Growing Your Journal Traffic & Gaining A Larger Readership

We’d say that our journal’s growth from crickets to millions of page views per month was a combination of hard work and a series of lucky breaks. There is no single, clear answer why one journal becomes successful and another one does not, but here are some key ingredients that might give you a leg up – all of which we will dive deeper into on this page:

• Consistent posting
• Interesting topics written in a unique voice
• A social media presence
• A relationship with your audience
• Attention to detail and professionalism

Q: How frequently do I need to post to make my journal successful?

There is no secret formula to how frequently you need to post to your journal (or to social media). There are successful sites that post several times a day and some that post simply once a week or even less frequently. The most essential thing is to find a schedule that works for you. But yes, committing yourself to some sort of schedule that you try to stick to is likely the best place to start (both for your readers’ expectations, and also for your own).

We chose from the start to post daily, initially to get ourselves into the practice of writing regularly (we’d switch off writing swift posts every evening after work). I think we thought if we stopped, we might never start again! And although we were simply blogging for lively at the time, gaining and keeping that momentum truly helped us get into the rhythm and stick with it for many years – which we certainly believe led to traffic growth and it eventually becoming a full time job. That schedule did fluctuate somewhat over time – sometimes going up to twice daily, and sometimes dropping down to every other day – but by keeping ourselves on some sort of schedule helped in a few ways:

• Kept our juices flowing. It pushed us creatively to brainstorm ideas and encouraged us to discover new projects we’d like to take on or new topics we hoped to discuss with our readers.
• Helped create committed readers. By posting reliably, our audience came to know when they should drop in to find something new. It took the pressure off of blasting social channels or re-attracting everyone each time there was something new because we demonstrated they could expect to see a new post at a certain time if they dropped in.
• Gives you practice. Writing regularly creates more opportunities for you to find your voice, practice your writing, and develop your blogging style. Even if no one is reading (we have many early posts with zero comments), those posts are a valuable time to stretch yourself, experiment with your voice, try distinct styles of photography, expand your topics, or even simply tweak things like post length or how many photos you’d like to incorporate.
• Builds up your content. The more regularly you write, the more swiftly you will build up your site with content that can be discovered and shared. So there is no better time to simply pull the cord and get going. A year from now you could have hundreds of posts in your archives, or you could keep putting it off and have zero…

Q: What should I write about? What if I cannot figure out what to post about?

If your goal is to attract a significant readership, then the obvious answer is to write about a topic that a significant amount of people want to read about. We’d try to give an example of a truly obscure topic here that might not be the best idea, but the Internet is a weird place so there are likely already 15 blogs and a Reddit forum about anything we could think of. So the good news is that there are likely tons of people who are passionate about whatever you are into and would enjoy to read about it from someone who is equally keen.

As long as your journal encompasses topics that you enjoy and that will be lively for you to take a dive deep into – well, the right audience will hopefully come. Blogging is something you might spend plenty of time (and perhaps even money) doing, so make sure your passion goes deep. In other words, do not choose to write about “Topic A” because it is so trendy right now, because if you could care less about it, that’ll most likely show in your writing. Choosing a topic for any reason other than you enjoy it will make blogging less enjoyable for you, less authentic to your readers, and more frustrating if it does not succeed like you’d hoped. Plus, if you come from a place of enthusiasm, that will rub off on your audience and keep them coming back to see what else you’ve shared.

It does assist when you are setting your blogging parameters to choose a topic that has plenty of avenues to explore or is rich with sub-topics, related categories, or other ways that will keep you from wracking your brain for things to post about after those first dozen posts or so. Take a moment to think about this – heck, even write it down! – to make sure you are not approaching (or naming) your journal so narrowly that you find it hard to keep writing only about that topic. For example if you enjoy scrapbooking and crocheting and cooking, perhaps do not name your journal “Scrapbooks 4 Eva.” It could feel too narrow if you decide to cover all of those topics sometime down the road.

Q: How do I figure out my voice or writing style?

Simply like writing about stuff you genuinely like, writing in your genuine voice and in a way that comes naturally to you is the easiest way to keep blogging for the long haul. It might sound tempting to try on a new persona or to attempt to sound funnier / nerdier / hipper / snarkier than you are in real life, but you may find that harder to sustain and less enjoyable over time.

