Seth Godin’s best post for the blogger revisited

30 ways to get more targeted visitors to your blog

A few years ago Seth Godin wrote a great post on how to get traffic for your blog. Seth listed a number of excellent ideas and techniques that any blogger can use to generate interest, attention and advocacy for their blog.

Six years on and many of Seth's practical traffic-generating tips are still very relevant today, so Dave Chaffey and I thought it was worth sharing for those who missed it first time around. However, a few things have moved on, so I thought I’d re-visit the post and pick out some of the best tips (30 of the original 56) for getting more targeted visitors to your blog:

1. Be topical and write posts about things people are interested in TODAY!
2. Become the thought leader and expert in your field so that people rely on your insights and opinions.
3. Be among the first with a great blog on your topic, then encourage others to blog on the same topic.
4. Have an opinion. Be controversial and dare people to respond (with links back to you) on their blog
5. Interview interesting and well-known people.
6. Use lists!
7. Have a distinctive, unique and well-designed blog
8. Don't write about your cat, your boyfriend or your kids. Or do so. Just make it interesting!
9. Tag your posts.
10. Coin a term or two. Not so easy to pull off, but the originators of “Conversion rate optimisation”, “Inbound marketing” and “Permission marketing” managed it!
11. Write about Facebook, Google, Twitter and blogging.
12. Be the first to announce and break news.
13. Focus on a niche that appeals to an obsessed minority.
14. Encourage your readers to Digg, Tweet, Like and +1 your posts. Do it with every post.
15. Use photos. And post them on Flickr.
16. Educate your readers.
17. Include comments so your blog becomes a discussion zone that generates conversation.
18. Write linkbait headlines. Sharebait?
19. Be generous with your expertise so that people recognise it and depend on you.
20. Write about things that appeal to the majority of current blog readers, for example gadgets, social media and Apple.
21. Be timeless and write posts that will be relevant and useful in one, two, three year’s time.
22. Don't interrupt your writing with lots of links.
23. Edit yourself. Ruthlessly.
24. Digest the good ideas of other people, all day, every day and let this. influence your writing.
25. Research the days and times when your audience are most active and post then to maximize readership.
26. Write about a variety of different topics so you keep your readers interested and coming back for more.
27. Become definitive. Write about one thing – in detail.
28. Don't promote yourself, your business, books or projects at the expense of the reader's attention.
29. Don't be boring!
30. Write great stuff that people want to read… and share

Awesome! Which do you live by in your blogging?

Thanks to Gavin Llewellyn for sharing his advice and opinions in this post. Gavin is an independent consultant. He is a Chartered Marketer who specialises in digital marketing, specifically in social media, SEO and online strategy. Gavin currently blogs at One Too Many Mornings where he offers advice, guidance and ideas on how individuals and companies can use digital marketing effectively to get found online, build engagement and generate conversion. You an Follow Gavin on Twitter and Google+.