How to get traffic for your blog

My friend Fred, a talented blogger, asked me for advice the other day. Here's a partial answer, with a few apologies to Swift:

1. Use lists.
2. Be topical... write posts that need to be read right now.
3. Learn enough to become the expert in your field.
4. Break news.
5. Be timeless... write posts that will be readable in a year.
6. Be among the first with a great blog on your topic, then encourage others to blog on the same topic.
7. Share your expertise generously so people recognize it and depend on you.
8. Announce news.
9. Write short, pithy posts.
10. Encourage your readers to help you manipulate the technorati top blog list.
11. Don't write about your cat, your boyfriend or your kids.
12. Write long, definitive posts.
13. Write about your kids.
14. Be snarky. Write nearly libelous things about fellow bloggers, daring them to respond (with links back to you) on their blog.
15. Be sycophantic. Share linklove and expect some back.
16. Include polls, meters and other eye candy.
17. Tag your posts. Use del.ico.us.
18. Coin a term or two.
19. Do email interviews with the well-known.
20. Answer your email.
21. Use photos. Salacious ones are best.
22. Be anonymous.
23. Encourage your readers to digg your posts. (and to use furl and reddit). Do it with every post.
24. Post your photos on flickr.
25. Encourage your readers to subscribe by RSS.
26. Start at the beginning and take your readers through a months-long education.
27. Include comments so your blog becomes a virtual water cooler that feeds itself.
28. Assume that every day is the beginning, because you always have new readers.
29. Highlight your best posts on your Squidoo lens.
30. Point to useful but little-known resources.
31. Write about stuff that appeals to the majority of current blog readers--like gadgets and web 2.0.
32. Write about Google.
33. Have relevant ads that are even better than your content.
34. Don't include comments, people will cross post their responses.
35. Write posts that each include dozens of trackbacks to dozens of blog posts so that people will notice you.
36. Run no ads.
37. Keep tweaking your template to make it include every conceivable bell or whistle.
38. Write about blogging.
39. Digest the good ideas of other people, all day, every day.
40. Invent a whole new kind of art or interaction.
41. Post on weekdays, because there are more readers.
42. Write about a never-ending parade of different topics so you don't bore your readers.
43. Post on weekends, because there are fewer new posts.
44. Don't interrupt your writing with a lot of links.
45. Dress your blog (fonts and design) as well as you would dress yourself for a meeting with a stranger.
46. Edit yourself. Ruthlessly.
47. Don't promote yourself and your business or your books or your projects at the expense of the reader's attention.
48. Be patient.
49. Give credit to those that inspired, it makes your writing more useful.
50. Ping technorati. Or have someone smarter than me tell you how to do it automatically.
51. Write about only one thing, in ever-deepening detail, so you become definitive.
52. Write in English.
53. Better, write in Chinese.
54. Write about obscure stuff that appeals to an obsessed minority.
55. Don't be boring.
56. Write stuff that people want to read and share.

Feel free to post your own ideas (satirical or otherwise) in the comments below.

Comments

[seth godin]

Encourage people to add to your posts in the comments field.

[CypherHackz]

Why better write in Chinese?

[Hope Atterbury]

One of the fastest and easiest way to grow high quality traffic to your blog is to join Gather.com and (re)publish your blog articles & photos there. Join for free, share what inspires you and earn points that can be redeemed for cash, products or services. When you repurpose content from your blog on Gather, you'll alert a huge community of insightful thinkers to your good writings.

[jestep]

Make sure your url's and content are SEO friendly. A well written and frequently updated blog can get a lot of natural search traffic.

[Tony of Bachelor cooking]

@cypherhackz : Because that hyperlinked chinese blog is the Top blog on technorati top 100....... above all english blogs

[David Armano]

Seth,

I'm very encouraged to see that you've included a comments area for this. Is this something you'll be doing on your blog moving forward?

I'm a blogger newbie—and coming to grips with how this all works. When I saw that your blog did not allow for comments, it puzzled me.

Kudos to you for opening this up. When young bloggers like myself see something like this—it's very encouraging and inspiring.

Keep walking the walk.

[Jackie Huba]

#57. Include a funny YouTube video : )

[karl long]

WTF? Comments?

27. Include comments so your blog becomes a virtual water cooler that feeds itself.

Good for you Seth, welcome to the conversation :-)

[James]

Awesome list, Seth...I'll have to put this list to the test!

[Steve Liberati]

57.) Be relevant. If people come to your blog for marketing advice, don't tell them how great your vacation was last week to the Bahamas. Nor does your audience really care how great your day was. You can save that for the family at dinner time.

58.) Give stuff away. People love free stuff!

59.) Give your entire audience a chance to meet you in person (speaking engagement, workshop, etc). At a reasonable price! Not only exclusive to CEO's of big companies.

