202 Bite-Sized Tips To Insanely Increase Your Blog Traffic
The best free blog traffic strategies to increase your traffic - guaranteed. Or, at the very least, the most numerous ones.
Please enjoy, implement, and share.
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1. Create lists.
2. Write a tutorial.
3. Give away your very best content and some.
4. Be current – write about tomorrow today.
5. Don’t write about your cats, dogs, boyfriends, kids.
6. Be timeless – write a post that will remain current for years.
7. Write with “everybody is entitled to my opinion” attitude.
8. Write about your kids.
9. Write about other bloggers’ best posts.
10. Make your own “best of the best” list.
11. Become an expert in your niche.
12. Break news.
13. Make news.
14. Write short, laconic posts.
15. Do interviews with the “cream of the crop”.
16. Use polls, giveaways, and other eye candy.
17. Write long, conclusive posts.
18. Answer your comments.
19. Answer your email.
20. Write about pros and cons of an issue.
21. Write on a controversial topic and close comments.
22. Make readers depend on you by sharing your expertise generously.
23. Write about blogging.
24. Blog about writing.
25. Take an alternate position.
26. Write a post for beginners.
27. Ask experts to make comments on your best posts.
28. Write an advanced post.
29. Encourage your readers to digg, tweet, like, buzz your posts.
30. Write about Google.
31. Write about Twitter.
32. Bookmark all your posts.
33. Interview parties with opposing views.
34. Research a topic and post your findings.
35. Integrate references to sports in your posts.
36. Post with personality.
37. Run relevant ads that are even better than your content.
38. Write exclusively about a certain theme for a week.
39. Ask a question everyone else is afraid of asking.
40. Run no ads.
41. Use your skills to help a non-profit – pro bono.
42. Update an old post with new ideas.
43. Post your photos on flickr.
44. Crowdsource your next post idea to your readers.
45. Write a satirical post.
46. Use an outrageous photo.
47. Make it easy to share what you are doing.
48. Encourage visitors to subscribe to your RSS feed.
49. Give visitors a good reason to opt in to your list.
50. Coin a term or two.
51. Pioneer a great topic and then encourage others to blog about the same thing.
52. Don’t overwhelm visitors with too many options.
53. Write a list of 101 people, blogs, topics in your niche.
54. Create a mock head-to-head competition among bloggers.
55. Mention some useful, but little known resources.
56. Make a post that solves a problem.
57. Make a post that inspires.
58. Encourage your followers to help you dominate top blog lists.
59. Write a post that causes controversy.
60. Do a 30-day challenge.
61. Write a long comment.
62. Start a blog meme.
63. Share your blog statistics with your readers.
64. Pick a topic by reading business book titles.
65. Pick a headline by reading top Dugg stories.
66. Start a discussion in your blog comments.
67. Answer your readers questions in a post.
68. Challenge your fellow bloggers by writing something nearly borderline about them and close comments.
69. Share link love and expect some back.
70. Add to the list started by another blogger.
71. Be complimentary.
72. Do your market research on Amazon.com.
73. Write about stuff that most people want to read about, like Web 2.0.
74. Disprove a myth.
75. Write a post about something merely good, but not great.
76. Constantly read other blogs, leave comments, look for ideas.
77. Edit yourself without mercy.
78. Create cornerstone content.
79. Skip introductions and get to the meat of the posts – your readers do.
80. Point out something ironic or contradictory.
81. Write a series of posts.
82. Come up with a more efficient way of doing something.
