A popular blog is what every blogger wants to have . Whatever the motivating factor behind your blogging activities, you will not want to be the only visitor to your blog. You want it on top of others' lists, mentioned everywhere, referred to as the perfect sample, discussed in seminars, linked to by others, etc. All you simply want is to be a successful blogger. Keep reading.
5 Crucial Steps to a Popular Blog
Let's quickly look at the 5 necessary steps you must go through to be able to build a popular blog
Step #1: Start with a short memorable domain name
This is the crucial beginning. You have to make things easy for us by avoiding long, twisted and unpronounceable domain name. One of the reasons I don't visit some blogs more than one time is their domain names. If it's hard to pronounce, it will be harder to memorize. While trying to favor search engines in the choice of your domain name, we (human visitors) should be even more favored. So if you are interested in having a popular blog, start by choosing a domain name that's easy to remember.
Step #2: Have a premium and beautifully simple theme
I'm not in any way throwing words against free themes but the benefits of installing a premium theme on your blog are enormous. One of these is the positive impact on your credibility and brand name. Premium themes are highly customizable, responsive, documented, social media powered, SEO prepared, etc.
A second thought is to have a carefully planned, custom designed and expertly built theme for your blog. Ms. Ileane is using Thesis Theme and the Thesis Awesome Blogskin Genesis and Playcast Pro Child Theme from Appendipity, here on Basic Blog Tips and it's very attractive and easy to navigate as well.
To have a popular blog, you must think of giving beauty and comfort to your readers.
Step # 3: Useful Content
At this step of building an extremely popular blog, you must start providing top-notch content to your readers. Whether it is text or video, the material must be easily digestible. If your readers find your content useful and answers to their questions and problems, you win their trust and recommendations. They will link to and share your content and talk about your blog. That's how you are gradually building a popular bog. There is no way you can have a popular blog when your content is mediocre and does not provide any usefulness to readers. Consider inviting guest authors or conducting blogger interviews to add variety and different points of view and let others contribute their expertise to enhance your blogs content. These bloggers will be sure to spread the word about their guest posts and interviews which will help speed up the process of creating a wildly popular blog.
Step #4: Keep readers on your blog longer
Now this is another area you must pay attention to if you really want to create a popular blog. How much time visitors spend on your blog is dependent on quality and accessibility. While you may have top content for a popular blog, you must provide shortcuts for readers to easily navigate to the information they need. These include search tools, related articles box, most popular posts widget, etc. This will influence you page views and average time on site which are some of the signals search engines are interested in. Embed YouTube videos, podcasts, presentation slides and other interactive content to peak your reader's interests and make them spend more time on each blog post. Don't worry if you haven't started your own YouTube channel or podcast. Do a few searches in your given topic and look for popular content created by others that will help you get your point across.
Step #5: Encourage and attract repeat visits
Apart from grabbing a memorable domain name, installing a template that does not hurt the eyes of readers, writing killer contents, you must also develop other strategies that will keep your site visitors coming back. Some strategies you may apply to your blog that work like charm to keep your repeat visitors include:
- RSS subscription.
- List building
- Reply to their comments
- Install new comment notifications plugin
- Install comment reply notifications plugin
- Social media sharing enticements
- Building healthy relationships with other bloggers.
- Joining active blogging communities like BlogEngage and Social Buzz Club
You cannot have a popular blog without repeat visits.
How long does it take to have a popular blog?
Now, it will be wrong for someone to tell you 1 or 2 years. This is a factor of how much work you put and how consistent you are. If you provide top quality contents and are active and resourceful in the blogosphere, you may have a popular blog pretty soon.
Now let's talk. Do you think you have a popular blog? What are the clever things you did to make your blog popular? How long have you been blogging on that popular blog of yours? I really want to hear your thoughts on this in the comments below. Thanks for the conversation.
A good domain and easy to remember domain name is must for every blogger to stay long in blogging and secondly you should also have great content on your blog and you must be able to capture the readers attention with your content.
BTW, This is an awesome post for newbies to know blogging better.
Hey bro,
One of the very first things to start with is your domain. Finding the right domain name seems always tough but cannot be avoided.
