6 Ways to Increase Traffic To Your Blog

Which blogger doesn't want more traffic directed to his blog? A rookie blogger can get about 20-30 hits daily while a pro blogger can get anywhere between 600 – 6000. We promote our blog posts on Facebook and Twitter, submit our posts on Bloggers, Digg & more and comment on others’ blog posts –all in attempts to direct traffic to our sites. While these methods are 100% correct, there are other sites which we can leverage to increase traffic on ours. Some of those suggestions (tried and tested by me) are listed below:

1. Pinterest: Most of Pinterest’s visitors are women. Most pins are about cats, fashion, jewelry, cars and recipes. But that doesn't mean Pinterest can’t drive traffic to your website. Create a board containing pictures of the ones in your posts, and provide links to the specific articles. If your blog has a theme, even better. Create a board according to the theme and post pictures from your articles with links. This will ensure it doesn't appear as blatant advertising of your blog while you reap the benefits of at least a 20 – 30% traffic spike.
2. SlideShare: Yes! SlideShare. The site which lets you upload PowerPoint presentations. Make PPTs of your posts and upload them. Remember to add links (clickable) to your articles in the last slide. This offers two benefits –readers will be enticed to read your articles if your presentations are interesting, thus increasing traffic. And you will improve your presentation skills. But make sure you prepare presentations out of your post and not publish the whole article in slides. No one will read your blog then.

   

   Get the Traffic You Deserve

3. StumbleUpon: Most of you must already be submitting your links on this site. But those don’t, please start immediately. StumbleUpon is a discovery engine that finds and recommends web content to its users. Your posts will show up in categories which you have classified the articles under. This means your content will be made available to a vast number of relevant and interested readers. This will not only increase traffic on your site but also reach out to relevant readers.
4. Blogadda: There are numerous websites which allow you to submit your posts. But not many of them can lure readers to click on your links as Blogadda can. Through its Tangy Tuesday and Spicy Saturday picks, this site shares the choicest of submissions with its readers. And people read those posts – intently. So if your post is good enough to have been picked by them, rest assured, traffic and comments on your posts will shoot up. I've witnessed about 100% increase in visits on posts which featured in Tangy Tuesday on Blogadda.
5. WriteUp Cafe (WUC): This site is relatively lesser known as compared to the internet giants. But it is a great platform to share your links and connect with equally enthusiastic bloggers. Present partial write ups of your posts and provide links to your blog for the remaining article. Thus, readers who find your write up interesting will visit your blog to read the rest (and comment on it). Also, WUC tweets the links which have been submitted on it to its 600 odd (and growing) followers, increasing your article’s visibility.
6. Google+: A lot of us have forgotten about Google+. Or we’re disillusioned – we were told it’s going to be the best social networking site ever, right? Wrong! Google+ as a social network was a Trojan Horse to introduce the ‘+1’ button and that matters a lot! Every time your article is +1-ed, Google’s advertising search engine is fed, allowing them to match more targeted ads. Plus, it tremendously improves your rankings. Won’t Google want to promote its platform more? So every time you get a +1, or your circle expands, your search results on Google+ improve. After all, that’s what everyone is gunning for, right?
7. Bonus tip: Use the e-mail feature on the Blogger and Wordpress platforms smartly to reach out to a wider audience. I’m not talking about those who have subscribed to your blog by e-mail. You definitely have a list of 300+ e-mail contacts, right? Using the e-mail feature, you can let these contacts know that you've posted a new article. A 10% conversion means a minimum of 30 hits to your site. And that’s a lot of traffic (unless you average 600+ hits per day).

Notice that nothing has been spoken about SEO per say here. That’s because Google has started rewarding quality content with Panda & Penguin – its latest algorithms. Remember, you can use tricks to increase traffic on your website, but the best traffic is the one that keeps returning. Steady traffic can only be achieved once you've got enough readers visiting your blog repeatedly, wanting to read what you have to share. So before you indulge in SEO tricks, meta tags and keyword research, focus on improving your content. Everything else will gradually fall into place.

These were my suggestions. Why don’t you share your tips to increase traffic? They will help a lot of readers (including me).


image Courtesy: Google Images