Want to grow your blog? You’re not alone! Many bloggers want to know how to increase their blog traffic, but they often don’t know where to start. Thankfully, there are several simple things you can do that will help attract more readers and turn them into loyal fans. In this article, we’ll share seven of our favorite tips for increasing your blog traffic — plus, you’ll find examples of sites using each tip right now in the wild! Let’s get started!


1) Use guest posts

The quickest way to build an audience and get people engaged with your writing is by guest posting on other websites. By providing interesting information, you can not only drive traffic back to your site but also build relationships that will help improve your search engine rankings. A great place to look for opportunities is on Quora, which allows users to post their own questions—which means there are lots of people looking for answers. It’s also a good idea to check out different publication sites that accept user-generated content, like Forbes or Huffington Post. If you write about a relevant topic, one of these editors might be interested in publishing a post from you! And if all else fails, start your own website and publish whatever content you want.


2) Build an email list

Email marketing is one of most effective ways to market your business, because it allows you to keep in touch with leads on a consistent basis. It’s also usually very cost-effective. If you have even a modest following, you can make a decent amount of money by selling them products directly through your email list—even if they aren’t already customers! Just make sure that when selling through email that you comply with all rules and regulations surrounding email marketing.


3) Write for someone else's audience

While it’s important to take your blogging seriously, don’t lose sight of your main goal: writing great content. Chances are, when you get an idea for a post, your first thought isn’t about how you can extend it or make it better or how many social media platforms you can publish it on. Instead, you think about what readers would like to see and who else might find value in reading it. The truth is that most bloggers aren’t very good at marketing themselves; they do a good job of promoting their content if someone already found their site through search engine optimization or social media efforts by themselves or others.


4) Optimize your blog content for search engines

If you want to increase your traffic by doing nothing, just leave a website alone and wait. The time it takes will be at least a few years. If you want to speed up traffic growth, you’ll need to do something—and optimize your site’s content is one of your best options. If someone searches Google or Yahoo! for a term related to what you write about, and your site shows up in their search results, they might click on it. And if they do that once, they might do it again—which means they're more likely to keep coming back. To increase your odds of getting traffic from search engines, remember these three tips


5) Promote each post on social media

The great thing about writing a blog is that you can reach a lot of people. But if you’re not driving any traffic to your content, it’s useless. Spend some time looking at different social media platforms and learning what works well for different types of content. Facebook and Pinterest are great ways to get visual posts in front of a large audience, while Twitter provides an opportunity to connect with like-minded people interested in your field. Just make sure you avoid spamming your followers or you'll risk damaging relationships and your brand's reputation.


6) Network with other bloggers

One of the best ways to increase your reach and build connections with other bloggers is to network with others in your niche. Start by building a list of all of your competitors, then take a look at who they’re following on Twitter. Take note of who you haven’t heard of and add them to your list. Then go through your competitor’s follower lists again, searching for influential bloggers whose names are unfamiliar or that have very few followers, but could be potential partners or clients. Add these folks to your own follow list so that when you start tweeting them (and engaging), they remember you as an acquaintance rather than someone they don’t know.


7) Consider paid advertising

In addition to optimizing your content, you can use paid advertising methods to increase traffic. Facebook, Twitter, and Google all offer options for advertising your site or products. These ads allow you to target specific groups of people based on age, location, and interests—and these days it’s easy to run a large campaign at very little cost (especially if you’re starting out). You could even try launching a crowdfunding campaign on sites like Kickstarter or Indiegogo—which are both available in many countries around the world. And don’t underestimate social media: Facebook alone has over 1 billion active users every month. And don't be afraid of live-streaming platforms like Periscope and Meerkat.