When I first started blogging, there was a lot of virtual tumbleweed blowing across it. Some days my blog was only read by one person… me! That was quite disheartening, and made it hard to stay motivated (in fact for a while I simply gave up).

However, I thankfully discovered a number of powerful ways of getting people here, and today I want to share some of those with you.

First of all you must…

1. Accept subscribers.

Encouraging readers to return to your blog in future is one of the — if not the — most powerful ways of increasing blog readership. And the easiest tactic to encourage return visits is allow your visitors to subscribe, so they get e-mail reminders each time you add fresh blog content.

I use a service called AWeber (aff), which I have set up to automatically check my blog every hour of the day. If AWeber sees I’ve added a new blog post, they automatically send an e-mail to my subscribers to let them know about it.

Obviously when subscribers receive that e-mail, a lot of them click the link in it and come back to my blog.

This is great for them because they don’t need to remember my blog web address and keep checking my blog on the off-chance I’ve updated it. And as a result of that, I get a increasingly higher readership.

One more tip about offering blog subscription — usually it helps to offer an extra incentive for subscribers. For example on my blog anyone who signs up gets the first three chapters of my book, plus other valuable resources to go with it.

A strong incentive can more than double the rate at which people subscribe.

2. E-mail your existing list.

The first thing you should do when you launch your new blog is tell everyone you currently have permission to e-mail, and ask them to visit and subscribe.

It’s unlikely that all of the people on your e-mail list subscribe, so you also want to schedule occasional reminders to anyone who has not yet subscribed. Tell them what they’re missing out on — be specific.

• What do you blog about? (The subject matter.)
• Point out it’s totally free, even to subscribe.
• How will they benefit by subscribing?
• Mention the incentive(s) if you offer any.
• If an industry figurehead has endorsed your blog be sure to mention that!

3. Comment on other blogs & forums.

Commenting on other blogs is a powerful way of increasing readership of your own blog, because people who read your comments may end up clicking the link you give, and therefore end up on your blog.

The same applies for forums relevant to your industry.

If you spend time on there being helpful and answering people’s questions, people may spot and click the link in your signature, (which is the text that appears underneath your name whenever you post a comment).

4. Look for guest posting & interview opportunities.

Some blogs openly welcome guest posts — where you write and submit an article that is then published on the third party blog.

Also one tactic I’ve used which has increased my blog traffic is to respond to other bloggers who offer to be interviewed.

You simply email them some questions, they email back the answers and you publish the interview on your blog.

However, most times the other blogger will then link to your interview blog post (because it makes them look good) and at the same time a percentage of their blog readership will follow that link to read the interview on your blog… and your traffic spikes yet again.

5. Strategic Alliances.

I’ve formed a number of relationships with other professionals who are in the marketing sphere but who I don’t compete with.

Most of those professionals I’ve helped out in one way or another (like helping them get started blogging, or created landing pages and websites for them). In turn, they promote my blog to their list.

I’ve had a lot of traffic from referrals through strategic alliance referrals.

Who do you know who will promote your blog to their list — either for payment for each subscriber that produces, or simply in return for you helping them?

These are just a few tactics I and other professional bloggers use to increase our blog readership. Try them out for yourself and see what happens.

-Ed.

Ps. I’m running some major experiments on advertising my blog in traditional media (in the UK) over the next few months.

I’ll share the results and details of what I find works best as soon as I know more (and I’ve no doubt the traffic I generate from this latter type of activity will by far outstrip all of the above methods put together… so watch this space!)