Every time I read a story about how a person put up a blog and became immediately rich it makes me a little mad.
If it were really that easy, everyone would be doing it! Some people think that the easy part if getting blog traffic is the actually blogging.
And they are correct! As you know, without traffic you are just writing words.
No traffic equals no money.
If you think about it though, there are a few easy things you can do to make sure that your site is visited, and gets you the blog traffic you need to make a living.
First, blog often - at least twice a week.
This will increase the chances that the blog will be indexed by the search engines.
Continually adding content will increase the likelihood that people will return often to read the blog.
Read other people's blogs, make comments, and more: While you're reading your blogs and forums for the day, remember to make comments and give helpful advice.
Notice I said "helpful" advice.
Only spammers post remarks like "good post," or "I'll give that a try.
" If you want the blog owner to actually accept your post, add something of value to your comment.
The savvy blogger will not only post these helpful comments and suggestions; there is another key to increasing blog traffic.
The individual will also post a link to his or her blog when making these posts.
Each time that you do this it adds value.
The blog owner will receive a Trackback notice of your good faith link, and eventually, the author of the blog will respond by linking back to your blog site as well.
A helpful tip when doing this is to link to sites that are complementary to, rather than in direct competition with, your blog.
For example, if your blog is about romance, linking to another person writing about the same theme offers competition.
In contrast, blogs dedicated to romantic getaways and travel are complementary to your topic.
This is much more useful than trying to link to competing blogs.
Another important consideration is to ensure that visitors are able to subscribe to the blog through either a newsletter or Feedburner subscription option.
If visitors are required to search the Internet to relocate the blog, or are only able to bookmark it, chances are much less likely that they will return to read it, and your attempt to increase blog traffic will fail.
If it is delivered via email, they are much more likely to continue reading the blog.
And, always have your RSS button displaying on your site.
Many people will put your RSS link into their Yahoo! Membership area and read from there.
You want to make sure it's easy for them to find this important link.
As you increase blog traffic, you also want to increase your subscriber base for future sales.
It is important to keep the primary goal in mind when designing the blog site.
Although the desire is to make money, simply loading the site with banners and affiliate links is going to cause many people to tire of reading quickly, and may actually decrease traffic.
Banners are useful, but only if they don't overpower the reader or detract from the blog's quality.
It is okay to use banners and affiliate links, as long as they don't have the effect of overpowering the blog.
You want to be noted as an expert in your field; and your main goal should not only be to increase blog traffic, but also to get visitors to sign up for your newsletter; making them want to come back and learn from you.