This link has been bookmarked by 93 people . It was first bookmarked on 17 Jul 2008, by Alexander Zoltai.
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Gert BrouwerRT @problogger: 21 Ways to Make Your Blog or Website Sticky http://ow.ly/3SOjD (a ProBlogger Classic)
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william dousttips to get that blog moving, things to discuss ;0) about blogs ;0) see how the guy connects it to other platforms too? - he calls ability to attract and engage users: sticky (a word used from around early 2000)
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21 Ways to Make Your Blog or Website Sticky
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PS: whatever you do - don’t let your about page be the default about page that comes with your blog.
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Does the traffic coming to your site come in a Yo-Yo like cycle of ups and downs that never really seems to go anywhere in the long run
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What is a ‘Sticky’ Site?
A sticky website is one where a first time reader arrives and finds it difficult to leave.
Not because the site owner captures them in a ‘RickRoll’ or a series of windows asking them if they REALLY want to leave - but because something about the site motivates them to explore it further - and more importantly to make a decision to (and takes some steps to ensure that they) return again to it.
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21 Techniques to Make Your Site Sticky
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1. Make Your Invitations to Subscribe to your blog Prominent
One of the most important things to do is to have a prominent call to action for readers coming to your blog to subscribe to it.
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2. Educate Readers about Your Subscription Methods
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3. Good Blog Design
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Content
Lastly (and most importantly in my mind) - the key to sticky sites is sticky content.
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4. On Site Branding
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5. Make Your Blog Personal
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The fact is that some readers are more interested in connecting with a person than a collection of content.
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Adding your photo, writing in a personal tone, using video/audio and including personal details and stories of how you engage with your topic can give your blog personality which will draw some of your readers into a relationship with you.
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6. When you get a rush of traffic to one particular post….
When the spikes in traffic come along you need to be ready to act (and act fast - because they can be momentary).
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- Add invitations to subscribe to your feed within your post. Something along the lines of ‘enjoy this post? Get more like it by subscribing to….’ can work really well.
- It can also be worthwhile adding links at the end of your post to ‘further reading’ on posts that are getting lots of reader to them.
- Sometimes when you get a spike it can even be worth writing a ‘welcome’ post. For example if I get a mention in a mainstream media publication that sends significant traffic I’ll often do a post that welcomes people but also gives them a ‘tour’ of the site (example).
- Another clever move is to quickly write up a followup article to the one that is getting all the traffic. For example - if this post suddenly got a burst of traffic I could quickly write a post ‘10 more ways to make your blog sticky’ and then add a link to that post at the end of this one (update: actually I wrote one called 7 more ways to make your blog sticky). This shows readers that you’ve got more to say on your topic than just one post. Every extra page view is a step closer to them subscribing (if the pages they view are good quality).
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For example - here at ProBlogger on my front page the ‘best of ProBlogger’ section is one of the most clicked upon parts of my site. This small section of the site sends people deep within the blog to some of my best work - hopefully resulting in quite a few new loyal readers.
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8. Add a ’subscribe to comments’ feature to your blog
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I use this subscribe to comments plugin to run mine.
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PS: just be aware that if you get a lot of unmoderated comment spam it can be a little embarrassing to have this feature - I learned the hard way.
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10. Offer alternative ways to subscribe
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1. Promote social media connecting points
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12. Highlight Your Best Content
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13. Create Momentum With Your Content
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For example when a reader reads the first part of a series of posts on a topic that they find useful you can count on them wanting to read the rest.
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I wrote about this in a post on creating a sense of anticipation on your blog.
14. Consider Removing Dates on Old Posts
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15. Give Incentive to Subscribe
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Give away a book, free ebook or report, download or some other incentive to those subscribing to your blog’s feed or newsletter and you could give some readers the little extra incentive to connect that they needed.
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16. Keep Posting Frequency Up
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don’t think you need to update every day - but something in the last week shows that your blog is up to date. You can also highlight this by showing your most recent posts somewhere in your sidebar.
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17. Create an Engaging About Page
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18. Add a Community Area or Forum
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Forums won’t attract all of your readers (I suspect they attract some personality types and not others) - but they will connect with some and help make your site a lot stickier.
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19. Social Proof
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Does your blog have readers already? If so (and even if it’s just a few) highlight this in any way that you can and you’ll show other first timers that they’re not the only one reading your blog. -
20. Target Readers with Specific Messages
Here are a few tools and plugins out there that enable you to present specific messages to certain readers coming to your blog based upon where they’ve arrived from and if they’ve been to your blog before.
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21. Sticky Content
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In fact I’d recommend having more than one invitation - one prominent one above the fold and prominent in your sidebar or navigation area and then a second one below your post. This means that people are triggered to subscribe whether they have just arrived on your blog or if they’ve just finished reading a post (a ‘pause point‘).
