Are you using an analytics tool to track your site metrics?  If not, you could be severely missing out on valuable information to help your blog traffic increase.  Measuring your site metrics is a great way to analyze information about your traffic, which you can then use to make changes to your site.

What is “web analytics”?

Web analytics programs are programs that measure various details about your visitors.  They can measure all sorts of things, including your bounce rate, your number of new visitors (vs. returning visitors), how your visitors are getting to your site, what browser they are using, what operating system they are using, their screen resolution, what keywords they are using to find your site, etc.

Some examples of analytics programs are Google Analytics, Feedburner or SiteMeter.  Here is a list of web analytics tools.

Why Use Web Analytics?

Understanding your audience is one of the most important things a blogger can do.  One of the first lessons in writing is “keep your audience in mind” and with blogging it’s just as important.  Here are 4 examples of what a web analytics program or site can tell you about your blog, and how you can use that information to your advantage to get more readers.

1. Bounce Rate

One of the more basic things that a Web Analytics program can tell you is what your bounce rate is.  Your bounce rate is the percentage of your visitors that are leaving the first page they access when they access your site.  Lower bounce rates are ideal, because that means that your visitors are staying on your site for longer and are clicking around and exploring your site.  If your bounce rate is high, you want to analyze how your blog might be scaring off readers so that you can make adjustments to your site.

2. Site Design

If you know what browser the majority of your visitors are using, then you can use that information when designing your site.  Browsers have different capabilities, and some things might look one way in Firefox and another way in Safari.

For example, let’s say you’ve been designing your layout based on how it looks in Firefox, but you find that more of your readers are using Safari.  Your site might not look as good in Safari, but now you know and now you can adjust the layout so that it will look better.  If the majority of people accessing your site use Safari, but your site doesn’t look right in Safari, then you might have a higher bounce rate.  (Another good thing to do is use a website like BrowserShots.org to preview how your site looks in each browser).

3. Keyword Optimization

One of the more important things an analytics program can tell you is what keywords people are using to find your site.  This can help you understand how Google views your blog and what Google thinks your site is about.  It’s always important to know what your potential visitors would search for when looking for a site like yours, that way you can use that knowledge to use the right keywords and therefore increase traffic to your site.

You might find you are getting a variety of keywords for something unexpected or tangential to your topic.  Knowing that, you can reevaluate your SEO, the keywords you’ve been using and the topics you’ve been writing about. Maybe you’ll decide you want to focus more than that specific area of your topic and recreate what your blog is about. Or maybe you’ll decide you don’t want to rank for those keywords and you can rethink your SEO strategy.

4. Traffic Source

Where are your readers coming from?  Is most of your traffic coming from organic search results, or from links?  This is important to know because you don’t want to “put all your eggs in one basket,” so to speak.  You don’t want to have all of your traffic coming from one source.  If there is ever a problem and all your readers are coming from one place, your website might take a huge hit and, if you get a lot of money from advertising, your income could be hurt as well.

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These are only a few things that a web analytics program can tell you.  Try one – or even a few – out and see what else you can learn.  Play around with it.  When it comes to making money with your blog, you want to have all the information you can about how effective your design and your SEO are so that you can make adjustments to get blog traffic.   Having as much info as possible is necessary for the growth of your blog.

If you’re trying to monetize your blog with advertisements, then you ought to be aware of “ad blindness”.  Ad blindness, also called banner blindness, refers to a person’s ability to ignore ads on websites.  If your readers have ad blindness, it means they’re not looking at the ads on your blog – let alone clicking on them.

Obviously this is a huge problem if you want to earn money with your blog using Pay Per Click ads or Pay Per Sale ads, etc.  In order for your blog to make money, you need your readers not only to look at your ads, but be interested enough to click on them.

So how to do you combat ad blindness?

Adjust Your Layout

How your blog is organized can have an effect on where your readers look.  You can guide your readers into looking at a particular spot by using elements of your layout, by using color and by positioning your ads in strategic locations.  Ad placement is very important, and as this article shows, the best place to put your ads would be in the top left part of the screen (according to studies investigating where people look the most on the screen).  In addition to placement, you can also use different colors to make your ads stand out.

