How to build repeat traffic to your blog.
I originally started writing this post as ways to get more traffic to your domain name blog. But it really applies to any type of blog. The message is that you need to think about growing your blog traffic over the long term, and that requires trust. I often see people try to get ‘quick hits’ of traffic by misleading their readers. But getting long term traffic involves building trust with your readers. Here are ten ways to do that.
1. Be accurate - we all make mistakes, and I’ve made plenty here on Domain Name Wire. The goal is to limit stupid mistakes. These are usually caused by a) not knowing your subject matter or b) writing in haste without checking your sources. Just yesterday I came across a domain blog posting that was basically 100% inaccurate. When someone reads that and realizes it’s inaccurate, you lose all of the trust you’ve built up. Reader lost.
2. Don’t write the headline only for the click - this is especially true in the domain name world since many blogs get a lot of their traffic from Domaining.com. I admit I sometimes write sensational headlines, but some blogs write only click-grabbing headlines and the content it leads to is only loosely tied to the headline. In the domain industry, I often see people use people’s names (e.g. Schilling) as attention grabbers, when the article has little to do with that person.
3. Be concise - if you can write something in one sentence, stop at one sentence.
4. Give credit - it’s tempting to act like you know your stuff and came up with that story on your own. But if you learned about it from someone else, you should link to the source. The source you link to will recognize you, and probably start following your blog. If it’s a tip from a reader, ask them if they’d like a “hat tip” in the post.
5. Use Twitter - if you haven’t linked your blog to Twitter, you need to do so ASAP. It’s a great (and easy) way to get traffic.
6. Look at the right analytics - with blogs, a lot of data in your log files is just noise. There are so many scrapers out there, plus RSS calls, that most of the traffic isn’t really traffic. My webalizer stats show 1.3 million page views last month. That’s inaccurate and not helpful. Use something like Google Analytics. It will undercount your traffic a little bit, but is still a better picture.
6. Use search box analytics - what are your readers looking for? Sure, you know what keywords they clicked to find your blog. But what are they searching for when they actually arrive on your site? Implement Google Analytics ’site search’ data to see what words people are typing into your search box. (You do have a search box on your site, right?)
7. Watch real time traffic with Woopra - most web site analytics programs are good for seeing what happened yesterday or last month. But what about right now? Try Woopra. It’s killer. Here’s how I use it.
8. Use full feeds - it’s tempting to only authorize partial feeds for RSS readers. After all, if they see only part of my feed they have to click over to my site to read the full thing, increasing my traffic, right? Sure, but you won’t get as many loyal readers. Blogs that only post partial feeds often don’t get enough across to the reader to show them that an article is interesting. So these feeds often get dropped from RSS readers. Look, all the biggest blogs use full feeds. Are they just stupid?
On the down side, you will find a lot more sites scraping your full articles if you have full RSS feeds. But you can always monetize your feeds.
9. Get more RSS readers - if there’s one metric that will drive your long term traffic more than anything else, it’s RSS readers. To get more readers you need to a) offer full feeds (see #8) and b) have an RSS button prominent on your site. Oh, and write good content so people want to subscribe.
To get a decent measure of your number of subscribers, you can check log files which sometimes report them. But the best proxy is the data Google gives you at Google.com/webmasters. (By the way, those Feedburner numbers are bogus and pointless.)
10. Don’t post just for the sake of posting - some people feel compelled to post even when they have nothing to say. If your readers find some of your posts of little value, they will eventually stop reading.
11. Proofread your posts - I make spelling and grammar errors in my articles. In fact, I’m sure there are a few in this one. But what annoys me is when someone clearly didn’t even take the time to read their post before they hit ‘publish’. If you have sentences that disappear in the middle, an incoherent structure, or dozens of spelling errors, I start to lost interest.
So there you have it. I’m sure I’ll think of many more tips, but these eleven are ones I strive to live by.
© DomainNameWire.com 2009.
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