Whether you’re keeping a personal blog or a business blog, there’s nothing like the thrill of monitoring your analytics as your numbers grow. I mean, if we didn’t care about an audience, we’d save our musings for the paper journal on our bedside table, right?

So, let’s talk about ways to grow readership!

Link to quality content

This is a way to promote other people’s work and delight readers by sharing content you love. The people you link to will mostly likely visit your blog to find out how you’re talking about their content. Score!

Routine

Blog once or twice a week. Allow your readers to look forward to your regular insights without weighing them down with posts they can’t keep up with.

Social media

Participating in conversations in social media gives your words a face. Be genuine and helpful. Share other peoples’ content and use relevant hashtags on Twitter and Facebook to help those interested find yours.

Leave comments

Blog comments are the closest thing to the magic of Christmas morning I’ve experienced. Someone consumed something I created and was moved enough to respond. Give that gift to someone else. But don’t comment for the sake of commenting; engage in meaningful conversation. When you have something valuable, encouraging, or respectfully opposing to say—get in there!

Attend conferences

Attending conferences on the topic of your niche allows you not only to hear from the experts, but to network and talk to other people interested in similar topics. Exchange information and make sure to visit their site, share their insights and be genuine in your interest. Chances are, they’ll return the favour and you might end up with a loyal reader.

Speak at conferences

Being a conference speakers gives you all the benefits of attending a conference plus the added bonus an audience. When people gain value from your session, they’ll follow up by checking out your virtual profile, which starts with the blog you’ll highlight at the end of your presentation, of course!

Guest post

Guest posts expose your writing to a different group of people. If you save your best content for guest posts, you’ll win loyal new readers. Be sure to choose blogs that have the kind of readership you’re looking for—not necessarily a large readership, but a relevant one.

Write good

Write the stuff you’d want to read. Without engaging, quality content—the above efforts and your blog will be a waste of time. Before hitting publish, make sure it’s work you’re proud of. Great content is the number one thing you can do to gather and keep your people.

Good luck taking over the internet in 2014!