How to increase blog traffic

Simple Ways to Get Your Blog Noticed in the Blogosphere
The blogosphere is a big and busy world with over 100 million blogs and growing. How do you attract visitors to your blog? Follow these simple tips to drive traffic to your blog.
1. Write Well and Write Often
Frequently updating your blog with useful content is the first step to building your blog's audience. The content you write is what will keep readers coming back for more. Make sure you have something meaningful to say to them and say it often to maintain their interest and keep them loyal.
Furthermore, post frequently to increase the number of chances you have for your blog's content to be noticed by search engines such as Google or Technorati.
2. Submit Your Blog to Search Engines
Get on the radar screen for the popular search engines such as Google and Yahoo! by submitting your blog's URL to them. Most search engines provide a 'Submit' link (or something similar) to notify the search engine of your new blog, so those search engines will crawl it and include your pages in their results.
It's important to understand that simply submitting your blog to search engines doesn't mean your pages will appear at the top of a Google search results screen, but at least your blog will be included and will have the chance of being picked up by a search engine.
3. Use and Update Your Blogroll
By adding links to sites you like in your blogroll, the owners of those blogs will find your blog and will be likely to add a reciprocal link in their blogrolls. It's an easy way to get the link to your blog in front of many readers on other blogs. The hope is that some of those readers will click on the link to your blog on the other blogs' blogrolls and find your content interesting and enjoyable turning them into loyal readers.
4. Harness the Power of Comments
Commenting is a simple and essential tool to increase your blog's traffic. First, respond to comments left on your blog to show your readers that you value their opinions and draw them into a two-way conversation. This will increase reader loyalty.
Second, leave comments on other blogs to drive new traffic. Make sure you leave your blog's URL in your comment, so you create a link back to your own blog. Many people will read the comments left on a blog post. If they read a particularly interesting comment, they are highly likely to click on the link to visit the commentor's website. It's important to make sure you leave meaningful comments that are likely to invite people to click on your link to read more.
5. Syndicate Your Blog's Content with an RSS Feed
Setting up an RSS feed button on your blog makes it easy for your loyal readers to not just read your blog but also know when you publish new content.
6. Use Links and Trackbacks
Links are one of the most powerful parts of your blog. Not only are links noticed by search engines, but they also act as a tap on the shoulder to other bloggers who can easily identify who is linking to their sites. Linking helps to get you noticed by other bloggers who are likely to investigate the sites that are linking to them. This may lead them to become new readers of your blog or to add links to your blog from theirs.
You can take links to other blogs a step further by leaving a trackback on the other blog to let them know you've linked to them. Blogs that allow trackbacks will include a link back to your blog in the comments section of the post that you originally linked to. People do click on trackback links!
7. Tag Your Posts
It takes a few extra seconds to add tags to each of your blog posts, but it's worth the time in terms of the additional traffic tags can drive to your blog. Tags (like links) are easily noticed by search engines. They're also key to helping readers find your blog when they perform searches on popular blog search engines such as Technorati.
8. Submit Your Posts to Social Bookmarking Sites
Taking the time to submit your best posts to social bookmarking sites such as Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit and more can be a simple way to quickly boost traffic to your blog.
9. Remember Search Engine Optimization
When you write your blog posts and pages, remember to optimize your pages for search engines to find them. Include relevant keywords and links but don't overload your posts with too many relevant keywords or completely irrelevant keywords. Doing so can be considered spamming and could have negative results such as your blog being removed from Google's search entirely.
10. Don't Forget Images
Images don't just make your blog look pretty, they also help people find you in search engine listings. People often use the image search options offered by Google, Yahoo! and other search engines, and naming your images with search engine optimization in mind can easily boost your traffic.
11. Consider Guest Blogging
Guest blogging can be done when you write a guest post on another blogger's blog or when another blogger writes a guest post on your blog. Both methods are likely to increase traffic as your blog will be exposed to the other blogger's audience. Many of the other blogger's readers will visit your blog to see what you have to say.
12. Join Forums, Web Rings or Online Groups
Find online forums, web rings, groups or social networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn where you can share ideas and ask questions of like-minded individuals. Add a link to your blog in your signature line or profile, so each time you post on a forum or participate in another online network, you're indirectly promoting your blog. Chances are many people will click on that link to learn more about you.
13. Promote Outside Your Blog
Promoting your blog shouldn't stop when you step outside the blogosphere. Add your blog's URL to your email signature and business cards. Talk about it in offline conversations. It's important to get your name and your blog's URL noticed offline, too.
14. Nominate Yourself and Other Blogs for Blog Awards
There are a number of blog awards given out throughout the year. Nominating yourself and other blogs and bloggers can draw attention to your blog and drive traffic to it.
15. Don't Be Shy
The most important part of the blogosphere is its community and much of your success as a blogger will be tied to your willingness to network with that community. Don't be afraid to ask questions, join conversations or just say hi and introduce yourself. Don't sit back and hope the online world will find you. Speak out and get yourself noticed. Let the blogosphere know you've arrived and have something to say!

Making money while blogging

Many bloggers want to find ways to generate an income from their blogs. Following are five tips to monetize your blog and start bringing in some money from your blogging efforts.
1. Advertising
Including advertisements on your blog is the most obvious way to derive an income from your blogging efforts. Ads can come in the form of text links or banner ads, and advertising options are available that you can easily tap into through pay-per-click, pay-per-post and affiliate programs online. Google AdSense, Amazon Associates, eBay Affiliates and Pay-Per-Post are just a few of the most common advertising programs available to bloggers.