83. Create a widget or plugin.
84. Make your content unmissable.
85. Be everywhere, all at once.
86. Take in other people’s ideas, learn from them constantly.
87. Tell a story through pictures.
88. Focus on unmonetized, but high-trafficked searches.
89. Combine some of your best older posts into a new series.
90. Treat every day as a new beginning, because you’ll always have new readers.
91. Be patient.
92. Post on the weekdays because more people will read it.
93. Change up your posting style every once in a while, like do reviews, etc.
94. Showcase some of your best posts on Squidoo lens.
95. Post on the weekends because there are less posts.
96. Leverage April Fool’s day with an outrageous truth.
97. Write about how things have changed in your niche.
98. Invite your readers to do guest posting for you.
99. Answer your readers questions with more questions.
100. Aggregate ideas, tips, etc from numerous places/blogs into a blog post.
101. Attend a live event and broadcast about it.
102. Write “Dear Abby” posts.
103. Don’t be boring.
104. Write a post about a scam.
105. Write about everything under the sun so that you don’t bore your readers.
106. Alternative to link exchange: get a group of bloggers together and write reviews for each other’s blogs.
107. Turn off “nofollow” to encourage comments.
108. Be very focused on one topic, in deep detail, so you become a recognized expert in it.
109. Be opinionated.
110. Answer very specific questions in deeper, more specific ways than currently exist.
111. Help people who are just starting out.
112. Don’t interrupt your posts with a lot of links.
113. Connect with your blogging peers and share ideas.
114. Create a guide for your niche.
115. Write an interesting analogy.
116. Write posts that includes tons of trackbacks to other blogs so that other blogger will notice you.
117. Make a post simplifying a complex problem.
118. Create a huge list of your best posts.
119. Give credit to those who inspired your post.
120. Respond to criticism in a post (i.e. criticism of you, your company, of the way you squint your eyes, etc).
121. Make a “[blank] for Dummies” post.
122. Tell a great story.
123. Put some thought into post formatting – increases readability.
124. Check out your competitors’ archives to see if some of their old posts can be turned into an updated version on your blog.
125. Write a post that uses the words “futile” and “desperate”.
126. Write something to inspire and motivate your readers, especially if you don’t do it on a regular basis.
127. Don’t try to be all things to all people.
128. Review your analytics to see what keywords are brining in traffic and make more posts on those.
129. Contrast two or more positions in your post.
130. Write about obscure stuff that appeals to an obsessed minority.
131. Post about what’s popular and why it’s beneficial.
132. Invite a couple of bloggers with opposing opinions for a duel on your blog.
133. Tell a joke (preferably funny one).
134. Browse thesaurus to spruce up your posts.
135. Don’t make your readers pull out a dictionary to understand your posts.
136. Make a post about frequently asked questions in your niche.
137. Make a post about questions that should be asked about your niche, but nobody thought of asking.
138. Create an exhaustive list of jargon for your niche – with definitions.
139. Make a post alleging conspiracy.
140. Don’t always focus on your own niche to find readers.
141. Write about how to use a product in an unconventional way.
142. Poll your readers on a topic and post results.
143. Don’t promote yourself or your products at the expense of the readers’ attention.
144. Write a post about a blog, which is popular, but provides poor content – explain why. You’ll open pandora’s box, but create traffic.
