9 Explosive Ways To Counteract Phantom Blogging
Do you sometimes feel that you’re the only one reading your blog. Ok, perhaps your cat is number two. We all start out with no readers, no traffic and the unknown factor of “what might happen”. But if you have been blogging for some time without getting a hike in traffic and readership it starts to hurt. So much so that many just give up. They don’t see the need to keep blogging for a phantom crowd and I can’t really blame them either.
Blogs have been created with you in mind. They are supposed to be a platform where like minded people come together, share ideas and discuss them.
This of course is the ideal position in which any blogger would want to be.
Nature has it that most never will. It takes time, effort and a knack of ability to connect with our readers. If we don’t, we phantom blog. But there are some things we can do to enliven our blog and rescue it from the claws of the dark knight.
1.) Use suggestive titles
If you use titles that are different from the norm, people are more inclined to visit your blog and see what is going on. Words that work well are often suggestive. They evoke a mental picture that magnetically pulls you in to read more. Titles like 7 sexy ways to sharpen your pencil, strip naked and show us what you’ve got, strap your heels and go dancing are all in favor, opposed to using boring titles like what do you do before you go out?
2.) Use link bait
Link bait are great ways to get some action happening on your blog. The best link bait pieces are often related to social networking. Anytime somebody blogs about stumble upon, digg, facebook, etc. readers usually relate and therefore feel they have something to say. Controversies also work well with link bait posts.
3.) Start a competition
Blog competitions have been around for eons. While it would be a plus to provide useful prizes, some bloggers give out links, advertising spots or even free mentoring if they are an expert at something.
I understand not everybody has $500 to give away. You could however always ask the more popular bloggers whether they would like to sponsor your competition. Who knows, they might even say yes.
One of the best and most successful competitions I’ve ever seen done was when a blogger gave away physical products like watches, backpacks, picture frames, etc.
4.) Do regular link love posts
For many bloggers this is a given anyway. Most of us do a weekly link post while others do them more sporadically. Linking to other bloggers creates a sense of community and trust. People will visit you and say thank you and before you know it, you might even have a new reader.
5.) Accept guest bloggers
If you open up your blog for guest bloggers it might just give you that extra boost in traffic. Granted, the topic of your blog should be one that speaks to a wide audience. You could even spice things up further by giving out monthly prizes for the blogger with the most traffic.
6.) Give away a free ebook/software
But not just any ebook. It should be written by you and loaded with great information that will help your readers to further their own agenda. This could be the start of something better.
7.) Review popular brands in your niche
Reviews work well. Especially if they are written from an end users perspective while using SEO to rank them well in the search engines. It will also position you as the expert within your niche if the reviews are written well. You will have to try the product before you review them anyway. Otherwise your readers will soon catch you out.
8.) Start your own forum
Forums are a great way to revive a dead blog. Especially if the forum topic is hot right now. It might require some further promotion on your part to get things rolling (like enlisting the help of a popular blogger within your niche) or social networking promotion.
9.) Be yourself
The best way I have found is to stay true to ourselves. Don’t pretend you are somebody else, use a picture of you which helps to build trust, reply to your comments and take time to visit their blogs to show that you care about them too.
Being yourself is in my eyes the fastest and most explosive way to counteract phantom blogging.
Would you like to share your own ways to counteract phantom blogging?
Barbara Ling, Virtual Coach | July 25th, 2008 at 2:09 pm #
Excellent tips! Another thing to remember is just because one has subscribed to a blog feed….it doesn’t mean it’s actually read.
I liked how you added SEO to the tips as well.
Data points, Barbara
hank | July 25th, 2008 at 5:34 pm #
You forgot a big one though - comment the crap out of other peoples blogs! Not spam comments, but legit comments that will make them (and their readers) curious as to what you’ve got cooking on the other side. It’s a give/take relationship that you need to nourish at the beginning. When you start having 100+ comments a day, then you might be able to lay back and let your readers battle it out, but until then, hit the pavement (so to speak) and get out and commenting on blogs in your niche!
Cassie | July 25th, 2008 at 11:42 pm #
Great list! So many lists are just regurgitated crap but this one has some really good ideas that a lot of bloggers either never consider or are too scared to try, but they really do work.
Another thing with starting a competition:
It doesn’t have to have a monetary prize. I can’t remember where it was, but I recently saw a competition where the winner (which was chosen randomly from the commentators of the competition announcement post) would have their blog commented on, posts stumbled, dugg, etc. for a week or a month. Can’t remember exactly, but something along those lines.
Free advertising could be another option. If you don’t like advertising on your blog, you could also do a review or critique post of the winner’s blog.
Lots of options, but they don’t always necessarily have to be monetary or physical prizes.
Sondra Santos LaBrie | July 26th, 2008 at 12:33 am #
I use Twitter to start a conversation with others. My site has seen steady growth over the last ten months using many of the techniques you mentioned but not until I started using Twitter about a month ago was I able to really connect with people and pick up new readers as well as those whose blogs I now read regularly.
Great ideas! I love this site.
Ciro V. | July 27th, 2008 at 10:41 pm #
Great Tips!
Thank You!
Kız Oyunları | July 29th, 2008 at 11:51 am #
thanxxxx….
Kral Oyun | July 29th, 2008 at 11:52 am #
thanxxxx