You already have your Pinterest profile optimized to drive traffic to your blog, but what happens when they get there? Sure, they’ll love the post they came to see – but what makes them stick around and become members of your community?
In this post, I’ll give you a few blogging tips for keeping the visitors you attract – not only through Pinterest, but from anywhere around the web.
Most of what I’ll be focusing on is in your sidebar. Know why? Because aside from your header, which is a fairly fixed part of your blog, your sidebar is what every visitor sees, on every page. Your sidebar is prime real estate, and it’s time to treat it like the powerful tool it can be.
1. Keep it Personal – Add a photo.
If there’s not a picture of you in your sidebar, there should be. People who are active Pinterest users see dozens of blogs every day and when they arrive at yours, they need to be able to connect a face with a blog. Why?
People don’t connect with blogs – they connect with people. [Tweet this]
Give your readers a person to connect with.
Building readership for your blog is building a community. And while the content of your blog is at the center of the discourse, you’re at the center of your content.
The best blog builders are those that make a personal connection with their readers. This starts with adding your photo, so your visitors can see the face behind the voice.
2. Showcase your tutorials + best content
If the only post a Pinner is going to see on your blog is the one they clicked over for, you need to make sure you show them the very best of what you have to offer. Invite them to explore by giving them a guided tour!
Tag/category clouds were cool when they first came out, but I rarely click them anymore. Why would I click the words “homeschool” or “my kids” from a tag cloud, when I could click on this:
In fact, Kara from Rockin’ Granola has an amazing sidebar. She features a photograph of herself at the top (*check*) and gives me a dozen images to help me find more great content from her blog. You should check out her blog to see it in context. Truly professional.
3. Simplify your sidebar.
If you want people to stick around after reading a great post, you need to make their choices clear. Ditch the blog awards and the six different stats counters (one is fine. really.) and feature yourself.
- Do you want people to subscribe to your blog? Put that at the top.
- Have you written an eBook or are you promoting something you’ve created? Feature it!
- Do you want people to visit your sponsors? (of course.)
- Do you want people to explore your content and connect with you? Give image links to your best content. (Note: If you’re using the Genesis theme for WordPress, you can use the Genesis Featured Widget Amplified to generate these automatically – although custom designed ones may look cooler).
A word about sponsor ads
If you have an eye for growing your blog and have a dozen ads in your sidebar, you may want to think about scaling back on your sponsorship program. Now, hang with me here:
I attended a fantastic webinar the other night with Tsh Oxenreider, media maven at the Simple Mom network. She recommended that your sponsorship section be limited to four ads.
Why?
Don’t let too many sponsor buttons detract from your readership.
Because the more ads you have, the more you’re diluting your visitors’ attention. Any visitor that’s reading your blog can only click one thing at a time. If you’re building the readership of your blog, you want to both:
- Keep the focus on your blog, and
- Give your sponsors a great experience. (but that’s a whole ‘nother blog post…)
Don’t send people AWAY from your blog and onto your sponsors’ sites before they’ve had a chance to get to know you and see why they should come back.
Simplify your sidebar to help your readers prioritize their next steps. Make it count.
4. Link to your best content from *everywhere*
Don’t just give links to your content from your sidebar. The most effective way to keep people browsing around your blog is to link within your posts. For example,
“When I tell people to start following influential pinners to grow their blogs, they sometimes question my logic. Why should you follow other people, to be followed yourself?”
People have an automatic desire to find out what you’re talking about, so capitalize on that by using links to your other content within your posts.
Don’t forget that prime “end of post” spot!
The reason WordPress plugins like Microkid’s Related Posts and Link Within are effective is that they engage your readers once they’ve finished reading your posts. If they had a great experience with the post they’ve just read, they’ll naturally want to read more.
By linking to your best content at the end of your posts, you’re giving them a chance to stay and enjoy themselves a little more, and hopefully decide your blog is worth coming back to.
Optimizing your blog for new visitors is hard – but it’s worth it.
If you’re serious about capitalizing on incoming traffic, you’ll have to do a little work to get your blog in order. The most important thing is to make a personal connection with your readers, then lead them by the hand and show them what else you have to offer.
Give your visitors a great experience, and they’ll stay.
:::
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(have something to add?)
Please share it in the comments below. I’m always expanding my vision for blog growth and would love to hear from you!
*Note* This is an article from my series Growing Your Blog with Pinterest. You can check out the rest of the articles (and what’s to come!) by clicking here.
Thanks for sharing these. This is great. I appreciate the insight and tips.
Glad you enjoyed it, Tawnee. There’s more coming on Pinterest soon – and you’re welcome here anytime.
Great tips! Thanks!
Great post! Lots for me to think about now!
Thanks for your comment, Rachel. I’m glad to see you here!
Twitter: attagirlsays
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I’m on a mission to increase our Pinterest traffic, and these tips are going to go a long way to helping make this happen.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Amy
Twitter: theblogmaven
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Thanks for your comment, Amy. I’d love to hear how it works out for you!