145. Run a contest, offer a cool (but not expensive) prize.
146. Visit your readers’ blogs and post comments.
147. Dissect an argument in a post.
148. Gather a bunch of creative commons images about your niche and make a gallery-post (with credits, of course).
149. Narrow your blog focus.
150. Write a “tag” post and have other bloggers who you tagged add to a list.
151. Make a post about what in your niche is being done wrong and how to correct it.
152. Offer an ethical bribe for commenting or subscribing.
153. Make friends with power users on Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, etc.
154. Make friends with forum and message boards addicts.
155. Make friends with influential bloggers and social media leaders.
156. Create a post that leaves your readers hanging till a later post – it’d better be good!
157. Create a list of “bite-sized” tips for your niche.
158. Write part 2 for any of your posts that are extremely popular.
159. Submit your sitemap to Google Webmaster Tools.
160. Put together a list of the most tweeted/dugg/shared posts in your niche.
161. Dress your blog (design-wise) like you would for your first date.
162. Collect inspirational quotes from other bloggers in your niche; compile them in a post.
163. Invite a well known blogger in your niche to contribute a short guest post.
164. Use a human voice.
165. Use a translation plug-in to translate your blog into other languages.
166. Ask other bloggers (preferably more influential ones) to review your blog and make a post about their findings.
167. Tell your readers to change the world and give them examples of how they can do it.
168. Turn your blog posts into articles (use EzineArticles plugin).
169. Write a press release about your blog.
170. Add a forum.
171. Interlink your blog posts.
172. Keep tweaking your template to optimize readability.
173. Write a post about a generally unknown secret in your industry/niche.
174. Be a comedian – “They’ll be standing in line for that old honky-tonk monkey shine!”
175. Ping the comments you leave on other blogs.
176. Always work on improving your blog.
177. Join a blog carnival.
178. Submit your site to Alltop.
179. Answer questions on Yahoo!Answers via a post on your blog.
180. Answer forum questions by linking to a post that has the answer.
181. Add your RSS feed to MyYahoo, IGoogle, Netscape, Bing.
182. Install OnlyWire plugin – simultaneous posting to many bookmarking sites.
183. Start reciprocal guest blogging: you guest post on their blog, they guest post on yours.
184. Ask your readers to email you links to their best resources and make a post about it.
185. Write an “attack post” by setting up an argument and them shooting it down.
186. Share the secrets that made your blog successful to enable your readers to do the same.
187. Make your blog DoFollow and submit it to DoFollow directories.
188. Twit your blog posts, blog your tweets.
189. Come up with a series of posts unique to your site.
190. Post linkbait.
191. Assign a theme to each day of the week and write about it on that day on a weekly basis.
192. Review your blog’s stats (weekly, monthly, yearly) and write about the results.
193. Do a Twitter search on a particular subject, compile them in photoshop and do a review of the trend.
194. Compile YouTube videos on a specific topic into a VLog and post it to your blog.
195. Walk your readers through a day in your life, use photos, videos, but put a fun/funny spin on it.
196. Write a post about things you can learn from “…” (insert a popular personality in your niche market).
197. Write a summary of a long report, white paper, ebook – make it an easy bullet-like format.
198. Compile a list of niche-related news over the past week, month, etc; keep adding to it over time making it into a series.
199. Create a sense of urgency in your title, make readers think they will miss out if they don’t read it.
200. Be undeniably interesting for years.
201. Write stuff people want to read and share.
202. Pray (always a good idea)…
*****
I hope you enjoyed this wealth of information.
If after reading this, you can’t increase your blog traffic, you are in deep trouble, my friend.
Just in case you don’t know me well enough, I have to let you know that I didn’t come up with all these tips all by myself – I wish I was smart enough.
I read, I learned, I collected, I digested, I presented.
Now it’s up to you to read, learn, digest, and implement.
One more thing before you run off: do me a favor and give me thumbs up.
Please COMMENT, SHARE, TWEET and SHARE… did I say that already?
PS For more no-nonsense traffic generation and conversion tips from Ana, fill out this short spam-free form:
Facebook comments:
I am a wife to a great husband of 13 years (here ya go, now I have to make changes to this sentence once a year), a mother to a beautiful and, no doubt, genius little girl, and a successful internet entrepreneur. I also devoted my life to Jesus Christ many years ago, and He remains my true priority, focus, and hope.
{ 74 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Ana,
that is without any doubt the most thorough list about generating blog traffic. Who still can say that he or she has no clue what to write about and how ?
Thanks for sharing. I’m going to share this with my following on social media.
Take care
Oliver
That was exactly the point, Oliver.
For the most part, we already know how to generate all the traffic we will ever need; however, we lack in implementation department.
With a list like this, it’s hard to say that you still “have no idea”.
Glad you were able to stop by!
~Ana
OH WOW! Ana, this is one awesome list with some really great ideas that ANY blogger should be able to use.
Couldn’t help notice a conflict between points 5 & 8 though!
I know I’ll be using this as a reference often.
Stay inspired,
Michael
Thanks, Michael.
You’ll find a few contradictions here and there:).
The point?
To show how subjective blogging is. What is right for one audience, might not be right for another. Your blog, your call.
~Ana
I second Michael’s Wow ! Great List Ana.
I have come to the conclusion over the weekend that I need to really concentrate on a plan, and try not to go down too many rabbit holes.
This saves me the trouble of writing a list for post ideas, or guidelines , and is going to help me tremendously.
