Sunday, April 3, 2016

Top 5 Tips for Growing Your Blog Traffic (And Getting Tons of Views!)

Hey jammers! Panda here!

So, in case you didn't know, this blog recently hit 100,000 views! Wowza, right?

Of course, 100,000 views may not seem like a lot, especially compared to the hundreds of thousands, even millions of views other blogs have.

However, I think that, at least to me, 100,000 views is definitely amazing, especially considering that I only started this blog a little over a year ago! I've learned a lot about blogging, coding, designing and writing over the last year, and I can happily attribute most of my newfound knowledge to this wonderful blogging experience.

Unfortunately, many bloggers quit their blogs within 3 months of starting them. That, in my opinion, is a tragedy. Blogging taught me so much, that I hate to see so many bloggers get discouraged before they can even begin to unlock some of the amazing tidbits of knowledge blogging can teach them.

The main aspect of blogging that many people find the most discouraging is finding viewers. And let me tell you: I was stuck at about 2,000 views for what seemed like the longest time when I first started out. And about half of those views were simply me viewing the blog to see if the blog's formatting was alright.

Pouring tons of work into your blog and gaining no benefit from it is pretty discouraging.

And that's why I'm sharing with you today 5 actionable tips to help you grow your blog traffic. Of course, there is no magical formula or set of steps you can take to immediately grow your blog traffic, but these tips certainly help!

TIP #1: CREATE SO MUCH FLIPPIN' AMAZING CONTENT THAT IT MAKES YOUR HEAD SPIN.
The most important thing I can possibly tell you about becoming a successful blogger is that content is king. No blogger ever got to where they are today by putting out awful content. You have to provide your viewers (or potential viewers, if you're just starting out!) with immensely helpful and valuable content. Try:
  • opening up commissions (if you're confident in your design abilities)
  • creating 15+ super informational pages
  • posting at least three times a week or sharing daily updates posts
  • starting a blog series
  • opening up mini-blogs

TIP #2: COMMENT GENUINELY ON OTHER BLOGS A LOT.
I mention this tip in my eBook (which you can purchase on the Commissions page for more extra-helpful tips!), but it's seriously one of the most effective and fast ways to get more traffic. If you comment genuinely and respectfully on other Animal Jam blogs on a daily basis, the viewers will come, I promise you. 

TIP #3: USE PROPER SPELLING AND GRAMMAR.
Reading a blog post with loads of grammar and spelling errors in it screams "unprofessional" and "hard to read" for most people. Of course, this doesn't mean you have to have a perfect blog post with absolutely no errors in it, but I highly recommend downloading Grammarly (a free web extension that checks your grammar and spelling as you type!), keeping an eye out for those little red underlines that mean you've made a typo, and proofreading your blog post before and after you hit "Publish."

TIP #4: HAVE AN ATTRACTIVE BLOG.
Having an unattractive blog is probably one of the biggest disservices you can do to your blog. Unfortunately, people do judge a book by it's cover, and if you have an unattractive blog design, nobody will bother to keep on reading your blog posts or your epic content/pages. Use the Blogger template customizer to change up the fonts, colors and other basic things, but also try creating a custom header for your blog, sidebar graphics, signatures and even adding some fun little widgets and goodies to your blog for fun. You can also order some cool (and mostly free!) things like signatures and headers on our Commissions page!

TIP #5: UNDERSTAND THAT GETTING VIEWERS TAKES TIME AND DON'T FOCUS ON JUST THE VIEWS.
When I first started out blogging, I was so desperate for views that I literally checked my views counter every day or so to see how many views I had gained. The time I spent looking and obsessing over my views counter could have easily been spent crafting an epic new blog post or super helpful page. Also, focusing entirely on views may come off in your blog posts, and people may see you as sleazy, unhelpful and fame-centered. Also, make sure to understand that getting viewers takes serious time. It may be several months before you even begin to see 1,000 views. And that's okay! Love what you do, and the viewers will come to you.


I hope that this helped some of you new bloggers out there! And if you ever think of quitting blogging because you're frustrated, please think twice, because blogging truly is one of the best experiences I've ever had. You really don't want to miss out on it. :P

Have a lovely day! 

-Panda



10 comments:

  1. Great tips! Do you know of any mini-blogs I could make?

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    Replies
    1. Hmm... a contests blog or blogging-tips blog or graphics blog or commissions blog or Jamaa Journal archives blog or art blog... the possibilities are endless!

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    2. I agree with the ideas mentioned above. ;) You could also do a plushie series blog! Those are always fun to do.

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    3. Those are some great tips!

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    4. Yep, plushie blogs are really fun! I would have made one if I had more time. :P

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  2. Thank you for adding this! I hope to grow my blog this year, and these tips will certainly help!

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  3. Awesome tips! When I first started out blogging, I felt like quitting so many times. But then I finally got a hang of things, and now blogging is my ultimate hobby and passion! ^.^

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! <3 Yeah, blogging can be bittersweet at times, but it's such an amazing experience and so much fun to do that it's super fun for me now.

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  4. Thanks for these awesome tips panda! I hope to see more!!

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Hi guys! I am so happy you've decided to share your opinions on AJGC! Make sure to read/follow the following bullets:
- You guys probably know- no swearing, not even ***, no mocking or making fun of others and no judging.
- Free commenting (no moderation) is a privilege, if I see 1 inappropriate comment, comment moderation is turned on for all of you, sorry, I just don't want this to be an unsafe environment.
- If you are caught being mean to another viewer, you will have all of your comments deleted. You only have 2 chances before you are banned from ever having your comment appear again on the blog.
- I have absolutely no problem with you advertising your own blog/site in the comment section, I just request that you write an actual comment about the post or page before advertising your own site. Flat out advertising comments will not be deleted, but they make the comment area more of a spammy place- get what I mean?
- Please do not request diamond or membership codes. If you are looking for gem codes, then make sure to check out our Codes page. But if I catch you threatening another jammer, demanding a membership or diamond code, I will turn on comment moderation.
- When commenting anonymously, you must sign your username.
Sorry if these rules sounded harsh, I'm sure most of you already know the commenting rules, they are virtually the same for every blog.
Happy commenting!