All Entries Tagged With: "readers"
One Method For Increasing Time On Site
Blogs are notorious for having a high bounce rate. It’s not necessarily a bad thing. Blog readers typically read the latest blog post and move on to something else so they aren’t clicking from page to page to read the information. New readers might, but loyal readers won’t.
But also keep in mind that loyal readers may not necessarily read every blog post. They do have their own lives, after all. They’ll read the posts that interest them, for sure. But they will likely just read those and not many more. One way to keep those readers on your blog longer and increase your time on site is to write a series of posts on the same topic. Here are my recommendations for making a good series:
- Write an introduction to the series first. It doesn’t need to be long. Just provide a good introduction and tell readers what to expect from upcoming posts along with an outline of your series. This doesn’t necessarily need to spell out what each individual post will be about, but it does need to cover your entire series so that readers can know what they will be getting. It builds reader expectation.
- Strict to your outline religiously. If you do need to change it have a good reason and state to your readers why you are veering from the outline.
- After you have written each new post in the series, go back to the previous post and add a link at the bottom of the post that gives readers a chance to read the next in the series without having to back up to the home page and click another link. Make it easy for them. This not only keeps your readers in the loop, but it also builds link juice from post to post and you’ll have more readers overall. As those posts age and you start getting more organic traffic from the search engines, new readers of the blog will be able to follow the series easily.
- Don’t make your posts too long. Try to break down each part of the series to a readable level. If you write more than half a dozen paragraphs in any one blog post, add subheads to break up the text, and it wouldn’t be a bad thing to add graphics either.
- Don’t make the series too long. Shorter series do much better. You can have a 5-7 blog post series with no problems, but when you start talking about 30 posts in one series then you are talking about a big commitment for your readers. You are likely to lose some of them.
Don’t do too many series posts, but every now and then it’s OK to add a series to keep your readers on their toes. Your loyal blog readers will love it and new blog readers will get a chance to see what you have to offer in a continuous strain. Building blog loyalty takes time. Time on site is one measure of loyalty, but don’t swear by it.
Turn Blog Readers Into Loyal Readers
Here are a few tips to help you turn those social bookmarking visitors into loyal readers:
- Make your RSS subscription icon highly visible – Don’t put your RSS button at the bottom of your blog. Put it at the top where people will look first and make it big enough to see.
- Allow subscriptions by e-mail – If you use Feedburner, you can add a subscribe by e-mail button in addition to your RSS by feed reader button. This will allow new Internet users who are not familiar with RSS to subscribe to your news feed and read your blog in their e-mail.
- Add a bookmark button to every post – Whether you use ShareThis, AddThis, or one of the other umpteen bookmarking buttons available, use one. This will encourage people to bookmark your posts and share with their friends. As an added bonus, allow your readers to send your posts to their friends via e-mail.
- Reply to comments – Quickly.
- Encourage comments – Allow readers to comment on your blog and make it easy for them to do so.
- Don’t talk down to your readers – Make your blog posts interesting and easy to read. People will stick around longer.
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Blog Marketing: How A Newsletter Can Increase Your Blog’s Traffic
How are you promoting your blog?
Just like any other kind of marketing, blog marketing requires a strategy. You can add your blog to blog directories (and you should) and hope for more traffic. You can trackback and leave comments on other blogs (and you should). You can also purchase banner advertising or exchange links and banners with other bloggers. All of that is well and good, but how about regular readers? How about “touch and go?”
It takes 7 times of “touching” a potential customer with your message before they act on it. So what 7 ways are you reaching them?
One way should be with a blog marketing newsletter. The point is to drive traffic to your blog using a simple newsletter as a tool. The way it works is like this:
You include a summary of your blog posts from the past week in each issue of your newsletter. Then you link that summary to the appropriate blog post to get your newsletter readers back to your blog to read it. Why would you do that?
Not everyone uses RSS feeds. Many of your blog readers may not be familiar with RSS. They may not understand it or be afraid to try it because they aren’t familiar with the technology. But everyone understand e-mail. By placing an opt-in box on your blog and your website and inviting people to sign up for your newsletter, you can keep those people informed of your latest blog posts and invite them back to read your blog every week.
Find out more about the blog marketing newsletter by calling 717-528-4005 or 786-317-8774.
