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Big.
Seems people these days think bigger is better. Supersized meals, SUVs and whatnot.
With this kind of mentality, it’s no wonder some of us who blog to smaller numbers are ever so slightly intimidated by some of The Big Guys in the blogosphere.
We can’t all be huge. But then, some of us like small things. We like babies and teacup chihuahuas. Elves. Those teeny-tiny olive forks you see at fancy parties.
Small can be good.
Here are 5 ways to make the most of your fledgling audience:
1. Interact With Your Audience
One of the things I love about having a modest number of subscribers is that I can still usually afford to respond to comments individually.
Responding to readers shows them you’re there, you’re listening, and you appreciate their time.
Of course, once your readership begins to grow and you start getting a hundred comments instead of ten, it’s something you won’t be able to do.
Take the opportunity while you can to show readers how much you value their time and opinions.
2. Invite Readers to Follow Your Journey
The personal journey I write about is the quest to improve my writing craft, and the path to publication. What’s yours?
Your small-but-devoted following will be on the sidelines cheering you on as you pursue your goals. If they’re regular readers, chances are they share similar goals to you, and therefore are emotionally invested in seeing you realize those goals.
If your blog hits the big time, readers may begin to see you as less approachable. So, enjoy the closeness of your blogging community while it’s still small.
3. Take a Hand Up from The Big Guys
In some cases, larger blogs are happy to help those just starting out, provided your writing is good and suits their needs.
I had only written a few articles on my own blog when Mary Jaksch, Chief Editor at Write to Done, said she would be pleased to accept a guest post I’d sent her. Soon after, James Chartrand of Men with Pens offered me another guest spot. Those posts gave me a good boost in subscribers, along with a huge boost in confidence.
How about asking a bigger blogger to answer some interview questions?
The key is to be polite, unassuming, and professional (never ask a much more experienced blogger to exchange guest posts or links with you). If your guest post or interview request is rejected, thank them for their time and try somewhere else.
4. Collaborate with Other Small Blogs
One really is the loneliest number that you’ll ever do (thank you Three Dog Night for those words of wisdom).
You might have only a small subscriber count at the moment, but connect with other small blogs and see what you can do for one another.
Try sharing links to one another’s sites, exchange guest posts, tweet each other’s articles, or whatever else you can think of to show your support.
You’ll make a lot of great contacts and increase your readership.
(For example, Jennifer Blanchard of Procrastinating Writers and I teamed up last year to create The Better Writing Habits Challenge.)
5. Become a Regular Contributor to a Bigger Blog
As blogs grow and demand for content increases, they usually need to invite regular contributors to join their team.
Even though your own blog is still in its infancy, you might be able to score a regular spot on a larger blog with some polished writing and professionalism,.
Over the past 18 months, I have acted as a regular contributor to Writer Unboxed, Zen Family Habits, and Fuel Your Writing. Writing for different sites has helped me make contacts, increase my own blog’s presence, and build my credibility as a writer.
Big Isn’t the Only Beautiful
Sure, we probably all dream of having 100,000 subscribers and being able to quit our dayjobs to make money online.
But until that day arrives, we can stop to remember there are ways to maximize a blog’s impact and enjoy its current state, no matter how small.
Do you have a very small subscriber count at the moment? What are you doing to make the most of your blog in its infancy?
For those whose blogs have enjoyed definite growth, what extra challenges or responsibilities have come with it?
If you love your subscribers so much that you’d like to have more of them join your community, click on the A-List Blogger Club banner below. I’m a long-time member of the club, and a student in the A-List Blogging Bootcamps, which have both helped me grow Write It Sideways to what it is today.
Great post! I remember the euphoric feeling that I got when I saw the first follower. What a great day!
Yes, I remember once jumping from 11 to 23 subscribers overnight and thinking ‘Wow! That’s amazing!”
I have a very small blog with a smart, funny, and loyal following. I love our community and our interactions, which often spill over into Facebook and Twitter. Every once in a while I put up a post that hits a nerve, and I get a lot of comments, which is overwhelmingly great, but difficult to respond individually. But I like remembering all the great aspects of having a small blog. Thank you.
