I have been contacted a handful of times in the last few days with questions about how to get better traffic and boost commentor participation. There are many stellar articles on the web that tackle these issues with class, but in honor of my readers I wanted to share a few things that I have done to help build this site.
Boosting Incoming Traffic
(Paul Stamatiou wrote a phenominal article on How To Boost Blog Traffic. After you’re done here you need to head over to his site and read the entire post. It’s clear, concise and extremely helpful.)
First off, keep in mind that there are two types of readers coming to your site. First timers and repeats; thus requiring two approaches to building a steady flow of traffic…
Obviously, you won’t be getting any repeat visitors without starting with first time visitors. There are many ways to help increase new incoming traffic.
- Leave meaningful comments on other blogs.
- Put your URL in your email signature.
- Put your URL in your forum signature.
- Join blog networks such as Technorati, MyBlogLog, Blog Top Sites and others.
- Participate in blog carnivals, group writing projects and other activities where linking is happening.
- If your serious, then you’ve got to get your own domain. Then you can streamline your SEO.
Building Return Traffic
Your return traffic is also known as your readership. These are you friends. They make your blog what it is after you’ve hit the ‘publish’ button.
So once you’ve gotten the initial visitor, and they’re at your site, how do you keep them coming back? You have to make your blog ’sticky’.
- Content is king
Ultimately people will come back because of what you have to say. There are a million tricks in the books, but it all boils down to one word after another.
- RSS Feed
Make your feed easy to find and easy to subscribe to.
- Don’t write about your sad sad blog
I like personal blogs but not when they continually talk about how low their traffic is or how uninvolved their commentors are. It makes me detach from their site, not wanting to carry the burden of making them feel better.
- Write to your goal audience
If you want 20,000 readers then write as if they’re already there. Write as if the whole world is reading and you are the master of your blog.
- Be random and surprise your readers on occasion
Keep it fresh and add some personality. A little humor. A little honesty. It will go a long way.
Boosting Comments
When I am reading your blog the main reason I will comment is because I feel invited. Inviting your readers doesn’t mean you have to end every post with an open ended question. It simply means you should talk to your readers and not at them.
You don’t want people commenting because they’re trying to get more incoming traffic to their blog, or because you finally guilted someone into saying something. Instead, your commentors should feel like they are part of a special community. You can help build this by interacting with your commentors within the thread, and even highlighting some people’s comments within posts.
A few things I did to help get the comment ball rolling on my site:
- The Weekend Surveys
- A Post on “Tips for Better commenting“
- A Comments Policy Page
- A few giveaways (A, B)
Doing little things like this can help boost your readers awareness and comfort of commenting on your site.
Conclusion
In the end being true to yourself and writing what you care about is most important. People will read your site because it’s genuine.
For more on this subject, check out some posts I wrote on How To Rock Your Blog.
What are some things you have done to increase your traffic and boost comments?
steve offutt said:
if you offered blog consulting coupled with training for a black-belt in something dangerous, I’d hire you immediatley!
Posted on February 23, 2007 at 3:33 am
steve offutt said:
btw - i honestly confess, I sometimes check out your blog to see the new graphic icons (i.e. -”rend your heart”)
Posted on February 23, 2007 at 3:38 am
Shawn said:
@ Steve: A new series entitled, “How to build your blog and beat up bad guys.” Sounds catchy. And those icons are just for you
Posted on February 23, 2007 at 6:43 am
ben said:
Shawn this post was great it helped me out a lot. Especially the don’t write about your sad blog part.
Posted on February 23, 2007 at 8:48 am
Notes from the Trail » Boosting blog traffic said:
[…] Shawn adds to the plethora of information out there on boosting your blog traffic in a simple, helpful and very readable way. Stop by and check it out. Tell him thanks for his work. […]
Posted on February 23, 2007 at 9:50 am
john said:
There’s a reason “SEO” is one of the most searched keywords, everybody is trying to drive more traffic to their site.
An easy but sometimes overlooked way to increase traffic is by doing exactly what you are doing here … providing good information for your readers. I was using the Google Blog Search and this article caught my eye. If you provide good information on your website people will be attracted to it.
There are several good books and sites on SEO. SEOBook, Webmasterworld, Sitepoint, etc. These resources contain just about everything a beginning or expert webmaster would want to know about SEO. From using Adwords (http://adwords.google.com) to participating in large-scale advertising networks (http://www.worldwidereviews.com/library/IncreaseWebsiteTraffic.htm) these resources cover them all.
Nice job.
Posted on February 23, 2007 at 10:13 am
Shawn said:
@ John: Thanks for commenting. You’re right about providing good information for the readers. I’d say that falls under the “Content is king” point.
Also, you’re a perfect example of why it’s helpful to use ‘keywords’ in your post and in your post titles.
Posted on February 23, 2007 at 10:29 am
Dennis said:
I believe if you respect your readers and give them quality content that will come.
Making your site seem like a home is best also. I have seen many comment response methods and responding to your readers on site rather than through email is a must.
Posted on February 23, 2007 at 12:18 pm
Shawn said:
@ Dennis: I love how you put it: “Making your site seem like a home.” That is so cool.
Something I try to do in addition to responding to comments withing the comment thread is to try an email people when they show up for the first time as a commentor. I want them to know that their comment got noticed and read by me and that I appreciate the time it took for them to type it in and hit ’submit.’
Posted on February 23, 2007 at 2:49 pm
Ralph Dagza said:
If you get more referrers from search engines (google,yahoo,msn) than social bookmarking, networking, news, etc. site…
that means youre a badass
Posted on February 23, 2007 at 3:14 pm
Chris Skinner said:
Great information for my blog. Just got it started up and so far people are looking. I hope to hear updates about your successes with these methods. Cheers,
Chris
Posted on February 24, 2007 at 10:30 pm
steve offutt said:
am I the only one that notices your subtitle changes? sometimes i stop by just to see what it says.
Posted on February 25, 2007 at 3:14 am
steve offutt said:
btw - I always like the comma before the “and”
Posted on February 25, 2007 at 3:15 am
steve offutt said:
bingo!
Posted on February 26, 2007 at 8:35 pm
Shawn said:
@ Steve: One of us has a little too much time on our hands. (and I’m not the one who just left three comments in a row on this thread.)
Posted on February 26, 2007 at 9:35 pm
nathan wood said:
Good info, I’m new at this whole thing and I appreciate the practical side of blogging, thanks dude!
Posted on February 27, 2007 at 3:50 pm