14 Ways to Promote Your Blog & Get Traffic

There are many different methods that can be used in promoting your site & getting more traffic. Below is 14 of the methods that have worked for me thus far.

1. Find your Niche & Target Audience – It’s very easy to lose focus & go too many different directions. My original idea changed from great resources & humor to focusing on great resources. 100 Useful Niche Search Engines

2. Use a Visually Appealing Design – Use a design that works for you and your audience.
15 Cool Sites for Free Custom Blog Templates & Logo Generator

3. Submit Your Site to Search Engines & Directories - This will help you build authority
Add URL – Direct Links to Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc.
Top 55 Best Blog Directories & RSS Submission Sites

4. Ping directories after each post – This will ensure each catch your newest entries.
PingMyBlog

5. Get a Technorati Account & Submit your Blog – Technorati is kind of like Google for Blogs. Learn more about Technorati.

6. Add “Related Posts” & “Popular Posts” – To get more page views & offer more content to the reader, you can add a “Related Posts” section below your article with your links. You can also add a Popular Posts section on your site to give easy access to your best or most popular work.

7. Don’t copy & paste entire articles – This can really upset an author who may have spent hours or days to complete the post. Instead, you’ll find yourself more trustworthy by simply posting a small sample or excerpt & linking to the actual article to give credit.

8. Use Social Networking & Bookmarking Sites – Digg, Stumbled Upon, Reddit, Propeller , Delicious, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, LinkedIn & many other sites can bring traffic to your site. To open networking with others, add a social networking badge to your site.
8 All-In-One Social Networking Badges

9. Add Badges to Your Site – Make it easier for readers to submit or bookmark your content. Here are a few buttons & tools.
Stumbled Upon
Digg Badges
Delicious Badges
Twitter Resources
Reddit Buttons

10. Get Involved – Rather than just submitted articles, you’ll most likely fail if you don’t also involve yourself in the communities of Digg, Stumbled Upon, etc. Find other sites in your niche as well and take the time to comment. Many blogs who you support by getting involved will support you as well. You can also further network with sites like LinkedIn.

11. Add RSS Feeds to Your Site – RSS offers your readers additional ways to read your content. I use Feedburner Pro & it’s tools to enable my readers to get my content by e-mail or their choosing. My Eazy Cheezy widget, subscribe to this via feed or email & my headliner below were all created from Feedburner.

↑ Grab this Headline Animator

12. Use effective keyword tags - Using effective tags will help your site appear when others perform keyword searches in Google, Yahoo, etc.
Google AdWords Keyword Tool – This tool will give you some effective keyword ideas to use

13. Promote your Blog – Add your link, widget or RSS Feed (as appropriate) to your e-mail & message board signature blocks and RSS or widget to social networking sites. Just insure you follow message board policies & don’t do this in a spammy way. If you can use your link or logo in your signature block, it can bring you more hits.

14. Add Alexa Toolbar – If you are into Alexa Rankings, add an Alexa Toolbar & read more information Alexa Overview & Utilities.

These are just a few tips of the many different methods you can use. There are also several SEO techniques as well. Do you have any tips to add? I’d love to hear from you.