Blogging Tips

How To Grow Your Blog Following Organically

by Olivia

As bloggers I feel like there is always one thing on our minds, and its how to grow your blog following. In our minds, more followers and more engagement means more success. But friend, It’s not always the case. You can have blogs that have thousands of followers and hardly any engagement and vice versa. It’s probably something alot of bloggers really struggle with. Actually, I know it’s something bloggers struggle with. Because I have been there myself. Blogs go through different periods of time where engagement and followers are high, and then there are months when they are low.

Please remember that your worth is not defined by any number of followers. The success of your blog does not determine how many views you get per post, or how many comments you receive.

One thing that makes me incredibly sad, is when I see or find out that people have purchased their followers. Which comes to that mentality of needing to feel validated by the number of followers you have. Your blog will grow, maybe at a different rate to someone else but it will grow. In todays post, I wanted to share some tips and advice on how to grow your blog following organically. I’ll share some of the things I have done to grow my blog and I hope it helps you!

BEING CONSISTENT

If you’ve been a follower of mine for a while, you’ll be used to seeing me write about consistency alot. I don’t say this to repeat myself, but I say it because its true. Being consistent in your posting is something that will help your blog to grow. I remember when I was a new blogger, I had no clue what to do. I posted whenever I wanted. Which is fine, but I had no consistency in my posting. I’d post once and then not post again for another month. Or I’d finish creating content late at night and post it straight away at 11pm when most of my readers were asleep.

Those are the things you need to consider when you are a blogger. Consistently having your content posted online means that new content is being published regularly. More content = more exposure. And if you want to grow your blog, thats what you need. Creating a schedule is so important, and something I tell alot of new bloggers to do. Even if you end up posting once a month, as long as you are consistent it will help alot!

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INTERACTING WITH OTHERS

I remember when I first started blogging I really didn’t interact with other bloggers much at all. I had no idea that in order to grow your blog, you’d need the support of other bloggers. I don’t know why it didn’t ever cross my mind. You will soon realise how important community is in helping your blog to grow. On the flip side, its always best to have the community on your side too. If you do something you shouldn’t, like copy someones work or bad mouth someone online, you won’t get very far in this community. If you want to grow your blog following, you need blogging friends and their support.

I have had a few people ask me in the past how you go about creating these friendships, and I thought I would outline some things you can do to create those connections.

  • Guest post on other peoples blogs. This is such a great way to begin conversations and build those friendships.
  • Show support to one another. I have met so many amazing people through blogging just by simply supporting them. And in turn they have supported me too.
  • Connect on social media. Often times I have made friendships with people through social media only. Whether it’s Twitter or Instagram. The whole world is on the internet. Theres no shortage of people to meet.

You Might Also Like: Blogging Friends and Why We Need Them

USING SOCIAL MEDIA

I know alot of people hate using social media for blogging, but I can’t write a post about growing your following without mentioning it. I have a bit of a love hate relationship with social media at the moment. For a while I used my Instagram profile to promote my blog. I had some success but nothing to scream about. I think Instagram is a really hard platform to use for blogging. Most recently I have got into using Twitter and I really enjoy using it. Its alot more relaxed and it makes it easy for others to view your content too.

Social media – whatever platform it is, is really benefitial to help get your blog out to more people. You will see some success not using social media, but even more if you utilise it. Its totally a preference choice on what platform you use for it, but my recommendations are Twitter and Pinterest. I think personally, Instagram is great but it takes up alot of work.

You Might Also Like: Social Media Breaks & Why We Need Them

BEING TRUE TO YOURSELF

Believe it or not, if you try to be someone you aren’t your readers will see through it. I remember when I first started blogging, I was worried that nobody would like me or my content. The insecurities came out, and I thought I needed to be like everyone else to be liked. I learnt my lesson and made my fair share of blogging mistakes from having this mentality. You are you, and they are them. You don’t need to copy, or be like anybody else to have success. It’s so easy to get sucked into comparing yourself to other bloggers and thinking if you do the same as them, you’ll be just as popular. But you aren’t them, and you are on your own blogging journey.

I recently had someone plagiarise and imitate my content. And it wasn’t the best feeling. It made me feel sad. Sad that someone felt like they needed to do the same as me to grow their blog following. As I mentioned earlier, if people find out about you copying or trying to be someone you aren’t, the community will find out.

You Might Also Like: The Unwritten Rules of Blogging

CREATING UNIQUE, INTERACTIVE CONTENT

As many of us know, the blogging world is very over saturated. It would be near impossible to write about something that someone else hasn’t. But what you can do, is put your own twist on your content. Make your content your own. Yes, 5 million other people may have shared their blogging journey posts, but their journey isn’t yours. And thats your power. You have a chance to make your content different, even if it has the same topic as others. What will set you apart in the blogging world is you as an individual. Do everything you can to make your content fresh.

Learn what content your readers enjoy and use that to help you grow. Be vulnerable with your audience too. I have come to realise that my audience love reading posts where I open up and have honest conversations. And I notice too that I gravitate more towards posts like that myself.

You have this opportunity to put your stamp on the world. Don’t waste that opportunity trying to do what everyone is trying to do.

