Garnering first-time readers to a blog is a child’s play but retaining blog readership or loyalty is indeed an arduous task. So how to instill the “I want come back for more” mentality in readers’ mind? Well, TechXav is facing this worrying issue, and I have been cracking my brains really hard for the past few days to figure out the answer to that tough question. After scanning and analyzing through dozens of searches on Google and a couple of successful blogs, I have gotten some powerful tips which might be useful for you to optimize your blog. And more importantly, I will put these tips into action by applying them on TechXav.
Why Retain Readership?
Many bloggers are only interested in traffic and ad revenue, which is quite a straightforward idea. Yes, the final result will be traffic and ad revenue, no matter whether it is direct or indirect optimization. I personally feel that making use of resources (new readers) is much more crucial than simply getting resources. Retaining readership can increase traffic, reader loyalty, subscribers, comments, and conversion rate too!
I’ve read a lot about this, and it seems rather difficult.
Me too. You can find lots of optimization tips from Google, but anyway, what I am going to share with you is the *digested* edition, which is simple but effective. It’s worthy to read this article and give these best practices a try!
Common Interests
Remember the sentence in bold? That’s exactly what everyone of us should expect. You will never be boring to write interesting content, so please blog more about what you like, and what you really like. You are unique in character, but there are thousands of people who have the same interest as you. You read this article because you want to improve your blog to the next level, and so do I.
I believe that the best way to improve content is by making use of common interests, which can result in resonance between you and your readers. You will never be tired when writing posts that you love, so this is very easy to do. Remember this: Enjoyable writing experience will make your posts look better.
Constructive Design & Designing a Post
Typography is the Key
Almost all posts under this topic mentioned about Unique Design. In this post, I would rather use Constructive Design because this is exactly where effectiveness of design comes from. Besides being creative and unique, the design should contribute to the content. You don’t need to hire a web designer to improve the design, and I don’t see a reason why you shouldn’t use free or premium themes, plus your own creatives (logo, banner or customized color scheme).
By the way, design is not only the theme itself, but also includes the typography of a post. A special style of typography in your posts will help your readers to remember you. It’s always good to use various HTML tags with different styles in all your blog posts, to make the posts structured, comfortable to scan through and look professional. Spending more time on designing a post is always a good investment.
Encourage Sharing
You can be more competitive with Social Networks
If your main source of traffic is from social media websites, then it might be a bit difficult to increase returning visits, because the amount of information is simply too huge, and it’s very difficult to establish a deep impression. But if you think carefully, you might realize that the nature of Social Networks is sharing, and this can contribute to impression building.
It’s completely possible that a person receives the same information from different people in today’s inter-connected social networks. Sharing features can build duplicated impressions which really help your potential readers to remember your blog deeply even before they read. They are much more likely to spend more time on your blog and become passionate readers. More retweets don’t just mean more traffic, it actually means deep impressions.
“Gimme a Reason to Stay Here!”
Hey, your readers are shouting at you. You readers are reasonable, so you should give them a reason to stay. The best way is to express it in blog posts. Okay, let me do it now and show you how: Subscribe TechXav now and get best online tips from young tech elites!
I know that’s a bit too obvious, but I believe that you have many ways to break through your readers’ hearts. You can consider adding “related post” or “popular post” as a footer/sidebar widget, it will be the best reason for your readers to stay here.
Treat Every Post as a Project
Planning, Implementing, Reviewing, …
All you have to do in a project should be essential for a good post also. Promoting a post is like selling a product, and returning visits are like returning customers. Let’s say the whole blogosphere is a huge marketplace, all posts are priced as “one-click”, then successful bloggers will try to make their posts more competitive and “click-worthy”. A large number of posts don’t mean anything, because the entrance of your blog is always one post.
Don’t forget, the exit of your blog is always one post also, the matter is, is it the same post, or another post? A simple approach to try is cross-referencing among your posts, inter-connected blog posts can encourage the second page-view, which is the most difficult task in retaining blog readership.
Make it a habit, treat every post as a project. (Just like TechXav.)
Expect a Growth
You can simply set a target and attempt those methods above to increase blog traffic and decrease bounce rate. But don’t forget, low bounce rate for a blog is still not meaningful, because most of your subscribers should visit one page only (They are familiar with your website enough).
If you can get a success with these 5 powerful tips, don’t forget to share this post with your friends!