Increasing Blog Traffic The Easy Way
Doesn’t it make you a little mad when you read a story about a person who started blogging and became instantly rich? Could it be that easy; and if it’s that easy, why isn’t everyone doing it. Well, I’m here to tell you, it might be THAT easy, but it’s not that fast!
The blogging is the easy part, getting blog traffic is a little more difficult. And, as you well know, without traffic you are just writing to thin air, and making no money. But there are a few easy things you can do to make sure that “they” visit after your blog is built:
Blog often: Twice a week should be your minimum target, if you have a great niche market that you are targeting, you might want to blog once a day in the beginning to get your site indexed by the search engines. Consistently adding content goes a long way in increasing blog traffic.
When blogging, it is helpful to visit the sites of other blog owners, read their blogs, and post suggestions and comments. These comments and suggestions should be useful, rather than just meaningless agreements with previously submitted contributions. Blog owners don’t appreciate spam. Your post is much more likely to be accepted if it is meaningful.
The savvy blogger will not only post these helpful comments and suggestions; there is another key to increasing blog traffic. The individual will also post a link to his or her blog when making these posts. Each time that you do this it adds value. The blog owner will receive a Trackback notice of your good faith link, and eventually, the author of the blog will respond by linking back to your blog site as well.
A helpful tip when doing this is to link to sites that are complementary to, rather than in direct competition with, your blog. For example, if your blog is about romance, linking to another person writing about the same theme offers competition. In contrast, blogs dedicated to romantic getaways and travel are complementary to your topic. This is much more useful than trying to link to competing blogs.
One important consideration for increasing blog traffic is to ensure that visitors have a method of subscribing to the blog via a newsletter or Feedburner subscription option. If visitors are merely able to bookmark the blog, or must locate it again on the Internet, they are far less likely to return than if they have subscribed, and the blog is sent directly to their email addresses. Make sure it is always easy for people to return to your site.
One small but important thing is th have the RSS button is prominently displayed on the site. This will allow many readers to access the blog from their Yahoo! Membership area. This helps to increase blog traffic, and another benefit is that you can increase your subscriber base for future sales.
It is important to keep the primary goal in mind when designing the blog site. Although the desire is to make money, simply loading the site with banners and affiliate links is going to cause many people to tire of reading quickly, and may actually decrease traffic. Banners are useful, but only if they don’t overpower the reader or detract from the blog’s quality.
It is okay to use banners and affiliate links, as long as they don’t have the effect of overpowering the blog.
You want to be noted as an expert in your field; and your main goal should not only be to increase blog traffic, but also to get visitors to sign up for your newsletter; making them want to come back and learn from you.
Evelyn Grazini has been in Internet Marketing for more than 5 years, and in Affiliate Marketing for over two years. Her specialty is finding Niche Markets for Affiliate Marketing, and helping others become successful through her blogs and Articles. Find more information at www.bestaffiliateniche.com and Get Your Free Copy of The Niche Code!
- Evelyn Grazini