Blogging Tips |

So, you have this amazing blog with great content, but it seems the hit counter is broken cus that baby is moving in slowww motion. Anyone that you TELL to go visit it compliments you, and maybe they even subscribe to you, but otherwise your blog is invisible to the world. Your mama has never lied to you, but when she starts raving about how impressed she is with your content, you cringe a little wondering how many times she has in fact lied to you before cus she seems to be your only follower. If any of these scenarios sound familar, it’s time for you to start marketing your blog.

The first step is realizing you need to actually do more than publish your posts to gain traffic. You’ve not only done that, but you have also made an effort to start finding ways to do so if you are reading this post. So, enough with the small talk. Here are some things you can try to bring more traffic to your blog. Goodluck!

Find a NICHE. Some personal blogs can be successful even though the only thing the posts have in common is that they’re written by the same person. If your life or random interests are that interesting or entertaining, all the more power to ya. However, this is not the case with most blogs. Find something you’re interested in. Learn about it. Even if you’re a newbie but passionate about something, share the new things you learn with your readers. When a reader finds you because they are interested in something and do a search on it, don’t confuse the hell out of them when they come back the next time and it seems like they’ve found a completely different blog. Keep things interesting, but be consistent.
Build a COMMUNITY. Using your blog name (or something representing it if the name is taken or too long like mine often is). Join a social community site like Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Squidoo or Ning. Your friends or fans will be potential subscribers. Not only that, but they will spread the word about your blog even if its unintentional by having their friends and fans see your icon or name in their friends lists. If you offer tutorials, consider making a YouTube account and posting videos when you can instead of typing step by step instructions. It gives you a chance to show yourself and your personality and it’s also obviously easier and more interesting for a visual learner to watch a video instead of hoping they are doing what your words tell them to do. You’ll also be introducing yourself to a ton of youtubers who possibly wouldn’t have found your blog otherwise.
Make a LIST. Simple but it works. Make a list of things that would interest potential readers and publish it. Send a ping out on Ping-O-Matic, announce the article on Digg.com, or just wait for folks to search for this type of list and find you that way. This will no only attract people who were looking for what your blog normally offers, but depending on the content, it could also bring in people who just got lucky and stuck around to browse the rest of your blog after getting what they were looking for. Try to be consistent with your blog when you post lists, but remember its okay to shake things up every once in a while. I like crafts, but I am also a blogger who is always interested in boosting traffic. Hey, and if this post does the trick, I will probably find a reason to list some of my favorite scary movies at halloween or my favorite arts and crafts blogs one day too =o) People are always looking for ideas, and those ideas can be found in the form of a list on your blog. Give the people what they want!
Be ACTIVE. What is the point of having a community to represent you when people don’t know who you are? Respond to comments that people leave on your blog. Participate in forums when you join sites using your blog’s name. Put a signature linking to your site if you can get away with it. Some sites don’t allow this because they see it as spam and people take advantage (Commenting on a post with something random and irrelevant just to get your link on the post). Be respectful of other people’s spaces, but get your name out there when you can. Be interesting and make your comments helpful so people want to learn more about the cool person leaving such comments.
SUBMIT your blog to search engines. This is extremely important. Most people are not going to go to your blog host’s site to find you through the tags you give each post. They go to a major search engine and type in whatever they are looking for. If your blog isn’t on that search engine, you might as well be writing your thoughts in a diary because no one is going to find you. Do a search for “search engine submission” or “add your URL” to get yourself started. Here are a couple of submission pages to get your started: Google, Yahoo, and DMOZ. Last but not least, don’t forget to get an account on Technorati too. This blog search engine allows readers to search for blogs through tags. What better way to attract an audience thats likely to be interested in what you have to say? Another idea would be signing up to a blog surfing site that flashes different blogs on their homepage in real time. If people like what they see, they click the current blog to visit it. The two main blog surfing sites are Alpha Invoentions and Condron.
PERSISTENCE is key. It may seem like it’s impossible at the rate you’ve been going at to make your blog popular. However, keep in mind that it takes a while to get a big following of loyal readers. Like in any other relationship, you have to build trust and keep people intrigued enough to stick around. Your content and your following are sure to get better. But, it’s only possible if you stick with it and learn as you go. Post good content on a regular basis. This is especially important in the beginning. Older blogs can get away with taking a few days or more off because their readers can bookmark them and come back to check out “new” articles from months or years before they found the blog. But, if a reader comes by and loves your first [and only] 10 posts and comes back a week later and you have nothing new, why would they come back a 3rd time? Post your best content as if you were getting graded for it and post often enough that people know they have to keep checking in to make sure they don’t get left behind.
FEED your audience. Not everyone wants to go to the actual blog every time they want to see what you’re up to. Sometimes they just forget– you have to realize your readers have lives and other things keeping them busy besides your posts. Having a bite of your blog delivered to them in their inbox in the morning or when they log into their account on another site later on will help them to remember you. Even if your hosting site offers a free RSS feed, it’s a good idea to sign up to FeedBurner.com as well. They have tools that help you offer more options for your readers to follow your blog whether it be through emails or bookmarking you on their other sites.
You can’t go wrong with INCENTIVES. Give your readers a reason to come back to you and spread the word about you aside from your content. Give them a reason to promote you. How often do you bring up another blog or website you went to when you are forwarding some random email someone sent you, posting a myspace survey or writing something in your own blog? Exactly! So, why expect someone else to do the same for you? Do a banner exchange with a similar blog to get some of their readers and offer them a chance to get new readers as well. Start a contest on your blog and offer a prize to the winner.
NETWORK your artsy fartsy toosh off. Make friends with other bloggers in your niche so they want to support you. Link to similar blogs you like in your side menu and start commenting on their pages. When they come to visit because of your comment or because they see an incoming link, they may return the favor. Sometimes it’s not even about a favor or getting something back. For example, I am a black lesbian blogger. When I had a personal blog, I would use those keywords “black lesbian” as part of the descriptions I gave my blog topics. Try googling that term and see what you come up with: a lot of XXX nonsense that had nothing to do with the content I had on my page. I gave up on that search term when I was looking for pages to explore. So, I found other black lesbian blogs, I would browse their links for similar pages and link all the good blogs on my own page. We created a network of beautiful creative women who had at least one thing in common and offered a plethora of content to our readers. As long as you have good content and do your part to keep your readers interested in you too, there is no reason to not try and help others grow. In the process, you often help yourself at the same time.
Know your TARGET audience. Exactly who are you talking to? Would you talk to a potential employer the way you would talk to your kid brother? Would you tell your grandma the same stories you tell the girls/boys? If you were a doctor trying to make a patient feel safe about a surgery, would you be assuring them that you’ve performed the operation a hundred times or would you be showing off the collection of comic books you’ve been collecting since grade school? Now that you know your niche and the type of people that come to you, go one step further and learn about how you can make the experience better for them. Try a site lke SiteMeter to learn more about your readers. It’s free and you can find out things like when your readers visit most often. If your hits skyrocket on Sunday mornings, maybe you should start posting amazing content in time for that big burst of traffic. Some of those people will be ore likely to subscribe or forward your link to a friend. Put a poll up from a site like PollDaddy if your host doesn’t already offer a poll app. Ask your readers questions like what kind of content they would like to see in your next post or make a post with a poll asking which posts they enjoyed best that week (and encourage them to say why through a comment on that poll post). If there is something you can easily do to cater to your readers, then do it. It shows you are willing to go that extra step for them.