Twitter: May_belater
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what a helpful article..found this through Small Things blog, and love the image link idea. That’s why I started blogging, to see what I could do with images, and I totally forgot it and ended up down a ‘content storm’ road. Thanks for reminding me why I do this x
claire recently posted..My Glitter Collection
Twitter: theblogmaven
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Hi Claire, so glad you found it helpful. It’s a lot of work to run a blog well, but I think it’s worth it in the long run.
jeni recently posted..Partial RSS Feed vs. Full Feed: Keeping your Subscribers (and Sponsors) Happy
Twitter: StephPearman
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Great blog Jeni! I have a lot to learn!Stumbled upon you on Pinterest.
Steph recently posted..The Amazing Healing Properties of TCP!
Twitter: theblogmaven
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Thanks, Steph, I appreciate your comment. I’ve got lots more in store in the coming months…whenever I can find the time to write.
I think the thing mostly likely to make me a subscriber is having a consistant topic. I don’t want to read about your outfit one day, your vacation the next, and the a bunch of crap about your kids if the point of your blog is home decor. I don’t know you and I’m not really interested. Oh and not having a bunch of sponser posts and not having to click on your page from my blog reader.
Twitter: coffeeandcrayon
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This post is very timely for me! I need to do all for steps and just set a 4 week goal for myself to complete them! Thanks so much!
Megan recently posted..Handprint Kid Crafts for Halloween
Twitter: theblogmaven
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Hi Megan, thanks for your comment. It’s hard sometimes to remember to work on your blog itself rather than just writing posts…because you can’t measure the outcome with any statistics. But it’s still a very necessary part of our blogging lives. I’d love to see how things turn out for you once you’re finished with the reorganization!
Twitter: Beyondthe_Cover
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Thank you for your insight! Very informative.
Cassondra recently posted..Family Friendly Adventure Series
Twitter: Sunflowergal74
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Found you on Pinterest – Thank you sooo much! Wow these tips are FANTASTIC! I added the LinkWithin immediately (always wondered where that came from) – and will work on a header tonight.
Awesome write up!
Merry Christmas!
Kisha J recently posted..Oh Christmas Tree
Twitter: theblogmaven
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Glad you found it useful, Kisha.
Twitter: cocalores
says:
I have to say I really like your content. I am just in the process of writing a post about some very useful tips on blogging that I have collected and also include a link to this one. (Even though I have to admit that I still have some work to do to achieve all of the things you recommend – ha ha!)
I’m your newest follower, by the way. Keep up the great work!
Twitter: theblogmaven
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Hi Anja, thanks for your comment! I always appreciate links.
Glad you came by, and I hope to see you here often!
Twitter: piscesun
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ahh this is awesome! thank you!
i am seriously coveting kara’s sidebar- my favorite tip of all. so inspired to spiff mine up.
thanks again.
Twitter: theblogmaven
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I know – Kara’s sidebar is about the best I’ve seen. It gives us all something to shoot for.
Twitter: knightrealm7
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#4. Are you saying to also remove links from an image before repinning?
Twitter: theblogmaven
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Hi Mick, Happy New Year! Sorry, I don’t quite follow your question…but maybe it’s just late.
Could you clarify for me?
Twitter: knightrealm7
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Some people have website links for their image comments.
Twitter: beautyinhistime
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So I have a question that I have been wondering about. I love putting my posts into linkup parties but the sites almost always request that you add a button to your sidebar. This really clogs things up! I get why they do it (because they care about stats as much as I do), but is there a better option? I’ve seen some bloggers just add a fine-print of “sometimes I link up with these places” with simple text links to the linkup parties, but that seems like a pain to go through to put that on every single post. What are the other options? Or are linkups simply not worth it? I mean I get some hits from it for sure, but is it worth clogging up my sidebar? Opinions and experience on this would be helpful!
Aprille recently posted..11 Books I Read in 2012
Twitter: theblogmaven
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Hi Aprille, I wish I had some hard-and-fast advice for you on this, but I’m afraid it’s just up to personal choice. Is it about the traffic? If so, then bite the bullet and keep those buttons up! Is it about being part of a community? Well, that’s something different altogether. If you’ve joined someone else’s community and they’re giving you traffic in exchange for a little traffic…so that more people will join your mutual community, then I think you really just need to decide whether you’re willing to be a part of their community on their terms. If it’s more important for you to have a beautiful sidebar, then perhaps quit participating for now. Or you could get a new WordPress theme with an extremely wide (400px) sidebar and then you could tile the buttons three-across…and they’d only take up a few vertical inches. If you do want to continue, it’s probably a good idea to just keep a .txt document on your desktop that has the HTML code for all the link parties you participate in. That way, when you write a new post, you can just grab the appropriate code and put it in the post you’re linking.
I don’t know if this is helpful, but I do understand what it’s like to have goals that are different from those of other people I work with. The nice thing is, nothing is forever in the blog world; I’m sure that if you decide one thing now, you’ll be able to change your mind and do something different later. Good luck!
