101 Ways to Make Your Blog More Popular and Successful
After 10 years of online publishing, 4 years of blogging for a plethora of blogs, being a SEO for three years and being paid for blogging several times by now I finally am convinced that I know how it works.
What I learned about online publishing, blogging, SEO in 10 years you can now read in 10 minutes.
This is my list of 101 ways to make your blog more popular and successful. Most of it I tried myself, other measures have been taken by numerous other bloggers with success so I have to catch up on them myself.
1 - 5: StumbleUpon
1. Get social on StumbleUpon, it brings huge targeted traffic if you do it right
2. Add some friends at SU but not too many
3. Reward people stumbling you, or say “thanks” at least
4. Stumble only good stuff, so people get interested in you and visit your blog
5. Link your blog on your StumbleUpon home page
6 - 10: Niche social news sites
6. Target niche social news sites like DZone, Sphinn or Hugg
7. Become a power user at the one that fits you most
8. Stumble good articles from the niche social news communities
9. Use a striking avatar
10. Socialize with other (power) users and add them as friends at Facebook or Pownce
11 - 20: Your blog
11. Add an unforgettable image in your blog header
12. Use WordPress, as it’s the most widely used blogging platform and makes socializing with Trackbacks easier
13. Use a great design or customize a great WordPress theme
14. Allow trackbacks and real links in comments (dofollow)
15. Reply to your comments
16. Link to other bloggers, not only the well known ones
17. Create pillar or mile stone content like huge lists, thorough tutorials, breaking or unique news
18. Be the first to say something: uncover scams, debunk myths
19. Review other bloggers
20. Create a blogroll of blogs that are similar to yours and/or a good supplement
21 - 30: Other blogs:
21. Accept and revere authorities in your field
22. Make a list of the top 10 blogs in your field and try being like them and better
23. Contribute guest post on other blogs
24. Email other bloggers if they have “Page not found” or their design is broken is some browser
25. Get inspired by other bloggers
26. Comment on other blogs, out of interest, not only for marketing purposes
27. Go to unconferences and bar camps to meet other bloggers
28. Submit others blog posts to your favorite social media or vote there for them
29. Do not expect other bloggers to like just because your there
30. Do not annoy other bloggers with IM, email or other means, only contact them if it really makes sense
31 - 40: Copy writing
31. Write about popular topics but not those everybody else already covered
32. Find a new angle to a story instead of mere repeating or linking
33. Use striking, funny, easy to remember titles like “The Day I was reborn, twice”, “I ate my iPod“, “10 Ways to become a Millionaire in 5 Weeks”
