How Do Readers Find Your Blog?

Use Twitter to increase blog trafficHow do you connect with blog readers?

When I started blogging, the only route to gaining readers for a blog was by encouraging visitors to subscribe. Either by RSS feed or by email.

The logic was simply that the more subscribers you had, the more readers you had. While this is still popular with many blog readers who like to follow every post, there are so many alternatives available to attract readers that subscriptions are now only a small percentage of my readership.

It had been some time since I checked the traffic sources statistics for my blog and I was staggered at the change. Less than a year ago, subscribed readers made up about 30% of my blog traffic, while today it stands at 13%. However, my overall readership has increased five- fold. So where did all this traffic come from?

Simple answer. Twitter.

A staggering 45% of my blog traffic now comes from Twitter. Search Engines and Stumbleupon both stand at 16%.  Then comes subscribers at 14% to round out the major sources.

This sounds a little like having too many eggs in one basket, but in actual fact, it is a cumulative effect from a number of social media sources that feedback into Twitter. As Twitter is like a web, my own little Tweets announcing a new blog post are not the sole source of my blog visitors.

As many Twitter users are looking for regular content to Tweet about, it is easy for them to grab the RSS feed from my blog and set up an auto-tweet every time I post. Very often these users are also auto posting to Facebook or any number of other platforms.

So in an odd sense, they are similar to subscribers. Regular visitors to my blog, but by automation. Another way this works is with a number of new aggregator blogging platforms such as Scoop.it. This site collects blog posts that are then used by the Scoop.it user, who of course Tweets about their new post that is in actual fact mine.

Another avenue is from bloggers who link content from my blog into their own blog posts and then, of course, Tweet their post and I get more traffic.

The last few years has seen social media increase at a phenomenal rate, and Twitter especially so. So if you have a blog and you are looking for new readers, sure have a button for your RSS feed and email subscription. But make doubly sure you are building your Twitter user base and setting up auto Tweets for all your new blog posts.

9 thoughts on “How Do Readers Find Your Blog?”

    1. Not just FB Pasmonauta. Whenever I post anything these days, I make sure it goes via: Google Bookmarks, Stumbleupon, Twitter and Facebook. Whenever I post something of worth on my blog, I usually post it on Angie’s DIARY at: http://angiesdiary.com/ as well. :)

  1. I keep telling myself I need to use Twitter more. I only have a miserable 14 followers and it’s hard to find interesting people to follow who don’t tweet a dozen times a day. The majority of my readers are subscribers, both RSS and internal WordPress, but they keep increasing.

    Are you using Scoop.it? I just took a quick look and I get the impression of a blogging site trying to look like something bigger. “Easily Publish Gorgeous Magazines?” Please! But I’ll check it out before judging.

    1. I don’t use Scoop.it Catana. No need having my own blog. But those who do use it and link to my blog help bring a little extra traffic for me.

  2. Embracing social media with a positive attitude and investing time in finding out how it works (best for you) is invaluable. My biggest sources of traffic in the last month are (in order) Google, Twitter, Facebook, Other Source, StumbleUpon. Pinterest is coming up a lot in the stats too although a lot of people aren’t keen on that.

    I’ve also recently written a post about how to subscribe to blogs, encouraging bloggers to display “follow” options clearly. It baffles me when they don’t, to be honest!

  3. True about Twitter. Especially if somebody with lots of followers followers you and retweets.

    Another interesting source for me is other bloggers. I contacted a blogger to ask for advice re getting a camera for my photoblog. He kindly gave advice and asked me to send shots when I started taking them. When I started by own blog I sent him the link and he added it as a link on the side of his page. Unbeknownst to me, he was a kind of hub with many, many people following his blog and I get lots of traffic from his site.

    I have also got my own followers from people who follow him and like my stuff.

    I’ve only been blogging for 3 months but it’s steadily growing- like a snowball!

  4. KL Forslund (@KLForslund)

    granted, I found this by Twitter…

    I’m on FB and Twitter. When I post to my blog, the UI guides me to post to FB and Twitter (with separate messages).

    My twitter count is holding at 250ish. I’ve gotten conflicting advice on follow everybody and don’t follow anybody but key people because it cheapens your brand to have nearly equal follows and followers.

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