How to Increase Visitors to Your Blog

Since creating this blog I have used various methods to increase visitors, in an attempt to establish a useful avenue for people to hopefully learn something useful. Generally I started promotion in about 30 forums, blog directories, social sites, commenting on similar blogs/sites, article writing, search engine submissions, sub blog/site creation. All these method involved engaging heavily with other sites and blogs, their visitors, and other bloggers. But this takes a lot of time and passion, which I now only partially participate, because of limited time.
Image of World Visitors By ilco at SXC.


But now changing course a little for my blogger based blog by applying search engine techniques (SEO), i.e. keywords in content, relevant link gathering (internal and external), SEO research for keywords, relevant site map submission, url - title - post title- optimization, template - page element visual based customization, html editing, researching/testing other bloggers and blog layout ideas, to name a few. It seems to be working in terms of increased targeted visitors for a lot less work. Getting visitors is one thing, but getting then to return, and to get targeted visitors is another thing. Image of SEO By svilen001 at SXC.

Listed below are avenues to increase visitors to a blog, most of which I have done and seen varying results. Often I found you have to keep reworking (i.e. maintain a a presence) in forums and social sites to increase or even maintain visitors, which are not always targeted visitors - important if you want to make money in a niche blog. Each of these avenues are only the first basic level, as there could be extensive testing (e.g. for template modification, html editing), reworking (e.g. article writing-rewriting, forums answering, careful commenting, etc), optimization/socialization with each avenue (e.g. blog directories also have forums for participation/promotion) and so on.

Anyway hopefully this list is useful for bloggers to start to get traffic. But you should expand within each avenue, and find what suits you without causing stress, excessive time, and loss of interest in blogging. For me it's now the less demanding (well so far) SEO approach, which I found gives me more time to create other blogs of interest, rather than forever navigating, following, and even promoting others on social networks. This list is in no particular priority/logical order, but of what I know from 2 years of my blogging experience...


Methods and Avenues to Increase Blog Traffic:

