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Being in the same lucky position just recently, I was asked by many readers, if there are any tips and tricks to share.
Okay, here we go. I started out as a true-blue beginner to blogging, just learning things along the way. It’s truly amazing, what one can learn in a very short time about webpages, blogging and improving traffic and visitor numbers.
So you definitely have the potential to beat those numbers easily. Just try to follow some of the tips below and avoid my initial mistakes. Most things are about Google Optimization and Self Promotion of your Site:
I must admit though, that most things are pretty time-consuming, but will pay off in the long run. Others you just have to set up once and your site will benefit over its whole lifespan.
Without any further ado, here are my own learnings from the last 11 months in the form of 20 basic tips and tricks:
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1. Chose a niche for your blog, that is not a ‘me-too’, but still large enough to be interesting for a lot of people. Write about something that really interests you and where really your heart blood is. Still write about as many related things as possible to diversify the reasons (read: searches) visitors would come to your site.
2. Using an own Domain name instead of a mere mynewblog.blogspot.com site is a good way to start. People will take you much more seriously and you will rank soon higher in Google’s Search, especially at the start, when your site still has lower numbers of visitors.
3. Find a good Hosting Provider (I started with Dreamhost.com, but there are legions out there) and run a professional blogging software (like WordPress) instead of recreating your site painfully with Frontpage or Dream Weaver, Netscape Composer for every post you make.
4. Use Google Sitemaps for getting your pages indexed faster with Google.
5. Use Google and Alexa Toolbar to monitor your PageRank, to automatically submit additional usage information to Google and increase your Alexa Rankings (important, if you want to place advertising, like TextLinksAds on your site) over time.
6. Use Google Analytics to monitor your stats and to learn what your readers like and what not. React and adjust on those findings.
7. Try to optimize your site for Search Engines, aka SEO (Search Engine Optimization), about this topic alone there are millions of sites on the net. Just Google for it, read, learn and apply.
8. Avoid duplicate and copied content, as it decreases your PageRank and Standing with Google.
9. Write “keyword-rich” in your posts, that means use plenty of words in your posts, which your potential readers might look and search for on the internet. As your posts get indexed by Google, your articles will be easier to find and – as your Ranking with Google improves – people will find your site easier than those of your competitors in your niche.
10. Write interesting and eye-catching headlines. That is a basic trick from newspaper journalism and it works as well in the big wide Online World. Readers who ‘scan’ the net (i.e Search Results, Portals or Forum Headlines) usually go for the more interesting-sounding stuff.
11. Write original, interesting and unique content. This is the most difficult one and the one I’m struggling the most with as well. It’s not easy to come up with an interesting subject every day. Good things need time. So don’t write every day, as it will reduce your overall post quality and might put of recurring readers. Try harder! We live in a world of information overflow. Nobody wants to read that you just drank a beer, were reading the newspaper or watching the birds picking in your front yard (except your site is about beer or bird watching) 
12. Try to write controversial posts, as controversy attracts usually more readers than plain same-old, same-old articles.
13. Promote your site by taking part in Blogcarnivals (e.g. via Blogcarnival.com), as it brings you external links and new readers.
14. Comment extensively on other websites in your niche, but outside your niche as well. Not only is it fun to get engaged in discussions, but people will click and come to your site as well, if your comment is interesting. Answer the questions and comments of your own readers as soon as they pop up (I know: I have to work on that some more).
15. Apply a ‘do-follow’ plugin for comments at your own site, to allow your readers a link back (‘link love’) to their site. Initially comments after articles only get a ‘no-follow’ attribute, so Search Engines wouldn’t naturally follow up on them. A ‘do-follow’ plugin removes that attribute. (Wording corrected, thanks to MerDuriaN and Digitalnomad)
16. Get active in writing in Internet Forums, which are related to your site’s topic. Don’t just publish useless posts there for the ‘sake of spreading the word’. Follow discussions that interest you. Put value in your own forum posts as well! Try to answer people’s questions with serious and valuable content. Get engaged in discussions, make your opinion heard. I write for instance in several travel-related forums. Use a link to your website in your forum signature for better referral.
