It’s easy to get caught up in discussing high-level strategies and complicated metaphors, but it’s important not to lose sight of the things that make the advanced stuff worthwhile.
Without the ability to gather links, subscribers, and comments, your blog can’t grow. These three basic things are the lifeblood of your blog. It’s essential to be reminded every once and a while of how you can keep that lifeblood flowing.
Let’s get back to basics!
18 Best Ways To Get Links For Your Blog
Here I am going to explain some legit and viable ways of doing this specific task that not only google will love but will help the users to solve their queries and problems.
1. Create Them Yourself.
The strength of this method is that it’s completely under your control. You don’t need to wait for others to create links because you’re building them yourself.
You can place links in comments, a forum discussion, an email signature, exchange sidebar links with other bloggers, add links to your social media profiles, and the list continues. You can create a lot of them in a relatively short period of time.
2. Create A Meme
Ever seen those post formulas repeated by several bloggers, who all link to each other? These are usually called blog memes, and they’re quite easy to create. The most basic meme model involves answering a few defined questions and tagging a number of other bloggers for whom you think the questions would be relevant.
This is done in the hope that they’ll answer the questions on their blog and link back to the originator of the meme.
The key to success with this method is that your meme results in a relevant and entertaining post. If so, other bloggers will be happy to participate.
Another tip: don’t tag really big bloggers, as they rarely participate in memes. Instead, tag bloggers, you’re friends with and make sure your meme is relevant to the audience of every person you tag.
3. Hold A Competition
The most direct option is to make a link to your blog a condition of entry, but this is not always necessary. An interesting competition can create word of mouth in its own right, even if the entry doesn’t require any kind of reciprocal favor (Google doesn’t like the exchange of links)
Just make sure that the prize you’re offering is not out of proportion to the rewards you stand to yield from the competition.
I’ve seen a blogger offer a MacBook Air to a random person who linked to the competition post. He received all eight trackbacks. Often, an interesting or useful prize is a better choice than an expensive one.
4. Write Or Exchange Guest Posts
The best technique for creating your own links on large scale is guest posting and is still a viable method I stand by. It is simple, just put the link.
It’s one of the easiest ways to get a prominent link on a popular blog. If the blog is well-targeted, you can expect a spike in subscribers after your guest post is published.
5. Go Popular On Diigo
Many Diigo users have set their bookmarks to publish to their blogs at semi-regular intervals. Going popular on Diigo means anywhere from a hundred to several thousand Diigo users have bookmarked your content.
And a certain percentage of those will auto-publish your link to their blog or website. This can yield dozens of new links.
Pro Tip: If you want your blog to attract more links then first do the blogging in the proper way. Here is a Free Blogging Guide.
6. Ask For Them
Having a talk with TechRadar’s author, I’m always surprised to see how few people ask to be included in our links posts.
I get maybe one request a day. The truth is that most bloggers who like a post and think it will be relevant to their audience will be happy to link to it, but most of us assume we don’t stand a chance or feel that asking for links is too audacious.
It’s not really.
Remember this tip: Your requests will carry more weight if you use them sparingly. No one is going to tell you this.
7. Create A Viral Graphic
If you can express an idea or make people laugh with a graphic, publish it and make it free to distribute. If you don’t link to your blog or website through the image, most of those who reproduce it will link to you to give credit where credit is due. You will actually get more traffic by not placing your URL on the image than you will by doing so.
8. Create Viral Content
Creating viral content is the single most powerful way to generate a pile of links to your blog or website.
However, like most highly effective methods, it’s not easy to do. If you’re new to the concept, viral content creates a word-of-mouth chain reaction. That can get your content viral in no time.
9. Give Something Away
Generosity creates word-of-mouth. Giving without expecting anything in return is quite remarkable.
Ironically, giving something away without asking for a reward generally results in greater benefits than you would have received otherwise. Do remember that links are secondary here, though. Sometimes it’s nice to just do something good.
10. Ask For A Response
Have you ever found yourself writing a post and wondering what another blogger would have to say about it?
You can encourage them to respond to your post on their own blog by emailing them about it, or by asking their opinion within the post itself.
11. Start A Debate
Similar to the #10 point, but you won’t be calling upon specific individuals for a response.
This method shouldn’t be confused with starting a controversy just to get a reaction, which isn’t very cool.
