What Is Your Number One Tip For Building Traffic to The Blog

Ok kids, I have a new question for you. What is your best tip for driving traffic to your blog?

Do you use try and make use of social networking sites like Digg and StumbleUpon?

Have you taken advantage of sites like AllTop?

Do you rely upon search engines?

Have you ever used a guy wearing a sandwich board or advertised on the side of an African Elephant?

Send in your tips and we'll send you some of our own.

15 comments:

Jewish Atheist said...

(Disclaimer: I only get around 200 hits a day.)

1) Comment frequently on popular and diverse blogs.

2) Be controversial.

The few times I've gotten linked to by big sites like Digg or Andrew Sullivan, the hits spiked for a day and then went away again.

Sarah Likes Green said...

what jewish atheist said: comment a lot on many other blogs.

Tzvee Zahavy said...

write good headlines with keywords that reflect the content of your post and then rely on google. make friends with other bloggers.

Chaya Bluma said...

I still don't have all that much traffic, but it has definitely increased after submitting my feed to niche aggregate sites and adding my url to my email signature that goes out to various listservs.

cruisin-mom said...

Jewish atheist, ONLY 200? Gosh I wish I had that! When I first started blogging, I went to everyone's site shamelessly plugging myself. I would get 15-30 comments a post. Then I stopped blogging for 6 months, came back, and now I'm lucky to get 5 comments from a few loyal readers. I won't lie...I love comments! But don't know a thing about Digg or sullivan, etc.

Anonymous said...

Haveil Havalim!!! Though I found that it was a short-lived burst in readership. But worth it anyway :)

Jacob Da Jew said...

Get some of the larger blogs to throw you a link once in a while.

Of course, commenting on other blogs.

Linking to other cool blogs. Like Jack :)

mother in israel said...

Slow and steady worked for me. Gradually I got linked by some popular blogs and websites. I get the most hits from those sites. I get about 400 hits a day when I have an active discussion going. And at one year, I had maybe 60. The best blogs are the ones that put you on top when you have a new post. I have to get one of those blogrolls.

Looking back, the best thing that I did was to nominate myself for a Weblog award. I was shocked to be chosen as a finalist, but things took off from there :). You never know.

Writing about a controversial mother of 12 who ends up getting arrested for child abuse drew a lot of traffic, but I don't know how many regular readers I got from that.

I haven't figured out how to use Digg, Stumbleupon etc. Maybe you can write a post about them.

And commenting helps a lot too.

Jack Steiner said...

JA,

I suppose that begs the question of what to do to improve stickiness of the blog. If you get a rush of traffic, what things that should be done to retain the new people.

Sarah,

I think that helps, especially if you are consistent about it.

Tzvee,

Good headlines can be more important than the content of the post.

Chaya Bluma,

Those are solid suggestions.

CM,

Sounds like you could do that again if you wanted to.

Rivster,

HH certainly helps.

Jacob,

:)

MII,

The Weblog awards always give me a bump in traffic. I usually retain a few new readers from that.

Dusk said...

I don't really know, but the few hits I get are from, indeed, commenting on other blogs. I went to my profile and clicked on my interest in" writing". A list popped up, and that's how I found YOU. You've been bookmarked by the way. Props.

Jack Steiner said...

Hi Dusk,

Welcome. Thanks for stopping by, I appreciate it.

Deadman said...

Post pics of naked women.

Oddly enough, a lot of hetero women like them too.

One Wink at a Time said...

I just click on new readers on my daily-read blogs. Like now. I leave some innocuous/provocative comment and pretty often, I get hit on ;-)
I'm kidding, I rarely do this. I'm just sitting here waiting for SNL to come on, killing time...
I don't "recruit" readers, I'm not really into expanding my readership. I'm not that ambitious. I can barely keep the readers I have entertained... Altho' when I first started blogging, I would utilize the "next blog" button and comment on interesting-looking blogs. I don't do that anymore, too much crap out there.
By the way, I saw you on Daily Piglet and I was jealous ;-P

Jack Steiner said...

Post pics of naked women.

I'll take that under consideration.

By the way, I saw you on Daily Piglet and I was jealous ;-P

Fame is fleeting. ;)

Batya said...

Try carnival hosting, nu. Like HH and KCC.

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