Once you get to a natural writing place, you will find you are able to hone your voice and writing style over time. You will be able to fine tune how to best convey yourself and your feelings through writing, since it is not consistently the same way that you might explain something in person (with plenty of hand motions, facial expressions, or subtle sarcasm for example). This is something that certainly takes practice and simply spending some time writing (and editing!) yourself is the surest way to develop your voice.

In addition to writing naturally, you do want your blogging voice to feel unique and personal to you – so that your readers may even begin to recognize you amongst the crowd of other bloggers out there. Pay attention to other blogs (and simply writing in general) that you enjoy and try to pinpoint what it is about them that you admire. Is it their sense of humor? Their supportive tone? Their sometimes brutal honesty? If any of those are things you’d like to convey in your own journal, think about how you can bring them to life in a way that is authentic to you (without sounding like you are simply a clone of them). For example, if you enjoy another blogger who celebrates their awkwardness, go ahead and let your freak flag fly!

Q: How will people find my journal?

When we first began, we were simply blogging to share our kitchen renovation with our family. So we were not actively trying to grow – and it surprised us when we saw strangers dropping in to see what we were up to! But as time went by and we learned how much lively the community of blogging could be (connecting with like-minded DIYers who simply enjoy getting things done on their house was so encouraging and excellent) we leaned into two main ingredients to expand our audience in those early days: search engines and other bloggers. Those things are still key ingredients these days, but now that social media is on the scene it is a whole new ballgame. Or at least a bigger ball game.

Search engines: This is frequently referred to Search Engine Optimization or SEO, which is where you make sure your site is friendly to sites like Google and the algorithms they use to serve search results. Optimizing is a big deal and there is TONS of information out there (as well as people trying to sell you their services), so do not feel like you have to (or even could) learn it all. Luckily, Wordpress and most themes have SEO features built-in and you can do things like include tags (there is a field for them at the bottom of a post, and you simply plug in words that relate to each post you write). Also writing clear & descriptive headlines tends to assist. There are also free plugins like Yoast to assist you optimize your content. Lastly, Google rewards sites with fresh, frequent, and popular content, so that is something you can build-up over time, simply by regularly posting about whatever you are passionate about.

Other bloggers: This comes in a few forms. We have made such strong real-life friends through blogging, and the encouragement and understanding that you get from fellow bloggers who share the same passions is easily worth more than any traffic or growth you might achieve. You can foster friendships by commenting, emailing, and of course linking and highlighting other blogs that you enjoy on your journal (we did this in the early days without truly knowing that they could end up affecting traffic at all). We did learn over time that in return they might do the same for you (linking back, commenting back, etc), and you can end up sending a few readers each others’ way. Take the slow approach of building up an honest and friendly rapport over time, not simply immediately blasting everyone with requests to share your links.

Blogger groups: Blogging is a much more established business than it was a decade ago, so you will find blogger groups on social media (some are secret Facebook groups, so you may need to ask around) as well as journal conferences or seminars. All of these are strong ways to connect with other bloggers, learn more about your niche, and create avenues for your content to be shared (and to share other helpful content in return). It is strong to have a place to post if you have a technical question or a pointer you’d like to share with likeminded bloggers, and these relationships can even lead to creating content with another blogger (or group of bloggers) that can be shared across both of your sites.

Social media: Sites like Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram are not only game changers for driving traffic to your journal, but many social media sites have usurped some bloggers’ needs to maintain their sites at all (think YouTube stars or Instagrammers whose whole business runs through those platforms directly). So let us talk about those a bit more…

Q: Social media confuses me. Is that a must? What are the best platforms to be on?

Social media was not truly around when we began blogging back in 2007, so you are already at an advantage for being able to incorporate them into your journal from the get-go. You CERTAINLY want to extend your journal’s presence to social media in some form if you truly are aiming for site growth and exposure to new people, but determining exactly how and where may take you some time.

