I’ve seen a lot of bloggers jump into the blogosphere and there seems to be a certain cycle of life they follow.

First, they start out timidly, not sure of what they’re doing. They make their first post then leave their first comment.

Second, they begin leaving more comments and when a few people finally start visiting their blog they begin to get a full taste of the wonders of blogging and they love it.

Third, they become addicted. They spend hours online, visiting and commenting until they reach the point of “How do I get more?” This can be more visitors, more money, more success, or more of whatever makes them happy, but they start to look at ways to increase their traffic and get more people to show up on their doorstep.

Building traffic really isn’t a secret, here are 11 very solid ways of accomplishing this goal.

Commenting

If you are commenting on other blogs you will most likely, eventually catch the attention of that blogger and other visitors to the site. There are some exceptions— momblogs in general are more social than other niches. I’ve only met a very small handful of food bloggers or craft bloggers that ever noticed any of their comments let alone responded to them (they tend to be a rather solitary lot).

But if you leave thoughtful comments—which means those that are more than just “Great Post!” or those designed to irritate—you’re likely to get some attention. Though if you leave comments designed to irritate you’ll probably get some attention (the bad kind).

I would suggest making sure you have an avatar (or a tiny photo) to go with your profile so that when you leave comments there is a picture for people to remember you by. It helps, too, if you use a real name rather than trying to use keywords because it’s hard enough to remember names when you meet someone face to face let alone through a comment. Give them something to remember you by, so they get the full taste of how wonderful you are.

Consider registering a profile in several blogging platforms besides the platform you’re using so when you comment on blogs from the other platforms your profile picture will show up with your comments.

Most blogs use Gravatar.com to show a commentators avatar.  Once you upload your photo, simply making a comment with your registered email address will display that photo with your comment.

Carnivals

After commenting the next most effective way to promote your blog would be participating in blog carnivals. What are blog carnivals? They’re events where blogs can submit posts on a particular theme. Carnivals can be hosted at a certain site repeatedly or they can be hosted by guest sites on a rotating basis, it just depends on how the carnival owner decides to run things.

Joining in carnivals builds a little visibility and it gets some valuable links from other sites—both good things. The best way to find the carnivals is to go to www.blogcarnival.com where every carnival you’d ever want is listed by category. Don’t get stuck in one category but only submit posts that really apply and then when the carnival is posted it’s polite to mention the hosting URL with a nice little link.

Contests and Giveaways

Holding contests and giveaways on your blog is a great way to get some attention. Everyone likes to win free stuff and giving things away is a great way to get people to your blog.

Alternately a contest can be a great promotional tool. Since I’ve started this blog I’ve held many contests which have helped to build my traffic. Participants get a link from me when I post the entries, I get a link from the participants when they post their entries on their blogs, everyone wins something. It’s just a great thing for everyone involved and it’s promoted my blog beyond my niche in ways I couldn’t have done on my own.

Business Cards

If you want to spread the word about your blog get some business cards printed up and ready to pass out when you meet people in real life. These don’t have to be expensive designer cards, there are sites such as VistaPrint that will print up free cards with their own promo included on the back of the cards, but get a simple card with your name and URL and blog title on it and don’t be afraid to tell people about your blog and pass them a card when they ask where they can find it.

Blog Conferences

If you can afford to travel then a blog conference is not only a great place to meet other bloggers but it’s a good way to promote your site and make some fun connections—and you never know where connections can lead you.

IzeaFest, Affiliate Summit, and Blogher are all good places to converge, each with their own unique slants and benefits for bloggers. Blog World Expo is for all bloggers and attracts the biggest names in blogging each October. Check out their websites and get to know what they specialize in and consider attending.

Guest Posting

This can be done two ways—either by inviting other bloggers to post on your blog or by pitching ideas to other bloggers to see if they’ll let you take a turn at their blog. Either way it’s a good way to meet a new group of people through the other blog’s readers.

One variation on this theme is to do a blog swap with another blogger. You take a turn at their blog while they take a turn at yours which conserves your writing efforts while still accomplishing the goal. You might both write on the same topic or do a “point/counterpoint” debate on an issue you both find pertinent but whatever you do don’t just look at bloggers who are bigger than you are, it’s more important to find people who have similar audiences and who have quality sites regardless of their traffic.

Email Signatures

Everyone has email accounts so why not put those accounts to work for your blog? Include your blog’s URL in your email signature—and don’t forget email accounts not associated with your blog. Let people whom you correspond with know about your blog and how to find it, it’s simple, it’s painless and it gets your site out there just a little bit more.

Local Media

This is helpful if you have a smaller community offline. Living in New York City or Seattle or Houston is going to make it difficult to gain the attention of your local radio station or paper but if you can contact them with an idea for a piece they could use—say a segment for their morning programming that gives ideas for cutting household costs, making money online, or organizing life with children—then they might give you a chance. If you have a unique opportunity give your local paper a call and see if they’re interested in free coverage of the event.

Use the unique opportunities blogging presents to help the offline media and you can create some valuable connections.