2. Merchandise
Another simple way to monetize your blog is by selling merchandise through a service such as CafePress who will work with you to create custom items for you to sell through your blog.
3. Reviews
Bloggers can make money by reviewing products, events, businesses and more through blog posts.
4. Ebooks
A great way to bring in some revenue on your blog is by writing an ebook and offering it for sale through your blog. Ebooks are particularly successful for bloggers who have positioned themselves as experts in their fields and advertise their ebooks as additional or exclusive information just for readers of their blogs.
5. Donations
Many bloggers add a donation button to their blogs asking readers to make a monetary donation to keep the blog alive. Donations are also solicited with clever taglines such as, "If you like this blog, why not buy me a cup of coffee?" The donation link leads the reader to another website such as PayPal where the individual can easily make their donation.

Why you should start blogging?

Top 10 reasons to start a blog

Blogging is becoming more and more popular everyday. Should you join the blogosphere? Take a look at this list to help you make your decision about blogging.
1. To Express Your Thoughts and Opinions
You have something to say, and blogs provide a place to say it and be heard.
2. To Market or Promote Something
Blogging is a great way to help market or promote yourself or your business, product or service.
3. To Help People
Many blogs are written to help people who may be going through similar situations that the blogger has experienced. Many parenting and health-related blogs are written for this purpose.
4. To Establish Yourself as an Expert
Blogs are wonderful tools to help bloggers establish themselves as experts in a field or topic. For example, if you're trying to get a job in a specific field or hoping to publish a book on a specific topic, blogging can help legitimize your expertise and expand your online presence and platform.
5. To Connect with People Like You
Blogging brings like-minded people together. Starting a blog can help you find those people and share your opinions and thoughts.
6. To Make a Difference
Many blogs are issue-based meaning the blogger is trying to provide information to sway people's thinking in a certain direction. Many political blogs and social issues blogs are written by bloggers who are trying to make a difference in their own ways.
7. To Stay Active or Knowledgeable in a Field or Topic
Since successful blogging is partially dependent on posting frequency and providing updated, fresh information, it's a perfect way to help a blogger stay abreast of the events in a specific field or topic.
8. To Stay Connected with Friends and Family
The world has shrunk since the Internet has become more accessible. Blogs provide a simple way for family and friends to stay connected from different parts of the world by sharing stories, photos, videos and more.
9. To Make Money
It's important to point out that most bloggers don't make a lot of money blogging, but the potential does exist to generate revenue from your blog with hard work and commitment. There are many bloggers who bring in big bucks. With patience and practice, you can make money through advertising and other income-generating activities on your blog.
10. To Have Fun and Be Creative
Many people start a blog simply for fun. Perhaps a blogger is a fan of a particular actor or loves knitting and wants to share that passion through a blog. One of the most important keys to successful blogging is having a passion about your blog's topic, so you can write prolifically about it. Some of the best and most interesting blogs started out as blogs that were written just for fun and to give the blogger a creative outlet.

Ways to become rich blogging

You want to become rich? Well mostly everyone does. In my desire to be rich I searched through the internet, read books about becoming rich, subsrcirbe to business magazine, and other related materials.

In the net if found an interesting one:

Ten ways to get rich blogging
Tom Whitwell
1. Write about getting rich blogging. There are dozens of successful blogs about blogging. Sites such as ProBlogger and Make Money Online are full of get-rich-quick schemes and elaborate tips for ad placement and site tweaks.
2 .Get a book deal. Better still, a film deal. Numerous writers have gone from idea to blog to book deal without attracting any readers at all. Recently video blogger Ze Frank secured a Hollywood agent, abandoned his daily web TV show and moved to LA to pursue a film deal.
3. Get a job. If you’re looking for a great job, the first page of Google search results for your name are at least as important as your CV. Your blog won’t earn you any money directly, but it might get you a nice job. Mine certainly did.
4. Find a real niche. There was a time, not that long ago, when a chap could say “I like my Tivo. I’ll start a Tivo blog, and get all the Tivo advertising.” That chap (Matt Haughey) has already got rich, so you can’t. Blog niches are getting smaller every day. Want to start a blog about squid? Don’t bother, there are three already.
5. Get sued. A graph of Perez Hilton’s traffic would show a spike in November 2006. That’s when he was sued by a paparazzi agency for stealing its photos and scrawling “Mess” across them. The agency asked for $7.5 million. He got lots of new readers.
6. Get sacked. In 2002, Heather B. Armstrong was sacked for blogging about the debauched antics of the LA design company where she worked. In 2007, her site, Dooce, is still the only blog in the top 100 aimed specifically at women.
7. Keep your costs down. Even though he’s probably the most famous blogger in the world, with an alleged six-figure income, Perez Hilton’s office is a corner table at the Coffee Bean café on Sunset Boulevard. He’s there every day, from opening time to closing time, buying the occasional latte and tapping away at his laptop.
8. Break a big story. Old-fashioned scoops work for all blogs, whether it’s the Drudge Report telling the world about Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky or giant squid caught on camera for Squidblog. Breaking stories bring links from other blogs, and with them traffic. A big story can see a small blog leap from 2,000 to 100,000 readers in a day.
9. Get bought out. In October 2005, Jason Calcanis sold his roster of blogs to AOL for about $25 million. His arch rival Nick Denton, a former FT journalist, has a hugely successful stable of blogs that is literally priceless, because Denton says it’s not for sale.
10. Write lots of lists. It’s a common cliché that people don’t like to read many words online. It’s also not true. Lots of people read tens of thousands of words a day online, but it’s all broken up into tiny chunks – e-mails, headlines, odd sentences from news stories. Lists work in the same way.