How can you grow your blog without breaking the bank? Writer of Bournemouth Girl spills the beans.
If you’re a hobby blogger or a part-time blogger, you probably do not want to be ploughing lots of money into the growth and promotion of your blog.
When I first started blogging, I didn’t think pay to run a blog, I didn’t have a paid domain name or anything. I just started writing and using tactics and practices that were free to utilise. You can absolutely grow and make a successful blog without paying out lots of money. This is a list of tips and practices that you can regularly use to develop your blog.
Maybe you want to spend some money on your blog. That’s cool too! Check out this wee article by The Fun Money Club to learn how much it can actually cost!
Here are 8 ways you can grow your blog without spending money
Use of social media
For many people, bloggers or non-bloggers, social media is a popular form of communication and seeking friendships. Due to the vast amount of users around the world, sharing your blog posts and your blog can be hugely beneficial.
On all your social media platform profiles, you have the option to include your website. This makes it easier for your followers to find your content. Sharing blog links on your social media can help you to be shared all around the world. Using certain hashtags can help you have your content shared.
You should never be afraid to post several times a day on your social media platforms, hundreds and thousands of posts are shared, so sharing open post per day, may not achieve the desired traffic.
Here are some excellent ways to up your traffic organically!
Tell family, friends and work colleagues
Sharing your blog with members of your family, friends and your work colleagues can be a great way to increase your blog traffic. They can also help in sharing your content on social media.
When your family, friends and colleagues are aware of your blog, it not only provides you with more traffic, but their support can also be so motivating. It can be quite intimidating to share something personal like your blog. I felt the same way, but when I shared it with family and friends, they were so supportive.
Guest posting
Writing other blog posts for bloggers can be a great way to not only promote your own blog, but a simple way to grow your DA score.
Guest posting, especially on a blog that has a larger audience and encourage those readers to follow your blog. The bloggers who you guest post for will also promote the blog posts on their social media platforms and again you will have your content shared with their audience.
I have started to guest post for other bloggers and have a guest person on my blog and this has increased my traffic.
Interlinking
When posting new blog posts, it is important that you interlink older blog posts. This not only helps with keeping your audience on your site, but helps with growing your DA.
Sharing older blog posts helps to share other relevant content that can be of interest to your readers. This is a simple action that you can do regularly to develop your blog and aid promotion.
These are some of the benefits:
- Increases average session durations by the visitor
- It helps to reduce your website’s bounce rate
- Helps Google to better understand your niche
- Helps to increase the number of page visits per user
- Improves indexation of your website as well as directing traffic to older posts
Having an email list is a great way to get your posts seen. Every post you share notifies your readers via email about a new blog post. Email outreach can be a really simple way for you to share your posts with your readers who may not be as active on social media.
Writing pitches to brands can help get your blog posts shared. When you collaborate with a brand, they are likely to share your post(s) with their audience that will grow your reach.
Learn about SEO
Having a blog that practises good SEO will help to grow your blog traffic. When your blog has good levels of SEO, you are going to rank really well and land yourself on that first page.
Being on the first page of Google means that you are more likely to get more clicks. There is so much information on SEO: blog posts from experienced bloggers, e-books, free courses and many other resources. Developing your knowledge is a great way to learn how to develop your blog. Here are 5 top SEO tips:
- Use paragraphs and headings in your posts
- Optimise the length of your article
- Link to your existing content
- Use relevant keywords
Take free online courses
There are so many free courses and resources online that you can access which will help you to grow your knowledge. Growing your knowledge can help you to develop your blog and boost your blog traffic.
You can learn about what not to do in order to promote your blog posts as well as tips that more experienced bloggers have found work really well.
You see so many courses and e-books that cost, yet they, unfortunately, do not always have the most effective advice. If you are a hobby blogger, I definitely recommend trialling the free resources first.
Post consistently
Sharing blog posts regularly and consistently can help increase your blog views. Posting regularly and consistently doesn’t mean posting every day or 5 times a week; even if you commit to just one post per week, keeping to that will improve your blog’s visibility. Not only does it attract a loyal following, it also helps to improve your DA score.
Regularly sharing new content on your blog helps Google to rank your content; the more you do it, the more likely you are to be found on Google or shared on social media. If you struggle to post consistently creating a blogging schedule can help you become more organised and share regular content
If you are a hobby blogger, how do you promote and grow your blog without spending money? I’d love to hear in the comments.