Newsletters

Use a service such as Aweber to create a free newsletter for your site, so that you can connect with your readers weekly or monthly outside of your blog. Use it to promote your blogging by listing upcoming posts or events, guest bloggers or exciting changes. Problogger has a variety of articles about newsletters and how to create them that I’d recommend if this is something in which you’re interested.

Write an eBook

Not only can writing a book be a good exercise for your writing skills it can be a great way to promote your blog as well as your career as a writer. You can sell and ebook through a site such as Amazon or you can give it away for free but regardless of whether you make money, it will be something to show your visitors that you’re a serious writer, that you have the ability to produce a book and (if it does well) that you can produce something that is successful and useful.

Good Content

The number one way to build traffic is to produce the best content you can conjure up. Consistent, quality content is what will bring people back to your blog and is what will get them to email your posts to their friends and tell others about this great new blog they’ve discovered. Have good content and participate in the community and you’re guaranteed to at least have a decent flow of visitors who will appreciate what you have to say.

In what other ways do you promote your blog?

In our series, “Building A More Successful Blog In 30 Days,” we’ve covered many ways to help your blog become more successful, including marketing, brand development, and even time management. But one thing that has never been covered is extremely useful resources that will help you understand everything that blogging involves.

Books, are the best resources for better familiarizing yourself with your niche, and how to build a bigger following.  There are just as many books that cover topics like marketing, blogging, social media, advertising, etc. as there are people to read them it seems, but here a few of the best books you can read that give some of the best advice on building and marketing a very successful blog.

Problogger

Whether you’re just starting out or have been blogging for years, Darren Rowse of Problogger.net and Chris Garrett of Chrisg.com show you how to turn your passion for blogging into extra revenue. This practical guide to creating and marketing a blog with the potential for generating a six-figure income shows you how to choose subject matter that works for you, handle technical issues, and evaluate your blogs success so that you can use your blog to generate income indirectly.

Get Your Copy of “Problogger” Here

Twitter Power

In Twitter Power, Internet marketing and Web innovation expert Joel Comm shows businesses and marketers how to integrate Twitter into their existing marketing strategies to build a loyal following among Twitter members, expand awareness for their product or service, and even handle negative publicity due to angry or disappointed consumers.

Get Your Copy of “Twitter Power” Here

The Adsense Code

Hidden on the Internet, scattered among billions of Web pages, are the clues to an incredible secret. For those who know the secret, the result is untold wealth. Each month, a small group of people – an elite club who have uncovered the mysteries of The AdSense Code- put their knowledge to use and receive checks for tens of thousands of dollars from Google. And untold numbers of additional site owners are regularly generating supplemental income via AdSense while they play, sleep and eat. The AdSense Code is concise and very focused on the objective of revealing the proven online strategies to creating passive income with Google AdSense. The AdSense Code reveals hands-on solutions to many of the concerns and challenges faced by content publishers in their quest to attract targeted traffic, improve content relevance and increase responsiveness to AdSense ads – using easy and legitimate techniques that have worked for those who know the secrets. Google AdSense expert, Joel Comm, provides you with the keys you need to “crack” The AdSense Code and unlock the secrets to making money online.

Get Your Copy of “The Adsense Code” Here

Click Here To Order

While the general public is familiar with the larger Internet companies such as Yahoo!, Google, eBay and Amazon, very few are aware that small business is thriving online like never before, especially in the realm of information products. Click Here creates an entertaining and instructive narrative that provides an in-depth look at the unintentionally underground movement known as Infoproduct marketing, and the people who have profited and succeeded in the industry.

Get Your Copy of “Click Here To Order” Here

These books all compliment each other.  Meaning you can read each one to get a better understanding of one particular piece of the puzzle.  Each one covers a different topic, and when all read together, they help to solve the problem and answer the question of how you can become just as successful a blogger as anyone else.

Do you have a book that fits nicely into becoming more successful online?  If so, send me a copy.  If I like it, you will see it as one of my book recommendations on this blog.

Those of us who spend our time teaching others how to make money online or be successful lay out the roadmap we took to becoming so successful, and tell others that following that path will make them successful.  But often-times we miss telling you one of the most important parts of becoming successful in anything you do.

Your determination to do so.

You have to be willing to take criticism, failure, stumbling blocks, and so much more for what it is.  Learn from them, work hard to overcome, and keep driving forward.

The harsh reality is that most bloggers who try to be successful will fail.  Because they aren’t really trying hard enough.

When your articles are written in broken English that’s difficult to understand, you need to work harder to fix it.  When you feel frustrated because no one is visiting your blog and you spam everyone with the same link over and over again, leading to an even bigger loss of readers, you need to step back, take a breath, and remember why you’re here.  Not for yourself, but for others.  And you should always feel humbled and thankful that others want to read your writing.

Today is day 27 in our series “Building A More Successful Blog in 30Days“, and I want you to focus on acting the part of a successful blogger.

If you act the part of someone you want to become, then you’ll eventually become that person.

