Friday, January 12, 2007

Tip #4 - Get Traffic; The Good Kind

[I may have broken one of my cardinal rules of blogging by making this a long post. ]
You started your blog so that people would read it, right? If you don't want that, you should have started a diary instead. There are many ways to get traffic to your blog. Unfortunately, they all involve you going out and telling the world about your blog.

Search Engines: You can submit your blog to search engines. However, their crawlers that index websites and blogs are likely to find your blog, just not right away. In order to submit your website to search engines, you must do it manually.
Google
MSN
Yahoo!

Submitting your website to a search engine is only half the battle. There may be hundreds or thousands of blogs just like yours on the search engine already. How do you make yourself standout? Its a lot to explain here, so if you are interested in a detailed topic, go here. Otherwise, there are less complicated ways to drawing in traffic.

Post Often, Post Good: This can't be emphasized enough. You must post daily, if not, post at least every other day. And those posts - they can't be crap. They have to draw the reader in, make them want to bookmark your website and come back. It will be your content, among all the other things listed here that bring and keep readers

Software: There is some free software that I highly recommend. It is called WebCEO. You can download it from here. This software contains a set of tools that no blog can go without. It includes a search engine submission tool that is second to none. It does an advanced search engine search using keywords you supply to help you find blogs that would possibly be good partners for your blog. It helps you find keywords that are good for your blog, as well as helps optimize your pages' HTML.

Ping-O-Matic: Every time you create a new post, it is recommended that you ping a "ping server." A ping server generates a list of blogs that have new material. Ping-O-Matic is a good site for this, as well as Pingoat, and Ping.in

Comments: Commenting on other blogs is one of the best ways to draw traffic. When you comment, don't just say, "Cool" or "Nice idea!" or some short comment that does nothing for the blog owner. What you say in your comment should be thoughtful and thought out, so that it adds to the post by the blogger. In addition, whatever you say reflects on your blog, and can determine if someone who views your comment will view your blog. Finally, always leave your blog URL at the bottom of your comments.

Submit, Submit, Submit: There are websites out there that you can submit your blog to that will send you visitors. One of the best websites for that is Technorati. You submit your blog to them and after verifying your blog, you will see your blog listed and visitors coming from there. Because you already have content on your blog, why not submit it to a Blog Carnival and get your content, as well as your blog, listed along with many others. BlogCarnival.Com is a great site for find carnivals to submit your work to. Write on web forums for various topics, and always remember to include a link to your blog in the signature. People will say,Well, let's check it out.

Links: As a blogger, it is most helpful if someone links to your blog, and vice versa, especially if your two blogs are in the same genre. However, be sure that you link to quality content that reflects well on your blog. If you link to some poorly written blog, people are going to have doubts about what they read in your blog. These links, often called

Interaction: If a reader takes the time to leave a comment, comment back to them. Let them know you hear them, and respond. It may make other readers feel inclined to also comment on your blog.

Good luck!

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