How To Realistically Get 500+ Blog Subscribers
October 1st, 2008
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“Don’t be too proud of this blogosphere behemoth you’ve constructed. The ability to gain subscribers is insignificant next to the power of engaging them.”
I’d like to be able to write a post with a title such as From 0 to 2000+ Subscribers in 90 Days (by Tina Su) or The One Word That Helped My Blog Grow To 800+ Subscribers in 17 Weeks (by Christine O’Kelly). Both are great posts from two of my favorite bloggers. They gained tremendous momentum early on, and told us exactly how they did it.
But I can’t use a title like that because my blog didn’t grow nearly that fast. “From 0 to 500+ Subscribers in 10 Months” just doesn’t have the same ring to it. On the other hand, people might be able to relate better to a more realistic story of subscriber growth. At any rate, I can only share what I know, so I’ll talk about how I got 500+ subscribers in 10 months.
Be prepared to run a marathon
First of all, if you’re a new blogger with 10 or 20 or 50 subscribers, 500 might seem like an awful lot. It isn’t.
If I had 50,000 subscribers, I could just post anything that was reasonably well-optimized for social media, and watch it rocket to the front page of Digg. I could post a review of any product, then sit back and watch hundreds of people buy it. At 500 subscribers, even minor successes take a lot of work.
Blogging is not a sprint, but a marathon. If you always keep that in mind, you’ll do much better than the people who expect overnight success and get discouraged when they’re faced with reality. For every Tina Su, there must be thousands of bloggers who never make it to 10 subscribers.
However, things get easier as you move along. In the beginning, you have to figure out so much all at once. How do you install WordPress? What theme do you want to use? How do you fix the CSS? What plugins do you need? What is FeedBurner? This is all stuff that you have to deal with instead of growing your blog. Maybe that’s why I only had 3 subscribers after my first full month.
But these obstacles vanish soon enough, and then you really start blogging. And you stumble in the beginning, because you don’t know how to write posts or how to promote them. But you learn from experience, and you get better. The better you get, the more you grow, and then you benefit from exponential growth. I’m sure I’ll have a much easier time going from 500 subscribers to 1000, than I did going from 0 to 500. In either case it’s 500 new subscribers, but it’s a lot easier when you already have 500 readers to link, Digg, and Stumble.
Luck
I don’t think luck plays too much of a role in growing your blog. Tina and Christine may have been lucky, but they also had great content so they were prepared to capitalize on whatever luck came their way. But what is luck anyway?
“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”
- Seneca
Looking at the chart at the top of this post, you can see where my one lucky break was. On February 24th, I released an ebook called The Zen of Blogging, and it was well-received by my 20 readers. On April 11th, I succeeded in getting ProBlogger to link to it, which put it in front of 40,000 more. This happened right before I left for vacation, when I had 44 subscribers. I came back to find I had 205.
Yes, that was a lucky break, and I’d have more like 150 subscribers now if it hadn’t happened. But what did it take for it to happen?
- I had to get the idea for the ebook. (Most people don’t spend time brainstorming ideas for ebooks.)
- I had to write the ebook. (Most people don’t put forth the effort to write an ebook.)
- I had to get Darren Rowse to link to it. (This wasn’t as simple as just asking; you can read how I did it in my post Persistence Isn’t Using The Same Tactics Over And Over.)
- People had to like it enough to subscribe. (It could have easily gone either way.)
Preparation, meet opportunity.
Some bloggers seem to be successful just because they were in the right place at the right time. But most people wouldn’t have done what they did, even if they were in the same place at the same time. It always takes more work than a sane person would be willing to do.
Look at Darren Rowse. It might be easy to think that if you had happened to learn what a blog was back when he did, that you would have started ProBlogger and you’d be a 6-figure blogger today. But would you? Would you have been willing to post 20+ times per DAY like he did across several blogs, not knowing whether any of them would ever take off? Hindsight is 20/20. What opportunities are you not seeing right now?
I’ve had smaller lucky breaks here and there, but as you can see in the chart above, they’re all tiny blips in the grand scheme of things. Even my 15 minutes of fame on ProBlogger will appear as a tiny blip eventually. Focus on the journey, not on each step.
What am I doing wrong?
