfect for understanding the growth of your website. Consider this the premium way of measuring the growth of a website.
These tools are incredibly powerful and come with a ton of valuable features that can help you understand your website, your respective niche, and the overall internet as a whole.
More on this later however, as I have a whole section on keyword research coming up.
For now let’s move on and discuss the types of web traffic your blog will receive.
Types of Web Traffic
There are many categories of web traffic, but today I will discuss some of the most prominent types. Here is an overview of the types of web traffic that can come to a website.
Types of Web Traffic:
- Organic Traffic
- Direct Traffic
- Social Traffic
- Referrals
- Paid Traffic
These are the primary types of web traffic often displayed in Google Search Console, Google Analytics, or other tools that measure website stats.
Let’s breakdown each of these categories of web traffic, as it is important to understand the core concepts of each category of web traffic to grow a website.
Organic Search Traffic
What Is Organic Search Traffic?
Organic Search Traffic is the type of traffic that involves visitors finding your website or posts through a search engine, typically in response to a search inquiry.
These visitors will find your website while searching the internet for an answer to a question or as a response to a search inquiry. These visitors will often be new visitors that can be gained as new fans of your content.
Why Does Organic Search Traffic Matter?
How Do You Increase Organic Search Traffic?
Here is how to increase Organic Search Traffic:
- Increase SEO
- Gain Backlinks
- Increase PageSpeed
- Match search intent
- Answer search inquires
There is a ton of work that goes into increasing SEO and gaining more Organic Search Traffic, and I will go over all of that in the SEO portion of this article.
For now let’s move on to another type of web traffic.
Direct Traffic
What is Direct Traffic?
Direct traffic describes the page views that come from visitors that are intentionally visiting your website. This traffic does not come from a search engine, social media link, or another website.
Only traffic that comes from users directly typing in your URL will be counted as direct traffic. Some forms of sharing can be included as well, such as if someone directly refers a friend to your website (outside of social media).
Why Does Direct Traffic Matter?
How To Increase Direct Traffic
When it comes to direct traffic, there aren’t exactly any tricks to increasing the traffic you receive. However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t strategies, techniques, and tips to share.
To increase direct traffic you’ll need to build up a fan-base of returning visitors. These aren’t visitors you’ll bring back through an email list or anything, but recurring visitors that will manually return to your website.
This can happen over time, and it is unlikely that this will be something you’ll see early into your blogging career.
Here is how to increase direct traffic:
- Create high-quality content
- Post regularly or on-schedule
- Create incentives to return to the website
- Update your content as fit
By regularly updating your website, you can increase the likelihood of readers returning all on their own. This will also increase the value of your website, as you can become a resource to a dedicated set of readers.
Now let’s move on to one of the most effective types of web traffic.
What is Social Media Traffic?
Social Media Traffic is any traffic that comes to a website by following a link on social media. This can include links from yourself or others on social media.
Social Media Traffic can come from any social media platform.
Why Does Social Media Traffic Matter?
Social Media Traffic can be one of the quickest and more powerful sources of web traffic. This is mostly due to the “viral effect”. This is of course when a piece of content gets massively spread around social media platforms.
While this can lead to a monumental increase in traffic, the effects are often short-lived and the process itself is usually not self-sufficient. Social Media Traffic can take a lot of work to create, grow, and promote, but the drastic increase that is possible through social media is worthwhile in itself.
How To Increase Social Media Traffic
To increase Social Media Traffic you’ll want to share your content on any form of social media that you can, and effectively promote it and market it in a way that is effective on that respective social media platform.
I will discuss Social Media Traffic more in the upcoming section on Social Media Marketing. So stay tuned!
Other Types of Web Traffic
There are plenty other types of web traffic out there, but I just wanted to go over the most prominent types. In addition to Organic Search Traffic, Direct Traffic, and Social Media Traffic, there is also Referral Traffic and Paid Traffic.
I will quickly go over these two types of web traffic before moving on to the next section of this article.
Referral Traffic
Paid Traffic
How To Grow A Blog
There are a ton of ways to grow a blog, and today I will be sharing 10 of the best growth techniques I know.
