4 Ways to Get More Readers to Your Author Blog

As a self-published author, being a blogger is second nature.

You know how to choose juicy topics, and you’ve worked hard on defining your voice. You’re even sure to post all your new blogs on social media after you publish them on your website. 

But if you’ve posted and posted and barely gained a handful of followers, you might be getting discouraged. Maybe you’ve even thought about giving up. 

But before you give up, you should know that having an author blog with viewership can do big things for your career a self-published author. 

Not only does an author help you gain skill and discipline in writing, but it’s a great way to build trust with your readers and collaborate with other authors or organizations. 

It could even become an added source of income.

A strong blog strategy that targets your ideal audience, optimizes keywords and expands your online presence will help you attract long-term readers. 

Before you know it dedicated readers will start lining up to read your blog. Your online fan community becomes a reliable network for everything from book sales and reviews to attendees at your next book tour. 

Ready to stop shouting into the void? Get strategizing with these ways to grow your author blog. 

Make Sure You’re Speaking to Your Target Audience

Review your blogs and be sure that you’re speaking to a defined audience. 

A defined audience is your ideal reader. Not only where they land demographically, but a profile of their interests and habits that could give you clues as to where they may be reading blogs or purchasing books. 

Defining and speaking to your specific audience helps them feel more likely to relate to you, and helps you keep focused on your mission more than the numbers.

To define your audience, first identify your book’s genre. Then think about where those readers go for information — whether it be other blogs, forums, or social media platforms. 

Knowing your audience is key to connecting with them in your blog. Your blog needs to provide relevant, helpful content that speaks to your audiences’ specific values and pain points. Your blog should be a gift to your readers — and their loyal readership is a gift to you!

Next, check out the numbers. Take a look at your past blog posts, and see who’s interacted with them. 

Oftentimes website platforms have built-in analytics options that demonstrate not only how many people are visiting your webpage, but where they came from. 

Pay special attention to which posts your audiences are responding the most to as well as things like the bounce rate, or how quickly people leave your page. These features will all give you clues as to little tweaks you can make to gain more interest. 

For example, if your bounce rate especially high on a certain blog make sure it has a lot of striking visuals and looks easy to read. 

Watch Your Words

No, this doesn’t mean go back through your blogs to make sure you didn’t curse anywhere. 

It means that thanks to search engine algorithms, you can appear higher on google searches by simply making a few strategic adjustments to your writing. 

SEO keywords are words and phrases that search engines use to connect a reader to your page. Including them in your blog makes for a higher chance that readers will find you on their search. 

For example, if a reader was searching for “Best Sci-Fi Authors of 2018,” your blog titled “The Top 10 2018 Sci-Fi Authors” is far more likely to appear on their search than a blog titled “My Favorite Authors This Year.”

In order to find keywords to use in your blogs, you need to first know what your target readers are searching for. 

You can either do this by brainstorming common phrases and words your target reader would be searching for and using tools like Google Analytics to show you what searches led your current readers to your site. 

Be sure to use the keywords you list in the title as well as your links and captions. 

Use them in the body of your blog as well. For best results, use a keyword or phrase within the first 200 characters of a blog, several times throughout, and at the very end. 

The length of your blog also impacts its likelihood to appear in searches. Typically, longer blogs will be more appealing to search engines. According to Buzzsumo, blogs with 3000 words or more are the highest ranking. Time to get writing!

Optimize Your Digital Outreach

Creating an online presence for your blog goes beyond a social media post here and there. 

When you’re creating a promotional strategy for your blog, make sure to include the following elements: 

• If you have an ebook, include several backlinks to your website or blog throughout the copy
• Make your blog easy to share. Include 1-3 share options on your blog page.
• Create conversation by encouraging comments and reviews on your blog as well as social media posts (and make sure you respond to them promptly!)
• If you already have an email campaign, include a feature on your latest blogs. If you haven’t created an email campaign, it could be a worthwhile venture 
• Once you have a bit of an organic following on social media, launch some paid ad campaigns to expand from there

Network, Network, Network

The digital world is a big one, but humans still value face-to-face connection more than anything. 

If rubbing elbows at fancy networking events isn’t your thing, there are plenty of other tricks to stay social within the literary world.

Consider inviting another author or specialist to write a guest blog on your site about a certain topic. You’ll gain the eyes of their followers when they share it, and you may be asked to guest blog on their site as well. 

You can also create a solid community by your blog by hosting events for your current readers. 

You’ll be able to get a much better picture of the kinds of people you should be targeting, and providing a place for new network opportunities and friendships to blossom along the way. They may even suggest a topic or 2!

With a combination of knowing your audience well, using SEO practices and networking, you’re bound to see not only an increase in the quantity of readers, but the quality as well. Make sure your website matches up to your blog by checking that it has these 5 things >