Recently I’ve been getting emails and friends asking for advice on starting up their own design blog, how to get initial traffic and how keep it consistently coming.
Below are a a few tips and techniques that has helped me in the early stages of my blog to bring in traffic, and hopefully continue in the future.
In no particular order, 14 ways to drive traffic to your new graphic design, web design or freelance-related blog.
Get People Involved
One of the first thoughts that went through my mind when starting TDC was, “How do I get people to visit my site?” So what better way to get people to visit than to make them want to visit.
Posts such as, 26 Business Cards of Graphic & Web Designers and 40+ Creative Logos Submitted By The Designers Themselves not only helped other designers gain exposure, but helped TDC get off the ground. It’s a win/win situation, but how do you find people to submit and get involved…
Become An Active Social Networker… get on Twitter and more!
Although I stated in the second paragraph that these were in no particular order, social networking and getting others involved was hands down the key to TDC’s initial exposure.
After discovering other designer’s to follow on Twitter, I was not only able to find other talented designers to chat with, share information, and help out, but by making friends and the power of the retweet, TDC was able to gain exposure, readers and participants.
Notice I said to help others and not just promote your own blog. Lend a hand to the design community and more often than not they will return the favor.
Other valuable social sites:
» Facebook
» LinkedIn
» Digg
» StumbleUpon
» Technorati
Submit Articles
Submitting your articles to various design-related submission sites is another great way to reach a wider audience. Check out 40 promotional design sites where you can submit your blog articles for a fantastic starting point.
Giveaways and Competitions
Who doesn’t enjoy winning FREE stuff? Host a competition or giveaway free stuff for commenting or subscribing.
Also, you can ask others to help you out by offering up free prizes or services in return for some exposure or link love.
Link Love
Linking to other peoples blogs and articles is another great way to gain exposure. Ask other blog founders of similar interest and popularity if you could add then to your blog roll in exchange for a link back.
A few good examples of link love include:
» 127 RSS Feeds That All Designers Should Subscribe To
» 300+ Active Web Designers to Follow on Twitter
» 160+ RSS Feeds For Web-Designers and Developers
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Improving your search engine ranking by making your blog search engine friendly with SEO tricks and tips. If you are using Wordpress, make certain to install the All in One SEO Pack plugin.
Comment On Other Blogs
Not only will this leave a link back to your site (if you leave your website URL in the form field), but also gives you the opportunity to shed some insight on other posts, thus making you valuable and informative.
Try keeping your avatar/picture consistent throughout your social networking sites. A gravatar is an image that ties into your email address whenever you comment on the web… this helps to brand your blog and yourself.
Add A Link To All Your Marketing Material
Start by adding your blogs URL to your business cards and email signature. The more the better.
Write Guest Posts
Writing for other blogs of similar interest and readership is a great way to reach out to a wider, new audience. Try writing to your best ability when doing guest posts — you want to impress! 
Host Guest Writers
Allowing other’s to write the occasional blog post is a great way to provide other insight and a new, fresh perspective on topics. Agan, you’re getting your readers and community involved.
Link To Other Articles
If you look to the above paragraphs, you will notice a lot of relevant linking going on. Not only is this valuable to your readers, but it’s a great way for other blogs to notice you — and we all appreciate a good trackback.
Put A Face To Your Blog
I’m not sure if it’s coincidental or not, but putting a face to your blog helps bridge the gap between a standard website and a community.
Many of my favorite blogs I enjoy reading, I feel I have a connection with the writer. It makes me feel more welcome and invited to interact.
Blogs are typically personal so why not make them more personal? Add a photo of yourself someone where on your blog.
Write Interesting & Valuable Content
While this one seems to be a no-brainer, when writing or coming up with an idea for a post ask yourself “Would I want to read this?”
Write short, concise articles. Readers LOVE lists! Don’t ramble and appeal to the masses (well unless that’s not what you are going for). Also, don’t just preach. Instead, help people. Share your knowledge, expertise and experiences.
