photo credit: YIM Hafiz
This is another blogging question I received from one of my subscribers.

In full, they stated/asked:

In my blog I write pertinent articles, have a pretty good style (those that read and respond give me accolades).

I practice SEO as much as possible, without cramming keywords in everywhere and making the article disjointed. Yet my numbers are stagnant – no real growth!

What can I do with an established, but stagnant blog, to raise audience numbers?

This is a very common situation.

Your blog gains momentum and you quickly reach 500 or 1000 visitors a day.

But 1 year later you see no improvement.

I believe the majority of bloggers experience this.

In order to answer this question, I am making two assumptions:

  1. Your content is top notch. You say it is…so this is more than an assumption but I felt it needed saying. You need to be providing great content that your visitors want.
  2. You are very happy with your headline writing.

You see, the headline is viewed in a number of places like “readers”, search engines and ‘alltop’.

If the headline is not enticing, then no-one will want to clink on the link and read more.

Here’s a great post from CopyBlogger about headlines – it’s certainly worth viewing (does the headline entice you to click?):

7 Headline Writing Links That Will Revolutionize Your Content Marketing

Having mentioned my 2 assumptions here are some steps you could take to gain more traffic:

1. Continue to publish great content that your visitors want.

This is a given, I know but it really is the ‘greatness’ of the content that drives more traffic.

2. Social Media.

Love it or hate it, social media is here and working. There are numerous social media accounts available but I would stick with the main 3:

Twitter

FaceBook

G+

Create accounts with these 3 and ensure people can connect with you via your site.

Make sure you connect with others.

Share other blog owner’s posts.

Also ensure your visitors can easily social bookmark your blog posts with one click.

The amount of traffic this could generate varies by a huge amount. It really depends upon how many followers you have, the content, the title…

3. Blog commenting.

Add valuable blog comments at 10 different blogs in your niche, daily.

You may not get much traffic from this so you may think it’s not worthwhile. The amount of effort required may not provide the traffic results you want.

But commenting is not just about direct traffic. Depending upon where you comment, comments can provide backlinks which, in turn, can help with your ranking in the search engines.

Plus it gets your brand published around the internet and that’s a good thing…assuming you are adding great comments.

4. Allow people to subscribe to your blog feed via a reader AND email.

Subscribers have preferences. Some like “readers”, some like email. So make sure, you offer both options. Then each time you publish a post, they will be notified and the majority will visit your site.

5. Send an email to your list about your latest blog post.

What do you mean you don’t have a list?

I don’t actually know if the person who asked this question does or not but if YOU don’t, start building one now. Use a service provider like Aweber.

Then write to your list enticing them to come over and visit your latest blog post.

6. Ask your ‘personal network’ to help generate some traffic by Tweeting or ‘liking’ your post.

Don’t do this for every post – you could become a nuisance. But asking them once a month is no big deal. You’ll be surprized how many are willing to help…especially if you make it easy for them to do with one click!

Ensure you return the favour!


Related post

Create a ‘blog pack’ to Build Traffic

7. Use Blog Carnivals.

Not a big traffic generator this one but I use a submission tool each week to add one of my blog posts to numerous Blog Carnivals in minutes. It generates some traffic and it also provides some great backlinks.

8.  Guest posting.

This could be, by far the best way to generate more traffic.

Do you guest post?

Do you have a guest post plan?

9. Interview.

Create a podcast where you interview the most important person possible in your niche.

Not only will you promote the post but they will as well.

This does take time, preparation and effort but depending upon who you interview, it could create a lot of traffic.

10. Try videos.

Instead of just writing blog posts, try some videos. See what reaction you get. It may work for your type of visitor.

11. Encourage visitors to return.

Your awesome content will entice them but don’t turn them off with an unprofessional blog. De-clutter your design, reduce the number of ads, and show lots of white space.

Also try doing a “series of posts” so people will want to return so they don’t want to miss what’s coming next.

That’s it…11 ways to generate traffic to an established stagnant blog.

Having Said That…Your Content Needs To Be Improved

If you are doing the above but still not gaining traffic…it could be a content issue.

Many people assume their content is good and many still have traffic problems.

Why?

Because their content is not as good as they THINK it is.

Now before you get all offended, keep this in mind:

Nobody is as good as they THINK they are…including me!

How would you answer the question?

What can I do with an established, but stagnant blog, to raise audience numbers?”

Please share your views in the comments below.