When you’ve built a website or a blog you’ve most likely done it because you want it to succeed. That also probably means you have spent a good deal of time on it. Maybe you had a personalized design made or you found a template that was nice and seemed rarely used. You took the time to write out some posts, fill in all the pages with the proper information, made sure your contact form was working and your ads were in place. In other words, you were ready to settle into the groove of being an internet entrepreneur.
So, now what?
All of the pieces to the puzzle are complete and you’re adding posts by the dozen, so why aren’t people visiting your website? Like the title suggests, you might love your website but you find yourself wondering why you’re the only one that does.
The good news is that if you’re site is as good as you think it is, you’re probably just suffering from new site blues. When people start out with their first blog they rarely (and I mean rarely) are lucky enough to see substantial numbers come out of the woodwork. Most people have to plug away at building a site and a community. They have to network, work the social networking sites, and hope for a couple of breaks. It doesn’t come easy and the number one mistake that failing bloggers make, especially new failing bloggers, is thinking that it should come easy.
The truth is, there could be a number of reasons why you aren’t getting a maximum amount of exposure. Finding out what those reasons are and doing something about them is what is going to set the professional bloggers apart from the failed bunch that have to go back to 9 to 5.
So, what do I do to get visitors?
Social Networking
One of the best free methods of advertising you have is known as social networking. Sites like Digg, Stumble Upon, and even Myspace or Facebook can be invaluable to a blogger. Sure, you will have to spend some time working on these sites. You will need to make friends, digg articles, and promote yourself, but if you do these things you won’t have any problems getting visitors out of the deal. In fact, in most cases, you will end up with visitors that comment and come back to your site. Just make sure you aren’t spamming people in the process because that will do just the opposite of what you want. It’s great that you love your site, but don’t be obnoxious about it. There is nothing wrong with mentioning your blog or your new articles, but if you’re begging for people to digg your articles you might want to re-evaluate your methods.
Twitter
If you’ve been living under a rock you might not know what Twitter is. Otherwise, you’re likely well aware that it is a type of up-to-the-minute mini-blog that explains what you are doing, where you’re at, or what’s going on in your life. In addition to posting these things, you can use Twitterfeed to add your RSS and send your updated blog posts to your twitter list. Like other social networking sites people can follow you to see what you’re up to. This allows them current information about your blog, so they can decide whether they should subscribe to it or not. This is great because people will click on links that they are interested in and could have missed out on.
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