Blogging can be a rewarding experience, especially when you start getting people to read your articles, reviews, and rants. But what can you do as an author to better the odds that new readers will find you? This article explores four not-so secret techniques for doing just that.
First things first, optimize your blogs.
Optimize your blogs for search engines. If you are not thinking about your possible readers, they can't find you. This simple process can be duplicated each time.
Your first step is to use something like Marketing Samurai or keyworddiscovery.com to get the top keyword suggestions for the type of article you'd like to write. These tools return the top searched keywords and phrases that relate to your topic.
Pick the key phrase that isn't too competitive but still gets a lot of regular searches. Plug it into your blogs title, meta tags, and image descriptions. Using “stop words”, insert the same phrase throughout your text.
Exchange guest blogs.
The practice of exchanging blogs with someone else has become common. Writing a themed blog for someone in exchange for one they write for you is a two way street. You get the benefit of having their regular readers read your post in exchange for your readers getting to know their work.
Another cool side effect is the fact that the two sites will now be linked together. This connection contributes to a better ranking in search engines.
Will tweet for traffic.
With the ease and popularity of Twitter, one of the quickest ways to leverage your account into more blog traffic is to do a giveaway or run a viral contest. All you need to do is post a simple tweet.
Something like:
“Get a free copy of BOOKNAMEHERE when you subscribe to my blog @DOTCOMHERE and retweet this message.”
or
“Enter to win a signed copy of BOOKNAMEHERE when you subscribe to my blog @DOTCOMHERE and retweet this message.”
Use the power of positivity.
Everyone has heard that, “You can attract more bees with honey than with vinegar.” You can apply this principle to direct traffic to your blog.
Find other blogs in your same genre, maybe even on your same posting website. Read their blogs and post a insightful, genuinely positive comment about them. Do this for a couple of their posts. When someone notices your comments, they can click your name to see your profile and blog.
Include a simple, plain hyperlinked version of your name as your signature, but be careful and make sure your comments are specific because this can be misconstrued as spamming and can get your comment deleted.
Thank you for explaining the language of blogging and 4 secrets to creating more blog traffic.
Very helpful information. I especially appreciate the advice on how to optimize your blog. Thank you for producing this clear and concise article.