I will breakdown all the useful techniques and tools that can help you grow your website and take it to the next level.
Techniques For Growing A Blog:
Search Engine Optimization
Self-Hosting
Keyword Research Tools
Social Media Marketing
Get High Quality Backlinks
Email Lists
Discord Communities
Get High Quality Backlinks
Increasing Domain Authority
Collaborations
Establishing a Community
Expanding Your Brand
With all of that out of the way, let’s jump into our list of techniques for growing a blog. We will start off with one of the most powerful techniques for growing a blog, Search Engine Optimization.
#1 – Search Engine Optimization
Introduction to Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an incredibly powerful technique for increasing the organic growth of a website. By understanding what factors contribute towards SEO, you can learn the preferences of the search engine, and you can start using it to your advantage.
If you’re new to blogging entirely, jumping right into SEO can be a bit overwhelming. However, it is a smart move to understand SEO early, as it is never too early to start optimizing your website for organic growth
What is Search Engine Optimization?
SEO Is the concept of optimizing your content to increase opportunities to rank high on search engines and appear as a result for a search inquiry.
With SEO, you can drastically increase the likelihood that your website will be discovered through the search function on search engines (Google, YouTube, Bing, Pinterest). This process will increase the amount of organic clicks and views you receive on your content, thus contributing to the organic growth of your website.
Organic growth is an important factor to consider, as this is the type of growth that requires no advertising, social media posts, or manual labor. This is exactly why it is so important to set up your website/channel for excellent SEO. You’re missing out on a huge audience pool if you only focus on marketed traffic.
Why Does Search Engine Optimization Matter?
SEO is the primary way to maximize opportunities for organic clicks and page views.
This isn’t just one way to grow a blog, this is the most passive and organic way to grow a blog. This is a valuable technique and I can’t stress enough how essential it is.
Once you have SEO down to a science, it requires little-to-no work as well. The process will be naturally integrated into your content, and you will be set up for success!
How To Do Search Engine Optimization
There are a ton of factors that contribute to the overall SEO of a website.
In fact, many of the other techniques within this blog growth guide contribute towards SEO as well. I have compiled a list of some of the most important SEO factors.
Here are some of the many ways to increase the SEO of a website.
- Conduct keyword research
- Maintain high PageSpeed
- Get backlinks to your website
- Utilize frequently searched keywords
- Put alt-text for images
- Utilize internal and external links
- Maintain high site health
- Match search intent
- Submit a site map to search engines
- Increase average page view duration
- Optimize Web Images
- and much more!
Search Engine Optimization Tips
- Utilize Semrush to conduct Keyword Research
- Use a WordPress theme built for high PageSpeed
- Try guest blogging to get backlinks to your website
- Self-Host your website to ensure your site is ran on a fast server
- Build your posts to match search intent of search engine users
#2- Self-Hosting
Introduction to Self-Hosting a Blog
Getting a web host is one of the first steps to starting a blog, and it can be difficult to get it right the first time if you are going in blind.
It is important to have a fast and reliable web host however, as this can actual impact the growth of a blog. If you want to efficiently grow a website, you’re going to want to self-host your blog with a fast web host.
Fortunately, it is never too late to self-host a blog or to switch web hosts.
Let’s go over what it means to self-host a blog, and how it can help with growing a blog.
What is Self-Hosting?
Self-Hosting a blog is when your blog is hosted on a third-party server managed by a web hosting company. Self-hosting a blog is a great idea if you intend on being a professional blogger.
With self-hosting you have complete ownership of your website. The fees you pay are to keep your blog up and running on a third-party server. Fortunately, these servers are typically well-managed and fast-functioning.
Why Self-Host a Blog?
Why self-host a blog when there are free web hosting options around? While there are free blog hosting platforms out there, they come with a ton of cons that can set back any professional website. In fact, I consider not self-hosting a blog to be one of the biggest mistakes beginner bloggers make.
If you are trying to grow your blog, you’ll want to make sure you are self-hosting your website. Self-hosted websites have higher PageSpeed, which can help with SEO and Google ranking.
Here are some of the many reasons why you should self-host your website.
