1. Blog for Your Readers not Money
Time is the leading reason that blogs don’t grow to their full potential. You need to be able to be in it for the long-term, not to quickly generate an income from. If you write posts that people enjoy reading, they will reward you by returning to your blog regularly and become your loyal readers.
#2. Target the Right Crowd
If you look at your analytics and demographics, make sure that your visitors are coming from the “target” area - a group of people who have their own blogs or websites - who will likely spread word about your site, linking to it and sharing your resource to their readers.
#3. Social Networking and Social Bookmarking Sites
Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Social bookmarking sites like Digg can bring a massive traffic. These are places where publishers are readers meet and that’s where the big fishes are. Get active in there are get good inflow.
#4. Guest Posts
Writing guest posts increases credibility and drives readers. Most popularblogs invite guest writers to write on topics related to their main content. The host blog gives full credit to you for the content, along with a link to your blog. So you will get a high PR backlink, more credibility as a publisher, and valuable readers.
#5. Read and Comment on Popular blogs
Commenting on other blog draws the attention of other readers along with building a rapport with the publisher. Some blogs have top commentator widget which gives do-follow links. But never comment for the sake of commenting. Give useful and logical comments when needed and get all the three advantages (readers, backlinks and rapport).
#6. Stay Informed
Subscribe to several relevant RSS feeds and Email subscription on your topic. When news happens, break it on your blog. This has the added advantage of making your blog more searchable and you’ll have a better chance of attracting an audience if you cover topics that are consistently on the cusp of what’s happening. Another tool I would recommend is to use Google Trends.
#7. Participate in Forums
Reply to forums and include a link to your blog with every reply. You can also show off your old posts (Not links alone) in active forums and get good feedback.
#8. Blog Sharing and Interest Groups
There are many Yahoo and Google groups that share blogs. Besides submitting your blog to such groups, send full length previously published posts to them. Include a link to the original content at the end of the mail (ex. Source: http//themelib.com/). If the reader finds the mail useful he will definitely check the link and join the email subscription. Do not forward links alone or partial content as they might violate the group ethics.
#9. Popularize a List of Your Favorite Posts
Create a list of your popular and favorite posts and publish it as a new post. Now share this post on Social networking sites, book marking sites and forums. This can attract readers of various interests and bring in all kinds of traffic.
#10. Personal Invitations
It is not difficult to find out people who might be interested in your blog. You might meet them at work, or at school or even while you travel. Include your blog in your card; they will definitely check it out.