If You Say So

“I’m not ‘big’ enough to do that yet…” – A phrase I hear so often, usually in response to advertising, product reviews, conferences, etc.

Yet, no matter how often I hear the words, I never really get used to them and I still find myself wanting to shake the person’s shoulders, hoping some sort of sense would magically float in through their ears.

The truth is that until you believe in yourself, you can’t expect others to believe in you. So, if you say you aren’t good enough or ‘big’ enough of a blogger to do something, people will just take your word for it. And, why shouldn’t they?

Fake It ‘Til You Make It

I’m sure you’ve heard this saying before, and in a way this can totally be related to blogging as well. Please don’t misunderstand me, though. I am not telling you to lie or be deceitful and I’m certainly not telling you to get too cocky for your own good. What I am telling you is that perception is key – whether you are online or offline, it’s still the same.

Think about it. Take a look at the next stranger who walks by. What do they look like? How do they talk? What do they say? What overall feelings or thoughts do you have about that person based on nothing more than your observations?

Furthermore, if you were to choose between a well-groomed business person and someone in a ratty t-shirt with paint-splattered jeans and an awful body odor to do business with, who would you most likely choose (based solely on observations and first impressions)?

Figure Out Where You Want To Go

Whether you simply want to sell your product or become the next blogging billionaire, you need to figure out where it is you want to go before you can begin planning the trip. So, write it down. Choose your goals and write down exactly what they – what you – look like.

Dress For Success – Choosing Your Image

The image you choose to portray to your readers says a lot about you.  If you constantly talk about how you wish you could be as successful as another guy, then you’ll achieve it.  It’s when you start putting forth that image of success that you start becoming that image you’re portraying.

Every little detail matters.  The way you dress, what your blog looks like, whether you have a 1-800 number for your business, or whether you have an email address that says, sexybitch18@yahoo.com, or something more professional using your actual name.

Think before you do.  You’ll find you make fewer detrimental mistakes.

Talk The Talk

Stop putting a shining light on everything negative that happens.  Start being positive, and start patting yourself on the back.  There’s an old saying that says, “Sometimes you have to brag on yourself, because others won’t.”  This is true, unless you’re extremely famous and you give something to your readers.  Others do things for a reason, and most of the time that reason benefits themselves.

Check your grammar and spelling.  Double check if you know you make mistakes a lot.  Your writing is what everyone sees every day.  It is what distinguishes the difference between an expert and a novice.  If you want to be known as the expert, then you’ll have to write like one.

Walk The Walk

Probably the most important piece of advice that I give you is that successful people do.  They are thinkers, always coming up with creative ways to sell, market, and connect.  But they do more than simply come up with great ideas.

Successful people act on those ideas.  They act on them immediately instead of waiting around using excuses why it can’t be done yet.

The most important factor in whether you’ll be successful or not is if you’re the person who will act immediately upon your great ideas, and give the effort it takes to keep going when it gets hard.

You’re not a child anymore, your parents won’t do it all for you.  Take the initiative, work hard, always strive for more, and never give up.  You will succeed.

You hold the key to your success.  All you have to do is use it!

With only 4 days left in our series, “Building A More Successful Blog in 30 Days”, I want to recap what tasks we’ve covered so far.

If you’ve missed any days, feel free to start from day 1 and work your way through.  I will still be monitoring any comments left for each article, so if you have any questions along the way, please do not hesitate to ask.

1. Set Goals To Build A Successful Blog
2. The Anatomy Of An About Me Page
3. Not All Goals Are Created Equal
4. Guest Blogging Your Way To Success
5. Participate In Forums For A More Successful Blog
6. 7 Blogging Mistakes You Should Avoid
7. Build Your Traffic By Commenting On Blogs
8. How To Write Better Blog Posts
9. The 5 Habits Of Highly Successful Bloggers
10. Handling Negative Comments On Your Blog
11. How To Grow Your Business With Twitter
12. Top 5 PPC Landing Page Mistakes
13. Building Traffic With Contests & Giveaways
14. The Art Of A Successful Giveaway
15. How To Increase RSS Subscribers
16. 2 Ways To Strengthen Your Blogging Community
17. How To Get RSS Readers To Visit Your Blog
18. Branding Your Blog For Success – Part 1
19. Branding Your Blog For Success – Part 2
20. 7 Ways To Make Money Online
21. 7 Blog Posts That Will Make Your Blog More Successful
22. Increase Blog Traffic By Giving Some Link Love
23. How To Better Manage Your Time
24. 4 Ways To Build A Newsletter Subscriber List
25. Power Marketing By Building A Blogging Team
26. Even Successful Bloggers Need A Break

Which article in the series has worked the best for you?  Is there any specific topic you’re interested in learning more about?  If you have any ideas that you know will help build a more successful blog, please leave a comment.  You could possibly see your idea as an article in this series.  I will also take guest posts for any of these last 4 days if any of you are interested.

I’m contemplating making this series into a book, so all guest post authors will get credit for their articles.