Why You Should Self-Host Your Website:
- Web hosts that allow self-hosting have faster servers
- You own your websites and domain and have full control of your site
- Premium ad services are more likely to accept you into their program
- Costumer support is almost always superior
These are just some of the several ways that Self-Hosting your website through a WebHost provider can assist with growing and monetizing a blog.
Self-hosting a blog is how you keep your website in your control and keep it fast and healthy. Additionally, there are much more monetization options available for a self-hosted blog.
How To Self-Host A Blog
To self-host a blog all you need to do is subscribe to a web hosting service. Let’s run through the process of self-hosting a blog.
How to self-host a blog:
- Select a web host (Bluehost)
- Purchase a web hosting plan
- Create an account
- Register a Domain Name
- Install WordPress
- Start blogging!
Self-hosting a blog is really as easy as picking a web host provider. The work involves finding one that is a great match for yourself.
You’ll want to do your research and find the perfect match for your individual preferences. I however, Use BlueHost and would highly recommend them.
If you want to learn more about self-hosting, I highly recommend you check out my article on how to self-host a blog. In this article I go over everything you need to know about self-hosting as well as my thoughts on my recommended web host, Bluehost.
If you want to try out Bluehost for yourself, click the link below.
Need help getting Bluehost set up as your web host? Click here to read my guide on how to get Bluehost.
Let’s continue on to the next technique for growing a blog.
#3 – Keyword Research
Introduction to Keyword Research
Keyword research is an effective way to know what topics you should create content around, and how well you can expect to perform within such topics.
With keyword research you can attempt to match search intent and create content that answers search inquiries.
This technique is useful for conducting many of the other growth and SEO techniques I mention within this article. Consider keyword research one of the “master” blog growth techniques.
What is Keyword Research?
Keyword Research is the act of researching keywords and key phrases within your niche and analyzing which to use within your content.
When conducting keyword research it is important to investigate the search volume, estimated page views, difficulty ranking, and more in context of the keywords or key phrases of interest.
Why Do Keyword Research?
Keyword research is important because you already know there is a demand for these search inquiries, and you already know people are actively looking it up.
By utilizing keyword research you are able to answer questions nobody has personally asked you, but you know people are asking somewhere.
There are many reasons why this is important, and I will go over a few of them.
Keyword research is important for websites because:
- If a keyword is over saturated, your content won’t easily found
- If a keyword has no search inquiries, there is no demand for that topic
- Keyword research can help increase SEO and help your videos rank on Google
- Titling posts is easier when you know what people are searching for specifically
- Search Engines like Google prefer content that answers search inquiries
- Matching search intent is an easy way to secure clicks and sales, thus improving click-rate
Those were some direct ways that utilizing keyword research can help grow a blog, and this doesn’t even include the countless ways it indirectly helps with blog growth.
More clicks means more views, more views means more growth. The more a blog grows and rises in Domain Authority, the more it will rank highly on Google and be recommended to users.
How To Do Keyword Research
Now that we understand the importance of keyword research, let’s discuss how to get it done.
How To Do Keyword Research:
- Get a Keyword Research Tool (Semrush)
- Search for keywords
- Check keyword stats
- Inspect the competition
- Check alternative phrases
- Select your optimal keywords
- Utilize the keywords in your content
Keyword Research Tools like Semrush are very technically powerful and impressive, and there is a ton of features included that can help grow a website.
I am working on a full tutorial on how to use Keyword Research Tools, as there is far too much to discuss in this overall blog growth guide. So stay tuned!
#4 – Increase PageSpeed
Introduction to PageSpeed for Blogs
PageSpeed is another important component for SEO. This is a big factor when it comes to growing a blog and gaining more organic search traffic.
Let’s go over what exactly PageSpeed is and then jump into what we can do to increase it on a blog.
What is PageSpeed?
PageSpeed is a metric that measures the average time it takes for a user (or computer) to load a page from a website. This metric can be tested by utilizing the PageSpeed Insights tool and copying the URL of interest into the search box and clicking analyze.
There are several factors that contribute to PageSpeed, but we will just go over a few right now.
