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Okay, so you have a website. The big question is, do you have people looking at your website, or do you need to increase website traffic? Welcome to the club! Every day I hear about someone who has set up a blog. Some people join the Empower Network blogging platform, some people use their own self-hosted WordPress blogs. Others, like the free approach of services like WordPress.org and Blogger. Here's a truth: lots of people start blogs. Not many people keep them going. Some people run out of things to write about. Others can come up with content, but find that no one is reading it. " Most people with websites need to increase blog traffic, plain and simple. They don't do it because they don't know how. 4 Methods to Increase Website Traffic Here are four techniques that work really well to get people looking at your website and what you have to say. #1: Stop blogging About Yourself When people started blogs years ago, most were self-indulgent explorations of their daily activities. Things like "Here's why I buy wheat bread". If you're writing about your personal habits, daily activities, and strange obsessions, stop it. No one cares unless you're a famous person. If one of the President's kids decided to start a website about "my life in the White House", you can bet we would all want to read it. But face it. You're not that famous. Therefore, if you're writing insipid posts about your cat's grooming habits and your battles with your mother, that could be why you're not getting traffic to your blog. So, what should you be writing about? Try a subject you're really interested in. Sit down, think about your life, look around your home, and pay attention to what really interests you. If you were to visit your local bookstore, what section would you go to first, and what books would you shop for? Write about THAT topic. Whether that subject is parenting, Broadway Musicals, mystery books, Animal Rescue, Affiliate Marketing, or Corporate Finance, you will find an audience if you have a passion for what you're writing about. #2: Share What You Post An easy way to increase website traffic is to simply share your website posts using social media. Which social media sites? Any site that will let you post links to your content. You know the big places to start: Facebook, LinkedIn, and bookmarking sites like Digg. Forums are another great place to get your message out. Start by lurking and reading. Then start answering questions. Then post questions and observations. When joining a forum, be sure to setup your "forum signature", and include a link that directs people to your website. Where do you find forums? Simple. Do a search on your favorite search engine! Warning: Don't join a forum just to be self-promotional. Don't join just to spam your links to the community. #3: Be Nice and Share Other People's Posts In the world of WordPress, this is often called getting (or giving) "trackbacks" and "pingbacks". Here's what's great about this method. If you link to another person's posts, they get notified and are likely to come back to your site. So will some of their readers. Voila! Instant traffic to your blog. Not long ago, I wrote a pretty good post about types of stories you should have to explain your business. One day I got an email about a trackback from another blog written by someone I greatly admire. He had mentioned my blog post in a post of his own. Up went my website traffic! And of course, I did send him a thank-you email for the link. :)) Since I've received that benefit, I am sure to do the same for others. I recommend you do, too. #4: Make Comments This is an easy strategy increase blog traffic to your site. Simply find other people who write websites on your topic, read what they write, and make a comment. Generally when you leave a comment on someone else's blog, you're able to also leave a link in the comment. Of course, be sure that link points back to your own site! (Duh .) Just don't be stupid about your comments. Obviously, you should look for blogs on the same subject as yours. The other person's website has targeted traffic about his or her subject, so people will be more likely to visit your blog (and STAY and READ your website) if you're on the same subject. The secret is to do your commenting by hand. You can get software to automate your blog commenting, but I don't recommend it. Closing Ideas on How to Get More Blog Traffic Start by putting something new on your blog every day. Brand new content every day. In the beginning, "a regular basis" means "every day". Why "every day"? blogging every day gives the search engines notice that the website is "alive" and active. Search engines are just robots with algorithms that look for how often a website is updated. Frequent posts to your website will drive targeted traffic to your website. Readers and visitors will also appreciate the fresh daily content (assuming you're writing posts of value). This will start a great promotion cycle. You write every day, readers come back every day. Readers like what they see and repost it. You get new readers! I hope you've found these four strategies useful for helping you to increase your website traffic. Abe Vu writes frequently on how to increase blog traffic quickly. He also has some great writing on interesting blog post ideas.
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