10 Ways to Grow Your Blog Traffic

Nov 20, 2014Q & A with Mary

This question comes from Michael:

I’ve been blogging for four plus years. Though my writing has improved, my readership has not. Any ideas on how to grow a blog that you have, will be greatly appreciated. God bless you and yours!

First, thanks for the imparting of blessings! I so appreciate that.

I started blogging in 2004, over a decade ago. I originally blogged because we lived overseas in France, and I wanted to keep connected with friends and family back home. The blog became my place to process what we walked through there. So I started building a base before my first book released in 2005, but back then blogging wasn’t well known, and I didn’t spend any time trying to build it, other than writing posts.

Of course in the last few years, blogs have expanded, and we know a lot more about SEO and ways to drive traffic to our sites. Here are some blogs I recommend reading to increase your traffic:

Problogger. Darren Rowse knows so much about driving folks to your site because he successfully built a photography site, then shifted to helping others do the same. Search the archives there. Here’s a recent post about writing great content that drives traffic.

First Site Guide. They have a great article about how to promote your blog here.

Copyblogger has some amazing resources to help as well. Here’s an article about how to create income on a blog (which involves traffic).

That being said, I’ve noticed this year that my stats have remained stagnant too. I’m sure there are things I can do to improve my traffic. (Readers, any suggestions?) Here are ten things I’ve learned that drive traffic to my site:

  1. Be open. All blogs have a person behind them. Be willing to share your struggles and foibles. My most read posts are the ones where I’m falling apart! 🙂
  2. Be conversational. If someone comments, make an effort to comment back. I know this can be difficult in our time crunched world, but I find the more I interact with people, the more apt they are to come back.
  3. Be awesome. And by this I mean awesome content. Not the same old same old, but fresh, new, interesting posts that people want to pass on to others.
  4. Be generous. If you have the time, comment on blogs within your niche. It causes others to see your name and become curious about you as well.
  5. Be tweetful. Tweet your blog posts, but do so in clever, nonconformist ways.
  6. Be catchy. Learn how to write surprising, enticing headlines. (I’m still not very good at this).
  7. Be aware. Know a bit about SEO. (You can use a plugin on your blog that helps you make your posts SEO friendly, like Scribe Content Optimizer.
  8. Be Pinteresting. This may not apply to you, as perhaps your readers are not women, but Pinterest has become one of the best sources of traffic to blogs. Find a way to add an image to every post you post, then pin it on Pinterest. I recommend this ebook, Pinterest Savvy, by Melissa Taylor. It’s super easy to learn.
  9. Be storyfull. You’ll ultimately keep wooing readers when you tell a story. They’ll remember you, too.
  10. Be you. Don’t try to emulate everyone else who is successful. Find out how your voice and your unique writing style can make YOU become the most successful YOU there is.

Michael (and all my other blog readers), I hope this helped.

Q4u: What did I miss? How have you increased readership to your blog?

 

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