Like you mentioned, content is key. Providing content is the reason we blog and great content is the winner.
Thanks for stopping by and dropping a comment. I really appreciate it.
I think the most important thing is the useful content! The reader like you content then they remmember you domain. The truth is I never remember how I find this blog but I remmember this blog because I learn a lot of information!
You know my domain Enstine. 🙂
I chose that one exactly how you explained in Step 1.
Writing very good content and mixing the content with variety will surely make new visitors, readers.
It takes hard work to make a popular blog.
Excellent article man 🙂
Hey Sam,
Good to see you here bro. I was beginning to wonder where you’ve been.
Yeah, I know your domain and I can’t forget it. It makes sense to me whenever I think of it.
Kudos bro!
My biggest regret was that I brought a domain that wasn’t linked to my niche and I ran with it for over three years before I thought about changing it, I think it might be too late to change it now.
Hi Dean,
I can imagine you have tons of backlinks and google indexed pages pointing to the domain. There are however ways to change your domain name without losing your rankings and you can easily tell Google when your site moves.
Some suggest you upload your pages to the new domain and redirect old pages to the new pages. That will be real work to do if you have tons of pages.
whatever the case, I’m sure you can find a solution and good luck
Enstine, you have successfully created another great post! I love the in-depth writing that you have done to let us know some tips that will help us!
Hi Wade,
Thanks for visiting, reading and dropping a comment. I’m glad I was able to write a great post. Thanks for sharing it.
May you have a splendid week
It mostly boils down to studying what other successful blogs have already done and model… success leaves clues!
Hey Caleb,
Good to see you here.
You are right. Success leaves clues.
While studying what these successful blogs have done, you’ll find out that they have done the sames things listed here. They consistently provide value to their readers. This has earned them the trust of their visitors.
Hope to see you again bro
Enstine,
It would be wrong for somebody to say it takes 1-2 years for a blog to become popular. However, if you don’t promote it and reply to comments, have RSS feeds, etc, it will never become popular. I’m still very amazed that you got your blog off the ground with tons of comments in just a few weeks… It took me four months to get to that point.
Hey Ian,
Good to see you here bro.
It requires really hard work to get a popular blog. That’s what I put behind my blog. You’ve also contributed its recent growth remember? 😉
Thanks for sharing these tips. I will use them as I attempt to take my auto detailing blog to the top. It’s going to take a lot of work.
Hope everyone had a great weekend.
Hey Joe,
I’m glad this post is able to link us up. Thanks for switching to my blog and leaving a comment.
Yes, I had a great weekend bro. Hope you too had one.
An easy domain name makes it simple for the audience to recollect the website name and they keep coming back again and again. Any difficult name would be hard to remember and the readers might not bother to take the pains to even pay a visit to the site even once.
Hi Sam,
You are perfectly right. That’s why we must not rush in the choice of a domain name.
Thanks for reading and adding comment. Hope to see you again here
A very nice article I must say, Enstine! 🙂
You said it right an extremely popular blog is something that everyone wants. But, keeping your eyes on others blog will not help with it, One need to work hard over their blog to make it popular among hundred thousands of other blogs.
The very first sign of knowing your blog is popular is – repeating visitors. If people are coming to your blog regularly you are now can label your blog as one of the popular blog of that year. 🙂
Engaging readers in your blog post is an art to which we all are new to, we work hard over it but sometimes failed to attract readers. What you will say on this, Enstine?
Hey Irfan,
Good to see you here.
Yes, the key to having a popular blog is hard work and doing the right things that pay. This comes in through may ways – top content creation, engaging visitors (like you mentioned), creating relationships, etc
BTW, I hope you had a nice weekend
One of the most informative posts on basicblogtips I have seen. Each and every points you have written are really important. Domain name should be short an at the same easy to remember. Since the keyword targeted domain names are getting out of fashion.
Then writing the quality contents is the most important. without being valuable you can’t get visitors, subscribers, regular readers and no money at all.
Hey Vivek,
I’m glad I provided value in this article.
Thanks for your own contributions as well.
