Part 1 – How To Increase Your Blog Traffic (and other blogging advice)

Recently I had a blogging friend write and ask for a little advice on “how to increase traffic to your blog, how to decide what readers would like to hear, how to learn to relate to the blogging community, how to make your blog attractive….”

I decided to reply to her here just in case there are others out there looking for the same information, consider it a little fraddle for fellow bloggers. :)

Before we get started, let me state that I don’t consider myself an expert on these things, but I’ve learned a good deal from some wonderful bloggers and am fortunate enough to have some excellent blogging friends, so I feel comfortable passing along what I’ve gleaned from them (and what they’ve recently shared with me).

So, without further ado, let’s look at how to increase traffic on your blog…

The very first thing you need to do is start writing! Write about those things that make you most passionate. If you’re passionate about your topic others will catch that passion.

There’s lots of discussion around the blogosphere about how often to write, for me it comes down to about 3 times a week. But, I really like what I heard from @unmarketing (a keynote speaker at Blissdom this year)… He recommends you blog when you have something “awesome” to say. (But that would mean I wouldn’t blog that often, so I stick with blogging about things I’m passionate when they strike my fancy.) ;)

Next, learn as much as you can about SEO (search engine optimization). Do a google search for “blog SEO” or browse through Blogging With Amy (an amazing resource for bloggers!). Doing this will increase your blog’s chances of appearing on the first (or close to first) page of google when someone searches something related to your blog or post. Another helpful search in this regard is “how to increase page ranking.”

As soon as I followed the tips found in those searches this blog’s Google page rank went up to a 3, which I’ve heard is pretty good although it would probably be beneficial for me to go back and research a little more to increase it (yet this is where lack of time and complacency come into play… someday).

Another thing I learned from Blissdom was to make your post interesting by using pictures, videos, humor, checklists… these additions can make the most boring of posts desirable to read (as evidenced by a whole class laughing an engaging with blog posts on “the quick brown fox jumped over a lazy dog.” Wish I could show you that presentation.) If you don’t feel comfortable with your photography skills there are lots of nice photos available at iStockphoto.com for as little as $1 (that’s where today’s photos came from). There are also some great photos for free at pixoshere.com (run by a sweet fellow blogger).

One more tip I’ve heard and implemented is to keep your posts to around 300-500 words or less; too many more and your readers will get bored or run out of time to finish reading (we live in a BUSY society).

With that said, I think I’ll stop here and be back soon with part 2 of How to Increase Your Blog Traffic (and other blogging advice)… There’s LOTS more to be shared!

Hope you find this helpful!

 

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• Part 3 – How To Increase Your Blog Traffic (and other blogging advice)
• Part 2 – How To Increase Your Blog Traffic (and other blogging advice)
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Tagged as: blogs, things I've learned