Getting Traffic & ‘Genuine’ Readers for your Blog

1. Friends & Family Members - Yes , these people are very important in your life , but they’ll be your biggest asset , your viewers. Just let them know that you have started your own blog and just spread the word around. Maybe to get their attention blog bout something , lets say your friend - David loves to eat Chinese Food , then blog about something on Chinese Food with his picture. It will make him to say WOW and he’ll continue to read your blog everyday (or worst - every fortnight/week - Just make sure you have content). Now David will spread about your blog to his friends , and his friends will start to talk (suppose if you have some interesting stuff) to their friends and that is how you get your regular user base. I do have a couple of regular readers which includes mainly my close friends and family members. Get them to read and comment your blog , then move on from there

2. Blog Directory - Get it listed , this is important. I know nuffnang has their own innit for their glitterati members whereby these members can post on their blog entry and get some traffic. Its another way to pull readers as well. The other option is to register for Technorati or other Blog Directory Listing to get your blog listed. Don’t expect it to give you a lot of traffic , but at least do expect some traffic from. Oh yeah mybloglog is another good list to get listed and you get to have the cool ‘People who have visited my blog statistic’.

3. Visit Other Peoples Blog and exchange URLs - Found another fellow blogger who shares the same intrest as you. Read one of his/her post and comment on it. Just don’t post crazy comments like ‘Nice one’ , ‘Thanks man’ , ‘Nice blog’ , but post a constructive comment whereby he/she will thank you and who knows she or he will be your blog subscribe or a regular reader. You may even want to blog roll (i.e exchange links) with them. Just remember not to spam , otherwise you’ll be blacklisted by the blogger. Oh , just keep the spirit rolling. Just go to popular blogs and exchange - Don’t forget to spend some time in their blog as well

4. SEO (Search Engine Optimisations) & Collecting Demographics - As we all know that we can’t use the internet without a search engine. The probability of someone using a search engine a day is ~ 1 (Yes , 100% I would say - Uh okay this thing data is bit biased but you get the idea). But if we could optimise our blog so that it comes out in the top 50-100 on user searches , it would be great. If you have wondered how those crappy sites turn up first with crazy keywords and no content. Its simple - they just use the common keywords. You’ll have to come up with that. Anyhow , if you’re a Wordpress user like me , then please do check this two plugins , which I highly recommend for any Wordpress user - Google XML Sitemaps and WordPress.com Stats . Its very important as well to collect people demographics and what search queries and what are your popular posts. This is ideal for rojak (mix-content) blogs (and even some niche blogs). This way you’ll be blogging on topics that people love and at the same time your own topics too. Another great way to pull to lure more people to your site

5. Get listed in Search Directory - Usually you’ll get listed automatically as these softwares such as wordpress includes a tool to submit to Google automatically , but if you want to get listed in many search directories , then I would suggest you to try this site . I’ve used it before and I highly recommend anyone to do it as well. Get listed even in other search engine directories , which aren’t in English. This is ideal for blogs which are in bilingual (i.e English and French , Mandarin and English). So , yeah now the whole world can stalk you *evil laugh*

6. Forums & Instant Messengers & E-mails - Are you participating in any message boards ? If so , then do put your blog in your blog signatures or in your e-mail signature. So that you’ll get more visitors for your blog. But then most of them might not be interested , another way to grab their attention is by using Feed Burner , as we all know with Feed Burner we can create a dynamic (animated) signature that tells users on your latest blog entry and it increases the probability of them clicking and checking your blog out , rather then just including your URL. However , some forums prohibits on promoting your site , or the use of Dynamic Signatures. You’ll have to check with your message board rules before putting it up. As for Instant Messengers , just include your blog Address in ‘My Status’ or ‘What I am doing right now’. Its another great way of advertising your blog to your buddies. Might generate some traffic for you by doing this way