21 Ways to Get More Subscribers to Your Blog


by Bamidele

21 ways to increase blog subscribersOne of the major mistakes I made when starting out as a new blogger was not focusing my efforts on getting blog subscribers, most newbies still make this mistake and when they are ready to increase their subscribers they don’t know how to do it.
Your subscribers are your most important asset and even if you lose your blog you will still be able to get to them. Getting blog subscribers can be a challenge, especially if you are a new blogger, and this post gives 21 tips on how to get more subscribers to your blog.

1. Make it Obvious

Many people claim they don’t have enough blog subscribers without making it clear to their readers to subscribe. If you want more subscribers to your blog it is very important to let your readers know that you want them to subscribe by making your subscription forms and buttons visible.
You shouldn’t expect to get blog subscribers if there is no subscription option on your blog, let your subscription options be branded with your blog.

2. Make it Easy

People love ease and the easier you can make life for them the more they will corporate with you. You will lose a great deal of subscribers if you are telling your readers to enter their first name, last name, country, zip code, CAPTCHA etc. before they can subscribe. Asking for too many details make people irritated and it will cost you a lot of subscribers.
Try to make subscribing to your blog as easy as possible and make sure your readers don’t experience any problem when trying to subscribe.

3. Ask for It

The power of asking should never be underestimated. Your readers might not know you want them to subscribe no matter what you do and asking them to subscribe can do a great deal to improve your subscription rate.
When trying to ask your readers to subscribe there are various ways to effectively ask them to subscribe to your blog, don’t just write posts every week telling them to subscribe.
A great way to ask is by asking your readers to subscribe below every posts of yours, you can also ask them to subscribe on your about page or on your sidebar, ask in as many places you can, it doesn’t hurt.

4. Use Incentives

You can also increase your blog subscribers by giving your readers something if they subscribe. There are a lot of things you can give them to subscribe to your blog and it isn’t necessary that you should be the one to create it, it can be an ebook, a plugin, a podcast or a video – make sure it is of high value.
You should also make sure you deliver the incentive when people subscribe because if you don’t, they will end up unsubscribing from your blog. A great plugin to help you make something available to your feed subscribers only is the feedvertising plugin.

5. Leverage Viral Traffic

A more effective way to get more subscribers to your blog is by leveraging viral traffic to increase your blog subscribers. Not every blog posts are created equal and there are some blog posts that will go exceedingly viral while some won’t, you can increase your blog subscribers by leveraging the traffic you get to your viral posts.
Once a post of yours is viral try to include an intro below and above the post telling people who you are and how you think your blog will help them, also let them know what they will miss if they don’t subscribe and then include a link for them to subscribe.

6. Have a Landing Page

Having a landing page can be very effective especially if you are in a niche where people are not tech savvy. Your landing page will also be effective in increasing your subscriber number because it will be dedicated to subscribing to your blog only and there will be nothing to distract your readers.
When creating a landing page for your blog subscription it is very important to let your readers know what they will gain when they subscribe and also make sure you explain how they can subscribe without experiencing difficulties.

7. Comment on Other Blogs

I have never respected the power of blog commenting this much until now. Every now and then I do get an email from my readers telling me how they love my work and that they discovered my blog from a particular blog.
Blog commenting can be a great way to increase your blog subscribers if done effectively, below are some tips to increase your blog subscribers using blog commenting:
- Link directly to your landing page or your feed url in your blog comments, this will make it easy for people to subscribe to your blog.
- Be consistent with your blog commenting efforts. Many people won’t take you serious as a blog commenter but when they see your name pop up in the comments section of a particular blog every time they will be inclined to visit your blog – it worked for me!
- Use an avatar. If you don’t use an avatar people might find it difficult recognizing you but once they see your avatar repeatedly on the same blog they will easily figure out it is you commenting.
- Make professional comments. It is dangerous to comment on a blog (especially a popular one) only to say great post, people love someone who makes insightful comments always. Always make it a duty to impact lives and encourage engagement with your comments on other blogs.

8. Write Guest Posts

Guest posting can be a great way to increase subscribers to your blog. I have gained countless opportunities as a result of my guest posting and I can say that over 80% of my blog subscribers came from my guest posts.
You can also gain more subscribers by writing for other blogs, in most cases they will include a link back to your blog below your post and this will drive more traffic to your blog.
Not all guest posts are equal and there is a difference between guest posting and guest posting effectively, that is a different topic on its own so get my guest blogging guide for detailed info about that.

9. Write Viral Ebooks

This is one strategy I am presently working on and you should be expecting some great set of ebooks from me in months to come. When I am talking about writing viral ebooks I am not talking about ebooks that you will use to build your list but ebooks that you will give to people without collecting anything in return.
Try to write great and informative ebooks in which you will include a link to subscribe to your blog while encouraging people to share it with their friends. You should also submit and upload your ebook to various file sharing sites, document sharing sites, forums and as many places as you can. Make sure the ebook is downloaded thousands of times and this will lead to more traffic and blog subscribers for you.

10. Network With Influencers

Till date, my writing has been featured on Alexa top 1000 blogs likeReadWriteWeb and Business Insider, the advantage of these features is not the traffic but the reputation it helps me build. People will give me a higher level of respect when they see I have been featured by such great blogs, this will lead them to telling others about me which will build more reputation and bring about viral traffic which will eventually lead to more subscribers for me.
Try to network with other bloggers not because of any other benefit but because of the type of reputation that could give you. If people see you networking with people like Darren RowseBrian Clark and Daniel Scoccothey will begin to see you as someone of high status thereby increasing their respect for you, they will also be more inclined to subscribe to your blog. People will also take what you take more seriously.

