1. Be active in Forums and use a Forum Signature including a link to your Blog.
Don’t try to spam forums just to get a link to your blog… you need to contribute great content and help others in the forum, then they will regard you as an expert and visit your Blog more likely.
2. Submit your blog to Blog Directories.
Search on google for the biggest Blog Directories and submit your blog there manually. Aim to get listed in at least 10 good directories.
20 Essential Blog Directories
3. Submit your RSS Feed to Feed Directories.
You can use automated or semi-automated software to do this or you can do it manually just like you did with the Blog Directories.
RSS Directories
4. Claim your Blog at Technorati.
Get an account at Technorati and claim your blog there. Tehcnorati is a must use for every serious blogger.
5. Cross Link with other Blog Owners.
Your blog has a Blogroll… so you can exchange links with other bloggers in your niche on your blogroll.
6. Bookmark your Blog posts.
Go to SocialPoster and bookmark your best blog posts.
7. Distribute articles including the “About the Author” part with a link to your Blog.
You can use the ISnare article distribution service to get your article listed in hundreds of article directories. They also submit your article to many newsletter publishers. This strategy alone can create a huge viral constant flow of traffic to your blog.
8. Create an account at MyBlogLog and use their Widget on your blog.
MyBlogLog is a social community. You can get a constant flow of traffic through them by making friends with other bloggers and building your community.
9. Post useful Comments on other Blogs.
Don’t leave short comments like “hey I like your post”… rather write long comments and start a discussion… Blogs are made for people to interact.
10. Use Ping Services
Wordpress automatically pings when you make a new post but you can improve this automated Ping service by using the MBP-Ping-Optimzer and an improved list of ping services.
11. TrackBack other Blogs.
Link to other Blogs in your posts and send them a trackback. Before you do so make sure that their blog accepts trackbacks. Sometimes you can do a PingBack instead of a TrackBack.
12. Notify your opt-in list subscribers about your latest blog posts.
Of course you should have an opt-in list on your blog to catch the name and email address from your readers. Make sure you send them a message when you have new content on your blog. The best visitors are returning visitors!
13. Have a Signature with a link to your Blog in every email you send out with any email program.
That’s something many people don’t do… they miss out on a lot of traffic. Even if you answer just a support question or communicate with your friends, always have your Blog URL at the end of the emails (better would be your contact information plus all your main blogs and websites urls)
14. Create and distribute viral ebooks that include a link to your Blog.
You can write 20 pages short reports or ebooks and make them viral by letting other people give it away for free. Include your blog url throughout these viral reports and you’ll soon get tons of viral traffic.
15. Build a Squidoo Lense and put a link to your Blog on that.
Squidoo pages are great to get 1-way links to your blog. Google loves Squidoo Pages and often you are ranked within the Top 10 for long-tail keywords. That means you’ll get direct traffic to your Squidoo lense and a part of that traffic will follow the links to your Blog.
16. Build a Hub Page and put a link to your Blog on that.
Same here as the Squidoo Lenses.
17. Create and distribute a video, include a link to your Blog in this video.
People love to watch videos and they love to share videos. If you are good, then your video might go viral and you’ll get lots of visitors to your blog. You should have a short URL that people can remember and type into their browser bar.
18. Create an account at social pages like MySpace or Facebook - put a link to your Blog into your Profile.
I guess you know what social marketing is… send some of that traffic to your Blog to build up a loyal readership.
19. Signup for EntreCard and add their widget to your Blog.
Entrecard can be a huge source of traffic but you need to invest about 10 minutes each day to be active and drop some cards.
20. Register your Blog at BlogCatalog and put their widget on your Blog.
Your blog simply must be in the Blog Catalog. You can get a nice flow of traffic from them after a while.
21. Signup for BlogRush and put their widget on your Blog.
Blogrush is a no-brainer… I just wonder why there are not more services out there like this.
22. Submit a XML sitemap of your Blog to Google Webmasters
You don’t need to do that, but if you know that some of your pages are not spidered yet, then this will get them indexed pretty soon.
