I have been blogging for a living for a little over a year. In that time I have learned a lot about what it takes to build blog traffic. This is one of the main challenges that a new blogger faces. What is the point of having a blog if no one is reading it? And for those bloggers who want to monetize their blogs, having decent traffic is mandatory.
I am confident that if you follow the steps below you WILL begin to see a quick improvement in your blog traffic:
1. Learn the Bells and Whistles
Whatever blogging platform you use, whether it be Blogger.Com, Moveable Type, Wordpress, or many of the others out there, before you can become an effective blogger I think you need to learn what makes that puppy operate at maximum efficiency. That doesn't mean you can't start blogging, but to me that would be like trying to ride a bicycle for the first time without training wheels. You are gonna fall, but keep working on it and you will quickly be sailing confidently. In other words, read the instructions and do some research. Wordpress is my blogging platform of choice due to the fact that they have so many plugins and applications that can help you have an easier and more productive blogging experience and also help you gain traffic.
2. Titles are Crucial
There are several reasons that the title of your post is so important. One is that readers will be drawn to what you have to say if your title piques their interest. The second reason is that you want your posts to be picked up by search engines. Sites like WordTracker will help you find keywords so that you can phrase your title for better search engine optimization.
3. Content is King
I started hearing this long before I started blogging. When I was writing freelance and hanging out on writer's message boards three years ago "content is king" was being said and it is is especially true for blogging. If you don't have anything interesting to say, who is going to read your blog? Blogging is a relationship between you and the reader, just as reading a book is a relationship between the reader and the author. Be yourself, be honest and genuine, create original content that is interesting and informative, use keywords for SEO, create posts with ordered lists, offer advice, write post that invite readers to join in a discussion, and you WILL begin to gain a loyal readership. And EDIT! Don't dare publish your posts with grammar, spelling or punctuation errors. Treat your blog with professionalism in this aspect and you will be viewed as a professional.
4. Comments are Queen
One of the most exciting things about blogging, in the beginning anyway, is when you start getting comments. Then you know that at least someone was interested enough in what you had to say to reply. Be sure to answer all comments and keep a tight rein on getting rid of spam. There are programs in the editor of your blog software that will help you with this, but spam inevitably finds its way into your comment section., so keep your eyes peeled for it.
Trackbacks rock! That means that someone thought enough of what you had to say to refer to it on their own blog. You are definitely on the right track when you start getting trackbacks.
5. Submit Your Blog to Search Engines and Directories
Submit your blog and/or RSS feed to the search engines of Google, Yahoo, and MSN. This is free. And also list your blog is several big directories. One of best I have found is Best Blog Directory And RSS Submission Sites http://www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55/ but there are tons of free directories you can list your blog with. This is time consuming but it needs to be done. You don't have to go overboard, just make sure you have spent a good bit of time hitting the top directories.
6. Comment on Other Blogs and in Forums
I can't count the number of backlinks I have gotten simply by commenting on blogs or in forums. Now when I say that I don't mean go around spamming these sites. Find a couple of forums where you really are interested and want to be a regular contributor and put your blog link in your signature. Comment on blogs that are in your same niche or that you truly find interesting. The relationships you form here will become the meat and potatoes of most beginning bloggers' traffic.
7. Tagging and the Social Networking Sites
Sounds kind of like the name of some new alternative rock band, huh? By tagging, I am talking about using Technorati tags in your post. This will ping Technorati and help you gain readership with so little effort. There are many plugins for Wordpress that will automatically create tags for you. I am not sure about other blogging platforms because I don't use them. As far as social networking sites, jeez, there are more out there now than I could ever list. But Stumble Upon has been the most effective for me, along with Blog Catalog. Each blogger has their favorites. Some people love Digg, some folks swear by MyBlogLog or Technorati (I consider any site that has a bunch of bloggers sharing information "Social Networking" so don't sue me for putting Digg and Stumble Upon in the same class as Blog Catalog, Technorati and MyBlogLog, it's all traffic building.)
There is a LOT more to traffic building than what I have listed here. These are just the main things I have found to get you started as a beginning blogger. Once you have gotten your feet good and wet following the steps above, my advice would be to follow the lead of blogs like Dosh Dosh, ProBlogger, and many other A list bloggers who will lead you further down the primrose path of blog traffic building.
