Why do we surf channels on TV? Simply because there’s nothing that holds our interest for long. And we can do this with books, radio channels, or websites.

This is the only reason when visitors come to your site, and leave quickly. As soon as they get bored with the design, images, or content, they move their mouse, and CLICK! That’s it! That’s the only time you had to capture your visitors. Are you sure your blog is interesting enough to grab attention of the visitors, and hold them for long?

Here are few things you can do to avoid your visitors from touching the web remote:

1.    Right at the beginning, give them something that they fall in love with. For a while, think about those famous TV channels. What is it that keeps you engrossed into it? All the juicy images, colors, and the content? Or simply a boring old guy reading news? If people want fun stuff, give them what they want.

2.    Don’t display junk on your website. Make sure every article you post is proofread and has information in precise manner. Although the type of language you adopt to address your readers depend on what niche you are catering to, make sure you don’t sound too boring.

3.    Information is the most important thing you can give to your visitors. Write about any topic only if you know more than an average person knows about it. Research more about the topic and give them the most useful piece of article they have ever read. Make every article your best one. You also need to make sure that you make the information available easily (by using bullets, highlighting, bold fonts, and so on) to your readers.

4.    Readers would certainly be attracted if each of your blog post has attractive images, magnetic headlines, simple design, and useful content. Your blog should look very similar to the popular TV channel you always prefer.

5.    Make your posts interesting. By interesting I mean adding some humor, punch lines, and twists. If a channel is broadcasting last episode of ‘Lost’, and if another channel is playing a dull, boring program, which is not even funny, which one do you think will be preferred by most viewers?

6.    Be logical, keep you content in flow. You don’t want to be accused of misleading or letting your visitors wander. If you articles are not logical, or doesn’t make sense at all, there are thousand others that does. Don’t be surprised if you lose visitors faster than you gained. Hence, before you post any article, go though it more than once and keep editing until you believe it’s perfect.

7.    Be Creative. Offer something that isn’t offered by others on the web. This certainly is a difficult task. But once you get this ‘X’ factor in your blog, simply watch subscribers flowing in.

8.    Before you put up ads in your blog, think twice about it. It may or may not repel your visitors. Some prefer putting it up after a good number of visitors have subscribed, some put it before their they post even 10 articles. However, this will certainly affect your readership in some way.

9.    Ad is certainly a good way to generate revenue through your blog. Hence, sooner or later, you will place some ads. But make sure you don’t clutter your site up. People don’t like TV channels that are too flashy, or they don’t keep watching teleshopping channels for long.

10.    If you home page is good enough to attract visitors, make sure they don’t switch to other blogs due to lack of navigability. Have a simply blog with links to different pages of your blog o the home page. Have tabs ‘Most Commented’, ‘Popular Posts’, ‘Recent Posts’ and so on. Also, have few links in every blog posts, and at the end of you posts.

It will certainly take time for visitors to crowd your blog, even if you have the best site on the web. However, you need to keep improving it, and have patience. Gradually, you will emerge as a leader. A leader that doesn’t allow his followers to touch the remote.

Irrespective of the niche you write for, respecting and being kind to your readers is one of the most effective things that can get you the top of the chart. This is simply because people would love coming back to your blog, if they are treated properly. Here are some tips that can help you become kinder to your readers.

Shorten the Introduction

Starting a blog post with long introduction usually repels people from your blog. They visit your blog to search for specific information. If you give them junk, they would take it once, but would never return back to your blog. Put an introduction only if it’s necessary. Besides, make sure the introduction is not too long.

Focus on Quality not Quantity

Updating your blog regularly is necessary. However, do not let this idea take over your mind, and start controlling your blog. If research takes time, and you are not able to post an article daily, it’s completely fine. Make sure you focus on quality and not on quantity. People dont read your post because you have updated another article. They are interested in what you write, not how much you write.

Even if you are able to write only one good post every week, don’t fret. It’s okay. You can become a successful blogger only if you write quality content, and not how fast you write.

Write Entertaining Articles

I had mentioned this many times in my earlier posts, and I would like to repeat it again. Most people read articles online because they need some information and entertainment. If you write dull posts, they would instantly move to another blogs that provides both. Your readers must love your articles.

Alright, here is an exercise you must do before posting any article on your blog. Write an article, read it from the start, and put as mush entertainment as possible. Sooner or later, when people find out about your posts, and writing style, they would instantly subscribe to your blog.

