As a new blogger you have high aspirations for sharing your endless knowledge, your funny stories, and your most humble (or not) opinions.  You want others to try your tastiest recipes and your favorite household tips.  You desire to unleash your inner writer and make a difference in your corner of the blogosphere.

But what do you really want? What you really want is for someone to read your posts! I can remember refreshing my stats page every hour 30 minutes after those first few posts, giddy when I saw that someone was reading.  Even better was when one of my posts received a comment.  Oh, happy day!

If you want readers, you’ve got to get the word out that you’re writing.

• Linking to memes, or blog carnivals, is an easy way to direct readers to your site.  Try this comprehensive list of memes to get you started.
• Read and comment on other blogs. Make it a thoughtful or thought provoking comment, and other readers might click on your comment to check out your blog and see what else you have to say.  Commenting is also an excellent way to build relationships with other bloggers.
• Use SEO friendly titles in your posts. Skip the cutsie stuff, and get right to the point.  You want a search engine to retrieve your article.  Think like a reader and use keywords that would help find your post.
• Join Twitter and/or Facebook and leave a link to your latest work.
• Write a guest post for another blog. I’ve seen many a request for guest posters via Twitter.  Also, it can’t hurt to email a blogger with a guest post proposal.
  
• Apply as a contributing writer for another website.  Blissfully Domestic and Happy to be at Home are often looking for bloggers.  Be prepared to offer writing samples from your site.

What other ideas do you have for increasing blog traffic?

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