10 Ways To Build Your Readership

10 WAYS TO BUILD YOUR READERSHIP Nicole Simon crueltobekind.org twitter.com/nicolesimon friendfeed.com/nicolesimon

Housekeeping

Title of this session
10 Ways to Build Your Readership
Sunday, Sept. 21, 2008 : 4:15 PM - 5:15 PM, 219
BlogWorldExpo 2008 , Intro To New Media Track
"If you don't know where you're going anything will do". There are more than ten ways to build your audience but where do you start? Do you need to do what the A-Listers use or can you ignore it? What are must haves and no-no's? Comparing different approaches, this session will give you a better insight from when to use which strategies and how to make them work for you.
This session is part of the "Intro To New Media" Track and geared towards professional and businesses use of blogs and podcasts.

What we will cover today
different ways in growing your audience and what you should be careful about
defining what your audience is in order to grow it
short look at statistics and analytics
blog centric, because it is the basis of what you do

Companion slides
this presentation references the other session “Where Do Your Visitors Come From & What Do They Do on Your Site?”
slides to both can be found at crueltobekind.org in a few days and will be up at http://www.slideshare.net/nicolesimon

Find more of this topic
use a tool like stumbleupon.com to discover new sites in areas you are interested in and subscribe to these
add the interests like “social media” or “weblogs” and more to your interests
http://nixande.stumbleupon.com start exploring my tag cloud and subscribe to the areas you want
use searches in tools like delicious

Where do you want to go?

what do you want?
more readers or listeners?
more subscribers?
more advertisers?
more comments?
more trackbacks?
?

depending on what you want
you will need to go big time or (better) just grow organically
may have to scrutinize some of your ideals
work with method and a system
should measure the results
be aware: what works for others does not necessary work for you

you are not the unpopular kid
starting out a blog or growing it can make you fell like being the unpopular kid in school
but it is much more like the new kid or being new in town.
Ask yourself: “I am new in town. How should I behave to make new friends. And: Who can help me?”

If you ask for help …
can others help you or would it be awkward to do so?
do you have enough content to share and show?
do you have a clear focus?

Promote yourself the usual way
use your blog in your signature of every mail
add your blog to your business card (if doable) or use additional cards for yourself with the address
add your link to all networking sites you use (Facebook, twitter etc)
put up advertisement
?
there must be more
>> where does new audience come from?

who is visiting me?
(explained in more detailed in companion slides)
Analytics

Feedburner
use feedburner to track numbers (and export)
different to set up per blog. if not possible, rather choose a blog which allows you to use it
not perfect but everybody has the same numbers

Google Analytics
free tool (you pay with your data)
easy to install and variety of reports
can mail reports to dedicated addresses

Where does it come from

where do users come from

Referring sites

(explained in more detailed in companion slides)
Not all traffic is equal

major traffic sources

Balance is different

You blog for different audiences
immediate audience of your subscribers
later search engine visitors come to you
have a look at your content – does it work for both groups or is it not understandable without reading everything else on your blog?
self explaining content is also more easy to share

Make your blog accessible
ask yourself for every of these groups: if they come to my site, will they find what they are looking for and will they ‘convert’ to your goal
do they find their way around your blog?
do they understand what this is?
“ most popular” is irrelevant for your subscribers but highly relevant for other visitors

no guarantees of course :)
The road to success

before you start promoting …
if people will come, do you have already something to show off which would make them subscribe?
be realistic in your expectations rather go for smaller numbers and be happy than go big time and have nothing but stress
you can make a name for yourself without having much traffic on your blog

be recognizable and authentic
use a photograph on your site
use a unique design which clearly shows what your site is about
use a recognizable avatar on all other sites
choose a nickname if you have a too common name

have a focus and stick to it
personal mixed bag blogs never will be as successful as topic / niche oriented blogs with a clear focus
they work for some A-Liters but they have other ways to grow their audience
Tip: do split up blogs to be topic centric and attract more visitors

podcasters do the same
decide on a format and stick to it for a while
be consistent in delivery and length
switch if it does not work but give people time to prepare
use ID3 tags and do have show notes if possible!

Be reliable
be consistent on your schedule (at least 2-3 times a month, better more)
be reliable in what you produce as your content
manage expectations
tip: learn from magazines, have an editorial calendar and mark important dates for you to prepare

be a resource
lists and alike are highly popular
think about what you would like to have and do it yourself
example: overview of all relevant information for visiting this conference / the party guide / the map with all locations … pay it forward

participate
actively search for content that you are writing about through Google and Lifestream tools
Interact with the audience there, they might be interested and check you out
note: in order to use Lifestream tools it is a good idea to already have one
example: http://search.twitter.com/ and search for blogworldexpo

Share content
ask friends to submit your content to bookmarking sites or do it yourself to spread awareness and increase backlinks
get yourself users on those bookmarking platforms which are used in your area, and fill out your profile!
reshare to get attention
understand that you need not ‘love’ this but it is part of your business

Blog carnivals
search if there are carnivals for your topic
you submit an article of the last x days and once the carnival is finished a link to all posts is published
if there is no carnival for your topic, start one!

Interact with commenters
you do not need to answer every single comment but you should answer most of them
use the chance and visit the commenters blog and if there is something of interest to you, leave a comment there or share content from that site

Interact with backlinks
check your backlinks on tools like technorati, google blogsearch and alike
read the content and react
leave a comment
send an email
share it in a bookmarking service (frowned upon)

Offline promotion
use the backside of your business card to list your most favorite postings or the ones you want to push
use stickers with your blog / podcast name on it
think about useful merchandise to give away

The main way to grown your audience
be passionate
be yourself
do outreach
have fun! :)

THANKS FOR LISTENING QUESTIONS? Nicole Simon http://crueltobekind.org http:// twitter.com/nicolesimon http:// friendfeed.com/nicolesimon

http://crueltobekind.org	104
http://casesblog.blogspot.com	41
http://monforra.blogspot.com	10
http://www.slideshare.net	2
http://www.dinersfeedback.com	1
http://www.techcoachtips.com	1

10 Ways To Build Your Readership

by Nicole Simon on Sep 22, 2008

Accessibility

Categories

Tags

Upload Details

Usage Rights

6 Embeds 159

Statistics

10 Ways To Build Your Readership — Presentation Transcript