Toolbox: Hook Internet Wanderers With These Five Critical Steps

Editor’s note: We’re trying something new with our Friday roundups.

Instead of links to the week’s top news, we’ll be posting what we call Toolboxes – a handful of resources on a theme – every week. Check out our Tumblr feed for ongoing industry news curation, every day of the week.

This week, we break down one of our biggest questions – how in the world do you catch the attention of readers on the internet?

1. Find Early Birds

Early adopters stay on top of new trends. Getting your brand on their minds through content can be incredibly valuable. Though some brands, like Hearst, keep their content limited, others let it fly free – in hopes of attracting more random, unprecedented viewers.

Here’s how to catch the eye of those early adopters – and drive them back to your content.

2. Attract Them

A great blog communicates on all levels – including visually – to attract and retain an audience. Even if design is not your forte, you can still have an attractive site – just make sure to make it easy.

Here are five low commitment, easy-to-comprehend steps to amping your blog’s design.

3. Talk To Them

An authentic voice is critical; it can make or break your blog’s success.

It’s all about the tone, and speaking straight to your audience rather than up or down to them.

Check out the three major factors that should help you determine what voice is right for your blog.

4. Be Honest

If you want to get real readership, you need reader trust. That means not being afraid to expose yourself a bit.

This will make your content that much more unique and relevant to your brand. Then you will be able keep your loyal users, and bring in new ones in measurably demonstrated ways.

Here are some examples of brands who used a transparent strategy with great success.

5. Convert Them

Increasing traffic to your blog isn’t the “cure all” some people make it out to be. Without a solid strategy, you might attract users – but not be able to keep them coming back.

But as long as you’re clear-eyed about what traffic-building efforts can and cannot accomplish, there is a lot gained by getting exposed to new (and different) people. You truly can never know when one of those new visitors might play a very important role in your online “ecosystem.”

Here are a ten tactics to help you attract and convert without fail.