Post Regularly
Three things are extremely important when first starting your blog:
1. Have a few quality articles posted on your blog prior to the launch.
2. Have a few quality articles on the back burner so you can quickly post through the first few weeks.
3. Post on a regular basis. Why would readers want to visit your blog or subscribe if you are only posting once a month? Give them something to look forward to!
I would love to hear other success stories of starting up. Please feel free to share your own.
Sponsors:
Awesome article Brian. I think this is very useful for designers who are currently running successful blogs as well. I could see how it is easy to lose sight of marketing your blog as time goes on. I think it keeps readers interested by just simply acknowledging them and either giving them a general thanks for commenting or a genuine response.
Keep the good articles coming!
Great advise! I got my first boost of traffic to my blog by making some free vectors to give away and posted them on sites like freevectors.net.
This was a big help.
Thanks!
Really great tips that I wish I would have had when I first started my Design/Photo Blog. It’s been a rough road, but I’ve hit just about everything on the list here that you mention (although it would have saved me a lot of time with a post like this).
Thanks for the advice Brian. I will take this advice and run with it.
Thanks for the helpful insight.
I have just started a new blog which showcases some of work in the field of Arabic Calligraphy. After setting it up I had the same concern as you had and I was looking for some guidelines, and just at the right time I found this article.
Thanks a lot.
Awesome Brian.
You have really summed up some great advice here.
I will most definitive adapt all your advices here. As a newbie blogger you do mistakes. So it is great to have a guideline like you summed up here to use for my own blogging experience.
Your blog will be bookmarked and I’ll also tweet it. Keep up with great articles like this!
Cheers…
this is a very helpful tips.=)Being active in social networks really help a lot.=)thanks for including my link too=)
Thanks, Brian!
Hoping to utilize these tips in the coming weeks.
this is some really helpful advice…thanks alot!
Nice photo—it goes well with the title of your post.
Brian,
Great post! Really useful tips on here, I don’t think you missed a thing!
I will definitely be passing this to the other designers in the office today
~ Aaron I
Awesome post! I just recently started a web design blog and these are all helpful tips, thanks!
Excellent list - I do most of these already, but I have never considered hosting or posting guest writing… I’ll have to check that out!
Very valuable tips..
I am sure this post will be a blessing for all the newbies in blogging..
I have quite a few readers and comments, but when I tried hosting a contest, it fell completely flat. Not one entry. Perhaps I needed to stay on topic so that my specific readers would feel inspired to enter. I strayed a little too far from my main topic, and this was proof I guess!
my year without,
When hosting a contest, try to get creative on the prizes. Alsp, make sure you are posting it to various networking sites. Get the word out… the rest will follow.
Sweet site, really like your articles. Look forward to reading more helpful information like this for starting / growing your blog. Just added you to my RSS list!
great advice thanks
Here’s my first step towards driving traffic to my own blog!
Nice article. Most of this would be considered common sense, but then again if we all used common sense the world would be such a nice place!
Antonea,
I agree… many of these points could be double sided and go both ways. I appreciate your kind comment and will do my best to keep the articles coming!
Tim,
Freebies are an amazing add on to your blog. Readers will eat that up
Caleb,
Thanks for the comment. Best of luck in your blogging adventures.
Naldz,
No problem. Your article was extremely helpful to me as well, so I’m glad I could get it circulating again.
Chad,
Best of luck. Keep me posted with your success.
Tyler and Brett,
Glad you both enjoyed the article. Thanks for the comments.
great advises thank you so much..
thanks for the tips
Will,
Thanks, I’m glad you find my content valuable. Thanks for subscribing… I look forward to reading more of your comments.
brian
your blog hot.i like reading some ur Post.i’m new blogger want learning some tips for my blog & forum..
now,i;m thinking place good for me
sorry for my english
i’m vietnamese
good luck to ur and ur family
Hi Brian,
Thanks for sharing this information. I’ve been working on a new blog that I plan to release onto the world soon, and this has given me some great ideas to help launch it.