I see it all the time. People say things like, “I’ve been doing everything I’m supposed to–posting great content consistently, responding to comments, leaving comments on other blogs, etc. I’m putting in lots of effort, but not seeing results. What am I doing wrong?”
Well, I don’t know. I’ve seen a lot of people grow their blogs much faster than mine. In some cases, their content was fantastic, and I thought they were deserving of thousands of subscribers. In other cases, I just couldn’t figure it out. Just like how I can’t figure out why Facebook is so popular. But I do know this:
“It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard…is what makes it great.”
- Jimmy Dugan, A League of Their Own
And this:
“The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.”
A few people will have outrageous success. Most won’t. I can’t really tell you why. I do know that we have to take responsibility for our success though.
If you’re not getting ad clicks, the problem isn’t that people aren’t clicking your ads; the problem is that you’re not making your ads clickable enough. If you’re not getting stumbles, the problem isn’t that people aren’t stumbling you; the problem is that you’re not making your posts stumbleable enough. And so on. Keep that attitude, and you’ll find the answers.
There’s a lot of conflicting advice out there about blogging. In How To Write Blog Posts With Confidence, Monika Mundell, with 750 subscribers, talked about how much time someone should spend on a post:
“I’ve heard certain bloggers state that they take between 2-3 hours for each blog post to complete. In my humble eyes, this is crazy. While I occasionally spend a couple of hours on a post, most of the time I get them written within 20 minutes to 1 hour. Even 1 hour is too long…”
Meanwhile, Tina Su spends about 8 hours on a post, and sometimes as much as 20 hours.
20 minutes vs. 20 hours. Who’s right? They both are. There’s no “right” amount of time to spend on a blog post, because bloggers have different niches, target markets, and objectives. Which is the “right” country to live in, the U.S. or Australia? More on this later.
Every blog’s growth comes down to two things: content and marketing. There’s nothing else. You need stuff for people to read (content), and you need people to read it (marketing). Most people do a bad job at both, which means less competition for you.
Content
There are lots of blogs out there about how to write great content, so I’ll mostly defer to them. I just want to say what I think is the most important key to writing great content: find your niche.
What does that mean? Niche in the sense of what topic you write about? No, it goes deeper than that.
Writer Dad says he doesn’t have a niche, and that’s certainly true in the traditional sense. But I think he has a very specific niche. He’s writing for people who like about 1 post per day, about 500 words, broken into lots of short paragraphs, with lots of interaction in the comments section, and most importantly, his unique writing style. Name another blogger who’s similar. Can’t think of one? That’s because he’s the only one in his niche.
What’s my niche? Personal development? Yeah, right. That’s the niche for people who don’t like niches, because everything is personal development, from Abraham Simpson to the Akashic records, and that’s just the As. My topics are all over the place, but the people I’m writing for are by definition those who like to read what I write. So as long as I write differently from other people, that’s a niche. Name another blogger who’s similar. Can’t think of one? That’s because I’m the only one in my niche.
Better and worse are subjective. Don’t worry about being better, worry about being different, about being you. You’re inherently unique, so just let your personality come through. That will be better, for the right people.
Look at metablogging as a niche. There are so many blogs about blogging out there, and most of them are a faint shadow of ProBlogger. That niche is completely saturated. But that didn’t stop Copyblogger, Remarkablogger, and Blogging Without A Blog from carving out their own sub-niches, did it? There’s no more room in that niche for copycats, but there’s plenty of room for trailblazers.
That’s what I meant about whether you should spend 20 minutes or 20 hours on a post. Whatever you decide, that’s part of your niche, and there aren’t any wrong answers. I’m somewhere in between. I couldn’t have written this post in 20 minutes, but I also need to get to sleep at some point.
One other thought about content. Many new bloggers will come up with great ideas for a post and just hold on to them, wanting to save them for when they have lots of readers. Don’t. This comes from a fear that you’ll run out of great ideas. But if you ever run out of great ideas, you’re dead anyway.
Marketing
The best content in the world doesn’t matter if no one ever sees it, and that’s where marketing comes in. Marketing consists of everything that gets your content in front of people: commenting on other blogs, guest posting, SEO, etc. Much has been written about this as well, so I’ll be brief.
