10 Ways to Get More Blog Traffic

Blogs are a wonderful way to grow a brand online. Starting a blog cost nothing so it is a no brainer if you have information you want to share with the world. The hard part is  getting people to find your blog and engage with the content you have posted.

I spent a few years as a personal finance blogger and met so many people with amazing content that wasn’t getting read. People with content that wasn’t near as good as theirs got lots of likes and shares. Yet their sites sat virtual untouched because they didn’t know how to play the game of getting more traffic

10 Tips to Get More Traffic to Your Blog

1.    Fresh Content – Most people don’t read the same book over and over and over again. They don’t want to read the same content over and over and over again either. Put a new post on your blog a few times a week. One way to make this easier is to have a power session where you write multiple posts in one sitting. Then simply schedule them to drip out onto your blog.

2.    Article Marketing – This isn’t as popular as it used to be due to devaluation of some article sites. However, there are plenty of places that you can write articles about your topic of passion and then point back to your blog. This helps you reach a new audience you may not have otherwise had access to.

3.    Social Networking – Social networking sites are a dime a dozen. You can network on larger sites like Twitter or Facebook. You can also network on niche sites that are specific to your industry like Epicurious for foodies or Yapstar for pet lovers.  When you connect through social network you make friends that can help promote your content.

4.    Viral Marketing – This one may require you to get a little crazy and think outside the box. The goal of viral marketing is to create a piece of content (blog post, video, picture, infographic) that is so intriguing lots of people share it with their friends. Successful viral marketing can drive a large volume of traffic to your site in a very short amount of time.

5.    Have an RSS Feed – RSS means “Really Simple Syndication.” Essentially people who visit your blog can subscribe and get email updates every time you post something new. It offers a great way to let people keep tabs on your blog automatically.

6.    Verify Your Blog With Google & Bing Webmaster Tools – This is simple, free, and oh so important! By claiming your blog on webmaster tools you have more options to increase the visibility of your site to the search engines. The more they can “see” the more they can share.

7.    Forums – Forums are old school and totally reliable. Find a forum in your niche and get to asking and answering questions. As you make connections in the forum you will start to build authority on your topic and become a go-to source for information.

8.    Share the Love – I probably should have put this further at the top because it works so well. Pick a group of blogs in your niche and make a point to comment on their blog posts at least once a week or more. You’ll benefit by becoming a part of their blog community which means that other commenters will likely start commenting on your blog as well.

9.    Use keywords – When writing your blog post make sure that you are including keywords you want to get traffic for on the page. If you would like people searching for “online marketing” to find your blog post, then use the word online marketing multiple times in your content.

10.    Social Bookmarking – Sites like Pinterest, Loveit, & Learnist and the new way to strike social bookmark gold. Use them to bookmark other people’s blog posts as well as your own.

What tips have you used to get more blog traffic? Let me know if the comments below!