Bloggers come in three camps:
1. those who are terrified of having readers (this includes many of my college students!)
2. those who are actively searching for readers, and
3. those who are sincerely really writing for themselves (or their friends/family) and if readers come, they don’t really care.
Most people are in camp #2 especially if they’re trying to draw attention to their business, their brand, the goods and services they offer.
Lots of people charge big money to help you get traffic. Don’t do it! (Don’t pay people to get your twitter followers either. Here’s Peter Shankman on why.)
But what do you really need to do to get readers to come to your website to blog?
The following blog post from WordPress offers 12 great ideas. Some of these suggestions are specific to WordPress users, but many are not.
And of course what’s most important? You must have something worthwhile to say, you must say it regularly (at least once a week–Gary Vaynerchuck says at least daily!), and you must say it well! (If you’re on WordPress and you want some feedback on a draft, remember you can always request feedback from me! I’m a writing coach, remember, and that’s what I’m here for!)
While I do my best to post here at least once a week, I am also posting several times a week on my other blogs: Art Predator, Bikergo Gal, Compassionate Rebel, and Wine Predator. I’d love to follow Gary Vaynerchuk’s advice and blog daily every where but it’s just not possible. I used to post EVERYTHING on Art Predator (25-45 posts a month!) and periodically I consider going back to one blog meets all but this way people who have interests in one area can subscribe and just get those posts.
Tags: general, how to get readers for your blog, WordPress suggestions for more traffic
I’ve found on my blog that traffic isn’t consistent. It spikes when I write a piece that either a) really hits a nerve b) gets promoted by somebody big; sometimes out of the blue.
I wrote and posted a couple pieces a week for four months and never got more than 250 views in a day and usually got less than 100. Then one day I write a piece, check my site 8 hours later to find I have 5,000 views! Since then my daily traffic is up in the 5-600 views per day, higher than before with the occasional spike. Internet traffic is often exponential and mysterious. The piece I wrote that ended up getting 10,000+ views in a couple days? I wrote it in 20 minutes and never thought twice about until I saw the traffic it was getting.
It’s important to do everything you can to encourage traffic. It’s equally important to have a little patience. You aren’t all that and bag of chips just because you decided to start a blog. Use your first few months to sharpen your writing, get to know wordpress dashboard, make some mistakes and position yourself for success down the road.