Once in a while I get so many comments that I can’t reply to them all, but unless I’m having a particularly busy week, I can usually still reply individually. I always feel guilty not doing it!
Thanks Suzannah, this is a neat little post. There is plenty of talk out there that blogger’s are a dying breed, however for those of us who are just starting out it doesn’t appear that way. The ‘big guys’ as you call them certainly make a newbie’s like me wonder how on earth I’ll ever break thru!
The first step I am taking toward building a network is by commenting on each blog post I read and retweeting/sharing it if I find it helpful. The ones I get satisfaction out of is definitely the ones which I receive a reply from, it helps to feel like I’m not out there alone, talking to the ether 🙂
Keep up the great work. Tanya
I agree. When I first got started, I loyally commented on all the big blogs. After a while, I got sick of never getting a response. I understand it’s impossible for some of those bloggers to answer comments, but sometimes it makes you think no one’s even reading them, let alone answering.
This is a great post! I’m saving these suggestions to help nurture my teensy blog. 🙂 Thank you!
Thanks for reading, Anita!
Great, encouraging post. Thanks for reminding us it’s okay not to be “big time”!
Thanks! There’s not enough room in the blogosphere for all of us to be big guys, anyway 🙂
My blog has a small audience. I have 12 followers and I think there are others who receive direct feeds from my blog. I’m a bit vague about how these work.
Is there some way we could all connect? Based on a common interest, like aspiring writers, maybe?
Yesterday, I set up a facebook account, and I’m hoping to build my social networking presence that way. It seems, though, that you need to be selective in making “friends” on facebook. Not sure how that works, or how to find new friends (who might be interested in my writing).
If I can get the facebook thing going, I might even open a twitter account!
*fist in mouth*
Hi JB,
You could try connecting with people through Facebook by creating a common interest group. You don’t want to use your personal profile for that because then you’re giving out personal information to random people.
If you create a group called “Writers with Small Blogs” for example, people could “Like” your page on FB and then you have a common page on which to chat or post links.
So, in this example, the people you connect with are not exactly “Friends” in FB terms, but people who “Like” your common interest page, and are interested in getting updates through that page.
Good luck!
JB – let me know if you create an “aspiring writers” page. I would love to get involved in a community that way. -Cate
http://linguisticaspirations.wordpress.com
Thanks so much for this. It’s great to know there are other folks with small blogs like mine. I will definitely take this advice! – Cate
No problem, Cate! Thanks 🙂
Thank you for this article, which made me feel special even though I only have a handful of subscribers to my blog! While I’ve been blogging for some time, it was really only for my friends and family. Now I’m branching out and already noticing the results. Thanks for your advice, I will try my best to put it into action.
I was once so proud to have 23 subscribers. That was about 18 months ago, and now I have nearly 2000! Keep it up 🙂
Thank you for this inspiring article. I have two blogs that I write and one that I co-write with my husband. I only have about ten or so people following publicly on each one. There are days I get so frustrated that I stop writing for a week or so because I feel that no one really cares.
I love following your blog. You always have so many tips and tricks that I can actually follow.
I started out with a blog (not Write It Sideways) that had no subscribers and only got an average of 5-11 hits a day. I remember how frustrating it was! The A-List Blogging Bootcamps changed absolutely everything for me, though. https://transfer.writeitsideways.com/fast-track-your-blog-growth/
I’ve been looking into that, but finances right now do now allow for any extra expenses at the moment. Welcome to the world of an army wife. Lol.
This might seem like a weird question, but once you started this blog, what did you do with your other one? Did you delete it or incorporate it somehow?
Hi Ashley,
My first blog was part of a network that paid me (pittance) to blog each day. That means that when I quit, they held the right to all the content I’d written. I think the company eventually went bust, but the stuff I wrote is probably still floating around somewhere.
So helpful! Thanks for advice for us little guys — only been blogging for a few months, 20 followers, and they’re great. I love interacting with my readers; it’s wonderful to be in a circle of writers! Thanks again for a great post!
