Is there an algorithm that can be employed to guarantee blog success? I mean, who doesn’t want to have thousands of fans pouring in daily just to read what they have to say about random stuff. This article is for those people who are not satisfied with the number of hits their blogs receive on a daily basis. You know you deserve more!
Well, there is no sure-fire formula or magic words that will make your blog amazingly popular overnight. But there are some things you could do which would raise your readership count by leaps and bounds. Here are five simple steps suggested by Jim Boykin (blogger extraordinaire) which should help increase your readership manifold (those who have read his blog know that he has almost 16,000 daily readers).
Post often
The more often you post, the more wired your readers are to checking out your new posts. I suggest at least twice a day. If nothing interesting is coming to mind, make it a point to find something related/unrelated to your niche , and write about it. Remember, you can always go back later and change the date of publication for older articles.
Formatting helps increase speed
Make sure your article is formatted properly by using paragraphs (and not huge walls of text), headings, images etc. Also use tags appropriately so that popular search engines pick up on them easily…
Don’t forget to have a signature
Every blogger worth his/her salt should have a personalized electronic stamp which appears at the end of each article. It could be your name, email address, blog url or simply an image/graphic that distinguishes you from other bloggers in the same niche . Just keep it short and snappy – no more than 8 words unless you are writing really long articles.
Read other blogs too
Unfortunately I don’t read much anymore…only when I stumble upon something interesting on someone’s blog or someone sends me a link to something they think would interest me. But make it a point to regularly check out 25-50 blogs in your niche for inspiration and ideas (and maybe even linking opportunities Interact with the other bloggers in your niche
Make it a point to comment/link to them even if they don’t return the consideration immediately. Remember, every link is good…no matter where it comes from! And people are always flattered when you include their blog URL in your signature. Go for quality over quantity – avoid indiscriminate linking.
Choose the right name
It is very important to choose an appropriate article name. This is what will come up on search engines when someone searches for keywords relevant to your niche. A catchy headline also helps with speeding things up (see next tip).
Keyword rich headlines . If you are writing about “How To Make Money” then make sure you use that exact phrase in your title along with words like “make”, “money”, “fast”, etc. I saw a post on this recently where the blogger was suggesting that you can get traffic if you include your primary keyword (in this case, it would be ‘making money’) in the first line of your blog post so search engines pick it up easily. This is something I am yet to try (the keyword in the first line), give it a shot if you are interested.
Link back to your other posts
It’s simple…whenever you write about anything which has already been written about, just link back to the original article with suitable keywords. This will help both of your articles appear on popular sites like Technorati and Google.
That’s all there is to it! Do these five things religiously and you will see results sooner than later! Remember though, don’t concentrate too much on what prevails over the web rather than concentrating on what gives readers value for their time so that they keep coming back for more.
Blog about your passions
The more passionate you are about what you write, the more likely people will be to read it and return for more in the future. Be enthusiastic and opinionated and convince everyone that reading your blog is a must if they want to remain in touch with the Web 2.0 movement… So, this is it. All you have to do now is implement these steps and come back in a few weeks/months and see your numbers shoot up dramatically.
Define your audience
In order to make your blog popular, it is important that you first define who your target audience is going to be? What are their interests? What language do they speak etc.? Once you know exactly what kind of people will be reading your content, create a content calendar accordingly. This will help you in avoiding any confusion at a later stage as well as ensure that you continue writing high quality content.
Interact with your audience
One of the best ways to draw traffic to your blog is by interacting with your target audience on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Google+. You can also take it further by joining groups that are related to the niche that you write about on these platforms. This way, not only will you get people interested in what you have to say but you might eventually even get some loyal readers who may end up becoming followers of your blog as well!
Good luck!
