12 Tips on Reaching 500 Hits

Recently, I celebrated weight lifting 1 million pounds at the Y. I was pretty impressed until I met Kristina who has lifted 23 million pounds! However, if you’ve not done weight training, you might be more curious how to lift one million pounds than 23 million!

These tips are for the person who wants 500 hits on her blog in a couple months. Search elsewhere for the blogger with 5 million hits!

1. Pick a topic with universal appeal. Every organism is born to flourish. Find a topic that will attract a variety of readers.

2. Pick a topic that fascinates you. Ask yourself, “Can I be excited about this topic for the duration?” If you’re not enthusiastic, don’t expect readers to return.

3. Pick a topic that you know something about. I didn’t start out to study flourishing, but to understand behavior styles. Several years later after thousands of hours of research, I realized I had discovered the secret formula for flourishing in life.

4. Pick a topic that is transformational. Everyone wants to be re-invented. What I learned on flourishing has revolutionized my life. What has transformed your life? How can you guide your reader into being his personal best?

5. Practice compelling language. Engage the emotions as you write; hone your storytelling ability; make it easy to read and beneficial; avoid the passive voice; write for 8th graders. People don’t have a lot of time; make it worth their time.

6. Develop a following on social media. Having friends in place means a ready-made audience of those who know, like and trust you. Do friends and followers already find you uplifting? Encouraging?

7. Find a mentor. My friend, JoAnn Shiley, gave me an afternoon patiently guiding me through wordpress.com. Thank you, JoAnn!

8. Write on trending topics. Twitter posts hot topics throughout the day. On days when I write on trending topics the number of hits increases dramatically. Following the Christchurch earthquake, I wrote on how to re-open supply lines and get Christchurch flourishing again. Stats soared.

9. Write 2-3 times per week. Posting regularly demonstrates commitment and search engines like that.

10. Write 250-350 words. This is a good readable length attractive to Google and friends.

11. Tag each article with 5-10 subject headings. For example, Christchurch/New Zealand/Earthquake/Compassion/Supply lines.

12. Auto-publish on Facebook and Twitter. Tweet a catchy title; add a photo along with a compelling lead in for Facebook. Make it easy for your friends and followers to read your musings.

May yours be a flourishing blog! May you transform our world one inspired reader at a time!

2 Comments

  1. Marlee, reading these tips haven proven to be very valuable. So much so, that I wanted to share them with my readers. http://is.gd/8R5buT
    Thank you for sharing the wisdom!!
    Loretta for Spin That 45

  2. Loretta–Thanks for confirming that these tips really work–and even faster than they did for me. That is the beauty of the four-minute mile and those who came after! Best to you as you follow your passion writing about music and musicians! And thanks for spreading my li’l bit of wisdom with the world!