Factors that Affect PageSpeed:
- Large image files
- Web host speed
- Web themes
- Videos
- Unused files and code
- Ad count
- Plugins
- and much more
There are honestly a ton more of factors that contribute to PageSpeed, but I consider these the best factors to focus on.
What many don’t know however is that PageSpeed can help with a website’s ranking on Google. Now let’s go over why PageSpeed is important for growing a blog.
Why Does PageSpeed Matter For Growing a Blog?
PageSpeed is one of the many factors that Google inspects a website for when determining a website’s ranking. Some people don’t consider this the case, but I am a huge believer in this process. In fact, I saw huge progress after I invested in optimizing the PageSpeed of my website.
Google knows that PageSpeed is important to keeping visitors on a website. The Google Search Engine aims to recommend helpful and accessible content that accurately and efficiently answers search inquiries. This is why PageSpeed ends up contributing towards ranking on Google.
Google is great at its job, a lot more than most people even assume or give it credit for. Google is going to recommend websites that have fast PageSpeed, and in return have low bounce-rates and long read-time stats.
Now let’s go over how to increase PageSpeed on a blog.
How to Increase the PageSpeed of a Blog
Now that we understand what PageSpeed is and why it is important, let’s discuss exactly how we can increase it and the health of a website. I will be sharing eight PageSpeed tips that I used to bring all of my websites up to a respectable 97% – 99% PageSpeed (depending on the page).
How to Increase PageSpeed on a Blog:
- Self-host your website
- Use a fast WordPress theme
- Optimize Images
- Cache Web Pages
- Reduce unused JavaScript
- Reduce unused CSS files
- Limit ad count
- Reduce plugins
Each of these factors are an opportunity to increase the PageSpeed on your website. Click on any of the individual PageSpeed techniques above if you want to learn more about it
If you want to learn everything there is to know about PageSpeed, I highly recommend you check out my how to increase PageSpeed guide!
In this guide, I go in to full detail over nine of the most essential tips for increasing PageSpeed. So check it out if you want a fast website fit for SEO.
#5 – Get High Quality Backlinks
Introduction to Backlinks
Backlinks are an important factor for Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which means they are important for growing a blog.
Publishing high-quality content is an easy way to gain references back to your website. These references can act as backlinks, which improves the SEO of your website. Other websites are far more likely to reference your website if you have content that contributes to your field of interest.
Having shareable content isn’t the only way to use a blog to develop your backlink catalog though. There are many fantastic techniques for gaining backlinks, such as guest blogging, Backlink Gap Analysis, Broken Link Building, The Skyscraper Technique, and many more!
Let’s discuss what a backlink is and how they can help with the growth of a blog.
What Are Backlinks?
“Do-Follow” Backlinks
Healthy backlinks are what some call a “Do-Follow” backlink. Do-Follow links are high-quality backlinks that link directly to your website or webpage. These backlinks are typically contained within the content on a website with high domain authority.
There is technically no such thing as a “Do-Follow” backlink, and the name is actually just used to describe any link that isn’t a “No-Follow” link. In other words, all functional backlinks are figuratively “Do-Follow” backlinks.
Why Do You Need Backlinks?
High-quality backlinks help increase the SEO of a website which can most definitely help with growing a blog.
Additionally, backlinks contribute towards an increase in the domain authority of website, which can be a great measurement of the legitimacy of your site.
Additionally, as your domain authority increases, so will the Google ranking and indexing priority of your website. This is because backlinks are a factor involved in SEO.
Let’s go over all the benefits of having backlinks to a website.
Here are the benefits of having backlinks to your website:
- Increases domain authority of a website
- Contributes to SEO
- Helps with Google ranking
- Can direct new visitors to a website
- Raise brand awareness
Backlinks contribute towards a ton of factors that make a website healthy and powerful.
Sounds great right? So let’s start getting some backlinks and developing a backlink catalog!
How To Get Backlinks
There are several effective ways to develop a high-quality backlink catalogue, and today I will share 12 great techniques to do so.
These 12 techniques for gain backlinks. Each of these techniques are valuable for gaining backlinks on their own, but when used together they can take a website to a whole new level.
