Seth Godin Offers 56 Tips for Increasing Blog Traffic

Posted on June 3, 2006

Seth Godin, the bestselling author, blogger and Squidoo founder, has a helpful post offering 56 tips for increasing blog traffic. Here are a few highlights:

5. Be timeless... write posts that will be readable in a year.
9. Write short, pithy posts.
12. Write long, definitive posts.
27. Include comments so your blog becomes a virtual water cooler that feeds itself.
34. Don't include comments, people will cross post their responses.
41. Post on weekdays, because there are more readers.
43. Post on weekends, because there are fewer new posts.
52. Write in English.
53. Better, write in Chinese.

As you can see some of his tips are contradictory -- short vs. long posts, comments vs. no comments, etc. The point is that blogging is not an exact science. You probably don't really need to follow this next tip from Seth anymore. There are far too many gadget blogs already.

31. Write about stuff that appeals to the majority of current blog readers--like gadgets and web 2.0.

Another one of Seth's tips focuses on using linklove to drive traffic. This is almost always a good strategy.

15. Be sycophantic. Share linklove and expect some back.

A lot of bloggers use linking out to let other bloggers know about their blog and possibly get inbound links in return. You will probably acquire at least get one temporary reader this way -- the blogger you linked to. Don't be a reader hoarder. You could even take linking out a step farther and go blogtipping.