Write About Them

Some readers can be very adamant about avoiding ads.  They purposefully avoid looking at the ads.  Why do they do this?  They are expecting to be sold on something, but they do not expect that something to be useful or beneficial – just costly.

If you write a post explaining the benefits of the websites your ads go to, you’ll put the readers at ease and you’ll pique their curiosity.  They’ll have a better understanding about what the ads are offering, and therefore will be less skeptical of them.

Limit Your Number of Ads

Less ads can mean more income.  It seems counter intuitive, but think about it: if your page is covered in ads, this is just going to increase the reader’s ad blindness, and could even scare them away from your blog completely.  With less ads, your readers are more likely to see them, and also your site will be less cluttered, meaning you’ll have more traffic and more trust.  Therefore – increased profits for you.

Use Relevant Ads

If you want readers to click on your ads, you need to have ads they’ll want to click on.  If your blog is about cooking and you’re using ads for sports games, then your readers are not going to click on the ads – they just aren’t interested.  The reader is on your blog because they want to know about cooking.  If they want to know about cooking, then chances are they also want to buy something cooking related – a recipe book, a blender, or a butcher block maybe.

So in conclusion, to make more money, you can you can decrease ad blindness and entice your readers into clicking on your ads by using color and positioning, explaining the benefits of the products to your readers, only using a few ads, and using ads that your readers care about.

From banner links to pay per click, there are many different types of ads you can use to monetize your blog.  While these are great methods to earn money blogging, it’s important to know that there are other ways to make money with your blog that are a little different, that you might not have thought of or heard of.

RSS Feed Ads

Yes, you can put ads in your RSS Feed.  Different services like AdSense for Feeds and Pheedo place ads in your RSS feed post.  The different services use contextual ads or ads based on topic or category – a great benefit as you would only want to use ads relevant to your readers anyway.

Monetizing your RSS feed in this way is an interesting idea and can be a very clever strategy for increasing your blog income, if you do it right.  Some of your readers might not visit your site if they are reading your RSS Feed. If they’re not coming to your site, then that means they are not seeing any advertising on your site, which means you aren’t making money from these subscribers.  If you want to target those subscribers that do not visit your site, then putting ads in your RSS Feed might help.  You will need to have a lot of subscribers to your RSS Feed, though, for this to be worthwhile.

Consider before implanting this form of advertising: what will your subscribers think?  You need to understand your audience, and if you feel they won’t like it, perhaps you should consider another form of advertising. Many readers, however, will be used to seeing ads so I don’t feel it will be a huge problem.  You should also think about where you want to position the feed ads within the feed post – on the top or on the bottom.

In-Text Ads

In-text ads are a type of contextual advertising where particular keywords in your blog entry are used as links.  Typically these ads will have a double underline to differentiate them from normal links, and when your visitor hovers over them, a box will appear.  Bloggers get paid on a per click basis.  Popular companies include Infolinks, Kontera and Vibrant Media.

While intext ads can be a profitable way to get paid for blogging, it is very important to take a moment to consider the possible implications of using them.  Think about what it means for your audience.  Some readers might find them annoying or frustrating.  This doesn’t necessarily mean you shouldn’t use them, as some bloggers find that even when their readers didn’t like them at first, they did get used to them.  If you feel comfortable with using this form of advertising, but aren’t sure what your readers will think, consider implementing them on a trial basis, and monitor any fluctuations in traffic with your analytics program.

Some bloggers avoid these links because they are afraid it will confuse or deceive their readers.  Personally I think the double underline helps to differentiate between these links and normal links, but it doesn’t hurt to include a disclaimer on your site explaining what they are to your readers.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing refers to a type of advertising where you get paid for directing traffic to an advertiser’s site that results in a sale.  In other words, you place an ad on your site, and when one of your readers clicks the ad and then purchases something from the site, then you get paid.  It is actually similar to pay per action type ads.

