With blogging, the most obvious things that we should all do are usually the ones we forget to. If you are looking to increase the popularity of your blog in 2008, here are some simple things you need to start doing:
Email Subscriptions – if you are using Feedburner, you are probably already using the email subscription service. What you may have not noticed is that when you use the Feedburner email subscription service, when someone gives their email to Feedburner to subscribe to your blog it doesn’t mean that they are a subscriber. They usually get a follow-up email from Feedburner verifying that they subscribed, but many people end up missing this email and never fully subscribe. So if you log into your Feedburner account and go under email subscriptions you will notice that some email address are not active. For those non-active email addresses, take them and re-subscribe them to your blog. This way they get another verification notice to subscribe to your blog and many of them will end up subscribing.
SEO – a lot of people claim that they are SEO experts or that their blog is already optimized for search engines. Yes, WordPress is not that bad out of the box, but there are still a lot of modifications you need to make to your WordPress blog if you want more search love. If you want to make sure your blog is SEO friendly, check out this video.
Participate on other blogs – if you are trying to make your blog popular, you are probably concentrating fully on your blog instead of other competing blogs. A great way to increase the popularity of your blog is to find all your competitor blogs and start participating on them. By placing valuable comments on them others will find you and most likely subscribe to your RSS feed because they are targeted visitors.
Share some love – don’t expect to be popular if you are not willing to link out. If you want others to link to you or start reading your blog then start linking to them. When you link to others they may end up linking back to you or they may end up finding your blog interesting and start reading it.
What’s your edge – if you want people to read your blog you need something that differentiates yourself from the competition. This could be your attitude, your content, or anything else like that. But if you don’t have something that differentiates yourself from the competition then it is going to be hard to grow your readership.
Although these tips are basic, hopefully they will come in value to you during 2008. Just think about them every once in a while and you will start seeing growth in your blog traffic.
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The Accidental Millionaires 
Progress and Completion 
6 Things I Learned From Sifting Through 724 Blogger Emails 
{ 113 comments… read them below or add one }
I agree with the whole participation thing, but I think that the other thing that’s needed is respect. Time and again on my blog I get people e-mailing me after 3 or 4 posts asking me to promote their blog for free. They also leave comments with keyword rich titles, or put a signiture in their comment with 2 or 3 links in it. I feel that if you are to truly turn a blogger you like into a reader of your blog, you’ve got to not only provide an intelligent mind, but also be respectful and not take more than you deserve, certainly not to begin with.
Good to see you are still working after getting the black card. I like a few of these tips. I am going to try and find a few blogs that are like mine to steal people from
I mean share people with. While I do that, everyone else can DIGG and STUMBLEUPON my latest posts. 
Sweet tips! I just went into my feedburner account to send emails to unconfirmed subscribers. Thanks.
These simple tips are more than just simple. They’re basically the holy grail for getting traffic to a blog. Yes, there is more to it, but blogs can get successful just from these 5.
Shoe, you should link to all the blogs in one post
Now that would get some attention 
-Mike
I always enjoy reading the simple, “backbone” tips that are as was stated by Sly “the holy grail for getting traffic.”
I find that most of us new bloggers see people like ShoeMoney and automatically try to emulate them, but we can’t because we need to learn the basics ( as delivered in this post).
My new philosophy: Pants first THEN shoes!
Intriguing pictures and videos with a theme.
It works wonders on social sites and visitors people loyal
I AM edge
You gotta give love to get love, it’s like that everywhere.
that’s so true, if the comments are so blatantly like that i just nix them
and then update frequently, because he has that much time
Initially, I felt like you are giving away all of the secrets! But, you really only touched on some basic things to do. Awesome job! Now, the real players will dig to find the rest of the story.
I agree with this. Since my blog is called MrBaconpants.com I post an image with bacon in it with every post. Even if the topic is not about bacon I still somehow incorporate it. Reads seem to enjoy it.
I think blogs are a great way to introduce yourself and your business as well as networking with other network marketers. I often read and comment on blogs and I do that with my blog at http://mlmbreakthrough.com. It’s generally for Melaleuca distributors but we also discuss many marketing issues and try to keep up with the latest marketing trends. Diane
Those were great tips, I’ve been working on finding links, exchanging links and everything, I hope I’ll gather some visitors and readers from that
great secrets, I’m working on link building right now!
Neil, thanks for the re-subscription tip. On one blog I have about 35% of the people sitting there as unverified.
Yes, very good information here. Good job!
Great tips dude sir.
Good Points.
I didn’t think of the feedburner subscription technique so thanks for that
Nice. I love tips. Especially in lists..
This is a great post, im following your advice now by posting a comment on your blog!
Nice tips!
AMEX black card SuperStar…
Thanks.
I might just have write these down or save them to notepad…a few of these I do anyway, but they are so simple its easy to forget.
good advise and im sure it will help a lot of new bloggers.
“For those non-active email addresses, take them and re-subscribe them to your blog.” that’s great tip.