I’ll be subscribing to your feed
Take care.
Great stuff, I’m actuallly in the process of starting a new blog, so this article comes at the right time. Little question though, if the tips above can get you noticed in the design community, how do you get potential clients to notice you? I’m not sure they surf around in the same places as we do - or do they?
Excellent article! Good tips, and useful to any blogger. Thanks for the article!
Jamie,
I appreciate the subscribe. Love to hear more comments from you as well.
Kimon,
Although some clients do poke around the same sites as the design community, having a blog is just a part of the marketing process. To easily put it, having a blog has networked me with many fantastic individuals inside and outside the design community, and in turn I typically get referrals or contacted directly. Check out Graphic Designers Discuss the Benefits of Blogging. Hopefully you get a clearer understanding through this article. If not let me know how else I can help.
Absolutely invaluable article. Thanks for generously sharing your insights.
Excellent post Brian!
Great, thanks for the feedback mate.
Blogging is a whole art in and of itself
Great post and great advice.
This really is a good list of tips. I’ll soon launch my blog too. This article really helps. Thanks a lot!
Great post Brian - very timely for me as I just started my blog last month. I am definitely finding that maintaining a social networking presence is key to raising your profile on the web.
It’s really not about putting all your energy into consolidating your corner - being open and sharing with the online community provides richer rewards for everybody.
Thanks for sharing your experience of what has worked for you. I’m currently working on getting a decent amount of posts before I start publicising my blog (there’s no point directing people to your blog if there is nothing of substance there yet), and am sure that these tips will prove their worth in the near future.
One thing I always enjoy reading are how-to’s and walk-through’s of people’s work processes - even if it is something I am completely familiar with. It is always interesting to see the different approaches people use to accomplish creative tasks.
Wow. This is all terrific info. As a newbie to blogging, this kind of advice is very welcome and appreciated. I’ve bookmarked your site — great resource! Thanks
Thanks for the great advice Brian! As always good content from you. I just installed the All In One SEO pack, good call on that!
I really need to get on twitter. Check me out at graphicdesigntwist.com
Cheers!
Nice post, great advice, thanks!
Nice article! Also appreciate you mentioning my 127 Feed article.
http://twitter.com/Colorburned
Thanks for this tutorial! It’s really good to read what successful designers like you have to share. I learn something everyday. I just subscribe to your feeds
Thanks for this great article!
Karina
Brian, Great Post, Great ideas, We have been using Posting Marketing Blogs, Advertising Ideas, Free Clip Art Download and other Free Resources to help drive traffic to our promotional advertising store: http://www.theexecutiveadvertising.com
It’s really help and I feel like tons of people utilize the resources. You have a lot of really good ideas. Thanks for the post!
Just discovered your blog and this article is great! After posting on and off last year, I’m really concentrating on developing my blog this year and your advice is just what I was looking for. Thanks!
it’s worth to try
Wonderful article. This will definitely be of service in the future.
helpful information.. was trying to find useful info to drive traffic to my newly created blog.. your post is indeed useful!
Great article. I found it very helpful especially being new to the whole internet networking thing. Most of my business was local word or mouth and referrals but in this economy I feel I need a bit of a push. I think in my situation since I’m going mainstream a guestbook page will also be a good idea. This may give internet traffic some sense of security in my services. Keep the articles coming and thanks again!
Great advice!
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Thank you very much for this useful article!
I will follow each every tips as my blog is new and is of very niche subject.
Thanx Again.
This is a great post its great to hear new ideas on how to share your ideas with others =). I just launched my design blog, Jonny T Designs,
about three days ago I am always looking for new ways to reach potential readers. Keep the posts coming.
Hi Brian..
That’s a very nice post, i would certainly go with your tips so to optimize my site.And i am sure it would also be very useful and would provide a good source of reference for all those who have just started their won blogs.
And i would be waiting for more of your ideas and tips, so would be coming back.
