BlogWritingCourse

One of the great ways to build traffic for your fledgling blog is by both BECOMING a guest blogger and HOSTING a guest blogger.  If you have already made connections with bloggers in your genre, or have been reading a blog with a theme similar to yours for some time now, this may not be too difficult to set up. 

The first thing would be to send an inquiry to someone you would like to have as a guest writer.  You could have them write just one post, a whole week, or a series of posts.  The person should be someone whose blog has a decently strong following, because your hope is that that person’s readers will follow them over to YOUR blog, and be introduced to you in turn.  When you contact the author, you might want to explain to them why you think they would make a good guest poster for your blog (a little flattery never hurts!).  You also will want to ask them to announce their guest post status on their own blog, so you will get a direct link to your blog.

This technique for traffic building will probably have at least a modest effect on your blog.  But an even BIGGER traffic-building strategy is for you to guest post on someone ELSE’S blog.  So how in the world do you go about that?

Well, it requires some tact and some good writing, for sure!  Before offering your guest blogging services to anyone, you need to make sure that your blog is in tip-top shape.  Has your writing been stellar lately?  Is your design up-to-date and eye-catching?  These are the things another blogger will be looking for as they make the decision whether you are guest blogger material!  So before you make even the first inquiry about becoming a guest blogger, do an objective analysis of your recent content to see if it is up to guest blogger standards.

Then, when you feel confident that you have produced some pretty awesome content, go ahead and send your blog link and a request to five of your favorite blogs in your genre, asking them to take a look at your blog and consider you as a fill-in for the next time they are out of town or have hit writer’s block.  Hopefully, if they like what they see, they will keep your info on file, and will contact you with your first ever guest blogger opportunity! 

Then, when you take them up on their offer, be sure to link back to your blog somewhere in your post, so that when (not if) their readers enjoy your writing, they will be able to easily make their way over to your blog and become your next biggest fans!!

Chances are, you are already benefiting from feeds – - those wonderful time saving devices that go out and get the information YOU want, and bring it right to your doorstep. I have feeds for my favorite blogs, my local newspaper, and updates to my frequented websites. I don’t have to go out to all those different sites to get updated information – - instead, it comes to me.

You might not, however, have been on the actual "feeding" side of a feed until now. But when your blog starts to grow its readership, your followers will want the same convenience you do in having your blog updates sent directly to them. So, you will need to register with a feed service, to make sure this is accomplished easily. Another advantage of having a feed service, is that it tracks your feed subscribers. So you will know exactly how many people are accessing your feeds on a regular basis.

Sometimes, setting up an RSS feed for your blog is as easy as going into your dashboard or layout and tweaking a few settings.  In Blogger, for instance, you go into your “Settings” menu and look for “Site Feed”.  From there, you can choose how much of your site to syndicate.  Once you have enabled these settings, your site feed will automatically be generated.  Some Blogger templates will immediately begin showing a subscription option to your readers.  Others may require you to install a separate gadget for this purpose.

In WordPress, feed subscriptions are enabled with a widget called the “blog subscription widget.”  Your blog stats page will then show you how many people are subscribed to your blog. 

If you prefer more detailed or in-depth information about your feeds and subscribers, you might consider signing up for a separate RSS feed via an external feed site such as Feedburner or Bloglines.

You can write the most exciting, engaging, and even mind-blowing blog in the world, but unless people can subscribe to your content, they will never know when you have something new to say.  So make creating a feed for your blog a priority!!