Popularity of your blog

How do you increase the popularity of your blog? Well I am not probably the right person to ask to, but I am the right person to ask you.

It’s been almost a year and a half since I started blogging and barring a couple of unknown visitors (of course who have commented) all were my friends. Well, your blog can act as one of the means to add to your popularity among the acquaintances but also gives you a chance to remain connected with your dear friends. So how do you increase the traffic to your blog. Certainly I am not able to do a good job, not yet.

But before I try to find the solution(s) to the problem I need to first define the problem itself. No, don’t get me wrong, it’s not a consultant’s approach; it’s the only approach I can think of. I seriously need to find what kind of people I want to visit my blog. Whether I want the marketers, philosophers, technical, freelancers, leisure readers or just my friends to come and read my blogs.

Well, one can write a professional blog, let’s say a opinion blog, travel diary, feedback blog on mobile technologies or a critic on films and blah blah blah. Even if I try to write it will be of no use as I have a little idea about these things. So far my blog entries are limited to random thoughts that I have pertaining to certain events that appear in our social or economic life. So the readers’ profile (please let me take the privilege of trying to profile the typical readers who come to my blog, I know the numbers are not in support of this analysis) is very generic with my friends who are pursuing their post graduate studies in technical field to management, some of the my other friends and few (highly valuable) people who have reached to my blog by “Google Search”, isn’t it amazing.

But still there are no clear indications as to what type of people are interested in my posts (yes if someone unknown comments on my blog posts I do go and check out his blogs). Could this be one of the ways to increase the traffic on my blog site, I should also go and comment on peoples’ posts and this would prompt them to come and see my blog. But this would not ensure the return visits………. he he the marketer in me has started speaking….. sounds like return purchase.

So how do you actually improve the popularity of you blog. Say use those terms in your posts that are frequently searched on internet and keep posting using the generally prevalent terms. So if you were to ask me what these terms would be as of today, I will say that IPL, Twenty20, UPA, Obama, LTTE, the terms that you encounter on your daily newspaper. So should one keep writing about the current affairs on a regular basis. Still, this will not solve the problem, this will attract the leisure reader, which unlike in the months of May and June you will not find (find the reason for May and June and you will be surprised).

One other option that seems a little feasible is linking your blog to other bloggers in and around you. Develop a blog network where the bloggers are following your blog and you in turn are doing the same. Google has recently made available such functionality in blogspot where you know who are the people following your blog. Once that list is builds up, you know the people who are interested in your writing and then you can write on interesting topics to suit the audience.

If you really want that only your friends should come and visit your blog the task becomes easy, just write on your personal experiences that you friends can easily associate with.