I find the same people tend to comment here over and over. I love seeing repeat commenters! It’s so nice to see people enjoying what you write and supporting your blog.
I’ve got a blog that had fizzled out and I wasn’t enjoying the writing – so this month I signed up to the ultimate blog challenge in the hope to resurrect my passion for writing, only 5 days into a blog a day for thirty days but it’s feeling good! And sometimes small is beautiful…
Oh wow, good luck with your challenge! I hope you do reignite your passion for blogging!
I have a new, small blog with a very loyal following. Like you, Suzannah, I stopped commenting on larger blogs because of lack of engagement. Of course, part of me hopes I get that big, but the other enjoys being right where I am.
Last week Gretchen Rubin celebrated the 5th anniversary of her blog — she didn’t get huge overnight! I prefer slow and steady. Thanks for this encouragement.
Gretchen Rubin is a great example. And since she’s published her book, I guess we can all see how it’s not necessary to become a blogging legend overnight!
This is such a great post!!! Although I have quite a few followers nowadays, I too was once a “small-time” blogger and know how it feels to have a tiny audience. I think that too often will bloggers with a small audience believe that their blog doesn’t have a chance in achieving more readers compared to all the big hotshot bloggers who have 48190238 followers. Thanks for giving hope and encouragement and amazing tips to those who are just starting out or have a close-knit group of followers.
And actually, sometimes when I see blogs that have way too many followers (as in over 1000), it will end up turning me off because I feel like any comment or feedback I give will be undermined by everyone else’s presence on there.
~TRA
http://xtheredangelx.blogspot.com
As someone with nearly 2000 subscribers, once in a while I’ll write an article and be overwhelmed by feedback to the point where I can’t answer comments anymore. But in general, I read every comment and try to answer individually. Also, some blogs have a lot of subscribers (more than 5000), but very few commenters, so the blogger can easily keep up with comments.
This was a really nice post with great suggestions. I’m going to try them. Awesome!
Good luck with growing your blog, Chandler!
The only thing I do at the moment is try to make every post interesting. I do interact a lot with other bloggers and personalities, and I try to always be professional, even if I do have a casual tone (swear words? yes ma’am).
I haven’t asked to do a guest post anywhere, but that’s a good idea. I’m a first-time novelist, so after the book comes out might be the best time to ask.
Thanks for the post!
Guest posting is probably the best way to get yourself out there. Every time you write an article for a bigger blog, it’s like saying to their subscriber list, “Hey, like this post? There’s so much more where that came from! Come on over and check it out.” You likely won’t be paid for your post, but it’s like free advertising for you. I highly recommend it!
Definitely. Also, I’d love to write guest posts somewhere just for the sake of doing it. So a win-win situation.
Since I posted here, I came up with a mini-contest to promote the blog: I chose a still from an art-house film I like (that’s a hint, guys) and asked people to tell me the title and spread the word about the contest for prizes.
I’m giving away a chapter critique, a print copy of my novel, ebook copies and book reviews, because I want to appeal to writers and readers both.
The still was chosen specifically to attract the kind of people I think will like my book the most: adult fans of literary fiction, artists, filmmakers, magical-realism lovers, adult drama lovers.
http://maybeandthewolf.wordpress.com/2011/04/07/guess-the-film-win-a-prize/
Good suggestions. I’ve never sent an unsolicited guest post. It’s good to hear it worked.
This was a very informative post that has great suggestions. My blog currently has maybe zero subscribers but then I haven’t done anything with it in quite sometime. Life getting in the way and all. Now I’m back into the throws of writing and blogging but for me right now I’m really enjoying finding and reading the other blogs, commenting/interacting with those blogs. I’m writing for mine (gave myself a challenge of writing everyday this month) and people are stopping by to check it out just from the various comments on other blogs that I’ve made. I can’t wait for my first guest blog post.
Thank you again for the great advice.
Great article… I enjoyed reading your post. I I really like the innocence of the little girl’s face in the picture. Anyway, thank you for sharing these ideas.