One of the truest truisms in marketing is just because you wrote it, published it or posted it doesn’t mean anyone is going to see it.
That is certainly true of the Internet in general and blogs in particular.
The whole idea with a blog is to generate repeat visitors. But you have to get them there the first time somehow.
So here are a few tips on how to traffic to your blog.
1. Make it a part of your website and with a prominent button to visit your blog. Of course, you aren’t going to get more visitors that way than are visiting your website.
2. It may sound silly to have to mention this, but it is amazing how often it is forgotten: TELL PEOPLE ABOUT YOUR BLOG. Whether that is by sending out mailings, mentioning it to the cashier at the local diner, or hiring a plane to do skywriting, get the word out.
3. Add other blogs in your subject area to your blogroll. Don’t have a blogroll? This is the list of blogs YOU like and read which usually is located along one side of your blog. If you list a blog, you are linking to that blog. Some of these will notice, check out your blog and may write about YOUR blog on theirs. And some of their visitors may check you out.
4. Visit other blogs in your subject area which allow comments. Comment when you feel like it. Some people will find their way back to your blog.
5. Do something worthy of grabbing attention. Of course not everyone can always do that. But if you have original reporting or a very well written opinion piece on a hot topic, or something so unusual (especially pictures or videos) as to be a real eyeball grabber, this can spread virally.
6. Make sure your blog shows up in indexes and directories and social networking sites (more about that in another post)
You can see from some of these points, such as #3-5 why I’ve said don’t bother blogging if it isn’t going to be fun, if you even do manage to grind out some posts, no one is going to be reading them.
When blogging started about 5 years ago, blogs got read by at most perhaps a few thousand visitors a day. They (especially the political blogs) got a huge boost during the 2004 presidential elections. Now top blogs regularly get 100,000 or more visitors a day. But they all started out as labors of love and that is what made them good, interesting and worthwhile.
