Blogging Tip: Pretend You Just Got Started

I have gotten very complacent. Not that this site is getting crazy amounts of traffic, but it has slowly grown from getting absolutely no traffic at all to a trickle here and there. Which is very exciting, but every now and then I’ll catch myself lollygagging with some of the basic, tried-and-true blogging tips that help drive traffic and get people interested in what you’re writing. Writing something good/interesting means nothing if there’s no one here to read it.

So I’ve decided to take another look at those tips that new bloggers always hear about when they get started and recommit myself to them. In other words, I’m going to pretend that I just started my blog today and that no one knows about it. That means I have to drum up some interest. But how?

Comment on Other Blogs: I remember hearing about this one non stop when I first got started. This accomplishes a lot: it gets you reading other people’s blogs and it gives you a chance to make yourself known on an established blog. The key here is to write thoughtful, insightful comments, not just something to get people to click over to your own site. That is not cool. And I did — at the time, anyway. Now I visit the same blogs over and over again and will only comment if I have time. I need to set aside more time specifically for this reading/commenting stuff.
Submit to Carnivals: I didn’t buy this one at first. It took me a while to come around, but once I did I liked it because I found other sites I thought were pretty good and that I wanted to include in my daily readings. These can get you some pretty good exposure, so it’s good to submit to a carnival every time you have a relevant post. Plus it’ll motivate you to write good stuff — not every post gets picked.
Write Good Content: The most subjective of the tips, but most bloggers will tell you this is the number one thing you need. The rest you can be slow to come around on, but without this you’re toast. What is good content? I have no idea, but it doesn’t always match up with what gets the most comments or the most visitors. At least not in my experience.
Update Often: I follow this pretty well, with a new post every day of the week and sometimes on the weekends. I used to post three times a day but those posts weren’t very deep so I quit that to focus on meatier posts once a day.

Anyway, I’m going to pretend I just got started with this blog and start over. Go out there like I did at the beginning and work my butt off to get some readers over here. I know some established bloggers already do this (I’m looking at you Mrs. Micah), but I think I need this wake-up call to get me going.