As a blogger one of your goals might be to become popular. You might be able to do this by [optimizing your blog](http://www.pronetadvertising.com/articles/optimizing-your-blog-for-search-engines.html) or by using the diverse [social mediums](http://www.stumbleupon.com) out there today. These methods are great and can really boost your popularity, but they are usually not in your control. The one thing that you have in your control is the content on your blog, so here are some ideas on how you can increase your popularity through your content.
###Break news
News spreads through the blogosphere like a wildfire. If the news is hot everyone else will start writing on it and link back to where they found it. In most cases it is not easy to break news due to thousands of people trying to do the same thing. But if you can find the time to break news people will link to your blog as well as read it on a regular basis so they can be up-to-date on the latest happenings.
###Post on weekends
There is a good chance that your readers also read other blogs. Because of the sheer number of blogs that post on a daily basis they probably don’t have time to read all of them. If you post when your readers have time, such as the weekends, there is a good chance that they will read your blog. Look around at all of the blogs in your industry, there is a good chance that most will not post on weekends. I know that some may not agree with this idea, but it is something to consider if you have the time on weekends.
###Write timeless posts
Try not to only write blog posts with a lifespan of 1 week, mix it up a little by writing on things that are timeless. Those posts might not be a smash hit right out of the gate, but they might become popular a couple months down the road. So try to also write things that can last for longer then 1 day or 1 week.
###Teach don’t sell
A lot of people are starting to blog because they want to make money. There is nothing wrong about making money or even blogging to make money, but try not to make a [sales pitch](http://www.copyblogger.com/don%e2%80%99t-sell%e2%80%a6-teach/) in your blog posts. If you try to educate and teach people through your blog, it is possible that people will think of you as an authority in your industry which can lead to all kinds of great opportunities.
###Join in on conversations
Emailing out bloggers and asking them for links can be an effective approach to increase your traffic. But another good way to increase your popularity is by joining in on conversations. A good example of this is when Rohit Bhargava wrote [5 Rules of Social Media Optimization](http://rohitbhargava.typepad.com/weblog/2006/08/5_rules_of_soci.html); after thousands of [people saw](http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2006/08/13/rules-of-social-media-optimization/) it and started adding to it the list grew to the [17 rules of Social Media Optimization](http://rohitbhargava.typepad.com/weblog/2006/08/adding_the_17th.html).
Making a blog popular is a challenging proposition especially with all the new blogs popping up every day. The best thing to do is write quality, useful content about topics that really interest you, remember people are waiting to hear what you have to say, don’t waste their time!
Making your blog popular through content
Great advice Neil, especially the bit about timeless posts. Do you have any advice on how to increase feed subscriptions, other than the giant (but nice) RSS button on each post?
Thanks again for the great article!
Monjurul, you can also create a call to action at the end of your blog posts.
If I am not mistaken you also use FeedBurner and you may want to double check to see if you are using all the proper [feed settings](http://www.pronetadvertising.com/articles/my-feedburner-options.html) to insure maximum compatibility.
Nice.. Definitly the last one counts the most I think
Wow. This hit digg the moment I needed it. Thanks for the advice. I’ll keep this in mind when I’m expanding.
Thanks alot for your tips, Break news like Google News isn’t it. subscribe to Google alert an you’ll get all the latest headline.
Post on weekends but after being dugg, everybody will post on weekend Neil.
Like the timeless posts you mentioning and the rest
You missed out the ubiquitous “Make Lists”, though I guess that’s self evident…
Sh*t.. I think I just engaged in number 5 of *your* list.
Oh well I guess you’ll all come to check out my mad content now huh?
Neill,
Don’t forget about responding to comments! There’s nothing more insulting than visiting someone’s blog several times, and making a contribution to the conversation, only to be ignored. It’s not always possible, but try idea to answer early and often, particularly if your blog is not yet established. Post and wait for the first response, then engage that person. The interaction encourages more people in. No tricks, just hard work, a bit of passion, and real conversation.
