When I began Modern Super Momma, I knew exactly who my audience was…no one.

Tempting as it was to send a blanket invite to all readers (friends and family) of my personal, limited-access baby blog, I needed (a) moms (b) who would read a blog (c) that could handle my trucker’s vocabulary. This is a fairly small target group – that included only a handful of my friends.

Here are a few tips I have for expanding your reading base.

It Takes One to Know One

Friend people and they’ll friend you. Comment on a page, and people with either comment back or (at the very least) go to your site (if it’s linked to the comment) to see who you are. Read around. Find people with a similar writing style, topics, etc. as you and follow their posts – and more importantly follow their followers! Stalking in the blog world is par for the course. That is cyber-stalking using blog-based information. DO NOT email bloggers pictures of themselves from 2^nd grade that some asshole in their class posted on Facebook and comment on their unfortunate combination of poodle hair and plastic-framed glasses. Also, DO NOT show up at their house uninvited to their kid’s birthday party. Both are bloggy fouls and huge no-nos!

There Is No Zero to Sixty

Take a little time posting for just a few (or no) readers. Depending on your objective, that may be as far as you want to take your audience. If you want to make it “big” – and be recognized by other sites, make oodles of money, and be able to complain that you are double booked for Leno and Letterman – it will take some time. You need to have more than a few posts to read. The powers-that-be need to know you aren’t a one-hit-wonder who blew your blog wad on one super fantastic post. We all have bad days, but exhibit your talent and people will find you!

Get Yourself Out There

Once you have some content built up, it is time to begin to publicize yourself. Some no-brainer suggestions are to create a Facebook fanpage and a Twitter account to use to allow people to easily follow your progress and to be notified when new posts are available. Branding yourself is less important than finding readers. If no one is reading, no one will give a crap if you have specialized buttons on your page! I chose to spend a few bucks up front and run a Facebook ad. With those, you can target a gender, age group, fans of certain pages, etc. to hone in on your desired audience. Google analytics is a powerful and free tool to track who is reading your posts, how they’re stumbling upon your page, and how long they’re sticking around to read. This is all good stuff to know, especially as you start out and no one wants to be the first on the dance floor that is your comment wall.

Become One of the Herd

Join blog rings. The easiest way to find those pertinent to your blog is to check for badges or buttons along the side of blogs of similar scope. Post to those sites, participate in discussion groups, and make connections! Network, network, network. Keep in mind that many who friend/follow you are expecting you to reciprocate. Play nice and do so – don’t be a dick.

Retain Your Readers

Of course, a few will drop off and decide to not follow or to unfriend you. Depending on how thick your skin it will sting to see your count drop (I know it did for me…I was hurt!). Tough shit, their loss! The sweet spot – at least for my readers – is two or three posts a week. Posting too infrequently will send your audience elsewhere to read. Conversely, it is possible to become post-happy and drive people away. You don’t want to be “that” guy… People tend to leave if you end up blog-vomiting on their Facebook page. Even if they don’t “unfriend” you, they’ll hide your posts – which is functionally the same thing. If you get overzealous and write a zillion posts you have options! You can set the posts to publish in a couple of days to space out your entries. You can also post and publish, but not advertize every single post at all outlets. For example, one day advertize a post on Facebook and the next on Twitter.

Those following you on both sites obviously have a crush on you and simply cannot get enough of your humor/satire/wisdom/idiocy and want to absorb, memorize, and recite at open mic nights every single one of your posts.

I hope this helps!

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Happy Blogging!!