These are very popular ads and bloggers can make a good amount of money from them.  Amazon has one of the more popular affiliate marketing programs.  To be successful and earn more money with these types of ads, you will need to make sure that the products you are advertising are products that you would stand behind and products your readers would find interesting.  They need to be appropriate for whatever your niche is.

For example, say you have a cooking blog.  If you use ads trying to sell sports books, you are probably not going to see a lot of conversions and therefore, won’t make any money.  However, if you use ads trying to sell cooking equipment or recipe books, then you’ll increase the chances that your readers will click the ads and purchase the item.  You can also go a step further, and write a post about the items or website that you are advertising for, and why their products will benefit your readers. Here are some more tips for monetizing your blog using affiliate marketing.

Keep in mind whenever you are using any form of advertising – whether it’s pay per click, banners, affiliate marketing, RSS ads, etc – that different forms work for different blogs.  One of the fundamental lessons in writing is “Keep your audience in mind,” and of course this goes for blogging as well.  It’s important to understand your blog niche and the audience that comes with it.  Some subjects will lend themselves to advertising, but some might not.

Your audience is so important when comes to monetization because the more readers you have, the more money you can make. So you don’t want to lose your readers by advertising too much.  Experiment with different types of ads until you find the balance that works.

If you want to see your blog traffic increase, guest posting is a really great way to promote your site.  It opens up opportunities to reach readers that you otherwise might not have been able to, as well as strengthening your relationship with other bloggers in your niche.  A successful guest post will also help the site that post on, and if everything goes smoothly they’ll be more interested in working with you in the future.  Plus, more readers will see your name and know who you are.

How to Write a Guest Post

1. Find a blog in your niche

Posting on a blog in your subject area is important for two reasons: a) the blogger will be more wiling to accept your guest post offer, and b) it will help you find readers who are actually interested in your blog. Since the point of guest posting is to attract readers and promote your blog, you want to post on a blog that has readers interested in what you have to offer.  If you try to post on an unrelated site, then even if that blog’s readers do investigate and take a look at your blog, chances are they won’t stay for long and they won’t come back.

It’s also a good idea to find a blog that has a little bit of a larger following than you, but not too big of a following so that getting a guest post on the site will be more competitive.

2. Build a relationship with that blogger

Read the blog, comment on the posts there, and let the blogger get to know you a little bit.  People are more open to working with people they already know or are already acquainted with.  Show through your comments that you are familiar with the subject area and that you have something to add to the topic.

3. Check for a guest post policy

Before contacting the blogger, check their site to see if they have any policies about guest posting. Some bloggers have specific guidelines they want guest posters to follow, and if you don’t follow them you could ruin your chance to post on their site.  You want to make sure you follow all of their rules so that the process runs smoothly.

Check to make sure that the blogger is likely to want to do a guest post – see if he has done them in the past. Also check to see if he has any rules about how to submit a guest

4. Approach the blogger

Send them an email explaining who you are, what your blog is about, what your guest post would cover, why it would be beneficial for their blog, etc.  Here is a great article that explains how to approach a blogger with a guest post.  This article has a lot of great tips for contacting the blogger, but there was just one thing I wanted to mention.  They suggest to include your post in your email, but I would probably avoid doing this in the initial inquiry because it might seem too forward.  Really, it depends on the blogger (which is why you need to check their guest posting policy) and is up to your discretion.  For some it might be fine, even preferred, but for others it might not. So just be careful and make sure you know the blogger’s preferences.

5. Write the Post

If they say yes, congratulations. Now it’s time to write the post.  Remember, this post is your opportunity to get more visitors to your site, so you want to make sure it’s perfectly polished.  Copy edit and proofread, even have a friend take a look at it.  This is meant to draw traffic, so you want to present your best work.  Plus, if your post is good, then maybe the blogger would be willing to do more guest posts with you in the future.

