Many of us work so hard on our blogs and frankly, it kind of sucks if we don't get the traffic we want. And it's a catch-22you can't get the traffic without the work, but it's tough to justify all the work if you don't get the traffic. Well, here are 11 suggestions to get the traffic you want to your blog.
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.
So how on earth do you make yourself remarkable?
Delight and indulge - Stimulate your readers minds, give them some brain food to get their minds working. Build rapport - understand your readers personalities, address their worries and concerns. Be outlandish - sometimes controversy can also bring good publicity, even if not everyone agrees with what you're saying. Enlighten your readers - Be honest with your readers and tell them exactly what they want to hear, in a way they would appreciate.
This may be seen as a "build it and they will come" attitude, which is usually advised against in internet marketing, which may be true in some respects. Of course, this doesn't mean giving up manual traffic building, but the more "out there" or a controversial your blog is, the higher the chance is that your efforts become noticed.
# 2 The Power of RSS. It may be obvious to some, but there are thousands of blogs out there that haven't even considered using an RSS feed. If you're not sure what RSS means, it stands for really simple syndication - allowing users to subscribe to your blogs "feed", which alerts them to every new post you make without them having to constantly visit the blog. Unless your viewer audience is overly tech savvy, and consider RSS to be yesterday's news - I'd suggest giving the option to your readers that enables them to subscribe to your RSS feed, letting them view updates through their feed reader or e-mail accounts. Services are available to help the process like feedburner.com.
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. Make Comments: Make useful comments on busy blogs related to your blog's subject. Usually, you can link back to your site when you make a comment on another blog. BE RESPECTFUL!: Only use the space provided for your linkdon't write ads or fancy signatures AND make sure your comment is relevant and useful to other readers.
#5 TrackBacks: Most other blogs will allow you to post comments about their site on your blog. When you link to their site, a link to your own post actually appears in the comments on their blog. Setting up trackbacks between two WordPress blogs is easy, you simply need to put a link to the relevant post and the rest is done for you. Again, be respectful. If you're going to TrackBack to someone else's comment, be sure that you have written something useful. Simple copy and pasting of their own post really does not count as adding to the conversation.
6. Keep up-to-date with your e-mail list: Your list can be the foundation to the success of your blog. Keep your list updated with relevant posts and helpful information that they may enjoy. Those on your list will appreciate the contact.
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. Affiliates Link to Your Blog: If your affiliate program allows your affiliates to link to any page on your site, encourage them to link to and write about your various blog posts. The system I use at Quicksales.com (a private-label 1ShoppingCart) allows my affiliates to quickly and easily link to any blog post they want.
Affiliate referrals are cookied when someone follows a link and if that referral eventually buys, they get the commission. Of course, the conversions on blog links aren't going to be as good as linking directly to a sales page, but it gives your affiliates the opportunity to bring value to their own readers (by linking to your AWESOME content) and potential benefit financially.
#9 Social Networks: All of the popular social networks around can provide traffic like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. Internet users admire the transparency that these type of networks offer, and like the idea of being able to communicate with the blogger. Follow the right mannerisms when using these networks, and try not to fall into the trap of messing around on social networking sites for hours ( remember there's more important work to be getting on with). And, if you are remarkable as mentioned above, everybody else will be talking about you on the networks without you having to intervene.
#10 Social Bookmarking: Social bookmarking is different to social networks. Social bookmarking is a little like bookmarking your favorite websites in your browser, except the list will be published for everybody else to see, including the search engines. Some people bookmark their own sites, but do understand that the networks do not like this and may ban your account for "self promotion", so be sure to read the rules. Another technique is to pay others or work in a cooperative scheme. But again, if you are remarkable enough, your site will be book marked thoroughly by the internet public.
11. SEO (Search Engine Optimization): I put this one last, where I know a lot of people tend to put it first. If your goal is repeat visitors who become faithful fans, put SEO on the backburner and SEO your other content pages where you are looking for first-time or drive-by visitors.
The trouble with trying to optimize every single page on your blog is the time it takes to do so, and the fact that you could be using that time for being remarkable. Remember that content should be readable rather than just written for the search engine's, and keyword rich with the same phrase repeated throughout. If you're savvy enough however, you could combine the two by optimizing your existing pages, but don't make this a priority over your (remarkable) content.