How to get followers

Well first off you need to figure out what do you want to do with “followers”? I mean, what’s the business case? If it’s just your own personal blog, then “followers” doesn’t really have much meaning because most people visiting your site would be doing it because they either know you in real life or they like your content. If it’s a business blog, “followers” can be useful in generating leads or building additional marketing channels. So I’d first answer that question – what do you want to accomplish with “followers”?

If you do want to increase “followers”, consider building an email list functionality and look into email marketing.

Also consider using social media to help drive traffic to your site.

But the *most* important thing is to create and post useful, relevant content. And keep doing this consistently. This is what generates readers who keep coming back for more. All the other stuff (email marketing, social media, etc.) just helps to strengthen such relationships and encourage others to come view your content.

realise that since I’m self hosted that it doesn’t work for me – how can I get people to follow my blog? (I mean, what should they click on?).

Self-hosted sites don’t have the same “follower” functionality as WordPress.COM hosted sites – as they are part of a huge network that self-hosted sites are not.

Whatever .COM functionality is available is done through the JetPack plugin – more info here:

https://jetpack.me/

Thanks to you both. My site is an art portfolio – so as I try to get people to find my site in the first place, it would be great if they ‘bookmark’ it to find again – I want to increase my use of the business side, hopefully gaining commissions and sales, maybe adding an e-commerce for prints at some point soon. https://www.sherigee.com

I’ve only just added the email/subscriber widget from jetpack, on my news page. I’m just not sure it’s very visible, especially on other pages.

I’ve mainly used the site to show work, but haven’t maximised on any selling/business functionality, which I really ought to do.

Thanks.

One of the best ways to improve your “visibility” is to consistently add content to your site (art, news, thoughts on certain kinds of canvas, I don’t know but make it real and relevant to what you do!) and to network with other artists, artist organizations, etc. That way your site will build up an organic and natural core of people linking to your site which is what search engines use to figure out how relevant your site is to search results.

Also consider basic search engine optimizations – Moz.com has an interesting beginners guide on SEO – don’t go overboard on this stuff, just be aware of it and follow best practices.

Good luck!