Keeping and Growing Your Blog Traffic

Now that you have traffic coming to your blog (hopefully), you want to keep your audience coming back by doing several things.
Update and Bookmark
Add new content frequently. If you don't, people may assume it's a dead blog and stop logging on. Remember, the web has a huge appetite for new content. You want to update 2-3 times a week, unless you're running a news blog, which would be daily.
Add bookmark features for visitors to bookmark your blog; this helps your blog's search engine ranking and increases web traffic.57
The easiest way is by installing ShareThis and/or Social Marker to your blog.58 59 These features allow users to bookmark your blog on popular community web logs such as Digg.28
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RSS Feeds
Most blogs come with an RSS Feed, often called "Really Simple Syndication." 60 With an RSS Feed you can syndicate your blog to anyone who subscribes.60 When people subscribe, they are automatically alerted when a new blog posting is up.
FeedBurner is a free web tool that you can install on your blog to manage, analyze (subscriber stats) and publicize your RSS Feed.61 60 You can also place ads in your RSS Feed with Google Adsense for Feeds and/or advertise on the FeedBurner Ad Network; both are owned by Google.60 62 63 61
Once you have your RSS Feed tricked out with the above add-ons, you can take it to a whole new level with Simplaris Blogcast, which blogcasts your blog's RSS Feed on your Facebook profile, widening your audience to your friends or anyone who comes across your profile.60 64 60 53
Technorati
Create a bookmark feature for users to link your blog to Technorati.45 As mentioned earlier, Technorati is a blogging directory that keeps tabs on the blog community.65 The most popular blog posts make it to the first page of Technorati.45
While others are tagging your blog to Technorati, you can do it yourself with Technorati Tags.45 66Place your Technorati Tags (keywords) at the bottom of each blog post; these tags link back to the Technorati search engine enabling millions of Technorati users to find your blog.

Pings, Trackbacks, and More
Pings
A "ping" is a signal sent from your blog to blog directories when your blog has been updated with a new post.67 To send out pings, just copy and paste this list of ping services into your blog's ping function.68 Also enter your blog in these popular ping services: Ping-o-Matic!, Technorati: Ping and Google Blog Search Ping Service.69 70 71 To ping your RSS Feed, try FeedBurner's PingShot.72
Trackbacks
Activate the trackback feature on your blog. A trackback is when another web site links to your blog and your blog becomes "aware" of this external linking, automatically.73 The trackback feature makes a note of this, usually in the comments section of the your blog.
Related Posts Add a "Related Posts" section at the bottom of each of your blog posts. If someone wants to read more about the topic that they have just finished reading, then they will click to another entry on your blog, increasing your page view count.74 Depending on your blog platform, this may require a plug-in or you can manually create it