Instead, argue a case, something you believe in. Even if it’s likely to be something most of your audience disagrees with. Opinions encourage responses.
12. Create A Meaningful Sticky Thread In A Forum
Unlike normal forum threads, stickied threads are permanently attached to the top of a forum. They have a few common traits: they’re timeless, they’re useful, they’re well-crafted, and they answer one or many recurring questions.
However, it’s difficult to 100% guarantee your thread will be stickie, even if you put a lot of effort into it.
If you’re pursuing this method, it’s best to do it on a forum you enjoy, and have fun with the process. If your thread doesn’t take off as you would have liked, it will still be a positive experience.
Of course, the most important step in the process is making sure your blog’s URL is in your post signature, or you could even place it below the introduction to your thread.
I was able to drive a steady stream of traffic to one of my older pet blogs by having a thread sticking at the top.
Here is a way to make your sticky thread in a forum: Watch Video
13. Buy Advertising
It’s not uncommon to be able to buy a 125 x 125 banner ad on a well-targeted blog for around $30 to 60$ a month.
If you’re willing to pay higher rates, you should receive a greater number of impressions. The standard rate is around $1 – $2.5 per thousand Impressions that you pay other bloggers.
If your ad is graphical, make sure your ad describes what a visitor will find when they click on it, and design it with the blog’s target audience in mind.
Irrelevant banner ads can significantly reduce click-through rates CTR.
14. Submit Your Blog Or Website To Directories
While each link is unlikely to yield heaps of traffic, it’s possible to submit to dozens of directories in less than an hour. Just make sure they are not of too low quality with a high spam score, or the link may do more harm than good as far as SEO is concerned.
You can check the spam score with the mozbar extension.
15. Submit Your Work To An Online Gallery
Most galleries featuring user-generated content will allow you to place a link on the page dedicated to your work.
You can find places to showcase art, writing, tutorials, and so on. An Example of an image submission site is Flickr.
16. Create A Blog Theme And Link Back To Yourself In The Footer
Some of the best free blog themes around are used by tens of thousands of people, and most of them come with a link to the designer in the theme’s footer.
That’s tens of thousands of links. Though they’re probably going to have very poor click-through rates individually, the collective figure might be much more worthwhile. This is great from an SEO perspective, as well.
Pro Tip: Make sure the theme has built-in templates for proper usability and user-friendly layout. For that you can read our Blog Usability Checklist.
17. Create A YouTube Video That Includes Your URL
Create a video blog for your site, but host it on YouTube. Judging by the view count on even very mediocre videos.
YouTube viewers have quite a bit of attention to share. If you include popular, relevant search terms in your title or description, and optimize it properly, you stand to gain quite a bit of exposure along with building authority.
18. Get Dugg
Going popular on Digg will generally result in dozens of new links. Once again, the most effective methods are the trickiest, but you might find these posts useful: Get to Dig Digg to Get Dugg. This is what I’ve learned about social media success.
10 Ways To Get Subscribers On Your Blog
1. Make Every Post Valuable
The impulse to subscribe requires a catalyst. The sense that the visitor has found something valuable.
Placing a lot of value in one post will heighten that impact.
2. Hint At An Unmissable Future
Darren Rowse calls this ‘creating anticipation‘, and doing so involves creating post series, hinting at future content, and so on.
In other words, this method makes the visitor feel like they will be missing out of they don’t subscribe to your newsletter. It reminds them that the blog they’re viewing isn’t a static thing it’s ever-changing.
3. Prove Your Record With Popular Posts
A compelling list of popular posts in your sidebar makes the case that your blog provides consistent value.
While one outstanding post on the main page is impressive, it’s no guarantee that the post isn’t simply an exception to your blog’s usual content.
A list of great popular posts reassures potential subscribers that they can expect more of the same quality in the future. In this way, they subscribe to your blog’s newsletter.
4. Write Guest Posts On Highly-Targeted Niche Relevant Blogs
A good guest post on a well-trafficked, well-targeted blog is almost guaranteed to result in a spike in subscribers.
This is because visitors are arriving at your blog from your guest post with an already positive initial opinion of what you do.
If your subscriber count has reached a plateau or even dropped, a guest post is generally all it takes to kick-start the subscriber growth process.
