How do i get my blog from 10 hits to 100 hits /day

[Runninground]

My blog started with 3 hits a day, then grew to around 10 hits a day when i added it to my signature on a forum, but i cant seem to get it to over 100. My blog is Hot Top Ten . I have heard of SEO but i don't really understand it.

The thing i am struggling with is getting subscribers.

Any help on how to get my blog to 'the next level'?

Thanks

[Ben]

The main thing is to be patient. Looking through your archives, it's early days for your blog - your first post was on August 11th. Your blog has only been online for a few weeks.

Search engine traffic won't really start coming in until your blog has been around for several months. It's possible to get good traffic early on, but search traffic usually builds up over time.

The problem with your question is that if you reach 100 hits/day, you'll then want more! That's not really a bad thing -but I would suggest doing some of the basic stuff first:

1. Write great content. So far I think you're doing OK; one drawback of your choice of niche is that it's very broad. This means your posts will take a "scattergun" approach; you may appeal to a wide range of people, but you may find a lot of readers only show an interest in one or two of your posts.

2. Get a great design. Default templates are fairly boring; your blog doesn't stand out right now. There are lots of free templates to choose from - although I'm not sure how many you would have at wordpress.com. (self-hosted WP is better, but you'd have to pay for hosting+domain name)

3. Keep to a regular schedule. At the moment your posts appear randomly and there's no consistency. That's not a major issue when you're starting out, but the lack of a predictable schedule means a potential subscriber won't know if they're going to get 1 post per day, 5 per week, or zero for a week then 10 on one day. Not saying that's exactly what you are doing- but it's confusing for readers if you don't set their expectations.

4. Use social media sites. I see you have a Facebook fan page, do you also use Twitter? Do you use Facebook just for auto-posting your content or do you use it for anything else? Using the Bloggeries forum is a good start, for sure - Twitter would be a logical next step.

Just some ideas really - these would probably be better suited to a topic in Show Off Your Blog - getting traffic is a broad topic

[AgentHomes]

I'm curious to know how you built your readership to around 10 a day in less than 1 month.

I've been blogging for about 1 year now and 5 hits in one day is great for me.

[Runninground]

Originally Posted by Ben

The main thing is to be patient. Looking through your archives, it's early days for your blog - your first post was on August 11th. Your blog has only been online for a few weeks.

Search engine traffic won't really start coming in until your blog has been around for several months. It's possible to get good traffic early on, but search traffic usually builds up over time.

The problem with your question is that if you reach 100 hits/day, you'll then want more! That's not really a bad thing -but I would suggest doing some of the basic stuff first:

1. Write great content. So far I think you're doing OK; one drawback of your choice of niche is that it's very broad. This means your posts will take a "scattergun" approach; you may appeal to a wide range of people, but you may find a lot of readers only show an interest in one or two of your posts.

2. Get a great design. Default templates are fairly boring; your blog doesn't stand out right now. There are lots of free templates to choose from - although I'm not sure how many you would have at wordpress.com. (self-hosted WP is better, but you'd have to pay for hosting+domain name)

3. Keep to a regular schedule. At the moment your posts appear randomly and there's no consistency. That's not a major issue when you're starting out, but the lack of a predictable schedule means a potential subscriber won't know if they're going to get 1 post per day, 5 per week, or zero for a week then 10 on one day. Not saying that's exactly what you are doing- but it's confusing for readers if you don't set their expectations.

4. Use social media sites. I see you have a Facebook fan page, do you also use Twitter? Do you use Facebook just for auto-posting your content or do you use it for anything else? Using the Bloggeries forum is a good start, for sure - Twitter would be a logical next step.

Just some ideas really - these would probably be better suited to a topic in Show Off Your Blog - getting traffic is a broad topic

Originally Posted by AgentHomes

I'm curious to know how you built your readership to around 10 a day in less than 1 month.

I've been blogging for about 1 year now and 5 hits in one day is great for me.

Hi, Thanks for the tips. I haven't posted regularly because i've been on a few holidays, so in September i should start posting once a day again. All the facebook page is for at the moment is likes, because its only got one 'like' i haven't used it much. For twitter, i find it hard to get traffic from it. People will follow but don't usually go on the website.
Thanks again

[Runninground]

Originally Posted by AgentHomes

I'm curious to know how you built your readership to around 10 a day in less than 1 month.

I've been blogging for about 1 year now and 5 hits in one day is great for me.

I put my blog website on a forum i use quite a lot, so people just tend to click on it. I think its because the forum has nothing to do with blogs, so little people have blogs in their signatures.

[Ben]

Why are you trying to post daily? You can if you wish, but most bloggers run out of steam after the first month or two. Try posting 2 or 3 times a week (always on the same days and at the same times). Write a few posts in advance, and schedule them to appear on the blog in advance. This means you can "get ahead" when you have time to write, cover your holidays, and make the most of the times when you feel like writing. Trust me - I've been blogging for years and I still don't want to write daily - but I do manage to write 5 new posts every Sunday.

[Runninground]

Originally Posted by Ben

Why are you trying to post daily? You can if you wish, but most bloggers run out of steam after the first month or two. Try posting 2 or 3 times a week (always on the same days and at the same times). Write a few posts in advance, and schedule them to appear on the blog in advance. This means you can "get ahead" when you have time to write, cover your holidays, and make the most of the times when you feel like writing. Trust me - I've been blogging for years and I still don't want to write daily - but I do manage to write 5 new posts every Sunday.

Good point. I was thinking about seeing if i could time my posts to appear at regular intervals, so i can write when ever, but i totally forgot about it! Thanks for reminding me!

[Ben]

I find it's a lot easier to manage things that way.

[Runninground]

Originally Posted by Ben

I find it's a lot easier to manage things that way.

Yeah, thanks

[Melody]

@Runninground -

Ben has given you some great tips. Just be consistent. Blog about two or three times per week.

Have superbly amazing content. Content rules above all else.

Make sure you're able to have solid analytics. "Hits" is not a great metric. Install either sitemeter or google analytics, and look at your "unique visitors" each month.

Don't worry to much about day to day traffic: It will go up and down and look like a roller-coaster ride, so it's sometimes better to just look at monthly trends. I've been blogging for two years, and have about 18k unique visitors a month, but I've never blogged daily. I've been updating about 3 or 4 times per week. (Link to blog is in signature)