If the blogger writes back to you with suggestions or criticisms of your post, accept them graciously.  The blogger is helping you by accepting your post; they don’t owe it to you and have the right to turn you down.  Fix whatever you can and see if it meets their expectations better.  Of course you also have the option of not making those fixes, but then you might miss out on a great opportunity.

6. Respond to comments

You’re still not done, even after that post goes live.  Once the guest post is published, be sure to respond to any comments.  This is your opportunity to interact with other readers, and is an extension of the guest post.  If you follow up with the readers’ comments, you’ll establish credibility and build online presence.  The comments are another chance to get blog traffic, so don’t let that chance go by.

And that’s it! Once your post is published and comments come in, be sure to check your stats and see how the guest post affects your blog traffic.

One way you can try to get traffic to your blog is by optimizing your site for search engines using the Title tag and Meta tags.  This can help you draw in organic traffic, or traffic from search engines, as opposed to getting traffic from links pointing to your site. You can do this by using specific keywords related to your topic through your blog.  A “keyword” is a word or phrase that is related to your blog topic and is something that a visitor might type into the search box.

Using keywords helps search engines understand what your blog is about.  Search engines use something called “spiders”, which are bots that go through the content on a blog or website and help the search engines learn more information about the website.  Using particular keywords in your content helps the spider realize that your blog is relevant to that term when a reader searches for it.  The better the search engines understand your site, the more it will help your blogs traffic.

What are Meta Tags?

Meta tags are HTML code that you can put on your webpage to help search engines understand what your site is about.  Meta tags don’t actually show up on the page itself, so your readers won’t see them.

Title

The title is the white text that appears in that blue bar at the very top of the screen.  It’s also what will show up when your blog appears in search results.  Make sure that it is something eye-catching, keyword rich, and natural sounding.  You want something that will appeal to both the searchers and the bots, so that they understand what your site is about.  This is one of the most important things, and the right keywords can really help generate traffic.  So think about your title carefully.

Meta Description

The meta description is a short paragraph that describes the site.  Write 2-3 sentences explaining what the post is about that are – again – keyword rich.  Don’t stuff keywords in the description; it should make sense to humans.  The meta description is the text that appears beneath the link to your blog in search results.

Meta Keywords

The meta keywords tag allows you to list several keywords related to your site.  A “keyword” can be a word or a phrase.  A good thing to do is try to think of what potential visitors would search for to get to your site. For example, if you write a blog about vegetarian cooking, what would people who want to read a blog about vegetarian cooking type in the search box?  Different people have different ways of searching for things, so mix your keywords up.  Always make sure that you are using keywords that relate to your blog, and don’t use the same one too many times. Important: Never stuff your keywords and don’t use too many.

How to Use the Title and Meta Tags

Meta tags are just simple HTML code, which you can find here. For Blogspot bloggers, here is a site that can help you edit the HTML and Meta tags on your blog.  If you’re not an HTML wizard, though, then you can look for widgets or plugins.  WordPress has a few, like All in One SEO, but here is a list of other SEO plugins for WordPress.

One Final Tip

In addition to using keywords in your meta tags, you could also try to incorporate them into the text of your website or blog posts.  When writing your blog posts, make sure they are keyword rich.  Use these words in your writing naturally and where they make sense (don’t just stick them in there). It should make sense to your readers.  Don’t use the same keyword over and over again because that won’t sound natural to your readers, and it won’t look natural to search engines.  Vary them throughout your entry.

You’ve promoted your site, you work hard on writing great content, you network with other bloggers.  You get a decent amount of traffic, but you notice that you’re not really retaining as many visitors as you would like.

There might be a few “tweaks” you can do that can help your site immensely.  For example, how usable is your site?  Is the layout optimal for new visitors who don’t know their way around?

Everyone wants a blog that looks cool or different, but at the end of the day it still has to be usable and easy to navigate. Your readers need to understand how to get around, otherwise they’ll get frustrated or lose interest.