34. Do not write too short posts
35. Do not write too long posts
36. Know your audience and offer it what it wants, not only what you think is appropriate
37. Be yourself, do not write you you would write for an employer, write as if you write a letter to a friend
38. Offend offenders
39. Do not offend people weaker than you
40. Ask questions and incite discussions
41 - 50: X/HTML and CSS
41. Use X/HTML and CSS (Flash blogs exist!)
42. Use headings, lists, bold, italic and other means of making a text readable
43. Use large headlines
44. Use the h2 tag for post titles
45. Use Flash image replacement to make your headlines look better
46. Do not use fonts for headlines which are not meant for them and look ugly (Verdana)
47. Make your font size readable for your post but not too big, your readers are not half blind
48. Use colors that contrast but not too much and not too many of them, black on white is still king
49. Be original but let people recognize that your blog is a blog, by using some well known elements
50. Use compatible CSS, no CSS 3 tricks
51 - 60: Images
51. Use images in posts
52. Use striking images in your posts, like collages, bright colors, images that metaphorically illustrate your point
53. Be original, do not just display the Google logo when you write about Google
54. Do not steal images without proper attribution
55. Use a list of images to attract large audiences, but don’t forget #54
56. Use screenshots or parts of them as images for your blog posts
57. Use pictures of beautiful women
58. Do not use pictures as the only content of a post if it’s not a list
59. Do not use images that are bigger than 50 Kb or 500*500 pixels, not everybody in the world has a fast connection
60. Use thumbnails for bigger images
61 - 70: Topics
61. Cover the most important things in life: Love, peace, happiness, community, freedom
62. Do not write about SEO (it’s too late for me)
63. If you write about SEO call it blogging tips or make money online
65. Interview interesting and well known people
66. Write about stars, people love stars: Angelina Jolie I love you!
67. Write about what you know first hand, what you experienced
68. Concentrate on positive topics, do not just write how bad everything is
69. Do not write about your wife, kids, where you live, how much you earn or what you bought unless you’re properly armed or live Sweden
70. Write you earned thousands of dollars by blogging to get known
71 - 80: Blog SEO and promotion
71. Use blog communities like MyBlogLog or BlogCatalog
72. Use CLIQ to be displayed on similar blogs you like
73. Ping Technorati and Google Blog Search (default in English WordPress)
74. Use WordPress 2.3+ as it’s already SEOed to the max out of the box
75. Link out to others to get linked, do not engage in link exchange, link buying or selling or any automated link schemes
76. Do not use keywords like “california real estate” as your name in comment fields unless it’s your blogs name
77. Don’t do conventional SEO on your blog, it’s in most cases counter productive
78. Do not write content - write articles, reviews, interviews
79. SEO is not Spam, Blog SEO is not trackback spam
80. Do not automate your blogging efforts
81 - 85: Getting Subscribers
81. Display a (big) orange feed icon where everybody can see it
82. Use Feedburner
83. Let people subscribe by email
84. Offer a full feed
85. Explain what RSS is for people new to the concept and offer a choice of the best RSS readers
86 - 90: Branding
86. Get a decent logo
87. Get a unique and remarkable name for your blog
88. Get a short and concise name for yourself, Tadeusz Szewczyk = Tad Chef
89. Use your logo and/or avatar throughout the Net
90. Trademark your blog name and logo
91 - 101: Miscellaneous
91. Do not offend people for being different than you
92. Be open minded, let anything and everything inspire you
93. treat your readers and other bloggers like real people, with respect and compassion
94. Explain stuff that you know, there are always some people who don’t
95. Be different but stay true to yourself, do not pose as somebody else
96. Do not overload your blog with ads
97. Do not use Google Adsense or Text Link ads unless you have to or depend on it
98. Become an expert in your trade, be a specialist in your topic
99. Do not try to do everything or be everywhere, concentrate on the stuff you like, prefer and are good at
100. Cooperate with others, altruism is the best egoism
101. In short: Practice SEO 2.0
I want to thank five bloggers who inspired me to write this post: Smashing Magazine, Vandelay Design, Skellie, Social Networking Articles and this SEO blogger.
Skellie —
Nice job, Tad — preparing to Stumble
I would Digg it, but I’m not sure if you want that 
Shana Albert —
Tad…. truly amazing post. Brilliant. Thank you for writing it.
YC —
Great stuff, Tad - you’ve just given me more to work on and improve. This is true quality blogging and advice.
Fred @ Newest on the Net —
That is a great article. Thanks.
Lyndoman —
Every blogger should be locked in a deep dungeon and only let out until they can come up with a 101 useful list regarding their niche.
Reminds me of Godins list http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2006/06/how_to_get_traf.html
Good stuff
onreact —
Thank you everybody! I hope not only experts love it…
Matt Ridout —
Nice post but you don’t follow your own advice?
> 57. Use pictures of beautiful women
onreact —
I do, check this one out:
http://seo2.0.onreact.com/1000-pages-liked-on-stumbleupon
Trackback UK Small Business Forums —
101 blogging tips for traffic…
One more aimed at the social media site of things, but if nothing else, really focuses on how much the blogger needs to go out there and get knowm and noticed outside of their own site, and when visit……
Lidija Davis —
Brilliant List!
Have a question please WGTS
Re: Tip number 23
How do you guest post if you don’t know the blogger personally?
As much as I would love to guest post on other blogs (some smaller, some bigger) I can’t imagine how to go about doing it without sounding like a huge twit
Perhaps one day you could do a post on this…
Thanks again!
Elliott Cross —
Great and amazing list! First from Skellie this week, and now from here!
Simply amazing and thanks for the tips, some of which I hadn’t thought of!
onreact —
Lidija, it’ not difficult. Follow the blog for a while. Then choose a topic that fits in and contact the blogger. No magic tricks involved. Many bloggers ask for guest posts explicitly.
Of course I would be delighted if you would guest post here. After publishing 3 articles yesterday I really feel like not writing myself for a while.
Thanks Elliot. Skellie is my role model.
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Damien —
Great list!
This has been what I am looking for.
Just stumble it.
Armen —
I stumbled it, but, I am wondering about the h2 tags for titles point. Why would you do this? Your title is the most important part of the page.
Unless, you can make titles on your homepage h2, and titles on single posts h1, then I’d keep them h1.
If you know how to do this, please share
eddiecraig —
hi,
wow!that’s amazing…i didn’t expect this from your article…thats a fantastic done by u..some will think that y should we want tell our secret ways to make the blogs popular..but you
have posted your secrets and easiest way to make my blogs popular..some ll refuse to tell even a single way but u said 101WAYS…that’s AMAZING…Thank U..
Trackback roScripts - Webmaster resources and websites —
SEO 2.0 | 101 Ways to Make Your Blog More Popular and Successful…
SEO 2.0 | 101 Ways to Make Your Blog More Popular and Successful…
nishu —
“57. Use pictures of beautiful women”
Lovely … I love Maki’s blog because of anime gals he puts.
Tibi Puiu —
Excellent list. Keep up the good work.
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Lidija Davis —
Woo Hoo!
Yes, I see you have been busy and I am honored to have the opportunity to write something for you. Now to find that perfect post - you do realize this has got to be my best ever…
Thinking hat ON!
onreact —
Thank you Damien!
Armen: Good question, should have elaborated on that: Statistical studies have shown that the h2 tag is more imporatnt for your Google ranking than the h1. Besides there can only be one h1 per page.
So the h1 should be the title of your blog, here it’s SEO 2.0
On the front page several titles are displayed. Having several h1 tags means search engine spam in a way…
Right nishu, not only those but all the images Dosh Dosh uses are well chosen.
