Top 5 methods to increase traffic to your blog

Back in May I did a post on how I managed to increase my traffic, now its time for a follow up and some bits n pieces into how I did it - with proof that it works!

First of all a quick copy/paste of my statistics on visitors back in April '09, just from the graph it seems like the results are impressive enough ( look pretty good to me considering I was getting 2-3 clicks a day at the start of the year!) .

Back in Nov '08 was the time I started experimenting with different blog directories ( you can find a list of the directories I used HERE). Feedback was immediate. I started getting over a hundred visitors a month.

At the end of Dec '08 I didn't do much more for a couple of months and just let things flow and continued to get an ok traffic report. Sometime back in April '09 having some more time on my hands I decided to do something more than just registering on different directories.

Here are my top 5 methods to increase traffic to your blog!

1. Register on Twitter - not to promote your blog but to make connections

• Don't just follow people to have them follow you back - get to know their interested, what they are writing about.
• Don't brag about yourself too much, people should want to know more about you rather than wanting to hear less of you
• Share things you found interesting with fellow tweeters

2. Join Forums - to give useful suggestion on topics you are good at

• If you are good at something - share it!
  
• meet new people with same interests

3. Start Commenting on other blogs - comments are a great source of inspiration

• once again sharing your opinion on something you just came across is a great way of interaction
• showing your interest in the subject the reader is writing about
• having something to add to what the reader has to say
• don't just leave a one word comment like thank you, be a little more in depth by saying why you wrote that thank you. :)
• don't leave rude/offensive comments and don't spam
  

4. Optimize your blog - make it easier for search directories to find your blog

• use proper key words, do prior research
• make it easy for your readers to share what they just read, make all the buttons (digg, tweet,delicious,etc) available to them right then and there
  
• load time of your blog is very important, no one is going to wait 10 min for your page to open

5. Interact with the reader - get to know your reader

• I feel that it is important to ask for feedback from your readers on what you can improve or suggestions on what they would like to see on your blog
• see what your readers write about
  

For me the above played an important role, especially Twitter. After having joined I started tweeting continuously about my new posts, also I started reading other tweets and re-tweeting important information that I found useful. I feel that in twitter you have to make connections, get to know the people you are following and not just add them so they follow you back.

Now for the results, I copied my latest statistics to show
that today I'm getting around 500 visitors and more a
month and over 700 page views a month. This is a little post to encourage start up bloggers that if you keep at it you will eventually find your readers!

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