17. Use Social Networking sites to bookmark and publish your articles yourself. The most popular ones are currently Digg.com, Netscape.com (now called Propeller) and Reddit.com. But there might be others for your niche or topic. Publishing your articles yourself is not selfish! This way you can influence the teaser content and appearance of your article in Social Networks. Check out these page here to get an idea what’s out there. But please, don’t just spam those sites with all of your posts. Use your best posts only. The users there will otherwise vote you down or simply put you on an ignore/block mode. Internet is a global tool, which is on 24 hours and your audience might live in a different timezone than you. Monitor your favorite Social Networking sites for similar topics you have – and time them -> by posting your article at that time, when your potential readers and your usual audience are up and voting. Good timing really works!
18. Use Social Networking sites and Internet Forums not only to publish your articles! Make new friends there. It’s about ‘Connecting people’. Not about Nokia. Read, learn about the latest Buzz which could help you with your sites. Ask for help, if you face troubles with your site or niche topic. Help other people relentlessly to solve their problems. Maintain your Profiles in Social Media with Links, Info and Picture referral to your own website. Connect there and bring traffic back. I prefer Mybloglog.com and several Travel Forums to connect with other fellow travelers and build a Social Network of like-minded people.
19. You could guest-write for other blogs or sites as well, usually leaving a link and reference back to your main site, thus getting more traffic from the other site. Just make sure, that you don’t just copy an old article from your site, as Google punishes duplicate content with lower Pagerank – read: no good. If you are interested to write a travel article for my site, please get in contact with me. If there is value and a fit, I will introduce you with a picture and link back to you, thus bringing some of my currently 300-500 visitors per day back to you.
20. Try to continuously improving your site for recurring and one-off readers by offering Subscriptions Services, Related Posts, Most Interesting Posts, Translation Service for other languages. Reduce and simplify your site, when things go out of hand over time. The more you learn about Blogs and Webdesign, the more naturally you want to try out and will add to your site. What looks good for you at the start, can be a turn off for your readers. Your content is most important for them, not the little widgets and gadgets you fall in love with so easily. Monitor what works and take off things that don’t bring you additional traffic or are seldom used by your readers. Make navigation as easy as possible and try to de-clutter your site whenever possible. Tell me about it! Way to go.
After you set up your site and keep posting regularly – it’s all about Self-Promotion of your site. Come up with creative ways to promote your site (there are many: e.g. press releases, website logo stickers, contests, adding a signature with your site link to your e-mails and other things) and your visitor numbers will increase faster than Roadrunner would escape from Wile E. Coyote.
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Do you have additional, other or more unconventional ways to boost your visitor numbers or site traffic?
Please share them here!
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November 13th, 2007 at 12:58 am
Great tips :D . I love sites who really can help me up. cheers!
November 13th, 2007 at 3:51 pm
Thanks – its nice to know I’m on the right track – I just have to keep going – BTW how do you get the cute flag to appear against commentators names?
November 14th, 2007 at 12:31 am
Your’re right. Having own domain definitely will make visitors remember your doamin easier when they doesn’t subscribe your feeds. The only tips that i still don’t understand is no-follow plugin
I thought do-follow will be greater than no-follow?
November 14th, 2007 at 3:34 am
Excellent tips, Chris. It just goes to show what you can achieve if you put your mind to it! But 100,000 visitors in 8 months? Jeez, that’s crazy… I sometimes think I’ve got more chance of giving birth than reaching 100,000! haha
Nice one.
Nath
November 14th, 2007 at 9:33 am
Chris…I agree with Merdurian. I am thinking you really meant “do follow”.
Here is my tip. Write competent Pillar Articles for submission to article directories. I think it builds better traffic than just posting to your blog.
November 14th, 2007 at 11:36 am
Great tips! I might work out with my site based on your pointers if I would like to bring much traffic. But then, there must be lots of things to be done :D
November 14th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
Oops – my bad! Of course MerDuriaN and Digitalnomad – you are right! It should be ‘do-follow’ and not ‘no-follow’. I corrected that in the article.
