If you have your blog set up now and you’ve started posting, you might be wondering where all the readers are. If you’re posting regularly but your view count just doesn’t seem to be climbing, you need to learn how to increase traffic to your blog. Whether you are blogging for fun and just want people to read what you say or blogging for profit and want to start making money, there are some things you can do to increase your blog traffic.
First you need to understand that just like any other website, you will need to market. It will take some blog promotion to start getting your posts out there and read. It’s also important that you make sure your blog contains something that people want to read. If not, even if you do get visitors, they won’t stay for long or return. Once you know you have quality content that is of value to other people, try these techniques:
Create a bloglet ( HYPERLINK “http://www.bloglet.com” www.bloglet.com ) subscription and invite people in your network to subscribe. You can invite your friends, family, co-workers, online friends, etc.
Use Ping-O-Matic ( HYPERLINK “http://www.pingomatic.com” www.pingomatic.com ) to ping the blog directories with one easy click. You can do this every time you make a new post and you will see the hits rolling in.
Set up a feed on MyYahoo ( HYPERLINK “http://www.my.yahoo.com” www.my.yahoo.com ) and your site will be regularly searched by the Yahoo search engine spiders.
Use photos on your posts. Pictures and visual content draw the reader in.
Read and comment on other people’s blogs, particularly those in your target niche. People will then follow your link back to you.
Submit your blog directly to traditional search engines. Try Submit Fire ( HYPERLINK “http://www.submitfire.com” www.submitfire.com )
Add a link to your blog in your email signature or in forum signatures of forums you use.
Put a link to your blog on every page of your website.
Include a link to your blog in your standard outgoing correspondence.
Link to your blog in newsletters.
Add your blog URL to business cards, sales letters, flyers and more.
Be sure to have an RSS feed URL so people can subscribe to your blog.
Always remember to post often so people keep coming back and so you continue to be refreshed by search engines.
Use TrackBack links when posting to other blogs.
Write articles to submit to article directories and include your blog link in the author’s info box.
Use a hit counter to track your page views, unique views and other information.
These are some sure fire ways to increase traffic to your blog. Remember that if you want your blog to be successful, you will have to commit to it everyday. Even just a small amount of time each day can make a big difference.
