7 ways to reach readers beyond your fellow bloggers

This post is also available in: Dutch

Your Twitter followers are fellow bloggers.., your retweeters are fellow bloggers.., your commenters are fellow bloggers.

How do you reach people beyond that nice comfortable circle? How do you get new readers (non-bloggers)?

1) Don’t focus on Social Media

Your first concern for a blog is to assume your potential audience does not use social media. Well.., of course they use social media.., but most people use SoMe to connect and chat with other people.., and usually only with people they know. They do not search on these platforms for specific information.

They do, however, share content once found, so make your content share-able.

2) Stick to the basics

Naturally, more advanced posts should be written too, just don’t ignore the ABC’s. There is always somebody starting out and wouldn’t it be great to catch them from day one.

Therefore, writing blogposts about the basic principles of your niche is a good habit. It hones your personal skills and knowledge, it also reminds more experienced users of these basic principles that should not be forgotten and it attracts new readers. People who start out in your niche, whether this is blogging in general, gardening, owning a dog or becoming a social media expert, need to start somewhere.

3) Do SEO

Search Engine Optimisation is a very potent tactic. Especially for the long term find-ability of your content. Casual readers and Internet users find new content through search engines, and most often this is Google.

There is, of course, a reason why SEO is a business in and of itself.

4) Triberr

Triberr is an excellent tool to help spread the word. Although a Tribe consists primarily out of bloggers (it is a tool for bloggers after all), the added exposure on Twitter can only help. Remember that not all followers on Twitter are bloggers.., there are regular people too.
And with a good Tribe the exposure is as consistent as your schedule (which, by the way, should be very consistent).

5) Be useful

Find out what your potential audience (or clients) want to know and write specifically for that purpose. Create useful information, even on a beginners level. You do not always need to impress the hardcore, very experienced thought leaders and influencers in your niche.
Connect that to a well optimised post for search engines and the odds of somebody actually finding your post increases, and that reader might even stick around for more.

6) Make it easy to connect

Once you get them to your site (which is, of course, fast and available on mobile too!), you want to keep them there or at least want them to come back. Make sure they can easily connect with you through Facebook, Twitter or Google+ or any other platform of your choosing.
Also, give them a reason to keep reading through suggested posts.., and make commenting on your site as easy as possible. The lower the threshold, the higher the turnover.

7) Be real

And of course there is the real world. One of the best ways to get real people to really read your blog is to actually meet real people in the real world.

Let your audience know where to find you, ask experts to take a look at your blog and ask for their opinion, more often than not they will oblige. Heck, ask them for a guestpost while your at it. This provides you with good (searchable) content and a good name on your blog.., and for the ‘expert’ it’s always good to pop up on search results. Remember, they’re just people too. They too need to have contacts, be present on the Internet and always find new readers and clients.., this process never stops.

So, plenty to do as a blogger to reach more people and expand your audience.

What do YOU do to attract new readers?