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One of the most read posts here on ProBlogger is my ‘what is RSS‘ post which I have below my Subscription link.
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‘enjoy this post? Get more like it by subscribing to….’
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It can also be worthwhile adding links at the end of your post to ‘further reading’ on posts that are getting lots of reader to them.
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- RSS
- Daily email updates (RSS to Email)
- Weekly newsletter (summary of the blog from the last week plus some exclusive content)
generally offer three subscription methods:
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This one could be a little controversial but I find that when old posts are not dated that it doesn’t create a ‘oh this is old’ type reaction in your readers.
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Another thing that I often do when I go to a new blog is to look at it’s ‘about page‘.
I like to know who is behind a blog, what their goals for it are, how it started and other information about what the blogger is on about.
This is an opportunity to sell your blog to and make a connection with prospective readers who are going out of their way to find out more about you - so use it to tell your story and draw readers in to journey with you.
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If so (and even if it’s just a few) highlight this in any way that you can and you’ll show other first timers that they’re not the only one reading your blog.
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subscribe page (a page dedicated to talking readers through 3 subscription options)
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puffkrispyI should really listen to these bits of advice for my blog ... We'll see what happens.
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Krista LeopoldGood homework, but I just can't hear it today. Homework!
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Corrine BeaumontAdding your photo, writing in a personal tone, using video/audio and including personal details and stories of how you engage with your topic can give your blog personality which will draw some of your readers into a relationship with you.
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Ethan GardnerThe following 21 techniques are ways that you can make your blog or website more sticky.
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not to see spikes in traffic as the ultimate goal but as a stepping stone to ongoing growth.
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1. Make Your Invitations to Subscribe to your blog Prominent
One of the most important things to do is to have a prominent call to action for readers coming to your blog to subscribe to it.
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2. Educate Readers about Your Subscription Methods
One of the most read posts here on ProBlogger is my ‘what is RSS‘ post which I have below my Subscription link. It’s there simply to educate readers on what RSS is and in doing so sell them a way to connect with my blog. Interestingly enough - quite a few other bloggers around the web now link to the page to educate their readers too.
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Similarly - I occasionally will write a post on my blogs that invites new readers to subscribe. Sometimes I think we mistakenly assume that all of our readers have been with us for a long time and all know how to use our site - however many of your newer readers might not know the full story.
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3. Good Blog Design
I’ve always believed that a good blog design is an important part of helping readers to decide whether they’re going to hang around and track with your site over the long haul.
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First time readers should know what your blog is about at a first glance. Use your blog’s title, it’s design, taglines, post titles, about pages, logo and navigational elements to communicate what your blog is about.
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- Comments
- Competitions
- Polls
- Projects and Memes
Interactive blogs are often also sticky ones. Interaction could include
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8. Add a ’subscribe to comments’ feature to your blog
This draws those who comment back to continue the conversation and increases the chances of them becoming loyal readers.
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- respond to comments with comments
- respond to comments with emails to the comment leaver
9. Respond to Comments
This is a particularly effective way to draw readers back to your blog - particularly in the early days when you don’t have a lot of readers commenting to follow up.
There are two main ways you can do this:
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- RSS
- Daily email updates (RSS to Email)
- Weekly newsletter (summary of the blog from the last week plus some exclusive content)
I generally offer three subscription methods:
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11. Promote social media connecting points
Similarly - some of your readers will respond very well to your invitations to connect on other social media sites.
For example I have some readers on DPS who are Facebook junkies. They refuse to subscribe via RSS or email but religiously read my blog by following my Facebook profile which pulls in my latest posts.
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12. Highlight Your Best Content
A great way to convince readers to become loyal is to get them reading more than one of your posts (especially if they are your best posts). You can do this by linking to other posts within your content but also suggesting further reading and ‘best of’ posts around your blog.
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Over the last few days I’ve had a small competition going on Digital Photography School where I’m giving 3 subscribers to my newsletter there a copy of a great photography book.
1500 new subscribers later (and counting that small incentive is one of the best $50 I’ve ever spent.
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16. Keep Posting Frequency Up
One thing that I do as a blog reader deciding whether I’ll subscribe to a blog or not is to head to the home page and see how often they’ve updated recently.
There’s nothing more frustrating as a reader than to find some great content and be hungry for more only to find that the blogger hasn’t update in 3 months.
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18. Add a Community Area or Forum
One of the best things that I ever did with my photography site was to add a forum.
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Does your blog have readers already? If so (and even if it’s just a few) highlight this in any way that you can and you’ll show other first timers that they’re not the only one reading your blog.
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People attract people and a site that is obviously being read by others will draw others into it.
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J.R. de VriesAwesome list. Need to implement on every single blog I have
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