Retaining Reader Interest In Your Blog

Like all bloggers, you may have given a lot of thought to finding means to retain reader interest in your blog. In fact, depending on how dedicated you are to your blog, keeping your readers interested is probably one of your main concerns. The fact is that there are many things you can do to keep your readers coming back for more, and many of these can be done quite easily. Some of the most effective techniques are outlined below…

• Link to posts that are related.

One of the most effective ways to retain reader interest is by linking to posts in other pages of your blog. There are various ways of doing this ranging from the subtle to the obvious, and each approach may be just as effective. You may for example place links directly in the body content of a specific page, paying particular attention to placing them near the top of the page where they are more likely to be clicked on. You can use this method to lead readers to related posts, and in some cases even to topics that you just mentioned in passing.

You can also place links to the posts you want to lead your readers to after your body content. You can include a short sentence with these links such as “If you want to read more about this topic, here are a few more articles you may find useful” or words to that effect.

• Provide a listing of relevant topics in a sidebar.

You can also draw reader attention to some posts that they may find useful or interesting by providing a list of such topics somewhere on your page. Not only will this make it easy for your readers to find useful content, it will also give you a chance to highlight some of your best topics. In addition, you will also get a clearer picture of the quality of the content that you have to offer. If your list of “best topics” isn’t really all that impressive, a rethink of your writing and posting approach may be in order.

• Dedicate a page to new readers.

If you have been running your blog for a while now, it is inevitable that you would forget to keep new readers in mind. Particularly when the discussion can get pretty active, most bloggers tend to “live in the moment” and forget that some readers may be clueless as to what is going on. A page that addresses the concerns of new readers may spell the difference between keeping them on and turning them away.

• Setup off-site links so that they open in another window.

Most readers tend to stay on a page that they are taken to instead of hitting the back button on their browser to go back to the page where they came from. Unless you want to keep your readers going through this one-way door, it may be better to make sure that new links open in a new window.