How to Get Blog Traffic

As readers of a writing blog, most of you are writers yourselves. And as savvy, modern writers, you know that a crucial first step in establishing yourself is creating a "platform," a place where you build your "brand" and find a small-but-hopefully-devoted "audience." (You'll notice I start overusing "quotation marks" when I start talking about the "marketing" side of writing, because I like to think of myself as too "artistic" to worry about things like "market research" even though I can't actually get away with doing that.) So you know that blogging is a great first step towards being recognized as a writer.

Wait, what? I haven't talked AT ALL about any of that, despite this supposedly being an advice blog for writers? 

Whoops.

Oh well. You're pretty smart anyway, so I'm going to assume you figured that out.

So, assuming you have started establishing a blog, here are my top 5 tips for getting more views for any post. Before I list them, let me say that these are unprofessional, unproven, anecdotal tips I've gleaned from my own experience. There are more useful, more detailed posts on this topic, which I will link below as a reward for you slogging through my list.

5. Know your subject.

This is pretty basic, but crucial. I started several blogs before this one, but they all failed because I had no focus, no intended audience, and no clear picture of what I even wanted to write about. Your blog can be about pretty much anything. No matter what the subject, you're writing; that makes it good writing experience. Just make sure it's something you understand, and about which you have things to say!

4. Add pictures. 

Every one of my posts which has included a picture has gotten at least 20% more views. People are visual, even reader-people, and everyone likes a nice image every now and then to break up blocks of text.

3. Know your competition

Before your write a post on a topic, google that topic. See what else is out there. Who else in the blogosphere is writing about that subject? What do they have to say? What can you say that is new, fresh, or original? For example, because I did my research, I know that there are pages of awesome advice about this topic, already--but I also know that nobody was saying quite what I wanted to say about it. This also creates a great lead-in to number 2, which is

2. Be a community member

This is probably the biggest thing I need to work on! When you find those bloggers writing about similar things to you, whose voices you appreciate and whose opinions you enjoy reading, don't see them as competition; see them as a member of your community. Read and comment on other people's blogs that interest you! This will make you feel more a part of the community, as well as possibly direct readers of that blog back to your blog (bonus!) Remember that artists, historically, succeed together. To read more about this, check out the awesome philosophy of the Story Cartel site.

1. Be consistent.

Ouch. Ok, I take it back, this is my biggest downfall. In order to grow an audience and get consistent views, you have to post regularly. Daily is best, but at least twice a week is the minimum, I'd say. When people know they can depend on you to have something new up regularly, they'll be much more likely to come back. 

Alrighty! Those are my tips. If you want to read more on the subject, from people a *little* more qualified than I am to advise, check out these links:

Forbes' list of 14 ways to get your blog noticed

Financial blogger with practical advice

Succinct, varied list of ideas

There is a lot more advice out there on the topic, but I trust you smart cookies. You know to work the Google.

Check back tomorrow for a new post! Which I will post! In a consistent fashion!