Jermayn Parker —
Agree with most of your comments especially get rid of rel=”nofollow” and use a striking header image
Armen —
Hmmm…not too sure about placing the blog title in h1 tags, unless of course it contains your key words. It’s content people are after most of the time, not websites.
I wish I knew a way to make post titles h1 on single pages, and h2 everywhere else.
onreact —
<p>Jermayn, in fact your image is striking!
Armen: You can. In Wordpress you have to open Presentation -> Theme Editor -> open “Single Page” (or something like that) and then replace h2, with h1.
medical tourism —
Ya! I think this is the best to generate the traffic, but can we use this for oue website slso, please suggest.
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onreact —
Yes “medical tourism”, especially #59 and #76
Rachel Goldstein —
Thank you so much for including socialnetworkingarticles.com in your article.
Rachel
AnneMarie —
Fantastic post - thank you for this.
Loved the way you put the list together and think it is a great idea.
Will do it for one of my new websites in a specific niche.
david deangelo —
Very informative list of advice. I see a trend of bloggers using +1 numbers in their lists like instead of 100 points, we have 101 points!
Sly from Slyvisions.com —
I discovered this site from Sphinn and in just my first visit, it has earned itself to be on my daily reads and subscription. With this post as an example, this blog has shown that will become (if not already) popular and successful.
Anyway, this is a very nice list, and one of the best I’ve seen so far. Keep up the good work!
onreact —
Rachel: It’s such a great resource I just had to!
AnneMarie: Thank you! Please come back and report on the outcome of putting this into practice!
david: True, I can see this trend too
Sly: Well, you’re blog is not bad either! I am flattered to match your quality standards.
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olivier —
What a huge list. I added you to my list of subscriptions to have more of these kinds of posts.
Jesse —
Wow! What a great list, I am checking out some of your links in your list to learn more about a few services that I never heard of before. I have subscribed to your blog, I found it through stumbled upon.
onreact —
Thanks guys, more is coming up, indeed a post even better than this one…
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onreact —
Sorry, “Wavestech”.
This is an example how not to do it. This is a SEO blog where you could have contributed a useful comment to get a link, but you send me automated spam with your corporate blahblah.
Therefore I removed the link to your company.
I prepare a follow up to my best SEO company websites post
http://seo2.0.onreact.com/the-15-best-seo-company-website-designs-worldwide;
where I will feature more than one SEO company from India, your competition.
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leefrank —
Great blog and very informative. I will definitely come back for the great stuff. Keep it up and thank you for sharing your thoughts.
leefrank
Aelizia —
Hi,
Its a informative blog post.ofcourse StumbleUpon, brings huge targeted traffic if we do it right.I had experience in that.you have bring all good points about blog more popular and successful.Really these 101 ways will be useful for the new bloggers as well as experienced bloggers.Thanks for sharing with us!
Vagner —
This 101 list is really great but somewhat scary and overwhelming to a newbie like me… a lot to do and be careful of. Will try to follow your advices as best I can. Oh yes thanks for 101 blog posting ideas too.
onreact —
Well in fact I do all that and more in more or less 2 hours per day. So it’s not overwhelming once you are used to it.
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Whatever-ishere —
thanks for the GREAT post! Very useful…
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sara —
very useful advices but
101 ways - is’s sooo many
houroc —
Amazing post…. Thank you for this great info. Keep up the great work man
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Silens Motus —
This is really helpful, my blog doesn’t get any readers at the moment (1 week old blogger) but I’ll def try these out.
vietnamrss.com —
Nice too meet you:)
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Jim —
Late to the feast but nonetheless a great post. I’ll try starting putting it into practice right away. Thanks very much.
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Paul —
hey, thanks, a truly great resource for somebody like myself whose just starting out. Much appreciated!
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Satisfyte —
This list has been really helpful! Granted some of the 101 things were steps within one concrete item, but that’s okay. I’d be hard pressed to come up with 101 things, that’s for sure! I’ve written some of them down and will be keeping them in mind as I venture deeper into blogging. I’m playing catch-up right now with social bookmarking sites and other opportunities that I haven’t explored yet.
Thanks again!
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Offthecuff —
What about stalking? Do you think it’s a good idea to stalk people who disagree with you? Like, say, constantly sending them messages on Stumble and threatening them privately?
Is that a way to make your blog more successful? Or do you think the *victim* will tell people and show people and drag your name through the mud by creating screenshots?
I have a friend who is going through this. She is blurring out the stalkers name but apparently he has a blog and is an SEO person. In a private offsite forum she is posting the screenshots and what the authorities are doing or may do about this.
If she ever goes public with his name, I think his repuation will be sullied - ESPECIALLY if he ends up arrested - but perhaps this is what he is going for?
It’s disturbing to think so many people are on the internet who really do stalk people who disagree with them!
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Aispinay —
i like your post TaD about this hint on how to increase Blog traffic. I wrote a similar topic in my own blog but the list is too short and too limited. I think I’ll read more about your posted articles. Well Done.