How to increase blog traffic!

Hi all!!! Since here at Design It Chic we're putting our blogs in the check-up spot, today we'll focus our attention over some new tips to improve our blog's traffic!
Everybody wants to know they're not alone! Even if we are a food critic, a professional blogger or we're journaling our family life, we definitely want to know we're not the only ones who read our blog. We want to be connected with people that share our interests and be part of a stronger community that supports, understands and encourages one another. There's nothing wrong with that; it's in our human nature to be social creatures, so don't feel bad you want to be surrounded by people. But the big questions is how do we provide the context to attract people to our blog?

And naturally this will make our topic today: how to increase your blog traffic!


1. It all starts with a catchy name! Many of us get their name by their most important activity at the moment or in our life: either our new job, our baby, our new marital status or simply the newest most important event that happened to us. There's nothing wrong with that, but as you grow and you find your path through blogging, you figure out what you want to write about and remain consistent in, and suddenly you find that your blog name is no longer fitting your new blog's concept. In that case you need to be able to let go of the initial name and find a new one, that is more generic, yet catchy and could allow you a wider specter for future changes. You don't want to change your name too often though, because that itself is a big "NO-NO" to attract readership; it will become misleading and confusing. So whenever you decide is time to change, think for the future as well!

2. Read-proof your posts before publishing them! Nobody expects us to be grammatically correct 100%, but there's many times that we're either tired, either in a hurry and mistakes can occur. To prevent this happening too often implies reading our posts once or twice after we're done writing. Think about it: every good article in a glossy magazine is verified by writers, proof-read by a few editors, then approved by the editor in chief and so on.Now on a smaller scale your blog should go through the same process, but since the majority of blogging people don't have an entire team to work and divide the process with, it's kind of in our own hands to do that. But it sure goes a long way, since people get often tired by grammar mistakes or bad concept's explanations.


3. Reward your readers! Even if you're not a giveaway blog, every once in a while, rewarding your readers with some kind of gifts is very important to maintain and develop your readership. It shows appreciation of the people who daily read your posts or they stimulate the new people that just landed on your blog! Think about it: every television channel, every magazine, every radio channel, they all do it! Don't you wonder why? It was proved in time that people respond positively to this kind of actions every once in a while. This is called great marketing campaigns! Therefore everyone should do it, regardless of what your main blogging theme is all about. But as in all cases, excess drives to either completely switching your profile or a big failure, so be careful with that!


4. Do tutorials! Everyone wants to learn something new once in a while, so why not be you the one who shares what you know?! "How to's" are very popular these days, so if you shared the picture of your new living room makeover, you might as well come back and tell your readers how you got there! Or if you just shared a picture of your daughter's fabulous birthday cake that you made it yourself, why not come back and tell everyone how you did it?! No matter what you're writing about, there's definitely subjects you can write a "how to" post. Be careful tough, to remain true to your blog's concept: if you're documenting your family life you can't give your expertise in chemical engineer, or if you're sharing your recipes you can't give a validating opinion over programming languages, or if you're a computer geek you can't give your expertise in great wine; it just doesn't work that way! You need to sentence your opinion around the domain you have authority over, and that surely is the one you're daily writing about! So stay true to who you are when writing tutorials!


5. Get a great logo for your Gravatar and FavIcon! This is like every big brand's logo, it's just that it goes online with you! Your Gravatar is the little image you have next to your profile description(and it appears every time you comment on someone else's blog) and your FavIcon is the little image that goes to the left of your URL(and it appears in everyone's bookmarks). I bet everyone could name all the previous FavIcons! See, it works that way that you recognize a brand after their small signature! They're such small images, but with such a huge impact! Just like the little "f" for Facebook and "t" for Twitter, they're your signature outside of your blog. The more you'll make your presence known outside the blog, the more you'll need a very well defined identity, and with that comes these little logos that represent you outside your blog. It's like your business card:) What does your Gravatar and FavIcon say about you?? Do they represent you well?? This is a great question to be wrapping up today's post!

Hope it helped! Check back to see what comes up next in Blogger tutorial section, take a look at the SEO department for more tips to improve your blog's traffic or join us to learn new HTML tricks and tips every day!


And don't forget to sign up our awesome retro-modern giveaway while it still lasts! I'm out now! Peace!