We at Pivotal get asked this a lot:

How do I get more traffic to my site (or blog)?

We thought it best to provide a nice list of methods and techniques to bring more traffic your way, so here goes:

To Get More Traffic:

1. Use lists in your blogs if it’s relevant. Like this one!
2. Choose your topics carefully and make sure they are current and noteworthy.
3. Do your research and become an expert before you post. If your readers ask questions, know how to answer them.
4. Watch the news and read literature on your ‘expert’ subject. If something is interesting write about it.
5. Make your posts future proof. Blog about topical subjects that will be discussed forever to get more traffic. It’s ok to throw in the odd news topic but it could only stay relevant for a short time.
6. Be the first among many. Try to keep original content and make it your own. People will repost your work and give you credit and thus you will get more traffic.
7. Forge your own style and apply it to everything. People will recognise it wherever they read it and it will help brand you as a writer and blogger.
8. Make a point to follow up posts where you promise a follow up. Fans will get disappointed if they are waiting and don’t get what they expect.
9. Be opinionated. No one likes to read objectivity they like to agree or disagree and that will also help generate comments.
10. Encourage people to use your RSS feed. This will give you other avenues to get your message across through syndication and should get more traffic.
11. Do not write about boring things, in-jokes and personal subjects which only a few people would understand.
12. Write both long and short posts. This will keep everyone happy.
13. Be controversial to get more traffic. The phrase ‘you can please some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time’ is very applicable to blogging.
14. Install DISQUS or IntenseDebate preferably DISQUS as it is better.
15. Use graphics, polls, videos and other media to keep people entertained. Lots of plain text can really put people off.
16. Create new words and phrases and use them often. These will become your signature and if people copy you it will be obvious.
17. Find famous people and well known specialists to either guest blog for you or at least do an email interview for you. People love to read about famous people.
18. Respond to comments carefully and thoughtfully as well as answering your email.
19. Use lots of social networking, but do it properly. Don’t offer it as an easy way out rather than commenting. Put the Like boxes etc. under your comments if you can.
20. If you are going to post about a big subject, break it up into separate parts for your readers to check back on, like a ‘blog trilogy’ Let your users know when to expect the next instalment. This way they will come back for more.
21. Quote peoples comments so they feel like their message is being put across and it’s worth feeding back.
22. Always write as if writing to a new reader as there will always be new reader.
23. Don’t blog too often! People need time to digest and don’t want to try and keep up with a daily blog. Leave the same post up for a while before posting up something new. Let it breathe!
24. Deep link your posts to useful and not well known areas of the net. People will bookmark you for pointing them there.
25. Write posts that each include lots of trackbacks to lots of blog posts so that people will notice you.
26. Work on your blog template until you have perfected it. The only blogs that do well are the ones that the owners feel proud of.
27. Write about core subjects like Google, Technology and even blogging itself. These are subjects which everyone has common ground with.

And one final tip to make sure you build up and get more traffic:

Post on weekdays and peak times for you demographic, because there are more readers.

If you have any other tips for our readers which will help them get more traffic then please feel free to add them in the comments section below.