4 Ways to Boost Reader Engagement

Posted December 23rd, 2011 / By Jon Dawson in Social

You are a blogger.

You maintain your site and post regularly because you feel like what you have to say is worth hearing. The problem is that few people are viewing your site, so your message is not getting out. There are countless blogs scattered across the web and if you want people to view yours you have to be proactive.

Here are a few techniques you can use to attract eyes to your site; supplying the content that keeps them coming back for more is up to you.

Contests

People like getting free stuff. That’s an indisputable fact. Contests are always a good way to grab people’s attention. If you have a sports blog you can have trivia questions daily, weekly, or monthly that test viewers’ knowledge of the sports you cover. Offer some type of reward like a hat or T-shirt from their favorite team. People may come to the site just for a chance to win the prize; that is okay because something may catch their eye and keep them there.

Get social

In reality you may have a handful of good friends (if you’re lucky) but on Facebook there are users with thousands of “friends”. The same applies with Twitter, where people can literally amass tens of thousands of followers. Since you have these social channels, you might as well put them to use. Posting links to your blog over these sites with a short summary or teaser of what you are discussing is a great way to gain viewers. People will see a topic that interests them and retweet it or post the link onto their Facebook page. It is okay to post the link multiple times throughout the day or week to make sure people see it. They should support your effort because that’s what friends are for, right?

Email blast them

I know what you’re thinking, but remember that there is a difference between spam and an effective email blast. Create a section on your blog for people to leave their email address. If they do, that means they are interested in what you have to say and emailing them about new posts being uploaded would be welcomed. There is email marketing software available for people who are looking to expand on that.

Just Cause

Blogs that promote a good cause or raise awareness of a disease are normally easy to promote. If you are writing about cancer treatments, walks to raise money for cancer studies, and things related to that topic you will have thousands of people interested because they share that concern. The same thing can be said for a number of different topics:

Sports: You can be broad and cover an entire sport such as basketball or football, or even multiple sports. Or you can narrow it down and cover one team in one particular sport. Either way, there will be a large number of people who will be interested.

Politics: You can separate the blog by choosing a side, Republican or Democrat, or you can choose to speak about politics as whole and remain neutral.

Jon Dawson lives near Indianapolis. He divides his time among work, writing and family life. He writes on behalf of Colorado Technical University and has a keen interest in blogging and social media. He also writes for www.professionalintern.com.