You have a blog. You need traffic.
A blog is a great way to create an online presence for both personal and business reasons. You can build a blog for free and begin posting content right away. But what good is that content if no one is reading it? Of all the successful blogs on the Internet, hundreds more have failed. Running a blog is like running a business website. Unless you are willing to put the time in and treat it seriously, your blog will likely fall by the wayside.
Now, that’s not to say that the failed bloggers weren’t serious about blogging. Most new bloggers aren’t prepared for the work that goes into creating a successful blog. Just building the blog doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll get a flood of traffic. You need to give your audience a reason to see what you have to say.
Here are ten ideas to bring in the traffic your blog needs to survive.
1. Fresh Content: No one wants to visit a blog day after day and see the same posts. Update your blog content on a regular basis. It sometimes helps to write several posts ahead of time and schedule them to post at the appropriate times.
2. Article Marketing: The niche you’ve chosen for your blog is hopefully one that interests you. If it is, then you’ll spend more time doing it, and you’ll enjoy it more. Create content not only for your blog but also to be submitted to article directories. Use the resource box to advertise your blog so people can find you.
3. Social Networking: Join Facebook, MySpace, Squidoo, Twitter or a dozen others and make connections. You can join groups of likeminded people who are also bloggers or entrepreneurs.
4. Viral Marketing: This is where you spread the word about your blog. Talk to friends, family and even strangers. Give out business cards that have your blog address on them. Be visible.
5. Use RSS Feeds: RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication”. Readers can subscribe to your feed and get email updates when new content is posted. It is an easy way for them to keep up with your blog without spending all day online.
6. Submit Blog to Search Engines: Doing this allows your blog to be ranked. Google and Yahoo! are two of the most popular search engines you want to crawl your blog pages. It doesn’t guarantee top ranking, though. Youíll have to do some SEO work for that.
7. Joining Forums: As a blogger, you are a budding entrepreneur. Right now you’re marketing yourself to find traffic and then profit. Become a member of business forums, work at home forums and others to meet new people and share ideas. You can add a link to your blog in the signature line so others can find you.
8. Visit other blogs: Show your appreciation to those who visit you by also posting comments on their blogs. It is a kindness that shows others you are not just out to advertise your blog alone. Add links to your blog in your comments.
9. SEO Marketing: Whatever you write, use relevant keywords. Keyword density between three and ten percent is good for getting higher page rankings in search engines. Base your keywords on a research you do to find the most popular words used in search engines for your niche.
10. Social Bookmarking: Submitting posts to social bookmarking sites allows others who are members of those sites to track you back to your blog.
Using any of these ideas will start the traffic moving in your direction. It takes time, but if you work at it consistently, you’ll build a quality readership.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Just sent this to Will for his blog. He’s getting like 5,000 hits a month! http://www.collegecars.wordpress.com
xx
PS Your blog rocks.
That’s awesome – great to hear Will’s blog is doing so well! Thanks for visiting (and linking)!