I mainly do my marketing by commenting on other blogs. Unfortunately, I’ve found that to be a full-time job. It’s fun to read other blogs and comment, but at this moment, I’m looking at 247 unread posts in my RSS reader and I don’t know when I’m going to be able to get that down to 0. I’m probably going to have to just scan these posts without intending to comment. Less fun, but much faster.
However, I’ve found a couple of marketing methods that are much more efficient. One is guest posting on Pick The Brain, which is bringing me lots of traffic for relatively little effort, compared to commenting on blogs. The other is Steve Pavlina’s forums. I haven’t posted very much in them, but from my limited experience they seemed to be great traffic generators. However, it takes significant time to keep up with them.
These are just methods that have worked for me, and they might be useless in your situation. The point is to keep trying things and see what works. I’m going to keep commenting on blogs, but I also need to be efficient with my limited time.
Well, there you have it, a realistic overview of going from 0 to 500 subscribers. If you haven’t had enough yet, check out my interview on Jamie Harrop’s blog. Now, onward to 1,000 subscribers.
October 1st, 2008 at 2:36 am
Congratulations, Hunter, for having done well! My thoughts are that you’ve done far more in 10 months than a lot of us, which accounts for your success. Your actions are also well picked too. You don’t just produce any ebook. You produce one that shows creativity and which was what got me noticing you and your blog.
While you do not appear to have a tight niche, it just shows the range of interests you have. You also write from the heart. I believe that is what counts! There are many blogs that are set up every day but a lot of them are just regurgitating content. There is no value added.
I’m just reviewing what I’ve written in my feedback now. It sure seems like I’m singing your praises….LOL!! But this is exactly how I feel. Once again, congrats! Hope to see more of your inputs on the blogosphere!
Evelyn Lims last blog post..Soul Revelations From Past Life Memories
October 1st, 2008 at 2:54 am
Hi Hunter,
For ten months of blogging, I think you’ve done fantastic. You have had definite boosts to your readership, but those are all due to your efforts. Your ebook was the start of it and other moves you’ve made increased your popularity. You have put yourself “out there” and got noticed. That’s what it really takes and you’re on the right path to doubling your subscribers in a short time. Who was it that said once you get to 500 subscribers, the subscribers begin promoting your site? Or something of that sort. You’re on your way!
Thanks for the mention. I truly appreciate it.
Barbara Swaffords last blog post..It’s All About Me – An Interview
October 1st, 2008 at 5:47 am
Thank you, Hunter, for such a comprehensive article.
It has given me much food for thought.
Unfortunately, as yet, I can’t share any of my own experiences… but I look forward to reading everyone else’s.
October 1st, 2008 at 6:13 am
Hey Hunter, I appreciate your sincerity in letting us see your stats. You really did a good job presenting a realistic approach to steady blog growth. Not to say that you couldn’t be another zenhabits, but like you said, most won’t be. Great post (I didn’t skim through this one!)
October 1st, 2008 at 7:31 am
Thanks for the guest posting links, Hunter. I have written one guest post that was requested of me, but next week my very first submission guest post will occur. I like the idea of guest posting, but there is a lot more work/pressure associated with it. It does force me to be more focused on what I have to say, and write in a slightly different style, which is good.
Urban Panthers last blog post..
October 1st, 2008 at 7:54 am
Good on you for writing about this.
People fail to realize that most blogs and most businesses don’t happen overnight. They wonder why they can’t reach fame like X or Y or Z or shoot their numbers overnight.
There are over 17 million blogs, people. Please, let’s count the ones that got big numbers way fast. Now let’s compare those two numbers, shall we? Why do most people chase what maybe 10% (I would go as far to say 1%) have, thinking that’s realistically achievable in three months or less?
(Okay, those of you who’ve done it, please don’t come tell me it’s realistic. It’s not. Our blog is one of those “shoot to celebrityville” ones and I know damned well what we had to put in (and are still putting in) to get it there.)
You can make yourself, yes. You can get lucky, yes. You can be at the right place in the right time, sure. You can find the one thing that people are craving for just by chance.
Or you can pin down your dream by working at it and stopping the looking over at what Jack, John or Jill are achieving.
