SEO, Twitter, Google Adwords…. here’s the list of 11 essential tips & tools that every blogger should know & utilize to get more traffic, to make his blog more popular.
Loads of content :- Most important part of blogging is generating lot of good content.Without good content you just cannot popularize your blog how so ever good you are at marketing. When i say “loads of content” i mean at least 50-100 posts. Quality of your content decides the rank but quantity determines whether you should get a rank or not. I ‘m in no way saying you don’t need quality content but to kick start your blog you need a base of at least 50 unique articles. Having a lot of content automatically helps in SEO.
Join a forum :- Join a bloggers forum. This helps in acquiring tricks of the trade much faster. Plus you get some free visitors & good friends, this boosts your morale. You get motivation to blog. Also, there are experts to guide you through the process.
Submit to search engines :-This should be done as soon as you have generated the content because it takes at least 2-4 weeks for search engines to index your site. All major search engines should be your first priority. Ideally you should add to every search engine but practically its not possible at this stage. Add to at least top 10 search engines. Also claim your blog at Technorati, ping it regularly with your blogging software like Windows Live Writer or use external services like Pingo-matic.
Write about hot topics :- Subscribe to top blogs in your niche & observe what they write. You will understand that they stay ahead of the curve & generate content on topics that will be buzzing in near future. This should also be your strategy. Remember early writers get advantage as search engines get time to index their content & hence they make it to top of the list. Hence foresight is important. Alternatively use Google Trends & Google Insight.
SEO (Search Engine optimization) :- You have done all - written good content, done it early enough, submitted to search engines etc but still aren’t ranked in top 5 pages. The reason for it is you have not used proper words called keywords. When people search for a topic they use specific words & these are the words you should have in your title, description tag etc. These are all SEO tricks.SEO makes a lot of difference. Know more about it at Search Engine Journal. Submit Express has few very handy tools.
Social Media Networking :- This is one area where anyone can rule. If you have good social relations & have large network you will have tremendous advantage. But make sure you put it to good use. Join twitter & ask your friends to do so, they will re-tweet about your posts. It increases your reach exponentially. Leave a link to your website at all your profiles at Facebook, Orkut, Myspace, Digg, YouTube… etc.
Commenting :- Reciprocity is like a rule in blogosphere. If you are reading a blog & like the article leave a comment. Its likely that the blogger will visit your page & may leave a comment as well. In the same way do not forget to respond to the comments you get. You can do it either at your own blog or through a email thanking the blogger. Make it a habit to leave a comment on at least 10 different blogs daily. There is also a top commenter widget at some sites, you can get a free link by commenting regularly at such places. Develop good relations with the bloggers of your niche & form a network.
Free Article Submission :- There are many free article submission websites. Some of them are very highly ranked. Submit your best articles periodically to these websites. It helps in developing your reputation as a writer & off course in getting some visitors. List of free article submission sites.
Blog Directories :- There are 100’s of blog directories. Add your blog to as many as possible. But don’t waste too much of time because there are many more important things you could do. For this, what you should do is find 3-4 directories daily & add your blog to them. Remember this is a low priority & results vary according to the popularity of a directory. If you 're in search of instant traffic, submit your blog to Condron.us & AlphaInventions, no.of pageviews increase significantly after addition.
Google Adwords :- This requires you to shell out some money. But its worth doing if you want to move to the next level. Purchase a few Google Adwords this will give your blog lot of exposure.
Blog template :- Increase the visual appeal of your blog ( Make your blog more presentable ).Get a good template, may be if you have enough money think about purchasing a premium one, it gives a good professional look to your blog & you get a great layout to adjust all your widgets & more importantly helps in proper ad-placement. People like such blogs more.
Now its your turn, if you have more share them in responses. For more on blogging click here.
Loads of content :- Most important part of blogging is generating lot of good content.Without good content you just cannot popularize your blog how so ever good you are at marketing. When i say “loads of content” i mean at least 50-100 posts. Quality of your content decides the rank but quantity determines whether you should get a rank or not. I ‘m in no way saying you don’t need quality content but to kick start your blog you need a base of at least 50 unique articles. Having a lot of content automatically helps in SEO.
Join a forum :- Join a bloggers forum. This helps in acquiring tricks of the trade much faster. Plus you get some free visitors & good friends, this boosts your morale. You get motivation to blog. Also, there are experts to guide you through the process.
Submit to search engines :-This should be done as soon as you have generated the content because it takes at least 2-4 weeks for search engines to index your site. All major search engines should be your first priority. Ideally you should add to every search engine but practically its not possible at this stage. Add to at least top 10 search engines. Also claim your blog at Technorati, ping it regularly with your blogging software like Windows Live Writer or use external services like Pingo-matic.
Write about hot topics :- Subscribe to top blogs in your niche & observe what they write. You will understand that they stay ahead of the curve & generate content on topics that will be buzzing in near future. This should also be your strategy. Remember early writers get advantage as search engines get time to index their content & hence they make it to top of the list. Hence foresight is important. Alternatively use Google Trends & Google Insight.
SEO (Search Engine optimization) :- You have done all - written good content, done it early enough, submitted to search engines etc but still aren’t ranked in top 5 pages. The reason for it is you have not used proper words called keywords. When people search for a topic they use specific words & these are the words you should have in your title, description tag etc. These are all SEO tricks.SEO makes a lot of difference. Know more about it at Search Engine Journal. Submit Express has few very handy tools.
Social Media Networking :- This is one area where anyone can rule. If you have good social relations & have large network you will have tremendous advantage. But make sure you put it to good use. Join twitter & ask your friends to do so, they will re-tweet about your posts. It increases your reach exponentially. Leave a link to your website at all your profiles at Facebook, Orkut, Myspace, Digg, YouTube… etc.
Commenting :- Reciprocity is like a rule in blogosphere. If you are reading a blog & like the article leave a comment. Its likely that the blogger will visit your page & may leave a comment as well. In the same way do not forget to respond to the comments you get. You can do it either at your own blog or through a email thanking the blogger. Make it a habit to leave a comment on at least 10 different blogs daily. There is also a top commenter widget at some sites, you can get a free link by commenting regularly at such places. Develop good relations with the bloggers of your niche & form a network.
Free Article Submission :- There are many free article submission websites. Some of them are very highly ranked. Submit your best articles periodically to these websites. It helps in developing your reputation as a writer & off course in getting some visitors. List of free article submission sites.
Blog Directories :- There are 100’s of blog directories. Add your blog to as many as possible. But don’t waste too much of time because there are many more important things you could do. For this, what you should do is find 3-4 directories daily & add your blog to them. Remember this is a low priority & results vary according to the popularity of a directory. If you 're in search of instant traffic, submit your blog to Condron.us & AlphaInventions, no.of pageviews increase significantly after addition.
Google Adwords :- This requires you to shell out some money. But its worth doing if you want to move to the next level. Purchase a few Google Adwords this will give your blog lot of exposure.
Blog template :- Increase the visual appeal of your blog ( Make your blog more presentable ).Get a good template, may be if you have enough money think about purchasing a premium one, it gives a good professional look to your blog & you get a great layout to adjust all your widgets & more importantly helps in proper ad-placement. People like such blogs more.
Now its your turn, if you have more share them in responses. For more on blogging click here.
Comments
this reminds me even i need to commercialize my blog too :)
Keep Rocking,
PN
@PN If you earn some money for your efforts, there's nothing wrong in it. Thanks for your response, hope to see you again.