How to Build a Loyal Tribe around your Blog

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This week mom boss Jessica Haines, a website designer, is showing off her amazing knowledge in blogging with us all. I found this article super helpful in remembers all those small details that readers just like you love to see when you click on a link. You can find her at jessicahainesdesign.com.

Have you ever found a blog post that sounds interesting on Google or Pinterest, clicked through to read it then realized 3 hours later that you were sucked down a rabbit hole reading all the other posts on the blog?

I’m sure I’m not the only one!

A lot of effort goes into blogging and we all want readers that are interested in what we have to say. After all, it’s what will keep them coming back to read more.

These loyal fans are the ones that love us, buy from us and refer others to us. And guest what?

There are strategic ways you can grow this connection and create an engaged tribe on your blog. 

Ready to find out how?

1 – Make your posts super valuable

We’ve all seen those vague 300 word posts that are full of fluff. You know the ones where you feel like you’ve wasted your time after reading?

We don’t want that for your blog! 

Your readers are on your website because they find what you have to share helpful or to be entertained. Fluffy posts aren’t going to cut it for either!

If your posts help your reader, they will see you as an expert and know they are in good hands working with you. If you entertain them, they’ll trust you, making them more likely to buy from you.

Win-win, right?

Valuable posts also have more chance of being shared, which gets your content in front of more people. Who can complain about that?

Related article: Mom Blog Content Correction

2 – Be authentic and show your personality

If you love dad jokes, share them in your blog posts. A big fan of memes and gifs? Use them to highlight what you’re writing about. Swear a lot in real life? Yep, you should do the same on your blog.

Embracing your quirks and your personality will help you attract your tribe – those people that resonate with you and would become besties if you met in person.

These are the people you’d actually want to be engaging with and working with. They’ll become your super fans cheering you on from the sidelines and raving about how great you are. They’re the people you actually want to have in your inner circle. 

Another benefit of being you on your blog? It’s so much easier (and a hell of a lot more fun!) to write how you would naturally speak, rather than pretending to be someone you’re not!

3 – Readability. It’s super important!

You go to all the effort to write and publish new posts, so it’s worth spending a bit of time to make it easy to read and navigate.

We spend a lot of time on social media these days, and it’s changed the way we read websites. We want things to be scannable and easy to consume. If your blog post is one long block of text on the page, chances are people will hit the back button and go elsewhere.

If your text is easy to scan and take in, you’ll find your readers actually, you know, read it!

Here are a few tips to make your text easier to read:

• Use headings to break your post into sections. Your visitors can scan the post to see if it’s what they are looking for and jump in at the parts they actually want to read
• Use bullet points and numbered lists to break up your text. They catch attention AND they’re easy to digest
• Use bold and italics for emphasis. If you need something to stand out a little more, these will help you ensure it does
• Keep paragraphs short and left aligned. Long paragraphs = overwhelming for our brain to take in. And jagged edges of right aligned or centered text make it harder for our eye to know where a new line starts
• Use a big enough font that it can actually be read. General rule of thumb is 16px+ so it’s easy to read, and even bigger if you have an older audience
• Don’t go full width. Text that spans the full page is harder to read. Adding white space or adding images next to it makes it much more interesting and easier to read

Want some more easy updates to make to your website to help you grow your blog and sell more? Get your free website audit checklist here so you know exactly what updates to make to your website next!

Related article: 129 Mom Blog Post Ideas to Inspire You

4 – Be consistent

If your readers know you share a new post every Tuesday, you better believe it they’ll be back to check it out each week!

If you only post whenever you feel like it, your readers won’t know when to come back for more. They’ll forget about you like the sock that was lost under the bed months ago.

Don’t be that lost sock getting forgotten in the noise of the internet.

Get visible and show up on your blog. Your readers will love you for it, and so will Google. An added perk with Google: It will be more likely to send sneaky traffic your way to help you grow your blog even more!

5 – Encourage conversation

Blogging can feel pretty one sided at times. You’re sharing content into the void of the internet, and don’t always hear back from readers. There are some tricks you can do to encourage conversation on your posts, though. 

Asking a question at the end of each of your blog posts is a great start. Going back in and responding to your readers is even better. 

This makes your readers feel valued and heard, so they’ll be more likely to come back and respond again. 

That’s where the magic happens. You create real relationships with your readers and they become your loyal tribe. 

Added benefit: The questions and comments you get can spark new ideas your fans are actually interested in. After all, they’ve already told you in the comments!

Related article: Why You Should Start a Mom Blog

6 – Make it easy for readers to read more

If you want people to binge your posts, you want to make it easy for them to do so!

Seems like a no-brainer, right?

But you would be amazed how often this is skipped. 

If you are mentioning another post you’ve written before, share a link to it. Add some links to related posts at the bottom of your post. Organize your posts into categories so your readers can filter what they’re interested in. Add a search bar for people looking for something specific. Invite them to sign up to your email list where they can consume even more.

These tweaks make a difference for how well someone engages with your posts. You’ll also notice people hang around longer and visit more pages of your website when you do this.

7 – Share your posts everywhere!

Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter…

Sharing your posts on your social platforms can help you grow your followers there, too. It also attracts new people to your website, and can save a helluva lot of time creating new content.

You could:

• Share a quick tip from your blog post along with a link to your new post
• Introduce the topic and encourage people to click through to read
• Share a quote from your post and drop the sneaky link again
• Reshare an old blog post to get some fresh eyes on it
• Share your post in response to questions you see on your social accounts

The opportunities to repurpose your blog posts are vast! 

Who wouldn’t want to get the most value possible out of the work you put in?

Summing it up:

Growing a loyal tribe of readers on your blog makes blogging even more fun for you and your readers. 

It’s a great way to maximize the value of your content and it primes your readers to buy from you. (I know I’m not the only one who purchases from my favorite bloggers any time they release something!)

If you use these tips, you’ll grow your own loyal tribe that will benefit your business for years to come.

What are some ideas you’ve found helpful for engaging your readers? Anything that hasn’t worked for you?