October 1st, 2008 at 7:58 am
Hunter, I’m officially labeling you as a “rising star.” I know them when I see them (Skellie, Men with Pens, Sonia Simone, Dave Navarro, Clay Collins, Writer Dad, etc.) Once you get past 1,000 subscribers, things start to take care of themselves a little (not that you stop working it, of course, but it’s a cool phenomenon to observe). Keep rockin’.
Michael Martine – Remarkabloggers last blog post..Last-Minute Bonus for the Remarkablogger WordPress SEO Seminar, and it has to do with Ninjas
October 1st, 2008 at 9:08 am
Hunter, woo hoo! That’s a big milestone, congrats!
Without stepping on other commenters’ great points, the mark of a successful blogger is if subscribers (like moi) are truly excited to see what you’re talking about this time. Whatever that may be. So your blog is workin’ it!
October 1st, 2008 at 10:17 am
I have 9 subscribers in my new blog in 3 days! Yay.
Okay, I’m looking to have more in both of my blogs now.
You were right about the ebooks part. It takes a considerable amount of time to think -> write -> spread the word about it. The effort you made for yours surely have paid off.
Righty, lets look forward for an increase yeps. Do write more Hunter!
Daniel Richards last blog post..Construction Bear Bear!
October 1st, 2008 at 10:35 am
Great post and thanks for sharing what worked, even if you do never respond to me on twitter ;]
I’m sure you’ll hit 1,000 very soon
Glen Allsopps last blog post..How I Went from Nobody to Industry Expert
October 1st, 2008 at 10:55 am
Hunter, congrats on breaking the 500 barrier – I’m on your tail, man!
I didn’t realize that Pavlina has forums, must check out. Thanks for the tip and best of luck on the next milestone!
Mark Dykemans last blog post..The world media became an echo chamber
October 1st, 2008 at 11:49 am
Hi, Congrats Hunter!
I don’t know much about blog marketing, but I do know this: My friends’ success is my success.
You have more subscribers than I do, and you are linking to our interview, bringing attention to my Akashic Record Reading service . . . so it’s good for me, too! We had fun doing our combo writing also.
Keep up the good work ^_^
Akemi – Yes to Mes last blog post..Inside Out Approach To Entrepreneurship, Part 1, Find The Niche
October 1st, 2008 at 12:12 pm
I love Writer Dad!
October 1st, 2008 at 12:40 pm
This was a very honest look at how much work goes into building a strong following for a blog. I think you’ve done amazing work and I’ve always loved reading your posts! Keeping up your momentum is definitely going to help you grow.
Nathalie Lussier from Billionaire Womans last blog post..Self-Sabotage: How To Turn Resistance Into Momentum
October 1st, 2008 at 12:44 pm
Congratulations, Hunter. You should be really proud. I’m with you on the slow growth. I don’t write for SEO or traffic. I write for an audience, and for myself. I’m confident that if I keep doing what I’m doing, the audience will grow; no different than the morning glories I water every day. I enjoyed your post, from the first word to the last, and loved how you defined me. Thanks.
P.S. Thanks Michael, and Hayden. Very kind, the both of you.
Writer Dads last blog post..I Said Stop.
October 1st, 2008 at 12:54 pm
500 in 10 months is a great achievement. Actually even blogging for 10 months is
It’s all relative to whom are we comparing to. I agree with what you have had to say about generating ideas for ebooks and writing one and then marketing it. It takes time and effort. I guess that’s why it gives better returns.
247 unread posts! How many blogs have you subscribed to?
Avani-Mehtas last blog post..Honor Your Anger Style : Anger Management Series Part V
October 1st, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Awesome story Hunter. You see so many of those “how I got x subscribers in 5 days” and etc. It’s nice to see a common sense approach that values hard work.
And it is hard. It’s damn hard when you want to do 20 different things to build your blog but you only have a certain amount of hours in the day.
Like you said, it’s consistency and persistence that pays off in the long run. Congrats to you man for sticking it out.
October 1st, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Thanks for this Hunter. Great post and a lot of good work went into it. I think you demonstrate a skill for linking to other great material also. A real benefit to your readers.
Harmonys last blog post..Who Is A Global Citizen?
October 1st, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Hi Hunter – well done. I’m technically challenged so I don’t exactly know what subscribers I have. James Chartrand said we need to have some plugin thing or something to get an accurate figure from Google but i didn’t get round to it.