Thanks..
John..
Lots of great info! Thank YOU AND KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK,
Putting up a face will not harmful. Competition or reward is a great idea. And readers do love short and tight content with lists, it makes them read faster. Jus highlighting some points.
Exceptional article content. Looking forward to apply all parts. Thanks!
Awesome article. I think this is very useful. I would certainly go with your tips so to optimize my site. Thank you.
Thanks, I’ve just launched mine, so this will definitely be helpful!
Great article! I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to drive some traffic to our site. Now I have a starting point…
chapolito,
I wish you the best of luck with your site and glad that this article could be of assistance. Let me know how you make out with some of these techniques.
lilianB,
By far the biggest increase in traffic to my site was becoming active and helpful within various social networking sites, in particular, Twitter. Best of luck with yours.
Good advice, when I launched my blog I used the exact steps and it was a hit! You should listen to Brian, he knows what he’s talking about…and you should listen to me I KNOW WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT :-))
Thanks for the tips! I think most of these are universal and would be helpful to any blogger who wishes to drive more traffic to his/her site. Great stuff!
Ben,
I agree… pretty much all the following can be used except for the design-related post submission sites. Glad you enjoyed the article and I appreciate the comment!
Claudiu,
Glad to hear your blog had similar success using the above techniques. Best of luck to you and your site in the future.
Thanks for the great article… I just started my own design blog at GraphicMakeovers.com and found this article via Twitter, so I can attest that Twitter works! I’ll let you know how the rest of the items work out for me…
Amazing styling and great simple to use product,One of the best web app implementations I have have ever seen.
I watch this guy for year, yea he do a lot of crazy stuff, but I know he is a really good and nice person. My boyfriend got his all best fights and we probably going to pray today and watch his in ring - so sad love you Mike.
Wow these are some really great tips and a nice blog. I am defiantly bookmarking this page for future reference.
Brian I cant tell you how extraordinary your advice was. I do have one question.. how do i sign up so i can add a picture to my profile.
Eli,
I am so glad you found my advice useful. Hope you take what I said and run with it.
Concerning where to get a picture to show up on my site and other blogs, sign up at myGravatar and link it to the email address you use to comment on blogs. Let me know if you need any more help.
First time visitor to your site, and I must say it’s one of the better design sites out there. I keep reading about how Twitter is a great tool for networking…maybe I will have to jump on the bandwagon one of these days.
Brian, there seems to be a “typo” in the “Put a face to your blog” section of this post. At the bottom, reads: “Add a photo of yourself someone where on your blog.”. I think what you meant to say is “Add a photo of yourself somewhere on your blog.”. Just wanted to point that out.
Anyway; I’m a graphic designer as well, but new to the blogging game. One thing I’ve done to bring people to my site is to offer free high resolution images and graphics, which can be used for personal or commercial projects. The problem is, no one knows about them lol. I think once I get some more articles and write some more tutorials, then I will start trying harder to attract people to my site. So far, not much exposure. In time. In time.
Thanks again for the informative article. I will check back and read the rest of your posts when i have time
that’s useful guides, and detailed. surely will get some of them into practice. thanks
really nice tips dude
Really nice, relevant tips. Thanks!
I’m just about to start up a blog and this article was just what I needed.
Your list will act as a very nice aide memoire once I’m up and running.
Can’t think of anything that you have not covered… including SEO.
great site by the way.
Great post, Brian! I just created an account in Twitter and start to try being active in social networking. I hope this will be really an effective strategy to boost traffic to my website. Thanks again Brain for your excellent tips! Keep on posting!
great tips and ideas! I look forward to implementing and sharing with other bloggers.
Great Post! Thanks for the tips. I think it fair to say this goes for starting any type of blog. I am implementing this on my spectrum of blogs. Love the site. Cheers!
Hey
Great Post!Simply superb!!!
