Perhaps you’ve heard of more than 100 bloggers taking some newbie bloggers under their wing. It’s called Adopt a Blogger and it’s organized by Kristen of Dine and Dish and it’s in its 3rd year!
Today I’m here to introduce you to my mentee, Michelle from Taste as You Go.
I’m the mentor since I’ve been food blogging for almost 4 years(!) and blogging about other stuff for longer than that, but I find that I’m a little at a loss to mentor her because, if you go check out her site, she’s already done a ton of stuff like go inside the Food Network Kitchen and redesign her website!
But one of the things she asked me was about finding new sources of readers for her blog:
One of the things I am struggling with is marketing my blog….I’m not exactly sure how to go about spreading the word about my blog outside the usual circles. Any ideas about how I can widen my circle of readers?
I thought I’d give my answers and then ask you my readers to chime in as well – that way we’re doing a bit of community mentoring!
1. Tastespotting / FoodGawker / Photograzing
These resources are great for your delicious-looking food photos, and have an audience of people that are SEARCHING for something new and delicious. Make sure you submit your photos to all of them!
2. StumbleUpon
While I don’t find the StumbleUpon traffic to be as “sticky” (read: stick around on your site for more than one post) as the previously-mentioned food websites, they can still bring a lot of traffic and new eyes to your site. Getting Stumbled is quite a different process, but one way to start getting involved in the StumbleUpon community is to start stumbling yourself and build up a followership. (PS: StumbleUpon has StumbleUpon Advertising, too!)
3. Twitter
I don’t think anyone can ignore Twitter as a source of new inspiration and definitely cool links. If you’re on Twitter as well, it’s even easier to get re-Tweeted! (PS: I’m @rosso on Twitter, and Michelle is @maizey12)
4. Facebook
Make sure you’re feeding your blog posts into your Facebook profile (or like the Fan Page for Ms. Adventures in Italy) so that people on Facebook can share and comment on your posts and photos
5. New and Top Referrers to Your Blog
Check your statistics faithfully for referring links, and go visit those sites. See what they’re saying about your site, and leave a comment, even thanking them for the link! That way you become more than a passing link and perhaps a relationship can start to form. (You can also use Google Alerts to get notified of incoming links)
6. Comment on other blogs
An oldie, but a goodie. We all fall out of the habit of commenting on blogs but make sure if you have something to contribute or you find a new blog with a great post to leave a comment introducing yourself or saying what it is you like about the post/blog. Maybe you’ll find another inspirational blogger in the comments yourself!
I have quite a bit of advice about how NOT to get more traffic, but I thought for this post we should focus on the positive.
How else would you suggest to a newbie blogger to reach more readers?
Great mentoring and I’m glad you went public with it because I learned a few things too, like joining the food blog alliance. Michelle does a great job already (I, too, have been awed by some of the opportunities she’s had). One suggestion for greater readership would be to let whoever wants to follow her on twitter do so without having to ask permission. (It’s currently restricted.)
Posting regularly, even if it’s not often is key.
Personally, I don’t care to be “thanked” for linking to someone else’s blog or post. It makes it sound like I did it as a favor. Most often I do it because I think it was a good post … so my link is more like the “thank you” and the blogger doesn’t owe me a “you’re welcome” in this case.
Encourage feed readers & email subscriptions. (Of course if you only do a truncated feed it’s probably not a good idea.)
I think commenting on other blogs is solid. I also think visiting the blogs of your readers is also a good idea. They may be visiting you, but learning what your readers are like might be useful (and of course linking or commenting is good).
Linking liberally is, as far as I’m concerned, not necessary to developing readership but is crucial to create perspective and assert your own authority.
Other ideas would be: guest blogging, flickr communities, giveaways & contests.
Finally, if you have another interest outside of the narrow one of the blog, consider a way to mash them up. You like old movies – do a roundup of recipes mentioned in your favorites or entertaining ideas around that theme. Find a way to pull in people with a different interest set. (Serious Eats did a good one recently where they did Star Trek food … might have found a few new readers who were out in the SciFi area of the internet that didn’t know that there were places to talk about food.)
Offering to host one of the numerous food blog events (or even creating your own) is certain to bring traffic and like-minded readers.
Great suggestions! I still think that creating quality content is the best way to attract traffic. And treating your readers as individuals, rather than as statistics, is another. Respond to comments left for you, respond to emails sent to you, and you will build the type of readers who stick around. I also want to give a plug to Adopt-a-Blogger. I’ve adopted three bloggers in the past couple of years, and we are now all planning to meet at BlogHer next month.
Thanks for all of these brilliant suggestions, everyone! Some things I do already – comment on blogs, visit the blogs of my readers, giveaways/contests – but I’m definitely going to look into the other suggestions.
Like Cybele says, post regularly, which I agree with.
Also, great content, which Michelle already has. That Tequila Lime Guacamole recipe is amazing! Hey, right now I’m in the Tequila harvest region and I haven’t heard of it… but will definitely try it.
Speaking of which… thank you for the people that come to me from your web-site. I appreciate it a lot, as I don’t have so many readers. .. yet? Really good suggestions, especially for food bloggers. Thanks.
Such great info here! I’ll also add visiting (and commenting on) the blogs in the blogrolls of your favorite blogs…chances are all of you will have lots in common. Also search out people to follow on Twitter using keywords in your genre, and use Twitter to show your personality rather than simply post your posts.
Oh I also wanted to add: I agree with you Sara that’s it’s nice to thank those who have linked to you; I don’t *by any means* think poorly of those who don’t thank me when I link to them, but I am definitely more likely to go back and explore/link to/form a relationship with someone who has taken the time to leave a grazie note.
Some excellent responses from some of my favorite veteran bloggers! Thanks for helping me enhance my mentoring! :)