How to Increase Your Blogging Traffic and General Blogging Tips
I have been blogging since February of this year and I have learned some savvy blogging tips that I would like to share with you. The following are ways to increase your traffic and general blogging tips that every blogger should know. It took me a while to figure things out, but once I got started things just seemed to all fall into place.
One of the greatest tips I have learned to increase your traffic is that you must guest post on others blogs. The best way to do this is to find a blog that interests you and contact the author by email. I have found some sites that will better help you understand how to do this. The following sites are useful: http://www.bloggingtips.com/2012/03/23/guest-post-your-way-to-long-tail-domination/ , http://www.problogger.net/archives/2009/02/01/how-to-guest-post-to-promote-your-blog/ , and http://www.davidrisley.com/blogger-checklist-for-guest-posting/ . Some other useful sites that I just happened to come across today are My Blog Guest and Blogger Linkup. These two sites are useful because all you have to do is register, fill out some of your information, and link your blog post. Once you do this these sites will guide you to the perfect blogs for you to do some guest posting for.
The Second tip I have to offer is to network, network, network! I have received some of the greatest referrals from networking. I recently took a look at my Google Analytics and the following sources were ranked as follows:
Stumble Upon: Create a profile and if you have the ability add the toolbar to your web browser. For instance I use Google Chrome and on my toolbar is a button where I just click the Stumble Upon button when I find a site that interests me. I usually submit my best articles here, tag them as you would your blog, place them in the right category, and make a quick comment as to what your blog post is about. Once you start stumbling your articles and the ones you find that fit your criteria you will begin to notice that Stumble Upon will bring up more sites that relate to your blog. This is a great way to increase traffic with just a small amount of effort. Tip: to generate more traffic find blogs that interest you and submit them. The author will thank you and most likely reciprocate.
Facebook and Facebook Fan Page: This is my number two source of traffic. You will need to create a regular Facebook page so that you have somewhere for people to go to find out more about you and follow what you post. Also, this is very important, create a Facebook “Fan” Page just for your blog. Click on HOW TO and it will take you to a great site to guide you through the steps. Once you have your “fan” page for your blog ask people to click on the “like” button. Also, make sure your URL to your fan page is on your main Facebook page. The best thing you can do is to search for blog pages and “like” them, once you do this send a little message to the person and ask them to do the same for you, make sure you add in your URL to your “fan” page so they can just click on the link. If you try and “like” a few blog pages a day you will start to notice a lot of people “liking” your page back. Make sure and post your blog postings to your Facebook pages.
LinkedIn: I highly suggest creating a profile and joining all of the networks that have anything to do with your website and any that include the word writing and blogging. Once you are linked in to these networks comment as much as possible on all of the post that appeal to you and link in your website to your comment. Also, you can submit your blog postings to Linked In and it will appear on your profile. You will start to notice a lot of traffic coming from this site.
Pinterest: Lately there has been a lot of buzz about whether or not Pinterest is worth your time. I have to say that it has been worth mine. As long as your blog post has a picture attached to it you can submit it to Pinterest. Click on this HOW TO and it will take you to a site to explain everything you need to know. Tip: when pinning an image related to your blog add a small explanation of your post and your blog post URL in the “describe your pin” area.
WordPress: If you use WordPress create a WordPress.com account and go to as many WordPress blogs that you can find and comment, like, rate, and follow these bloggers. Chances are they will follow you back.
Networked Blogs: This is the best of all of the networking sites. If you submit your blog to the directory it will feed your blog to Facebook and Twitter for you. Once you have this set up you can start following other blogs like yours and most likely they will follow you back.
Tumblr: With Tumblr.com you can set up your own account and when you have a blog post link it into this. I have found that a lot of my followers find me through this site. Make sure and add your blog posts URL so that the traffic ends up on your site.
Digg: Digg.com has got to be one of the best social networking sites if you use it correctly. Once you set up your account make sure and “digg” all of your best posts. Also, follow other users and hopefully they will follow you back and “digg” some of your posts. This is a great way to get noticed.
Floost!: Floost.com is one of the least heard of networking sites but it has huge potential. Like the others set up your account and when you make a blog post make sure and link it to Floost.com. The same goes for this site, if you start to follow someone, comment, and like their posts chances are they will follow you back and generate some traffic for you.
