Marketing states that it is much easier to maintain an existing customer than it is to get a new customer. Blogging works on the same principle as Marketing – it is much easier to keep your existing readers than what it would take to get new readers to your site. If you are blogging and you are successful in that, you should be a successful marketer as well.

Having good content and a clean layout are, unfortunately, not good enough to get readers on board. It takes a lot of skill to make people stick to your blog and stay on with you as you rant your way to perfection. There are a few simple steps that you need to master if you are to retain your readers.

1.       Do not put them off: Your readers read your blog for a reason. Try not to upset them by being too casual about your business. Merely because you have a set of readers who follow you in all earnestness doesn’t mean that you can take them for granted. Treat every post as your best post and give your best shot at it. Remember: It takes a lot of consistent posts to gain readers; all it takes is one really bad post to drive them away.

2.       Do not clutter your site with too many Ads: You should have known by now that readers visit your site to read content and to gain value; they are not there to click on your advertisements. Readers clicking on the advertisements may well be your motive, but if you make it obvious, you would miss out on content quality and readers would miss out on their experience. Both of these are not good signs for an enduring relationship with your readers.

3.       Be focussed on your theme: If you have positioned your blog as dealing with a particular theme, stick to the theme. If you find it too tempting to write on another theme that is totally different from your current theme, start another blog with the different theme (of course, you need to be sure that you can carry on with two blogs). But never mix themes and confuse your reader.

4.       Relate to your Readers: You can’t treat your blog a monologue and keep talking in thin air. You need to realise that you are being listened to and you need to relate to the readers. If you forget about your readers and keep posting stuff just because you feel like posting, you may not have many people to read you at the end of the day.

5.       Make Your Readers Subscribe to Newsletters: If you are serious enough to keep churning out posts so regularly, you should think of getting people to subscribe to your posts. You may create newsletters so that your readers are regularly updated to your posts. However, a better alternative than newsletters is RSS feed.

6.       Use RSS Feeds: You should encourage your readers to subscribe to your posts with RSS. With RSS, your readers would immediately have the updated version of your blog as and when you update it. This would make sure that they do not miss out on the best posts of your blog and you could be in touch with your readers constantly.

As you go about your routine of making the most of your current bloggers, you may need to take care of a few additional tips to use RSS Feeds.

1.       Place your RSS feeds prominently in your blog. It may so happen that your readers may actually be interested in subscribing to your posts but they may not find the feed icon. Display a fairly big RSS feed button so that your readers wouldn’t miss it.

2.       Place your RSS Icon at the top of the page as well as after your posts: Readers who complete reading a post would catch a glimpse of your reader if it immediately follows your post. And if your post happens to be a good one, they would subscribe immediately.

3.       Explain what RSS is: Do not take your readers for granted. Your readers may not know what an RSS is and how it could help them subscribe to you. Make sure you drop a short note below the icon explaining what it is, or as a pop up.

4.       Have your RSS Icons in all pages: If you thought it would be enough to have your RSS icons in your home page alone, think again. Your RSS icons need the maximum visibility and the best way for you to give the visibility is to splash them all over, in all the pages.

5.       Make subscription to your blog as easy as possible: When you follow the four tips mentioned above, you would have actually made it easy for your readers to subscribe to your posts. Readers seldom have time to think what to do – just give it to them and they will take it.