Good luck and happy blogging!
Denise Grier is a full-time writer/blogger. You can learn more about Denise and find telecommuting jobs by visiting her freelancing blog at http://internetmarketingreview.org/blog
The optimization of your web site results in the increase in the number of targeted visitors, improvement in your sales and customer loyalty, and of course, increases the brand recognition.
(This will check the top 20 of the following SE's)
How To Drive Traffic With A Blog Copyright ) 2006 Jack Humphrey
Blogs are different than regular static sites. Although a blog is really just a fancy word for a content management system, therefore it is just a regular site with enhanced and easy editing, a blog has a sense of urgency and "newness." People read blogs because there is a general feeling that the information posted is more current compared to static sites.
This is true when the blogger is very regular with new material and gives people a reason to tune in frequently.
Promoting a blog, I have found, is far easier than promoting a regular website for many reasons.
Because you can create "news" on your blog at the drop of a hat, you can create buzz. Buzz is infectious, produces links from "buzzed" website owners looking to present their visitors with a buzz, and gets you attention that is harder to acquire for regular sites.
You can promote a blog through RSS and get subscribers who would rather use a "podcatcher" (a newer phrase that simply means they subscribe to yor RSS feed rather than your email list with a tool like GetFireAnt http://getfireant.com/
People like being anonymous in this over-emailed world of ours. Getting subscribers to a blog via your RSS feed means you are offering a way for the justifiably paranoid to access your material without committing their personal information in the exchange.
So you have another way to promote here as well. Rather than sending people to your opt-in page only, you can grab RSS subscribers on every page of your blog, no matter which page they come through.
Now you can trade links, or trackbacks, with other bloggers in your niche which is a much more highly respected and valuable form of reciprocal linking that Google actually loves.
Having a blog means you can "podcast." Podcasting is making audio and video files available in your posts that can be picked up in your RSS feed by people using places like iTunes.com to find multi-media content.
This s a MASSIVE new open market of people really getting into iPods, especially the new video iPods, and seeing what their new gadgets can really do.
By creating an informative how-to video and podcasting it from your blog, you can get listed in iTunes and other podcast directories that are practically empty on many niche topics right now!
These are things you can do with a blog that you cannot do very easily or at all with a static site.
Don't forget that there are other directories only bloggers can promote in. Directories like Syndic8.com and Daypop.org are only open to bloggers with RSS feeds.
While everyone else is working down in the trenches on their one-dimensional static html site, bloggers can enjoy promoting their sites in far less competitive areas with extreme amounts of traffic flowing through them.
In short, a good blog with the right plug-ins will give you marketing power I wish I had when I was starting out. My blog would be 7 years old this year and would hav an archive section a mile long with content syndicated all over the web established over those 7 years!
This time next year you are definitely going to wish you had started your blog today! Especially when you consider the vast potential of audio and video podcasting and syndicating your content easily through your feed to places that only accept bloggers. Static sites need not apply!
About the author:
Jack Humphrey blogs at http://www.jackhumphrey.com/ . His long running newsletter, now blog, The Friday Traffic Report, has been responsible for untold millions of visitors for his readers. Grab a free chapter of his book "Power Linking" just for stopping by!
Today's video blog is about another internet fundamental that is rising FAST... VERY FAST!! Video..
Did you know YouTube surpassed Goolge in visits per day? To pick up on a great tip and to hear also about a NEW Kiosk.ws package that is going to explode YOUR commissions please visit my video blog at:
phillip.skinner commented on 26 May 2008, 05:57:39
phillip.skinner commented on 01 Jun 2008, 04:36:27 Remembering that old saying by Benjamin Franklin "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different Results” I for one didn't understand the saying the first time I heard it, so it wasn't effective on me as it was intended to be. But I expect if my more successful friends keep quoting it, and quoting it, and quoting it, eventually, I might catch on and find the Truth that Lies Deep Within this Wise Saying. The "Marketing Voodoo" 21-Page Special Report
phillip.skinner commented on 01 Jun 2008, 16:49:06
phillip.skinner commented on 01 Jun 2008, 17:16:57
phillip.skinner commented on 01 Jun 2008, 17:21:48
Content Provided By 
Print this page