Facebook is typically the bare minimum these days for bloggers who want to grow their site’s presence. It has the largest usage worldwide and its interface supports the broadest range of blogs (Pinterest and YouTube are not a strong fit for every journal, but Facebook typically works for a variety of topics and types of content). You can start by creating a Facebook Page for your journal and including a link to it on your journal somewhere. Then you can use it to share links to your journal posts (whenever we post something we typically share the link on Facebook simply to make sure our followers over there are privy to the new post) as well as using it to connect, interact, and discuss things with your audience.

Beyond Facebook, our experience is that adding additional social media channels depends on what topics your journal covers and what you think is your best “social currency.” Are fairly pictures a big part of your journal? If so, you may want to focus your efforts on visual mediums like Pinterest and Instagram. Is it writing? You might want to try Twitter as a place to show off your voice in bite-sized nuggets. Video? YouTube, Vine, Snapchat, Periscope, and Instagram can all assist support/share the content you create for your journal, plus they give you platforms to make new content for people to discover.

Do not feel pressured to over-extend your social media presence beyond what you are comfortable incorporating. A quality presence on a couple of platforms will serve you better than a spread-thin existence on many (we typically share things on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest). And if you are new to or not comfortable with a certain type of social media, take it for a spin personally – posting privately to your friends, or simply exploring what others are doing – before you take the plunge for your journal.

As time goes on, you will discover which platforms are most successful for you – where you get the most followers, where you find it easiest/most enjoyable to share, and what best supports your journal traffic. At minimum they can become a place for you to share links to your journal content. At best they can become a place for you to stretch yourself creatively, grow your audience and journal readership, and create relationships with people you might never get a chance to interact with on your site itself.

Q: Any tricks for keeping up with all those social media accounts?

Managing social media accounts can seem like a full time job sometimes, but there are some ways to make it easier on yourself:

Simplify: Like we said above, a quality presence on two or three platforms is typically better than a sub-par presence on many. So do not feel shame in dropping any social media channel that is not serving you well (or that you are not feeling as inspired to keep up). It also helps to remember that not all platforms should perform the same function. Pinterest may be best for spreading links to your content, Facebook for discussing related news with your readers, and Snapchat for giving casual sneak peeks at upcoming posts. If something is serving an unnecessary or duplicate function, consider reevaluating, minimizing, or abandoning your activity there.

Centralize: We enjoy Instagram because we can link other social accounts to it (like Facebook and Twitter) and reach all three without ever leaving the IG app. It is an straightforward way to reach audiences on each platform without doubling or tripling the work. Services like Hootsuite (which you can use for free, or on a paid plan) crank this up a notch, allowing you to customize a dashboard to monitor multiple platforms and even multiple accounts all on one screen. You can even use it to post and reply without jumping from app to app, or browser tab to browser tab.

Automate: No, we are not talking about hiring some robot to do your tweeting, but we have lately heard about pin scheduling services (one of the more popular ones is called Tailwind) that in short let you automate pinning to your Pinterest account. Pinning your own posts to a board like “Our Journal Projects” is a strong way to be discovered by new eyes and grow your audience, and these pin schedulers allow you to queue up as many pins as you’d like and disperse them at peak times throughout each day. We do hear that Pinterest does not want someone scheduling 100% of their pins without ever pinning directly on Pinterest (it makes sense that they want users using their platform as well), so it is likely best not to do all of your pinning through a service – but it could assist take some of the work off your shoulders. It also gives you access to additional analytics, like impressions, repins, and popular boards.

Develop A Reoccurring Feature: If you find yourself constantly struggling about what to share, it helps to come up with a few “themes” or reoccurring features that will keep you on track. For example, once a week you could share a before & after photo for “Transformation Tuesday” or a previously completed project for “Throwback Thursday.” A friend of ours posted videos full of pointers on a certain topic each Tuesday via Periscope, which she called “Tipsy Tuesday” which is yet another way to create a reoccurring feature that you are motivated to keep up with on a regular schedule (and that your followers will hopefully start looking forward to each week).

Q: Why is it essential to develop a relationship with my readers? How do I do that?

Loyalty is valuable to any business – whether it is someone who consistently shops at the same store or buys the same brand of car. Not only do you waste less energy attracting and convincing new people, but you create fans who are going to tell more people about you and assist support the growth of your site for the long haul. Sure, there are plenty of websites that subsist primarily on driving one-time traffic from search engines or social sites (think: click bait-y posts about celebs or random quizzes about what fruit you are) – but that model is typically more volatile and a lot less enjoyable for you, the writer.

