• by Josh Spector , October 6, 2009

When I first sat down to write this column, I wasn't exactly sure what I should write about. Working in the online comedy business, I figured I was "qualified" to write about anything from why the Internet is obsessed with creepy vintage ads to a detailed history of bizarre sexual Egyptian legends. 

 

As much fun as that would be, I thought it might be more helpful to share some insight I've gathered as Comedy.com has grown its audience from about 400,000 monthly unique visitors to 3 million over the course of the past eight months.

We're far from the biggest site on the web and we've still got a long way to go. However, I do think what we've learned so far about how to grow an audience can be helpful to all content publishers.

So, here are three things I think are worth considering as you try to grow your audience:

Listen to your audience. Content creators have a bad habit: we tend to get so wrapped up in our own creations that we don't bother to consider whether there's an audience that has any interest in what we're creating.

We were guilty of this in the early days - we had no real sense of what our content stood for, who it was speaking to, or for that matter why we were creating it.

 But a funny thing happened as we began to embrace social media and listen to what comedy lovers had to say. We discovered a void in the comedy space, saw how we could fill it, and charted a new path. Which led us to my second recommendation...

 Provide a service. After listening, we realized that in order to build an audience these days, you have to provide a service to your readers. Something readers will value and can't get elsewhere. You have to give people a reason to engage with your content, to bookmark your site, and to friend you on Facebook. Just having good content is no longer enough.

 We realized the service we could provide was to be a guide to what's funny right now. We saw the explosion of comedic content online as overwhelming to the average person and saw the opportunity to have our professional editorial team curate the best comedy on the Web and bring it together it in one place.

Providing that service - one that people want - is what sparked our audience growth.

Keep it real. When it comes to content, real is always more interesting than fake - and this is especially true online.

Internet audiences are skeptical, and much quicker to say "WTF," than they are to say "LOL." Your readers literally have a world's worth of information at their fingertips and no need to engage with somebody pretending to be an expert when the real deal is just as easily accessible.

People can tell when you cut corners, and they know whether you're genuine about the content you create. Sure, you can cheat the system and win the battle with an occasional hit here or there, but you'll lose the war. You can't grow an audience by pretending to be something you're not - you've got to be real.

But if you're real in what you promise and deliver, if you listen to what you're audience is saying, and if you provide them with a service they want? Then I guarantee you that your audience will grow.

And if it doesn't, you can always dig up some photos of kids staring at women's boobs -- the Internet loves those.