11 Steps to Building a Readership for Your Indie Author Blog: Tips and Tools

One of the most important parts of a successful indie author blog is building a readership. It’s not enough to just have a blog with great content, you also need people reading it! In this post, we’re going to give you 11 tips and tools that will help improve your chances of becoming an overnight success in the world of indie authors.

What is an Indie Author Blog?

In the last few years, blogs have been a crucial part of marketing for indie authors. Blogs give you an opportunity to share your thoughts and expertise with a larger audience than you could ever reach on social media. They also provide plenty of opportunities for people to get to know who you are as a person and what your values are. So if blogging is important to you, then it’s time that we discussed how to build a readership for your blog!

In this post, we’re going to give you 11 tips and tools that will help improve your chances of becoming an overnight success in the world of indie authors.

1) Choose Your Niche:

The first thing you need when starting out is something niche-y or specific about which to blog. It should be a topic that you can easily write posts about for at least six months to a year without running out of inspiration or needing to take time off from your writing schedule.

2) Set a Schedule:

It helps to set yourself up for success by setting clear goals and deadlines. For example, you might decide that you want to blog once per week or twice per month. You can also choose the days of the week on which your posts will be published so it’s easier for people who like following along with your content via email subscriptions or social media.

Just because you have a goal doesn’t mean that you need to stick with it every single time! For example, if your schedule is once per week and you happen to be really excited about an idea for one of your posts so it’s taking longer than usual, go ahead and publish the post when it’s ready rather than waiting for a time that’s “convenient” for you.

3) Optimize Your Blog for Search Engines:

Oh, SEO. It’s a world of mystery and intrigue that can be pretty scary if you don’t have any experience with it. But the truth is that optimizing your blog doesn’t need to be a complicated process. You just need to know what kind of keywords people use when they’re searching for something that’s similar to what you’re writing about.

Use keywords in your blog post titles, descriptions, and content whenever possible. You can find out which ones are working best by checking out your analytics or asking your readers via an email survey.

If search engine optimization is something that you want to learn more about, there are many great resources online that can help you.

4) Build an Email List:

Creating a newsletter that goes out to your readers on a regular basis is one of the best things you can do for your blog and author career. The more people who sign up, the easier it will be to reach new audiences and get feedback from them about your work!

When someone subscribes to your blog’s newsletter, they’ll receive a welcome email with information about your blog and what they can expect from it. You should also include links to some of your newest posts, as well as other resources that you think might be helpful for them (such as discounts on ebooks or free reads).

You can set up an email list by using one of the many great services available (such as MailChimp).

5) Share Your Content on Social Media.

Once you’ve built a loyal following by creating great content for your blog, it’s time to share that content with the rest of the world.

The first step is adding sharing buttons to every post so visitors can easily spread your work via their social media platforms. You should also use hashtags whenever possible because they make it easier for people to find your work when they’re searching on sites like Instagram or Twitter.

We recommend using a tool such as HootSuite to schedule your social media posts in advance so you don’t have to worry about forgetting anything!

6) Network With Other Bloggers:

When you’re just starting out, it can be really hard to get noticed by other bloggers. One of the best ways around this is to find someone else who’s already gotten your dream blog post published and reach out to them for advice or feedback about what they did!

This could mean sending an email, commenting on their blog, or even guest posting for their site. The benefits of networking with other bloggers are twofold: you get to learn from someone who’s been blogging longer than you have, and they can help drive traffic back to your own blog because it makes them look good as well!

On top of that, if another blogger likes having your guest post for them, they might be willing to do the same thing for you in return.

This is a great way to think outside of your own blog and help grow your author platform as well!

7) Create Content That Readers Can’t Find Anywhere Else:

One of the best ways to keep your readers coming back for more is by creating content that they can’t find anywhere else.

For example, if you’re writing a blog post about how to choose fiction book covers, it would be helpful to interview an expert in this field who’s worked on covers for many bestsellers.

This is a great way to show readers that you’re constantly creating new content and also give them something they can’t get just anywhere!

8)  Add Images to Your Blog Posts:

Another great way to keep your blog posts looking fresh is by including images that relate directly to what you’re writing about.

To make this easier, we recommend using a tool like Canva (which is free!) because it allows you to create stunning graphics without having any graphic design experience!

9)  Write With Personality:

One of the best things you can do to make your blog stand out from all of the others is by writing with personality.

People like reading blogs that come across as real and relatable, so try using stories or examples about yourself to help them get a better understanding of what you’re writing about!

You should also try and write in a way that makes your readers feel like they’ve gotten to know you through reading about something specific, such as how you got into writing.

This will keep them coming back for more!

10)  Keep Your Readers Engaged:

Once your readers are hooked, you want to keep them that way!

One of the best ways to do this is by asking open-ended questions or suggesting polls in order to see what they’re thinking about a specific topic. You can then address some of their concerns and comments directly in future blog posts if possible.

This will help build real connections with your readers and show them that you’re constantly looking for ways to improve!

11) Keep Your Posts Short & Sweet:

Finally, we recommend keeping each blog post around 800-1000 words long. This is a good length because it allows people to read the entire thing easily while also giving you enough room to include all the details they need!

This is also a good length because it will be easy for you and your readers to come back regularly without having too much content to read through.

We hope you enjoyed this post!  Remember that these tips can help build up an audience quickly, but only if you’re willing to put in the work to make it happen!

How did you like these tips? Which one will be the most helpful when you’re trying to grow your blog’s readership? What other advice would you add for people who are just getting started with blogging and want their posts to stand out from all the others on a topic? Let us know in the comment below.