Even though it takes time to grow a fanbase and most of the advice I give on this site is designed to help you in the long term, I thought I’d take a moment today to share with you some quick tips that can give you a little instant gratification.

Specifically, these are things that you can do today with the goal of adding 10 new fans to your creations. When I say “fans,” I mean people who will either join your email list, follow you on Facebook or Twitter, subscribe to your YouTube channel, or just check out some of your content. Basically, the goal is to get 10 new people to connect to your content in whatever way you/they choose.

Here’s how you can do it…

1. Incentivize Your Existing Fans To Spread The Word

One of the best ways to gain a few new fans is to encourage your existing fans to spread the word about you and incentivize them with a fun prize if they do so. For example, you could promise to do some ridiculous stunt in a video if you get 10 new Facebook or Twitter followers in a given day. If the prize is enticing enough, your fans will likely want to see you do it so they’ll tell their friends to check you out and help you achieve your goal.

2. Reach Out To People Who Are Already Talking About You

Do a Google or Twitter search for your name or your content and see if anybody’s out there talking about you that isn’t already a fan of yours. If they are, reach out and engage with them and let them know about the different ways they can connect with you. You’ll often be surprised to find out that there’s people who have liked things you created but are not actually fans of yours because they never knew you were on Twitter/Facebook or they didn’t know you even had a mailing list.

3. Email A Piece Of Your Content To 10 Blogs

If you’ve created a good video or blog post at some point, take a moment to find 10 blogs that you think may enjoy it and email those bloggers to tell them about the content. If the content’s good, hopefully a couple of them will agree to post it on their sites and that will get you some easy exposure and potential new fans. If you need help finding blogs to email, check out this list of 100+ Places To Promote Your Comedy Content.

4. Spend $10 On A Facebook Ad

One of the best ways to gain new fans is to promote your Facebook page with a Facebook ad. There’s no minimum budget for these ads, so you can spend as little as $10 if you want, and you should be able to target your ad to people that will be most likely to enjoy what you do. Rates will vary based on targeting, but $10 should be able to get you at least 20 targeted clicks (probably more) and you’d only need half of those people to actually fan your page to gain your 10 fans. If you’re going to try this, I highly recommend you read this first.

5. Do A Cross-Promotion With 10 Other People

If you find 10 other people who have fanbases that they’re looking to grow, you can offer to promote their stuff in exchange for them promoting yours and you can both probably add some new fans in the process. The obvious choice is to do a cross promotion with another comedian, but it can also work with other people with followings such as musicians, artists, or even local businesses.

6. Email 10 People You Know Who Aren’t Already “Fans”

If you take a look at your email address book, you’ll probably find lots of people who you “know,” but who may not be following your work as a comedian or even know that you are a comedian. You can find people you’ve dealt with before and reach out to them to introduce them to your work and ask them to connect with your comedy in whatever way you’d prefer. Turning casual contacts into new fans is a great way to grow your fanbase.

7. Follow 10 New Tumblr Pages

If you’ve got a Tumblr page (like I do), you can do a search for terms like “funny” or “comedy” and find people who are posting things related to those terms. Then follow the interesting people that you find, and most likely they will follow you back.

8. Invite 10 People You Talk To Today To Check Out Your Stuff

You don’t just have to build your fanbase online. It can often be helpful to use your offline meetings as a chance to invite people to check you out online. The next time you find yourself in an interesting conversation with somebody new, don’t be afraid to mention how they can check out your stuff online. You can even ask for their email address and send them a follow up email inviting them to check out your stuff.

9. Leave 10 Comments On Other People’s Blogs

The next time you find yourself reading something interesting on the web, take a moment to post a comment on the article and include your name as a link to your website or social media account. Leaving comments is a great way to introduce yourself to other communities online, and if you leave a compelling comment lots of readers will click through to learn more about who you are.

10. Connect With Other Connected Comedy Readers

Here’s a friendly audience for you to attract – anybody that’s also reading Connected Comedy is likely in a similar situation as yourself and will probably be happy to help you out. To find other Connected Comedy readers, just check out the people that comment on my posts, the people that interact on my Facebook page, or the people that follow me on Twitter. Don’t be afraid to reach out to them and see if they’re willing to work together to grow your fanbases. If you’re interested in doing something like this, go ahead and leave a comment on this post to let people know you’d be happy to team up.