I wrote an articles few weeks ago about some simple ways to make your blog popular. I hope you find it useful. Feedback appreciated. Thanks -------------------------------------- There are several ways that you can utilize to make your blog popular. However, it should be noted that using these techniques only won't get your blog a lot of popularity. You need to put your brain into work and work hard. You really need to believe in yourself and your blog. There are several blogs out there on the internet that earn more than websites. Your blog can do that too! Unique Content This is very important factor in making your blog popular. I am sure that you would have noticed that only blog with nice unique and attractive content are able to become popular. Who want to hear about broken watch? No one! Do not make all the entries on your blog personal. No one is interested in learning that your cat had a stroke today or that you missed school. Talk about something that is unique (but not too personal). Talk about stuff like "Similarities between Google and Yahoo's logo". This would be a great topic to talk about and would attract a lot of visitors. One example of great topic would be this one: "The 8 Least Intimidating Gangs in Movie History". Remember, readers want something different to read on the internet. This is why they would come to your blog. Bookmarking A lot of people do not believe in this technique but believe it or not, this is one of the most effective technique to make your blog popular. Think about it for one second! You write good unique content on your blog, like I mentioned in Part 1, but then what? Writing unique content alone would not get you too far. You need to publicize your blog and bookmarking sites are the best way to do that. I have a blog and I am sure that 60% to 70% of the traffic that I get is from bookmarking sites. The most famous and useful bookmarking site would be Digg simply because it has the most number of users. The more users there are, the greater the chances of getting more traffic. Another benefit of using bookmarking sites is that you gain significant number of backlinks from them in two ways. First of all, when you submit your article or post to a bookmarking site, you are giving your link to them which counts as a backlink to some extent. However, I am not sure whether the links are dofollow or nofollow. Secondly, Digg has an option of blogging articles. If someone likes your story, then they will blog it on their blog with your link. This will increase your popularity and provide you with useful backlinks. You have to realize that your blog is just another blog in the everlasting Internet. No one is going to even know about it until you tell them about it directly. One of the ways to do this has already been discussed - bookmarking sites. Utilize Forums and other Blogs Forums are a great way to advertise your blog. You would have noticed that most forum nowadays have a "Review my blog" category where members pass criticism and appreciation to each other about their blogs. Join some of these forums and submit your blog. This way you will get some good traffic and if some of these members like your blog, they will even stick with it. You can also add a link of your blog in your signature at forums. If you are an active poster then a lot of people will be seeing your link and clicking it! Another way is to actually go and read other blogs. Make useful comments at other blogs and that way you will attract readers and the owner of the blog to your own blog! I get a lot of traffic through this. However, make sure that you do not spam. Actually READ the article and make sure that the comments are useful and not annoying. Give to take So what do I mean when I write that fancy title in bold? Give and Take? Well it means that you need to give something new every few weeks to take (the traffic). So what do you give? There are several things that you can give away on your blog such as free products, coupons, designs or even links! I just experimented this idea and started giving away banners and free logos to my readers. I got great response and I had a lot of traffic in those days. I was giving logos and I was taking traffic! You should also have something like that on your blog because at the end of the day everyone goes home happily. Some ideas would be to have good contests or just give away whatever it is you are good at. Maybe you want to give free reviews to your visitors or free links! You can come up with several ideas if you think about what it is that you are good at and that you can use to your advantage. This is a great tip and can get you a lot of traffic whenever used. However, make sure that you do not do this too often because that would just make it boring and also, make sure that if you start contests then you close them as well!
such a nice tips.thanks for sharing.i only use digg on my blog.i planning to use stumbleupon but seems like it dont work and just complicate me
I am glad that you guys liked the tips....they are quite basic but very important. I use stumble upon sometimes...it is quite confusing for me and i don't get much traffic from it. Digg is the best.
yeah..contests and freebies are always a good way to attract visitors....give it a try and see the results the freebies don't have to be too expensive...anything will do.
As far as Bookmarking, I think a lot of that depends on content. Digg might be good for X but Stumbleupon might be better for Y. I guess you need to experiment and see what works best. For me personally though I've had the best luck with SU
i guess you are right but i just prefer digg over SU since it brings me more traffic and is much easier to use.
I have started a blog few days back. Your post is useful and I would like to apply some of your tips. If banners and free logos can help I certainly would like to give it a try. Thanks a lot.
Nice post, especially the unique content. While a topic may have been discussed many times before, we can always make it look differently, that is with a personal touch. Another thing, making the post title very attractive and inviting can also help a lot. Nice to see you here, Himoacs.
Overall I think the first point is the most important. You can do all the others well but you won't retain a solid readership without quality content. Focus on that first and the rest will follow.
@sb_guru: I did try giving free logos and it was a great success...in return i just asked for a backlink @GuardianAngel: Nice to see you here too and thanks for the comment @arcturus1: Yup quality content is the king! @kittyluver: Perfect blogger? lol don't know about that but I am trying
Yeah, I could see that. It was more of a generalization perhaps based on my limited experience. I wonder with digg though, how many diggs does it take to get the traffic to your site? my problem is that I use the sites just to submit and not network. I think I need to develop my networking within each ite before I see a discernible increase in their effectiveness.
I just submit my posts to digg no matter what...then i give a shout to my friends to get them to digg it...a lot of people don't visit the site but still digg it... anyways, submitting to digg is always good because sometimes the digg submissions appear on google (in the first page) and that gets you traffic as well.
see I don't have any friends and the ones I do (webmaster types), I feel like I am bugging them too much if I ask too often. BUT they are always happy to oblige . I think I just need to pick my spots, make sure when I have a super good subject, then digg city