10 Ways to Keep Visitors Coming Back to Your Blog

1.  Post regularly.  So how often is regularly?  Just be consistent.  Don’t start writing blog posts every day if you can only keep that pace up for a week or two.  I recommend at LEAST once a week, but a few times a week will be better.  People will take note as to how often you post, and the more often a new post shows up on your site the more often people will come to check them out.  If you go too long without any new posts, chances are your readers will lose interest and move on.

2.  Be yourself. I see bloggers trying to keep up with the big dogs of blogging all the time.  Well guess what?  You’re not John Chow or Darren Rowse.  So let your personality come through in your posts.  Maybe you are anal or sarcastic or paranoid.  Let that show through.  The more people can connect with who you are as a writer the more they will feel like they can trust you because you are being open about yourself.

3.  Be funny. So you’re not a comedian.  Otherwise you would have taken up another vocation.  That’s fine.  But you can still sprinkle in some humor now and then.  Don’t be like that dry and tasteless steak at the restaurant that is full of protein but void of any enjoyment to eat.  You don’t have to tell jokes.  Just find your inner child once in a while and pour on some levity.  People will enjoy it, even if you totally stink at it.

4. Don’t write the same stuff everyone else is writing.  I see this all the time.  Hey, so and so just wrote an awesome post on this topic so I am going to write one too.  How about this:  Dare to write about a totally different perspective of a topic that no one else seems to be doing.  Now, with all the blogs out there it’s getting harder to be unique, but use your inner creativity instead of just writing other people’s posts with your own words.  Or next time you read an interesting post, try to write about the opposite aspect of what they talked about.  If you are just writing the same thing as everyone else why should someone come back to your blog?

5.  Promote your RSS feed.  This one is often overlooked by new bloggers.  Your RSS feed allows your subscribers to be kept in the loop of any new posts on your blog.  After building up a big following on your RSS feed you will get a huge percentage of your traffic from this source.  But you need to promote it.  Don’t just leave that pretty orange button at the top of your blog.  Talk about it.  At the end of every post invite your readers to subscribe to your feed.  You will be surprised at how fast that technique will bring in some new subscribers.

6.  Run a few contests.  Everyone loves a good contest, especially if the prize is actually worth getting.  Run a contest for your blog readers and make sure it doesn’t last more than a couple weeks.  Allow people to enter the contest again every day.  This way they will keep coming back to get a better chance of winning.

7.  Use email marketing.  Of all the blogs that I go back to regularly, the ones that use email marketing are ones I frequent the most.  This is because sometimes I don’t have time to check all of these blogs and a simple email from one of them gets me back.  By using an autoresponder like Aweber or GetResponse you can do what your RSS feed cannot.  Some people are still unaware how RSS works, but they are more than willing to subscribe with their email if you provide quality updates.  You can either send them an email after every new post, or just have the email go out once a week.  I prefer the latter.

8.  Do a video series.  We all love videos don’t we?  Sure it’s a pain to make them and do all of the editing and submissions, but it is well worth it if you want to create engaging content that visitors  will crawl over shards of glass to see.  Do a series on a set topic and have the videos come out once a week.  This will keep your readers coming back and will turn you into a super star.

9.  Do ANY kind of series.  Nothing will keep people coming back like a good blog series.  This is what made the TV show “24” so popular.  They always left you hanging at the end of each episode so you HAD to come back next week to watch… unless you have Tivo of course.  Do an article, podcast, or any other kind of series and make each piece of content better than the last.  You will know your content is good when your readers are making it a point to come back for more and leaving good feedback.

10.  Use social media to connect with your readers.  When people feel they know you as an actual person they can connect with you better and are more inclined to listen to you.  By using social media via Facebook, Twitter, and other sites you can offer more portals through which people can find you.  Maybe someone doesn’t want to subscribe to your RSS feed or email list but they love to use Facebook and would love to see any updates you post on there.  Social media is a great way to get and keep a loyal fan base, but make sure you keep up with it.