Posted: 1:27 am by tom in
Blog,
Blogging
Apologies for not posting earlier today, the first day back at university is always very hectic. Rest assured though that I will still be updating daily with great content for aspiring bloggers, designers and entrepreneurs!
This post will focus on how to achieve maximum traffic and exposure without needing to increase your posting frequency or even quality. The idea is simply to learn from your previous successes and the successes of others. In other words, learn to write about what people want to read. This may sound very simple but it takes effort to maximize your posting to success ratio.
The following tips should help you to become a more accomplished blogger:
1. Always take the time to monitor your comments. Which posts are receiving the most? Which are receiving the best feedback? Try to imitate the style and format of these successful posts.
2. Website statistics are invaluable. Your websites statistics are the perfect tool to tell you what works best with your writing. Monitor which posts receive the most views, which get submitted to social networking websites and which receive the most backlinks. A quick way to do this is to view your ‘entry pages’ which will show you the posts with the most incoming links.
3. Ask your readers for feedback. It never hurts to ask your loyal readers for direct feedback. Try asking them which are their favorite posts via a blog entry, or alternatively run a poll in your sidebar. You can also try to ask which topics they would like to see you blogging about in the future.
4. Follow trends on other websites. This is a great way to see real life examples of what works. Frequently check out other bloggers successful posts and try to figure out what makes them so popular. Focus on social networking websites such as Digg and see what kind of stories consistently make the front page.
5. Help people. Even in the early stages of this blog I can see what works and what doesn’t. As much as I would love to blog about my personal thoughts on life and the internet these are not the posts that get large exposure. People love to be helped, and this should be your main focus from your post title onwards. ‘10 Ways to Make Money Online’ make seem like a cliche of a title but will undoubtedly receive more traffic than ‘How I could afford my new computer’. People like simple, straightforward methods to achieve what they want. Your title should summarize your entire post, and your post should be concise and informative.
I read on another blog that angling your topics with a negative perspective can massively help to boost your readership.
I.e. instead of ‘10 things to achieve success’ write ‘10 ways to really screw up’
Hehe I dunno, maybe it depends on the mindset of those people reading your blog posts.
Also it’s worth putting in more effort producing well researched and interesting articles than quickly produced ones I think. Quality of quantity to separate yourself from the masses of spammers out there.
Finally I would suggest a good, interesting and well thought out use of the English language, try and avoid typos and use imaginative language. Pepper your copy with keywords now and then if you’re into SEO.
(ps. I’m not great at spelling so if you spotted one then, lol)
Thanks for the tips Tom. That is interesting about taking a different perspective, and is something that I’ll definitely try. Also I wasn’t trying to post what’s been said before, I do like to produce unique/quality content - however I was merely suggesting to write with a wide and captive audience in mind to ensure success.