A number of you have asked me how to increase traffic to your blog. Now I will candidly admit that I’m no expert on this, but I can share with confidence the following tips that will help you in this area:
1. Join Twitter, follow the people you know and like to read, and tweet your blog posts. I’m still amazed at how many people who use Facebook, read emails, but who aren’t on Twitter. Twitter is a microblog. If you’re a blogger, you shouldn’t be without it. It’s free to join. You can follow my tweets here.
2. Subscribe to other people’s blogs and make comments. These two go together. If you look at the blue text at the bottom of yesterday’s post, I talked about why you want to subscribe to the blogs you like. Case in point: Yesterday, many of you got free publicity for your blogs to thousands of readers because you read my post and commented. Now . . . there are many bloggers who regularly read my blog, but they didn’t see my post yesterday. Why? They haven’t subscribed yet. Making comments increases your blog’s visibility because you’re participating in the conversation.
3. Don’t make the mistake of blogging about random things, but find your passions and write about them. People are looking for information, insight, resources, encouragement, and content on a given topic. They are also looking for someone who has passion behind what they write about. For example, people who are interested only in technology or nutrition or politics won’t come to my blog. Because that’s not my specialty. On the other hand, those who are looking for a deeper walk with Jesus Christ, or who are interested in organic missional church, or God’s eternal purpose, or rethinking and challenging the Christian status quo frequent here. Will Rogers said, “Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects.” So don’t blog about what you’re ignorant about. On the other hand, every Christian is a leader in some sphere, intelligent on and passionate about some topic. So that’s what you want to focus your blog on.
4. Blog from 3 to 7 days a week, one post per day. The most popular bloggers post once a day (see my interview with Tim Challies in the Archives.) In this season of my life, I blog 3 times a week, sometimes 4. However, in the future, I plan to up that to 5 – 6 days a week. But that won’t be for awhile, so don’t get your heart medicine out just yet. 
5. Try to keep your posts between 300 and 800 words. Because I use this blog for re-publishing interviews and articles, I don’t always meet this standard. But you will get more readers if you keep your blogs within this word count.
There are more strategies of course, but this is getting too long already so I’ll leave it there.
Feel free to add to the list. And remember: don’t worry about the stats or the traffic numbers. If you blog for reasons that transcend those, you’ll be much better off.
Update: I highly recommend you get this powerful Twitter tool
See also Advice for Bloggers
Fantastic advice! I wouldn’t be able to survive the blogging world without Google Reader.
I’m not sure how people remember which blogs they like to read, and which ones they have ongoing comment conversations in without subscribing.
I plan to start a blog in the very near future and it is nice to have some advice from an experienced blogger before I begin to travel on the blogging road. Thank you very much.
i had stopped blogging for a while and got back to it. because of a fuller diary I wasn’t sure i’d be able to follow through… i got back to blogging by first committing myself to at least 3 tweets a day that had nothing to do with what i was having for breakfast etc.. and built it up from there… at the moment the target i’ve set for blogging is at least one blog post a week and will build it up to to…
the bottom line is, start with what you can manage and slowly build on that… thanks for sharing frank!
Here’s my comment. Click on my name and you will be taken to my blog: “Free Gas For Your Think Tank — A Blog From Nashville.” Thanks for the great pointers, Frank!
Also, don’t worry about traffic. Make content matter.
Thanks. Good post. Stay blessed…john
I love point 3 – find your passions and write about them. It’s so much more satisfying to read something when you can just tell that the writer loves what they’re writing about. I certainly can’t explain how to spot passionate writing but I bet we can all spot it!
Alright Frank, I only missed yesterday’s post because I was down with the flu. Back up and not-quite-running today… I’m an RSS subscriber. Don’t know how others keep up with blogs without some kind of feed.
yup, thank you for the tips they’re very sound. i’ve found that blogging is a lot more satisfying, too, if one keeps to one’s passion. And yes, shorter is better. I truly admire the ability to say much with few words.
Great points! I love to blog and I love to read others.
I love all your blogs, and I do try to read them all, whether it’s through the subscription, facebook, twitter, or just going to your website.
Good advice.
Re: Twitter, I love it. In fact, it’s just about the only way I read blogs. If the title interests me in someone’s tweet, I’ll go to it; otherwise, I keep moving.
Randy: good to have you here. I’d really encourage you to subscribe because if you rely on Twitter, you will miss a lot of posts. I don’t always tweet my posts either.
Thanks for the tips, Frank.
Mr. Viola – my husband forwarded me these suggestions last week and it was the push I needed to get serious about my blogging. I joined twitter immed. (will you follow me?) and have been scouring the internet for blogs I wish to read regularly and comment appropriately. Here’s the thing though, this takes time. More than I thought. To research who I want to follow and who I want to read and how to make Google reader work….it’s a lot, but nonetheless I am officially in! Thanks for the push!
http://www.stephaniesikorski.blogspot.com
As always I leave knowing much more after reading your blog.
Thanks for the tips. As one who just started to blog last month, I need lots of help.
Great site, Frank. You’ve been a great help.
Increase your faith and find God in everyday life.
http://www.faithchats.blogspot.com
I’ve only been blogging for a little over 6 months now so I’m still learning the ropes so to speak. The quickest way that I have learned about how to create a blog people want to read is to read other people’s blogs. I have “borrowed”
so many ideas from reading other blogs and seeing how the page is set up and how they handle comments. It is also how I found other people who share my passions which makes cross linking very easy.
I agree 100% that you need to focus on your passions. Digital communication is extremely limited since 93% of communication is based on visual or audible cues. If you can funnel your passion through your writing, readers are far more likely to connect with you and keep coming back for more.
Frank,
Thanks for the tips. I appreciate it. I’ve been blogging for a few years now, primarily on the theme of “Rethinking Faith and Church.” Let me also say how much I enjoyed reading “Pagan Christianity.” I’ve also recently begun following you on Twitter. Thanks for the nuggets.
Blessings,
Will
Thank you for this advice Frank! I was really needing some help in these areas so I am thankful. 5-7 times a week? That sounds so hard!
That’s only if you want optimal traffic. Go at your own pace and do what feels comfortable.