If you do have a blog! You might be wondering what next? How do you get the much needed traffic for your blog? Well if you are still at a loss wondering how to go about, here’s a helping hand just for you. There are seven rock solid proven methods for building a loyal readership of your blog. Starting off with the basics they define the purpose of your blog. In simple words do you have something (a blog) worth promoting? If you do, then by all means driving traffic to your blog is crucial to your ongoing success at blogging.

Nowadays you must have read all those gurus puffing out hot air regarding the SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and improving site rankings by magic wands. In reality things are way different. Search engines have a lust for quality, fresh content. Remember content is king, if you are ever to make money on the net. On top of this inbound links elsewhere on the net are a great source of search engines placement of sites at higher levels. This can be done by numerous methods, details will be given in subsequent articles. So keep watching this space for more real life tricks.

To get you going in the right direction, here are seven tips that will help you build and hold an audience for your blog:

Tip #1: Upload fresh quality content.

When on the internet whether you talk about websites or blogs, a lot of space and time is given to content. Everyone (including me) hints you to provide quality content. But, what really is quality content? The quality of your blog’s content is directly related to how well you have defined your target audience.

A successful webmaster’s or owner’s blog is written with a distinct audience in mind. This way, you can provide targeted content that is unique to your audience’s issues, needs, or desires. If you create content they want chances are they will like it and will return to read, proving you have quality content.

It is of paramount importance to stay true to your audience and adhere religiously to the tone of your blog. If people are reading your blog, it’s because they like your topic and tone. Try not to imitate a pendulum straying from your typical topics and style too much. This will give your readers a reason to link back to your blog on an ongoing basis, as will posting on a regular basis.

Tip #2: Upload/Update regularly, preferably on a daily basis

If you don’t update your blog often enough, blog readers will move on to other blogs. There are too many blogs out there competing for attention. Blog readers will go where they can get enough of what they want.

In order to do successful blogging a commitment of your time is a pre-requisite. When you start blogging and wish to capture an audience, you must be prepared to blog every day. In this way, you can develop an audience who depend on you to help them begin or end their day.

This also means you should try to post at about the same time each day. Your readers will get accustomed to your schedule and check your blog at the appropriate time. The time of day is not as crucial as the consistency in your posting.

Since you now have quality content and a regular posting schedule, it’s time to drive traffic to your blog. Your readers will do a wonderful job to promote your blog just by word of mouth. Don’t just count on this alone! You need to take some additional measures.

When you update/post your blog, make sure you set your blog to “ping” blog tracking sites every time you add a new post. Think of this as a means to get their attention. The ping says “Hey, we just added a new post”. An alternative to automatically pinging from your blog is to use pingomatic.com. This is a one-stop place to automatically ping everyone you should notify of your new post and only takes a couple of minutes to accomplish. Most of the CMS (Content Management Systems) like Wordpress do this automatically through option settings and plugins.

Tip #3: Quote your blog everywhere

Mention your blog’s address in your email signature line, in forums where you post, on your business cards, on address labels and in conversations with anyone you meet. Use a tag line under your blog address to further entice them to visit. Mine reads:

Bob Ratiyal
http://www.bestonlinefinds.com
An Information Packed Arsenal of Money Making Articles.

It is important for you to understand that beyond just mentioning your blog in writings and conversations, you must also actively participate in the blogging community too. Remember the inbound links stuff?

Tip #4: Get your teeth into the blogosphere

Get involved in other people’s blogs. Visit blogs that interest you and are in line with the general topic of your blog. Then, leave thoughtful comments. Almost every comment option on someone else’s blog will allow you to post your blog URL and your email address. Help other bloggers out with traffic and they will help you.

If a blogger really likes your site, they will add you to their blogroll. A blogroll is generally found on every blog which understands linking to the rest of the blogosphere helps drive traffic. A blogroll is a listing of other blogs. Think of it as a “recommended reading list”. Don’t be stingy with your blog roll either. Add those blogs that you read and enjoy to your blogroll too.

Tip #5: Work on keywords when you post

Think about keywords with your use of titles, links and blog posts. Search engines, like Google and Yahoo, like keywords. The more targeted your keywords, the better the chances of your blog appearing in search results. Search results can drive that extra traffic you want. In an upcoming article I will be posting nothing less than a couple of hundred powerful keywords that are bound to be very useful for bloggers.

To increase the value of the key words in your content, make certain keywords a part of the hot link in your posts. Don’t use “click here” or “read more” as the hot link. This will waste valuable real estate in your post. Instead, use the relevant keywords for the hot link, like “The 7 Tips for Successful Blogging”. This gives the keywords an added punch with the search engines.

Another great thought on keywords for driving traffic to your blog is, in your linking code add rel=”tag”. This helps Technorati, a major blog resource, index your blog for their directory. Enough of keywords, time to submit your blog to blog directories.

Tip #6: Submit your blog to blog directories

On top of submitting your blog to the major search engines, make sure you submit your blog to exclusive blog directories like blogwise, blogcatalog, or bloghub. A great number of online people find blogs through these online directories.

When you do submit your blog to these directories, remember to add a description that will entice your targeted audience to check your blog out. Your description should help the potential reader understand your blogging topic and the flavor of how you write.

In addition to submitting your blog to blog directories, join a few of the free or inexpensive traffic exchange sites like blogexplosion or blogclicker.

Tip #7: Utilise free & inexpensive blog traffic exchange communities

There are many sites which can be termed “traffic exchange” sites for the blogging community. It won’t cost you anything to sign up. At the very least, join blogexplosion, blogclicker, and blogazoo. Once you sign up, you have two options to help drive traffic to your blog. Use both of them!

The first method is to earn credits (guaranteed visitors to your site) by using the “surf member sites” function. As you surf through those sites, you will be earning credits (visitors to your blog). When you find an interesting post, leave a comment as discussed above. When you find a blogger you like, add them to your blogroll and let them know you did.

The second method to drive traffic is to purchase credits. The cost is very cheap for the traffic you will drive to your blog. The more traffic to your blog, the more customers you’ll have. The more happy customers you have, the more they will tell others. The more they tell others, the more customers you get. Don’t you love this dance!

In summary, blogging may not be for everyone. However, it can be a great method for bringing your unique perspective to the Internet. You will surely find others who think the same way you do. Some bloggers will entertain you, some will inform you, and some will drive you to tear your hair out. Decide what type of blogger you want to be and be the best you can. See you in the blogosphere!

About the author:

Bob Ratiyal is a successful entrepreneur with over 15 years home based business experience in Internet Information Marketing, Blogs, Software & IT. Visit his website www.bestonlinefinds.com for the best money making opportunities on the net.