How to Increase and Maintain Blog Traffic

Creating a busy, popular blog takes serious commitment, but it can be a lot of fun. The best start you could possibly make is to make a blog you're passionate about, because your enthusiasm will drive the concept. It'll also mean you enjoy the whole process. Try to get a clear vision of what you want - it will all alter along the way, but focus is always good.

The best blogs are eye-catching, but this can be achieved in more ways than by installing a complex design. In fact, if your content is going to contain a significant amount of images, the simpler and cleaner the background design the better. In many cases you can simply use a basic template and insert your own logo/header image. Change your design or your logo or whatever from time to time to keep readers interested.

A note to people using animated gifs and anything that blinks, scrolls or flashes on their blog; stop it.

Blogs with designs using more than two columns only really work well on widescreen computer displays. If you're going to use more than one sidebar or content column, bear that in mind and keep it all as uncluttered as possible. Consider putting your sidebar and navigation menu on the right hand side of your blog, because that's where most people's eyes go first.

Don't bother displaying your hit counter or any other statistics until they're impressive numbers. You can sign up for a hit counter and make any number you like the starting point, if you don't value your honesty and integrity.

Have at least one static page attached to your blog to give people general information about yourself, your blog or whatever is relevant. It's also a good idea to have a way for people to contact you. If you're worried about having your email address on display, you can add an email field to your blog so that mails will go directly to your inbox without your address being visible at all. Another good thing to have on static display is your link exchange policy - and the more blogs out there linking to you, the higher your blog's authority and ranking at places like Technorati.

Join Technorati and claim your blog immediately. Then look around and join every other blog directory and aggregator you can find. Google for directories specifically related to your country, your field of interest, your religion, anything. Don't underestimate the power of relatively small blog directories like SlogBite etc; if they're specific and well-used enough, they'll provide you with quality hits from people who are really interested.

Add your blog URL to your email signature, forum signatures, social networking profiles and anywhere else you can think of. Add it to any other web 2.0 application you can think of too; twitter, pownce, de.licio.us, dig, stumble ... and remember to add individual post links to those too. Add links/widgets for those applications to your blog and posts so that your readers can do the same. Some bloggers are even paying people to digg their posts, comment etc; see Amazon Turk for that kind of action. Be warned if you're thinking of trying earn money that way, those particular HITs are often scams.

Write guest posts for other blogs and websites. A lot of site owners are desperate for good, free content and are happy to allow you to promote your blog there in exchange. There are also blogs that review blogs and some of those ask you to volunteer your blog for review. You run the risk of getting a bad review, of course, but you will get some hits out of it.

Commenting on other blogs is a must. Keep your link visible or attached to your username so that the blog's owner can return your visit. If you become a regular visitor to another blog, you'll probably find you get to know other regular commenters there too and you'll form an informal community. Look for blogs related to yours somehow; if you have things in common, you could end up with some more loyal readers. Commenting on well-known, popular and celebrity blogs is another way to increase your own interaction and hits.

Speaking if interactivity, that's another great way to increase your blog's popularity and activity. Ask questions, ask for feedback, review things, interview people, conduct polls - anything you can think of. Make sure your RSS feed is enabled and visible - have an email subscription option too. You can get all that from places like Feedburner.

Sustain your activity. Try to post fairly regularly and if you're going to take a hiatus, blog and say so. Respond to all comments on your blog and where possible, repay the visit and comment on their blogs too.