Twitter: beautyinhistime
says:
Thanks for your input. I blog with wordpress.com and just got my new website up so I’m not really wanting to change themes right now. Mine is a little limited in my options as far as side bar, but for now I think I’m going to work with what I have.
I think I’ve come to a little bit of a compromise. I took out some of the linkup buttons (I had about 10) to go with the linkups that I really love to linkup with. Then for the ones I had left, I took off the title (why do you need a title when the title is in the button?) so there is less clutter as far as text. Then I added my own “buttons” made of photos with captions that link to posts I want to promote (like you suggested in this post, although not as nifty as a lot of my older posts don’t have pinteresty photos with text and all of that. I’m doing that kind of thing more often now.) I got interrupted because naptime ended. I added two for now, But i’m thinking of adding more or rotating them out every few days or something to direct people’s attention to posts I want to promote.
If you want you can take a look at beautifulinhistime.com because I would love input!
Aprille recently posted..In which I can’t even read a four letter word…or is it five? {five minute friday}
Twitter: theblogmaven
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Glad you found a solution for your blog buttons.
Have a great weekend!
Twitter: centsiblelife
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I prefer NRelate to LinkWithin since it offers more options including a sidebar widget and more importantly you get statistics! I’m a data nerd so I find it extremely helpful. Since I’ve added the popular posts widget to my sidebar I get a ton more traffic to those pages, and people are sticking around a lot longer!
Kelly recently posted..Spoiled by FiOS
Twitter: OSPInteresting
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I REALLY like Kara’s sidebar images! Thank you for a post wit so much useful information.
Twitter: familyfocusblog
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I like that these tips just contribute to making your blog better anyway- double good stuff! I’m digging and marking on delicious!
Scarlet recently posted..Best Free iPhone Cooking Apps for Kids
Thank you so much for these tips! I am new to the blogging world and really am discovering the power of Pinterest. I’ve seen it bring a lot of new readers, and I would love to turn each and every one of them into a follower! I especially love the tip about the “Link Within”. I’ve seen that on so many other blogs but never took the time to look into it. You saved me a step!
Erin recently posted..February Goals and Challenges
Twitter: blingblingsugar
says:
Dear Jeni,
Love your site, tips etc. Have spent today implementing your ideas to my blog. Thank you. I look forward to reading more.
Candy x
Candy Donovan recently posted..Saturday Stylista: Anne Hathaway
Twitter: bonitiful
says:
So glad to have found your blog, lots of important information in here, good job
Thanks for sharing .
xoxo
Mari
Twitter: miss_teerious
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Hmmm. I haven’t really considered using pinterest for sharing my posts. Have been using it only to share images so far. Do people actually click-back to view the source link on pinterest?
By the way, Rocking Granola’s blog has private settings apparently. Can’t access that blog. Can you give any other example? I have tried using some images in my sidebar to link to some of my categories, but I’m not sure if I’m getting any click-throughs via them.
Chicky recently posted..Silly Saturday: The Family Tree!
Thanks you so much for all your knowledge…as a brand spankin’ new blogger I have been reading you regularly…you are so helpful!!!
Katie recently posted..Subway Tile is Up and it’s the Bomb!
Twitter: sladezmommy
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Love this post, thanks for the advice. Going to work on my sidebar, don’t have any sponsors so I dont have to worry about that yet.
Twitter: anartfulmom
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Wonderful tips, thanks! These are some very things I have been wondering about.
Pam recently posted..An Amazing Surprise
Twitter: wearychef
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Hi, Jeni. Thanks so much for this and all your other blogging advice. Turning visitors into subscribers is on my mind a lot. My search and Pinterest traffic is steadily going up, but my bounce rate is upwards of 80%. I keep reading that this is very bad, but it makes sense to me. I look at A LOT of recipes online, and if I’m clicking on a pin or searching for something specific, I usually just read what I came for and leave. It definitely doesn’t mean I didn’t find what I was looking for or that the blog wasn’t inviting. It’s just that I’m on a mission and not looking to browse around. I’m assuming people visit my food blog the same way. I do want to take your advice, especially about my sidebar, but I wonder if a high bounce rate always means there’s a problem.
Andi (The Weary Chef) recently posted..Easy Weekly Dinner Menu # 17 – New Grocery List Feature!
Twitter: theblogmaven
says:
Hi Andi, it’s pretty common for recipe blogs to have high bounce rates, but just because it’s common doesn’t mean it’s a good thing. Ideally you want people to find what they’re looking for and interact with it in some way. A sure-fire way to lower your bounce rate would be to incorporate video into your blog. That’s one of the techniques used by larger recipe sites like food.com and allrecipes.com. They’re starting to feature more and more recipes with videos. A high bounce rate is only “good” for sites like couponing sites or sites that are monetized with lots of affiliate links: the more that people see their content and click away (through one of their money-making links), the more money they’re making.
Hope this explanation helps!