Tips for bloggers #1: Your profile – linking to your blog

Getting over the hump

This post is a departure from my regular content, and it’s only intended for WordPress bloggers who are 1) new to the blogging game, and 2) would like to increase their subscriber counts.

For most of us, the majority of our readers are WordPress bloggers. That is why I would like to be helpful to new bloggers – I was in your shoes only one year ago.

Therefore, I have decided to post one blogging tip weekly. I have sensed a great deal of curiosity for such advice, as many burgeoning bloggers have reached out to me for support ever since I posted an entry about reaching 2,000 subscribers.

Now, say what you will about Donald Trump, but he was certainly correct about success breeding success. That particular entry of mine, which I posted less than one month ago, has already been viewed more than 1,000 times: more than twice as much as any other blog post I’ve written.

Also, it took me 9 months to get to 1,000 subscribers, 2½ additional months to get to 2,000, and I am now at nearly 2,500 only several weeks following that. This leads me to believe that for those who want to increase their subscriber counts, the most difficult work comes at the beginning – just as we are beginning upon this blogging journey. Once we’ve achieved a certain level of popularity, others naturally gravitate towards us. So the question is – how can we get ourselves to that point?

I have never taken a blogging course; all of my advice is based upon my own intuition and limited experience. Also, I think it is important to note that some of my very favorite bloggers are people who make no attempts to increase their subscriber counts – they are content to write purely for themselves, and I have tremendous respect for that. You need not necessarily feel that you must attain a lot of subscribers. Blogging for yourself can be very rewarding.

Anyway, let’s get on with this week’s piece of blogging advice!

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Your profile

Starting with the basics

Most of my advice is very fundamental, and this week’s focus is no exception.

All too often, somebody likes one of my posts or leaves me a comment; and, curious to know more about them, I click on their icon, only to discover that either 1) the URL that they have provided in their profile takes me to a defunct blog, or 2) they have not included any URL in their WordPress profile at all.

In fact, I have friends on WordPress whose blogs I have had to search for myself because their profiles don’t include links to their blogs. Friends, if you want other bloggers to interact with you on your blogs, you must include links to your blogs in your profiles!

How to edit your profile

When you are on the backend of your blog, there is a little circle on the upper right of your screen with your user icon on it.

To edit your profile, you must click on this little circle, which will take you to your profile page.

How to add a link to your blog

Once you have gotten to your profile page, you should scroll down to the bottom until you see a section titled ‘Profile links’

When you click on the ‘add’ button, which you can see in the image above, a menu will pop up next to your cursor with two options:

• Add WordPress site
• Add URL

Now, for the purposes of this exercise, let’s click on ‘Add WordPress site’ because that’s really the most fundamental aspect of your WordPress identity. (You can always add other links later)

Once you select ‘Add WordPress site’, you should see a list of your WordPress sites appear:

Click the unchecked check box next to your active blog’s icon and name; then, click on the ‘Add site’ button, which is below the check box.

And… that’s it. Now your potential WordPress friends and subscribers will be able to easily find your blog simply by looking at your WordPress profile.

As I said before, very fundamental.