So here are five things you can do to make your site more appealing to readers:

1. Think about your site’s first impression

First Impressions are everything, so ask yourself: What does your the top of your layout look like?  This is the first thing your readers see when your site loads.  Will it be a banner?  A headline?  An ad?  If you want to hook your readers on your content, you’ll want to make sure that’s one of the first things they see when your blog loads.  If they see a large ad taking up the entire screen, they might decide not to stick around.  So think about what your readers first impression of your site is.

2. Put your tool bar in a prominent place

The navigation bar is the main tool your readers will use to explore your blog.  You want to make sure they can find what they need as quickly as possible.  Don’t make them go digging – chances ar they’ll give up.  You want to put this somewhere prominent, where readers will easily be able to spot it.  Traditionally, bloggers will use a horizontal tool bar going across the top of the screen.  Readers will be used to looking there.  Some things you might want to have in a navigational tool bar: home, about the writer, disclosure policy, guest post policy, advertise policy, archives, etc.

3. Use titles that make sense

You might have creative titles for things, but do they convey the message properly?  Do they help your readers understand what each section is about?  Also if you are using creative words, you might want to reconsider for SEO purposes.  Using concise and keyword-rich titles could not only help your readers understand where to go, but could help the bots that are crawling your site understand how it’s organized.  This can help your ranking in Google and help you get more organic traffic from search results.

4. Use color to get your readers to notice something

Sometimes what looks good doesn’t necessarily help readers find things.  If you want something to stand out, for instance, you can try using a color that maybe doesn’t match.  This will catch your reader’s eyes and help them locate something specific.  Something as simple as color can help your blog earn more income.  For example, you can use color to direct your reader’s attention to a Pay Per Click ad.  Put your PPC ad in a different color box, use a border, or use different colored words next to the PPC ad that explain the benefits they can get from going to that website.

5. Use a clean and simple layout

Think your awesome, flashy layout is so cool you’re bound to get visitors?   Be careful because it might actually be scaring them away.  Some layouts are just too complicated and impossible to navigate. The main that that readers go to your site for is your content. So you want to make sure that, above all else, they have easy access to read your content.  Clean and simple layouts are great for this.  If your layout is confusing your readers, you may want to simplify it and clean it up a little.

These simple layout tweaks can help your readers navigate your site better and that will mean they’ll keep coming back, helping your blog traffic increase.  An easy to understand website can also help you get search engine traffic because Google will better understand your site structure.

Bloggers looking to retain followers and increase traffic need to know two main things:

• It’s all about networking
• Social media is your best friend

Networking

As mentioned in previous posts, one of the best ways to get links to your site is to build relationships with other bloggers.  Comment often on their blogs, email them, etc, and get them to link back to your site.  Creating an online presence adds to your credibility, and when you create a friendship, then you can get introduced to other bloggers who will also want to add you to their network.

Social Media

I’ve also discussed the benefits of using social media to promote your blog posts and drive even more traffic to your site, and how bloggers can do this by including those little “Share” icons at the end of a post.  These social media sites are great for reaching potential visitors that you otherwise might not have. People are interested in what their friends have to share.

How to Utilize them Both

There are a few widgets for blogs that actually help you do both of these things. Social media is already about networking online, so the two already go hand in hand.  But this widget* is an easy way to network not just with other bloggers, but with your readers well.  You can be connected with just a few simple clicks.

You can put a widget on your blog home page that allows visitors to connect with you on various social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, technorati, digg and LinkedIn, just to name a few.  This one in particular also has a link so readers can add a blog to their RSS reader (which I can say, from a perspective as a reader, is pretty awesome, since I like to use a Reader for all my RSS feeds, so I can read them all in the same place).

It’s always a great idea to cover as many bases as possible, as you don’t know what kind of reader will stumble across your blog.  It never hurts to be prepared for everything.  This type of widget easily allows readers to connect with you on whatever social media outlet they have, so they can easily follow your blog and anything else you might doing.

*What is a widget?

Widgets are small applications you can add to your blog home page. Typically they appear in the side bar.  They can perform any sort of function.  Check out some of your favorite blogs and take a look at what they have in their side bar.  They can be about anything, show anything and do anything.  You could have something that shows how many visitors you’ve had, or what you want for your birthday, a countdown to your birthday, a list of books you’ve read in the past month, or a list of your most recent posts.

