Yes! You got it right. There is only one thing you need to do in order to grow a BIG blog:

You have to keep going!

If you keep going, your blog will grow. Sometimes it will grow faster and at times it will grow at a slower pace. But it will grow.

Most bloggers give up before they see the results of their actions.

You may find that your blog growth seems to stall at times. Don’t worry, this is quite natural. If you implement some of the strategies below, your blog will start growing again.

1. Guest posting

Guest posting is the most powerful way to grow your blog. As you can imagine, with guest posting you are able to reach a lot of new potential subscribers.

At the same time, guest posting can be quite daunting. Each time you pitch a guest post, you put yourself on the line. And you have to cope with rejection because not every pitch is going to be successful.

This article presumes that you are just getting started with guest posting. (Once you’ve completed this course, you can tackle the more advanced course called The Art of Guest Posting.)

Start with a post exchange

It’s important to make guest posting easy. The way to do that is to find blogs of similar size and focus, and ask for a guest post exchange. A guest post exchange is a win-win interchange. There is a very low risk of rejection, and you – as well as the other blogger – can gain some new subscribers.

A great place to find a blogger with whom you can exchange posts is the A-List Blogging forum.

Once you’ve completed some guest post exchanges, you can step up to guest posting on blogs that are bigger than yours.

Guest posting made easy

When you decide to guest post on bigger blogs, there are a few things that will boost success.

• Target the right-size blogs
  When you start guest posting, choose blogs that are bigger than your blog, but not huge. For example, if you have under a hundred subscribers, target blogs that have 500 or 1,000 subscribers. It’s better to wait to target blogs with over 5,000 subscribers until you have landed a substantial number of guest posts. Each time you land a guest post, you’ll get better at it.
• Target adjacent niches.
  A good trick is to target blogs in adjoining niches. For example, if you are in the personal finance niche, you might want to target blogs about marketing or a minimalist lifestyle or family life.
• Get to know the blog.
  Make sure you read the five most recent posts, plus the ‘most popular’ posts so that you get an idea of what kind of post does well on your target blog. Check to see if there are guest post guidelines.
• Write a good pitch.
  Make sure you address the blogger personally. Talk briefly about why you like their blog , then offer an outline of your proposed guest post with bulleted points. Don’t forget to give two links to your best posts.

If you are too busy to write guest posts, drop the frequency of posting on your own blog to find time for guest posts.

2. Create alliances with other bloggers

Find blogs that are bigger than yours and  make contact with the blogger. Focus on how you can help them. All bloggers like links and mentions on social media.

Creating relationships with other bloggers is one of the most important things you can do to help your blog grow. A simple way of creating a relationship is to comment on a blog regularly, and ask questions in social media.

If you are a member of the A-List Blogger Club, make the most of your opportunities. The friendships and alliances you create now will be invaluable in the future.

3. Create outposts on social media

Imagine that your blog is the capital of your ‘blogging empire’. In order to get more traffic, you need to establish ‘outposts’ in social media. You can set up a Facebook fan page, Twitter account, a YouTube channel, a Pinterest account, or become active on other social media.

Make sure that you set things up so that your blog posts show up automatically on FB or Twitter.

4. Simple SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

The lasting benefit from learning how to optimize a post for search engines is that it will get regular (and growing) traffic. A simple way to start learning Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is to use a plugin, like WordPress SEO.

You can find out how to optimize a post in our course, Generate Massive Traffic with SEO.

Conclusion

These four strategies will crank up your blog to a thousand subscribers and beyond.