Is your blog collecting dust and not getting enough traffic?

It's a common problem for bloggers. Their blogs are good, but no

one is coming to visit. They want to know how to increase

traffic. Increasing traffic is actually easier than it

seems--provided you know how. In this newsletter, we will go

over 7 specific methods of increasing traffic. These are

guaranteed methods to draw more visitors to your blog.

Tip #1: Sign up for pinging services

It seems pretty obvious, but most bloggers, even those who are

more experienced, don’t sign up for pinging services. If you’re

new to blogging and don’t know what pinging means, pinging

basically means that when your blog is updated, a "ping" is sent

out by the service to let pinging sites know that your blog has

been updated. People who are visiting sites with pinging

services will then see your blog flash across the side of the

screen as "newly updated". Pinging services include Yahoo’s

blo.gs, weblogs.com, Google Blog search, and ZingFast.

Tip #2: Sign up for Technorati

If you go to technorati.com, you’ll see an option on the left

side of the screen to "Claim Your Blog". Doing so allows you to

get updated link counts, add your photo or branding to

Technorati, and see your Technorati link. Having your blog

claimed on Technorati helps to increase traffic because the

millions of people who go to that site will have a chance to see

your blog on there.

Tip #3: Sign up for FeedBurner, a RSS service

What FeedBurner basically does for your blog is it helps you to

promote your blog’s content, build your audience and measure

your audience. In other words, it helps you increase your blog’s

traffic.

Tip #4: Bookmark your blogs at places like del.icio.us

You can set up an account and profile at del.icio.us. Then,

using that, you can add links to your blog along with excerpts

from your blog. Anytime someone visits your profile on

del.icio.us, they will see a link to your blog and excerpts.

There are other social bookmarking sites that you can use in

much the same way. The bottom line is, using these social

bookmarking sites can help you increase traffic.

Tip #5: Post comments at other blogs

No, this doesn’t mean you should go and spam other blogs with

comments that are only there to promote a site. It means that

you should visit similar blogs to your own, post legitimate

comments and then sign your name(along with a link to your

blog). This way, people know you aren’t there just to promote

your site—you’re there to post a good piece of feedback and also

say where you’re from.

Tip #6: Ask owners of other blogs to post a link to yours

Find other blogs that are similar to yours. If they seem to be

decently popular(that is, they have a good amount of comments

for each post), you can try to contact the owner of the blog to

add a link to your blog if they have a links section. To make

them really want to do this, you can offer to link back to their

blog on your blog. People do this reciprocal blog linking all

the time and it does help to increase traffic.

Tip #7: Use keywords in your blog

Like regular web pages, having a good keyword density on a blog

is a terrific way of getting search engine spiders to notice

your page. (FYI: Search engine spiders are programs from search

engines that browse sites and report back their findings to the

search engine database, which then lists that site. The more

keywords on your site, the more likely it is for a search engine

spider to pay a visit)

If your average blog posting is around 200 words, try to use 2-6

keywords per blog post. 2-6 keywords in a blog posting of 200

words is a keyword density of between 1 and 3 percent, a

respectable number. Remember that you don’t want to use too many

keywords, as that will make your blog look bad. Also be sure

that the keywords used are relevant to your blog. Before even

making a blog posting, decide what the post will be about and

then select a keyword or two to use in your post. Then do it.

It’s a surefire way of getting more traffic to your site!

Signing up with a service like Technorati is a quick,

painless way of increasing traffic to your blog. So sign up

today!