Thursday, February 19, 2009

Blog Traffic

By Charlie Reese

How to ramp up your blog traffic and exponentially increase your readership

You've created a blog and you've got plenty to say. Great! Now, the trick is to bring in some sizable traffic! After all, unless you're independently wealthy, you probably need to make some income. Competing with thousands, or tens of thousands of other bloggers, writing in a similar vein or topic, makes this a challenging goal. Here we go over some of the best moves you can make to increase your blog traffic and spread the word.

Make judicious use of the social networking sites. This is fast becoming a hot trend with bloggers. You've got to be careful to choose social networking sites that fit with your objectives. There are online comparison charts which allow you to see the main features and ratings of these social networking sites. Click through and browse around. Also check out some of the more obscure social sites. While their audience may be smaller, if their members fit the profiles you're seeking, your ROI will naturally be greater.

If your blog traffic now consists of friends, family members and a few people who have wandered on to your site, you want to change this as quickly as possible! The more content you have, the better your page rankings become. So you definitely want to post every day, the more the merrier. New visitors are more likely to return when they see that your blog is active and has fresh content on a daily basis.

When you write a post, keep in mind that you want to create an interactive format, where your readers feel invited to put in their remarks. For example, let's say you've written an opinion piece on politics. You might end the post with a leading question, such as This is where I'm coming from, but my perspective is certainly not comprehensive. What do you think? You'll soon have readers telling their friends about your insightful posts. More blog traffic for you!

There are special types of posts that can really work wonders for your blog traffic statistics. You're the expert in your topic, right? Write longer posts of a how-to nature. For example, if your blog deals with gardening and horticultural topics in general, write a piece that tells your readers how to graft cacti of two different species. Readers love to learn about how they can gain some specialized skill they can practice for themselves. These tutorial style pieces are standalone " they are as valuable a year from now as they are today, to current and future visitors. As possible, write at least one of these every other week. Again, with this type of post, word of mouth helps grow your blog traffic more quickly.

Another good strategy to increasing your blog traffic is to find other quality blogs in your niche and write comments on posts by that blogger. If you comment frequently, those readers get to know you and are likely to start clicking through to see what kind of content you have. New readers!

Seek out websites with related content, an e-newsletter and a large subscriber list. Offer one of your best posts to that website's owner, to run as feature articles in an upcoming newsletter. You'd be surprised at how many click-throughs you'll get as a result.

Last, but not least, check out cafepress.com. This is a great word of mouth strategy that earns you money too! You create a design " your logo, for example, or any design that speaks to your topic audience. Cafepress then prints your design on a coffee mug, t-shirt or whatever you choose. It's sort of a POD arrangement, so there's no outlay of cash until a sale is made. They provide a store setup and you sell the products on your blog!

Building your blog traffic can take some time. It's up to you to implement the most powerful strategies. - 16651

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