Blogging | Forum « How to get ”real” readers versus just fellow bloggers

How to get ”real” readers versus just fellow bloggers (12 posts)

Topic tags: blog audience, Travel

Kate – Trip Logic said
10 months, 2 weeks ago:
Hi everyone, I am pretty new at blogging and have been able to build up decent audience, but it is mostly fellow bloggers. While I love them I’ve realized that the audience I really want is a little different than what I have.
I want to target a more general audience, but I’m not sure how to go about doing that. I would love to hear any suggestions you have.
For reference I blog about travel & I would specifically like to target working women who travel a few times a year.
Thanks!
@triplogic | # | Top
Mac said
10 months, 2 weeks ago:
as a general travel blog you are up against big names. Would you consider writing for a narrow target – single women that travel to New York for example?
What key words work well for you now?
The last comment is obvious, but got to where your potential readers are. Be visible on LinkedIn, for example.
@richardmclaughlin | # | Top
Trudy Phillips said
10 months, 2 weeks ago:
When I do blog, I use http://www.leenkme.com to post my blog to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. I also belong to a number differing groups on LinkedIn that I post the link to each of those. I have a very eclectic mix of contacts on all of these so my blog reaches most of my targeted audience. @triplogic @richardmclaughlin
@trudy | # | Top
Shari Stauch said
10 months, 2 weeks ago:
Speaking to women in business you might also test engagement in some of the more women-centric social networks, i.e. BraveheartWomen or Fabulously40.com, SheWrites.com, etc. They’re not for everyone — but I’ve had some folks find their obvious tribe there (and by exposing yourself there you can lead some back to your own targeted group at LI, for example).
@sharijstauch | # | Top
Kate – Trip Logic said
10 months, 2 weeks ago:
Thanks for all the great advice. Very helpful and much appreciated!
@triplogic | # | Top
Laura Kelland-May said
10 months, 1 week ago:

@sharijstauchI like your idea of reaching out to ‘women centric’ audiences. This is interesting. And being a part of these groups offers opportunities to develop relationships for business referals as well as other networking opportunities.
~Laura
@lkellandmay | # | Top
Frederic Gonzalo said
10 months, 1 week ago:
That’s an excellent question… and I like the answers as well. I would add that you want to see if there is tribe about women travel in Triberr – I know there are some about travel, but not sure if they are “women centric”.
Cheers,
Frederic
@fredericgonzalo | # | Top
lawrence berezin said
10 months, 1 week ago:
Kate,
Your website and Facebook page look super. Your posts were super.
What works for me with my Facebook Fan Page is asking questions. For example, I’ll post a photograph of a confusing NYC parking sign and then ask a true and false question…Can you park here on Tuesdays at 2 p.m.? This type of status update generates lots of engagement,
Have you thought about posting a photograph of a landmark in a foreign county and either creating a T-F question about it or asking your fans to identify the landmark/country?
I’ve found from testing that a short question trumps 5 sentences of valuable information (even though the valuable information works in a blog post).
Good luck.
Best,
Larry
@lberezin | # | Top
Laura Kelland-May said
10 months, 1 week ago:

@lberezin – These are great ideas and promote so much reader engagement. Thanks for these simple yet great ideas.
@lkellandmay | # | Top
lawrence berezin said
10 months, 1 week ago:
Laura…That was so kind of you to say. Happy to make some suggestions.
Best,
Larry
@lberezin | # | Top
Kate – Trip Logic said
10 months, 1 week ago:
Wow great suggestions, thanks everyone. Lawrence – love the idea of asking a question about a landmark. I’m going to try that out!
@triplogic | # | Top
Dan Norris said
10 months ago:
Build relationships with other bloggers in your space who have the audience you want. Do things like:
- Comment on their posts (insightful posts that add to the conversion of content)
- Send them emails to thank them for their posts (obviously not all the time but don’t be afraid to do this)
- Help them where you can – publicly mention them on Twitter, blog posts, forums etc, if they have a podcast leave them a review in itunes etc.
- Assuming your content is exceptional and at the same level as theirs, send your best posts to them and offer them as guest posts. Either that or send them a few ideas that you are thinking of and offer to write something exceptional from scratch just for their audience.
- If you are up to it, look at co-authority a product where you do the bulk of the work but you associate with them (obviously with their permission). This might be something for further down the track.
Once other bloggers start talking about you themselves to their audience you’ll notice more growth in your own audience (and it will hopefully be a more relevant audience). Commenting on blogs brings you very little traffic in my experience and even guest blogging brings you a lot less than most people think (I had a post on problogger last week that only referred 40 visitors).
If you look at the people who are doing the best work at this, people like @kristi-hines and Danny Iny 2 that come to mind you can see that they at least have 2 things in common:
1. They create exceptional content for their own blog
2. They are regularly mentioned by other bloggers and have created great content (in some cases even better content) for other people.
Hope that helps.
@thedannorris | # | Top