Increasing blog readership

I too get annoyed at my own blog for the same reason. However, as PoH says, it would be more annoying to those keeping abreast to have to go and find the latest posts.
My blog has a chronological archive link at the side to take you back to the start, or any point on the timescale.
 
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Many thanks for the input.
I never thought that updating as much as 3-4 times a week would be able to increase traffic. I will have a go at that.

I will also use all the advice on here to help boost the presence.

Regarding the reasons for wanting to boost presence. None at all except I like things to succeed. I have no interest in making this commercially viable.

As for the name. We went through many domain names in our search. I love the poques, I loved the Churchill quote , and it's nautical. I also like the slightly irreverent title. I think it suits us as a couple.
I do take on board that many filters will stop people from looking at work, and this may be an own goal.
However, I had a lovely message from a very well known sailor last week congratulating us on the name of the blog.

Cheers for all your help.

Nick
 
With all due respect --but why do you think I would even want to read your blog?
Once you have answered that, ask yourself if it is not just for your own ego!!!
Or are you actually selling something- in which case you need to give me a reason to read it - having found a way to tell me about it's presence

I did a blog of my round UK trips. A few friends followed it & that was that. I do admit that to me it is an online diary that I revisit occasionally, as a reminder, but other than that I would not expect anyone to give a jot about my blog. In the same way I really cannot see why you would expect others to feel the same about yours as you do

& that is not meant to be nasty -- only state the truth as I see it- but it is a question you have to ask yourself honestly
 
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There are thousands, if not millions, of blogs (and a few here) and possibly I'm a Luddite as I visit not one single one of them. I occasionally look at one of Dylan's vids (because there is so much 'promotion' I feel I ought look for at least 30 seconds to see what all the fuss is about) and I look at Vyv's website and Panbo (which are not quite the same thing). What you have to consider is - what would you need to do to attract the likes of me (or even those who love blogs) to look at your blog over many other ones.

I need to know your blog exists and I need to know it has some pretty riveting content and/or (because it is so good, unique etc) engenders much activity.

Jonathan
 
There is some excellent advice on this post but it does take time and writing about what people want to read.
I put a blog up 16 hours ago and so far it has had over 15,000 hits!
The subject made the difference though.
NAKED SAILING
If I can help in any way then please just contact me through the website below.
 
If you want to increase traffic, then ask yourself why? What are you publicizing that a lot of people want to know about?
If you're blogging for your ego to see how many people are interested in your sailing activities, then you may be in for some disappointment. Most people will follow a blog because it's of some benefit to them. Either information, product review, or entertainment. And entertainment is the hardest to sell to people. You'll need lots of video so people don't actually have to read, and present a personality that people want to care about.

If you want more people to visit your blog, then don't blog what you're interested in, blog what people want to read. If you're not aiming to sell advertising on your blog, or trying to make money, then visitor numbers don't matter unless you need them to impress people other than businesses.

I have two blogs. One is about the gigs I play and the joys of being in a band. This is written as a personal diary; as something to review in the future. It has a few visitors. It has more visitors than my tango dancing diary.
 
Nostrodamus said:
There is some excellent advice on this post but it does take time and writing about what people want to read.
I put a blog up 16 hours ago and so far it has had over 15,000 hits!
The subject made the difference though.
NAKED SAILING
If I can help in any way then please just contact me through the website below.
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OK,your blog is awesome! I doff my cap in your direction.

Do you by any chance need a guest blogger ? :)
 
Oscarpop said:
OK,your blog is awesome! I doff my cap in your direction.

Do you by any chance need a guest blogger ? :)
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Thank you Oscarpop. It does take time to build readership up and find your own style of writing. I still have so much to do and write about.
The good thing is that if you do get your blog noticed out there in Cyber space you do get offers of free gear to review.
We have been offered various things but we only would do it if we really believed in a product. So far we have only done it for Berghaus.
Trouble is.. I have too much to write and too little time to do it in.
 
Phoenix of Hamble said:
The first three things that drive traffic to your site are content, content and content.