This is a really good post, simple but to the point,
I think all of these are really valid ways of increasing
readership.
Fabien
Great idea about the Feedburner subscriptions. Thanks.
I agree, a lot of people spend a lot of time and energy chasing after a fantasy 100% fool-proof system and end up neglecting the basics: content and patience.
Nice job with the article Neil (and congratulations for the AMEX card
), I couldn’t agree more: a lot of times, they key to achieving worthwhile results in the long run is having the common sense to uderstand that you need to master the basisc before taking things to another level.
Or you could use these unethical tactics
http://www.wallstreetfighter.com/2008/01/8-unethical-ways-to-improve-traffic-to.html
I know you use FeedBurner for your main feed. Do you suggest using it for your comments feed?
Thanks,
Sam
I think it all begins and ends with being different. This is how I have built my blogs and it always showed excellent results.
Good post for beginners I guess.
Okay Shoe, I’ll take your advice and send you a little “link love.”
http://www.thewisdomjournal.com/Blog/2008/01/05/weekend-roundup-2/
Very good points!
I never get why it’s so hard for people to show some link and comment LOve – oh well
It is always important to bring something new with your project, to innovate or to at least improve on an existing concept, but there are a few basic aspects which should never be overlooked as well.
Great post. I really believe in the principle that if you want to establish yourself in the social web, you must be willing to interact on other blogs and don’t just be fixated on yours. Thanks for the great post!
I just submitted a comment! Did it go through?
If commentors get too bold I delete them or edit them. I had someone post an affiliate link in their name, that’s a little much now.
This comment is not related to the post but I am very impressed on you making more than 100k in a month from Adsense alone. No wonder the picture was most views by visitors.
This comment is not related to the post, but I am very impressed by you making more than 100k in a month from Google Adsense alone. No wonder your picture with the Adsense check is most viewed by visitors.
Great idea about checking on inactive Feedburner email subscribers. I’ve added that to my Weekly Review, along with reviewing Akismet spam for any genuine comments.
Imagine alot of comments in a post about commenting and linking back to a post. who’d a thunk.
They are 5 simple steps. But these steps may be too difficult for some people.
Basic tips but deep meaning. It is always nice to start the year by looking back to the basic.
Whats up with blogs.
There is alot more niches out there then just talking about blogs.
thanks for the tips!
That’s exactly the point: they aren’t secrets, they are actually common sense approaches which end up being overlooked by people in their search what they think are “sure-win secrets”.
The picture in question has definitely helped this blog a lot as far as branding is concerned and a lot of people still associate Jeremy’s image with it, even though he is now earning a lot more than that on a daily basis through other projects.
Indeed, the basics represent the foundation for your future marketing efforts. As with anything else, an online project built on a shaky foundation doesn’t stand a chace in the long run
Most principles related to promoting blogs are relevant as far as other types of websites are concened as well. A blog is a platform, you can have blogs related to any niche.
You can… but I personally do not even offer a comment feed.
Thanks for the great tips Neil. I must confess that I haven’t done a lot to drive traffic to my blog and it’s definitely on my must do list for this year.
nothing new here .
I decided to show others about your post.
Great advice.
I totally agree with you. Some times it´s tempting to leave a couple of links but then I think will not even read the post because you just se a couple of links in the comment. Do you remove those comments?
I didn’t even know there’s a way to check your reader’s email addresses, thank you so much, and I discovered more than 40 of them with unverified status. You saved me, thanks!
Great post. I had never seen the video and it made a lot of sense.
Have to agree – email subscriptions are so easy to get and provide great traffic.
These are fantastic suggestions. I’ve always wondered what to do about the newsletter subscription issue. I don’t use feedburner…I use aweber, but I still have the same problem. About 7 right now that have not confirmed their subscription. I had never even thought about re-entering the info. Thanks! Now I’m on my way to watch that video on SEO.
I don’t have a problem with people leaving links in the comments as long as they’re not a redirect or to an affiliate product. That’s crossing the line for me.
Some good, solid tips.
Very helpful tips. I look forward to increasing my traffic A LOT in 2008. Thanks for the inspiration.
Very helpful tips – let’s start to increase traffic.
Very informative.
My edge you ask? So having clients that make over $100K/month on their websites who resort to me for for ALL their online marketing ventures doesn’t qualify me!? Damn.. What if I cuss up a storm like Zed Shaw and tell everyone to f*&$# off?
LOL!! I like this tactic the best :
“Go into every comment section for the top 200 posts in Reddit and type “Your Mama” with link back to your site. Sure to draw attention and clicks. People can’t help but wonder what’s behind a linked “Your Mama” quote.”
Those are some definite good tips at generating more traffic to ones blog. If we all follow these 5 simple steps everyones blog traffic should increase in 2008. More traffic equals more money. Good luck everyone for 2008.
Sincerely,
Jamie Boyle
When you visit other blogs and make clever comments make a lot of clever comments on a lot of posts. To get to their top comments list.
