When you search how to grow your blog on YouTube, most of the videos have these astronomical numbers on getting thousands or millions of views a month. If you have no idea what to write about or are just starting out your blog, those numbers can be daunting to reach. If you set them as a goal and you fail to reach them within the first couple of months or years of blogging, you’ll find yourself wanting to quit.
You may be thinking then – what’s a good goal to set then? 0 to 100 viewers only per month? Like why so small numbers?
Those questions are why I wrote this post – its to show people how to grow your blog in small and doable steps. If you are just starting out your blog or have been writing for only a few months and have seen no traffic, this post is for you.
I want to first briefly share about how my journey to blogging. It’ll provide some background to the 5 tips I provide later in this post.
How I got started blogging
I started my blog at the beginning of 2022. Like most people who start new things, I had no idea what I was doing. So I watched tutorials on how to start a blog on YouTube. I came up with a blog name, set up my Dreamhost account, and used some free WordPress theme. For the first 3 months, I probably wrote 1, maybe 2, blogs a month. I didn’t check how many views I got during those first 3 months, but I’m 99.99% sure I got 0.
It was around that 4th month when I felt like I wasn’t intentionally trying to grow my blog. I was writing without having a goal for blog growth. Everything from my writing consistency to website design felt off.
So I purchased this course on how to start a blog. As I went through the course, I changed all parts of my blog. First, I completely changed the domain name and website design (used a paid website design). I focused on my blog being more of a personal blog. My niche would be focused on personal development. Then I started learning and applying SEO techniques for Google. I had started a Pinterest course too, but I felt too busy with trying to make Google SEO work to learn how to make posting on Pinterest work.
I quickly found out that some of the topics I wanted to do about mental health and personal development would be too hard to rank on Google. So I looked at Pinterest to gain additional traction and traffic to my blog.
I also set a schedule to write one blog post a week and have stuck to that consistency ever since.
Hitting 100 viewers a month in February
I hit 100 viewers during the month of February this year. I remember when I got the email from Google Analytics; I was in my friend’s home in Bellevue and I was in shock because I never thought I would get 100 people to visit my blog. Seeing that number gave me hope and motivation to continue writing and growing my blog. So thank you readers!
Now that you know how I got to where I am today, here are 5 tips you can use to grow your blog traffic from 0 to 100 viewers a month.
5 tips to grow your blog from 0 to 100 viewers
1. Write about something you are interested in
It can be enticing to write about topics you don’t care about because it can be easier to get viewers on those topics; however, if you are not interested in the niche are writing in, it can be harder for you to write something appealing to help your blog stand out.
According to Ahrefs, there are over 600 million blogs out there on the web. There’s a good chance that there are already established blogs in your specific niche. It’ll take a lot of work to compete with other blogs for views. You’ll get tired of trying to write something original and helpful, which will lead to lower quality and quantity of blog posts and eventual loss in blog traffic.
If you write something you care about, it’s easier to make your blog stand out because genuine curiosity for something will produce authentic experiences that makes your content original. I believe that is how to get people to read your blog. Also, it helps when you need ideas for starting a blog post.
2. Write consistently
This isn’t just important for you as a good habit. It’s also important for the search engines or platforms, like Google or Pinterest, you are planning to publish content on. Google has revealed that the more pages you have in the Google index, the more likely your content may show up in the search results.
Writing consistently will build the habits you need for blog growth. Remember, attention is the key currency you need to grow your blog. The more you consistently produce and post content, the higher your chances are of getting somebody to click on your page.
3. Learn and apply best SEO practices
You want people to see your blog when they search what you are writing about right? That concept is what SEO or Search Engine Optimization is all about. As it turns out, majority of my viewers came from organic search (meaning they searched a keyword, found my blog post, and clicked on it).
Learning how a search engine works will help you drive more traffic to your blog. It’s almost like knowing how the stock market works. If you know when a stock will drop and rise, then you can maximize your gains by buying it at its lowest price and selling it at its highest. Majority of my viewers have come from SEO through organic search.