Then active links through to Social media.... links to your posts on FB, Twitter, Google+ etc

Produce lots of content updates. The most popular blogs are updated very regularly, some several times a day.. not that this is neccessarily appropriate for a sailing blog, but if you only update it once a month, traffic growth will take forever.

Then links to your site from other respected sites.... get your site up on Google rankings... think about unique keywords... you'll not compete with the big boys on popular keywords like sail, boat, etc.. Guest blogging helps here, as you'll get a link from a respected site, and possibky carry a few readers over with you... but its hard to get a slot on a decent blog.

Last, but not least.... patience. It takes a good while to build up traffic. I've been doing my blog for just coming up 10 years, and the traffic has slowly but steadily grown over that period. And in that time i've done approaching a thousand entries, which is nowhere near enough.... I have unique keywords I use regularly, that are individual to my blog that index near the top on Google... it works slowly... yet I still only get around 1500 to 2000 pages views a month, which in Internet terms is vanishingly small.
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All of the above (:D), but before you do, ask yourself "what am I doing the blog for??"

If the purpose of the blog is primarily for your own interest, because you like to write, because you use it as a ships log is it really important that you don't have much traffic??

Edit: Apologies for the repetition - a lot of people have said the same thing better than me... !
 
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Fantasie 19 said:
All of the above (:D), but before you do, ask yourself "what am I doing the blog for??"

If the purpose of the blog is primarily for your own interest, because you like to write, because you use it as a ships log is it really important that you don't have much traffic??
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I am with the O.P, Oscarpop on this one. If I do something I want to do it right if I can. It gives me another interest and I am learning about websites, SEO and all the bits along the way. If I write something then I would like it to be read.
In the last year we had over 150,000 views and I am so grateful to anyone who took the time to read the blog.
I am never going to make money from the site. In those 150,000 views I had 2 donations of 10$ from America. Not a good return on the 100,000 words I have written or the money I spend on the site. It is a niche market but one with good people in it and if I can tell them something new and make them laugh at the same time then I am happy.
Basically I enjoy it and writing the blog. If I do something I try to do it the best I can. I am sure the OP is the same.
 
Number of blogs online from the big blog hosters alone - 758 million blogs. If you want the site to be visited you might find this interesting - http://catherineryanhoward.com/mybooks/self-printed/ Catherine Howard's methods for making her e-books sell - including the use of social media.

My question would be "what is your target audience ?" You seem, so far, to be aiming at people who haven't met boats - rather than the people who might be members of the YBW fora. If it were the latter, what about "why I chose that self-steering", "fitting the self-steering - how difficult was it and what would I do differently if I had to do it again ?", "what we're doing to provide electricity" and a myriad of technical issues you must have addressed. Perhaps the best point about your Southerly - the deck saloon - appears not even to be mentioned - unless I've missed it of course :). If you're aiming for someone fresh to boats then the questions would be very different. Hope you have great fun !
 
Oscarpop said:
Can you lovely people please advise on how to increase traffic, aside from he measures I've already done.
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1. Define the audience you're writing for (family and friends; fellow sailors; people looking for information; people looking for entertainment)
2. Provide content which satisfies them/interests them/entertains them, so that they, in turn, publish your URL on their sites. If they have them!
3. Or on their twitter, facebook etc
4. Improve the content.
5. Publish links to your web site. Start by putting the web site URL into your YBW signature - then ask interesting questions (Nostro's style!)
6. Update the content.
7. Make sure the tin says what's in it, and who it's for
8. Tidy the content.
9. Signpost and summarise its contents with links so people can easily find the bit they're looking for (get the structure/navigation right)
10. Delete out of date content
11. Get into Google by using key words (try googling "sicily sailing" or "corsica harbours" - and never use "cruising" - cruise liners swamp this word.)
12. Enjoy doing it. If you don't, give up. It won't bring much money in!

My site has been going for about 15 years. Over the last 3 years it earned a few hundred £ pa from adverts, donations and pilot book sales. I now have to decide its future in case I lose my marbles . . .
 
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