Tips for driving traffic to your blog.

When surfing the blog forums, there is one question I see cropping up again, and again. " How do I get more traffic?" After all you can have the most beautifully presented, well written blog, but it's not a lot of good if no one sees it.

So what can you do to increase traffic to your site? Here are a few techniques to create exposure and get people interested in your blog. At first you may not see amazing results, but as you keep at it, you will slowly see your traffic increase.

Visit blogs and forums.

If you have a niche blog, then visit other blogs within your niche and leave insightful comments. As I have said before, hopefully this will start a conversation, and you can leave links back to related articles on your blog. If you don't have a niche blog, then surf the types of blogs that interest you, and do the same. Visit blogging forums, and join in with the conversation, leaving a link to your blog. If people like your comments this will drive people to your site. Basically, this method goes back to the phrase content is king. Unless people think your content is valuable, they won't be coming back.
This technique won't drive hordes of traffic to your blog, but over time you will create a steady stream of traffic to your blog.

 Respond to peoples questions in the forums, and write a detailed and thoughtful response. Or start a new thread with a question of your own, but instead of a one line question, submit a great article on a topic that is helpful to members of that forum ( find out what types of things they are talking about, or asking questions about ) At the end of the article invite them to discuss it. Then check back for comments and respond to them. This will drive traffic to your blog for a long time.

Article directories.

Find article directories that relate to your niche, or just a directory that publishes similar content to your own. Use your best articles, and if your content is valuable enough you only need submit to two or three to get the desired effect. Some of the best directories, with the most traffic ( more people to see your articles ) are:

zimbio
enzinearticles
weebly
easyjournal
Soulcast
Opendiary

As well as helping drive traffic to your blog, ( don't forget to add a link to your site at the end of the article.) this method helps with link building, which the search engines will pick up on. One major thing to remember when using article directories, is not to use content you have already published on your blog. As this will affect your search engine rankings, and you will be penalized for duplicate content. The content you publish in article directories must be unique.

Guest blogging.

Find a blog you admire or enjoy, or if you use googles blogspot ask one of the bloggers whose blog you follow if they would mind you writing a guest post on their blog. If you have a niche blog, ask blog owners within your niche.

Links to find other bloggers within your niche.

Stumbleupon
Digg
Delicious
Blogcatalog


Often other bloggers will often welcome extra content. Try to make sure it is some of your best writing. Remember to place a link back to your own blog somewhere in the post, or politely ask the blog owner where they would prefer you place the link.

Traffic from search engines.

Most successful blogs get 50% of their traffic from search engines, so this is quite an important aspect. The main way to get traffic from search engines, is to create consistently valuable content and regularly, to increase your chances of getting ranked in popular keyword search results. By creating relevant and useful content the search engines will begin ranking you well for your relevant keywords. The main thing to remember about using keywords is to make sure they are relevant. For example if you place the keywords "making money" throughout a post about dog grooming, then the search engine will know you are trying to beat the system, and you will be penalized...Actually, that's not the best example as you can make money dog grooming if it is your business, but you get my point, hopefully.

Use keywords throughout your posts in as natural a manner as possible, you don't want to affect the way it reads. ( I am rubbish at getting keywords into my posts, although I'm sure you will have much more common sense than I have and will do just fine.) Most importantly, try and get your keywords in your title. As search engines give preferences to keywords at the beginning of your headlines/ titles.

Social networking sites.

If you spend a lot of time on social networks, then think about how many contacts you already have that could be visiting or buying from your site? Put a link to your site on your profile page, update your status page announcing your latest blog post or product with a link to it. Maybe use the first few lines of your post as a teaser, inviting them to click on the link to read more?
                                                                                                           

I really hope you have found some of these tips helpful, and found something new you can use? There are so many amazing blogs out there going UN recognized. If you have any tips of your own, about traffic or any aspect of blogging, or would like to write a guest post on my blog. Please comment, leave your tips or email me at meami_5@live.com. If nothing else it is always good to have your links on other blogs ;)