My favorites are 2, 26, and 202
Thanks
Neil
Thanks, Neil!
I think your blog definitely follows 2 and 26 and that’s a great niche to be in.
I am glad I was able to give you some ideas – that’s what I like to hear!!!
~Ana
Hello Ana, fantastic list, but there is one tip that stands out for me.
“Make it easy to share what you are doing”
I comment on many blogs and some of them make me jump through hoops to syndicate their content. Chances are all I will do is comment and that is such a waste, especially if I want to share their post.
I suggest a WordPress plugin called Digg Digg to allow for easy syndication. I also suggets you place Digg Diig at the top of your posts and another plugin like Bookmark and Share at the bottom.
That way you catch them coming and going
I agree, Peter.
I am one of those people who won’t do different bookmarking/social media sites one by one either. It just takes too long and my time is valuable.
That’s why I love blogs with OnlyWire plugin – I can share the post with ALL social outlets with one click.
Thanks for the great suggestion, Peter!
Ana I’m sure you left something out I just can’t think of it right now.
No seriously this is a Brainstorm 101 and a great post to read to get the juices flowing.
I will have to refer to this when I get short on ideas which can happen often so 202 for me OK? Thanks for all you do.
Steve
Thanks for cheering me up, Steve:).
I’ve read too many 101 lists, so to outdo them I had to work twice as hard.
~Ana
Wow Ana. These are great.
With all of these, there really isn’t reason why someone would want to blog. The proof is in the pudding.
I can’t help to mention my favorites are 7, 75, and 171.
Thanks for sharing this HUGE list.
Jerome Ratliff
Thanks, Jerome!
I love 7 “Write with “everybody is entitled to my opinion” attitude.” It’s very personal to me since my blog helped me discover my “voice”.
Wow that is one heck of a comprehensive list. I think the key is not to get excited that there are so many options and then implement none but to choose those that resonate with one and take action! Thanks for sharing so many awesome ideas.
~Marcus
You are so right, Marcus.
What’s the point if you don’t implement? I’d recommend the same: pick a couple and run with them.
~Ana
You’re right, if you can’t increase traffic to your blog with some of these ideas – you’re stuffed.
It’s also a timely reminder that there are a lot of ways to keep your blog fresh, relevant and interesting. Just applying a few of these suggestions is all it will take. Great list.
Sam
I really appreciate your feedback, Sam.
I love this list; I’ve used many of these ideas and got a great traffic bump.
I think many people have hard time with following through with something more so than with coming up with an idea.
Best,
Ana
Ana that is an awesome list!
Actually, I’m going to print it out. This list just got the creative juices flowing and I want to keep it handy.
Thanks!
Susanna
That’s a great idea, Susanna.
It’s all about how you put these ideas into practice; bookmarking it and never returning back won’t help your business much.
~Ana
Hey Ana,
As always full of value and you are still giving these secrets away for free, you are too good,
.
One of my favorites is to “Install OnlyWire plugin – simultaneous posting to many bookmarking sites.” With one click of the button, it saves time and you are sharing content to many sites. It is an awesome plugin.
Thanks for the value Ana!
Tommy D.
MLM Prospecting Hero
Hey, Tommy – I’ll come up with a fee chart just for you; it’ll will go into my retirement jar
.
I love OnlyWire as well. I just recently started using it and see how much time it saves and encourages people to bookmark my site simply because it’s so easy.
Thanks so much for stopping by, Tommy!
~Ana
Oh Wow, Ana! What a comprehensive list you are sharing here.
No more excuses for not achieving blogging success!
Thanks for all you do.
All the best,
Mavis Nong
I so appreciate you stopping by, Mavis; I really hope you were able to use a couple of nuggets for your blog.
~Ana
Wow Ana, that’s about as comprehensive a list as I’ve ever seen. It’s a good one to print out and tack to my wall. Ideas don’t come to me automatically, especially at 5:30 in the morning
I need a good list like this one. Thanks!
Glad could help, Liz – I think my list will look great on your wall!
~Ana
Thanks for the tips Anna ! I have shared this on facebook and twitter but will share it again for those who may not have paid attenion the first time.I found your list very helpful!
