Today, a blog is a very popular way to create an online presence for personal and business reasons. You can build a blog for FREE within minutes 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, you won’t be blogging long.
That is not to say that the failed bloggers weren’t serious about blogging. Mostly, new bloggers aren’t prepared for the work that goes into creating a successful blog. Just building the blog doesn’t mean that people will necessary come to you. You pursue the audience and give them a reason to see what you have to say.
Here are ten ideas to bring traffic to your blog:
- Fresh Content – no one wants to visit a blog day after day and see the same posts. Update your blog content at least twice a week. This will be easier if you write several posts ahead of time and upload them at the appropriate times. If you want even more traffic, try posting daily at least a couple times each day. Some bloggers hire other bloggers to write on their blog to produce even more content for the world to view.
- Article Marketing – the niche you’ve chosen for your blog is one that interests you. If it is interesting you will spend more time doing it. 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.
- Social Networking – these sites are everywhere. Join Facebook, MySpace, Squidoo, Twitter or a dozen others and make connections. You can join groups of like minded people who are also bloggers or entrepreneurs.
- 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. If you got a catchy domain, get one of those cool stickers for the back window of your vehicle!
- 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. If you are using Feedburner, make sure your email subscription service is activated so that your readers can also subscribe by email.
- 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. You’ll have to do a little more work for that.
- Joining Forums – as a blogger you are a budding entrepreneur. Right now you are 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Social Bookmarking – submitting posts to social bookmarking sites allows others who are members of those sites to track you back to your blog. If you want a better chance at being ranked in Google, be sure to setup a Google + page for your blog and suggest others share and +1 your content. If you have good images, encourage your readers to PIN your content by using Pinterest widgets in your posts.
Using any of these ideas will start the traffic moving in your direction. It takes time but you will build the readership you want. Although all of these tips are not required for traffic, by doing each of the ones mentioned above, you are only creating more and more doors and paths for others to find your content on this big world wide web.
If you have tips on getting traffic to your blog, be sure to leave your ideas in a comment below.
This is excellent advice for a newbie. I also recommend Triberr, it is a great resource and you can find some great bloggers who are willing to help share you posts. I wish that I had this tool when I first started blogging full time it would have made my life easier.
Awesome list and great advice. I post daily. I know I don’t have to post that much, but I feel like somehow I would be disappointing people if I didn’t. It’s probably all in my head, though.
I think those are great ways to get more traffic to your blog. I am fairly new myself and have been learning as I am going, but tips like this are really appreciated. Thanks
These are some really good ideas. I really want to drive traffic to my blog.
I wish my real life friends were more supportive of my blog! They share content ALL.THE.TIME on social media, but don’t ever share mine. 🙁
Aww, I know what you mean, Janel! I have one friend that shares recipes all. the. time. but has never shared any of mine! lol
Great tips! I think I need to work on a couple of them, but for the most part I feel I am doing them!
Great ideas and suggestions! I need to work on all of these, but I’m getting there slowly. Thanks again.
These are great ideas. I use Pinterest a lot to pin various posts – and have noticed several go viral. It’s been a great tool for me the past few months.
As a new blogger, this is great tips! I have done several and have some others on my list.
Those are all really great tips, and I know I need to utilize some of them more. I am always uncomfortable to give my blog info to my IRL friends, but I know some of them could be very helpful in helping to promote for me.
These are great tips for someone who’s new to blogging! I think I’m weakest at viral marketing. It sometimes takes me weeks to even let someone know that I blog!
I need to start actually using G+. I know it’s going to be important {and already is} but I just don’t have the time!
I know exactly what you mean! I try to remember to post there every day. I usually spend 5 minutes or so chatting up others, but I’ve never seen any traffic from it.
These are all great tips. I am trying to use G+ more.
Great ways to generate more traffic. Thanks for the tips!
I pin a ton of my evergreen content on Pinterest and that seems to do the trick for us in bringing in new faces.
Fresh content regularly and really focusing on SEO work wonderfully for me.
This is a great list of musts! Good thing there are many avenues to choose from.
I definitely agree with them all! Adding a pinnable image has worked well for me, too.
Really great tips! I’ve just started socializing in a couple of forums and I really enjoy it.
Thank you for the great tips! I need to set my RSS feed back up, I left it lapse a while ago!
Great tips! Pinning this post so I can check back on my progress!
Awesome list, social media is more than publish and walk away – it all takes effort but it’s so worth it!
Great tips! We do all of these things and are having some success. Networking is paramount in the blogging world!
social networking is so important. I notice on my blog that I get more traffic on days that I social media my posts 🙂
This is a great resource for bloggers. I get the most traffic from Content rich articles. Even though they are a few years old, I still pull in traffic for a lot of posts I wrote when I first began. So I would definitely recommend creating evergreen content rich posts..things that will still be relevant in years to come and then use your social media tactics to bring life to the old posts.
Lots of great tips here. I need to work on Google +
I love all of these tips; they are fanatics! Totally agree with the content one!
Fresh content is always a must, that drives in lots of great traffic.
Awesome list! I’ll be checking these out!!
All great advice! I’m guilty of not viral marketing enough, thanks for the reminder!
Thank you dear one.. All are great helpers and then there is that secret ingredient we are still seraching for… Love your tips. 😉
These are great tips! I never knew the world of blogging was so complex and complicated, but these are great ideas.
I would add to write a tutorial or craft post with lots of beautiful pictures. This is guaranteed to get you noticed.
great tips, I use many of these but I am always looking to keep growing!
Great tips! I really need to work on them. I’m terrible and not a detail person. I just like to blog. I wish I were big enough to have somebody worry about SEO, pinning, etc. for me. lol
I’m going to sound like an idiot for saying this – but I don’t know how to submit my blog to Google for searching. ???
This is a great list. I wish I had seen a list like this when I was starting out.
Thanks for sharing these great tips, they will come in handy for those in need.
Getting traffic is most important..I will add that having a photo of yourself on
all profile pages & your own avatar would be helpful too.
I try to post every day for these reasons! The more content, the more visible I stay on
I am always trying to find great ways to get new traffic.
Thanks for the ideas! It is always good to learn new and innovative ways to market your content effectively.
These are great tips. I need to figure out how to get more traffic.
Great newbie tips! Sometimes I just need a reminder that I am doing the right steps to help my site along.
These are good tips! I find that SEO + quality content is a real winner for me.
These are all fantastic tips! I need to get better at visiting forums
Guest blogging is a great way to get more traffic. I’d choose to submit my content to related blogs rather than article directories. They aren’t as effective as they used to be.