Write Simple

Do not make it tough for your readers to understand your post. Make sure you use simple language without adding any jargons or complicated words. To keep a blog simple, you must:

• Use short sentences
• Not use something (phrase or word) that only few knows
• Not assume things
• Not underestimate your readers

The main purpose of writing a post is providing information. If you are able to give it properly and clearly, most readers would love your blog.

Short Posts

People are too busy to go through your ‘essay’ articles even if it has the best piece of information. Alright, there are some topics which cannot be completed within 300 words. But try to keep it short. Instead of writing huge paragraphs, insert bullet points to make it short and precise. Also, highlight the points that you feel are very important. This will help readers to get the message by simply glancing through your blog.

Rejuvenate

This is probably one of the best ways to be kind to your readers. If you are a regular blogger, your writing should get better every month. By this I don’t only mean language or vocabulary. You must learn to be creative, and entertaining. And you can do this by reading, writing, and thinking more often.

Talk to Your Readers

If you get comments on your blogs, make sure you reply them. If there are queries, answer them. If it’s an important point, write an article in your blog for the reader. Do whatever you can to make them feel special. Personal attention is what most readers seek. If you agree to give them, you will get more than your expectation.

There are probably several other ways to be kind to your readers, and you can explore more of them by remembering: Showing kindness to your blog, means being kind to your readers. All they expect is a decent blog, with relevant information.

Many bloggers, after few months or years of starting the blog, start hating it; some do it openly, some have it hidden in their minds. This is because you, as blogger, have done a couple of mistakes, which should be fixed instantly.

First Mistake

You probably have chosen a topic that you aren’t passionate about. This doesn’t mean you don’t like the topic. It’s just that you don’t love it wholeheartedly. And you started it simply because others were making money from it, and you knew something about it. Unfortunately, this is not how it works.

Second Mistake

Another mistake many bloggers do is starting many blogs at a time. It is, at times, difficult to manage even one blog efficiently, let alone many of them. Gradually, you start losing interest in one or all of them.

The Solution

The solution is as simple as fixing these problems. I know that’s a weird statement to make, but that’s how it is. You need to start a blog on something that you are really passionate about. Once you do that, focus all your energy on updating this blog until you attain your goal. Subsequently, you can plan to launch new blogs (one at a time), within your area of interest.

If this is not the case with you, or your blog, there is probably another angle to look at it. Lack of persistence is a common problem with majority of bloggers. You have chosen the right topic, and you are working towards it with all you have. After some time, however, you start loosing interest, may be because it doesn’t generate desired results. But you have to avoid it, if you really want to make it a success.

This happens with every blogger. I love my blog, but there are times when I don’t feel like writing on it, or even thinking about it. On other days, however, I am very enthusiastic about it.

So, in conclusion, I would say choosing your favorite topic is essential, but it’s not enough. You will have to be consistent, and dedicated.

I have seen several blogging websites with a video that says ‘How to get thousands of subscribers overnight’ or something like that. And they aren’t false promises. They actually show you how to get subscriptions through OPML and Netvibes. These applications help you replicate your own feed thousands of times.

Is it an unethical way? Yes

Should we do it? No

Why?

1.    Everyone Knows the Secret
If you start a new blog with thousands of subscribers from the very first day, most bloggers would know how you have managed to do it. It’s not a new technique, and you can’t impress people using this technique.

2.    Is it Really an Achievement
Alright. You are a blogger and you have many thousand subscribers on your blog. And not many people know about how you managed to do it. However, you cannot deny that fact that you know the truth. Although you may be smiling looking at the number of visitors on your blog, which aren’t for real, somewhere deep inside, you know what the truth is. It’s not an achievement, and you know it.

3.    Spend Time Doing Something Worthwhile
Instead of spending time finding such amateur techniques, work towards something that would really help your blog. You can invest time producing great content, connect with other bloggers, write posts on other blogs, and so on. Do something that really matters.

4.    What if The Loophole is Fixed?
With this technique, you can convince few readers to join your blog for a while. However, this technique has been here since quite a few years now, and probably feedburner too knows about it. What if they fix the loophole? Suddenly, you subscribers would drop by thousands, and people would know the reality.

5.    Possible Risk
I could have used the same technique to increase the number of subscribers. However, I didn’t do it partly because I find it unethical to involve in such activities, and partly because I am scared. I don’t know how Google would react to such things. May be they can take severe actions against those abusing this tool.

We, as bloggers, have an internet presence to earn money and to help people earn money. Let us not set a bad example for others by involving in such fraudulent activities.