Blog News Watch

If you’ve been blogging for several weeks or months, and are unhappy with the numbers you’re pulling in, according to your stats page, then you’ve got a traffic problem. The bad news: it’s a complex problem to solve. The good news: it can be solved.

Initial Thoughts

Start by taking a look at the overall impression your blog gives off - the vibe, if you will. Cluttered? Clean? Organized? Chaotic? What does the design say about what your targeted reader will find at your blog. Give thought to cleaning up a cluttered sidebar, tweaking the CSS, or going with a simpler layout or theme. Experiment (but tell your readers what you’re doing so as not to put them off).

Spend some quality time with your brain engaged, pen and paper in hand, and do a little heavy thinking. What’s your blog’s purpose? Who are your targeted readers? What do those readers want - what are they coming to your blog to get? Look at your keyword stats - what can you tell about your blog and your readers from those keywords? What can you, as a blogger, give those readers that no one else can? That last point - that’s your hook. Now, you don’t have to go all “mission statement” on us but do give some thought to putting these points in writing. The act of writing these things down cements the thoughts in our brain, and helps us implement them the next time we go to post.

Look critically at existing posts. Is there a good mix of angles? Is your topic or theme too narrowly defined? Is your writing style relaxed, engaged, personable - or, if more formal, is it at least not off-putting, too full of lingo, sarcastic? (NB: Unless you’re a “snark” site, steer clear of regular use of sarcasm.) Are blog post lengths fairly consistent? Are they too short - not enough meat? Or too long - requiring too much work of your readers?

Traffic-Raising Tips and Tricks

Now, a few more specific items for your bloggy back of tricks:

• Participate in other blogs. There’s a community out there for you - not just the wider blogging community but a smaller subset dealing with your subject matter or theme. Find those blogs. Visit them often. Comment on them - engage the readers and the blogger. NOTE: This only works if you (a) have something substantive to say; (b) avoid pushing your own blog (though using your blog URL to sign in or register to comment is perfectly acceptable); and (c) use your manners.
• Update frequently. This is the number one thing you can do to boost your SEO efforts. Those little spiderbots do love them some fresh meat! Put a fresh serving out for them on a regular basis. Tempt those little suckers to keep coming back and watch your ranking rise.
• Use Technorati tags. Can’t be said often enough. Use Technorati tags. Use Technorati tags. Use… you get it. Use ‘em. Here’s a post with more info from About Weblogs.
• Digg it - but be prudent. Don’t submit every single post you write to Digg. It could well backfire on you. Instead, be judicious. Submit posts that are exceptionally well-written, that may have cross-over appeal, and that offer significant original content.
• Ping away. Pingoat, Ping-o-matic - whatever you choose, send the pings every time you post.
• Start using those stats. If you don’t have a stat tracking module or plug-in on your platform, get one. Google Analytics is free and quite nice. Once installed, check them often. Get to know what the numbers are telling you. Look at your keywords - those words being used to find you.
• Encourage comments and reader participation. You can do this in any number of ways - host a contest, post a poll, have “open thread” posts - it’s limited only by your imagination. Open up those comments to anyone and everyone (but be prepared to police them heavily to smack down the spam and the trolls).

A Final Word on Linkbait

You may have read something on another blog (or several other blogs) about linkbait - the practice of posting for the purpose of attracting links from other blogs. I’m not so sure I see the big deal. To me, the issue is more about content - original, fresh, authentic content, as opposed to canned, regurgitated, swiped-from-someone-else or affected content.

What do I mean by “affected” as opposed to “authentic”? We all know people who seem “real” - right? Someone came to mind just then for you - someone who just seems honest, down to earth and trustworthy. Your blog needs to be the digital equivalent of that person, in my opinion. People can tell when others are “putting on airs” as my grandmother used to say - being inauthentic for the sole purpose of gaining in popularity.

If you’re posting within those parameters, then why not be a little audacious? Why not stir up a little excitement? If you have an original thought that’s provocative, and you know what you’re talking about, why not post it? And if you write about it well, why not submit it to Digg? Why not email it to those with whom you have a prior relationship and whom you think would be interested in it? Is that linkbait? Maybe, but I don’t see anything wrong with it. I don’t see any difference, in fact, between that kind of linkbait and effectively marketing yourself. We don’t look down on businesses for marketing to us, so why should we look down on bloggers for essentially marketing their posts?

Now, a caveat: if a blogger is posting solely to create a “blog war” that’s something entirely different. That’s just incendiary and most of us are going to see right through that blogger - and think less of him or her for it.

Hope these offerings help you increase your traffic. Remember - that which you pay attention to always improves. Give it a little effort, and you’ll be pleased with the results.

technorati, blog traffic, SEO, raising traffic