For your blog to survive and thrive you need traffic. Who cares if you write the most amazing content if no one but you sees it? You do, that is who. So what can you do to improve the amount of traffic being driven to your blog? I have just the answer for you below.
Now, there are as many ways to get traffic to your site as there are stars in the sky. So, the list I compiled is just the major movers, the tried and true tactics for driving traffic to your blog. If you have any interesting tactics that you use effectively please inform us by leaving a comment explaining the tactic you employ.
Top Tier Traffic Tips
1: Build a List and Email It
First off you should start building a list of emails you capture from contacts with your blog. You should also send emails to your list when you have something good to share. Ask for suggestions, questions and comments to further engage your audience and increase interaction. Personally I hate when I sign up on a list and get nothing but sales copy from the start or if I signed up to get a free eBook or report and the site does not deliver what they promised.
2: Publish Frequently
The higher your posting frequency, the more traffic you can attract from the search engines, because they are indexing your content more often.
3: Create Compelling Headlines
Make sure that your post titles (headlines) are compelling to both people and the search engines. Using great adjectives like “best” or “free” generates more traffic, so does the use of numbers in titles. Headlines with “how to” also generate a lot of traffic. Once you get the traffic, you want it to stay on your site as long as possible so make sure that the content you produce is also worth reading.
4: Use Your Signature Wisely
Your email signature is always another good place to add branding and links to your blog, social media information and RSS feed. If you use web-based email add WiseStamp to your email signature. WiseStamp easily adds such links to your signature and works well with Gmail, AOL, Hotmail and Yahoo Mail.
5: Syndicate to Social Media
Syndicating your blog posts to the three major social media platforms is a must, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Use a plugin like WP to Twitter to syndicate your new posts to your Twitter stream. Use the Facebook Notes application to pull your blog feed into your profile and/or fan page. You can add three URLs to your LinkedIn profile make sure one is your blog. You can also syndicate your content with the Blog Link application.
6: Employ Various Subscription Options
Most blog platforms have a RSS feed built in, but also add an email subscription option. Email is ubiquitous and if you only offer RSS, you miss out on a huge opportunity to connect with more readers.
7: Comment on Other Blogs
This boosts your visibility you can get additional traffic from the other blog’s readership. Make sure you target influential blogs. Also make sure that when you do comment that you bring something meaningful to the conversation and never be too spammy.
8. Guest Post
Posting on other blogs can introduce you to a new audience and create a surge of new traffic to your blog.
9: Use Article Marketing
Article marketing is a powerful way to attract traffic. Post your articles at EzineArticles.com and other directories and include a link to your blog in the resource box.
10: Use Blog Directories
I recommend you add your blog to Technorati, the largest blog directory on the web, and Alltop.com, another popular directory.
11: Conduct Surveys and Polls
Use poles and surveys to find out what your readers want or to get their opinion. People love to give their opinion and more often than not, those who respond will help spread the word.
12: Use Share Buttons
There are many plugins, find one that you like and add it in the footer of your blog posts. I personally use the plugin Sexy Bookmarks.
13: Use Social Bookmarking
Share your content on sites like Digg, Delicious and StumbleUpon. When you have a really awesome post ask your audience to also bookmark your post. Don’t overdo it, but don’t be afraid to ask when you think there is merit.
14: Distribute Your Video
If you use video then you need to distribute your videos. While YouTube is king there are a number of other video sharing platforms that can generate traffic. I suggest you set up a TubeMogul account it is a free. With TubeMogul you can upload your video once and publish it on up to 20 video sharing platforms and include links back to your post or blog.
15: Make a Google Profile
Set up a Google profile and include links to your blog(s). Whenever someone searches for your name, a link to your profile will be featured at the bottom of the first page of search results. You can include links to your blog(s), pictures, products, and social media information.
Okay, now it’s your turn, if you have any interesting tactics that you use effectively please inform us by leaving a comment explaining the tactics you use!