Ken, you make a good point about the interaction. You should always try to respond to comments and I try to do that when I have something insightful to say.
Thanks for the tips … I’ll put them to use.
I think it is very true to teach not to sell. This is something I myself am trying to do more of. I believe the really good blogs strongly follow this rule.
great article… just a question though. a few weeks ago i stumbled upon a person’s blog who complained about being constantly emailed by this one guy who was trying to generate traffic for his site… by emailing bloggers asking them for links and asking them to drop by. essentially, spam. i think it’s also good to make a policy of reading and commenting on people’s sites with similar content- chances are, the person posting similar content probably enjoys reading about the same, and leaving your link out there for other people who read their sites… or is that too obvious?
Yvo, if the link can benefit others then I would leave it. I would also try link to specific blog post and not link to a blog homepage.
Thanks for the advice! The tip about posting in the weekend can be very useful. If I look at the rss feeds I follow, they mostly don’t post a lot in the weekend. Let’s try it…
Thanks for the tips about posting on weekends. Having published an ezine in the past, my best results were on weekdays. However, blogs are different and I’ll give weekends a try.
I’ve got so much more out of conversations than a boost in popularity recently. It’s a great way to make friends. Kind of like a productive Bebo!
nice post.. i have a new blog coming up.. and i really like the advice that you provide from time to time..
Thanks. These tips have been very helpful. Will try and optimise by using them.
“Making your blog popular through content” — is there another way to make your blog popular other than through “content”?
M E-L, you can also [optimize](http://www.pronetadvertising.com/articles/optimizing-your-blog-for-search-engines.html) your blog for the search engines.
Yes, but that doesn’t make your site popular, it only generates traffic. If you don’t have good content, no SEO strategies are going to help.
M E-L, you can still optimize your blog if you don’t have good content. Good content just makes the SEO that much more effective.
Can you also clarify what you mean by “popular”? Popular is a broad term that could mean many things. Some people measure popularity through traffic whiles others might measure it through RSS subscribers.
I would have to say that I do try to focus on content on my blog but I am still struggling to get a decent read. You know what I mean. But, I do agree with your point that joining conversations may be a good idea. Cheers for a good post.
This is great advice, especially for a newbie like me. Thanks!!!
Popularity, I suppose, depends on your purpose in starting a blog to begin with. Mine is to have a conversation with friends and other who drop by. Others might be interested in just the number of readers, whether or not they comment. Still others might be interested in ad sales, number of impressions, etc.
I believe that as bloggers, we are primarily writers, not website builders. Thus our aim is to build a readership. Optimization strategies are the equivalent of getting your magazine on the newsstand. It may be seen, but will it be read? And will your readers come back?
Some of the most viewed pages on my blog are found by searchers looking for something entirely different from what’s on my site.
Don’t get me wrong, your advice isn’t bad, it’s just sort of like reading something entitled “how to win a race by running faster than the other guys”.
M E-L, your original question was “is there another way to make your blog popular other than through content” and you defined popularity as “increasing readership”. Using tactics such as optimizing your blog will help bring in traffic, but not necessarily increase readership as you stated. The only way that I truly know how to increase readership is by writing good content. There might be other ways, but nothing as effective from my experience.
Just a quick note about asking other bloggers for links – one my biggest pet peeves is someone who asks me to trade links with them, asks me for a link in an entry, or leaves comment spam with their link. The only way to get linked to is to participate in the blog community. I’d say this is a pretty common annoyance amongst bloggers.
You are so right about educating rather than selling. In B-to-B we developed a series on Marketing ROI. It’s free and the feedback has been amazing http://www.godfrey.com/roi
Neil,
some good advice. I think a consistent and reliable blog “theme” or objective also helps. It sets an expectation and encourages people to come back to get more of the same – time after time.
Sergio, thanks for translating it into Spanish.