I am a less than moderate blogger and my site’s “all time high” is less than 100 per day. I would like to have thousands of readers and at least 25 comments everyday to reply to! I was thinking … how do I do that? I came out blank. However, here is what I have learned the hard way that I had to stop doing. Perhaps it will help you getting those thousands of visitors.
Here is the list of DON’Ts.
Write poorly with lots of spelling errors:
There is no excuse for spelling errors. If you are a MAC, spelling is a part of the OS! Don’t make fun of me, since I started blogging I have noticed that my language has improved.
Write once every third month:
I started strong with 2 blogs per week. The job, family and lack of topic took more time. Suddenly no one read the blogs anymore. You have to have a steady frequency of blogs! Try to write lots of blogs and use a scheduler to publish them. WordPress has a built-in function for that.
Pick subjects no one wants to read about:
Here is hint, if you are at a party and people leave when you tell your story. Chances are that the topic shouldn’t been blogged about either.
The title is everything. Ok, perhaps not everything, but I bet I got your attention by having a funny title on this blog. If I had “how to get more traffic to your site” you would look at it as spam.
Have no strategy for your blogging:
If you don’t have a strategy, well the whole site will fall down. You have to comment, engage and follow other peoples blogs and comments. If you comment on other peoples blogs they will comment on yours. Don’t be a woos, if you don’t agree, say it, use a strong language that provokes people. No one remembers a vanilla!
Go, start writing your blogs and don’t make the same mistakes as I did. I have a number of different blogs for different topics. Regardless the mistakes above are very common. Leave a comment, tell me about your mistakes. I would hate to make the same mistakes as you once did!
I think lack of promotion is another blog killer. I am very active on social networks and have been able to gain a decent following of engaged connections on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook. I don’t just promote my own stuff though. I cross promote a lot of other blogs (including this one) to make sure I don’t look too spammy.
Also, a good way to get readers is to write on current event topics. When a new feature drops on Facebook, notice it and try to write an article that approaches the feature from a different angle than the big news sites are going.
Karl, thank you for your comment. Indeed, promoting, following up and actively engaging is very important.
I agree that picking a current event is crucial, I guess the hard part is to find those interesting angles that most people over-see.
Great input and comment, looking forward your blogs and tweets!
Cheers,
Shahram