How to Retain Your Blog Readers and Stay Relevant
Millions of bloggers now compete all across the internet with one another for attention, readership and revenue in the ever-expanding world of the internet. Around a decade ago, blogging was still a relatively new concept and one that was not heavily monetized like it is today. As a result, most bloggers find themselves in the need to go above and beyond in order to stay ahead of their competition and retain the loyalty of their readers. It sometimes can be easy to become distracted or gradually drift off-topic throughout the process, but refocusing your efforts for success is not that difficult. Below, we will cover some of the easiest and best tips that you can utilize to retain your readers and stay relevant in your niche.
Know Your Readers’ Interests
You most likely understand a common interest that all of your readers share – the topic of your blog or website. As a result, catering to this topic is a sure-fire way to remain relevant in your niche and a great way to be featured in select SERPs. Often, however, there are overlap and secondary topics that may relate to your niche and can be helpful in boosting interest and readership. For instance, someone who is interested in studying election results may also find donor lookup utilities and demographic data to be informative. If you are pinging services and their benefits to your readers, do some brainstorming to find alternative topics to cover that still relate to your broader niche.
Be Rapidly Responsive
Whether your blog receives dozens of comments on a weekly basis or you have emails from readers that arrive on a daily basis, quick response times can build positive impressions for your brand. In turn, many of your readers will share your expertise and blog with others that they know. It is very common for a reader to have loose social connections with several others who are interested in the same subject – when you make a positive impression, you increase the likelihood of your content being shared with these individuals.
Quiz Your Readers
This can be used as a way to determine some of the primary and secondary interests that were discussed above, but it can also be an excellent method to encourage blog interaction and boost community morale. When your readers see that you care about their opinions, they will feel more valued and are much more likely to frequent your blog in the pursuit of providing their thoughts. This, in turn, can lead to more comments, more conversions and more successful calls to action. Not every quiz, poll or open forum needs to be related to personal desires for changes or opinions of your blog: you can also intermittently create polls and quizzes that seek your readers’ opinions on current events, particularly those that relate to your niche.
Conclusion
By pinging services to your readers that are relevant, adhering to a rapid response schedule that ensures questions and comments are addressed as soon as possible, and using occasional surveys to determine what your readers think, you can keep subject material relevant and ensure that your readers will return time and time again.