Ning: Ning is a newer social networking site that allows you to have all of your social networks in one place. I have noticed that a lot of my readers are coming from this site so you may want to check it out!
Delicious: Delicious.com is another great place to submit your postings to. All you have to do is create an account, make up a stack (I have labeled mine as Blogs I Like), tag your post, and make a short comment regarding what your post is about.
MySpace: MySpace.com is an older social networking site with lots of potential. It is a lot like Facebook in the way it is set up and you can post your blog URL’s to this site and receive a good amount of followers through it. Just because it’s an older site doesn’t mean that it isn’t a great.
Don’t forget to put your blog posts on these sites either: Bing, Yahoo, Google, Reddit, Posterous, Twitter, Hootsuite, Dribble, Bebo, Aol lifestream, Technorati, Ask, Squidoo, and Add this.
I spoke about submitting your site to search engine sites in one of my post http://withoutalabel.me/2012/03/20/blogging-tips-search-engine-sites-you-need-to-know-about/ since I have made this post I have noticed several more search engine sites that need to be mentioned. I highly suggest submitting your blog to these sites and make sure and index them properly. The newest search engine sites that I have submitted my blog to are as follows:
BlogAds.com
BlogTopSites.com
BlogLog.com
Bloglines.com
FeedAgg.com
BlogHub.com
Alltop.com
Bloglovin.com
AddYourBlog.com
NetworkedBlogs.com
Another great way to get noticed is to comment on people’s blogs that you find are similar to yours. I have found the best way to get noticed is to comment on sites that use CommentLuv as their commenting platform. You can do a Google search for these sites. Make sure and comment appropriately to these blog posts and mention your blog in your comment. Most likely the people that own these blogs will come back and visit your site and hopefully comment. Make sure and add something to the bottom of your posts encouraging readers to comment on your blog. Something to the effect of “I would love to hear any feedback or comments you may have regarding this post” seems to get the readers attention and they will usually comment if they have something to say.
I have also found that if you use long tailed titles and key words it is more likely that you will be found through Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other search engines. For instance instead of titling your post “link building” try something like “effective link creation strategies” instead. The reason for this is that there are already hundreds of blogs titled “link building” out there so most likely your site will be placed at the bottom of the list. So, using long tailed key words instead will get you to the top of the list faster.
I like to use the 80/20 rule when it comes to blogging. Meaning that 80% of my time goes to researching blogs in my niche, commenting, following, submitting them to my social networking sites, liking them on Facebook, following them on Twitter, and signing up for their RSS feed. The other 20% of my time is devoted to blogging and posting to my social networking sites. I find that the more I interact with others the better my blog tends to do.
Another great tip is to make sure you link in some of your older posts into your new blog postings. For instance if I was to talk about better blogging techniques I would link in any older blog posts where I could find related subject matter. This will boost your SEO rankings and get you found faster through Google and other sites.
The Following are some of the best blogs to follow to get more out of your blogging experience. In the past few posts I mentioned Problogger, CopyBlogger, Lifehacker, Spice Up Your Blog, and Traffic Generation Café. These are great blogs to follow however, through more thorough research I have found more that will ultimately help you in a huge way.
Nick’s Traffic Tricks
Kikolani.com
Kim Roach’s BuzzBlogger
Yaro Starak’s Entrepreneurs-Journey.com
BasicBlogTips by Ileane Smith
Leave Work Behind by Tom Ewer
Lisa Irby’s 2CreateAWebsite
FirePoleMarketing.com
DiTesco’s IBlogZone
WordPress-WebsiteBuilder.com by Mitz
BestTipsForBlogging.com
BloggingTips.com
QuickSprout.com
I hope that you find these tips helpful and if you have any to add I will be more than happy to hear about them. I would love any and all feedback you may have regarding this post so please feel free to comment below.
Blessings,
Kimmy
P.S. I just received an amazing tip from a fellow blogger that I need to share with you. Go to http://www.social-media-traffic.com/60-sites-submit-blog-rss-feeds/ and start working your way through the list. I just started and I can already see an increase in my analytics!
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