Techniques For Getting Backlinks
- Publishing educational content
- Guest blogging
- Creating Ultimate Guides
- Resource Page Link Building
- Broken Link Building
- Backlink Gap Analysis
- Reclaiming Unlinked Mentions
- Listicle Link Building
- The Skyscraper Technique
- The Reverse Skyscraper Technique
- Creating content for brands
- Free downloadable products
If you want to learn more about each of these techniques for getting backlinks, just click on the links above to go to an article focused on that backlink technique.
Tips for getting backlinks
Here is a roundup of all the tips for gaining backlinks that will help your blog grow and rank on Google.
Tips & Tricks For Getting Backlinks:
- Product high-quality content
- Communicate with other websites within your niche
- Participate in guest blogging on other websites
- Use Keyword Research Tools like Semrush to research the competition
- Use many techniques for gaining backlinks such as Broken Link Building, Resource Page Link Building, Backlink Gap Analysis, and more
- Create superior content than the competition
- Keep the information on your website up-to-date
Introduction to Social Media Marketing
By now most people are aware of the power of social media. Seemingly overnight a business, website, or account can “blow-up” and see a drastic increase in views.
The thing is that while the “viral effect” can happen overnight, it is often the hard work of months or years of creating content or mastering how to use social media as a brand.
Let’s breakdown how to use social media to grow a blog, all while also going over which social media accounts are most beneficial for a blog. Let’s dive on in!
What is Social Media Marketing?
Social media marketing is the act of using social media to make a sale, raise brand awareness, or generate traffic to a website.
By creating social media accounts for your blog, you can extend the reach of your channel to many other platforms all while increasing your brand awareness.
While your brand should have a presence on all social media outlets, there are certain social media platforms that are more effective for blogs. I will go over these social media platforms in more detail shortly. First let’s discuss which social media accounts you should have for your blog.
Best Social Media Platforms For Marketing a Blog:
- TikTok
You can get started with any of these social media platforms by visiting their respective websites or by downloading their apps. Additionally, you can click to links above to go directly to any social media platform.
Why Social Media Marketing?
Social Media Marketing is one of the best ways to get a big burst of traffic all at once, or slowly add to your brand and gain new readers. Either way Social Media Marketing is a great way to grow a blog.
Social media is a great way to share your content to more sources. This can end up compounding into receiving more clicks and more page views from the many different users from different social media platforms.
How To Do Social Media Marketing
Each social media platform will have different strategies and methods for getting traffic to a blog.
Due to this, I will be breaking down social media marketing guides for each individual social media platform. Click on any of the social media platforms from the list below to go to a guide on social media marketing specific to the platform
Social Media Marketing Guides (For Blogs):
- How to Market a Blog on TikTok
- How to Market a Blog on Pinterest
- How to Market a Blog on Twitter
- How to Market a Blog on Facebook
- How to Market a Blog on Instagram
I will be placing the links for each of these individual guides as I complete them. So check back soon!
If you want to learn more about effective social media marketing strategies for all of the primary social media platforms, I highly recommend you read my full guide on how to do social media marketing for blogs.
In this article I go over some of the best platforms for social media marketing individually, so you can effective utilize the strengths of each platform.
For now let’s move on to the next strategy for growing a blog.
#7 – Build an Email List
Introduction to Email Lists
Modern blogger often underestimate the power of the email list. Awhile back, an email list was one of the most powerful methods for retaining visitors and capturing leads.
Fortunately, email lists are still highly valuable and are worth being a big part of the overall growth plan for a blog.
While SEO and social media is a more sexy option for growing a blog, email lists are still very much the ultimate way to secure recurring visitors. SEO and social media can only bring someone to your website, after that they could bounce and never return again.
Let’s discuss what exactly an email list is, and how it can bring visitors back to your website and help grow your blog in a big way.
What is an Email List?
An email list is a list of emails collected from visitors or customers that is then used to share new content, updates, discounts, and more.
Visitors will opt-in to subscribe to the email list and receive these updates directly to their email inbox.
Why Use an Email List on a Blog?
Benefits of building an email list for a blog:
- Capture leads
- Obtain recurring visitors
- Mass email capabilities
- Scheduled email options
- Automated email functionality
- Instantly advertise new content
There are a lot of benefits to building an email list for a blog. Most of these benefits revolve around recurring visitors and email marketing and advertising.