But I know 75% of my visitors are repeats and I get around 150,000 page views a month, so they gotta be getting here somehow. I was thinking about this and I was thinking about you at the same time actually. We both use our names as url’s but mine is a whole lot easier to spell than yours – I know this because I’m always spelling your name wrong. And when I link to you, I usually have to click through to your site to make sure I got it right.
I like where you mention the number of posts. Problogger was doing a phenomenal amount wasn’t he? I get pissed off when folk who post once a week or less complain how little traffic they’re getting. Some of us put hours and hours of effort into their posts so why on earth should someone who writes a paragraph each week expect to get phenomenal amounts of traffic?
Patience is also really important – folk have got to remember that if they’ve only got a handful of posts on their blog – Google probably isn’t going to look at them for a while, no matter how obscure their keyphrase is. But if they keep at it – they’ll get noticed eventually.
Anyway – gotta shoot – I’m working on your ebook review.
Cath Lawsons last blog post..An Image Branding Mistake: I Make It But You Shouldn’t
October 1st, 2008 at 3:33 pm
Hunter, what an amazing, thoughtful, inspiring, REAL post. I actually read the whole thing – no scanning – which says a lot.
October 1st, 2008 at 3:39 pm
First time here via Vered’s tweet on Twitter. I have to say I am thoroughly impressed with the post! So much insight and a fantastic read. Thanks for sharing!
Mark Salinass last blog post..Burpee Challenge
October 1st, 2008 at 3:41 pm
This was great. I’d also add “Attend Web Conferences for face-to-face networking.” Nothing beats a good handshake. Or, in my case, just being the most obvious DUDE at BlogHer. That was my “e-book publishing lucky break” moment.
Backpacking Dads last blog post..Feeling Raw Because of Facebook, Part 2: Do Over
October 1st, 2008 at 3:43 pm
@ Cath-
Um, no, James Chartrand didn’t say that. What you need is to check your feed stats available by visiting http://www.feedburner.com and logging into your account.
October 1st, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Hey Hunter you thieving magpie, that’s my graph! Seriously, you’re mirroring me in terms of growth and also the time.
I like your approach here because I’m sure lots of people think it’s easy. Jonathan Mead wrote a good post saying as much. It’s tough! I blogged for 18 months with zero subscribers and then re-tooled and now have just over 700, but I have given a lot away and worked my tits off to coin a lovely old English phrase.
@ Cath – I am guessing you have about 350 based on your Google subscribers. A rule of thumb is times your Google subs by 3. Of course you could just log into feedburner and look, but that’s another story
Tim Brownsons last blog post..7 Keys To Successful Self Development
October 1st, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Well done on hitting 500! It’s HUGELY refreshing to read a post like this: one which looks at the reality of blogging for 90% of us. My first blog (The Office Diet) has been running since Jan and is hovering a bit below 700 subscribers. So often, I read the great bloggers – Darren Rowse, Steve Pavlina, etc – and feel like a failure. (Not their fault at all, I should hasten to add, I’m just ashamed of my efforts compared with their success.)
Hunter, I always enjoy your posts on Pick the Brain (and yes, I too have found that posting there has brought subscribers in … I’m also getting good initial traffic from there & from Dumb Little man to my shiny new blog http://www.alphastudent.com). The Steve Pavlina forums are indeed a good source too, far more so than other forums I’ve tried — I’ve also met a lot of great bloggers through them.
Well done again on reaching 500, and thank you for such an honest look at the hard figures of blogging.
Ali
Ali Hale (from Alpha Student)s last blog post..Uni, the sequel: Being a postgrad
October 1st, 2008 at 4:07 pm
Thank you for a very honest post about building subscribers. It does take a while and is worth continuing, many posts I’ve read make it sound too easy, and I know it is not. To your point, I appreciate posts with personality more than anything.
Stacey Shipmans last blog post..Allowing Room for “No”…From Someone Else
October 1st, 2008 at 4:46 pm
Congratulations!
When it comes to writing, I’m not sure if I have it in me (talent) though I enjoy doing it. I get about 20-400 visits a day depending on how I market each post, but have about 5 subscribers. The blog on my own server is only about a month old so I have a ways to go!