You Might Also Like: My Biggest Blogging Regrets

What advice do you have on how to grow your blog following? What are your thoughts on this topic?

Growing anything can take alot of time and patience. Don’t expect to blow up overnight and become a star. Come into blogging with the mentality that it will take time to grow and flourish.

Olivia x 
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63 thoughts on “How To Grow Your Blog Following Organically”

  1. Very thoughtfully put Olivia! It was glad to know about your blogging journey and interesting is that you share such productive ideas with all of us. Thank you so much for sharing this with us.

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  3. You’re right. Your blog must have yoyr persona and that unique feeling that comes from being yourself. When your blog feels like a real person talking, it becomes magnetic and that’s what attracts attention. I did this, and I felt my readers connected with me on a deeper level.

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    1. You’re so right. And people know whether you are being yourself and who you are. Theres nothing better than knowing you connected with your readers.

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  4. I think you’ve hit the nail on the head Olivia. Your last 2 points especially ring true with me. You have to be yourself, be real, and put out honest content that you are proud of. It’s easy to fall into the trap of writing what you think others want to hear but that phoniness will be obvious.

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    1. Yes! I love doing this too. I remember when I first started reaching out to other people, I noticed my stats and blog following started to increase quite quickly. x

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  13. I haven’t had much luck with Instagram either. You can’t put hyperlinks in the description, which I think is Instagram’s way of keeping people on their platform. It’s a fun platform to get to know some of your blogging friends, though 😊

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  18. It’s very generous to share your blogging experiences like this, thanks Olivia. I particularly liked what you wrote about being yourself in your post, I do this but when I don’t get much reaction I wonder if I should adjust my style. But then somebody will come back with a lovely comment and it’s all been worthwhile.

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    1. I find that always happens too. I don’t think there is anything wrong with a bit of crowd pleasing, but make sure you stick to who you are and your core values! Thats what I tend to do.

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  19. I agree with this 100% 😊
    At times it can be disheartening to see the growth be quite slow but it’s so amazing to be true to yourself and have many people really like you for you vs creating a persona or mimicking other bloggers and growing that way. “Trust the process”

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  21. Great post Olivia. It is tough to get established. Sometimes I feel like I’m banging my head against the wall. I do engage on a regular basis but it still doesn’t turn into more followers, comments etc. I basically got to the point where I just need to continue to be myself and keep going. Is this a strategy? idk.
    Q: for you. If you comment on someone else’s blog and a third person “likes” it….what is the protocol if any?

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    1. Of course this is a strategy! Keep doing and being who you are. Don’t change or try to conform to make you fit into blogging. There is room for every individual.

      I tend to ignore comment likes. I rarely acknowledge them! So I just keep it moving. If I was to notice them for whatever reason, I might have a look at their page. But thats about it!

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  22. Very well put Olivia! Another great in depth read ☺️ I have tried promoting my blog through my Instagram page but with little success. People’s attention spans aren’t great these days is what I’ve found. We’re so used to instant gratification. Scroll, double tap to like, read a few sentences of a caption. Over here in the blogging community we’re a little more patient and old school. The written word is certainly not dead but we have to market to the right people. I’ve found that many of my Instagram followers who aren’t bloggers themselves don’t interact with my site and vice versa. That’s why it’s important to have a broader presence online.

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    1. You’re so right. Its so important to use all of the social media platforms available to us. Instagram I have found is so hard to get to grips with. Its a constant battle and I’m not sure if blogging fits well with Instagram or not. I’m still trying to figure it out.

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  23. You have to put your own mark on your posts. They should tell a story about you and what you stand for. That way you gain genuine people who wants to connect with you. Isn’t this the point of blogging? Creating your own content not copying others.

    I really enjoyed reading this✨Thank you for sharing all those tips -consistency is really a must🙈😬 xx

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  26. I stumbled onto your blog yesterday and really appreciate your tips and advice. I’m fairly new to blogging so wanted to THANK you for sharing what you’ve learned from experience to help others grow while avoiding the pitfalls. Cheers, Dee

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  27. I honestly didn’t realize how important community was until I started reaching out after reading one of your posts on it. I’m still cautious when interacting with others online, but I do realize how important being a part of the blogging community is, thanks to you!

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  28. It’s true that followers count does mean worth. It is sad when I see people buy followers. I just tell myself that as long as one person read my blog post I am okay with that.

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  29. Thanks a lot for all these advices, I wasn’t aware that posting at a consitent time could help, but it makes a lot of sense to me! I will keep your advices in mind 😊

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  31. Your words are speaking to me. Blogger friends are really helpful in getting discovered (and I’m having some luck in it✨). Now since I’m still at the beginning of my blogging journey, these tips will help me a ton! Thanks a lot Olivia!

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  32. These are great tips Olivia. I definitely need to get better at supporting my fellow bloggers. Instagram is very time consuming in true but I do enjoy creating content for it. Finding your voice and staying true to it is a great tip. Consistency is so important and creating a blogging schedule definitely helps with that.
    Thank you for sharing another insightful post.

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  33. thank you sooo much for this it really helped (although I’ve only started) but really great explanations !

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  36. Pingback: How To Grow Your Blog In One Year - Olivia Lucie Blake

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