[Mack Collier]

"Include comments so your blog becomes a virtual water cooler that feeds itself."

Good to see you come down and join the 'noisy commons', Seth. Let's hope this is the start of your joining and embracing the community, and not a one-shot deal.

[Ann Handley]

What a sec...is this a COMMENT FIELD?! Hello...hello...is this thing on?

: )

Nice job, Seth!

[johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy)]

#60 | Have a take and don't suck.

(Blatantly stolen from Jim Rome, sports radio talk show host.)

[Joseph Jaffe]

Welcome to the conversation! Nicely done, Seth...

Joseph

[Steve Liberati]

Fair enough. Comments or no comments, you still have one of the best and most insightful blogs on the net. Thanks for sharing your expertise with us!

[Josh Bancroft]

Thanks for the link to Unboxing.com! It certainly has been a lesson in traffic (much more than I expected), and the reaction to the site has been almost universally "what a great idea! how come no one thought of this sooner?". Who knew so many people liked to watch others undress their gadgets? ;-)

[WebMetricsGuru]

For one thing, My blog network, KMM, has many blogs with over 1000 backlinks - were some of those blogs to post on the same subject at the same time while linking to each others' posts - a very powerful current would be created.

[Handry]

Nice tips arround there Seth. I think I should try it.

[Mack Collier]

BTW for an actual addition to this fine list:

Leave your blog. No blog is an island, and the bloggers that leave their blogs and 'join the community' by participating in the comments on other blogs are rewarded with more visitors, not to mention the benefit of learning from other bloggers. A win-win situation. And reading other blogs is a great cure for writer's block!

[Eric]

Find a way to write about Paris Hilton whithout getting boring ? I know this is amazingly challenging... Thanks for your blog and for your always useful advices (which at least help me to improve my English each time I read you !).

[Jon Fredkove]

Interesting. I could see this in a college textbook on blogging.

I just think #51 (write about one thing) trumps #38 (write about blogging), though. One should remain on-strategy and focused on one's message and point of differentiation.

Reading posts about blogging strategies and tools can become distracting for readers. Sure, some top bloggers enjoy writing about the medium that they have helped mold, like Jason Kottke, for example.

But generally speaking, I think, it takes readers away from the amazing insight that a blogger provides about their particular area of expertise. Pretty soon, writing about blogging will be outdated.

[スロ]

There are some contradictory advices (long or short posts? hahahaha)

[john dodds]

Like taking candies from a baby eh Seth!!

[Brian Clark]

Can't pass up a rare opportunity to comment, even if it is only meaningless blather like this. :)

[Meblogger]

How long does it take?

[tom sherman]

#23 - no. People who use Digg know how to Digg. I don't need to see those social bookmarking icons ever again.

johnmoore: Or explain why Jim Rome sucks.
http://underscorebleach.net/jotsheet/2005/01/jim-rome

[K]

100. Write everyday.
101. Harness synergy and write on a topic you research regardless.
102. Mix it up a bit. If you don't allow comments, allow comments on only one post.

[Robert]

19. Do email interviews with the well-known.

Hands up who will do an interview with me!

Oh alright then I'll wait until I am Web 2.0 and an A listed blog!

[Hannes Johnson]

Write about interesting topics that people want to link to. - Give useful tips, top ten lists, etc.

[Lydia]

As this looks like this might be the only time I get to add a comment to your blog, can I just take the opportunity to say, I think you're great (#15) I've spent a lot of time over the past year reading your stuff and it has helped me alot (#49) and if you happen to be in Liverpool next Wednesday let me know, I'm having a bit of a do (#2 #4 & #8)

yours sincerely
The Artfinder (#18)

[Busy Mom]

Lots to think about, thanks! Oh, and, Robert? I'll interview with you except for the pesky matter of me not being well-known.

[Genius]

1) Be an A-list blogger.
2) Fart really loudly.

That's all you'll ever need.

[row1d2]

11. Don’t write about your cat, your boyfriend or your kids.
13. Write about your kids.

can someone please clarify this, should I be having kids or not?

[tom sherman]

"A-List Blogger" = certainly popular and almost certainly overrated. Pass.

[B.L. Walther]

Thanks for the excellent list Seth. I understand completely your opening up comments for a single post like this once in a while. For the person who wonders whether they should have kids or not, you may find the following article useful: "Do What You Want" at success-digest.com.

[Hadley Stern]

In my experience with Apple Matters I agree with many these (and thanks for the interview Seth!).

Three other additions I would add.

1. Make sure you are insanely passionate about what you are blogging about, because, over the long-term you will otherwise get bored real quick. This leads to number 2.

2. Longevity. Don't expect much in the first months, or year, or even two years. Think long-term.

3. Don't over-obsess about traffic but do over-obsess with quality.