50 Tips To Build Traffic For Your Blog
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If they say “Content is King” then I shall say “Traffic is the Queen”. Traffic is essentially the engine of every successful blogs. As such building an audience to your site is one of the most important aspect of blogging. In fact, it is the most difficult one to achieve. Agree? Gone are the days when you could just write and expect people will come.
The truth is a considerable portion of my blogging time has been spent on building that desired audience. So let me share with you a quick list of what I have learned and the 50 steps I have taken - and will be taken - to boost my blog traffic. Hope you find success with any of them as well.
- Everything begins with contents people want to read.
- Post often, not necessarily on daily basis.
- Use a catchy post title.
- Write a controversial post.
- Link to your own post - internal linking is good from SEO standpoint.
- Tag your post with keywords.
- Use list on your post for better readability.
- Buy your own domain. Sad to say, many still take it for granted.
- Tweak your site design for better users’ experience.
- Do away with widgets. It just drives away your visitors.
- Unclutter your sidebar and footer.
- Make your blog title SEO-friendly.
- Ask your readers’ opinions and thoughts on what you write.
- Place your RSS button in prominent place.
- Invite and remind your visitors to subscribe in any possible way.
- Optimize your RSS feed with Feedburner.
- Submit your RSS feed to RSS directories.
- Offer email subscription.
- Experiment with email marketing.
- Join social bookmarking sites. StumbleUpon is good.
- Submit your articles and let others Digg and vote.
- Submit your blog to niche directories.
- Commenting on other blogs in your niche. Please don’t spam.
- Response to each comment and feedback.
- Don’t moderate negative comments. Let users have a say.
- Learn to use trackbacks.
- Enable DoFollow. Disagree?
- Always thank your commentators.
- Show appreciation by visiting your commentator’s site.
- Create an Archive page. Show your old posts.
- Create a Sitemap for search engine.
- Use Google Webmaster Tools.
- Statisticize your site with Google Analytics.
- Know where your visitors well.
- Join BlogCatalog & participate in its community.
- Participate in Yahoo! Answer.
- Use Twitter to promote your post.
- Offer to exchange links with other blogs in the same niche. Do it moderately.
- Participate in related forums.
- Optimize forum signature with your link.
- Offer help to other first-time bloggers.
- Share your knowledge and experience generously.
- Write an e-book.
- Write about Google. We all loves it.
- Hold a contest with giveaway prizes.
- Guess blogging.
- Do a review on other blogs.
- Interview other bloggers in your niche.
- Use images in the post.
- Start a pool on your blog.
- Get to know which blogs rank high on Google for your keywords and leave your comment there. [Thanks, Rebecca]
- Use Entrecard to promote your blog. [Thanks, Brian]
- Ensure internal links use keyword anchor text, and point to each other. [Thanks, Rhys]
- What’s your idea?
The preceding list is never meant to be an exhaustive and ultimate list but it should give you a good start to building your blog traffic and bringing it to the next level.
I am hoping that I could make a 101 list on How to Build Blog Traffic but without your participation it would not be possible. So do feel free to post your ideas below, if you have any. I’ll pass the link love back to you. How about it?
Did you miss any of these?
- Now It’s Time To Promote Your Blog
- What They Don’t Teach You About Link Building
- 101 Great Posting Ideas For Your Blog - Part 1
- DoFollow - What They Teach You In Kindergarden
- How To Find DoFollow Sites & Build Your Backlinks
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- Now It’s Time To Promote Your Blog
20 Comments
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Your input matters. If you have any thoughts on ' 50 Tips To Build Traffic For Your Blog', I'll be pleased to hear from you.
Nice list you got here. I can safely say I have done the majority of these! I’ve been around for about 7 months so it was a great way to pass the time and like you mention build/develop traffic.
Blog catalog is a great community for sure and as a blogger I would suggest it! Google webmaster tools works out alright but can make you worry about the little things too much I think.
Oh Brian, am I guilty for not mentioning about BlogEngage? Maybe I am..