Great read for any new blogger
This is a really solid list! Good advice! Thanks for sharing!
Give affiliate marketing a go as well! Find a perfect brand for your niche, have a product or a service you really believe in, and then share it with your users. You recommend a good product and may profit!
Oh i am so glad i have tried most of the methods here. Although i have been blogging for quite a while now, i haven’t tried paying anything yet to expand my readership. I don’t think i have a budget for that so i am taking advantage of these costless methods… It’s quite a process but i think they are very effective
Gaining traffic does take time. I found email marketing to be tough. Interlinking is important. and yea i did notice that if you don’t post consistently the da does drop. thanks for the tips. xx
Isa A. Blogger
https://www.lifestyleprism.com/
Can’t believe you’re still trying to scam vulnerable people with this blog after you were called out for it. Have some respect . You are not a professional.
I would need to take note of this. Learning SEO and taking courses is what I haven’t done yet.
Really good tips, which I need to start following. I definitely need to get into a habit of posting more and sharing on social media. Thank you for sharing ????
These are some great tips! It really doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg to grow your blog and whilst there are a ton of great courses and things out there, if you’re on a budget then you’re more than able to find the information you need online for free and go from there!
Nnniiiccceeee….going by your list, I am only missing out on taking those free online courses. It’s something I need to do more often. I know it’s important but I keep on playing it down.
I feel starting from family and friends is a good push to help you get the stats going. Great tips! Thank you for sharing!
Fransic – https://www.querianson.com/
These are all great points! Blogging is surprisingly expensive and it is nice to have some tips for growing your blog without having to spend a ton of money.
Hello Nyxie! I agree with this post 100%. SEO, social media, guest posting, backlinks, an email list and consistency are tips I could swear by. Social media and guest posting is a great way to get your brand out there. Also, SEO is very important. If you want to grow your blog to the maximum, you need to learn SEO. There are so many free blogging courses out there and they help a ton. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you very much, Nyxie! I have started blogging only a few months ago, and these ideas will be very helpful.
It’s so encouraging to hear ways to grow a blog without spending money. We’ve been trying to have a balance between free things and spending because we aren’t making anything back yet. Social media has been huge for us in growing our audience. Twitter especially 🙂
This was really informative since I am in the blogging sphere just few months and I am still learning lots of things. Thank you!
I love this post, Nyxie! When I first started blogging, I took a lot of free courses and read up on every single resource out there! Being consistent is so important so that your readers know when a new post is out! Thanks for sharing x
Lynn | https://www.lynnmumbingmejia.com
It’s hard to be consistent in posting. I try but it’s not always the case.
I just signed up for a free online course. I’d like to start earning a little, even if I have to spend a little to do so.
Yes. Yes. Yes. I started blogging back in 2011 and did many of these. Today, it seems a tad bit harder, but you can do it.
Social media, linking and nailing SEO are all biggies. My second biggest referrer after google is social media but back in the early days before I got nicely ranked by google it was everything.
Ah these are great and super effective tips. While i do accept guest posts on my blog, i haven’t tried writing guest post for other websites.. I think i should try that approach soon. Also i do not update my site regularly.. I think k should be active more
Thank you for the tips.. I will keep these in mind
I agree to all these tips. It’s not just about the talent, still we have to promote our blog patiently and consistently to grow.
I found that SEO and writing consistently have contributed immensely to my blog’s growth. I’d always recommend those to my fellow bloggers.
These are great tips. I never used to put any money into my blog and was still able to grow it in a way that suited me. Social media is definitely a great way of doing this.
These are great tips! I love trying to grow my blog without spending a lot of money too
These are some great tips – I started blogging again back in May after a two-year hiatus, and it does feel intimidating at times.
Thank you for letting me guest post on your blog. I really enjoyed writing this blog post. I hope these tips help others who are looking to grow their blog.
Lauren – bournemouthgirl.com
I think everyone starting out should read this. It’s so easy to fall into the trap of thinking you have to spend a ton of money on all the e-bells and whistles.
Thanks for this really positive post. There are plenty of helpful suggestions.
Those are all great tips for blogging on a budget. When I first started my blog, I didn’t have a big budget. I got a super cheap hosting plan like $5 a month and went from there. There are all kinds of free themes on WordPress that you can use as well.