This depends on your definition of popular, but I can help you out. You're not going to be getting thousands of hits per month, but you can gain some popularity.
1. You're going to need to publish two posts per week, so you better be ready to write. One for your blog, and one for someone else's.
2. You won't be publishing any "round up" content, like 10 best tools for "blank". You're going to need to deliver ACTUAL value here.
3. Make sure that the topic of your blog is first about something people are actively looking for online. User Google Trends to test out some keywords.
4. Use BuzzSumo.com to search for keywords of blog posts and check out how many people are sharing those. Take a look at the most popular posts and then out do them. Write an even more comprehensive and valuable post than that one.
5. Build your email list as quickly as you can. Use Appsumo.com and install their list builder app.
6. Provide a content upgrade for each post. For example, an eBook, a checklist, anything that relates to the value of the article you wrote. Exchange the free item for their subscription to your email list.
7. Email your list once per week with a new article you just published. Ask them to share it if they like it.
8. Guest post for the second article you wrote each week. Find popular, related blogs and pitch them a post idea. Link back to your blog, but to a landing page that specifically outlines the value of signing up for your email list.
OR
8a. Link back to a landing page that gives away content bonuses that you mentioned in the guest post.
9. Run a contest where you give something away related to your blog topic. (don't give away an iPad if you're a real estate agent, you want to attract subscribers that have to do with your niche.)
10. Die from exhaustion.
I built a blog named *Top 25 In the World* by TIME Magazine (out of 300M at the time) with $0 budget and literally only a few dozen hours of work -- this lead to six figures in related income, consulting gigs, changing national policy, and tons of other opportunity.
Now we actually teach a 31 day program for helping people go from nothing to building out there Blog / Book / Audience / Expert Positioning / Instagram / Twitter / Facebook / Monetization / Influence -- all elegantly done around a blog.
Here is the basic framework...
1) Get clear on what success means... My guess is "popular" actually is a proxy for something else you want -- influence, money, more sales, status, etc.. You need to get very clear on what that means before you can build a strategy to reach it.
2) Create a Leverage List Identify the high leverage points -- once you know the end result you want, work backwards. Identify the top people in your niche you are going to add value to -- authors, bloggers, journalists, related publications, events, companies, star customers, fb groups, twitter people, etc.
3) Use a hybrid-content creation strategy where you can interview people from the Leverage List to get content ideas for your blog / book while also getting key questions answered. It's a hybrid of customer interviews & content creation all wrapped in one. You also get to build rapport with possible customers, experts, etc. build your credibility and otherwise deepen your connecting within the niche. We often structure this around a how to book that you will be creating in parallel. This may seem overwhelming, but when done right this is actually a super easy way to produce multiple types of content (video blog / audio podcast / book / blog post / fb post / tweets / instagrams / newsletter ) from a single interview and a couple hours.
4) Now that you have some content prepared and ready to go, use insights from that content to craft your branding, etc. I'd recommend word press for the hosting (though Blogger has some possible advantages like being owned by Google and that may enhance rankings). Also be sure to include email newsletter sign up and other social share tools.
5) Begin releasing your content across multiple platforms and be sure to link and interconnect and cross promote. If you've used the Leverage List in the right way, the people you have interviewed will also be promoting your content for you. Also, you will have set up a content partnership -- for example, I write for Huffington Post and Forbes now, for fun, when I want. I can easily write a special post for those sites that points back to the full post / video / etc. on my blog - you can do the same.
6) Syndicate and promote content. This includes sharing it with the forums and other places you identified on your Leverage List as well as using things like Promoted Content placements.
7) Host events -- if you've done this right, you will be positioned as a top expert in your niche and will have influence with your specific audience, you will also know what problems they have. You can immediately provide value by creating content and products to solve their problems, but you can also create value by deepening their position as experts in the niche and their network. You could host online Masterminds, hangouts, or in person retreats and events -- which you can charge thousands of dollars for. I was also the inspiration and founding co-host of The Summit Series, which started out as us hosting a 2 day ski trip for young founders..
When we were named Top 25 Blogs in the World by TIME, we didn't even have a massive audience, but we had the *right* audience, which allowed us to get the attention of TIME and be listed right up there with Huffington Post and Tech Crunch.
This framework is powerful, however the real high leverage comes from how it's applied and having a strategy that is custom crafted based on your goals.
I'd be happy to jump on a call with you and make recommendations about what the next steps are.
