What are blogs for? To create an online presence, to build credibility and to help people make a buying decision. Building a blog is easy, often free and can take very little time to start. In fact, with today’s technology using wordpress you can have a blog up and running in less than an hour. However, even the best content won’t do you much good if there is no one to read it.  You must build an audience for your writing and to get valuable feedback regarding its content.

Of all the successful blogs on the Internet, thousands more have failed. Running a blog is like running a business website. Unless you are willing to put the time in and treat it seriously, you your blog won’t have staying power and you will soon get burned out, with no desire to continue writing and putting effort into your blog.

Of course most of the failed bloggers started out with a commitment to write good content, but they did not know how to get the word out about the blog.  Most new bloggers aren’t prepared to do the work that goes into creating a successful blog. Just building the blog doesn’t mean that people will necessarily come to you. You must know how to pursue the audience and give them a reason to read what you have to say.

1. Fresh Content – no one wants to visit a blog day after day and see the same content. Adding new content to your blog is what your audience expects. Give it to them. To be a successful blogger with a loyal following, most bloggers update their blog content a minimum of twice a week. Doing this can be accomplished if you write several posts ahead of time, add them to your blog and schedule them to be published at the appropriate times.

2. Try Guest Blogging to Get Your Blog known  – the niche you’ve chosen for your blog is one that interests you. If it is interesting you will spend more time doing it. Create content for  other bloggers will increase your blog traffic because you can tap into the traffic of the bloggers for which you write. Bloggers are often looking for others to post and share content on their blogs, just as you will likely do once your blog gets popular. Use the resource box to advertise your blog so people can find you. Go to Technorati to find literally millions of blogs in any genre.

3. Social Networking – Its one of the easiest ways to promote your blog content. And its free. Participate in Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google+ and even less popular social sites such as Klout. Investigate social media niche sites that cater to the same or a similar audience and join those. Share your content. And the content of the other members.

4. Viral Marketing – this is where you spread the word about your blog. Talk to friends, family and even strangers. Make sure your  business cards and all your marketing materials have your blog address on them.

5. Use RSS Feeds – RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. Readers can subscribe to your feed and get email updates when new content is posted. It is an easy way for them to keep up with your blog without spending all day online.

6. Submit Your Blog to Search Engines – Its important to get noticed by search engines and once in a while to remind them of your blog’s existence. Google and Yahoo! are two of the most popular search engines you want to crawl your blog pages. While it won’t guarantee top ranking, its a starting point. Savit Interactive has a nice list of Top 50 Search Engines.

7. Joining Forums – as a blogger you are in essence an entrepreneur.  Become a member of business forums, work at home forums and others to meet new people and share ideas. Most forums allow you to add a link to your blog in the signature line so others can find you.

8. Visit other blogs and leave comments on their content. Cultivate relationships with other bloggers and show your appreciation to those who visit you by also posting comments about their content. It is a kindness that shows others you are not just out to advertise your blog alone. Be careful not to be too self-promotional when you leave a comment. At most, you will be allowed to leave a link back to your blog. Find other bloggers by surfing the web, social media sites and more.

9. SEO Marketing –  whatever you write, use relevant keywords. Keyword density between three and ten percent is good for getting higher page rankings in search engines. Base your keywords on the research you do to find the most popular words used in search engines for your niche.

10. Social Bookmarking – submitting posts to social bookmarking sites allows others who are members of those sites to track you back to your blog. Social bookmarking sites such as StumbeUpon, Digg andDelicio us help search engines measure quality, categorize content and help others find your blog. For a list of 50+ social bookmarking sites, visit Search Engine Journal.

When you start implementing these ten blog traffic ideas, you should begin to see a significant jump in your blog traffic. Be sure to measure your traffic using tools such as Google Analytics. It takes time but you will build the readership you want.

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