TIPS|| BLOGGING 101: HOW TO DRIVE TRAFFIC TO YOUR BLOG

As promised I will be occasionally writing blogging 101 posts and in most cases I will be answering questions from the comments left by you all.

A while back a few readers asked me how to drive traffic to their blogs and here I am with a post on that.

This topic reminds me of the question Eonline presenters asked nominees at the Emmy awards and the answer one of them gave.

Question: what is the secret to a great show/ what is the secret to the success to your show?

Answer: I don't know

Just like I also don't know the answer to how to drive traffic to your blog.

If I did know, I will be running at least ten more successful blogs in my several areas of interests.

However what I do know is what helps increase your traffic, increase loyalty and build readership and followership. 

Great and relevant content

Obviously before you go ahead to write or build great content, you must have created your niche.

Once that is done Research Research and Research more.

The more relevant the value of your contents are to your readers, the more they value what you have to say and the more they come back.

After all life is too busy for people to keep coming back when all you have to share with them is what they already know or what they don't want to know.

The ability to share contents that fall in between what they want to know, what they might know, what they should know, what they must know, what they already know and what they don't know is the ability to create the best content. 

Visiting and commenting on other blogs

If these were a face to face conversation, I would ask how you found my blog.

The most likely answer would be I left a comment on someone's blog and you followed the link.

It's important that you visit other blogs especially like blogs, comment and drop your blog address or link at the end like a signature and in that way build a chain of chance in which most people who view that post or comment after you might check your blog as well.

Going personal

I know empathy builds ties. So when you are personal and people can relate to what you write about on a personal note they are probably going to come back and build strong ties with you.

They might not be there everyday but they will remember to check up on you when they can.

Social media 

Social media is like radio, it's interactive, live and supports communication. 

Instagram, twitter, Facebook and so many social media sites and forum have successfully built a bridge that aids fast and direct interaction. 

What this means is that once you have gotten around to doing all these things listed above the need to engage your readers and friends on social media is important.

The life or lifestyle they see or read about can help build more trust and remind them that you have more on your blog. 

Also the randomness of social media means that anyone anywhere at anytime can find you and once they do there is a 90% chance that they will find your blog and once you share good catching and relevant content there is a 50% chance that they will read and become constant readers of your blog.

Think about it, how many times have you checked blogs just because you read there was a new or interesting post on the blog?

Networking

This is personally my weakest point when it comes to blogging, I hardly mention I'm a blogger to random people, family or close friends which in real sense is everyone I know.

People who know I blog probably know because of one of the above ways.

Networking however is key.

Going to events, meeting new people who are not in the same circle as yours can start a ripple effect.

Imagine going to  three events with your events essentials and talking to three people who haven't heard of your blog giving them your card and they check it out at brunch or lunch with three of their friends present and they like your outfit or tip and share it with the group and those people do the same with just one or two of their friends.

The effect on thus on your traffic will be a dream come true and yes it can happen.

After all word of mouth is the best form of PR.

Working with your Analytics

To be sincere I don't check my stats. I don't think it's important,  I blog for love and for passion and I understand that a brand won't come to me for business if they don't think I have something to offer them.

I also understand that I won't stop blogging just because my stats aren't great.

However that's me, if you are about that though and stats are important to you then you are obviously more logical than I am.

Once you sign up for Google analytics, or if you check your stats, it's important to check the posts with the highest views and check what you did differently in terms of topic, content and tactic.

You can write similar posts, update posts and even sequels to that post to help drive even more traffic to your blog.

Add Links / similar posts add ons to your blog

Adding links that take your readers from one post on your blog to another similar post is another way of aiding traffic on your blog.

Remember when we talked about creating a niche we talked about how it helps to create a chain of related posts. 

Linking old relevant posts in new posts can also help drive traffic and increase the chance of people seeing some of your older posts.

what do you do to drive traffic to your blog?

do you agree with my list?

any question?

YOU CAN READ MORE POSTS FROM THE BLOGGING 101 SERIES HERE.