Does it feel as though everyone has a blog?

According to a 2013 report by Royal Pingdom, there are more than 157 million blogs on the Internet — and that’s on Tumblr and WordPress alone. To say that your mommy blog has competition would be an understatement. Still, you have your own voice and your own thoughts to share. The idea is to find a way to gather the greatest number of readers and keep them intellectually invested in your blog, while building ad revenue along the way. The competition may be keen, but other bloggers are not doing anything you can’t do yourself.

 

Submit Your Blog to Search Engines

According to WebLogs, the most fundamental way to get your blog on Internet radar is to submit the URL to search engines like Google and Yahoo. Look for the “submit” link to notify them of your presence or in many cases blog software like WordPress will automatically generate a sitemap and ping all major search engines every time you update your blog.

Go Where Other Blogs Are Not

Pretty much everyone is promoting their own mommy blog on Facebook, Linkedin, Google+ and Twitter, and those are fine places to start advertising your presense. Take the next step and add an extra layer of promotion on sites that are less traveled. Quora, Empire Avenue and Tumblr are three excellent examples.

“Reward” Your Readers

Internet marketing guru Jeff Bullas says giveaways are shown to improve traffic and encourage social engagement with your readers. Do something nice for those people who visit your site and offer something special — like sporting event tickets or FTD holiday gift baskets — to one lucky winner. Let’s face it, your blog would just be a personal journal if it wasn’t for your readers, so make sure to let them know how much you appreciate them.

Host Guest Posts

Offering to allow another blogger to write a post on your blog does two things. It gives your readers a fresh voice to enjoy, and it may just bring you new readers, says billbelew.com. Guest bloggers tend to make an announcement on their own site that they’ll be stopping by for a visit with another blogger. Those faithful readers will likely follow the link and have the opportunity to see your site. Just make sure the posts right before the guest blogger’s post are some of your best stuff.

Keep it Fresh

Make sure to update your blog on a regular basis and to provide new and interesting information. For many people mommy blogs have taken the place of the village square or neighborhood playground. While those places were once where mothers congregated to share stories and tips, it’s now mostly done via the blogosphere. Find answers to the questions you have about motherhood (or whatever your niche may be) and write content you know you would find useful if you were the one reading it.

Be Honest

Yes, it can be embarrassing to say your child threw a temper tantrum in a grocery store or you’re nervous about allowing your little one to go off to preschool, but it’s honesty that engages your readers. In fact, your honesty may be the thing that keeps them coming back. No one wants to think they’re alone.

Create a Community

Creating a community is probably the most important aspect of building a successful blog. Encourage active participation on your message boards. Ask open-ended questions and invite your readers to answer those questions. Check in on a regular basis to see what people are buzzing about and add your two cents to the conversation. It may be the comments of one of your readers that generates the most traction one day. By opening up your community, you’re allowing people to consider your blog a meeting place that they’ll continue coming back to.

Image by Annie Mole via Flickr.

Author: Chris London is the art director for Pixel Productions Inc., where creativity comes only after the morning coffee break.