I would guess that more than 99% of all blogs started never last for more than 30 days or get more than 10 blog posts. Those that do continue to grow, grow because they produce results for you, the blogger.
Within that top 1% are the bloggers who blog religiously. They do it because their blog produces results-- divinely. What are they doing that you're not? What's the difference?
Whether your goals for blogging are personal or professional, the metrics for success and the strategies for achieving it are the same. And here they are:
1. Get More Comments.
Comments are the biggest source of traffic for most successful bloggers. They feel rewarding.
Comments generate even more traffic than Google, especially in the short run. Techcrunch had a major troll problem so they went to Facebook comments to get rid of anonymous commenting. Their comment numbers plummetted. So did their page views. Apparently, people that like to throw around verbal garbage like to do so anonymously. Surprisingly, what surprised them the most was that their advertising revenues nosedove too. They charge their advertisers on CPC (cost per click) and CPM (cost per thousand impressions). So they dropped Facebook comments.
A) To get more comments, don't censor.
Inflamatory people are like a train wreck. They cause rubber-necking. And in blogging, that's a very good thing.
B) Next, comment in the biggest blogs to drag their traffic over to yours.
There's an art to this. Nobody likes when their hard earned traffic is syphoned away from them. Smart moderators will delete any comment that does that. So make it unfavorable to delete your comments. Leave a comment that both brings value to that blog (stats, insights, three additional "ways to" for their top ten ways to post). Then, close your comment by appologizing for rambling and leave a link to your blog post that continues to ramble.
Leave a comment in big blogs that are even more sly than my example.
C) Ask itchy questions in your blog post.
Leading the witness is only banned in a court of law. On your blog, lead, lead, lead.
2. Get Google To Rank You On Page One.
It always feels rewarding to see that very first referral click from a Google search. It feels even more rewarding when you're still getting 750 unique people per day clicking on your blog post three years later. This is how you do that:
A. Mention lots of Names
Bloggers and PR departments all over the world have Google Alerts set up for their executives' names and their product names. If you include a lot of these names, your blog post will get caught up in a lot of their filters. You'll get noticed and if they like what you're saying, they will link to you.
Do this with government agencies and universities. Getting a link from a .gov or .edu website vaults you to near wikipedia credibility status and rank.
B. Physically tweet, email, call other bloggers and ask for a referral link.
Just tell them that you're going to add a "for more information" link to their blog. Then tell them that you'd love if they did the same. Continue till you find bloggers that do.
C. Do a press release about your blog post.
Seriously. I don't know wny bloggers don't do this. It's literally the best $50 to $5,000 you're ever going to spend. You might be thinking that press releases are only for corporations or new product launches. Balderdash! People who throw their kids' barmitzvas do press releases about their kids' barmitzvas. PhDs do press releases about their thesis (is that the plurl form too?) . Do a press release. You'll instantly get masses of links if your release is done right.
Even on the higher end, if you spend $5,000 and that rewards you with a client that pays you $5,000 a month, it was worth it.
D. Learn Google SEO
There are 25 more key factors to know about how Google picks who they put on page one. Most professionals don't know more than 5 of those factors. You might also want to learn about the three most important Google SEO factors nobody realizes.
3. Get Rewarded More and More Frequently
Success breeds success. You'll get addicted to success. It's like crack (according to some reports I've read). Just one little taste and you're hooked. This is how you get rewarded more.
A) Clearly identify your goal and measure daily
If your goal is just traffic, make that clear in your mind by starting a spreadsheet that shows your traffic : word count : social media stats. You do it with your calories, weight, bank account, and blood pressure. So do it with your blog. It's a living breathing entity too.
B. Segmentize your conversion metric (take baby steps)
In other words, if you're waiting for your first big sale from your blog, you'll likely get disheartened and quit-- just like the 99.9% out there. Instead, realize that it takes:
500 random viewers to get 1 email address
50 emails to the same person to get 1 phone conversation
3 phone conversations to get one client or sale.
Meter your metrics. Do a micro celebration everytime you get 500 more unique blog views. See if that generated a single new email subscriber. Do a mini celebration every time you send out another 50 blog announcement emails. Did you get one of your subscribers to call you for consulting or to ask about your products? Celebrate every third phone call you get because that means that your blog just got you paid.
C. Innovate and bring all the numbers down by 50%
Can you get 1 email subscriber per every 10 readers? Try it. Learn direct response copy writing.
BONUS: Build blogging alliances at major trade shows
Sure, you can message and tweet bloggers all day long, any day. Trouble is, they are always in the middle of doing something more important than talking to a stranger-- except during a trade show. They are in networking mode. Get to know the biggest events happening in your industry. Start with Otradeshow.com for Trade Show Events, Displays, and Exhibit News
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Robert Wan is the VP of Business Strategy at Sparkah Consulting LLC. His marketing tips and discoveries are all at http://sparkah.com/blog and his guerrilla marketing strategies google+
