Get other sites to link to you: In an ideal world, everyone you want will link from their site to yours. Poof, and you could be in business overnight. If wishes were horses! “You just cannot get results fast enough. It was only after a year of blogging that things started happening for me. Other sites will link to you only if your content is good—period,” says Amit Agarwal, a professional blogger whose three-year-old blog Digital Inspiration figures in Technorati’s Top 100 globally.
Get yourself some links: Till WSJ.com does not link to you, visit the site and other blogs and leave comments on topics of shared interest—with your link. “This is one way to generate some traffic faster—find blogs in your niche area and leave meaningful comments on posts with your blog’s address. If it adds value to the conversation, other readers will click on your link to know more about what you are doing. Someone else may already have the audience, and you are doing nothing unethical or illegal in trying to attract them too,” says Agarwal.
A social media strategy: “Sites like Facebook and MySpace are a rage—have a profile there and link to your posts from there. Being active on StumbleUpon, where you share content, can also drive traffic,” says Priya Florence Shah, Internet entrepreneur and blogger at Naaree.com.
Link to others, selflessly: Provide links to blogs you like without expecting anything in return. These respective blog owners might come visiting to know about yours and someday do something for you too.
Grab all the free ad spots to publicize your blog: These include your visiting cards, email signatures, letterheads, mobile messages, bumper stickers and other such communication. Let your daily emails end with a prompt to a recent post of yours relevant to the recipient.
Be proactive: Respond to all those who leave comments on your blog or seek further information—make their effort seem valuable. Let them feel a part of your blog community—and they will tell other people about you.
Send out mails: Mine every email address you have in your desktop and workplace, and send a message. Pitch specific posts, not necessarily your blog, to entice greater interest.
Make friends in the blogworld: And write guest posts and comments on each other’s blogs. Exchange links, too. There is no such thing as being competitors here. “You have to realize you cannot be selfish—it is all about give and take to get ahead,” says Shah.
The title of your post matters: A simple yet overlooked factor that makes a big difference. “Most people read blogs on RSS (really simple syndication) feeds. The title helps them decide whether they want to click on it or move to the next entry on the feed. Also include keywords in your title that people are expected to be searching for,” says Agarwal.
But some believe in traffic coming their way by just doing a good job. “I did not do any promotions though—over time, people just found me because of the work I was doing,” says Kamla Bhatt, blogger for four years now and publisher of the highly popular KamlaBhattShow.com connecting Indian diaspora around the world.
Place
This P denotes distribution—will you travel 10 miles just to pick up a KitKat or settle for a Dairy Milk an arm’s length away? Ditto for blogs—make it easy for readers to find you. Not once, but again and again. Try these tips: