How to Get 2000 Subscribers in 12 Days

I was really happy to reach 2000 RSS subscribers after 5 months of blogging with Daily Blog Tips. Guess what, the guys behind FreelanceSwitch.com managed to accomplish that in 12 days! There is an interesting post titled “How We Took a Blog from 0 to 2000 Subscribers in Just 12 Days”, where they explain how they managed to do it. Below you will find my summary of the article:

1. Choose the right niche: you should have passion and expertise on your niche, but it should also be somehow undeserved. Find a topic where you can add to the discussion and create value. How do you find it? Look around and experiment. The guys from FreelanceSwitch realized that the freelancing niche could be really popular after one post on that topic attracted a lot of attention from social networks.
2. Leverage existing assets: the authors of the blog already had other blogs and websites, so they used them to get the ball rolling. They also relied on previous knowledge to make sure that things were working and optimized on the new blog.
3. Write “Pillar” articles: pillar articles are longer, well-structured posts that give useful information for the reader. It is the kind of article that people read and say “Man, I should bookmark this!”. Great part of the strategy of the new blog was focused on building traffic and credibility through those articles (you can read more about “Pillar” articles here).
4. Leverage social media: after making sure that the quality content is there you will probably want to use social media to promote it. The authors submitted their popular articles to big blogs like LifeHacker, and they also used paid promotion techniques. That was used to build momentum, once the site was listed on some social bookmarking sites they receive a huge amount of visitors.
5. Use a professional design: do not underestimate the importance of design. Even if your content is great a professional looking design may give you an edge. It will make sure that visitors remember and revisit your site.