11. Write Pillar Articles

Never underestimate the power of pillar articles. Without counting search engine traffic the two most popular post on this blog are this and this and I saw a sharp increase in my subscribers after writing them.
Not all articles are equal and you are not a content machine so you can’t be expected to come up with super articles always. Try to write pillar articles once in a while, it can be once in a month or twice in a month, you will be amazed to see how this can help increase your subscriber count.

12. Email Signatures

Many of us send and receive a lot of emails every day yet we do not make effective use of this opportunity. You can also increase your blog subscribers by including a subscription link in your email signature, anytime you send and reply an email others will able to see it and in most cases subscribe to your blog.
A great advantage of using email signatures to increase your blog subscribers is that email is more personal and people tend to subscribe more if they have a strong personal relationship with you or you have already gained their trust.

13. Invite Guest Authors

The most popular guest post on YoungPrePro is on viral traffic from Lye Kuek Hin. I never thought the post will be that popular but it also helped increase my subscribers after it went live.
I am in no way a professional english speaker and my english is one of the worst out there but thanks to some of the wonderful guest authors who have impacted YoungPrePro with their professionally written articles. Not all your readers can relate with you and it often gets boring when they are hearing from you and you alone. Try to introduce guest authors and opinions on your blog because this gives your readers a new perspective and it also help cater for various audience thereby leading to more traffic and subscribers for your blog.

14. Use Full feeds

Another great mistake many people make when trying to increase their blog subscribers is using partial feeds. I have unsubscribed to all blogs I am subscribed to that are using partial feeds not because their content is bad but because I only subscribe to feeds to read posts in my inbox. I read all my posts by visiting the websites but there are times when I read posts from my mobile phone and in cases like this partial feed is useless, the same applies to many other subscribers.
It isn’t a must for people  to come to your blog, what matters most is that everybody receive and read your content. Using partial feeds can be very dangerous to your blog and you will be amazed to see a great increase in the number of your blog subscribers once you start using full feeds.

15. Use Social Proof

I am not a huge fan of this because I love keeping a lot of things about me secret, nevertheless, I wouldn’t fail to admit it works. Social proof communicates value to your readers because once you show them that hundreds or thousands of other people are subscribed to your blog it makes them more inclined to join the crowd and  subscribe.
If you are using feedburner it has a chicklet that allows you to do so but I will prefer not to use it and input my numbers manually until the feedburner subscriber count becomes stable – there is usually a huge drop in the number of subscribers nowadays which can cost you your credibility ;)

16. Improve Your CTA

CTA means Call to Action. Your call to action can affect how many subscribers you get to your blog, if you use call to actions that make it look like it is not necessary to subscribe to your blog you will end up losing some subscribers but if your call to action communicates urgency to your readers it will have a great impact on the number of subscribers you get.

17. Try Alternating Your Content

Due to poor internet connectivity in my country (Nigeria) I might not be doing what I preach in this regard.
Don’t stick with one content format because you will have different types of readers, those who prefer audio to text and those who like watching videos throughout the day.
Try alternating your content and always make sure you deliver content to your readers using various mediums, it can be video, podcasts and any other medium you think can have an impact. A great example of someone who does this effectively and is benefiting from it is Pat Flynn fromSmartPassiveIncome. Take a look at his blog subscribers and you will notice it is increasing greatly everyday.

18. Educate Your Readers

A lot of non tech-savvy readers don’t know what RSS is and this can cost you a large percentage of your subscribers, I didn’t know what RSS is when I started as a blogger and the same applies to a lot of people, educating your readers about using RSS and its benefits can go a long way to increase the number of your blog subscribers.
You don’t need to spend days writing a post about RSS and its benefits, you can direct them to WhatIsRSS.com for more info on RSS.

19. Lay Emphasis on Subscribing to Your Blog

Another great way to get more blog subscribers is by laying emphasis on subscribing to your blog. Always make sure you include an option to subscribe to your blog in as many places as possible on your blog. Put your subscription options below posts, on the sidebar, on the about page and everywhere possible, once people are coming across your subscription options over and over again they will be more inclined to subscribe to your blog.

20. Your About Page

Aside my subscription page my about page is the most popular page on my blog, I don’t link to my about page in my posts, in my guest posts or in any other place yet it is this popular, this proves a lot of people want to know who you are.
Don’t ignore having an about page on your blog, try to include as many details (not too personal) as possible that will make people know more about you on your about page, this will lead to your readers trusting you thereby increasing the chances of them subscribing to your blog.

21. Use RSS Plugins

A lot of things can now be automated and it is amazing how plugins can do a lot to help our business. You can also gain more subscribers by using RSS plugins that help lay more emphasis on subscribing to your blog like WP Greet Box and Referrer Detector, this plugins display a welcome message to new visitors (or old – depending on your preference) telling them to subscribe to your blog if they enjoy your post.

What Next?

We can talk on how to gain more subscribers for years but there is little you will gain if you don’t take action, it is not about what we say but what we do. take time to implement the tips in this post to increase the number of your blog subscribers.
Also, make sure you share this post on your favorite social networking sites using the buttons below, you can also link to this post from your blog.
Onibalusi Bamidele is a 16-year-old entrepreneur living the internet lifestyle, subscribe via email or RSS for updates. Also get my guest blogging guide for more info on guest blogging.
Image by: Shutterstock

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