5 Steps to Attracting Traffic to your Blog

So this list will start AT THE BEGINNING…..

STEP 1 OF ATTRACTING TRAFFIC TO YOUR BLOG: BEGIN WRITING ON A REGULAR BASIS

I recommend that clients set a goal to write at least three posts per week.  Now, with the Word Press Blog, you can sit down on a weekend afternoon, rip out those three posts and then save them to "publish" during the week.

Blogging is just like exercising… you don’t see results until you’ve been doing it for a while.

STEP 2 OF ATTRACTING TRAFFIC TO YOUR BLOG: FOCUS YOUR WRITING ON A PARTICULAR SUBJECT

Successful blogging is just like any kind of successful communication…. think of your desired READERS when you post.  It’s not about what you want to write about but rather what they want to read.  Hopefully you can find a place where what you want to write about is what readers want to read…. but remember, even your mother doesn’t want to read a daily blog post about what you had for breakfast that morning! 

If you’re a business owner, then a great topic to blog about is… YOUR BUSINESS!  Your area of expertise is a great place to start blogging.  However, keep your reader in mind.  You may be an expert in training dogs AND an expert in Video Games for the Play Station 2…. however those two topics don’t have a lot of overlap when it comes to readers.  Pick one and start blogging about that topic.  Heck, feel free to blog about both topics, just establish separate blogs to do it!

STEP 3 OF ATTRACTING TRAFFIC TO YOUR BLOG: INSTALL A GOOGLE SITE MAP PLUG IN

If you’re using a stand alone Word Press Blog, be sure to install the google sitemap plug in.  This handy dandy plug in updates your Google XML site map every time you post. 

STEP 4 OF ATTRACTING TRAFFIC TO YOUR BLOG: REGISTER WITH TECHNORATI

Technorati is the central listing place for blogs.  Their tag line is "55 million blogs…. some of them have to be good."  Technorati tracks the number of links each blog has and as a result, many blog owners register their blogs with Technorati and begin searching for other blogs with which to exchange links.  The more links you have, the higher your Technorati ranking and the higher your Technorati ranking the more desireable you are as a link partner.

STEP 5 OF ATTRACTING TRAFFIC TO YOUR BLOG: TRACK BACKS AND COMMENTS

Get involved in the blogging community.  Track Backs are when you link to a post in another blog.  Comments are something you can leave in response to someone’s blog post.  Both create a link from your site to another blog’s site and usually each will have to be approved to be included in the other blog’s structure.  That means, make it a thought out comment or track back because the blog owner is going to DECIDE whether or not to include it.  If it looks like spam…. or like you’re just trying to get a back link, your comment or track back will not be approved. 

When you link to another blog, AND you’re using Word Press, the Word Press dashboard will greet you with a notification of a new incoming link. 

STEP 6 OF ATTRACTING TRAFFIC TO YOUR BLOG: SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION

Include your blog URL in your email sig, on your letter head, on your car windows…. anywhere you can!  My blog readership jumped SUBSTANTIALLY by merely adding my blog’s URL into my sig.  I can’t tell you how many people commented on my blog after I added the URL to my sig file!!

STEP 7 OF ATTRACTING TRAFFIC TO YOUR BLOG: DON’T BE AFRAID TO ASK FOR HELP

Are you writing a book and eed stories to include in your upcoming book?  Post a plea on your blog for help, contact a few other bloggers in your niche and watcth the action start to happen. 

STEP 8 OF ATTRACTING TRAFFIC TO YOUR BLOG: START GIVING STUFF AWAY

Free is one of the most powerful words in the English language.  Launch a contest where each month you’ll give away a prize at random to readers of your blog.
STEP 9 OF ATTRACTING TRAFFIC TO YOUR BLOG: DON’T BE AFRAID TO RUFFLE A FEW FEATHERS ALONG THE WAY

Your blog is your voice and remember, the squeaky wheel is the one that gets the oil.  Speak your opinion and you’ll begin generating some heat!   Usually it’s the really opinionated posts that  stand a chance at making a big splash on the web.

STEP 10 OF ATTRACTING TRAFFIC TO YOUR BLOG: BE PATIENT

It’s easy to want "overnight success" but in the world of blogging, it’s a marathon race, not a sprint.  If yours is a new domain name, it’s going to take 12 months or more just to emerge from the Google sandbox.  Then, it’s a long steep road to reaching critical mass of several thousand readers.  It doesn’t happen overnight.  Many "overnight successes" that you read about are really stories of someone blogging steadily for two, three or more years.