This is was really good steeping stone for me also
Here i am also giving the link frm my website to gain some traffic
http://inspirationtrack.com/google-voice-with-your-lifetime-phone-number/
Today it was an inspiration for me to blog
Thanks
sundar
Hi Brian, You write insightful, helpful articles. Your list is more complete than others I’ve seen. Thanks for the tips!
Anita,
Thank you. I try to be a thorough as possible in all my articles and glad they can he of help to you.
This article has been featured here
http://jaredthompson-design.blogspot.com/2009/08/ultimate-list-of-best-links-from-last.html
Keep up the good work!
Hi,
Ugh, I liked! So clear and positively.
SonyaSunny
Enjoyed the read. I am new to the blogging world and picked up a few great tips. Found this link and your site via a linkedin group post.
happy tuesday - joanna
Can i get a one small photo from your site?
Thanks
Elcorin
Elcorin,
Which photo are you interested in?
Thank you! I would now go on this blog every day!
An excellent resource of information i will certainly return to check on the latests posts. I m working on My few bolgs and i want to bring traffic on them.
Hi Brian, You write insightful, helpful articles. Your list is more complete than others I’ve seen. Thanks for the tips!
Great! This is awesome info. As a newbie to blogging, this kind of advice is very welcome and appreciated. I am a Graphic designer, interested in Visual Communication in a holistic way.
Follow me on Twitter–shailajabhagwat
Thanks!
Great info. I’ve employed some of those methods, such as Twitter, to try and drive traffic to my blog, and, I have to say, I do notice small spurts of traffic after tweeting about my blog. I also post articles on ezinearticles and HubPages. I’ve only recently discovered HubPages and so far it’s looking like the most promising of all of the methods. Firstly, you can post articles there within which you can insert backlinks to your blog or site, and, secondly, you can also earn Adsense (or other affiliate program) cash too from any clicks made on your articles. The best thing though, is that, if you create a link from an external site to a HubPages article, and someone clicks on that link, you get a percentage of any page impressions and revenue from that referal. And, should that referal sign up for HubPages, you will then continue to receive a percentage of page impressions and revenue for all of ~their~ posts as a thank you for introducing them. So, potentially, you could post only a handful of articles, but, earn income from thousands (provided someone you refer posts thousands of course!). It’s a great program.
I also use Technorati and StumbleUpon, but have so far had very little in the way of traffic from either of those sources.
Very valuable tips..
I am sure this post will be a blessing for all the newbies in blogging..
You nailed it! Thanx a lot, l got to go update suff on my blog
Thanks for the tips about driving traffic to your blog. I created this blog a couple of months ago and have been working on driving traffic through Twitter and other things like Digg. It seems to be working slowly
Thank you sir! Been looking for something like this for a while now!
thanks if you get more information about this than you must visit
http://how-to-drive-traffic-to-your-blog.blogspot.com/
Brian,
Thanks for the great post. I have to say that I was skeptical, but EVERY time I post a new blog entry or comment on someone else’s blog, it drives traffic to my site. Now, we’re not talking about a million new visitors, but one or two or 10 and that it how it works. Just keep chipping away and the traffic patterns will slowly but surely build. It is an on-going effort, not something you do once. Thanks again.
Great article on driving traffic…i wonder if a similar concept can work with my site that really is for work and not blog. Maybe i can also add blog articles to my dental site…wordpress backend..what do you guys think?
Very good and useful post. Tips are excellent. Keep up the good work.
CAD-art
http://www.cad-art.gr
http://cad-art.blogspot.com
http://www.twitter.com/cad_art
Thanks for the pointers! I just started a new blog and will be making use of your advice!
-Paco
180 Degrees in 180 Days
Helpful tips! I think most of these are universal and would be helpful to any blogger who wishes to drive more traffic to his/her site. Great stuff! You can learn 100% Sure ways to earn money without spending a dime on my Make Money Beginners blog!
I have some more tips…….
1- go to yahoo answer and give answer of questions wich related to your blog with url of blog.
2- include blog url in your email with email signature.
3- give link advertisement to quality website if its affordable and cheap.
