How to gain your first 1,000 true followers and fans.

1. Choose your brand name.

For starters, branding your blog will help people find you. I felt like “Soyvirgo” suited me because I was really intrigued with how accurate most astrology posts were when they mentioned a Virgo’s behavior. Truly, I am the epitome of a Virgo. Just do a quick search on Virgo’s and you’ll find out what I’m really like. What helped me choose the name “soyvirgo” was the fact I speak spanish, so I put together my interest in zodiac signs and my second language to make a name for myself. Soyvirgo translates to, “I’m a virgo” by the way.

I thought it was a cute name and people who don’t understand spanish can still have fun with the it by assuming I like soy a lot and I’m a virgo (at least that’s what I would assume the name meant if I didn’t know spanish). It’s good to have a name that doesn’t have much of a language barrier. Soyvirgo, for example, shows spanish speaking people that there’s a blogger they can connect to.  Try to incorporate what you know in your brand name.

2. Make your brand pop

The name “soyvirgo” is short and simple to pronounce so it’s super easy to remember. By making your brand name easy to remember will eventually help grow your following quicker. Make your brand name original and something that you like, although I have noticed that if you have amazing content, it really doesn’t matter what your brand name is. Just look at Shakira, or Rihanna; their first name is pretty much their brand name.

Also make sure to choose a certain style for your brand like fonts and your favorite colors. If you haven’t noticed yet, mine are somewhat earthy tones like light beige and green.

3. Own your brand name through social media accounts.

I have many social media accounts under the name “soyvirgo”, including bloglovin, ello, pinterest, tumblr and others. Even if I’m inactive on some accounts, I like to make sure I’m the owner of that username on that platform so people know there’s only one soyvirgo out there.

Instagram and twitter users have beat me to the name, but if that’s the case for you I recommend making the username as similar to your brand name as you can make it. I think this is a good thing to consider doing because you will eventually be known on the internet with that username, as long as it’s unique and easy to find.

4. Be active on social media.

First, choose which platforms work best for you. I never got “big” on tumblr or blogspot so I stopped using them. Pinterest and bloglovin have helped me the most in getting people to find my blog. Twitter and Instagram have as well but not as much, so I mostly use them for inspo or fun. Just try them out and see which ones work best.

5. Be a genuine person

Like and comment on people’s content with something valuable. Try to really have a conversation in the comment sections and interact with people you want to interact with. This will show that you are not just a spammy user trying to get a follow.

This applies to blog comments, instagram, twitter and whatever other social platform you’re on. Interact with random bloggers who like the same things as you, but don’t force it. Just make sure to have fun with it and do it with the thought of making new connections. This will make it feel less like a chore.

6. Follow bloggers who are similar to you and your niche.

A niche is like a club or clique. My niche is really broad at this point, so I don’t think I fall into any right now other than “lifestyle” and “personal”. What I do is just interact with those who I might want to meet up with someday or collab with. People who blog just like me or like similar things as me are what I’m looking for.

Don’t be lazy, look at who’s commenting and following you! Be sure to support them as much as you can, if you like them of course. I find similar bloggers on all my social media and the wordpress reader section. Check out the comment sections of your favorite bloggers. Your 1,000 true followers can be lurking on the blogs of your favorites! BTW, my favorites are listed here.

7. Connect and share your content to big platforms like Facebook, or Google plus.

If you follow me on twitter and facebook, you can see my blog posts are usually shared on my feed instantly. There is a quick and simple way to do this on wordpress and most blogging platforms have this feature too. This is such an easy way to share your posts, and even though I’m inactive on Facebook and Google plus, I still get some likes or shares since many people are on these popular sites daily.

8. Leave a link to your website on all your social media accounts.

I have a link to my blog in my instagram bio, my twitter, on youtube links and most of my other accounts. Make sure to do this even on your inactive accounts. You never know, you can get closer to those 1,000 true followers by just leaving your link behind. My old blog is still active just so people there can find this blog.