Thanks for the thumbs up from Rhyan and Nath. Dodong is right as well (as usual) that there are plenty of other things to do, to bring a site up and maintain it. And it IS usually pretty time-consuming but rewarding as well.
Lissie, the flags come via a neat WordPress Plugin “Easy IP2Country”, which filters out the country from the IP range you use. It is sometimes wrong however, for instance when I use a trackback from another article, it assumes I sit in the US (where only my site is hosted). When I comment, it get’s it right then.
As well, when you use a big ISP (like AOL or T-Online) in a different country, it sometimes only shows the origin country of the ISP. But besides those minor flaws it really works quite well.
November 14th, 2007 at 4:07 pm
Great tips. thanks for sharing.
November 15th, 2007 at 4:51 am
Very quality information. And congrats on the feat! Keep up the great content and I for one will continue coming back.
November 15th, 2007 at 5:08 am
Great tips Chris,
I do the same too and now my visitor its around 11k – 12k/day based extreme tracking stats. I start this website since 3 months ago. And i have plan to get my 20k/day visitor in the end of this month. And i hope i can get 50k/day visitor or more on my birthday(june) (lol..).
keep posting great articles Chris..
Cheers,
Dexno
http://www.dexno.com
November 15th, 2007 at 10:27 am
To Dexno-
Those are some crazy numbers. I wish I could read your blog.
November 15th, 2007 at 2:20 pm
@Digitalnomad
Those number its not from my blog, but from my website, you can check http://www.iklanfun.com , iklanfun is a web service who you can post your press release, text ads.. so you can get more backlink there. Many visitors put their ads there.. i have plan to move that website to dedicated server if the number increase to 20k/day because i already got warn from my provider because of cpu high load (lol.. ) :P
My blog is here : http://www.dexno.com
Cheers,
Dexno
http://www.dexno.com
November 15th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
Dexno – those are truly impressive, if not outright fantastic numbers! I’m really ashamed giving tips here, when – compared to your site – achieving only a mere dwarfed version.
What is your secret or what do you think is the reason for your explosion in numbers in just 3 months?
Dare to share?
November 15th, 2007 at 6:24 pm
@Chris
Don’t be like that Chris, i really like all your articles..
I think no secret there, i do just what people do.. but i add some technique there.
1. I digg my website and the result, in just 30 minutes my site got index by Google! lol..
2. I already have few sites, that some who already have good pagerank. So i put link to my new site.
3. I do grey SEO technique. i use free blog service and create few dummy blog there. I put articles there, and i put also backlink to my new site. Its a grey SEO technique, when some people think what i do its suck! but i think iam not againts the TOS actually.. The point is you have many backlink to your new site. it can increase your position in SE.. But remember dont create many backlink in short time because SE will think you’re spammer.. hihihi..
4. Keep comment to another bloggers, give good comment and the visitors will follow your url..
Simple ya? :D nothing special.. only “nasi goreng special pakai telor” i like.. humm yummy.. lol..
November 16th, 2007 at 6:07 am
Chris, your tips are spot on, and the additional ones too. I tend to stay away from the ‘grey’ SEO areas myself, just in case. But everything else goes.
I recently got a surge in traffic through Stumble Upon, several hundred extra visitors a day. Problem is that these numbers don’t stick. You get a spike and then it disappears. Still, not to be snubbed.
Here are a few additional tips you might try.
– write a press release based on some newsworthy information you’re publishing, and issue it through prweb.com
– get listed in directories – it may not build your traffic but it will boost your Google PR
– tag your photos and videos properly – it will help the search engines find you
– use Craigslist to promote your site
– and finally, post answers at Yahoo Answers in your area of expertise
November 20th, 2007 at 7:00 pm
I found writing pithy UNIX HOWTOs to be an effective traffic generator.
Frankly speaking, my traffic numbers from Sept 06 thru Feb 07 were quite dismal. I almost threw in the towel in January. Then after about 5.5 months, I noticed my traffic increasing substantially. I’ve never had much success with SU, digg or any other social site. The key for me IMHO: related blogs linking back to my posts over time – plain and simple.
