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How did I grow my blog so fast?

Sarika

Hey everyone, so I honestly didn’t think I was going to do this, but after people saw me updating that my followers and views were doing pretty good, I had a couple of people ask me how I was growing my blog so quickly, but I still didn’t know if people would want a blog post on it, so I did a poll, and 100% said they wanted this…

So here we are, now, I’m no expert and I still don’t know how I’ve convinced people to like me, but i appreciate it nonetheless and I’d love to also use this post as a way of documenting my blogging ~journey~ so without further ado, lets get started!
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Okay, so I started my blog on the 8th of August 2018, with no social media except for Goodreads, on which I had maybe a bit over 200 friends, the date I am writing this post is the 1st of September 2018 and I have since created a Twitter for my blog which has around 350 followers.
  • 2,122 views in total
  • 687 visitors
  • 210 followers
  • 309 total comments
  • 363 total likes
  • and 23 published posts

This is not me boasting by the way, it’s literally just an insight as to how I’m doing in my first month, obviously, stats aren’t everything, as long as I’m writing posts I love and that I’m proud of, I’m happy, and you should be too! I also had nooo idea that the stats I’m at are considered ‘good’, I only gathered it when people were asking me how I was ‘doing it’ and to ‘give me the secret’

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I want this post to be really simple and super easy to follow, so I think we’re gonna bullet point this 🙂

  • You want to start a blog? Great! Pick your topic, what do you want your blog to be about? Do you want to have a main focus or do you want to just go with it? The world is your oyster
  • You’re also going to need to pick a website to blog with, I went with WordPress, it is where the majority of the blogs I read are, and it is incredibly easy to use and also for people to interact with you and your posts
  • Once you’ve picked your site, they are going to want you to create your account etc, which they will explain you through and is easy, so I don’t need to patronise anyone and explain how to enter an email
  • ONE THING ABOUT SIGNING UP!! your user/blog name, make it something easy to remember or something that sticks in your head, it can be a play on words, alliteration or a rhyme, and if your blog has a set theme, it should have something to do with that. I chose my blog name because my blog is about books (pages, obvs) and I combined it with my strange love for analysing literature and ‘reading between the lines’ voila, Between The Pages was born
  • This one is really important, and I’ve never seen anyone mention it: pick your blog theme straight away, this theme doesn’t have to last forever, but you need a starting point, don’t try new headers and designs for every post until you’re happy, write up one post and try a bunch of themes using the ‘preview’ option, and decide on the one you like best, this will stop your blog from looking messy and unorganised with different headers and page designs on every post

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  • Now, my first ever post was hella important, I have never been one for social media, all I had was Goodreads (which is pretty rubbish for promoting your blog because literally everyone just ignores you) but for my first post, I did the Unpopular Opinions Book Tag, because I knew a lot of my friends on Goodreads liked hearing about my unpopular opinions and I had just started my blog and Goodreads was all I had
  • My first post got a pretty decent reception for a brand new blog with one post (67 views, which I was very pleased with, thank you very much)
  • The next day or the day after I got Twitter so that I could post about my blog posts there, which has really helped, one you have started to get to know other book bloggers, and you all check out each others blogs, its also really easy to find follow trains, and even to start one of you own, the day I did a follow train, my views went from 49 the day before to 172, because once people went to my blog to follow it, they actually enjoyed it and wanted to look at my posts
  • YOU NEED TO BE YO DAMN SELF WHEN YOU WRITE, write the way you talk and think, be yourself, the amount of people who have told me they genuinely enjoy the way I write has baffled me, but I am being myself, this is the way I think, I’m not pretending to be any different, I won’t hide my opinions, because that’s the way I am in general
  • Scheduling posts can be extremely useful, so pick what types of posts you want to do in the near future, whether this is just something you know in the back of your head or something you put into a diary or journal is completely up to you!
  • Have some kind or routine, this doesn’t mean you have to post every x, y and z day without fail for the rest of your life, but try and have a routine, especially when growing your blog
  • TAGS TAGS TAGS TAGS TAGS! tags are so important when publishing a post, you need to tag everything relevant to you post, for example, in a book review for Harry Potter, your tags would be:

Harry Potter, Book Review, [insert your rating], children’s book review

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  • So once I’ve got a post up, I will share it, but you need to do this correctly because ‘look at my blog post, yah’ isn’t gonna cut it, make your tweets more personal, for example in my Unpopular Opinions Tag, I tweeted saying ‘if you know anything about me, you know I have a LOT of unpopular opinions, you can read my post to find out about them and discuss!’ This shows that you care about interacting, not just views
  • I will tweet about a new post at least three times and there is nothing wrong with this! Some people are scared to promote posts but you don’t need to be! This is your post! You wrote it, you made it! You want people to read it! I have the W O R S T social anxiety so this was super hard for me at first, but you soon realise the entire blogging community is doing this, they are promoting their posts and their blogs so that people read it, there is nothing to be scared of, you can even set up a group of other new bloggers and support each other if that’s your thing
  • I also use Pinterest, you can create images tailored to Pinterest and share them so people on Pinterest looking up for things can view your post, this post is super helpful in showing you how to use Pinterest to boost your blog

