If you are running a blog as an income stream, or to drive traffic to your business, then either way, you want as many readers as possible. In fact, this is the whole point of blogging – to get people to click on your links, read what you have to say, and take action from it.

Blogging is an increasingly competitive field, however, and shows no signs of slowing down. Here are some actionable tips you can use to get more readers to your blog right away – and improve your results.

Share and share again

If you are writing a blog post and then just leaving it to sit without doing anything else, you are doing it wrong. You should have active social media profiles on which you share your posts consistently – Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and even Instagram are real musts.

Don’t just share one link into the void and then give up. Work at your social media presence by using hashtags, interacting with others, growing your following, and posting other things that aren’t directly related to your blog. This will improve your position as someone that other people want to follow, thus giving you more reach for each share.

Improve your images

Images are one of the most important aspects of blog posts, especially when sharing. That image is the one thing that will catch someone’s eye as they scroll through social media, so don’t use something boring or low quality.

Make sure to use high-quality stock images, as unique as possible, or improve your own ability to take pictures. This may mean upgrading your equipment, taking a short photography course, or lots more practice. Whatever it takes, get some bright, clear, and sharp images up on your blog to appeal to everyone who passes by.

Encourage discussion

Make sure that you have a comment section under your blog. This is crucial for real growth! Encourage comments there, and be sure to engage with anyone who does leave a word. Be personable and engaging, and be patient too. If someone makes a negative comment, respond calmly and with grace.

The best blogs are the ones who have raving fans – people who gather there to read the posts, leave comments and discuss with each other, and share the posts on their own social media. This is how you can seriously grow your reach.

Be authoritative

When you are posting on your blog, do so with the authority and confidence of an expert. Prove to your readers that you know what you are talking about, and give them useful information that they can actually put into practice in their lives.

You can search for commonly asked questions in your industry or field of discussion. You can even find some frequent queries by going to Google and typing in the name of your genre with one of the five Ws – for example, “Food photography Why”. This will throw up a list of questions that people commonly type into Google, and you can answer them in your next post.

You can also ask your readers and followers to tell you their burning questions – this is sure to get some views and engagement from the people who ask!

There is no exact science to instantly grabbing a load of blog readers – it’s more to do with hard work and consistency, as well as a high level of quality.

Make sure that you follow these tips on a regular schedule: don’t leave your readers waiting for more and wondering when your next post will be. Have them tuning in because they know your schedule!