I do appreciate it, Kimberly.
Yes, I love my content shared, but I also love to help more people to get their creative juices going and bring more traffic to their blogs.
Tweeting and sharing on FB definitely helps!
Best,
Ana
And to think I didn’t know what to write about this morning!
Thank-you!
Have no fear, Ana is here!
Glad I could help, Greg:)
~Ana
Hello from Montana:
I can so tell that I would love you as a friend. Your posts are a hoot. I usually write about family relationships (both nurturing and toxic) but now am concentrating on Cyber Bullying. Yikes. Some people think cruel is cool. Not so.
Looking forward to sharing with you soon,
Judy H Wright aka Auntie Artichoke
Twitter link: http://www.Twitter.com/bullyadvocate (new steam-follow me please)
Thanks for stopping by, Judy.
I hope you’ll be able to use some of these tips to make more people aware of this tremendous problem.
Best,
Ana
Hi Ana,
you never cease to amaze me at the valuable content you make available on your website, no wonder you have so many loyal followers!
Thanks, John!
Nice article Ana. These are all great tips on how to increase your blog traffic. I also think that the more active you are the more traffic you will ultimately get. I am not really active at the moment thus I am not getting that much traffic. But I also think that traffic is not the most important thing.
Traffic is not something that will keep you blogging for a long time. Ultimately it’s about passion that will not only help to generate tons of traffic but that will also make you successful in life. Nice blog by the way
True, Julius, passion is what ultimately will keep you going.
However, those two go hand in hand – what’s the point of your passion if nobody sees it and reads about it. You definitely need traffic for that.
Pleasure to see you stop by my blog, Julius!
Well your point is valid. But having passion also means that you influence others. And that will ultimately spread and drive traffic to your blog, maybe it will just take longer.
Thats just my point of view. I am always the kind of slow-progress-guy, just in terms of my blog growth
No, I agree, Julius – it’s impossible to produce good content without passion and it’s impossible to be a long-term blogger without passion.
Thanks for starting a discussion – I love those!
~Ana
LOVED this, THANK YOU Ana!!!
You are so welcome, Jill; thanks for the comment!
~Ana
What a list Ana, I’ll have to pin it on my wall……….
I know it will make great wallpaper:)…
Thanks, Louise!
I have linked your blog through “com luv” link from other blog,You are listed all tricks about traffic generation.Reading this article is only not enough to generate more traffic,let me analyze all these things for my blogs wealth,Thanks for a great info…
Glad you found me, Vijay – feel free to add to my list if I missed something.
~Ana
This is a great list! I’m trying to blog more and more – writing guest posts and posting on my own blog – so this list is very helpful. Thanks for sharing Ana!
You are so very welcome, Abby – I love your blog!
Ana
Ana,
You knocked it out of the park this time.
The list will help greatly with our P.E.M. ( Plan, Execute, Measure ) strategy.
Already highlighted favorite tips, printed and posted next to my monitor
so they are readily visible and up front for implementation.
Also, thanks for the feedback on the Install OnlyWire plugin, will check it out.
One question and observation, doesn’t look like you are using commentLUV any more?
Oh, and I really like your tag “Please enjoy, implement, and share.”
Make it a great day,
Dennis
Lead, Follow and Share!
Hey, Dennis – the best compliment I can receive is to hear that someone found my post helpful.
I am not sure about CommentLuv; it should be working fine – maybe it was out for some reason? Seems to be working fine…
Thanks, Dennis!
Brilliant, to the point, just like this comment
Love your commenting style, Alex – if you don’t compliment yourself, who else would?
Thanks for stopping by.
~Ana
Hi there Ana, that’s what I call over-delivering, pushing the boundaries and smashing through the barriers!!! Your 202 list satisfied #6 for sure and too many others to count.
This is so helpful to so many bloggers, beginners and pros alike. Thanks for putting in the extra effort Ana. Your work is most appreciated. Be well, Steve D.
Pushing the boundaries all right…
I am very pleased you found my post helpful, Steve; would love to see you share with your followers!
