Now that everyone and his little sister have a blog, it is definitely time to figure out how to move traffic to YOURS. With so many different blogs to choose from, it is easy for your typical, run-of-the-mill blog to become a needle in a haystack. How can you make your blog the beach ball in the haystack? Read on to discover 10 ways to get traffic to your blog (if only there were another word for blog, blog, blog…).

1. Write posts people desire to read. Although this seems obvious, taking a quick look around many blogs you will find thousands upon thousands with too much personal information and not enough useful information. Do people really want to read about your cat? Or better yet, do you really want to attract the kind of people who want to read about your cat? Create timeless, conversational posts about relevant topics. Consider what you would want to read and write that!

2. Become THE expert on your topic. Research and stay current on your blog’s topic. If readers believe you have information and musings on the latest and greatest, they will come to you first. People do not want old news rehashed. They want to be informed of something new and cutting-edge.

3. Utilize Search Engine Optimization. Learn all you can about SEO, and use it for your blog much like you would use it to optimize a website. This means, place keywords in the URL to your blog, the title of your post, the body of your post, and within your post text links.

4. Don’t make your blogs too much like an advertisement. Readers feel used and abused when they visit a site thinking they will find useful information only to discover they are reading a blatant advertisement for some product or service. By making yourself an expert and providing thoughtful and thorough information, you are going to peak the interest of readers and make them WANT to learn more about your product.

5. Create some drama, controversy, and BUZZ. People love wars of words, some controversy here and there. It creates wanted buzz and develops readers who will return to your blog just to see if anything is brewing. Always allow comments on your blogs, and post comments on other blogs that will cause readers to want to visit your blog to see what you are all about.

6. Send notification of blog-updates via e-mail. For those potential readers who are not going to seek out a blog post, e-mail is a great way to reel them in. Use a free blog service or an auto-responder to invite readers and manage your reader list.

7. Of course, submit your blog to every search engine!

8. Make sure the link to your blog is on every piece of written communication you send. Include the link in your newsletters, brochures, business cards, in your e-mail signature, and in every post you make on various forums.

9. Turn your blog into an article. Create blog entries that can be easily adapted into articles, and place them in online article directories along with the link to your blog.

10. Blog often. You want people to know they can expect a blog from you daily or weekly. If you are inconsistent or rarely post a blog, it is difficult to develop a reader-base. Set a goal for your writing and stick to it.