Blogs are all the rage and many tout the ability of WordPress to automatically ping various services that help get the blog listed in the search engines.
This is good if all you want is to see your blog in the search engines. But this doesn't help get more long-term traffic to your website. To get long-term traffic you do not want just one-time visitors seeing your website associated with a search phrase in a search engine.
Instead, you want repeat visitors. Getting repeat visitors to your blog is how you develop a relationship with them and entice them to buy your products or follow your affiliate links.
More importantly, repeat visitors are what drives sustainable - and valuable - traffic to your blog.
A repeat visitor is obviously more important to you than a one-time visitor.
So you do you get these repeat visitors?
First, and most obviously, have great content on your blog. How many times have your heard that content is king? It's true. Interesting information that draws readers back is a must.
If you don't have good content then, frankly, change your approach unless you are using the blog for another purpose such as blog and ping.
The purpose of this article isn't to discuss your writing skills. But keep in mind that it is not how often you post to your blog which is most important. The key factor is that when you do post you have something meaningful to say.
The easiest self-analysis you can do is to ask yourself - if I read this would I be inclined to read more posts, and to read new posts when they are made? If you would read it then it is likely that others also will.
The next thing you can do is include a Bookmark-it link on your site. This is a link that enable website visitors to include your website in the list of bookmarks stored by their web browser.
A quick Internet search will locate the sites you need that will show you how to create a bookmark url for your website.
The third tactic to take is overlooked by most bloggers, but is very powerful - include an email subscription box on your blog.
If you have a WordPress blog, this is a * must have * feature you need to take advantage of.
An email subscription box allows visitors to subscribe to your blog via email. This means they will be notified by email whenever you make a new post to your blog.
Almost all bloggers today rely on RSS subscription boxes to capture visitors. That is the wrong approach to take. I'm not saying that RSS subscription boxes should be removed - they should stay. But if that is what you are solely relying upon you are doing this wrong and missing out on getting the most repeat traffic to your blog.
The fact is that few people check an RSS feed service to get the latest news from their subscriptions. The potential for RSS is huge, but right now for this type of use RSS is mainly hype.
On the other hand, virtually everyone checks their email at least once day. If you're like me, email is constantly checked.
This is where you get the repeat traffic from subscribers - by giving them the option to subscribe via email to your blog.
The best service I have found for this is free and is called RSS Gecko. RSS Gecko is quickly inserted into a blog and it allows visitors to subscribe so they are notified when new blog posts are made.
Visitors are given a wide range of options for how the email is to be delivered to them. For you, the important fact is that they will automatically be notified whenever you have made a new blog post.
Including an email subscription box on your blog is an important traffic generating tool that you should use. |