Connecting with our readers has been, hands down, our GO-TO thing about blogging. Posting to a group that is familiar with us – our story, our styles, our quirks – has made writing more lively and more fulfilling because it feels more like sharing with a collection of friends, not reciting facts for a faceless audience. Creating this relationship takes time and is not straightforward, since it requires opening yourself up to them (think about the connections you try to build on a first date or with a new friend) and giving them an opportunity to do that back to you. And, simply like that first date, it helps to demonstrate that you are willing to share things about yourself (read: be a little bit vulnerable) which is a definite risk, but the reward can be a surprisingly deep connection with people you may never have had the pleasure of meeting otherwise.

Q: What is one thing many bloggers overlook, but can assist me stand out?

Proofreading! Okay, not only proofreading – but paying attention to details like spelling, grammar, pleasant photos, and fairly graphics all create a sense of professionalism to your site that will signal to new readers that this is a reliable source where the author cares about quality. Simply like they say a typo can get your resume thrown out in a job hunt, readers may jump ship if they start to notice your writing is sloppy or your pictures are snapped in a hurry. We certainly have our fair share of terrible photos in the archives and the occasional typo certainly slips through, but we consistently do our best to reread everything at least once (and sometimes three times) before clicking publish. And do not simply rely on spellcheck, since it will not catch any of those who is/whose or too/to/two, or alert you to any phrases that may be unclear.

Professionalism also extends beyond words to your images too, should your journal include photography. The photography bar for blogs has been raised quite a bit over the last few years, but fortunately cameras and photo editing software have become easier to use too. So even if you are simply using the built-in photo tools on your smartphone, take the time to make sure any picture you share is the best it can be – a pleasant crop or brightening a dark shot can go a long way! Here are some more pointers on photo editing if you’d like to learn more.

Q: I am afraid I will get bored or have trouble keeping up with my journal. How do I fight that? What if I get stuck?

Keep it lively! Make sure what you post and the process of creating those posts stays enjoyable to you – and if it stops being exciting and energizing, then perhaps that is your cue to step back, reevaluate, or take a new approach. The easiest blogs for readers to connect with are the ones where it is clear the writer is doing it because they enjoy it, not because they are trying to hit some traffic benchmark or pad their wallets.

If you need to get over a temporary blogging slump, try:

• Writing a new type of post: Write a post as a bulleted list or write something in the form of a conversation. Try something without pictures, or with only pictures and nothing else. Disrupting your writing routine can break you out of a rut, and potentially create a lively and distinct type of post that may even turn into a new series on your journal.
• Involving another blogger or creative person: Team up with a fellow blogger or your most creative friend for a new post or series of posts. This can breathe new life into what you do since it is consistently inspiring to work with someone who shares a similar passion and inspires you with their ideas and creativity.
• Challenge yourself publicly: Like a New Year’s Resolution-style, commit to trying something new or distinct (crafting something new every week? taking photos only with your phone for a month?) and post about the results. Public proclamations can assist light a fire under your buns in a way that secret goals in your head do not – and it is consistently good to stretch yourself in new ways.
• Take a break: Give yourself time and distance to remember what parts of blogging you enjoy most, so you can return refreshed and refocused on what led you here in the first place. We do not suggest taking lengthy breaks too frequently, but if you have been blogging for a long time and you are struggling with where your journal is going, taking the time to step back and recalibrate is likely better than forcing something that is not coming naturally.

At the end of the day you want to feel passionate about what you are writing – that is truly what makes it magnetic to readers and sustainable to you. Blogging is not for everyone, and that is okay. But if it is something you truly want to pursue for the long haul, keeping that passion and excitement alive is one of the best things you can do to fuel your journal.

And if you are looking to turn your journal into a business – whether it is as a full-time venture or simply a way to earn some money on the side – click on the “Part 3” button below to learn from our experience and read our pointers about how we monetized our site so our family of four could live on that income.

This is a three part series. Click the button below to learn about:

Or if you missed Part 1 of this series, click the button below: