Your blog is a reflection of you. It offers the reader a lot about you, who you are, what you enjoy and what you think would be a valuable asset to the internet as a whole. Did you know that your blog, no matter how large or small, can also be a money maker if you use it correctly?
The trick to that is getting users to your site who will read what you have to say and return to your site repeatedly. What makes a user want to view your site again after reading what you had to say the first time?
How do you get users who are loyal to your blog, who return to read it repeatedly and may even sign up for your list? What makes your blog unique and gets the return visitors that keep it busy with all of the choices that are out there for the users? How do you increase your blog traffic while getting return visitors?
Increasing the traffic to your blog, getting regular readers who return again and again to view your articles is a matter of a few simple points. You can use some tried and true methods of getting people to your blog to read from you to begin with and then, once you have them there, the content and your fresh new ideas are what will keep them coming back.
Free Blog Traffic: Getting First Time Traffic
In all honesty, you may be the one saying it best and you very well could have the best site going for your topic, but if no one sees that, then what good is it? The search engines and the readers have to have a way to find you. Getting initial traffic to a Blog is important and then giving them a reason to come back is going to be secondary.
Some immediate traffic building strategies that we've used effectively are the most easily accomplished and don't cost you a penny:
Twitter -The well known social networking site can actually help you to increase your blog traffic by offering regular updates about what you're up to on your site and letting people see when you have fresh content.
Yahoo Answers - Establish yourself as an expert in a particular category by offering answers to the questions which are asked of people there. Use your blog address as a source field and the traffic begins to trickle, then to flow in.
Facebook - Social networking sites are always h helpful to your traffic but Facebook tends to be far more helpful than most. Establish a following there by making a Facebook page for your blog that updates it, keeps people peeking in and builds a fan list. Link up to your personal pages so that your friends and family can see what you've been up to and may join the business or blog page and build your readership.
Inbound Links - Once you have some good content actively seek out other blogs that have some of the same content and ideas as your own. You may want to ask the blog owner or writer if they'd consider letting you pay a nominal amount for a link to your site or if they would consider trading a link with you.
Directories - Installing your blog url into some of the better known directories or applying for inclusion into some free directories is a great way to drive traffic. They will be used by multiple readers and searchers who are looking for content of your type.
Those are some traffic building strategies that you might want to try. The fact is that you're not going to get return readers if no one has found you to begin with so getting first time traffic to view what you've got to offer is important.
Increasing Blog Traffic: Getting Return Traffic
Everyone makes mistakes. Your topics may not be spot on, your content may not be exactly correct or your key words may not be the ideal ones for your topic. Those things you can change and update and make it right. If your content is fresh and new, and your ideas are your own then people do want to read it.
A few mistakes that people make while building their blogs and websites that will prevent you from getting the readers that you want or keep them from wanting to come back to view your fresh content are:
Making your site too close to another one - If you see a site that is doing well, you're inclined to emulate it, but the truth is that it's been there longer, has more traffic and probably is doing it better because its original. Get your own content ideas. Don't repeat what someone else said in another way. All you're doing is adding content to the site that is already out there and able to be viewed. Say it your own way. Make it easy and simple to understand and offer perhaps that same type of content in your own words.
Don't Make Endless Posts - To get readers coming back and actually reading your text is the trick. Consider your own feelings when it comes to reading. Even the most avid reader won't' want to read a page of text that is miles long. Inject photos between the paragraphs; break up the text with photos or headers to prevent them from seeming like endless tomes that you simply can't get through. Keep your posts under 600 words if you're offering instructions. Make them bulleted lists or line items, as opposed to chunks of text.
Not Offering What the Title Advertises - The surest way to lose readers and keep them from coming back is to have content that isn't related to your title or key words. They are interested in that topic or they would not have searched it. Make sure that you deliver on what the title promises and give them the content they came looking for. If you do, most people will read through to the end and bookmark your site as a good source of information.
Letting your Content Go Stale - Keep your content fresh. Particularly if your blog has dates on the articles, make sure that you add something new weekly so that you hold the interest of your readers. They will get used to visiting to see what's new on the site if you update regularly. Likewise, if you don't update regularly they will get used to visiting another site for their fresh ideas.
Hiding Your Content Behind Endless Advertisements - If you're a content site, give them content, but give them content that is not always laden with advertising. Advertising is a fine thing but do it well so that people can view the content unfettered. Stats show us that users hate popups and if your content is covered by a pop out ad that is restricting their view, they aren't going to click that ad for the most part, they are going to click the x that takes them out of your site and into someone else's.
Use advertising in a smart way. Make it look clean and appealing. You do need to advertise your product to make money but it can be done in a classy way, so that the users aren't restricted in their reading and actually are inclined to click your ads and see what you have to offer.
Increasing blog traffic can be done in any number of ways, but getting people to read your text and come back to view it over again means that you have to have something there that the other blogs about your topic don't have. Keep your content fresh and your site welcoming.
The reader wants a reason to view your content through to the end. Give them that reason. Also don't forget to offer them an RSS button so they can sign up to view updates to your site.
Chances are if you do that, and you update regularly, the readers who find you will return to see what's up on your site every few days - this is free traffic to your blog. The increase in readers will happen naturally, as they offer your site to friends and people realize that you have a lot to offer them.
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