An Equation for Explosive Blogging Growth: Content + Networking + Social Media

It amazes me how some blogs take off and grow a very large and loyal audience so quickly. The rest of us can learn a lot from observing the success of others and evaluating what they are doing. There are any number of ways to build a blog, but most of them take more time than we would like.

There are 3 elements that can come together to drastically improve your growth, whether it’s a new blog or an existing one. Individually, these elements are powerful and important, but together they can help build on each other and create exponential growth.

CONTENT

Regardless of what strategy you use to grow your blog, quality content is essential. Even if you’re able to drive large volumes of traffic to your blog, visitors won’t stay on your blog or return later without high quality content. As a result, it is probably the most significant factor for long-term blogging success.

The quality of content involves factors like captivating headlines, readability of posts, the uniqueness of your writing, consistency, and more.

NETWORKING

Developing strong contacts and relationships with other bloggers, particularly those in your niche, is one of the most beneficial things you can do for your blog. Have you ever noticed that when an existing blogger starts a 2nd blog it tends to take off faster than the first one did? This is in large part due to the network that has already been established. A blogger has used his or her existing blog to build an audience and a strong network, which can be used to gain quick growth for a 2nd project. Freelance Folder is an example of this situation. Jon Phillips already had a successful blog in Smart Wealthy Rich when he started Freelance Folder. Jon used his existing network to find writers and readers for Freelance Folder, which quickly became one of the leading blogs for freelancers.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media allows bloggers to convert quality content and a strong network into growth and traffic. The highest quality content tends to do very well with social media, although not every great blog post is ideal for social media audiences. Along with great content, a strong network will help you to get votes on social media sites and get new visitors and links to your blog. This doesn’t mean that you’ll have to ask others to vote for you (although that will help). If you’ve built a network of people who read your blog and use social media, they will probably vote for you on their own without you asking them.

PUTTING IT INTO PRACTICE

Chances are most bloggers have already recognized the importance of content, networking and social media. But the challenge can be putting it all into practice and combining these 3 elements together. Your particular strategy will partially depend on what stage you are at with your blog. We’ll take a look at what a new blogger should do and also what an existing blogger should do is he or she wants to experience this type of growth.

For New Bloggers:

New bloggers need to be producing quality content and building a network simultaneously, each is crucial. If possible, before launching your blog prepare as much content ahead of time as you can. Use some of it when you launch and hold some of it back for the following weeks. This will allow you to devote more time towards networking and marketing rather than spending all of your time writing.

Content

The first thing you’ll want to do is clearly define your niche and your target market. This doesn’t mean that you won’t have the flexibility to write on a variety of topics, but focused content is better for gaining subscribers and building repeat traffic. Also, you should develop some content geared towards social media audiences. Take some time and study a few particular social media sites that you think have an audience that would overlap with your blog’s audience. Pay attention to what types of things are doing well on those sites and use that knowledge to come up with some ideas of your own.

One of your major focuses regarding content creation should be on writing unique posts while providing valuable information. When visitors come to a new blog they’ll be unlikely to subscribe if they feel that they can get the same information from other blogs that they already read on a regular basis. If they see that you are unique and you provide new thoughts and ideas they won’t find somewhere else, they’ll be more likely to visit again or to subscribe.

Networking

Make real attempts to build relationships with other bloggers in your niche. You can do so by reading and subscribing to their blogs, leaving intelligent comments on their posts, voting for them on social media sites, and even emailing them if you have questions or comments. Another great way to network with other bloggers is offering to write guest posts for them. One of the reasons this works so well for networking is that it benefits both you and the other blogger, and it’s an easy way to get noticed. Of course, the guest posts that you write should represent the skills and knowledge that you have to offer. Other ways to network include using forums and linking out to others.

Social Media

If you don’t already have accounts on any social media sites, sign up and get started. Most bloggers use the major sites like StumbleUpon and Digg, but also take some time to look for smaller, niche social media sites that can provide more targeted traffic (see our categorized list of social media sites).

Don’t only submit your own content. Take the time to submit and vote for those that are in your network and those that you would like to have in your network. And of course, vote for whatever else you think is worthy.

As far as promoting your own content, choose just a few social media sites that you think are a good fit for your audience. Optimize your site by including buttons or links that let visitors submit or vote for your content at these sites. If you include buttons for almost every social media site you will lower the effectiveness of all of them. So just choose a few and they’ll stand out more.

For Existing Bloggers:

Whether you are looking to improve the readership of your existing blog or looking to start a 2nd blog, these three elements can help take you to the next level. As an existing blogger you’ve probably built a network and become at least somewhat familiar with social media. Now you can benefit from the months or years of work that you’ve done.

Content

Evaluate the level of content that you have been providing. How does it compare with the content provided by other similar blogs? It’s easy to loose a little bit of focus over time and let the quality slip. If that’s the case, you’ll need to develop a plan that will allow you to increase the level of quality.

Take a look at your blog’s stats. Which post have drawn the most traffic? Which have drawn the most comments? Which have drawn the most links? Use the information that you learn to help you know what your readers want and what creates a response from them.

Analyze your posting schedule. Are you better off posting higher quality content less often, or posting shorter articles more frequently?

Network

Make a list of bloggers in your network. Subscribe to their feeds (if you haven’t already) and place them in a separate folder in your feed reader. Identify those that you would like to have as part of your network and include them in this folder as well. As you read through these feeds on a daily basis, be as involved as much as possible. Comment on posts, vote for them on social media, link out to them from your own posts, etc. Bloggers tend to notice when others are sending them traffic and being actively involved on their blog. Many of them will get to know you and return the favor. You should also always be looking to strengthen the existing relationships that you have made.

If you are starting a 2nd blog (or 3rd, 4th, etc.), email your contacts to let them know about your new project and let them know that you would like to have them as a reader if they are interested in the topic. Depending on your relationship, you may also want to ask for some votes on social media sites to jump start your new blog. With an existing network you can quickly build a respectable audience to a new blog, and start getting comments and interaction right away.

Social Media

Most likely you already have at least a few social media profiles. To get considerable amounts of traffic you should produce the highest quality content possible and take advantage of your network and social media. As I mentioned earlier, this doesn’t mean that you will have to ask those in your network for votes. A strong network should include a number of readers that actively use social media and value your content enough to submit/vote on social media sites.

Many bloggers with strong networks do occasionally send out requests to their friends and contacts for social media votes. I receive such requests regularly, and assuming it’s coming from someone that I know, I am happy to help. When I first started blogging and using social media I didn’t want to ever ask for votes, but when I realized that I didn’t mind getting requests from others I decided to try it for myself, with good results. Remember to not ask too frequently, to provide content that is worthy of votes, and always be willing to return the favor.

Whether you are a new blogger or just simply looking to improve the results you’re currently getting from your blog, an emphasis on using content, networking and social media together will produce powerful results. If you have any personal experiences with this that you would like to share, or if you have something to add, please leave a comment.

Published December 12th, 2007 by Steven Snell