Everybody these days want to blog, some people want to blog to express their views or just as a passion/habit, while many people want to earn money from their blogs. It’s good to earn from your blogs, but earning should not be the sole purpose of your blog. You should also concentrate on adding loyal readers to your blog, which can help you a great way in increasing your site revenues.

Here are some simple and easy to implement tips to increase visitors and reader base of your blog -

I. Find out your Niche

First and foremost thing is to find out the niche for your blog. You should write on the topic you know the best. This will narrow down the topics to a specific category that you know the best. This will let you write quality content for your posts, also you will not have to copy content form other sites for unrelated/unknown topics. Also, writing a niche blog will let you get specific visitors for your blog and increase your private ads sales.

II. Write for your readers –

This is most important step. Whatever category/topic you write about, your content should be directed towards your visitors/readers. Just visit your blog as a visitor and read it like them, think on points which you look for when you visit other blogs, and try to improve your content for your readers.

III. Write specific posts –

When you write any new post on your blog, first of all think about a specific topic and write about that topic only. Try not to include everything in that single post. For example, if you write about Diabetes Mellitus, try not to include everything from its causes, pathogenesis, clinical features and treatment and followup in single post. You can easily break it down in 5 posts on different topics about Diabetes Mellitus.

IV. Respond to comments –

If the visitor reading your blog agrees or disagrees your views he may post a comment to express it. Even if the reader disagrees your views, don’t delete the comment also, try to make clear your points. In other words publish every single genuine comment and try to respond to them. This will definitely increase comments on your blog and subsequently loyal readers for your blog.

V. Surf other blogs –

Thinking of promoting your blog does not mean that you do not read other’s blogs. In fact reading other’s blogs and leaving a comment there can be a great way to increase loyal readers for your blog.

VI. Link other blogs –

If you think that conet on some blog is really of good quality and needs a backlink, don’t hesitate to give one. The blog you linked can give you a linkback in return, which is crucial in your search engine ranking. Also if you yourself write some good quality content you can expect some backlinks for your blog also.

These are few simple steps that you shuold keep in mind while blogging.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Once you have well established your site and are getting good consistent traffic then you may look for direct advsertisers for your site. But getting direct visitors for your site can be very tough.

Lets first see the merits and demerits of Direct Advertising -

Merits

♣ No revenue Share - This is the most important merit. If you are displaying ads through advertising networks, they keep their share in your revenue, while this is not the case with direct advertisers. Here you receive 100% of what they pay for ads on your site…. thus you get more money comparatively.

♣ Contact with Advertisers – As you are in direct contact with advertisers you can set the rates of your adspaces yourself and also you can bargain for rates whenever required, which is not possible with third party networks. Also if you have convinced the advertiser well you can get a long term contract for advertising and thus more money.

Demerits

♣ Time Consuming - It is the biggest demerit of direct advertising. It is very difficult to get potential advertisers for your site. Once you have got them, you have to convince them to place ads on your site at some reasonable rates. All this process is very time consuming and frustrating. While with Advertising networks, you display ads immediately after placing their code.

♣ Disputes – This is quite common in direct advertising, some advertisers may even demand refund citing the reason of not getting adequate traffic from ads.

Few points you should consider before looking for Direct Advertisers -

♣ Professional looking design – It very important for you to have a professional design before looking for advertisers. You may have to shed some dollars for this or do extensive search for free premium templates. These templates usually have adspots at suitable places, increasing your chances of getting ads.

♣ General Statistics – You should have complete data on general statistics like daily traffic, Alexa rank, Google PageRank, RSS readers.

♣ Types of Advertisers – You should have clear idea of what type of sites you will allow for advertising.(e.g. you may not want to advertise for adult, gambling etc type of sites)

♣ ‘Advertise Here’ page – You should have one ‘Advertise here’ page, where you should mention about your site, its stats, any acheivements or awards, adspaces available, payment options, contact details….etc.

With these things in place you sholud start your search for potential advertisers.

You can place your advertising space for sale liting at some popular forums like -

°Digital Point Forums
°Site Point Marketplace

You can also contact the potential advertisers directly through email or phone. You can find direct advertisers by following ways -

1. Visit other sites of your niche and look who is advertising there, they can be interested in advertising on your site also.

2. You can also contact the Adwords advertisers whose ads are being displayed through adsense on your site.

3. Check for the sites related to your niche spending money on affiliate programmes.

4, Advertisers whose ads are displayed when you search for keywords related to your site.

Now that you have got your potential advertisers, send them a nice email stating the purpose of email, few things about your blog, its stats etc.

Try not to mention about the rates initially, as you may not know the budget of other party. Also if your blog is not very popular you may not get the deals at your price. So always start from low, and if you are getting better results then you may increase rates slowly.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!