1. Good content - Well researched, written, unique content that you believe will attract and maintain readers. "How to" based content, with external tutorial links/references seems to attract visitors for this blog.
2. Submit your blog/post/article (don't duplicate) to popular blog/article directories. Popular are MyBlogLog, BlogCatalog, Top of Blogs, Blog Engage, GoArticles, Ezine articles, Article dashboard, etc. Visit Blog Know How for reviews. Perhaps get a little involved in their forums. Visit complete list of Blog Directories.
3. Leave meaningful comments in related blogs/sites that have page rank 2 or higher, or seem to have the potential to go higher. If you can, anchor you link with your blog/post name. But make sure if they are do follow links if you want to get ranked
4. Also leave a link in forum posts, if highly relevant to the question. I have done so sparingly, knowing that it will intuitively help. Again make sure if do follow links (Don't bother me anymore, because I like to share, and help others). Be a genuine active poster - i.e. a helpful contributor.
5. Also leave a link to your blog, in the signature, sometimes with a useful text title reference.
6. Allow visitors to subscribe both by rss feeds and email, and display the graphics/widget box prominently. Visit Google feedburner for optimization ideas.
7. Always reply if you do give a comment with something helpful, with a reminder to come back or bookmark your blog. I have missed opportunities by not replying in a timely manner.
8. Do join myspace, facebook, twitter, mylot, Bebo, etc to help promote your blog, though carefully, but consider how much time and work you intend to do. Not too much - you will get tired. Though twitter might differ, I don't know - but read this from Dosh Dosh (about mass following others)
9. Perhaps join blog carnivals - communities to share topics of interest.
10. Create key worded content that relates to your post title, and your url. For Tech/PC tutorial blogs the "How to" is a good starting point for post titles. People often search starting with "How to"
11. Write with good grammar, medium fonts, maybe a white background, and with paragraphs. Readers want to read clear posts, if that, as many would skim through a post.
12. Include images were suitable (free at sxc) and use the alt tags to describe/reference your blog's post.
13. Use a language translator - visit Google gadgets.
14. Add your blog link to your emails if suitable. It's about spreading your blog.
15. Include a easy to remember name in your url, hopefully for visitors to remember.
16. Perhaps use your url name (or similar) as your user name in forums, directories, etc. These can show up in search engine results. It's a form of branding.
17. Create hub pages/squidoo lens, simple blog to relate/promote your blog.Many interlink them strategically in due course. Perhaps don't make them too popular relative to your main blog, as they might rank ahead in the serps (search engine results pages)
18. Similarly create a simple promotion site to refer to your other blogs/sites. Perhaps a free host/web creation site might help, like Weebly, Yola (Synthasite), Google Sites, Jimdo, Snap Pages, Edicy Pages, etc.
18. Get fresh ideas/news from rss feeds. I have embedded a rss Google gadget for popular tech blogs and freeware. Example here at pcsourcepoint.
19. Similarly sign up for Google alerts or similar if you do product reviews. Get the latest to help generate fresh ideas.
20. Give a link if relevant, - helps to be more community based. Google tracks sites based on links. See this interesting article from seozombie about outbound links leaking link juice.
21. Apply SEO techniques. I am learning here (should have done so earlier). Learn and sign up with experts like seozombie. SEO can be a research intensive process.
22. Do link exchange, but better to get a one way internal link if you can. Avoid links farms, as Google frowns on them, and you could get banned from their search engine database. Tread carefully.
23. Following SEO techniques, use and understand Google's tools for analysis and customization - they are very helpful: Google's Webmaster Tools, Keyword Tool, Google Trends, Google Insight, Ad Planner, Google Analytics, Google Alerts, Website Optimizer, Google Friend Connect, and Google Gadgets. There are many SEO tools like at thoushallblog (15 SEO tools), Quirk's Search Status, SEO Status (both Firefox ad ons), and I have seen/applied many more. SEO Elite software and SEO Book (my affiliate link) are others.
24. Ask visitors to bookmark/email a friend, etc, and link back. There are widgets for these.
25. Cross promote your blogs that are similar. Use Widget box or at least a link.
26. Add recent comments box. Lets you know to comment back as soon as.
27. Perhaps create regular polls - helps to engage your readers.
28. Customize/modify or import/upload a template if suitable, including editing html. This is to allow easy navigation, add more useful page elements/widgets, and perhaps to have a attractive template. This can be a big field to tackle, but their are excellent blogger blogs to help: blogger tips and tricks (step by step help for hacks), Blogger tipandtrick (plenty of mods/hacks), Blogger Know How (easy layout of tips/hacks), Blogger Buster (plenty of concise tips, hacks, and templates), Tips for New Bloggers (mods, hacks for overall template) and the full on blog doctor (massive topics on javascript/html to change about anything in blogger- might suit advanced users). In my experience they are your best blogger tutorial sites. Note: Over a long time, I have noticed (or perhaps I have concentrated) that the most content rich blogs have the least widgets/add ons, etc. In other words don't over do your blog with fancy gadgets/ads/images - you could deter visitors from your content or blog.
29. Use video if practical and try promote on YouTube using your url.
30. Have an affinity with your visitors, i.e. be helpful in comments. I also include links to the above tutorial sites to help visitors that comment. Mention to come back/subscribe and to book mark.
31. Try the new Entrecard and Blog Engage to help promote your blog. I notice both are becoming quite active, and will increase visitors to your blog, but not sure if targeted/relevant visitors.
32. Perhaps set up other writers/bloggers to create a community/group blog. You get more ideas, and of course content to generate. Lifehacker I think is a example of this.
33. Include a popular post/link page to your popular posts. Because blog posts create separate url's that display in search results, you increase chances of visitors navigating from one of your post's (url) to another post (url).
34. Get forum members to review your blog. I think Digital point and Bloggeries have a section, because you might get new ideas.
35. Use a favicon ( explanation and tutorial) to help brand your blog, and easy to find in someone's browser book mark list. You need a graphics program, some coding and maybe a FTP program like CoreFTP lite. There are also online generators to help out.
34. Similar to Popular posts, create a categories page/links to showcase. You can edit/customize the coding in categories and other blogger elements for visitor ease of use. Refer the above blogger tutorial links.
35. Use research/Google's keyword tool to help find popular keywords/topics relevant for your blog and if you inherently want to keep blogging. It might show for visitors and your regular readers, and they might go elsewhere. You need to focus on why you are blogging. Perhaps to share, educate, monetize, advertise, display writing skills, or whatever. Just think how to approach your blog in a holistic manner, but trying to employ at least some of the above methods and avenues.
36. To help your blogging in terms of content writing, marketing, monetization, SEO, etc then search and try to find tutorial blogs, and specific blogs in your niche/topics. Currently I subscribe to about 20 optimization and 15 specific/niche blogs. Visit Dosh Dosh, Skelliewag, Problogger, Blogger Tips and Tricks, Blog Doctor, SEOZombie, and Grizz's Make Money for Beginners. They all have quality content for general blogging.

Hope the above helps for those getting in to blogging to increase visitors, and remember many say it takes time, effort, and passion to sustain a quality blog. This will be evident once visitors become regulars, accompanied by quality inbound links and hopefully your blog evolves into a authority or well regarded blog for all visitors. This will be reflected in the page rank/comment numbers/subscriber numbers/other criteria for a blog. But for now, any additional avenues/methods to add to the above? Please add to the comments below...

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Optimize your Blog or Site with Total SEO Techniques!

If you want more comprehensive SEO optimization then perhaps consider SEO PowerSuite, a package of four software SEO tools: Rank tracker (keyword module research), Website Auditor (content optimization), SEO SpyGlass (Competition research - as noted above), and Link Assistant (Link management - Building directories and link partnership). All software have reporting features. Perhaps visit the product info page, download a trial version, or visit the order buy now page (but first read features to assess).

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