By now many bloggers will have heard of Google’s recent PageRank update, or at the very least, they will have noticed the after effects of it. Some bloggers might be upset, having suffered a loss of PR, while others will be celebrating a rise in PageRank.

Google will say that PageRank doesn’t matter, and that bloggers shouldn’t worry about it so much. The stat is arbitrary and they take many other things into account for the search results page. So why are so many bloggers obsessed with it?

Some might think they’ll be able to make more money blogging with a higher PageRank; others might use it simply for bragging rights. As is often said, PageRank is like a “popularity contest”, and each link pointing towards your site is a “vote” for your site.

Thus even in the Blogosphere, networking is ultimately important. You can have the best content in the world, but if you’re not going “out there” meeting new bloggers and building relationships, then it doesn’t matter.

Backlinks can also help drive more traffic to your site, especially if you get a link from another blogger who has a lot of visitors. One of the best ways to get traffic to your blog is to get people to link back to you. The more links that point to your website, the more likely that people will click on one of those links.

Building traffic is important for your blog – whether you just want to reach more people and get your message across, or if you are also looking to earn money blogging as well.

So how do you get people to link to you?

Visit Other Blogs

Just like in the real world, in order to make friends and to network, you need to put yourself out there. You need to go up to people and say hello. In the Blogosphere, that means perusing other blogs with similar themes and commenting on them.

Leave Meaningful Comments

When you do visit other blogs, there’s a certain etiquette expected. Don’t just leave a link back to your site. Do leave an insightful comment about the blogger’s post. It doesn’t have to be a masterpiece, but it should be relevant and add to the discussion. Don’t just comment once. Do continue to leave comments (making sure they’re always insightful and not spammy). This shows that you’re a loyal reader and the blogger will appreciate that.

Be an Active Member on a Forum

Join a forum related to your niche. Establish yourself as a helpful member of the forum’s community. Just like with comments, post frequently – but also make sure your posts are appropriate and interesting. Always be polite to the other members, even if you disagree.

Link to Other Bloggers

Bloggers will be more inclined to link to you if you’re linking to them. They’re probably looking for links to their blogs themselves, so linking to them is a nice exchange.  Don’t assume though that just because you’re linking to someone, they’re required to link back to you.

Go to Conventions, Network Offline

It helps to make connections face to face. Bloggers might be more eager to link with you if they’ve met you in person and had a chance to have a conversation. Hand out business cards with your name and blog URL.

Be Nice

You’ll probably notice a trend here – and that is, be vocal and be polite. It sounds corny, but readers like nice people and they want to read interesting and helpful posts. If you demonstrate these characteristics, then they’ll want to link back to your site.

Be Controversial

Controversial content gets noticed.  For example, take a look at the recent story about Amy Chua, the “Tiger Mom” and her new book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.  It’s been all over the news.  People are talking about it.  The Times article says that the online version of her article in the Wall Street Journal has received 7,000+ comments.  Even though many disagree with her parenting style, you can’t deny that her controversial book has made her a household name.  Controversial can help you get buzz, can get you noticed.

Have Good Content

When you’re out there promoting your blog and networking with other bloggers, you want to make sure that you have the content to back up your hard work. People won’t want to link back to a site that isn’t helpful.

There are of course many other ways to promote your blog and get your blog seen.  You can also use SEO strategies to get traffic to your site.

If you want to get paid more money to blog, you’ll need to make sure that your blog is attractive to advertisers as well as your readers.  The more readers you have, the more likely advertisers will want to pay you to advertise their product; however, there are a few other things they might also look for.

There are a lot of bloggers out there, and you’re going to have to stand out from them if you want advertisers to choose you.  So here are some tips for making more money and getting those high-paying ads by making your blog “better” than the rest.