5. Tap Into New Audiences
Exposing your blog or website to the same audiences over and over again is will guarantee that your subscriber count remains stagnant. You must always be searching out new audiences and moving to greener pastures.
I would suggest you explore Pinterest.
6. Post Less Instead Of Posting Filler
A potential subscriber will want to be reassured that you aren’t going to fill up their feed reader with irrelevant or low-value posts.
When it comes to growing your subscriber count, posting less often with a greater emphasis on value can be a highly effective strategy.
Always provide value to the user.
7. Offer An Incentive
This usually takes the form of an eBook offered only through a link at the bottom of your feed. While some people will subscribe only as long as it takes to grab your eBook.
You’ll find that others decide that your feed looks valuable in its own right, or they just want the eBook.
8. Publish Full Feeds
A simple measure, but an effective one. If subscribers are highly important to you, make sure you publish full feeds.
Many people who regularly read feeds don’t like having to click through partial feeds. The partial feed format also gives each feed article less room to grip the reader and draw them into your post.
Write a catchy description of your feed. If you want to show the full feed, rewrite it and then post to avoid plagiarism issues.
9. Write A Mini Sales Page For Your Feed
I saw this recently and thought it was a great idea! Persuasion works, and there’s no reason you can’t apply it to your feed.
Write a small landing page with your feed link and spread it over the internet.
10. Take A Break!
The post ‘How to write a perfect about us page‘ remained at the top of the main page for over a week during my recent mini-break.
Expecting a slight drop in subscribers as a result seemed logical, but instead, I found that my subscriber count was risen by over 16%
I suspect this is because new visitors were seeing the ‘Paths To Make Your Blog Popular’ post, which struck a chord with a lot of people, as opposed to a post that was good but not great.
It’s interesting to consider whether posting only high effort, highly time-consuming posts. But much less often, you can say once a week, might actually see your blog grow faster than if you posted several good but not great posts each week.
It’s something I might experiment with in the future. As you can tell, I don’t mind being a guinea pig for new methods!
9 Ways To Get Comments
1. Listen And Respond To Your Commenters
If reader comments never get a response, they have no way of knowing if their comment has even been read. And it may start to feel like they’re shouting into a vacuum.
It’s not possible to respond to every comment on your site, but do make an effort to read all of them, and do let your commenters know that you read all of them.
Commenters who feel listened to are much more likely to become regulars.
2. Get To Know Your Commenters
Most of a blog’s comments are likely to be left by regular people who have developed the habit of responding to you and your posts.
Much of growing the comment culture on your blog involves encouraging your regulars to come back again and again.
Do this by getting to know them, and acknowledging their past comments, or past interactions they’ve had with you.
3. Ask For Opinions
People are easy with their opinions. Asking your blog’s readers what they think about something is a direct way to engage with them and encourage comments.
But I’d suggest that you don’t do it all the time, or it’s likely to lose its impact.
4. Ask For Advice
Your readers are probably cool people with good ideas. I know mine are. You can repeat method #3, but try asking for advice instead of opinions.
5. Let Them Write The Rest
One fun thing to do is to create a sub-heading in one of your posts and refrain from filling it out. Instead, ask your readers to write a paragraph each.
You might even choose to update your post with the paragraphs contributed by your readers. It’s a neat way to increase interactivity and engagement while adding new perspectives to your content.
6. Quote Them
Quoting a comment in a positive way lets your commenter see their name in highlights while also demonstrating that comments mean something to you.
7. Answer Their Questions In Posts
This method can provide inspiration and post ideas while increasing commenter involvement. You might use one comment as the starting point for a post, or dedicate an entire post to answering reader questions.
8. Create Posts As A Vehicle For Comments
This usually takes the form of a post centered around a question you then pose to your readers. By creating a post solely dedicated to creating discussion.
You will help your readers become more comfortable with commenting.
9. Leave Comments On The Blogs Of Those Who Read You
This is something we should all do more of. Though time will often curb our good intentions, it’s a nice thing to do if you can manage it.
You’ll often receive comments in return for the ones you leave. Most importantly, this simple act will leave an impression.
If you’ve ever had a blogger you admire leave a comment on your blog, you know how nice this feels! In my case, I’m a fan of ProBlogger.
I hope you guys like tips on How to Get Piles of Links, Subscribers, and Comments, and for more visit The Homepage.
