Generating Blog Traffic

Last week in a drugged stupor I agreed to participate in Jen’s Blog Carnival. I’m always game to learn new ways to attract readers. Hey I am thee comment whore after all. My readership is moderate. I have about 250 hits on a regular week day and considering I started with nothing, that ain’t half bad. I’m happy with my 250, but I’m figgering
on biggering
and biggering
and BIGGERING!

Ok, I need to stop reading The Lorax…

In the two years I’ve been blogging I’ve learned the most about blog design. I’ve learned little on how to generate actual traffic, but here are the things I’ve learned.

1. Comment. You don’t get noticed unless you comment on other people’s sites. And be cleaver when commenting. This isn’t to say that my commenters aren’t cleaver. I am saying that when I read some comments I will follow a link to someone’s site if their comment was funny/intelligent/asshat.

2. Have a pretty site. Your design alone won’t get you a single Google hit. The internets can’t search for pretty designs, unless of course you have it in your keywords. But say I follow a link on someone’s site, if I get to their blog and it is butt ugly chances are I’m not going to stay. If I can’t stand to look at your site why would I read it? And 9 times out of 10, those who have good looking or interesting sites are interesting to read. Two of my favorites, simple, but nice are Anne Nahm and Finslippy.

3. Write often. I learned this little bit from Lauri, the queen of writing every day. The more you write the more interested your readers will be an more likely to come back.

4. Write from the heart (or humor) and be honest. There is nothing I hate more than someone who says, “well my friend had this experience so you shouldn’t do so and so.” I pull the invalid argument card on that one. I write like I talk. If you were to carry on a conversation with me it would sound much like my blog. And yes… I do say “GAH” all the time.

5. Hook you site up to a feed. There are so many blogs I stopped reading once I started using Sage. The specific ins and outs of this one baffle me, but Jen has info on how it works.

These aren’t the most practical tips out there, but it is what works for me. I will never be the mega blogging chick who takes photos of her dog every day and I may never get a Federated Media ad contract, but I do dispel some helpful tips and tricks and even throw out a dendrite fluffing post on occasion.