10 Blog Traffic Tips That Works

In every bloggers life comes a special day – the day they first launch a new blog. Now unless you went out and purchased someone else”s blog chances are your blog launched with only one very loyal reader – you. Maybe a few days later you received a few hits when you told your sister, father, girlfriend and best friend about your new blog but that”s about as far you went when it comes to finding readers. Here are the top 10 techniques new bloggers can use to find readers.

These are tips specifically for new bloggers, those people who have next-to-no audience at the moment and want to get the ball rolling.

It helps if you work on this list from top to bottom as each technique builds on the previous step to help you create momentum. Eventually once you establish enough momentum you gain what is called “traction”, which is a large enough audience base (about 500 readers a day is good) that you no longer have to work too hard on finding new readers. Instead your current loyal readers do the work for you through word of mouth. Top 10 Tips

10. Write at least five major “pillar” articles. A pillar article is usually a tutorial style article aimed to teach your audience something. Generally they are longer than 500 words and have lots of very practical tips or advice. This article you are currently reading could be considered a pillar article since it is very practical and a good “how-to” lesson. This style of article has long term appeal, stays current (it isn”t news or time dependent) and offers real value and insight. The more pillars you have on your blog the better.

9. Write one new blog post per day minimum. Not every post has to be a pillar, but you should work on getting those five pillars done at the same time as you keep your blog fresh with a daily news or short article style post. The important thing here is to demonstrate to first time visitors that your blog is updated all the time so they feel that if they come back tomorrow they will likely find something new. This causes them to bookmark your site or subscribe to your blog feed.

You don”t have to produce one post per day all the time but it is important you do when your blog is brand new. Once you get traction you still need to keep the fresh content coming but your loyal audience will be more forgiving if you slow down to a few per week instead. The first few months are critical so the more content you can produce at this time the better.

8. Use a proper domain name. If you are serious about blogging be serious about what you call your blog. In order for people to easily spread the word about your blog you need an easily rememberable domain name. People often talk about blogs they like when they are speaking to friends in the real world (that”s the offline world, you remember that place right?) so you need to make it easy for them to spread the word and pass on your URL. Try and get a .com if you can and focus on small easy to remember domains rather than worry about having the correct keywords (of course if you can get great keywords and easy to remember then you”ve done a good job!).

7. Start commenting on other blogs. Once you have your pillar articles and your daily fresh smaller articles your blog is ready to be exposed to the world. One of the best ways to find the right type of reader for your blog is to comment on other people”s blogs. You should aim to comment on blogs focused on a similar niche topic to yours since the readers there will be more likely to be interested in your blog.

Most blog commenting systems allow you to have your name/title linked to your blog when you leave a comment. This is how people find your blog. If you are a prolific commentor and always have something valuable to say then people will be interested to read more of your work and hence click through to visit your blog.

6. Trackback and link to other blogs in your blog posts. A trackback is sort of like a blog conversation. When you write a new article to your blog and it links or references another blogger”s article you can do a trackback to their entry. What this does is leave a truncated summary of your blog post on their blog entry – it”s sort of like your blog telling someone else”s blog that you wrote an article mentioning them. Trackbacks often appear like comments.

This is a good technique because like leaving comments a trackback leaves a link from another blog back to yours for readers to follow, but it also does something very important – it gets the attention of another blogger. The other blogger will come and read your post eager to see what you wrote about them. They may then become a loyal reader of yours or at least monitor you and if you are lucky some time down the road they may do a post linking to your blog bringing in more new readers.

5. Encourage comments on your own blog. One of the most powerful ways to convince someone to become a loyal reader is to show there are other loyal readers already following your work. If they see people commenting on your blog then they infer that your content must be good since you have readers so they should stick around and see what all the fuss is about. To encourage comments you can simply pose a question in a blog post. Be sure to always respond to comments as well so you can keep the conversation going.

4. Submit your latest pillar article to a blog carnival. A blog carnival is a post in a blog that summarizes a collection of articles from many different blogs on a specific topic. The idea is to collect some of the best content on a topic in a given week. Often many other blogs link back to a carnival host and as such the people that have articles featured in the carnival enjoy a spike in new readers.

To find the right blog carnival for your blog, do a search at http://blogcarnival.com/.

3. Submit your blog to blogtopsites.com. To be honest this tip is not going to bring in a flood of new readers but it”s so easy to do and only takes five minutes so it”s worth the effort. Go to Blog Top Sites, find the appropriate category for your blog and submit it. You have to copy and paste a couple of lines of code on to your blog so you can rank and then sit back and watch the traffic come in. You will probably only get 1-10 incoming readers per day with this technique but over time it can build up as you climb the rankings. It all helps!

2. Submit your articles to EzineArticles.com. This is another tip that doesn”t bring in hundreds of new visitors immediately (although it can if you keep doing it) but it”s worthwhile because you simply leverage what you already have – your pillar articles. Once a week or so take one of your pillar articles and submit it to Ezine Articles. Your article then becomes available to other people who can republish your article on their website or in their newsletter.

How you benefit is through what is called your “Resource Box”. You create your own resource box which is like a signature file where you include one to two sentences and link back to your website (or blog in this case). Anyone who publishes your article has to include your resource box so you get incoming links. If someone with a large newsletter publishes your article you can get a lot of new readers at once.

1. Write more pillar articles. Everything you do above will help you to find blog readers however all of the techniques I”ve listed only work when you have strong pillars in place. Without them if you do everything above you may bring in readers but they won”t stay or bother to come back. Aim for one solid pillar article per week and by the end of the year you will have a database of over 50 fantastic feature articles that will work hard for you to bring in more and more readers.

