How to get (kinda) blog famous

1. Share Buttons: Most blog servers these days (WordPress, Blogspot and select themes on Tumblr) offer your readers the ability to share your blog with just the click of a button. At the bottom of everything you post, small icons for Facebook, Twitter, email, etc. allow your readers to share your thoughts on their own social forums, thereby publicizing your blog by recommendation. To increase the likelihood your blog will travel the Internet, hunt down the share settings for the server you’re using and enable “sharing buttons” or some variation.

2. Social Media: Every time you post, repost the link to all your social media. It doesn’t matter if you’re a frequent or infrequent contributor. Share it with all your friends via Facebook, Twitter, Google+ — anything to create buzz. The more your post is clicked, the more hits your blog receives, and comments or retweets will round out your mission from different perspectives.

3. Pictures: If you don’t have images in every post (every post!), you are doing something wrong. These days, all people want to do is flip the channel as soon as something loses their attention, and a wall of text will most assuredly deter them. Only your close friends will read text-only posts, but, if you take the extra step to find photos, link a video or share a GIF, your aesthetic will be dynamic and raring to go.

4. Make it sharp: Don’t bother with patterned themes or bright colors. These can repel specific tastes and express a personality for your blog that you might not have intended. Find something clean, white or off-white with standard font and size. Find one small focal point of visible space for your blog and restrict your wacky design idea to it. Professionalism is the most accessible aesthetic, no matter what you’re blogging about.

5. Regularity: Commit to posting at least once a week, but not too regularly. Consistency is face time on your social media and on your server, so it’s important that your readers don’t forget you’re there. Unless you’re on Tumblr, it’s important not to bombard them with images and ideas several times a day, or they will become annoyed and unsubscribe to your blog. Be reliable to your readers, and they’ll rely on you.

6. Converse: Enable commentary on your blog, whether you like it or not. It’s important to build buzz, whether it’s positive or negative feedback. Likewise, comment on other people’s blogs and media so they know your avatar, otherwise they’ll be less inclined to form an opinion on your own posts. Send individual messages to bloggers you truly admire. Chances are they’re just as responsive to fans as you’d be.

7. Follow back: There are a hundred million blogs out there. Spend a few hours searching out other bloggers on your server and introduce yourself. Internet relationships should not be shied away from in the effort to get people to know who you are, so be courteous and show the same interest in other Internet presences as you’d give your own.