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Blogging requires a lot of effort. The previous article looked at some of the basics of starting a blog: using a free blog host to start, selecting a niche, updating the blog everyday and getting more traffic to your site. Here follows the next segment on how to keep your audience interested and to keep your blog growing.

 

5. Track Your Blog
How do you know if your blog has traffic? Just because no one is leaving comments doesn't mean your blog isn't growing. Many visitors do not leave comments but they are returning visitors. I know it sounds crazy but with blogs people are more interested in what "you" have to say! Many visitors do not comment their first, second or third time. Some never comment at all but are active daily visitors.

Tracking your blog does not have to be sophisticated. A simple free page counter like StatCounter or Active Meter will do the trick. Install the code into the html of your blog template and start tracking your visitors. Its better to use a service which gives you advanced traffic analysis, such as keyword tracking information, referral information, and search engine information. Visitors, returning visitors, and unique visitors should be standard for any page counter service you choose.

6. Listen to Your Audience

When using a proper page counter you should begin to see how others are finding your blog and, if through search engines, which keywords are being used to find your blog. If your blog is being found with one or more keywords then focus your blog around those keywords. When writing entry titles and entries use the keywords as often as possible but keep the blog legible and interesting.

7. Multiple blogs
Use multiple blogging to attract more people. This means you should have a blog with different blog hosts. The more blog accounts the better. You can copy/paste from one blog another. Having different blog accounts is like having a publication in different newspapers. This enables you to attract more visitors and this also increases the chance that one of your blogs will be in the search engine results for your keywords.

8. Short & Concise

Aside from the lengthy article for syndication and publication your blog entries should be short and concise. Sometimes there are exceptions to the rule and you have no choice but to blog lengthy entries, but try to avoid this as much as possible. You don’t want your blog entries to become hours of reading. Visitors like to easily find information and skim through your entries. It is good to be detailed and provide useful information, but don’t include useless information or run away sentences that veer away from your topic. Stay keyword-focused.

With a loyal following for your blog you may discover that you can actually start making money by blogging. The final section provides some more tips to keep more readers coming to your blog and how you can make money from writing about the things you love.

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