HOW TO GROW YOUR BLOGLOVIN' PAGE

This post is somewhat a response to a comment that I received a while back. When discussing how delighted I was to have passed 650 followers on Bloglovin' in my Catch Up #6 post, I was asked to share some tips on how I actually grew my Bloglovin'. Of course, don't get me wrong, my little number of 650 is nothing compared to the numbers that some other bloggers have but, these days, it can be hard to pass 100 on that platform in the first place.

It is worth saying that, as I've been blogging a long time, and Bloglovin' was more prevalent when I started blogging, I have had a lot of time to grow on there. However, since I started recording my Bloglovin' figures in my planner in January, I've gained nearly 70 followers, in half a year, on a platform that isn't really used by the general public and remains fairly exclusive to bloggers and brands.

Nevertheless, gaining a lump sum followers in 6 months takes a little bit of care and attention but more-so just general things to keep up that will, hopefully, pay off. Here are some tips for growing your Bloglovin' page:

GET THE WIDGET
This one goes without saying, perhaps. If you don't know what-the-widget I mean when I say 'Get the Widget', then you can find it in my sidebar. The little black 'Bloglovin'' button that also displays my current follower count is situated in my sidebar - that's my Bloglovin' Widget. While it's also used to give your followers an insight into how many people are following your blog, but it's also an easy way for audiences to get following you. To be honest, if you're lucky enough to have a set theme which provides you and your blog with 'Social Buttons' (or if somehow you're an extraterrestrial that can figure out HTML and make your own 'social buttons') then you probably don't need it, but nevertheless, it's free and useful to have.

DIRECT YOUR FOLLOWERS
It's quite important that you use the right page on Bloglovin'. Don't panic - there's only two to choose from. There is your personal page in which you like and follow other bloggers, and there's your blog page that publishes the posts that you write. Your personal page owns your blog page through a process of 'claiming'. Anyhow, if you comment and like another blogger's content as a way of putting yourself out there, you're likely to be presenting people with your personal page - if they did want to pursue your links and follow you they'd be taken to the content that you like, and not the content that you make. Unfortunately, there's no way around that. The best way that I've found to direct audiences to the blog page (the page housing your content), is to politely ask them to click further and follow your blog. Like this:

SCHEDULE TWEETS
I tend to pop a scheduled tweet up twice a week to promote my Bloglovin' page. I'll usually say something along the lines of 'Follow me on Bloglovin'', followed by the link, with 3 or 4 RT accounts tagged at the end. You can read a bit more on how to effectively schedule tweets HERE. As I said, Bloglovin' isn't as popular these days as it was when I started blogging back in god-knows-when, so these tweets aren't likely to get as much engagement as the tweets promoting more popular platforms such as Pinterest and Instagram. For example, my previous Bloglovin' tweet received over 250 Impressions and 11 Engagements. Using these tweets might not always flood you with followers, but they're useful to have around.
Similarly, you can promote your posts by using their Bloglovin' links too. By viewing your own blog posts via Bloglovin, you can grab the link yourself - the link will include "frame_type" - and add it to your tweets. This is particularly useful if your audience is following your links on a desktop; the frame that is displayed at the top-bar of a Bloglovin' link includes a dozen buttons for your followers to follow, love, save, and share your content with complete ease. It'll look like this:

USE BLOGLOVIN'
It sounds SO obvious but SO many people have a tendency to want their platform following to grow despite giving it little-to-no attention. You need to build a presence on a platform if you want to draw people in. There's no use in using all of these tips if you aren't going to give other people a hand too or even know what the platform consists of. However, I'm not suggesting that you put all of your time and effort into Bloglovin' - as I keep mentioning, it's not the sort of platform that requires your maximum efforts these days. Despite this, it's helpful to put your name out there by liking and commenting on other people's content - not only that but being inspired by and enjoying other people's content. If you aren't going to pay attention to the blogging community around you then you are, in a way, excluding yourself. The blogging community moves and adapts and Bloglovin' is a great way to keep up to date with it. Usually, once a month, I'll sit down on an evening and have a scroll through Bloglovin' to see what's going on and to catch up with any posts that I've missed - it's quite enjoyable with a nice big cuppa tea too.

HOST A GIVEAWAY
I'm speaking of this last because it's completely optional, but it's something that helped me boost my follower count. After reaching 500 followers on Bloglovin, I hosted a giveaway on my social media. For a few weeks, as I was approaching 500 followers, I advertised what I was going to be giving away a 'Bloggers' Box', but alerted my followers that the giveaway wouldn't become active until that goal was reached. As expected, the number goal came around pretty quickly and I was able to release my giveaway which ended up great fun.
You can also use 'Follow me on Bloglovin'' as an extra entry for your Giveaways. For example: "To enter my Giveaway, you must be following me on Instagram, Twitter, and Bloglovin". It may be a bit more time consuming for a reader to do but, if you're giving away something pretty exciting, then there's a chance people will go that little extra mile.

Ultimately, growing your blog on Bloglovin' isn't primarily the most important part of blogging. It's solely important that you enjoy the content you're publishing and that you remain grateful for the followers that you have. Passion goes a long way in this sort of industry and eventually starts to reflect.

Follow me on Bloglovin'.