October 1st, 2008 at 9:49 pm
Wow, where did all these people come from? It’s a nice surprise to see all these visitors, including some new faces.
@ Barbara,
“Who was it that said once you get to 500 subscribers, the subscribers begin promoting your site?”
That was Skellie and her Butterfly Growth Model. However, she later said it wasn’t working as well for her as she’d hoped. There’s definitely some truth to it – the more readers you have, the more they’ll talk about you. But most of us will probably need to be actively promoting well past 500 subscribers.
@ Michael, cool – do you have an official “rising star” image, like Liz and her S.O.B. thing?
@ Glen, this post was a response to your tweet in response to my tweet. Now that I’ve discovered the “replies” tab in Twitter, I’m not missing so many replies!
@ Akemi, exactly, traffic spreads around like that, so we help ourselves by supporting each other.
@ Avani-Mehta, I’m subscribed to 108 blogs. That’s less than Barbara’s 134, but it’s too much for me. I’m going to have to cut back so I can pay more attention to each blog and still have enough time for other things.
@ Cath, Nuttall is an English name, so I’d think that would be easy for you! Tim Ferriss and I have the same pattern of repeated letters in our last name, and I noticed he registered multiple domains to account for misspellings, just like me. At any rate, I never type URLs – I always copy and paste from the browser’s address bar to make sure I get it right, even if it’s just google.com.
@ Everyone, thanks for all the comments. I’m afraid that for the first time I’m going to admit that I’m not up to the task of replying to them all. But I’ll be checking out some new blogs that I’ve just discovered here.
October 1st, 2008 at 10:27 pm
Hi Hunter,
I am working full time and I started blogging as a hobby. When the readership grows, I am compelled to increase the quality of my posts. That takes time.
This post is truly inspiration for bloggers like me. Guest posting has been one of the biggest success factors for me. Being featured on Dumb little man, really made a big difference.
I will also give some thought into writing an ebook. My biggest challenge is to find time
Thanks again,
Shamelle
Shamelle – TheEnhanceLifes last blog post..Over Spending & Impulse Buying: 8 Reasons Why You’re Not To Blame
October 2nd, 2008 at 1:37 am
Hunter it’s the T’s & L’s I get mixed up. I never get Tim Ferris’s name right either.
October 2nd, 2008 at 2:54 am
Hi Hunter, you rising star you. This was a very well written post and I love how you broke all the aspects of getting subscribers up into little bite sized chunks. I can imagine that this post would have taken you way longer than 20 minutes. LOL.
I can also attest to the fact that I still need to do my own promotion, even at the subscriber number I’m at right now. Lately I have been lacking in that department which reflects in the rise (or lack of it) of subscribers.
However, I have given up a long time ago on worrying about those figures as they are a mere indication of a blogs popularity and unlike others, I’m not in this for a contest but to voice my experiences and opinion.
Having said this, naturally it is great to see a number that indicates there are some measures of success or popularity, but while they look good, they don’t mean much in terms of connectivity and engagement with readers. As a matter of fact, it is much more important to engage with your readers and build a lively and supporting community than it is to count our RSS subscriptions. Successful blogs are those who manage to engage their readers so that they react and participate.
Unfortunately there are many high RSS feed blogs who fail to do this.
Anyway, I might turn this into a longer comment than my posts so I better stop here and congratulate you on your rising star label. Awesome job!!
Monika Mundells last blog post..It’s A Bit Like Acting I Suspect
October 2nd, 2008 at 6:10 am
[...] by Monika in Freelance Writing Ar… | 10.02.2008 – 8:17 pm Yesterday Hunter Nuttall wrote a really good post on how he managed to build his RSS feed subscriber numbers to 500+ and [...]
October 2nd, 2008 at 8:57 am
I think that like most other things in life, there is no one, complete answer. A combination of luck, drive and integrity should help the marathoners out there do reasonably well.
In our society, we “want it all – and we want it now”. That’s where the sprinters come in. Let them sprint, that’s ok.
I’m going back to my carbo-loading now…
George
Tumblemooses last blog post..Yikes! I HAVE to Quit my Day Job!!