This article was by Yaro Starak, a professional blogger and my blog mentor. He is the leader of the Blog Mastermind mentoring program designed to teach bloggers how to earn a full time income blogging part time. To get more information about Blog Mastermind click the banner below:
Click here to get The Blog Profits Blueprint

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23 Responses to “10 Blog Traffic Tips That Works”

  1. David Agogo says:

    Very interesting post. In the spirit of the content of your post, i am leaving a comment, but more than that, I think a very important rule for the casual blogger is this: always try to draw out a message or handy anecdote from a personal experience to title or summarise your posts. Posting about how you saw your friend in traffic and her jacket was lovely doesnt quite cut it, except you are paris hilton.

    David Agogos last blog post..A Pipe Dream?… The Nigerian Mind of the Future

  2. I can honestly say I have tried 10 – 5 , 2 and 1 and they have worked out just swimmingly for me.

  3. Rebecca says:

    Thanks for this post. Some of this I knew, yet seeing it written down in this tidy list format encourages follow through for me.

    Rebeccas last blog post..A Pug Named Bruno

  4. The Ordinary Moe says:

    Interesting and informative..thanks for the information.

  5. KushMoney says:

    Thanks for posting this,I knew most of this but I still learned something from it.

    KushMoneys last blog post..Hacker Bypass Paypal Code

  6. NaijaEcash says:

    @all
    It is nice to know that even though the tips are quite old, yet they are as effective as ever. I am putting them into use and I am getting impressed with the results. Thumbs up to Yaro Starak.

  7. Thanks, these are useful tips… i still have my doubts about the ezine articles though. I’ve seen a lot of those ripped and edited, killing the resource box and your credit. Sad but true!

    Julian-Technology Currents last blog post..Swat Team Sees Through Walls

  8. Submitting your articles to directories is a great way to build long-term traffic to your blog, I’d also recommend Article Dashboard and Article Cube, they have brought me a heap of traffic to my blog!

    Good article!

    Cheers,

    John.

    John D Stewarts last blog post..Quality Blog Content – Quality Shines Through

  9. Temi says:

    Do you have any tips specific to bloggers in Nigeria?

  10. NaijaEcash says:

    @Julian
    You’re correct, but there is hardly anything anyone can do about that. If 10% rip your content but 90% comes to visit your website, that won’t be a bad result. Thanks for visiting and dropping your candid opinion.

    @John
    Thanks for those mentioning those additional sites article directories.

    @Temi
    Thanks for visiting. Those tips listed above can be use by anyone, Nigerian and non-Nigerians alike. They are not limited by geographical location of the blogger. Really, internet have made the earth a global village. If you need any specific suggestion or advice, feel free to ask in a comment, via my contact form or in the FORUM. Cheers.

  11. Nishadha says:

    publishing the article in the same format will lead to Google penalizing you for duplicate content.

    Nishadhas last blog post..Earn money with Bidvertiser

  12. Artster63 says:

    Excellent suggestions. Good for a fairly recent newbie like myself. Thanks.

    Artster63s last blog post..Vote for Artster63, 70’s Classic Rock and America!!!!

  13. NaijaEcash says:

    @Nishadha
    Since the article was given to me by Yaro, I didn’t want to alter it and make it look like it originated from me. Unfortunately, I never bothered to check or ask if he ever gave same to other mentorees of his. Thanks for pointing out this vital issue. I will modify the article and add a note.

    @Artster63
    Thanks for visiting and dropping a comment. I love your blog theme, it is classic like the music you love 😉 I am getting a copy for my library. Cheers.

  14. Nikki G says:

    Thanks for the tips. I will definitely give them a shot.

    Nikki Gs last blog post..New Interview

  15. Dropped and Dugg! Great post!

    The Tech Juices last blog post..Reset OS X Password Without a CD

  16. vikram says:

    i would say content is the main tool to bring traffic to your blog.any way its a good article.

    nice questions for one to think.

    vikrams last blog post..Tech companies becoming Social

  17. […] 10 Blog Traffic Tips That Works 3. Submit your blog to blogtopsites.com. To be honest this tip is not … time.To get more information about Blog Mastermind click the banner… […]

  18. Matt Urdan says:

    This is a great post! I learned a lot from it, especially regarding the Pillar Article. I’ve just dropped on you from EntreCard and I’ll be visiting often. This post is so well written and so informative I’m very eager to discover what else you’ve got to say and to inform and to teach.

    Well done.

    Also, thanks for your comments on my post “Circles.” I’m just getting around to respond to the last few days worth of comments. this EntreCard/Digg thing has taken a lot of time, but it’s been worth it. No, I’m not a poet, but I like to consider myself a pretty decent writer.

    Thanks again!

    Matt Urdans last blog post..Digg This: Making the Most of Digg w/ EntreCard

  19. Deborah Katy says:

    I loved it. Thank you for the tips 🙂

    Deborah Katys last blog post..PERIOD PROBLEMS – A WOMEN S SUBJECT.

  20. Bakare says:

    This is a great list and a great motivation for more work knowing fully well that there will come a payday. Thanks
    Bakare´s last blog post ..The saved Marriage- Never a Lonely Road!

  21. Greatchap says:

    Thanks for the post, but i don’t seem to understand what blogcarnival means.
    Greatchap´s last blog post ..Effective Online Businesses you can do with your blog or website

  22. Rasika says:

    Yes..I agree with this 10 traffic tips if you follow this tips you can definitely get your site in to good Rank…

  23. Shannon says:

    This is my first time visit at here and i am truly pleassant to read everthing
    at alone place.

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    Shannon´s last blog post ..Shannon

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