There are many strategies and blogging techniques you can adopt to increase your blog's traffic, earn credibility as a blogger, as well as create viral marketing buzz for your weblog. You can incorporate as many of these techniques as you can. Be consistent, be yourself and update your blog as often as possible.


Who is Your Target Audience? Write Posts That They Will Want To Read and Comment To.

If you write blogs that people enjoy reading, they will reward you by returning to your blog often. Make your posts conversational and encourage commenting. Write often so that both readers and search engines spiders visit your blog more often. Write about topics that people would want to read and share. Be relevant and succinct.


Be Yourself, Be Honest and Be Passionate About What You Write About

Your passion will come through in your writing. Write about stuff you feel strongly about. More importantly be yourself and be unique. Honesty is the best policy. Write about what you know and what you care about. Do not write about a certain hot topic just because everyone else is writing about it, unless you add your own personal twist to the story that makes your post unique and different.


Do Not Always Be Predictable. Consider the Anti-Trend and Opinion

If everyone is writing about how great a company is consider a controversial post that discusses what they are doing wrong. Think outside the box but corroborate your facts with evidence and support.


Read and Comment on other Blogs that are in your Target Niche.

Don't write things like "nice blog" or "great post." Write intelligent, useful comments with a link to your blog.


Optimize Your Posts for Search Engines

• Make sure your blog URL contains the primary keyword you want to optimize for
• Use your primary keywords in the title of your post
  
• Use your secondary keywords in the body of your post
• Use your keywords in the anchor text of links in the body of your posts

Build Links To Your Blog

• Link to your blog from each page on your main website e.g Place a link on your site's footer
• Trackback to other blogs in your posts
• Post legitimate comments on other blogs with related topics
• Offer to exchange links with other similarly themed blogs and sites

Build Synergies with Other Bloggers

Give credit where it is due and put links to your favorite bloggers on your site. If they like yours, they will link back to you.


Create Buzz For Your Blog  & Build Viral Marketing

• Create a controversy around your blog or its topic.Think different but be honest.
  
• Distribute merchandise with your blog's website.
• Write a press release about something newsworthy and tie it in with your blog topic.
• Allow readers to comment about your posts and give their opinion.
  

Edit Your Blog Posts to Create Articles

One of the best techniques for promoting your website is to write articles and submit them to article directories and article websites and social media sites and article aggregators.

Create an Email List by Gathering Subscribers and Contact Them. Answer your Email Immediately.

The number one communication tool that people use is their email. Use it and answer your email immediately.

Submit Your Blog and RSS Feed To Directories

If you publish a blog you should submit your blog and RSS feed to big directories like Yahoo and DMOZ.org (Google Directory), as well as the numerous blog directories and search engines.

Link - Link - Link

• Add a link to your blog in your email signature file.
• Put a link to your blog on every page of your website.
• If you publish a newsletter, make sure you have a link to your blog in every issue.
• Include a link to your blog as a standard part of all outgoing correspondence such as autoresponder sequences, sales letters, reports, white papers.
• Print your blog URL on your business cards, brochures and fliers.
  

Use RSS for your Blog Syndication

Make sure you have an RSS feed URL that people can subscribe to. The acronym RSS means Really Simple Syndication, a feed that lists updates of websites or blogs available for syndication. RSS feeds may be read using aggregators (news readers). RSS feeds may show headlines only or both headlines and summaries. Users can subscribe to your RSS feed and read your content on their news reader, so encourage them to do so.

Post New Blogs As Often As Possible

Write new blogs often to keep attracting your subscribers to come back and refer you to others in their networks. Make sure you include links to other blogs, articles and websites in your weblogs. Make a commitment to blog everyday. 15 minutes a day can help increase your traffic as new content attracts search engine spiders. Put it on your calendar as a daily task and you will reap traffic benefits of doing so.


Use Trackback Links When Quoting Others

A trackback will help your blog since it sends a message from one server to another server, letting it know that you have posted a reference to their post. This can help both your search engine optimization and traffic generation strategy since a link to your blog is now included on their site.


Be An Expert

Learn enough to become the expert in your field. Read and research as much as you can on your topic. Talk to other experts and form your opinion. Make sure you share your expertise with the world so people recognize it and respect on your opinion and views.


Write Timeless Blogs

Write blogs that can be read a year or two from today and still be relevent.


Be The News Breaker

If you consistently are the first to write about something, users will notice and come to you first. So break the news and be the firestarter. Be among the first with a great blog on your topic, then encourage others to blog on the same topic and comment on your weblog. Announce the news and give your honest opinion about it and its impact on your audience.


Be Controversial

If you disagree with a fellow blogger or any policies a company or individual has adopted, then make sure you blog about it and dare them to write about your opinion on their blog as well as have them comment on your blog. The most interesting blogs are the ones that do not follow the rules.

Be Approachable

Give your entire audience a chance to meet you in person, whether it is at an expo, speaking engagement, industry conference or workshop. If they want coaching or advice, be reasonable with your pricing.


Include Polls, Graphics, Photos and Visual Aids to Get Your Point Across


Use Social Media: Socially Bookmark and Tag all your Blogs

Use Del.icio.us, Digg, StumbleUpon, Furl, Reddit, Technorati and post all your photos on Flickr.


Coin a Term or a Slogan that is Consistent with your Brand


If  You Have Ads on your Blog, they must be Relevent and Enhance Your Content.

If your ads do not enhance your blogs, remove them.


Have your Own Website Domain Name for your Blog

Invest in a domain name relevant to your topic. Do not rely on 3rd party websites since they can pull the plug if they wanted to. Build link popularity to your website that you own.


Your Site Must Have Great Navigation and have all Technological Plug-ins

Tweak your site to have all components required to optimize the user experience and get your message across. Use technology to help you drive traffic to your site.


Do Not Oversell Your Business and Be Patient

Do not promote yourself and your business at the expense of the reader's attention. Your credibility and knowledgebase is your asset.


Write an eBook and Give it away for Free