I have been following your voting community quite closely for the last couple of days. You have done a great job in promoting it to us bloggers. I really hope that you could design a better voting button for us. I’m sorry but it’s just not for me.
Thanks for this useful summary. Appreciate the advice.
You are most welcome, mudge. Do I address you correctly?
Thanks for dropping by too.
mudge works fine, thanks!
Yan I think this post was made before you meet me and joined blogengage! Even if it wasn’t there are many websites out there to blog about lol!
Something else I forgot to mention is Entrecard! I would strongly suggest this website!
Thanks for thinking about us :)
Great list
Hi Yan, awesome list there.I don’t think you have missed out any point. People never get bored by posts that talk about traffic , money making tips and SEO. ha ha!
Anyway, thanks for dropping by my blog and for the nice words!I happen to be very busy right now and that means no blogging for another 3-4 weeks!Campus Placements are starting by the first week of june and life can’t be more hectic. :(
Well, i will be back with a bang after i get placed in an MNC.Keep the great work oing and happy blogging!I might miss reading your posts for a while now, but will come back again!:)
@Brian
I have added your suggestion of using Entrecard. Thanks. Keep us engaged.
@Mudge
Thanks for being one of my subscribers. I’ll see you again.
@Ranjani
I wish you all the best in whatever you do. And I’m going to miss you too.
Hey - Great list, with some I hadn’t got around to.
Tips 6 and 12 sort of cover it, but I have found my greatest traffic gains came from getting my “Keyword Coherence” right and getting better positioning on the SERP’s. It’s all about how to “Rocket Your Site to No 1 in Google”.
Maybe your list has the potential to be worked up into a definitive E-Book?
Cheers - Rhys
I know you said (10 and 11), “get rid of the clutter/widgets”; but could I put in a plea for CommentLuv - I reckon it rocks!!!
@Rhys
eBook? Unless it hits 101 tips, I wouldn’t even think of it. But hey, you have a point.
I hear you, Rhys. CommentLuv is a great tool indeed. In fact I’m in the midst of implementing it on my blog as well. I think there is a difference between widget and plugin, is it not?
Hi Again Yan - It’s near impossible to put in a brief sentence, but here is the vital element……
Ensure internal links use keyword anchor text, and point to each other.
What I’m doing right now just commenting other blog, add friends and vote @spicypage.com and reply on every comment in my posts. As part-time blogger, I don’t had much time enough to boost my traffic.
Halim-Belajar SEO’s last blog post..Belajar SEO must win WangCyber SEO Contest!
Great list. Very usefull. I just dont see why i should interview some other blogger in my niche.
@ThunderWolf: Thanks for your lovely comment and glad you drop in.
Hi Yan,
I didn’t see link baiting like Review My Blog Get Free Linkback. It’s not just good for traffic but good for link building too.
Peter Lee
Yes, yes, yes, yes! And internal linking is great for users, especially when you want to reference something you said earlier, as I often do.
You can also do parallel blogging on popular platforms like MySpace and FaceBook. Perhaps you throw in one paragraph or two, then do a “read more” link to bring people to your real blog.
David Leonhardt SEO’s last blog post..How not to sell SEO
@David: Hey, that’s a great idea I haven’t thought of. I’m glad someone with your experience is willing to share your technique here. I’ll update the article in a while.
Anyway, thanks for visiting and sharing your knowledge. I hope you will come back and share your expertise with us here again.
Trackbacks
50 Tips To Build Traffic For Your Blog…
If they say “Content is King” then I shall say “Traffic is the Queen”. Traffic is essentially the engine of every successful blogs. As such building an audience to your site is one of the most important aspect of blogging. In fact, it is the mo…
50 Tips To Build Traffic For Your Blog…
If they say “Content is King” then I shall say “Traffic is the Queen”. Traffic is essentially the engine of every successful blogs. As such building an audience to your site is one of the most important aspect of blogging. In fact, it is the mo…