Increase traffic on your blog

Is your blog collecting dust and not getting enough traffic?
It's a common problem for bloggers. Their blogs are good, but no
one is coming to visit. They want to know how to increase
traffic. Increasing traffic is actually easier than it
seems--provided you know how. In this newsletter, we will go
over 7 specific methods of increasing traffic. These are
guaranteed methods to draw more visitors to your blog.

Tip #1: Sign up for pinging services

It seems pretty obvious, but most bloggers, even those who are
more experienced, don’t sign up for pinging services. If you’re
new to blogging and don’t know what pinging means, pinging
basically means that when your blog is updated, a “ping” is sent
out by the service to let pinging sites know that your blog has
been updated. People who are visiting sites with pinging
services will then see your blog flash across the side of the
screen as “newly updated”. Pinging services include Yahoo’s
blo.gs, weblogs.com, Google Blog search, and ZingFast.

Tip #2: Sign up for Technorati

If you go to technorati.com, you’ll see an option on the left
side of the screen to “Claim Your Blog”. Doing so allows you to
get updated link counts, add your photo or branding to
Technorati, and see your Technorati link. Having your blog
claimed on Technorati helps to increase traffic because the
millions of people who go to that site will have a chance to see
your blog on there.

Tip #3: Sign up for FeedBurner, a RSS service

What FeedBurner basically does for your blog is it helps you to
promote your blog’s content, build your audience and measure
your audience. In other words, it helps you increase your blog’s
traffic.

Tip #4: Bookmark your blogs at places like del.icio.us

You can set up an account and profile at del.icio.us. Then,
using that, you can add links to your blog along with excerpts
from your blog. Anytime someone visits your profile on
del.icio.us, they will see a link to your blog and excerpts.
There are other social bookmarking sites that you can use in
much the same way. The bottom line is, using these social
bookmarking sites can help you increase traffic.

Tip #5: Post comments at other blogs

No, this doesn’t mean you should go and spam other blogs with
comments that are only there to promote a site. It means that
you should visit similar blogs to your own, post legitimate
comments and then sign your name(along with a link to your
blog). This way, people know you aren’t there just to promote
your site—you’re there to post a good piece of feedback and also
say where you’re from.

Tip #6: Ask owners of other blogs to post a link to yours

Find other blogs that are similar to yours. If they seem to be
decently popular(that is, they have a good amount of comments
for each post), you can try to contact the owner of the blog to
add a link to your blog if they have a links section. To make
them really want to do this, you can offer to link back to their
blog on your blog. People do this reciprocal blog linking all
the time and it does help to increase traffic.

Tip #7: Use keywords in your blog

Like regular web pages, having a good keyword density on a blog
is a terrific way of getting search engine spiders to notice
your page. (FYI: Search engine spiders are programs from search
engines that browse sites and report back their findings to the
search engine database, which then lists that site. The more
keywords on your site, the more likely it is for a search engine
spider to pay a visit)

If your average blog posting is around 200 words, try to use 2-6
keywords per blog post. 2-6 keywords in a blog posting of 200
words is a keyword density of between 1 and 3 percent, a
respectable number. Remember that you don’t want to use too many
keywords, as that will make your blog look bad. Also be sure
that the keywords used are relevant to your blog. Before even
making a blog posting, decide what the post will be about and
then select a keyword or two to use in your post. Then do it.
It’s a surefire way of getting more traffic to your site!

Signing up with a service like Technorati is a quick,
painless way of increasing traffic to your blog. So sign up
today!


Len Hutton