Does building an email list sound like a good plan to grow your blog? Then let’s go over how to build an email list for a blog.
How to Build an Email List for a Blog
To get started building an email list for a blog you’ll need an email marketing tool.
I highly recommend FluentCRM for any professional blogger.
However, if you are new to blogging and want something simple and cheap, Mailchimp is always a good choice as well.
For this article I will be discussing how to build an email list in the context of using FluentCRM. So if you plan on using another email marketing tool, this process might be a little different, but it should be similar enough to follow along with this guide.
Let’s jump on into how build an email list for a blog.
How to Build an Email List for a Blog:
- Get an Email Marketing Tool (FluentCRM)
- Add the email list to your WordPress toolbar
- Configure email list settings
- Create default emails
- Customize email list subscription box and text
- Add subscription box to WordPress website (home page, pages, posts, etc.)
- Create new email templates for updates
There are countless ways to go about your email list, so get creative with it and tailor your approach to your unique website and audience.
I will now go over some general tips regarding email lists.
Tips for Building an Email List
- Create a sign-up form so visitors can voluntarily opt-in to receive emails
- Have users confirm their email list subscription, as Inactive accounts can waste resources and skew data
- Avoid excessive emailing, only email out valuable content
- Review the data and metrics from your email list
- Remove inactive subscribers from your email list
- Never purchase a pre-built email list, these visitors will be invaluable and could even report your website for spam
#8 – Create a Discord Community
Introduction to Discord Communities
Discord is has quickly taken over as the definitive space for communities and fandoms to communicate. Through Discord, people can join communities related to their interests.
By creating a Discord Community focused around your brand, you can communicate with dedicated members of your audience in a way that strengthens your community and your brand.
Let’s discuss further what Discord Communities are and how creating one can help grow your blog.
What Are Discord Communities?
How Does Discord Help With Growing A Blog?
Benefits of Discord Communities for blogs:
- Instantly notify your community of new posts
- Quickly communicate with your audience
- Build a relationship with your audience
- Strengthen the community surrounding your brand
- Update your community with news, releases, and drops involving your brand
Now that we understand how a Discord Community can benefit a blog, let’s jump into how to create a Discord Community.
How To Create A Discord Community
If you want to build up a Discord Community you’ll need to create a Discord server. Here is how to create a Discord server step-by-step.
How to Create a Discord Server:
- Download the Discord App
- Create a Discord account
- Login to the Discord account
- Select the “Add a Server” option from the left side bar
- Choose “Create My Own” from the Create a server menu
- Pick “For a club or community” option
- Upload an icon image and write a title for the Discord Community
- Click “Create” at the bottom-right corner of the window
- Done!
Congratulations! You now have a Discord server for your community!
This is a great resource for growing a community around your brand and communicating with it.
Now let’s go over how you can use a Discord server to help grow a blog and increase engagement across your content.
How to use a Discord Server to Grow a Blog:
- Share new posts immediately to your community members
- Boost content by recommending it in the server
- Use specific chatrooms to promote related content
- Become a helpful asset to community members
- Strengthen community bonds and engagement by staying active on the server
- Promote loyal and active members to moderating roles
- Boost social media profiles by linking up with other community members
Each of these tips are effective ways to grow a blog using your own Discord Community. The best part about having a dedicated Discord server is the ability to quickly communicate with a special portion of your fans or readers.
Community members will likely be the highest quality fans of your brand, as these great folks are the ones who take the time to get to know others that engage with your content.
Lastly I want to share some tips for managing a Discord server and community and taking it to the next level.
Discord Community Tips
- Create custom roles, titles, and emojis for the Discord server to add personality
- Host community events such as video chats, voice calls, FAQs, and more
- Promote dedicated members to moderator roles to help manage the server
- Create specific chat rooms for specific topics
- Use Discord bots to push relevant content to your interested community members
There is a lot that goes into creating the perfect Discord Community, but hard work pays off and by doing this you could create a interactive and engaging environment around your brand.
