I'm no expert on the subject because I've only been blogging a short time now (since February 2006 on a blog different than Business Alone).
However, I have been a writer for quite some time and many of the same rules apply to blogging as well.
I have taken the time to do some research on the subject.
Specifically I have been reading about "How to Blog" and trying to follow the instructions of some who have been successful bloggers for quite some time now.
I've also spent a fair amount of time visiting popular blogs, watching what other authors are doing, and trying to follow their lead by seeing and incorporating their techniques into my own blog.
From what I've learned so far, it will usually take from 4-6 months of steady blogging and promoting the blog before it begins to garner any quantity of traffic - sometimes longer depending upon the niche and the amount of promoting by the author.
It takes time for the blog site to get populated with lots of keyword rich and relevant content.
It also takes time for word to spread to other sites, forums, directories, etc about the new blog.
It takes some time for the search engines and blogging aggregators to get around to adding new blog sites.
It takes time to get a significant number of backlinks to your blog so that the search engines recognize your site as one of importance to others in your niche.
Several of the top bloggers I have watched suggest all the same thing: be patient, fill your site with lots of great, unique content, promote your blog wherever you can, and ask for outside links.
I suggest that you concentrate on filling your site with great content to begin with. Why?
If visitors and editors of blog directories stop by your site for a visit, you want them to find as much great content as possible.
Are they likely to come back, recommend you to others or rate your site highly if there are only a dozen posts?
Along that same line of thinking, you should make sure that everything on your site works as it should before you go out promoting your wonderful web site.
Make sure the RSS function works, the article archives work, the search function is online, the registered user function does its job, etc.
When you have an open house, you want all the beds made and the toilets working, right?
The key reason blogs are so popular and useful?
Blogs have power because they engage the customer or reader.
They have the ability to draw people back time and again because the blog writer offers something of worth to the reader.
It could be daily news, niche insights, opinions that are well respected, links to sites of interest on the web, or a number of other things.
Blogs bring people together that have an interest in a particular niche and give them daily content and an opportunity to leave comments and responses at the blog site for others to consider.
In Part 2, we'll look at suggestions for the blog writer that will help to make the blog readable, credible, of interest to the niche, and worth coming back to over and over again. Stay tuned . . .