While most bloggers don’t exactly know how the search engine algorithm works for each of the major content platforms, there are certain best practices that you can learn and apply to increase the chances of getting more viewers. An example of good SEO practice is writing consistently!
Learn about SEO and how it works between different platforms. The SEO on Pinterest will be different from the SEO on YouTube, and the SEO on YouTube will be different from the SEO on Google.
You may or may not find topics about “Is SEO dead?”. I believe it is not because people are still searching for answers and information online. If people stopped searching, then that’s when “Search Engine Optimization” would be dead.
4. Use social media platforms
Social media platforms like Pinterest or Instagram have the audience you need to drive additional traffic to your blog; however, it does take work to rank on these sites.
I’ll be honest – I haven’t gotten too much traffic from Pinterest. I’ve gotten a lot of impressions (this means people see your pin but may not necessarily click on your pin); however, I have been seeing more and more pin clicks. This tells me that people are starting to take more interest in my content.
Here is a comparison of my February (top) vs April (bottom) metrics on Pinterest:
Here’s a quote that I think really resonates well with this idea of continuing to post on social media to gain more blog traffic:
If you hang around the barbershop long enough…sooner or later you’re going to get a haircut
denzel washington
5. Tell your closer friends about your blog
If you have close friends or family who you know will not judge you for your blog, get them to take a look at your blog. You’ll get 1 or 2 or maybe even 10 clicks on your blog, but when you are just starting out, getting anybody to view your blog is a mega win. And you know what – you never know if one of your friends spreads it to his or her friends. Your blog may blow up.
This is definitely a tip that’s not easy to apply at first because you’ll have some fear of judgement coming from your family and friends. Eventually, you’ll overcome the fear or worry because you’ll realize this hard truth when you’re first starting out your blog: nobody cares about you. People care more about the information you provide and how useful it is.
I hope these 5 tips on how to grow your blog traffic were helpful! I am still applying a lot of these tips myself to get to my next goal of hitting 200 viewers/month. If you think there are any other tips that are important for bloggers who are trying to hit their first 100 viewers/month, I’d love to hear it!
BONUS: Lessons learned from blog growth
Take classes on starting a blog or blog growth
Blogging has been around for a long time so don’t try to reinvent the wheel when you start your own blog. Find a class (paid or free) on starting a blog or growing your blog. There’s plenty of information out there.
I’ll be honest – blogging classes can get expensive, but you’re not just paying for the information. You are also paying to save yourself time when starting your own blog. In some cases, you are also paying to get access to communities of people who are in the same boat you are. Being with others who are pursuing blogging can motivate you to keep going when things get hard. Remember, blogging is a long game!
Learn how to use Pinterest to grow your blog.
Pinterest is still widely recommended by highly successful bloggers as a main source of traffic. There are free courses on YouTube that teach you how to build Pinterest pins and use SEO on Pinterest. If you can afford it, take paid classes on how to build and maintain your Pinterest account. I’m doing both.
I’ve also discovered that Canva offers free and premium Pinterest pin templates that have skyrocketed my impressions on Pinterest (like from 0 to 100 impressions in just one day).
Don’t worry about trying to find a specific niche at first.
This piece of advice sounds like it contradicts the first tip I wrote about above, but it doesn’t. If you have a lot of things you are interested in writing about, write about all of them even if they are in different niches. Although I’m targeting personal development, I’m still writing about volleyball and Korean dramas.
Once you publish all your blog post ideas, you’ll start to see what you are more interested in writing about.
Make sure you clearly define why you are writing
If you are blogging to make money, make sure you are writing for your viewer. If you make things all about yourself, you aren’t going to attract much people to your blog (unless you’re like a super famous person).
There’s nothing wrong with blogging about yourself, but it’s important to remind yourself that you may not make a lot of money or get a lot of views from doing that. You can get easily disappointed like I did when I realized I was barely getting anybody to look at my blog the first couple of months.