Excellent article. Applying the knowledge as we speak at http://www.hardrite.com
Thanks,
Adam
That’s really true, great post, i have also searching about increase traffic on my new blog and find some new ideas here thanks, very helpful . I really appreciatable work. keep it up.
Thanks for the great tips - I was just thinking of making a list of things to do to promote my design website, and then I ran across your article!
I like the tip I got in making logos. This post is awesome. I might start putting face on my profile. I am also working on my website right now, and I am experimenting on putting games on my homepage and try to drive traffic to it. I’m using games from YourKidsClub because the site has lots of games to choose from and the games are kids safe and very educational.
Great ideas, suggestions and thoughts…thanks so much for posting all of this info!
good categorization i have just started a blog and i am trying to promote it so this article helps me alot.
By the way here is the blog i have started:http://thetechnoblog.co.cc/
I hope i will learn something from your article……….
thanks!!!
i myself has put my best effort to bring in the traffic to my site. all the techniques you mention are so meant to me. i really hope it can boost my traffic day to day…Thanks…
I hope this helps the traffic out on my blog. Thanks for sharing!
These are some excellent tips. Some are ones I knew and some I didn’t.
http://amanandablog.com
Great article, just what I needed for my fresh design blog. I hope it will help me increasing traffic to my website. Thanks for qualitative post.
Very good and useful post. Tips are excellent. Keep up the good work.
wow ! thats a great article …
Wow! Such great information. Will certainly be implementing it into my blog. Thanks so much!
Awesome! Some really helpful information in there. Bookmarked. Excellent source.
We’re all pretty chuffed with our new website design at http://www.123-labels.co.uk/ and are hoping to get some feedback from designers and bloggers. So please take a look.
Much appreciated.
P.
Thanks for the tips!
Great info… done some of it.
Straightforward and solid advice as usual. Honestly it was following much of this advice in the first place that allowed me to take my blog from unranked in google pagerank to having a page rank of 3 in just under six months. Now some of my individual articles get a pagerank of 2 or 3 on their own within a month of being posted!
Your face adding idea is great and also I do agree that if anyone has a circle of known people then it will definitely help him/her if site addresses is used on business card…Anyway in one words I must say 14 awesome ideas..
Yes, for link love and for Wordpress users, there’s a plugin called CommentLuv (http://www.fiddyp.co.uk/commentluv-wordpress-plugin/) that helps you do that. It is used by a lot of other blogs and you can find sites that have a list of blogs using that same plugin, so you can favour them for your comments.
Times when facebook sounded just like a myspace wannabe and only suited school kids is over. Liking it or not, we have to consider and use to our advantage this powerful marketing tool.
Thanks for the tips, Brian. Will be implementing them to try and boost traffic to my online guitar learning blog!
Maintaining the website also includes working on it’s PR and traffic, it’s nice to have something in your page that will drive visitors to keep coming back… putting games to it is a good idea because there are millions of people play games in the internet each day and it’s really nice if we take advantage of it. I used YourKidsClub games as it has wide variety of games that are related to my niche and can help generate more traffic.
Nice article. Thanks for the info
Nice article!
So it is the same as in the “real” world - be active, social, open-minded, share…
And following one of the rules I found here, I am posting a comment on this blog
Thanks,
Teofilm
Wonderful tips. Headspace, not All in One SEO, is a better plugin I’d say.
I think Facebook is the major source now a days because 300 K visitors daily .
Great Tips! Thanks for the insight.
One thing I really like about StumbleUpon is that the traffic converts well. Stumblers are visiting by topic preference, and seem more likely to become RSS subscribers and return visitors. While Diggers are active commenters, big diggs don’t have much long-term impact on my readership. Reddit is becoming an important source of traffic for me. It performs like Digg, but a big Reddit spike is usually followed by an uptick in subscriptions. The last big Reddit blast at Lighter Footstep was on the order of 20k, which certainly rivals Digg in the server-humbling department.