How I Got 500+ New Subscribers in September

[Peter S C]

Firstly, I wish to state that the collected wisdom of these forums are an ongoing source of knowledge and inspiration. This post is written for the simple purpose of giving something back to the Steve Pavlina community.

It has been a big month for my little blog with my RSS subscribers swelling from 100 to 600+ during the month. Here are the 5 most important reasons for this success. Hopefully some other bloggers will find this information of use.

1. Network: these forums have introduced me to a number of fantastic people. What has really been important, though, has been to build these relationships by keeping in contact with my new friends via email.

2. Use Social Media: Stumbleupon has been a huge source of traffic for my blog. It all started with the Stumbleupon Thread in these forums. I think what is really necessary, though, is to not simply post in the Stumbleupon thread and hope that a few people that stumble it. Instead, by networking (see first point) I suggest making friends with people who you can email when you have written a great new post and asking them to consider stumbling (or whatever social media) the article. It goes without saying that you should be willing to return the favor.

3. Be Proactive: not only did Stumbleupon bring a huge number of new visitors to my site, but it brought my article 5 Signs You Are On Autopilot to the attention of Lifehack.org and Lifehacker.com who linked to it. What this made me realize, though, was the power of being linked to from a major site. Since then, I have emailed my best articles to sites that I think may enjoy them and link to them. The result? A Friday link from Scott Young and my article 30 Fundamentals of a Wonderful Life being linked to from Lifehacker.com.

4. Give Back: I have tried to build loyalty from my readers in a number of ways. Since many of them are bloggers, I send out a lot of links and have allowed a couple of guest posts. The biggest way I gave back this month was by writing the post My Top 20 List of Personal Development Sites which not only included included 10 well-known sites, but also 10 (well actually 11) lesser known sites.

5. Focused on My Writing: as you can see, I have been busy this month . At the end of the day, though, the success of a site comes down to the quality of the content. At certain times I realized I was becoming distracted, so I made sure to direct my focus back onto my writing.

Well, I hope the bloggers reading this have found it useful. I would be interested to hear your thoughts.

[aaronmp2003]

Peter,

As one of the people who has joined your circle recently (and one of the blogs on your Top 20 list - thanks!), I can endorse fully your success habits as listed above.

I didn't know who you were a month ago, and now your site is one of a small number of blogs that get priority attention from me when time is short - which is often!

Keep up the great work, Peter - looking forward to more great writing from you in the months to come!

[Peter S C]

Thanks Aaron. To be perfectly honest, I copied a lot of these habits from you .

[jasonivers]

I think I do all of these things relatively well, except for one... I have no idea how to get a major site to link to my articles. I send them relevant articles I write, but have yet to get any sort of response at all, and it makes me wonder if I should continue, or if they will start to think that my emails are spam and never bother to read them. Or if they already do that :P

Oh well, perhaps I just don't understand... I've written two articles lately that were a perfect fit (I thought) for a couple of major sites, including Steve's blog, though I know he very rarely links out, and lifehacker/lifehack, but have received zero response. I don't know if my understanding of what they like is off, or if it's just that they don't know me, and I'm not coming in from a trusted source. Or, of course, as with Steve (and me, for that matter), if they just don't link out all that much.

Hmm, that all sounded like a big whine. Sorry about that... just a bit frustrated about a couple of things.

[Peter S C]

Jason your break will come. Personally I think the first 100 is the hardest. From there things can happen pretty quickly. I think the worst thing you can do is get caught up watching the subscriber numbers on a day to day basis - as you may remember I wrote a post awhile back where I set a subscriber target for 6 weeks in advance.

[jasonivers]

Well, my first goal had no time frame, and my current one is seven weeks away (about), so we'll see... for some reason I was frustrated earlier, more than I usually get, and tired at the same time, so my mind was not as clear as normal.

It also really bothered me for some reason when I lost subscribers... I think my subscriber count is linked to my sense of progress on my web site. It's not necessarily a good link, as I have the site for my writing, not for building subscribers, but it's still there.

[Peter S C]

Well I agree that subscriber count is a sign of progress - but just measure it over weeks/ months instead of day to day. Small fluctuations have to do with how many people open their reader on a particular day - which is why it often goes down on the weekend.

[wayne]

Thats really impressive. I also plan on accomplishing a goal of 500 RSS subscriptions be the end of this month (my blog is in my sig). To accomplish this I plan on:

* posting at least once a day with valuable high energy content.
* getting much more involved in social networking (already doing that now ).
* Staying open to the flow and inner guidance

I agree that getting a link from a mainstream site in your niche (in your case lifehacker and lifehack) will do it for ya. Congratulations! I'll be joining you soon

[Peter S C]

Thanks Wayne. Good luck with your goal. If I can just offer one piece of advice, though, it is this: don't get too caught up with the feeling that you need to post each day. As you seem to be aware, the key is valuable content. So if you ever write an article you are unsure of, don't be afraid to sit on it for a day and then come back to it with fresh eyes. Funnily enough, I have gone on a few 4-5 day holidays where I didn't post, and my subscriber numbers went significantly up.

[Patrick Mathieu]

Hi everyone!

Are any of you supplementing your blogging with podcasting?

I've been doing my Mindful Moment Podcast since July 2005. I was drawn to the medium because I'm a motivational speaker, so it's natural for me to connect with people using my voice.

I'd love to hear people's thoughts on podcasting as a way to build subscribers.

ENJOY NOW!
-Patrick

[David365]

Peter having just been reading through your site I think you have missed listing the most important factor in your success - you write very good posts! I think I share a similar perspective to you on many aspects of personal development, but I can't match your output or quality. I'll keep trying though !!!

[David365]

Sorry - another point. I'm in the process of re-writing my "About" page as mine is currently rather pathetic. I have read that this page is the most frequently visited and can make a huge difference to whether you get repeat visits/subscribers. Again, you've ticked that box pretty well Peter!

[DrMartinRussell]

Originally Posted by David365

Peter having just been reading through your site I think you have missed listing the most important factor in your success - you write very good posts!

I have to echo this Peter. Great material, well presented. Excellent job!

[Peter S C]

Thanks for the kind comments guys. I guess the point of this thread, though, is to show that there is more to attracting subscribers than simply writing great articles. You have to help people find your stuff! I think all bloggers have felt the frustration when they first start out of having written a great article but then not knowing how to promote it. Yes, my writing from August to September did get better, but there was a lot more to me having a good month than this.