These tips can help you build a solid foundation but you should, as Jeremy has suggested as well, always have an edge.
It’s the tit for tat thing .. the key to good link building ..
Haha.. outstanding. Don’t be shy about it.
Some people just like to spam and people usually don’t like it.
Good idea and a way to attract more visitor.
Interesting blog.
If you want your blog to be more famous than you will need to have different and good content so that readers will enjoy visiting your blog.
Thanks for the feedburner guides.
exactly! This is why Top commentators is important (and why I have it on http://www.joeychgo.com)
I got one of those, “I totally love your blog” posts once…with like 6 links at the bottom…Instead of deleting it – I figured I would tick the guy off more by deleting all but 2 of his links…
(it’s a pain in the butt to write all those out…lol)
I got the first one of whats to be many I’m sure of those spam comments. Good post neil, thanks for guesting over here big fan!
Neil, I agree that carving out a niche for yourself or “finding your edge” is a major part of blog traffic. Just look at Bill Slawski. Don’t know if you’ll be speaking or attending at SMX West but hope to catch ya around.
Excellent post man, thanks so much as usual!
Good idea with the feedburner tip – I will have to check that out…
A blogger must his heart into what he is doing, otherwise his blog may appear like a barren land on this web planet. Devotion is the key word.
cool, its nice to see you giving away some of your methods so freeley
You’re right about that…He has probably recieved more business due to the check then the check value itself!
The last tactic is a gem: <>
I used to spend a good deal of time clearing out spam comments, but Akismet has done a good job since I installed. Its killing abuot 60-90 a day now.
Yes that right but some time we only focus to traffic to our site and do not care about another blog
Im learning more about this SEO every day and beginning to realize my mistakes firstly by entering a crowded niche. Well time to start again
Thanks for the information. Very much informatvie
Hi, Thank for the tips and hope this tips will help me to increase my blog traffic….
Defintely good tips… Content is king; without it, there ain’t much sense in taking on all the other aspects of marketing.
This is a really great piece of advice – nobody ever thinks to post links of other blogs to their own blogs in hopes of getting a link back. Great tips on here!
Thanks for the advice. I was wondering if you can check out my blog and tell me what I’m missing
Thanks
Dave
I can’t believe the utilization of Web 2.0 isn’t a step here. Maybe it’s step 6 and Shoemoney just wanted the top 5. Who knows.
Can you tell me how to go about getting links to and from my blog and other people’s blogs? Is it just a matter of getting involved in their discussions and posting comments on the webpages or is there something to set up almost like you would an affiliate link?
Thanks for your input?
Great ideas. I really enjoyed this post. I was not aware that you could see which subscribers had not verified, in Feedburner. I already am putting this advice into action.
Are you going to write a follow up? I am sure that you have many more ideas to share. I would be very interested in learning from such a successful blogger and online marketer as yourself.
Found this post on google looking for yourblogsite.com Cheers
A Link To Yourblogsite.com
Very interesting post. I dabbled into SEO a few weeks back and the results are pretty good
My blog is only 4 days old but so far I’m upping my numbers daily – most be all the pics of my boobs. <— lie
Anyway, I did notice today that when I commented on blogs I saw a lot more traffic on mine so I'm going to stick to that for now. My babies can live off their own fat for a while, right? Isn't that why they HAVE fat??
I agree! I have been doing this myself.
2 years passed and that still works
I share with all of you some tips for getting a lot of traffic to your blogs:
Tip 1: Make a good content
This point is very important
Tip 2: Make a brand around your blog
This point is very important because your visitors return to your blog in the future.
Tip 3: Get high quality backlinks
This point is very important because Google is a major search engine.
Tip 4: Promote your site on social websites like facebook, myspace and news aggregators like Digg.
Tip 5: Post frequently
Tip 6: Be patient
This is the most important tip because only with years of hard work you see a good results.
I see this older post is still relevant. Thanks for the ideas.
Thanks for the tips. I will try to be more active in the blog community from now on. Thanks again.
Thank you for the tips. I especially agree with the one about guest posting on other blogs, it really helps to generate more traffic.
I was questioning if you recognize of the area to gain a fantastic facebook or twitter structure?
Thanks for the tips. I’m going to try the feedburner one just now
This is some very interested information. I will send some of my friends this way to check it out. They were looking for ways to get traffic and it has help me out a lot to. Great Job !
The most important factor that i have noticed really works while building my website for celebrities all around the world: LINK building with other sites
its greatly increases your page rank.
I have a lot celebrity pictures in my site, so second thing is when you add pictures to your website you should always give them “ALT” tag so search engines would know that does your pictures describe.
It greatly affected my google search engine traffic, right now i have almost 54% traffic from search engines (famouscelebritypicture.com)
This is very interesting post for newbies to get touch of seo for their websites
GUD LUCK everybody!
This is really a great tips. I will follow some them to my blog. And thanks for sharing this tips.