11 Ways To Increase Your Blog Traffic

Blogging for a living can be hard work, and to be honest it gets very frustrating when we don’t obtain the traffic we need to keep the blog thriving. You see, simply working hard can’t always guarantee that you will receive the traffic you want, while on the other hand, not working at it is a sure fire way to never receive traffic at all. For us bloggers that work too hard at this game, here are 11 successful techniques to help you get all the traffic you need.

1. Make your blog remarkable: There is a good reason this is first in the queue, that is because being remarkable can make all the other concerns fall into line. Everything else on a blog could be missing, but with this at its core it could still be a success.

Be remarkable by:

- Content is king. Inform your readers of every detail, give your viewers exactly what they want and speak to them in a way they almost understand. – The entertaining. Do whatever is needed to keep your readers glued to the page. Make them laugh and cry with you. – Connect with your readers. Speak to them as if you know them personally. Address their worries, concerns and well-being. – Controversy. Being infamous can also have its benefits, even ending in good publicity. Not everyone has to agree with your opinions for you to become well-known.

I have been accused of having an “if you build it, they will come” attitude with this suggestion and I guess to some extent, it is true. That doesn’t mean you can’t be proactive in your traffic building as well, but the more remarkable your blog isthe better the long and short term effects of your efforts.

2. RSS: Some may say RSS old news, but there are still many blogs that haven’t thought to use a feed. If it is not something you have come across, an RSS feed is simply something that allows readers to stay updated without constantly visiting the blog. The RSS feed alerts readers to every new post via their feed reader or e-mail account. Using a service like FeedBurner.com will make this process a lot easier.

3. Ping!: Make sure your blog is set up to ping the various web blogs. Many blog platforms allow you to set this up in your settings. This helps a variety of information/search sites know that you’ve updated your blog.

#4 Comment on Other Blogs: Comment on other blogs in related field to your own. The option of linking back to your own blog is usually available. Make sure you are respectful! I would pay the conditions set by the blog owner, be courteous by offering real information instead of a big advertisement for your own blog. Without this kind of diplomacy, your comments will probably be deleted by admin.

5. Do Trackbacks: Many blogs allow you to make commentary about their posts on your own blog. When you link to their particular blog post, a link to your own blog post appears in the comments area on their blog. For trackbacks between WordPress blogs, all you need to do is link to a blog post and it’s automatically set up. BE RESPECTFUL: If you’re going to trackback, have something useful to say. Just summarizing and linking to someone’s post does NOT add to the discussion.

6. Keep Your Email List Up-to-Date: You probably already know that your mailing list is a valuable asset. Use this asset to the fullest by sending them to your blog to read the posts you think they will find helpful, enjoy, etc.

7. Distribute Content: A great way to get people read more of your content is by getting content out there to more people. You can distribute articles, post videos, guest post on other blogsjust get some good stuff out there and lead people back to read your blog.

8. Affiliate linking: You may have set up your own affiliate program, enabling your affiliates to link back to any page on your site. Try to encourage your affiliates to link to, and write about your blog posts. A recommended system to use is quicksales.com – which is a private label 1shoppingCart solution, enabling affiliates to direct traffic to any page they please.

Traffic from your affiliates are cookied, so any purchases made on the day or at a later date will be attributed to the affiliates, and commission will be sent. Conversions on blog posts aren’t going to be as good as the sales page, but it gives your affiliates the chance to provide great content to their readers, and benefit from any purchases made.

9. Social Networking: The big named social networks can be a nice boost for traffic, especially MySpace, Twitter and Facebook. If your readers are able to meet you and socialize with you, they will be more interested in the things you talk about your blog. Remember to be polite and to use net etiquette. Try not to get too stuck in when logged into these networks, as you may find time slips away (there’s lots of other important work to get on with). Of course, if you are remarkable (or infamous), you would have created enough buzz for people to do their own talking on the social networks.

10. Social Bookmarking: Social bookmarking includes sites like Digg, del.icio.us and Stumble Upon, where you can share links to a variety of content. Some people self-bookmark, but realize this could put your account in jeopardy, so read all the rules first. Others choose to work with others in helping each other bookmark. Being remarkable also encourages people to spread the word on your behalf.

11. Search Engine Optimization (SEO): I’ve chosen to put SEO at the end of the list, even though I know a lot of people would disagree. If you’re trying to find first-time visitors or people who are just browsing, SEO is fine, but if you want the faithful visitors who continuously return, try not to concentrate too much on optimization.

The problem with trying to optimize all your blog pages is that it takes away from you being remarkable. A remarkable blog is written with interesting subject lines (rather than boring keyword phrases) and isn’t always on topics that people use a search engine to find. Of course, you can combine the two (SEO and being remarkable) in some ways, but don’t let SEO take anything away from the interest and word-of-mouth your blog creates.

Related posts:

1. 10 Ways To Get Hungry Subscribers Reading Your Blog Content
2. Increase Web Site Traffic – How to with paid search advertising
3. Increase Web Site Traffic with Video Marketing
4. Promote Your Website To Increase Traffic
5. Using Article Directories To Increase Traffic To Your Website