Brenda

My journey to 500 followers

Today I received notification that I’d reached 500 followers. People keep telling me I’m doing very well, and that my blog is growing quickly. I dont really think I’m doing anything special, just being me, but I guess that works. Instead of simply saying thank you to all my readers, followers and friends who have made this possible, I’ve thought about which activities I engage in are contributing most to my growth.

Context

I published my first post on curiosities, Castles and Coffee Shops on 27th July, 2022.

On 26th February, 2023 I had 200 followers.

It’s taken me 8 1/2 months to reach 500 followers.

Generally, I try to publish about 4 times a week, publishing on a range of topics, so possibly appeal to a broader audience than someone working in a narrow niche.

What works for me

I would always start something like this with a caveat … this works for me. Everyone needs to find our their own recipe for success. However, if I can give others some ideas or encouragement, then I’ve been successful.

Community

Communicate with people. Engage with every person who posts on your comments section. Visit other sites and leave them comments too – proper feedback, not ‘visit me’ and don’t leave a link to your website. You should engage properly – tell them what you liked, what interested you, what you thought of their post rather than just saying ‘good’ etc. The more you do that, people will answer back and you’ll start a conversation.

I’d say in some respects this is possibly the most important part of blogging. If you don’t engage with people, and talk to your readers, leaving you comments, why would they come back, and why would they follow you?

I love my community and my loyal readers and followers. You should never take them for granted. Without them you’re nothing. You get so much support, reassurance and encouragement from them ❤️

Others’ blogging expertise

There are a lot of bloggers with good experience and are happy to support newer bloggers. On that front I’d like to thank the two who helped me most with their blogs when I started, Renard and Hugh. You two have made such a difference to me and I’m glad you were both there when I was getting started. 🥃🥃 (thought Scotch would be appropriate)

Produce quality work

I’d suggest producing well written pieces with well developed arguments that are clear and well structured. Ensure your spelling and grammar is good. Also check you reference where appropriate and never plagiarise.

Additionally I’d say publish regularly and consistently. Its better to decide to just publish once a week and stick with that rather than being all over the place. People will get used to how often you publish. Generally people like routine, even if you’re just publishing once or twice a month, if that’s your routine, people will come to expect that from you.

Focus

You will need to decide whether you are going to write about a single, niche topic or like me, if you will write on a range of topics.

I like the freedom and flexibility to write about whatever piques my interest. It means I have more things to choose from. I believe that’s probably also contributing to my fast growth as I can appeal to a broader range of readers.

Develop relationships and make friends

A final piece of advice I’d pass on is to not under-estimate the importance of the relationships and friendships that can form through blogging – but to achieve that you need to start by communicating with other bloggers.

I dont think building those relationships ever stops as there will be new people joining the blogging community all the time.

In the 8-9 months I’ve been here I’ve met many wonderful bloggers and am making some great friendships. There are so many I want to say a big thank you to, but the people that I want to really thank are Vicki, Wynne, Gray, Sadje, Destiny and Devang for believing in me. For your encouragement and support. 💝💝💝💝💝💐💐💐💐💐🥂🥂🥂🥂🥂🥂🥂

However, I also really want to say a huge big thank you to each and every person who reads and who follows my blog, none of this would be possible without you. 😘😘😘

Image by emmagrau from Pixabay

If you haven’t already subscribed as a follower, sign up and help me get to 1,000 😁

127 comments

  1. Congratulations! I’m so happy for you and I’m not at all surprised. Thank you for your beautiful blog, Brenda and for your friendship! 🥰

    Reply

  6. Hi Brenda!
    Some blog posts on your blog are relevant to me, as they’re written with a fresh and thought provoking mindset.
    Your comments have helped me to reflect on myself and make essential changes.
    You’re an honest and good friend.
    I congratulate you for getting 500 followers!🎉🎉
    My best wishes for your happy journey.✨❤️

    Reply

  11. I have only been subscribed a few days but I can see the quality of the content you produce and the fabulous engagement you have with your community. Congratulations.

    Reply

  12. 500 followers is well deserved. You are both a fine and interesting writer and very supportive of others too. The balance of subject matter in your themes is well presented. The high level of advice you proffer regarding the educational and professional arenas, your own well written interests in travel and fictional story writing has no boundaries. And visitors, like myself, can find useful, reflective, new knowledge and entertaining interest in your diverse writing. You have created a fantastic blog site Brenda. All the best.

    Reply

  15. Congratulations on your 500th follower, Brenda. Good advice and a friendly voice is always welcome here.

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  17. 🙂 Congratulations on acquiring 500 followers, Brenda.

    And, thank you for the shoutout. I am pleased to know that I am one of the two people who helped you out the most with your blog.

    Reply

  19. Thank you for your support. When you mean be consistent in posting do you mean a time? Meaning the same time everyday? JetPack says best time is Saturday at 2:00 pm. You can tell I have thought about it a bit.

    I just let the research guide me. I have many interests. It seems to be working.

    Once again thanks!
    AJ

    Reply

    • For consistency I meant more if you publish twice a week, that you keep doing that. It can be difficult to find a best time of day, and I don’t always publish at the same time. The only way I think that’s likely to happen is if you schedule when you publish

      Reply

      • That’s when most people read your blog; but I’ve seen that change but yes, you could publish at that time but if you’re publishing more than once a week you’re best exploring/testing to see what’s best for you. I have found a Saturday is my least popular day; it will vary from person to person I think. My advice would be to try out a few different times and track your answers yourself. I also wondered if my different types of posts would rank differently, but again I’m not seeing much difference.

        You would also want to think about where your audience/readers are; plus if you try different times you may find you attract different audiences. I’m not sure what others might say, but I don’t really find there’s much difference to when I publish so long as I’m publishing regularly and keeping my readers engaged

      • Yes, I agree and I have been playing around with times. I usually take Sunday off. I try to make it a no device day. Thank you so much for your input.!

  23. Such a fantastic news.

    You are posting quality content, and I’m happy for you.

    Best wishes.

    Ps – the guy you mentioned in the post, sounds like a good person 😝

    Reply

  24. Congratulations Brenda on reaching this milestone. Thanks for the shoutout. I enjoy reading your posts and interacting with you on WP. All the best my friend

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  30. Nah but this is exactly what I’ve been looking for because I’m always trying so hard to grow my viewers but I haven’t found the right way yet. I’m trying to find collaborators too but it all takes time I guess! Great post

    Reply

    • Thanks. I’ve only really started collaborating, publishing on Wise and Shine in the past 4 weeks. I’d say it takes time to build up your blog and your reputation.

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  32. Congratulations on a milestone well achieved! You have such fascinating blogs, thank you! Appreciate the advice…both for newbies and as a reminder for those of us who’ve been at it for a bit! 💞💞💞

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  33. Brenda, many thanks for the shoutout and congratulations on the milestone of 500 followers. And thank you for sharing your blogging journey with your followers. I’m sure many of them (especially those new to blogging) will find these posts helpful.

    Proper engagement with other bloggers is so important. Many bloggers fail because they leave short comments that have no value, but you know all that about that.

    I’ll drop you an email about one of the comments I’ve seen on this post and on some of your other posts. I’ll mention who they are in the email, but in a nutshell, it’s spam.

    Reply

  41. Congratulations Brenda for reaching such a Climax, 500 follows is a huge number. Well done and I admire your blog , I will always support you as long as I am still a Blogger here. Keep going madam💎💯💯💯🙏

    Reply

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