October 2nd, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Hi Hunter: You work hard on your posts and on your e-books and it shows. I also agree that your voice is very unique, so even if you don’t have a niche per se there is something that makes you stand out from the crowd. I was watching a video of a presentation by Guy Kawasaki where he says that instead of having a mission statement you should have a three word mantra. Like for UPS he says it would be “peace of mind”, Wendy’s is “healthy fast food”, and Nike is “Authentic athletic performance”. Maybe instead of coming up with a niche you could come up with a mantra
Marelisas last blog post..Four Outstanding Thoughts on Innovation
October 2nd, 2008 at 6:00 pm
I like how you said, “Blogging is not a sprint, but a marathon.” My husband and I have watched blogs we like do well, but then disappear once they’ve been live about 6-9 months. People either get disgruntled with the slow growth and take their blogs offline or find their time allocated in other directions that don’t include blogging. Longevity is a key factor to success in blogging, in my opinion, and patience is as important as marketing savvy.
Thanks for the two article links in the first paragraph; I’m going to check them out now.
Homemaker Barbi (Danelle Ice)
October 2nd, 2008 at 10:15 pm
@ Shamelle, yes, time constraints make it very hard to do everything we want for our blogs. Many people start blogging as a part-time hobby, and then find that it demands more attention than we can give it!
@ Cath, yeah, everyone has trouble with that. Just remember it’s 2 of everything: 2 Ts, 2 Ls, 2 Fs, and 2 Ss.
@ Monika, I definitely agree that reader engagement is important. If people subscribe just because a blog is popular, but they don’t really care about it, then those subscribers don’t mean very much. But reader engagement is much harder to quantify than the number of subscribers. Anyway, I’m interested in growing both.
@ George, we sure do see a lot of sprinters, don’t we? And when they find that they can’t sprint the full 26 miles, they take a break and then start sprinting again in a different direction!
@ Marelisa, I like the idea of a three-word mantra. Barbara wrote a post where in the comments we described her and she described us in three words. For me she used the words unconventional, appreciative, and humorous. So “humorous unconventional appreciation” is the first draft!
@ Danelle, unfortunately, blogger burnout is quite common. That’s why we appreciate people like you leaving supportive comments!
October 2nd, 2008 at 11:34 pm
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October 3rd, 2008 at 2:22 am
[...] last post on how to slowly grow your subscriber count ironically brought in 20 new subscribers that [...]
October 5th, 2008 at 8:11 am
[...] How To Realistically Get 500+ Blog Subscribers Hunter Nuttall shares how he went from zero to 500 subscribers in 10 months. His post is inspiring and insightful. As it happens, Hunter has now also left his 9-5 and become a full time blogger. Congratulations, Hunter! [...]
October 6th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
“My topics are all over the place, but the people I’m writing for are by definition those who like to read what I write. So as long as I write differently from other people, that’s a niche.”
I don’t care what you write about, Hunter. I don’t read all of your posts, but when something attracts me in Feedly (a Firefox-only feed reader that is synced with Google Reader) I click it. Such as here. And I read and comment.
Well done. Keep writing.
Ari Herzogs last blog post..How YouTube Helps Us Vote
October 6th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
Hunter-
Greatly enjoyed the post. I’ve hit the blogging trail hard for the past 3 months and have enjoyed every moment (well, almost every moment). I knew that it would take time to build readers and excited to see someone else’s journey that is just a few months ahead of me. Hopefully, I can learn more of your successes and apply those same principles along the way. Thanks for sharing!
Jeff Roses last blog post..Reader Question #1
October 7th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Thank you for this informative blog. I am relatively new to this process and your advice is extremely valuable to me as I am working at building subscribers and traffic.
I appreciate you sharing your experiences.
Bonnie Marcuss last blog post..October is Women’s Small Business Month
October 7th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
@ Ari, that’s good to know that not everyone wants bloggers to stick to a tight niche. I never liked the idea of sticking with a narrow topic, so I decided not to restrict myself.
@ Jeff, I think it’s always good to look at people who are ahead of us. They can show us what to do, and sometimes what not to do. Good luck!
@ Bonnie, everyone was new at one point, and I think most people are happy to share advice that might be able to help a new person. There will be a lot to learn as you build your subscribers and traffic, but that’s all part of the fun!
