Blog tip time! If you want people to read and share your blog, it is a good idea to make it easier for them to do so. Below are the most basic things every blogger should do to help make their blog more successful.

1. Put your blog name and your name at the top of your blog.

This may sound obvious. I have confirmed it is not.

Your blog name should be the quickest thing to suss out. Make it easy to read (I beg of you to not use crazy illegible, pulsating fonts) and distinguishable from your tag line.

If you are not anonymous, it would be nice to know your full name, too, without having to break a sweat.

2. Put your social media links somewhere easy to find.

Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, etc. all up high. At least keep them above the fold.

What’s “Above the fold,” you ask? Imagine a newspaper: If you’re picking it up off the news stand, it is likely folded in half horizontally, with the headlines and most important information up high above that fold. Get it? I figured you would.

Whether you use those fancy graphic buttons or a text link that says “Social Media” or plop them on your Contact Me page, doesn’t matter. Just make it happen.

3. Make it easy for people to email you.

It could be a fan reaching out to thank you for sharing a story that she connected with, a blogger you respect who’d like to invite you to join his/her writing community, or someone legitimately trying to hire you to write for them (or whatever it is you do professionally). Many people prefer email, so keeping yours a secret might limit the amount of opportunities that come your way.

Fear spam? Create a free just-for-your-blog Gmail address and use it solely for this purpose. Easy peasy.

You could also simply embed a Contact Me form on your blog, if you truly don’t want to put an email address out in the world.

4. Somewhere in your header, sidebar, or footer put a graphic up with your blog name (and logo, if you have one) on it.

It helps if it is squarish. You can make one with any of the photo editing tools on your computer, or on free sites like PicMonkey.com. It can be just an image, or button. Doesn’t matter. I’d say try to make the image at least 300×300.

Doing this makes it easier for those of us on Pinterest to pin your blog posts and make sure people know who it is by, even if the post itself has no images in it. Putting your face/logo/blog name on an image that gets shared each time someone wants to share your blog posts absolutely helps your exposure and branding.

If you really want to make me happy, make sure you name the image your name and blog name when you upload/edit it. That way, when people hover over the image or pin it to Pinterest, that information is what we see.

5. Put your best foot forward.

Call it your “Favorites” or “Popular Posts” or “Best of” page or get clever with the title, as long as it is obvious what’s there. Put your best/most popular stuff there and make sure anyone who ever finds your blog can easily see it right away, read it, and share it. BOOM.

I find that when someone stumbles upon a post of mine they like, they’ll sniff around for more to read. By making the most popular and palatable pieces very easy to find, I increase the likelihood they’ll spend more time on my blog, then decide to follow me on social media to keep tabs on future things I write.

 6. Put a few “Sharing” buttons on every blog post.

Once people get to the bottom of a blog post of yours that they love, make it easy for them to click a button to share it on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, tumblr, Reddit, StumbleUpon, etc. Keep it simple, keep it clean, and your good stuff will get shared.

As someone who regularly looks around for new blogs to read, share, and follow, thank you for making it easier for me to do so!

Want more tips? Check out my FAQs from bloggers and writers or dive into some writing prompts.

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Kim Bongiorno is an author, full time freelance writer, and the blogger behind Let Me Start By Saying. You can find her on Facebook and Twitter, hire her to write for you or speak at your event, or buy her a tall soy vanilla latte because they are delicious.