Let’s move on to the next way to grow a blog.
This tip for how to grow a blog is the most indirect, but definitely important for the sake of your overall brand. If you want to grow your blog to superstar levels, I would advise that you expand your brand.
The most successful bloggers often grow their channel and authority by gaining popularity in other sectors.
For example: many bloggers create podcasts, publish books (autobiographical, fictional, or educational), have mobile apps (games, companion apps, or social apps), create video content on Youtube, livestream on Twitch, and many even go on real-life tours.
By transcending into these other mediums of content you can gain a bigger following that in turn new page views on your blog.
#10 – Diversify your Content
One more way to expand your audience and grow your blog is by diversifying your content. Now I don’t mean posting random content unrelated to your niche. By diversifying your content I mean branching out to new ideas and creating new categories of content that fits in on your blog.
Tips for Growing a Blog
Here is a roundup of all the blogging growth tips & tricks that can help grow your blog and take it to the next level.
Blog Growth Tips & Tricks:
- Effectively utilize SEO across your website
- Self-host your blog
- Utilize social media (Pinterest, TikTok, etc.)
- Optimize the PageSpeed across your site
- Use a fast WordPress Theme (Themify Ultra)
- Gain high-quality backlinks to your blog
- Utilize a Keyword Research Tool for identifying keywords for posts
- Build a high-quality email list
- Utilize social media platforms (Pinterest, TikTok, etc.)
- Enable ads at 100,000 monthly visitors
- Submit a sitemap to search engines
- Index new posts through Google Search Console
- Utilize around 1,100 words per post
- Monitor blog growth through Keyword Research Tools and Google tools
- Collaborate within your niche
There is a lot that goes into growing a blog, but you’re off to a great start if you follow these blog growth tips. This is a long journey, but the results are so worth it.
If you want to know everything there is to know about blogging, I recommend you check out my Ultimate Guide to Blogging.
Resources for Growing a Blog
Throughout this guide to growing a blog I mentioned many helpful resources that can help with growing a blog. Here is a one-stop spot for all of these helpful blog growth resources:
Blogging resources:
- Bluehost – Recommended web host for self-hosting a blog
- Themify Ultra – Fastest and most efficient WordPress Theme available
- SEMrush – Perfect for keyword research and SEO management
Want to know more great blogging tips & tricks?
I highly recommend you explore some of these other great articles from my website to learn more about what goes into running a successful and healthy blog.
Here is some related content that can help you increase the SEO of your website and rise in Google ranking.
The Ultimate Guide To Blogging
Consider The Ultimate Guide To Blogging you’re one-stop spot for everything you need to know about blogging. I go over how to create a blog, how to design a blog, how to grow a blog, and even how to monetize a blog all within this single ultimate guide.
If you want to jump into a huge guide that goes over the whole process of creating and running a blog, I highly recommend this guide.
Stick around for more recommendations however if you’re specifically interested in increasing the PageSpeed of your website or increasing SEO.
How To Increase PageSpeed
Throughout this article I mentioned that PageSpeed is an important factor for growing a blog. If you want a to have a fast and efficient blog, I recommend reading through my article on How To Increase PageSpeed.
In this guide I go over nine tips that can get your website a highly respectable 97/100 PageSpeed score from Google PageSpeed Insights. So if you want to know everything there is to know about increasing PageSpeed, I highly recommend reading through this guide.
How To Get Backlinks
SEO is an important factor for growing a blog and increasing organic page views.
If you want to increase the SEO and domain authority of your website and learn everything there is to know about backlinks, I highly recommend you check out my guide on How To Get Backlinks.
In this guide I go over 12 ways to get high-quality backlinks. There are several great techniques for gaining backlinks, and each of them can be utilized on any website. If you want to master how to gain backlinks, I highly recommend you read through this guide.
Closing Thoughts
That’s everything you need to know on how to grow a blog! I hope this guide was helpful, and I wish you the best of success. Don’t forget to check my website for other valuable blogging tips!
Please feel free to reach out to me or comment down below if you have any questions or need any additional guidance. Also feel free to share your own thoughts on growing a blog as well! I always appreciate an opportunity to learn more. See you next time!