I do hope to see you again here and why not on my blog
I will definitely be an avid visitor of your blog. I’m a new blogger who’s trying to make my blog popular. Thank you for the tips.
Hi Kaye,
Good to hear about your decision to constantly visit this blog. As a new blogger, I’m sure you are going to find tons of useful materials to help you grow your blog fast
Hope to see you here soon
Hi! Thank you for your reply. I hope my dream of having a popular blog will come true through your help. =)
Having a high quality and well designed theme is must for the business blog. With a good design, it doesn’t require a lot of work to convert the visitors into leads.
Great post, Enstine.
Hello De,
I’m excited you were around.
Thanks for reading and dropping a comment and you are very correct about your opinion.
hope you come back again
Awesome article I must say. It will be very useful for those who are looking forward to make a popular blog.. Domain name and using a good theme is very important and at the same time plugins mentioned by you in this article are also very important.
Hey Techboy,
Thanks for reading and dropping a comment.
I use those plugins I mentioned and they are quite impressive in results. I found out that most commentators are interested in getting replies to t heir comments so alerting them of a comment reply is important as this keeps them coming back to your blog.
Hope to see you again bro, and thank you for moving to my blog and leaving a comment too. I appreciate it
Hi Ravi,
A website/blog without content is like the skeleton of a pet.
The content should be unique and of top quality
Thanks for sharing your opinion
Thanks for this great article. You really touched on some points that I deem very important too, like the short and easy to remember domain name. While having keyword -rich domain names can be important in some cases, mostly when you are focusing on the search engines to give you traffic, it’s not always the case. For most sites branding is a big part of the marketing part and having a four or five word domain name can really kill that for you.
However, I don’t agree with having to have a premium theme when creating a popular blog. I’ve worked with free themes that have a high quality and are as easy to customize as the premium ones. It’s just a matter of doing your research and finding a theme that fits your needs. If you work with a decent free theme, nobody will notice you didn’t pay top dollars for it anyway.
I’ve added your own blog to my list of sites to check out, looking forward to read more of you.
Leslie
Hi Leslie,
I’m indeed happy with your contributions and it’s a pleasure to know that you can make really great value out of free themes. Yes, I don’t throw words against it. There are lots of powerful and great free designs out there. You just will have to tweak it to your taste.
I’m impressed that you bookmarked my blog for further consultation. This assures and gives me more strength to provide valuable tips.
Will be seeing you again soon
Thanks for more good advice!
Hey Greg,
How are you today? Good to see you here and hope to see you again
Hey Mike,
You also raised an important point.
One needs a host that assures fast and top performant servers. Downtime most be kept at the lowest point possible. The price tag too should not be the first parameter. Server configuration and customer service are some of the key points to consider
Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you again
It’s very useful posting enstin. I’m very agree with you about step Step #1: Start with a short memorable domain name. If it’s hard to pronounce, it will be harder to memorize. choosing domain is very important not only for SEO purposes but also easy to remember by our visitor. By having good domain, our blog will have value in both of search engine and visitors.
Thanks for sharing enstin. I will be wait for the your next posting.
Hey Werry,
I’m glad you are here.
Thanks for reading and contributing and I’m so excited to here that you are waiting for my next article. I’m sure to deliver value again.
Have a splendid week ahead
I think you have to use everything in your power to make it popular. At the end of the day, its going to be about captivating content so that visitors stay longer. Thinking out of the box would be important, something that has not been before, being outrageous will also help in making your blog popular. Thanks for these wicked tips.
Hey Shalu,
You are right in your approach. Doing everything in ones power, using the necessary resources, thinking out of the box, etc will surely push your blog up the winning steps.
Thanks for your contributions and hope to see you again
If main keyword is in the domain name, it is very helpful for the optimization of a website. Contents must be posted with the same frequency and consistency to get high ranking in Search Engines.
Hey Nawaz,
Good to see you here.
Keywords in domain is important for SEO but question is are you going to be blogging around 1 keyword for life? It’s also important to optimize different articles for targeted keywords. There are ways to do that and really rank high.