Best,
Ana
lol…….basically everything and anything! There can be no excuses about subject matter now Ana.
You are so right, Dave – humongous, behemothic, bulky, colossal, cyclopean, elephantine, enormous, extensive, gargantuan, giant, gigantic, great, gross, humongous, immeasurable, immense, jumbo, leviathan, lusty, magnificent, mammoth, massive, mighty, mondo, monster*, monstrous*, monumental, mountainous, outsize, oversize, planetary, prodigious, stupendous, titanic, towering, tremendous, vast, walloping, whopping …
Thanks for stopping by.
Ana,
An absolutely wonderful post. 202 ideas were quite a lot to come up with I imagine. They seemed quite good and I got at least a few post ideas in my head just from reading through your list.
Thanks,
Steve
The great thing about Internet that it offers such a bottomless pit of information.
Writing this post was not hard, just took a long time. Every time I’d read a post with a great blog traffic tip, I’d “file” it away till I had enough ideas for this post.
I am very grateful for so many great bloggers/marketers out there that make writing these kind of posts possible.
Thanks for the comment!
~Ana
Hey Ana
That’s a great list and to be honest I could not even read the complete list.. Too biggy
But bookmarked for future reference and also shared on Twitter..
To be quite honest with you, Harsh, that was exactly the point: make the biggest and hopefully the most viral blog traffic tips list out there.
Hope I succeeded – time will tell.
Meanwhile, I have a resource that I myself often come back to when my mind is blank and I need an idea for a post
As always, thanks for stopping by.
~Ana
Ana, that is one awesome list.
No table left un-turned.
Application is all that a blogger needs to make all of this work.
Love this post
Chat soon
Dwayne
Thanks, Dwayne.
These are precisely the tips I used to bring down my Alexa ranking from several million to under 100K in under 2 months.
And now I am very happy to share it with anyone prepared to listen.
Thanks for stopping by!
~Ana
Huge and valuable list
. I’ll add one tip to my own: apply at least one tip every day.
I love it, Samuel – I will definitely consider adding it to the post.
~Ana
From the first day I seen this blog , I knew You were going to make some noise around here. I like being right.
You just crushed it Ana,
~Jonathan Sweeting~
I like it when you are right too, Jonathan!
Thank you!
I agree with Julius ultimately we are looking to connect with our audience so generating a lot of traffic is only a means to an end. Living out loud, living our passion, set yourself on fire with your passion and they will show up in droves.
Fabulous traffic generating tips. Thank you for going over and beyond in your posts.
Faith
You are very welcome, Faith – it’s good to see you on my blog again.
Passion is certainly one of the key ingredients to successful blogging – it’s impossible to stay on top of it otherwise.
~Ana
Ana,
Wow,what a great list., All of these great ideas put together as a great reference for blogging. I found your site through Faith’s post. I’m glad I stopped by for a read,
Val
Glad you stopped by, Val – hope to see you back soon.
Ana
Indeed this IS the Bible of Blogging. . . .thanks so much for your efforts!!
Thanks, Alison – I certainly enjoyed putting it together. Hope you use at least some of those tips!
Ana
Hi Ana,
I started reading this list, and it was just too much. So I’m bookmarking it so I can come back again and again to learn more and more.
Awesome list and a great resource! Thank you for sharing it with us.
All the best,
Alan
You are absolutely right, Alan.
It’s a lot to digest in one setting and it’s really not meant to be read that way.
I was hoping it would be more of a guide to come back to when looking for post ideas.
I appreciate you stopping by! See you back soon.
Wow! Great List Ana! Just what I needed to get started. Two thumbs Up!
Thanks, Rona! Only 2 though? I feel shortchanged…
Awesome list Ana – do you sleep? Confused me a bit with #5 and #8? Or were you testing to see if we were concentrating lol! As you know I’m a big fan of #14 myself – a bit of friendly humour goes along way
Cheers Kiaran
Sleep? What is that?
Yes, it’s meant to be that way. I wanted to show that some of these tips are very subjective; it all depends on the niche, the readers, your style.
Friendly humor is thy name, Kiaran; just look at your gravatar!
Ana
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