10 effective ways to increase the number of subscribers to your blog

I’m publishing my translation of Brian Clark’s article “10 Effective Ways to Get More Blog Subscribers” .
Do you know what question I am most often asked?
How did you manage to get 6,000 subscribers in 10 months?
The answer is simple - I value subscribers much more than any other indicators of blog success, such as traffic volume or the number of views per person. In my opinion, subscribers are the foundation of a successful blog.
I present to you 10 simple but effective strategies, starting to use which, you will increase the number of subscribers in the near future.

1. Make your subscription easier. Make your blog’s subscription elements more visible, place an offer to subscribe at the end of each post, and offer an RSS subscription via email as an alternative.
2. Focus on one topic. Focus on one topic, and the more specialized it is, the better. Evaluate your chosen niche - how many potential readers are in it. It is better to be honest with yourself initially than to work hard and end up with nothing.
3. Let's take bribes. Do not worry - there is no crime here. We are talking about moral bribes in the form of free e-books, articles, training courses or sound recordings. It is believed that this technique works only with subscribers to the email newsletter, since you can attach a bonus application to the letter. However, there is one witty way to do this with RSS.
   If your blog is based on RSS, use the free Feedvertising plugin , which allows you to create a “tricky” link to a page with a bonus. This link will be displayed only in the feed, but it will not be in the post itself. Thus, only subscribers will have access to bonuses.
4. Distribute your e-books. This is one of the varieties of the “moral bribe” strategy, however, in this case, an e-book (naturally with a “wired” link to a blog or an offer to subscribe) is distributed to your friends by readers of your blog. Thus, the e-book will promote your site and increase the number of subscribers.
5. Create a subscription page. Create a page on the site that will focus solely on subscription. Visitors to this page can come from your blog, from contextual advertising or from elsewhere. You can even place it on a separate domain and use the already mentioned “moral bribes” to attract interest.
6. Allow to copy your content. Someone might find it foolish to let everyone copy the content of their blog, however, in fact, this is a very effective strategy to attract visitors and increase the subscriber base. In advance, discuss with the author of the blog for which you write that a link to your blog must be at the end of the article.
7. Record podcasts about your topic and share them with others. In each episode of the podcast, mention your blog, and talk about the benefits your subscribers get. Try to interview one of the famous players in your niche. By the way, podcasts are a great example of bonuses for subscribers.
8. Post in the forums. Be an active participant in forums that are authoritative in your niche, try to write more. People who see that you have something to tell will definitely visit your blog in the hope of finding something special there. Do not disappoint them.
9. Make friends. Perhaps this is the most underutilized strategy to drive traffic to the blog and increase the number of subscribers. Do not solicit links from other bloggers, as this is not effective. Find a way to help them in something. As a result, business relationships and even friendships may arise. And surely these people will not only become your subscribers, but will also regularly quote you on their blogs.
10. Promote each other. Here is another interesting way to use the Feedvertising plugin for WordPress.
    Find a blogger who writes related articles. Agree that you will promote each other's blogs on the RSS feed using Feedvertising. Thus, both of you will grow both traffic to the blog and the number of subscribers.

Translation: Damir Khalilov

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