Tell me, when are you coming back here to read more articles? 😉
Hi Enstine
These are some of the basic tips like easy to spell and remember domain name….But I bet many of us ignore such basic tips…Thanks for reinforcing such tips back mate!!
Readers are our wealth. Try to make everything clear without any clutters. Coming to design, having an unique theme will always helps to establish our blog as a brand, highly recommend stuff.
Simple yet great. Start with a short memorable domain name and unique contents are very important part to get your blog popular. But popularity may took 2-5 years.
Hey Shitij,
It feels really good to have you here man.
Thanks for reading and leaving a comment. You just reinforced my points and I’m so excited about that.
I do hope to see you again bro 😉
I agree with you Enstine cause these are what guided me when i started blogging, except for the premium theme, Now i run Genesis framework though.
I got a short domain name, wrote good posts and accepted guest posts from great writers cause my blog is a pr3 blog,
I use the nrelate related posts with thumbnails and flyout to keep visitors on my blog. I must confess they really helped during my days as a newbie.
All the same nice Post Enstine
Hey Derek,
Thanks for reading and dropping a comment.
These are surely very useful tips that bring in positive results.
Hope to see you hear again
I think it all start from the foundation because if that is not good it will surely going to affect the blog. we must be wise when choosing our domain name that’s the foundation of the blog. after other things can now follow then. thanks for sharing
Hey bro,
I’m glad to see you here.
Many people are realizing they didn’t make the right domain name choice. It’s good to take time and work over it and be sure of your choice before moving ahead. This will avoid lots of trouble ahead
HI Enstine,
The things you listed out are definitely important to build a popular blog. A simple blog installed with Premium theme which is easy to browse and navigate and is loaded with useful content and information is surely a characteristic of a highyl popular ans successful blog.
Thanks for this awesome post!!!
Hi Vineet,
Thanks for taking time to read my article and leave a comment.
Yes, I’m sure these tips are helping readers out. The big guys that we admire today all went through these or similar steps.
Hope to see you again bro
We must include or write such content in the blog that proves useful for the readers and not just some randomn stuff. When a visitor reads the post he is expecting to learn something new and sometimes trying to find a solution to his problem. The content should be powerful and meaningful enough to help him serve his purpose.
Hi James,
That’s right. The success of a popular blog really also relies on its contents.
Thanks for stopping by and chipping in your contribution
This tips is very effective and helpful for blogger. Now a days it is very important to create popular blog for visitor. This tips will help to do that. Thanks for such great post.
Hope you will post more tips like that for popular blog.
Hi Monirul,
Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. I really do appreciate your contribution. Hope to see you again here.
Have a splendid week
The correct type of interaction with the readers helps gain trust and confidence of the readers which convinces them to come back again to the site. We must appreciate their comments and inputs and try to maintain a good relationship with them in order to make them talk of the blog amongst their friend list and acquaintances.
Hi Tom,
Perfectly said!
If we main healthy relationship and provide valuable contents, they will mention us elsewhere.
Thanks for your comment
Thanks a lot for sharing this wonderful blog. Yes, There is no use in updating your blog thrice daily if there is nothing much useful present in it. Quality articles + Good Frequency of posting can produce better results. And I agree with the point that, the number of posts published daily doesn’t really matter. It is the quality that matters the most.
Hey Nicholas,
Quality is key bro and consistency adds up to it.
Hope you have a wonderful week
hello Enstine Muki,
it is true that it doesnot take 1 or2 years to make a blog famous. Your valuable content as well as regular update can make your blog famous in a short period of time.
Hey Sneha,
That’s correct! Valuable content and consistency are key points
thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment
Greetings, Enstine!
The post is really enlightening and describes in depth the techniques to build a popular post. A wonderful learning experience.
Regards.
Ramit
Greetings to you Ramit.
I’m glad to see that you read and commented this article.
I’m hope to provide more value in my subsequent posts
Thanks for being here
Hey Ravi
Thank you for reading and leaving a comment bro.
I do hope to see you here again.
Have a splendid day
Hello Enstine Muki
easy to remember is important for every one who blogging. if visitors are comming to your blog or web regularly, you can say as one of the popular blog.