October 9th, 2008 at 12:17 am
[...] lives better when I’m still working full time on mine. Hunter Nuttall wrote a fantastic piece on building a slow and steady audience. This is an excerpt from that article: Writer Dad says [...]
October 12th, 2008 at 7:28 am
Great post – new subscriber here – you better keep talking about your RSS numbers or I’m outta here!
I’ve always gotten a chuckle from these bloggers who have quick success and then have to write about it – Skellie did one as well – she hit 2000 subs in 2 weeks or something like that.
I’m trying to grow my new little site – you are right – comments are time consuming with mixed results. I’d like to try posting in forums but I’m afraid of the time commitment!
ABCs of InvestingI’´s last blog post..Dividends
October 12th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
@ ABC, those kinds of posts are always popular. If I had made it to 2000 subscribers in 2 weeks, I would definitely blog about that!
Unfortunately, promotion is going to take more time than you’d like it to. I’d pick just one forum to start, and see how much traffic you get relative to how much time it takes. Then depending on how it works, you can decide if it’s worth spending time on it.
OK, now I have to talk about subscribers to keep you here. I’m slightly down now, under 600. FeedBurner shows greater fluctuations than you actually have, and I’ve noticed that the numbers drop after I don’t post for a couple of days. It’s not that so many people are unsubscribing, but it counts subscribers by seeing how many people access your feed, or something like that. I hope you’ll stay anyway!
October 12th, 2008 at 9:51 pm
Hunter – of course I’ll stay – I was just kidding about the RSS stuff as I’m sure you know.
ABCs of InvestingI’´s last blog post..Dividends
October 12th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
@ ABC, yes, I figured you were kidding with the smiley face, just having a little fun.
October 13th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
Are you saying a smiles are not a sign of fun times, Hunter? Didn’t think so!
Ari Herzog´s last blog post..Should Email Addresses Be Required in Blog Comments?
November 17th, 2008 at 3:11 am
Grats on getting past the 500 mark. I’m just starting my blog (about two wks in) and stuff like this definately helps. Thanks for taking the time to do what you do.
Sexy Cheese´s last blog post..Is your cat trying to kill you?
November 17th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
@ Sexy Cheese, glad you liked it, and good luck. BTW, if your cat’s trying to kill you, it might be because you’re made of cheese.
November 29th, 2008 at 7:04 am
[...] too long ago I wrote about hitting 500 subscribers, and I don’t really have anything new to add as far as blogging tips go. And I plan to give [...]
December 29th, 2008 at 4:31 am
[...] Create an e-book and give it away for free. Hunter Nuttall explains in his blog post “How to Realistically Get 500+ Blog Subscribers” that he wrote an e-book called “The Zen of Blogging” when he first started out [...]
January 9th, 2009 at 4:43 am
Good work mate! As a new blogger I would be very pleased to achieve 500 subscribers (hopefully one day in the near future.) If I had a number of subscribers, I would probably market additional content to them as an incentive for being signed up. This would in turn get them to encourage others to subscribe for additional content. Just a thought. All the best with your blogging in 2009!
January 10th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
@ Joshua, keep your eyes on the prize, and you’ll soon be there! I’ve thought about offering a free ebook for joining my mailing list, though I haven’t done that yet. Some people offer a free ebook for subscribing, but if that means the ebook has to appear in the footer of every post, I think that would get annoying.
March 4th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
[...] a day. This might help you become a better writer. But with goals like this, it’s so easy to get caught up in reaching the number and let obsession with completing your goal kill your initial [...]
September 21st, 2009 at 3:00 am
I guess the other factor is the content and services or skills that the blogger offer not only having good contents.
can i say in my case,
Content – offering tips for game of chance / outcome of the tips (draw review)
weekly articles
the premium services I am offering
but
in my case Free stuff are the best content that drive traffic, then word of mouth will follow.
how can the paid content could have the best contents?
The moment I went to paid content, my traffic went down till i prove them the track records of my tips and slowly my traffic come back.
Can tell me how to have paid content that would have best traffic.
September 22nd, 2009 at 7:42 pm
@ S4D, there’s not a quick answer to that question. I’d suggest reading a lot of the posts at blogs such as problogger.net and entrepreneurs-journey.com. Stick with it, and you’ll get some ideas of how to get traffic to your paid content.