How To Entice New Visitors To Your Blog

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Have a regular feature.

I tell a joke a day.  Sometimes they’re funny.  People come across one joke and they’re hooked, poor fools.

Join in.

I participate in Six Word Saturday and 101 Tasks in 1001 Days.  People come along to read those posts, and sometimes stay.

Make ’em laugh when they get here.

I tell a joke a day; did I mention that?  I also poke fun at my family, myself and my readers.  Some people come back for more.  (I know; I don’t get it, either.)

Use an interesting title calculated to attract.

Funny is good, but hasn’t helped me much in the title department, if I’m honest.  That’s why I’m using one today calculated to appeal to all those bloggers who, like me, are desperate to be noticed.  I would definitely read a post with this title.  I’m guessing that’s why you’re here, too.

Use popular tags.

Since I started adding tags such as postaday2011, joke and humour, I’ve been getting more new readers.  Well, people taking one look at my blog and never coming back again but, hey, the numbers are up.

Use the same tags in more than one language.

For example:

• English: Humour
• American: Humor

Just because your readers can’t spell, doesn’t mean you should exclude them.

Link to other blogs.

Nancy at Spirit Lights The Way is generous with her link backs but that’s no good to me because she’s already a captive reader.   I read blogs new to me and link back to them, so they will come over and see me and link back to me and I’ll link back to them and some of my readers read them and link back to me saying they’re linking to them and them’ll tell their readers and link back to me and their readers’ll link to them and to me and it all gets pretty incestuous and the posts are interbreeding and don’t make much sense any more but that’s okay I can live with that because the main thing is the stats go up.

Specifically, link to popular blogs.

If you’re lucky, that nogoodnik whose popularity you don’t understand but might as well use will return the visit and like what they see enough to mention you in a post.  If they don’t, who needs ’em anyway?  Note: Don’t get tears on the keyboard; it makes it difficult to type.

Post regularly.

Join postaday2011 or postaweek2011, or tell your readers you’re going to post on the third Tuesday of the month when the moon is in Uranus and you need to rant about your partner.  So long as your readers know when to expect you, they’ll stay.

To be on the safe side, I post on average three times a day.  My readers are too exhausted to visit other blogs.

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I hope you found this little guide useful and will tell all your friends about me.  If you hated it, don’t leave a comment, just tell all your friends about me.

Bon chance! (French)

Good luck!  (American)

Wotcha!  (English)

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101/1001 (19) A Re-Think

I have been forced to re-think some of my targets because I have reached and even surpassed quite a few.  Not this first one, though; I may have set my sights a mite too high on this one:

Ride my bike twenty out of thirty days. (0/30)

Decorating, an absent child and several migraines mean I have barely been out on my new old bike; certainly not enough to say I have started this challenge.  I tell you this in an effort to shame myself into getting back in the saddle again.

Find another 64 challenges for the list.  (27/64)

I have a new challenge, inspired by Elizabeth of 1sojournal, who did it with poetry:

Find 26 unfamiliar words, one for each letter of the alphabet; then use them in a post a day for 26 days. (Words: 5/26)

Expose myself to four new experiences (3/4)

This week’s enjoyment of baking was definitely a new experience for me!

I think I set my target too low for 1001 days, so I will adjust it to twenty new experiences.

This challenge is related to

Try out three new recipes (6/3)

I didn’t expect to complete this one so soon, if at all, so I will up the target to 15.  I don’t want to put too much pressure on me; who knows when I’ll next feel like cooking?  The urge may never come around again in my lifetime.

Submit thirty poems to competitions or publishers (7/30)

I sent off a poem this week; and I plan to send another to a different competition.

The poem I sent is probably too lighthearted for the judges; but I adhered to the theme and it was free to enter, so I sent it anyway.  If only to stop Viv nagging me.

Read thirty books (15/30)

I’m already halfway through this challenge so I think I’d better up the ante to 101 books.

This week I read the last Dick Francis; and finally finished a book I started two years ago and came across when I was rearranging the bedroom in an effort to locate the power lead for my netbook.  I failed, but the book was compensation.

Called Dear First Lady, it’s a selection of letters to and from, well, American First Ladies.  A fascinating insight if you’re into that sort of thing, which I am.  And a reminder that my husband buys the most thoughtful presents in the world.  If only I would stop misplacing them.

Write 101 new poems (153/101)

We are at Day 133 of 1001 and I have already written 153 poems.  I think I may have underestimated my poem-writing capacity just a little.  As a result, this target is going up to…drum roll please…1001.  A poem a day.

Gulp.

Reach 13000 comments on my blog (11,878/13,000)

The rate at which I am reaching this one caught me by surprise.  I thought I was stretching a point by aiming for 13000.  I’m going to double it and add the number I first thought of, to make it 30,000.

Double gulp.

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As you can see, a lot of re-thinking of original targets has taken place.  Either I was unrealistic to start with, or the cake-baking success has gone straight to my head.  Time will tell.

Don’t forget to check out the other 101ers, to my right.  And we still welcome new challengers.  You should think about it – I never had so much fun doing things I mostly want to do anyway.

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Joke 134

Three engineering students were gathered together discussing who must have designed the human body.

One said, “It was a mechanical engineer. Just look at all the joints.”

Another said, “No, it was an electrical engineer. The nervous system has many thousands of electrical connections.”

The last one said, “No, actually it had to have been a civil engineer. Who else would run a toxic waste pipeline through a recreational area?”