This is an great post for newbies. thank you for sharing with us
Hi Hira,
Thanks for stopping by and comment. Your contribution is so appreciated.
May you have a splendid week
Hey Hira
I’m glad you are here and thanks for your comment.
I’m sure, like you said, newbies will find this resourceful to them.
Please, make time to come read more
I think keeping visitors on blog for longer time is a bigger challenge. If you follow seo rules you can manage to get visitors to your blog but then to engage them and keeping them on your blog for longer time requires special tips which you have well described in your post.
thanks for sharing these tips.
Hey Akhilendra,
Thank you man for your comment.
If you really succeed to keep your visitors for long, then you are up for something positive. I’m sure the tips I give are helpful
Hope to see you here again 😉
I agree with your concept of attaining the title of a “Successful Blogger” and i abide by it but talking about most of the bloggers today, even after writing quality content they aren’t able to achieve a good readership and the reason behind is the theme/template they use and like you said using a simple, easily readable and navigable template is a must option if you don’t abide by it your site would look cluttered and you won’t be able to keep readers there for a long time + the probability of repeated visits for those readers is also nil.
So i think maintaining a quality blog is great but having a good site design is necessary too. Thanks for this awesome post 🙂
Hi Ravi,
Thanks for your contribution and for sharing this on facebook and google+
I do really appreciate your action.
May you have a nice day bro
You are welcome buddy, i loved the article so much that a social share is much less to apreciate it. Anyways i tried my part to spread the word 🙂
Great article and point of view. I think not is necessary to start with premium theme. Just simple use theme with clear code, seo optimized with good site structure. And when make some money online we can buy premium theme.
Hey Ivo,
Thanks for reading and leaving a comment.
I agree with you.
Please, do come back again for more reading
This post covers it all Enstine and tells why most folks are not rock stars with their blog.
Great information and teaching.
Hi Enstine!
informative blog.
all of the steps are good and i think domain name and good content is very essential to create a perfect and popular blog.some grammer should be define well in your words.i like your steps.
Hey Anshul,
Good to see you here. Thank you for your contribution too.
I hope to see you again here man 😉
Easy domain name makes it simple for the visitors to recollect the blog name and they keep coming back again. Engaging readers in your blog post is an art to which we all are new to. Your all tips are very informative. thank you for sharing with us Enstine Muki.
Hi Zoya,
Thanks for commenting here and over at my personal blog.
I really do appreciate your contributions on both blogs.
Please do come back again. Have a nice week 😉
Make relationship with the readers, Beg your friends to stop by and comment your blog, Blast out an email to everyone in your database about your new blog, buy traffic from a traffic broker & Use social networks solely for promoting & Constantly tweak your site, these things will surely make your blog a big hit.
Hey Peter,
Thanks for reading and leaving your opinion. I so much appreciate it.
May you have a nice weekend and I hope to see you again
Your tips were very useful. I’ll keep in mind of these tips for my blog. Thank you!
Hi Michael,
Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. Hope to see back bro
May you have a nice weekend
Hi Enstine,
These 5 Steps that you have shared are just great and definitely helpful. 😀
I also think that “Useful Content” on step 3 is a great way to attract more and more visitors.
I would love to add my recommendation as well.
I think, posting the useful content alone is not enough.
The best way is, update the useful content with “interesting news” in it, something new, and NOT mainstream which is often written by most people.
With this, will be many visitors who come to your blog and they would be very interested to share your content in their blog, or community forum. And this course will give you a lot of natural backlink to your blog! and you must already know this will boost your rank in Google SERP. With this blog will become more and more popular! 😀
Thanks a lot for sharing these tips, I hope somebody can benefit!
Wonderful post, You have provided some great points, I like to add something, I think Writing on controversial topics, Entertaining readers by sharing video posts as reading big articles sometimes become too boring, Posting images & offcource quality content will definitely makes the blog a super hit. Good post, thanks for these wonderful tips.
Hey Kenny,
That’s great contribution from you there. You just mentioned the type of contents that people like.
Have a nice weekend and hope to see you here again
Thanks for writing this. I believe doing internet business is more than just starting with nothing and grow it to become a force to be reckon with.
