Good Quality Content

The most important thing on your blog is going to be the quality of your work. That's what's going to make your readers stick with you for good. Not design, lasers, warp engines... Quality! And by quality I mean, try to write as much as original content as possible with at least 350-400 words per post. 

Get A Domain

You don't want your domain name to have 20 characters, do you? Well, neither do your readers! Try and find a relevant name, and don't be hasty about it. Take your time and do some serious brainstorming. Most of the good names are already busy if you are looking for a free option, so be prepared to spare $10-20. 

Change Tagline

It’s just embarrassing to find a blog that still has “Just another WordPress blog” in the title or on the theme. You can change it from Settings -> General to something more relevant to your site. Apart from the fact that many themes feature the tagline prominently in the header, it’s also often used in the meta-titles of your homepage and therefore shown to everyone who finds your site through Google.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a free traffic report for your website. But what’s the point of installing Analytics if you don’t actually have any traffic yet?

Well firstly, motivation. If you have accurate feedback that shows a clear, progressive growth in traffic then you are far less likely to give up. Don’t wait until you think you have some traffic – get real feedback, right now.

Join a Forum

Find a forum related to your particular topic and establish a presence there. Introduce yourself, make some good quality comments or advice on other threads, help some people out. After that, change your signature to include a link to your website, and repeat. This should give you a small trickle of visitors.

Social Networks

Be sure to announce your articles on your own social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and StumbleUpon – but don’t fall into the trap of promoting absolutely everything you write. Pick one or two of your best posts to promote, and you’ll be far more likely to get a good response and not piss people off in the process.

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