How I Gained 3,500 Subscribers in 12 Months

This is a guest post by Henri Juntila. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

I started in December 2023 and by December 2023 I had 3,500 subscribers. And that includes a 6 month period where I lived in Spain and spent most of my time learning Spanish.

Today I have over 4,500 subscribers and growing fast. I use a very simple strategy to grow my blog. It’s very common, but I take massive action, and I get big results.

You see, building a successful blog with thousands of subscribers is not hard if you focus on the right strategies and take massive action.

In order for results to come, you have to have a clear mind, be motivated and know exactly how to turn visitors into subscribers.

And that is exactly what I will show you how to do in this article.

Step #1: Clarity

Before you start your blog, you have to have a clear goal of what you want to accomplish.

Do you want to make a part time living online?

Or do you just want to build a popular blog with thousands of subscribers?

One of the biggest reasons blogger’s fail is because they do not know where they are going. When you set a target, you can track your progress and make adjustments along the way.

For example, if you want to build a popular blog, the first target you might want to have is 1,000 subscribers.

Now, if you aren’t seeing steady growth in the amount of subscribers you have, you have to adjust your strategy, and the more you do this, the more likely you are to be successful.

Successful blogger’s are persistent and patient. They know that there are no quick-fixes or magic bullets. It takes hard work to build a blog, but once you gain momentum, you become unstoppable.

When I started my blog, I knew I wanted to write about personal development, but I also wanted to mix in business.

I’ll be honest and say that I wasn’t as clear as I should have been when I started, which in turn led to losing motivation six months in.

Luckily, I kept writing until I became clear about what I wanted to achieve. Sometimes the only thing you can do is take action, even if you have no idea where you want to go.

Step #2: Sign-Up Bonus (i.e. Bribe)

One of the first things I did when I started my blog was to create a sign-up bonus that subscribers get when they sign-up to my e-mail list.

One of the best ways to turn new visitors into loyal subscribers is to make your sign-up bonus easy to digest, but valuable.

It can be a short report on the common mistakes people make in your particular niche, or it could be a few tips on how to become a raging success.

The main point is to make it something irresistible. The more you can do that, the more likely someone is to sign-up to your e-mail list.

You also should make a sign-up bonus relevant to your content. This is a no-brainer, but it is something I see new bloggers do over and over again. They completely fail in the area of relevancy.

If you have a blog about cooking, you should probably have a report on one aspect of cooking. I even made this mistake myself and changed my sign-up bonus back to my original one not too long ago.

Since changing back, my email sign-ups have again increased dramatically and all is well on the Cloud.

Step #3: The Single Most Powerful Traffic Strategy

I grew my blog from 0 to 1,012 subscribers in 101 days and then to 3,500 subscribers in 365 days. And I did it with one strategy: guest posting.

You do not have to use any other strategy to grow your blog other than guest posting. Guest posting gives you links, connections, exposure, and traffic.

I made the decision early on to become excellent at guest posting. I wrote close to 50 guest posts during the first few months of my blog, and the payoff was sweet.

Guest posting was one of the main reasons that I was able to grow so fast. The only mistake I made was to let my fears take over and avoid guest posting on bigger blogs.

I mostly stuck to smaller blogs, because it was much easier. Even though I focused almost exclusively on small to middling blogs, I did very well, my blog grew fast, and you can do the same.

You don’t have to learn countless traffic generation strategies. You only have to learn guest posting. Get good at writing guest posts and you will never have to worry about anything again.

Step #4: Bold Action

When I started my blog, I was determined to succeed. I knew I was going to face obstacles, problems, and challenges on my way to building a popular blog, but I knew I was going to get through them.

I was prepared to fail and make mistakes, but I was not ready to give up.

When you start anything new, you have to be willing to pay the price for success. If you want to build a successful blog or a profitable online business, you will have to learn new things, make mistakes, get out of your comfort zone, and put in a lot of work.

That’s just the truth of how things work. Most people start blogs because they think it’s a quick way to make money.

The truth is that there are no quick ways to become a success, or make a lot of money. Sure, there are exceptions, but long-term success always comes from hard work.

One of the main reasons I’ve come this far and not quit, even though my motivation tanked at one point, is because I’m doing something I love, which brings me to the last step: passion.

Step #5: Passion

If you want to create a popular blog, make sure it’s something you love doing.

By going after your passion, you will be happy to blog even if you aren’t making money right away, and even if you don’t have thousands of subscribers tomorrow.

When you do something you love, you naturally attract people into your life that also like the topic you’re talking about.

On the other hand, if you’re just doing something to make money, it will destroy your soul and the likelihood that you will give up at the first sign of trouble is much, much higher.

Whatever you do, make sure you’re doing something you enjoy doing. You don’t have to know exactly how you’re going to build a successful blog, because when you’re fired up with passion, you will get there sooner or later if you do not give up.

Action Steps

With all that said, I want to leave you with a summary of what we’ve gone through in this article.

If you want to build a wildly successful blog, follow these action steps:

1. Become clear about your goal. What do you really want
2. Find a topic you’re interested and/or passionate about.
3. Create a mouth-watering sign-up offer that gets people to subscribe.
4. Get really, really good at guest posting and do it often.
5. Take massive action, even if you’re scared or don’t know what to do.

That’s as simple as I can make it. We tend to over-complicate, but in reality, every success is built one step at a time, one day at a time.

If you want a popular blog, you can do it, but only if you’re determined to make it happen.

Are you?

About the Author: Henri writes at Wake Up Cloud, where you can get his free course: Find Your Passion in 5 Days or Less.