The downside to my selected niche…it’s fairly small. I think the pure-play Linux blogs are doing better because the potential is greater.
November 22nd, 2007 at 7:20 pm
Iklan Baris Gratis, either way – I think that we all can learn a lot from you! That’s what the internet is good for anyway, right? It would be great to know more about those ‘grey’ areas, but I truly understand that it might be too much to write here.
@Scribetrotter, thanks for your additional tips! I will try the Craigslist and Yahoo Answers, as I wasn’t aware of them.
@esofthub – wow! That is truly a unique way of achieving more traffic. Unfortunately I don’t have any indepth knowledge here, so guess it’s off for me. I had similar difficulties at first with the small niche. But expanding the content to related areas helped a lot.
November 23rd, 2007 at 11:21 am
Hi Chris,
Very nice posting and good help for newbie like me, one more question, do you really think that authoring many blogs and criss-cross the link also help or just another way to get yourself tired keeping your blogs actively alive? cheers bro…
November 23rd, 2007 at 1:24 pm
There are surely different opinions about this. While it works for many (see Iklan Baris’ comment above) I was so far maybe too lazy to try all these things at once. I can currently only author one blog with the quality I want, without facing mental exhaustion, getting writers blockage or investing too much of my precious time. ;)
There is not doubt about though, that the more inbound links you can generate, the more traffic you will get and the higher your ranking will be. So if you have the time – why not going for it? :D
November 23rd, 2007 at 1:49 pm
yup sure, as we both live in Bali, there are quiet out-door activities to do instead of just spending hours and hours over the comp. monitor…let’s get bintang bro
November 26th, 2007 at 1:46 pm
This is one of the most comprehensive How-to-get-Visitors entry that i have ever read.
Thanks.
November 26th, 2007 at 8:09 pm
Chris,
I agree with you about expanding to related material. It will help. I’m also moving the blog to a website (domain name) because some countries are blocking blogs. Unfortunately, I will take a SERPs hit in the short-term by changing the URL.
December 3rd, 2007 at 7:20 pm
Nice tips Chris. well i will try it out with my sites.
December 5th, 2007 at 6:27 am
These are great tips, Chris! I was supposed to be focusing on getting my blog in tip-top shape when I was in Bali, but bdh is right that there’s just too much to do there as you know.
Now I’m trying to write as many posts as possible about my trip, so I’m again letting the “optimization” lag. There’s never enough time in the day to get it all done. But if these are life’s worst problems for me, I guess I’ll try to cope ;)
December 8th, 2007 at 12:45 am
Wow, these are fab tips!
I just need to get my head around social bookmarking sites.
Will definitely be referencing this one =D> :D
December 8th, 2007 at 11:15 pm
Thanks to all of you for all the thumbs up and additional tips. Feels really good! :D
December 16th, 2007 at 7:45 am
Chris-
Don’t forget the other booking services…too many to list here, but like Stumble, there is Furl, Delicious, Propeller, Reddit, etc.
December 16th, 2007 at 7:46 am
I meant “bookmarking”, not booking. Ha
December 16th, 2007 at 8:58 pm
Yep, you are right. Tip 17, just follow the link for most of them. How many beer did you have today, digitalnomad? :))
December 21st, 2007 at 3:23 am
This is a fantastic bunch of tips and I must say that I love your blog and it is thanks to one of your tips that I found it.
I was reading the Ding Dong article over at Copyblogger and saw your link in your comment (no-follow’d I guess) click over to here and find your post.
Great tips for a great blog
December 21st, 2007 at 6:36 pm
Thanks for the compliments – you are most welcome, Internet Business Blogger! ;)
December 27th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
I’ve been trying to get my head around SEO, social bookmarking and online networking. This list is comprehensive, practical and written in a way that non-techies (like me) can understand. Thank you for sharing!
December 27th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
[…] creation, I was asked to write down some ways on how nomad4ever got there. The resulting article 20 tips to get 100.000 visitors in just 11 months was the best received article in November and had around 20+ comments with additional tips from you […]