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Okay, so they are all the pointers I have in starting a blog, as I mentioned before, I am nooo expert, I am a complete newbie to this and I’m still trying to figure certain things out, but these are tips that I found helpful and thought some other new bloggers might like them, too ❤ Please remember, that growing your blog and getting all the followers is not important unless you are enjoying the content you are posting, stats are truly unimportant because if you are putting in the effort, your blog will grow, I’ve had slow days where I feel upset and I have posts that I thought were great that not a lot of people liked, it’s all normal and it’s all new to me. Thank you so much for reading through this post, I hope you found some of it useful, if you have any questions, feel free to ask me in the comments or if you’re a new blogger, leave your links in the comments, I’d love to help support your blog. Thanks again for reading and I will talk to you all in my next post ❤

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If you’d like this post to be seen by more new bloggers, then please feel free to add it to your Pinterest, I even made a special photo for it that didn’t look right no matter what I did so I cried in a heap and there’s no time to fix it so please take pity on me 🙂

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Published by Sarika

Hey, my name is Sarika and I'm a book enthusiast from the UK, I'm socially awkward, I love tea and I'd love to make your TBR a little bit taller <3

52 thoughts on “How did I grow my blog so fast?”

  4. These are all such good tips. I’ve been here for a while (though I recently became active) and I’m honestly so bad at socialising so I was wondering if you hd any more detailed advice about that? (like how to make friends on twitter and actually find people)? Love the post! xxx

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    1. Thank you so much lovely! I’m awful at socialising, too so I get where your coming from, I’d try and join in if follow trains and comment on posts etc, you can also always find people who are making group chats for new bloggers that’ll add you so you can talk to different bloggers, once you start following people with ‘bookblogger’ in their bio, twitter will find you more bookbloggers to follow and interact with as well, if you’re doing something as simple as telling someone you like their latest post, they will begin to interact with you more, hope this helps 💖

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  7. Aaaah I remember when I first started last year, it was so frustrating for me mainly because I knew there were other book blogs out there but I had no idea where to start looking. My views kinda grew organically and really slowly ;p unlike yours which are basically what I got after a couple of months of blogging.

    Loved this post, super insightful and guess where it’s going to appear *whispers my weekly wrap* also, you know when you format posts. Have you played around with aligning images and text at all? Cause your heading images could be center aligned for instance or could aligned to the right instead of the left. I tend to use center and justify a lot. I can’t cope with anything now now xD

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    1. I honestly don’t know what it is that appeals about me to people tbh 🙈😂
      Aw thank you so much 💖💖 I actually went through and did all the headers so they were in the centre the other day and I forgot to press ‘update’ after finishing with them so I’m gonna have to do it all again 😭😭😭
      Thanks u again for reading xxxx

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      Reply

      1. oof that sucks :/

        I think its probs cause you’re honest with your opinions in discussions and you post a fair amount of reviews xD unlike me who slacks at it hehe and no problem xx

        Liked by 1 person

  13. Great tips! I think now is such a good time for new bloggers because there’s so much support. It took me forever to get to where I am because there was literally nothing and I had no idea what I was doing. Being yourself is such an important thing 🙂 xxx

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  16. I love seeing other bloggers succeed, and so I’m so excited for you and the progress you’ve made so far! It took me so long to reach these stats that you’ve been able to acquire in just a month! I think this post is filled with so many great tips, and I really do believe that it’s going to help other bloggers!! 🙂

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    1. thank you so so much, when I first started this, i honestly didn’t think anyone would read my posts and i’m still overwhelmed by everything. I’m so glad you think the tips are helpful and thank you so much for reading ❤

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      Reply

    1. No I did most of my own graphics but I did get those watercolour thingies from a website and I’m not self hosted, I’m with WordPress, hope this helps, let me know if you have any more qs ❤️

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  19. I think your blog appearance also boosts your growth because I love the look of your blog! Also I do not own a Twitter and I know that really pulls me back from promoting my posts but I’m just not interested in joining that part of the social media. Also, how often do you post and do you have a specific schedule (posting day, time, etc)?

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. Aww thank you so much! I really am not interested in social media either but I knew it’d be useful for doing my blog, but definitely don’t force yourself to get it if you really don’t want to. I posted a LOT when I was just starting, now I’m at school I’m trying to go for 2-3 times a week, as for times, I’ll post it around 10-11 am on weekdays and 12 ish on weekends, then promote through the day, hope this helps 😊😊

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  21. These are all fantastic tips and you have done SO well in the short time you’ve been blogging, you should be so proud of yourself!

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  22. What an insightful and informative post! Thank you for sharing what you’ve learned. I’m sure it’ll help out a lot of other bloggers!

    I’m so happy that your blog has grown exceptionally well in such a short time. You deserve it! Congratulations! 💖

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  23. First let me just say congrats on your growth in your first month! The one thing I’m really bad at is promoting on Twitter. I do post about my blog but I guess not enough!

    I’m celebrating one year soon and I still only have like, 18 followers and I don’t know what I’m doing wrong because I love blogging and put so much effort into it, but it’s a little discouraging when there’s no one to share it all with!

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    Reply

    1. Thank you so much lovely! I definitely recommend trying with twitter as it’s really helped me out💖
      If you’re loving everything you put up you are doing this right, I’d say to make sure you are utilising tags for your posts and small things like that which can really make a difference ❤️❤️❤️

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  24. Pingback: Weekly Wrap Up #49: Murder By Education – Book Dragons
  26. Pingback: How To Start A Book Blog (Our Advice, Tips & Tricks) – Between the pages

  27. I know this post is a bit old (sorry, I just found your account though ❤️). May I ask where you got the watercolor headers? I’ve seen them on a few other’s blogposts and they’re so pretty 😍

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