With Gratitude,
Anthony David Adams
Unless you have something to say that an audience wants to hear AND an audience waiting to hear it ... you can't.
I recommend you look up David Risley.
My personal blog has over 12 million pageviews but I had to start over (deleted everything) because I was ranking in Google for keywords that made no sense to my core business. For example, I was ranked #1 for "symbols" and "peace symbols" and "heart symbols". I had Fossil and Vans advertising on my blog. (That all started when I wrote a blog post about ASCII art. I was an ANSI/ASCII artist back in the early 90s.) So with SEO, there's a weird luck component.
The lesson is, don't talk about anything you could accidentally become famous for. On the other hand, you might decide to change careers and milk an off-the-wall niche. (Become a professional ASCII artist? It's possible!) In that sense, SEO can lead you unexpected places. Conversely, if you can stay fanatically focused on one topic, that really helps for SEO.
Starting from scratch, I recommend you forget about SEO and focus on social media. Photos help get clicks to your blog via Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn. Use hashtags! Go cross-platform. For example, make a blog post into a podcast, make the podcast into a YouTube video, pin the video into Pinterest. If you're syndicated everywhere, you're not so dependent on Google. Google can trainwreck your life, don't get seduced by easy traffic.
But back to David Risley, he says (summarizing) "Your blog is not the business. Your blog is a channel to promote your business."
This question tops the list of the questions that any Brand Strategist gets to answer. :)
There's NO magic formula or magic potion to it.
If your blog has the following 4 ingredients in it, it's bound to get popular:
1. A hungry audience. (Sometimes the hunger needs to be created.)
2. Helpful content extracted from your experiences. Readers relate to small business owners' blogs more than they relate to some billionaire's biography. So feel confident and produce really helpful content.
3. SEO. You do not have to be a SEO expert to be able to do it right. Google and other search engines are pretty smart. Read about it and use self help tools at WordPress or other CMS's before you go out to an SEO expert.
4. Email marketing. Cultivate emails on your blog and connect with your readers personally. Emails remind people of your blog and they keep coming back, provided your content is good.
Have more ideas? Please comment or message. Always happy to learn. :)
All the best!
There are lots of strategies, tools and tactics one can use to make a blog 'popular'. But that shouldn't be the initial aim.
In my experience, it all starts with you having a unique and compelling message to share and knowing why you want to share it. It all goes from there.
Additional from what has been mentioned, webinars or online events are a great and engaging way to build an audience even if you don't have a a lot of content or post regularly. People are hungry for experiences that connect them with others in meaningful ways.
This is in addition to the answers that I already see here. Plan for curating unique or fresh content. Think what exactly you are doing; there must be something unique about it, in the way you approach your work or execute your skills. Plan your posts around it to give users something they do not get so often!
If you are not doing something different; try to structure your posts differently! Weave a story, and use some engagement strategy. Audience is looking for value, yes, but anything new or fresh is a huge bonus.
Need more directions? Setup a call, and I can share more insights!
How do you start a blog and make it popular within a month? By being famous before you start. If that's not the case, you're better of getting onto a six month or one year plan if you want to set realistic goals.
The best answer I can give is one that was shared by Mastin Kipp, the brains behind The Daily Love. He talked about how he was posting to his inspirational brainchild website and wasn't generating any significant interest. Dismayed, he was about to give up until a simple tweet from Kim Kardashian, "Guys, you got to check this out," changed all that. Overnight he went from 1000 to 10,000 followers.
That is a how-to that will make it popular within a month. But only your substance will keep those you attract. So my underlying advice is write something worthwhile, in alignment with who you truly are, and trust Life to bring you the results.
1. Start today
2. Choose the right platform
3. Topic must be your passion
Understanding this question with a target in mind will be much better to understand. You started your blog because you wanted to talk about something you loved. That is one factor to consider when it comes to blogging. If your goal is to blog and make money, you need to make sure your niche is profitable. Sure, your passion is necessary as that carries you through blogging when the money is not there. It does not matter how much you love what you write about, if the money is not showing up, you will have a tough time continuing. That is a random set of unrelated topics on a blog. Take the time to review your niche and make sure it makes sense and that there are ways you can make money. You need to focus first on the proper formatting of your blog posts so they can rank. You would do better with ten amazing articles that are well-optimized, properly formatted, and ready for Google to find and rank.
You can read more here: https://traciefobes.com/how-to-make-your-first-1000-blogging/
Besides if you do have any questions give me a call: https://clarity.fm/joy-brotonath
