How to turn a blog visitor into a follower

If you’re reading this, you’ve probably already started a blog, wrote a few posts, and have shared with a few friends. You’re off to a great start, but are wondering how to take things to the next level.


As you’re probably already well aware, a “follower” is worth much more than a “visitor.” A visitor stops by, but never comes back. A follower stops by, immerses themselves in your content, and maybe even shares your blog with their own followers. They come back time and time again because they’re interested in what you have to say.

Here are some ideas for turning a visitor into a follower:

Be passionate about what you write about

As a fundamental rule, you need to be interesting. And it’s hard to be interesting if you don’t have a passion for what you’re writing about. Some bloggers (especially business bloggers) make the mistake of being too clinical and devoid of emotion. But emotion is the driving force behind blogger success.

If someone wants to read a product manual, they will. They came to your blog for the human element of your writing.

Prominently display an email signup form

The easiest way to get followers is to get their email address. Even if you have an active social following, at the end of the day, you don’t own your followers. If you have 10,000 Instagram fans and Instagram shuts down one day, you have no ties to those followers. They’re gone!

But email addresses collected with permission are another story.

Think about when you give out your email address. Your inbox is probably already bursting with unread emails. You don’t really need any more distractions. So if you’re giving out your email address, it’s probably for a very good reason.

So make it easy for someone to give you their email address if they’re interested enough to keep receiving your content. Make sure there’s a form on your sidebar, and double your chances of getting an email by using a tool like Hello Bar or a Popup. It’s easy to set up an email newsletter on a service like Mailchimp, but that’s a subject for another post.

Encourage comments, and answer them!

At the end of every post you write, give the reader a chance to participate!

Ask a question that relates to the post and allows the reader to use their own insight and perspective (see the end of this post for an example!). But don’t just collect comments – engage with the people who leave them. If they have a question – answer it! If they leave an insightful comment, make sure to thank them for it.

Many successful bloggers point to their comments section as being the foundation of turning visitors into followers.

There are many more ways to turn a visitor into a follower, but these tips will help guide you in the right direction.
Experienced bloggers, what have you done that’s helped to turn a visitor into a follower? Share in the comments so we can all get better at blogging!