image credit: illetirres
Just starting out blogging and you're kind of bummed no one has come to see what you've done?
I've learned a few things in the past 6 months that can really help you get more hits on your blogging site. Let me know if they work for you.
As always - generating an audience for your blog - is not something that can be done overnight.
It takes sustained work day in and day out. The people with the most traffic get that way because they are persistent in making great content and are as tenacious in their marketing.
- Make interesting comments on other people's sites. Instead of the obvious "Another great post Mr. Brogan!" say something that adds to the conversation in a meaningful way or disagrees with the post and back that up with some cogent thinking. Readers will be impressed and will want to know more. You'll also impress the blogger you are commenting on and a relationship may ensue.
- Use Trackbacks on the most popular blogs. I've made a point of writing posts that bounce off well trafficked bloggers like Seth Godin. Seth does a great service to bloggers on his squidoo page. He lists his most popular posts of the last 2 years.
I wrote a post that trackbacked to his #1 most popular post. I've been getting a steady stream of visitors off of Godin's site not once in a while but daily. - Use Facebook to post your links automatically through RSS. Most of us have 100+ friends on FB. Use them. As a status update, ask friends to read your post . You'll be surprised at how many will take a read.
- Use LinkedIn. I'm assuming you have a LinkedIn profile. If you don't - run and get one. LinkedIn got very blog friendly recently. I can't tell you how many people are finding me on LinkedIn using the new blog link application. Thank you Reid Hoffman. It was a great idea.
- Use your email signature to show your contact info and your blog address. But have a landing page for your blog. My landing page is my About page. If I just put the URL of the home page of the blog - I could have a post up there that isn't my absolute best. Also, a landing site usually will get the reader to click on to another page of the blog. So now instead of a guaranteed one hit - you've got a shot for two or more.
- I've started suggesting particular posts for people when I write them an email.
So, here in an email where I was checking in on a prospective client - my signature looks like this:
--
Christopher Ming Ryan
Wheelhouse Communications, LLC
www.wheelhousecommunications.com
(O) 914-787-XXXX Ext. 112
(C) 917-834-XXXX
Blog: http://christophermingryan.typepad.com/thewaywewatch
This post selected especially for Paul Winston: http://tinyurl.com/65ugz4 - Use Twitter. Follow. Get Followed. Listen. Then, very tenderly, suggest in a Direct Message to a popular blogger (whose stuff you know well) that she should take a look at your post because it was inspired by something they wrote or you know that the subject matter is dear to them.
If you ask politely that person will respond and tweet out the link to their thousands of followers (if they like it). - Poke fun at leading bloggers. You've got to be spot on. But sometimes a little satire goes a long way. This post was one of my most viral.
- Ask a few novice bloggers to start a Stumbleupon circle. Let's say there are five of you.
Each of you get a stumbleupon account and when you read something that moves you in any way put a review of it on Stumbleupon. You'll see increased traffic immediately. - Take one or two of your best posts and start a Stumbleupon campaign. This service is kind of cheating. You are buying hits. You can buy a hit for 5 cents a piece. You can spend as little as a dollar a day but I suggest you do minimally $2.50 a day. The hits you get are all fleeting. They won't subscribe to your blog. They won't surf around your blog.
But if a few readers give you positive feedback (and you see what kind of feedback your posts receive) the more Stumbleupon will throw your post organically out into the system (without charge). Again, you won't get a sustained audience with this technique but you will get a good idea if your material impacts a reader. A detailed post about this is here by the great Darren Rowse. - Connect with well known bloggers. There's nothing better than getting an email from a complete stranger saying, "Your writing gave me motivation to start my own blog." You'll get at least a click and then some sustained link luv when you strike a chord with a future great post.
Try these out. Let me know what works for you.
