Driving traffic to your blog

If you're like me, you started your blog one day, not really planning out what it would be, how you would drive traffic to it, or how much traffic you wanted, if you would address a "niche" space, or any of that other stuff. Or maybe to took a very calculated planned approach.

Then, once you got going, you started visiting other peoples' blogs, and wondering why YOUR blog isn't getting 3000 hits per day.

I've been through that thought process, and I came to the realization that on some days, I want big traffic, crave it, need it like a monkey needs nuts to scratch. Other days, it just doesn't matter all that much and it gets to be a bit of a weight, wondering if you're yelling into a vacuum, wondering if a tree falls in the forest, and nobody is there to hear it, does it make a sound, etc.

This whole idea of traffic comes from a couple of thoughts, I think. First, there are people who make money from their blog - I know you know some - there are some here in good old Salt Lake. Then, there are people who wish they were making money on their blogs, but don't really have a direction, or niche. Others just don't go by that motivation at all, and blog for other reasons altogether.

I think the bottom line for most bloggers is to write for people to read, to interact with people, to speak their mind, throw their opinion out there, etc. Some want to be columnists deep down inside, while others are fine with going the "online personal journal" route.

Whatever your desire, there is a cottage industry out there to maximize your desired results. Check this list of useful blog traffic tips.

If you're a blogger user, you can look at these:
Blogger for Dummies
Blogger tips and tricks

Whatever the original intention for your little slice of blog heaven, you gotta be honest and admit that it's funner when there are people who READ what you write.