In the beginning blogging & internet marketing of websites can be a hard slog, putting in hours and not getting the readership and rewards you aspire to, which is why I decided to share with the blogging universe a few of the secrets that over time has made, many of my blogs & websites some of the most popular on the internet in their respective niche.

Blog because you are passionate about your niche area, and not to make money!  In recent years we have seen literally hundreds of thousands of blogs and websites that have been put up for the sole purpose of trying to make a quick buck. Well guess what these are the ones that fail first. It takes a lot of time dedication and commitment to make your blog successful let along make any decent money from them. If you love and truly know the niche you are writing about, It makes the blogging experience so much easier and enjoyable especially in those first few months when you wonder if anyone will ever read your blog or website.

Post regularly, Now depending on your niche regular could mean a few posts a day, or for more in-depth and technical blogs or websites regular could be 3 posts a week. Think about what type of blog or website you have and decide now how often you plan to post, then stick to it. If you don’t post regularly you will not capture regular readers. 

Develop friends and relationships with other bloggers, Developing relationships with other bloggers in your niche is extremely important, you should not see them as competitors but rather partners.

Readers of blogs and websites don’t read just one blog but many, developing a relationship with a fellow blogger is a two way street, both parties have something to gain by the relationship.  When you are starting out begin by doing some research and finding as many blogs that cover the same niche as yourself, pick out the best then send them an email mentioning you liked their blog and you also run a blog on the same topic, and would like to add their blog to your blog roll, then send them your URL so they can reciprocate.

Another option is if they have written a piece you like write about it on your blog with a link back to their original post.

You might write something like the following “Jerry over at ILoveToBlog has written a great post about how to turn one off visitors into regular readers, after following his tips you will be sure to have double the number of visitors in no time, you can read the full story here”

Eventually the relationship between blogs may even develop further with competitions, promotions, or offering other bloggers to become a guest blogger on your site occasionally while you are on holidays, and vice versa.

Encourage comment and discussion, This is all about developing relationships with your readers, and between your readers, in your post you should always encourage readers to comment about what you have written, this make the blogging process more than just a one way street, and gives readers the opportunity to ask you and other readers questions.

Competitions, promotions, and free stuff are other great ways to build relationships with your readers.

Have fun you don’t always post on topic, you could occasionally post a joke, recipe, picture, or anything other than your niche that you think readers in your target demographic may find appealing.  April fool’s day is one great example of this, where you can get your readers thinking you’re going to give it all up or buy a house in the outback to farm snails.

If you say you are going to do something do it, if you don’t you will come off looking uncommitted and unprofessional.

Keep active, you would have heard the analogy a rolling stone never gathers moss, over the years I have found the best way to achieve my blogging and article writing goals is to always keep active and try not to stop, I don’t mean never have a break or holiday, what I am saying, decide how many hours a day or week you will blog, a commit to it, without interruptions.

Keep yourself fit, it is a sad that over the last year some of the most popular bloggers have died, and it all comes down to their life style, sitting in front of a computer all day drinking lots of coffee & coke, not eating healthy foods, and getting very little sunlight or exercise. If you plan to become a full time blogger or do blogging after work why not take out gym membership and set aside 2 hours in your day to do some exercise then have a healthy meal, if the gym is not your scene try going for a good long hour long walk or bike ride. Personally I find exercise just before lunch energizing refreshing my mind and picking me up for the rest of the day.

Planning as far as I am concerned is one of the reasons why many bloggers don’t succeed. Planning allows you to layout your dreams and goals for the future, allowing you to stay focused on what you have set out as being important. Personally I break my planning into the following time frames

From Long term (greater than one year) then drill down to 12, 6, 3, 1 month 1 week and 1 day. With long term planning I look at where I want to be in the future with blogs/website and what I plan to achieve financially I then use this master plan to direct the rest of my planning.

So following these tips how long should it take you to start seeing reasonable traffic? This all depends on your niche and the amount of competition, but if you follow my tips above and you are covering a popular niche with not too much competition you should be able to see at least 1000/day within 6 months.