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How To Get More Traffic To Your Blog
By Penny Sansevieri

1) Blog frequently

I tell authors this a lot: stay on point, stay on topic. Why?
Because if you don’t you’ll lose readership. Once someone
commits to your blog they want to keep reading relevant
information. So don’t blog one day about your book, your
speaking, or your mission and the next day share Aunt Ethel’s
pot roast recipe

2) Stay on point

I tell authors this a lot: stay on point, stay on topic. Why?
Because if you don’t you’ll lose readership. Once someone
commits to your blog they want to keep reading relevant
information. So don’t blog one day about your book, your
speaking, or your mission and the next day share Aunt Ethel’s
pot roast recipe.

3) Plan your blogs

While spontaneity is the catalyst for creativity, planning is a
good way to stay on track. Start to map out key dates that you
want to blog about that have some relation to your topic - this
way when you’re at a loss for topics, you can always pick one
from your list of planned out blogs. Also, consider these topics
to blog about:

a) Future predictions: everyone loves these, to the degree that
you can predict market trends in your industry do it, and the
readership will follow.

b) Discuss industry news: what’s happening in your industry
that you can talk about? Even if you’re a fiction writer there’s
always *something* going on worth mentioning in publishing,
writing, or marketing that directly relates to your topic.

c) The elephant in the room: talk about the stuff that everyone
is afraid of. What new trends are emerging that
consumers/readers/companies need to be aware of? What’s next for
your market and how will it affect the industry? How can we keep
publishing books when we already publish 800 a day? You see what
I mean? Think of things that frighten you and talk about them.
People will respond. Every time I do this I get a ton of
comments on my blog.

d) Write reviews: review other people’s books, product or work.
This is a great way to network and to become a “filter” for your
market. Filter out the new stuff and feature it on your blog
(this goes for you fiction writers too!).

e) Other blogs: what are people talking about? What did your
favorite blog just say? Virtual networking (with other bloggers)
is a great way to grow your content and get to know others in
cyberspace. Don’t forget to link to the blog you’re discussing!

4) Invite comments on your blog!

This is really important! The more folks you can get
commenting, the quicker your blog will get passed around. If you
have a “no comment” feature on your blog, remove it! You want
people to be able to comment and give feedback. In fact, at the
end of every blog, why not invite readers to comment? If you
start getting a lot of responses to this, begin featuring your
favorite comments in future blog posts!

5) Comment on hot topics in the news

The quickest way to get traffic is to get your blog featured on
a high-traffic site. But how can you do this? By commenting on
news stories. Most major news sites have a feature that will
list blogs that are talking about the various news stories. Not
all blogs get featured but: a) if your if your topic is related
to the story they’ve featured; and b) you’ve written an
insightful post on the topic, you’ll likely get listed. For an
example of what these look like take a peek at a recent story on
CNN.

6) Digg yourself

Make sure that your blog has a bookmarking feature. Sites like
Digg and Del.icio.us are great places to get started. You
can go there, sign up for an account (very easy to do) and then
follow their instructions for bookmarking your individual posts.
This is important! You don’t want to bookmark the blog but
rather, the posts. The posts will then show up in these sites
and, hopefully, other folks will bookmark them as well. Even if
no one else bookmarks your posts, it doesn’t matter. You can
still get traffic by being positioned on these sites. Super
simple to do, go ahead, give it a shot!

7) Twitter your blog

Got something to say? Try microblogging at Twitter.
It’s a free service that asks the question: What are you doing now?
Go in, sign up and start posting your messages with links
back to your blog. We tried this and it’s fantastic.
You can also blog from your cell phone and blackberry.
You can not only use it to promote your blog but
your book, speaking event, whatever you want. It might sound
like a “who cares” idea, but trust me, everyone’s Twittering
these days.

Syndicate yourself

Using simple RSS feeds through Feedblitz you can
syndicate yourself and let folks subscribe to your blog. If they
don’t have a way to subscribe to your blog, they may forget you
altogether. Once someone subscribes, every time you post new
content it will notify them. And the best part? Your messages
won’t get stuck in someone’s spam filter. They’ll get the
notification, head to your blog and voila! Your readership stays
engaged and growing.

Finally, don’t use an “official” voice on your blog. Pretend
you’re sitting across from your reader over coffee. Talk to them
in a more casual, conversational tone and you’ll not only get
more readers, you’ll likely get more comments too! It doesn’t
take much to grow a blog, just a little dedication and
creativity. Happy blogging!

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About the Author: Penny C. Sansevieri, CEO and founder of
Author Marketing Experts, Inc., is a book marketing and media
relations expert whose company has developed some of the most
cutting-edge book marketing campaigns. Visit
http://www.amarketingexpert.com

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