Next Steps To Consider When Your Blog is Getting Bigger *

So, you have been blogging for a while now, and you are starting to gain some serious followers. Perhaps you felt that you were a bit out on a limb at the beginning. You might have been writing for a very particular niche, wondering how you would ever gain followers. Or maybe you didn’t think that you would be ready to put the time and effort needed into gaining new followers. Either way, you have somehow found yourself in charge of a blog with a considerable following. As is often the case with any kind of project, getting to a certain milestones can be something of a mixed blessing. Doubtless you are happy to be being read by more and more people. But you are probably also starting to realise just how much work this blogging business really requires. You might even be wondering what you should be doing next, to keep your blog growing. In this article, we will answer that question. Here are some of the next steps you should consider taking now that your blog is becoming more popular.

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Keeping It Interesting

There is often a tendency amongst bloggers for the content to waver somewhat at this stage. It is as though, after putting in all that hard work to gain followers, you now feel that you can relax and let things slip a little. The truth? This is the quickest way to ensure that you lose out on all those followers you have just earned. It is important to remind yourself at this stage that your followers are not for certain, nor are they necessarily forever. There is always the chance that you will lose them again, so you need to start thinking about how to keep them reading. It goes without saying, but ultimately this is a case of continuing to post interesting content. Now, this can be much easier said than done. It can sometimes be very easy to think that you will come up with lots of new content. But once you sit down at the keyboard, that can be tough. A great way to find ideas for new content is to become a voracious reader of blogs yourself. It goes without saying that you shouldn’t be stealing any ideas here. But you can get inspired, often, just by leafing through the pages of others. However you do it, keeping your blog interesting is more important now than ever, so make sure you do it right.

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Protecting Your Content

As your blog grows, you need to start thinking of it more and more as a business, rather than just a casual thing. As a business, you need to ensure that you are keeping it as well protected as possible. Protecting your content from theft is a very difficult thing to do. After all, you can’t really stop anyone copying and pasting what is rightfully yours. This is one of the risks you take with publishing content online. However, there are legal options available to you if someone does pilfer something of yours. Using a dmca takedown service, you can put in a notification to an individual or company, ordering them to remove copyrighted works which belong to you. It is often a shame to have to do this, but if your work is stolen, it is often the best course of action. The more followers you have, the more of an issue this is likely to become, so take care and remember what is rightfully yours.

Refreshing The Design

Something that a lot of bloggers like to do from time to time is to refresh the look of the whole site. And what better time to do it than just after you have reached a milestone with your followers? Giving your blog a fresh lick of paint, so to speak, can be a great way to subtly improve the overall experience that your readers are having. As we have seen, it is best to start thinking of your blog as a business. As such, you need to think about your customers’ overall experience, and this is an important aspect of that. When you are refreshing your design, think about your brand and how it can best be represented. You might find that certain colours and themes automatically suggest themselves. If you are representing your personality in a certain way, try to use the design of the blog to enhance this feeling.

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Widening The Appeal

There is a great feeling to be had from gaining trust with your followers and regular readers. You might decide that you are happy with your clique. Or, you might think that it is a good idea to try and expand somewhat. If you are keen, you might want to consider trying to widen the appeal of your blog. A simple way to do this is to begin incorporating new genres and topics into your writing. Alternatively, you might want to start hosting guest posts on your blog. This can be a truly powerful way of quickly gaining new readers. As long as you are not alienating your core base, you should find that this helps you to make the most of your blog.

Staying In Touch With Your Readers

Remember in the early days, when you hungrily responded to every comment that came flying into your inbox? Well, once you start getting more and more readers, this becomes more difficult, doesn’t it? Before long, it is completely impossible. If you are like most fan-loving bloggers, you will feel a little sadness on the day you finally realise you can’t reply to everyone. However, you should accept this, and just set aside a certain amount of time each day to reply to emails and comments. Making the effort to keep in touch with your readers is a hugely important part of the whole experience. It ensures that you remain human and humble, no matter how successful you become.

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To Monetize Or Not To Monetize?

Finally, you might want to start thinking about monetizing your blog – if you haven’t already. This can be a long and difficult process, but the rewards can be great if you do it right. However, you might want to leave it as it is – it is entirely up to you.