Last month, I got a little pet hamster. My parents were finally convinced when they saw my cousins had one. It was a cute dwarf hamster. Full grown dwarf hamsters are smaller than your computer mouse. (That was added to convince you it is a cute little thing!)

Along with the hamster we had to get it a cage, food, a water bottle thing, shavings used as bedding, and a little hut for her to sleep in.

Like my little hamster (whose name is Summer), a blog needs to have an environment fit for their readers. These are absolute necessities for any blog that wants their hamster, uh I mean readers, coming back to them!

1) A Cage

The layout of your blog. This is the first thing noticed and readers will first judge your book by it’s cover! If I got my hamster a rusty cage with bars instead of a nice thick glass cage, I’m pretty sure it would squeeze through the bars and escape- and never come back.

2) Food

You need to provide food for your readers! Make sure to have your Feed in clear site or else they won’t be able to eat it subscribe to it. Summer kept burying her food so I provided a big feed bowl so she could easily find it (and not bury it!).

3) Water

This is very important. You need to quench your readers thirst! Provide good great and juicy content regularly and they will come back for more.

4) Space

Your readers need room to move around! Link to related posts on other blogs, provide an About Me and other pages, and some sort of “Related Posts” feature on the sidebar or at the bottom so your readers can explore!

5) A Bath

Reiterate things you have said in the past. Again and again. Link to old posts. You want to be able to connect new ideas with old concepts. Not all of your readers have been there from the start, so you want to cleanse all of them. My hamster gets a nice little bath almost weekly.

So, make sure you have created a good environment for your readers!