Use a topic-specific domain name

Have a domain name that is appropriate for your niche.  It should look and sound professional, and it should be clear from reading the domain name what your blog is about.  This will make it more desirable for advertisers to choose your blog.  If the advertiser sells used cars and your blog is Car Reviews.com that will be more desirable than suzyhousewife.com for that particular advertiser.

Specialize in a specific topic or niche

Niche blogs are also great for making money.  Advertisers are looking for specific blogs that are as closely related to their product as possible.  Niche blogs are also great for attracting readers – there will be less bloggers to compete with.  If you’re writing about something no one else is, then you can fill a need that isn’t already being met.

Use a layout that fits your topic

Your layout should look professional and should be unique.  Don’t just grab a default layout, at least pick a theme.  It’s probably best if you can design it yourself or pay someone to design it, if you don’t know how.  Make sure that your layout makes sense for your topic and for your audience.  A finance blog should have a simpler layout, a “classy” layout that is sleek and clean.  On the other hand, a mommy blog type layout can have cartoons, pictures of kids, cheerful colors.

It should be organized and easy to follow.  Use colors that are pleasing to the eye.  Don’t use neon colors for your background or for your text.  Usually people organize it so that advertisements go on the sidebar and/or between posts, with many people leaving space for a larger advertisement at the top.

Advertisers will want their banners to appear closer to the top because it’s more likely that your readers will see them and click them, so make it clear that you have space for them there.  Very often they’ll

Always think about your audience

Always check your grammar and punctuation.  Put thought into your posts and show that they are well researched and you know your topic well.  Update frequently, and always stay on topic.  If you are writing paid reviews, make sure that you are publishing more unique content than paid reviews.

Have a large following

Very often advertisers look for blogs with higher page rank, but this is only indicative of how many people are linking back to you.  You should take efforts to promote your blog and build back links, as this will help your page rank and your traffic, but demonstrating that you have a large following could also be helpful.

Encourage your readers to post comments by asking them questions and engaging them in discussion. Respond to comments and keep the discussion going – so much of having a blog these days is not just publishing information and walking away from the computer.  It’s about building a community.  That means keeping in touch with your readers.

Use a newsletter and an RSS feed to help users follow your content more easily.

There are ways to make money fast with your blog, but if you want to earn a little bit more, always keep in mind your readers and looking professional.  If your content is good, and your layout looks professional, you’ll have more readers, and the more readers you have, the more that advertisers will want to pay you.

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a great holiday season.  I apologize for the lack of posting; I’ve been rather busy in the last couple of weeks and I got a little behind schedule, unfortunately.  I know that’s not a good excuse. Maybe my New Year’s resolution should be to stay on top of my posting schedule!

And while I’m on that topic — For the busy blogger, sometimes it can be difficult to get those posts up.  Maybe your life is hectic and there’s just no time.  Maybe you’re struggling with writer’s block.

When you’re trying to make money blogging, falling behind in your posting schedule might seem like a terrible thing.  If you have a large following of bloggers clamoring for a post, you might lose a few if you take too long to update.

Here are some strategies to keep the posts coming – even on the crazy days.

1.      Use guest posts

Can’t think of something to write? Didn’t have time to write a post?  See if you know anyone who wants to write a guest post on your blog.  This can be some great filler, and it also helps the blogger who is writing the guest post by giving them some visibility.  So it’s a win-win situation.

2.      Keep a back log of posts

Keep about five to ten posts saved in a word document as back ups.  That way when you’re really struggling, you have something already written that you can quickly post.

3.      Space your posts out more

Maybe you’re stuck in writer’s block because you’re posting too much.  It might help to cut down on the number of posts a week. For example, if you do five a week, try cutting back to 2-3 a week. Updating consistently is more important than writing as often as possible.  If you write too much, you might burn yourself out.

4.      Post a note

If you foresee that you’ll be busy in the next few days – for example, the holiday season is approaching – then post a note on your blog telling your readers that you’ll be on a hiatus for the holiday season.  Be sure to include a date when they can expect your return, and maybe even include a few links to good resources that will entertain your readers while you’re gone.

Hope you all had a great holiday season!