Get at least $1, 000 get the best tools, get started online and within 3 months, you’ll be a force to reckon with. that’s the research I’ve made so far.
Hi Anderson,
You are right. If you want to succeed in any business, you need to invest money. That’s also true for Internet Business. However, with the Internet, you need to have a lot of precautions not to be victim to scammers
Thanks for your contribution
Being a professional Blogger always makes you feel like a King.But being a King is a lot of time consuming process.You just have to serve your readers and let them like you.
And this post really describes techniques to make that process fast.
Thanks
Hey Hendry,
Thanks bro for reading and adding your contribution. It’s important what you’ve mention and I think that can add up to produce positive results.
I hope to see you again bro.
May you have a splendid weekend
Hi Enstine
Interesting article, I just want to know, after making a useful content, should I make link building to make a popular blog? Does link building important for a new blog?
Hey Aufa,
You absolutely need to build links for your SEO improvements but I strongly advice against black hat link building methods as this only goes to hurt your overall input. White hat SEO will bring you both referral and Search Engine traffic and that’s what you will not want to compromise.
i guess you covered all the important points.SEO is very important these days owing to panda and penguin,all this is beneficial in long term.
Hey Pradeep,
Thanks for reading and commenting. Your contribution is very useful
I hope to see you again here 😉
A popular blog is the mixture of all the characteristics you have stated in this post. Treating the visitors right is also one great way of increasing the blog’s traffic and making it known to maximum readers. When commenting back to the readers, a kind and genuine comments might work wonders.
Hey Katie,
Thanks for reading and leaving a comment.
You are perfectly correct there. You need to interact and maintain a good relationship with your visitors. This will go a long way to make a popular blog
I hope to see you again, Katie
Thanks for sharing these tips. I will use them as I attempt to take my blog to the top. It’s going to take a lot of work.
hey stanley,
This is not going to be easy as you said but just keep doing one is right. Be consistent and you will see results.
Thanks for reading and commenting
strongly agree with you that a good theme plays a very important role in making the blog popular…!!! as i was not having a good theme at starting of my blogging career but afterwards i got a new theme and it just work for my and my blog’s pr is 2..
Hey Shubham,
Good to hear that something has worked for you. It’s a good thing to have a pro theme. The advantages are huge.
Thanks for reading and commenting. Hope to see you back again
Well Hello Enstine, I definitely agree with your list and one of the best ways to make this list happen is firstly for you to believe in yourself as someone who has value to share with others.
Once you have got over that hurdle then its time to become a leader by following the steps you list, create a site worth reading, scare and push yourself in several directions – you fail so your readers do not have to. Share the good experiments alongside the ones that did not go as planned and continue to engage with those around you.
Hi Igor,
Thanks for reading and leaving a comment. I’m sure readers will like your comment and contribution.
I do hope you have a nice day.
Someone said that This is an awesome post for newbies to know blogging better.
Well this is true.
I’m a new blogger from Honduras, and i just want to say thank you for such helpful
information.
Hey Germo,
Good to hear the positive remarks about this post. As newbie, just follow the steps and be sure to see results.
Thanks for reading and leaving a comment.
Do have a splendid weekend
Completely agree with the personality point Ileane, it really is the secret source, and yet obvious when you think about it!
Hey Enstine,
You’ve applied your own principles to writing this article and delivered an excellent and highly popular work. I have to comment on point #1 though because I don’t even try to remember domain names, I just automatically bookmark any blogs/sites of high interest to me and that are relevant to IM. I promise, if I had to rely on memory to go back and study blogs, I would get to read hardly any! Thanks Enstine.
Thanks Alice for commenting and Happy New Year.
Wishing you the best this year
There are many factor influence to the good blogging. I seem it’s not only unique content but also some strategies may apply to your your blog that work like charm to keep your repeat visitor. It would be a wrong sound for some body to say it take 1 or 2 years for a blog to become popular.
Hello Enstine
Ya all these factors are extremely important for every blogger.Good content with nice representation Is very important for getting loyal readers as well as normal visitor.Because normal visitors converts into loyal readers after getting something very interesting from your blog.Thanks fro these important tips.