12 tips to drive traffic to your blog

Writing a blog is not really much use unless people find it and read it. Here are 12 tips to help getting some traffic to your blog.

1. Be active on other blogs with the same topic
Comment on other blogs related to your topic. Write thoughtful comments, no “Nice blogpost” stuff, they will flag you as spam.

2. Trackback other blogs
Linking to other related posts from other blogs in your posts will attract attention of bloggers that blog on related subjects, many times they will return the favor and link back if they like your posts.

3. Link between your posts in your blog
Adding links to related posts at the bottom of blog posts will help people continue reading after they are done reading the post, and also gives google a better idea of the structure of the content in your blog.

4. Bookmark your blog posts
Use social services like http://digg.com, http://del.icio.us, http://stumbleupon.com and bookmark your blog posts. Some services like http://socialposter.com/ help you do this more easily.

5. Add a link to your blog in your email signature
This little thing is easy to do and might give you some more traffic from friends.

6. Tweet all your blog posts
Make sure you tweet all your blog posts, also share them on Facebook and sign up for Google Buzz and synchronize your social services.

7. Add a link to your blog in your Linkedin and Facebook profile
Add a link to your blog in any social profiles you have any, also add links to your forum signature if you are active in forums.

8. Make sure your blog uses nice readable URLs
Urls that include the title of your blog posts will help you rank better in search engines.
Examples:
Bad url: http://myblog.com/?p=2354
Good url: http://myblog.com/2010/09/blog-post-title/

9. Include social sharing buttons in the bottom of your posts
Make it as easy as possible for people to share your posts on Facebook, Twitter etc. Even better if you encourage them to do so at the end of the post by saying something like “If you liked this blog posts, please share it with your friends!”

10. Encourage commenting on your blog
One way to do this is by asking a question for the readers at the end of your blog posts. It can be something as simple as “What do you think? Let me know in the comments.”

11. Ask people to follow you on twitter
Twitter followers are a good resource for getting your blog posts spread around to people interested in your topic. Ask them to follow you on twitter, or directly just tell them to by writing something like “You should follow me on twitter here.”

12. Post on a regular basis
Make sure your blog doesn’t go stagnant. One thing that can help you with this is to always leave a couple of posts ready as drafts, in case you run out of ideas one week.

These are just some of many things that can help you drive some traffic to your blog. But remember, the most important thing is to post interesting and original content, make the posts short and concise, don’t ramble on about what your cats did today, write about things people care about.

Good luck blogging!