23. Provide good content on your Blog.
Duh!
24. Be the first one who publishes a newsworthy story.
O.K., it’s hard to be the very first one who publishes a big story… but there are smaller newsworthy stories, maybe even local stories depending on your niche.
25. Publish content on a regular basis.
Come on, one post per week is not much… better would be to post on a daily basis if you can do it.
26. Install the most important WordPress Plugins.
List of Plug Ins
27. Invite known experts in your niche to be Guest Writers for your Blog.
Start with “small” experts and then move up to the bigger ones. Many bloggers would love to get some extra exposure on your blog… once you have some visitors.
28. Be a Guest Writer on other Blogs.
If you have good content, then this is the best way to introduce yourself to your niche. Let people know you exist by being a guest writer on other people’s blog.
29. Include links to useful ressources in your blog posts.
I’ve just recently started to do this… I was always greedy on giving away free links… but you’ll see that it’s well worth it. Especially if you link to smaller blogs, then the owner will notice that and many will do a favour back.
30. Don’t have your Blog full of advertising.
Come on, you won’t make any real money from your blog before you don’t have 100+ visitors each day… so you can as well make your blog ad-free until you have that many visitors.
31. Start a Running Post, for example an experiment that lasts a week or a month.
This can bound many readers to your blog. Finish each post with a Big Question or a little pre-view on what’s coming next… that will leave them eager to read more and they will come back once you make the next post.
32. Publish your contact information on your Blog and your Picture.
Go public, don’t hide! People love to know who you are and what you do. A picture helps people to remember you… it’s called Branding!
33. Create an interactive Blog
Make sure people can comment on your blog, make sure they can subscribe to your RSS Feed, make sure they can leave trackbacks etc.
34. Write about stuff that is currently a Hot Topic in your niche.
You can use Google Alerts or other news sources to find the Hot Topics in your niche. Then enter the discussion with some controversity.
35. Research keywords and use long-tail keywords in the title and the first sentence of your posts.
Don’t try to rank in google for the term “internet marketing”… rather try to rank for “internet marketing explained for newbies” or some other long-tail keywords. Use Wordtracker to find keywords that have less than 100.000 competitors. Then use the keyword in your title and in the first sentence of your post.
36. Customize your Blog with a unique Header and Footer Image. Don’t use the Standard Layouts.
Here is a simple example… look at the header image of this blog… Will you remember it? Of course you will, at least better than most other headers… it’s unique and you don’t see a header like this anywhere… that’s again Brading!
37. Categorize your Blog correctly, make it easy for your readers to find the content they are looking for.
A good categorized blog looks professional and helps peole to find what they are looking for.
38. Use Credit Based Safelists
I know… some people will laugh about using safelists… but I’ve my tracking in place and I know the numbers… 20 Essential Blog Directories0 work, don’t let anybody tell you different!
39. Answer all questions that your readers send by email or leave as a comment.
Have a question? Post a comment and I’ll be happy to answer it… Don’t you like that?
40. Have your Blog URL on your Business Cards (off-line traffic)
Not really possible for everybody… but make sure you have business cards with your blog url on them when you go to internet marketing events or places where business people hang out.
41. Answer questions at Yahoo Answers
Yahoo Answers is a great place to establish yourself as an expert in your niche. That will have a branding effect.
42. Be Controversial
Be different, be unique, stand out of the crowd!
43. Install a Bookmarking Widget below each post so that your readers can easily bookmark your post.
See mine? If you like this list, go ahead and bookmark it!
44. Create a Link Bait
What’s a link bait you ask? Well, it’s what I’m doing or trying to do right here. I’ve invested about 3 hours into writing this post, I’ve done research, I’ve done the work… People appreciate that and naturally link to posts like this one. That’s called a Link Bait. Your content must be so good that people just want to tell others about it.
45. Build BackLinks
Back are just like your advertizing banner on the other websites, these help you in driving more traffic to your blog or website and also helps you to increases you page rank and your keywords rank in search engine.
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