Typical bloggish post on a classic subject what gets beat to death coming up.

I was asked by email about traffic building suggestions. It's something I do something specific about about even less than I think about it, but I have thought about it (which means I've done specific things about it, of course). I've been referred to once or twice as a "heavy hitter"—my jaw is still bruised from the impact with the floor—but I'm not a A-list blogger. My traffic has steadily increased, though. On a good day I break 500 visits, on an average day I break 400. These qualifications will let you judge the number of salt grains to apply.

First the obvious repetitive stuff:

I post a lot. A WHOLE lot. People looking for news like new news.
I link a lot. A WHOLE lot. It's a blogging tradition that I note is slacking off somewhat, and that slacking will not benefit a blogger's traffic figures. More on that in the unobvious section.
I add SOMEthing to each news article I blog. At times it's a headline that gives some focus or makes my opinion obvious enough that I need say nothing else. Generally, though, what I add is conciseness. You will get the gist of the article from what I post.
DO NOT BLOG ANY UNIMPORTANT NEWS ARTICLES. Personal stuff can be flip, trivial, whatever. And you're the only judge of importance, but make that judgment.

The unobvious stuff:

Trackback links are a major source of traffic because the best blogging is a conversation. It may be between you and your readers in the comments or adding value to a post you've seen elsewhere or (if you don't get carried away with yourself) a dispute over an issue between you and the owner of another blog. That's why not crediting your sources is not a good idea. You may well look like you're finding all this stuff yourself and that's cool I guess, but you don't get the trackback link.

Before trackbacks, the word was to comment intelligently on the A-List blogs. But commenting on, say, Eschaton, will only be noticed if you're one of the first 40-50 folks. I guarantee you I am not reading all 572 comments on Political Animal unless the post is of particular interest to me. But I may look at all 15-20 trackbacks and follow three or four back to their source.

Pick your news sources well. People are more likely to read your stuff if they don't expect to see it elsewhere or expect to see it in your place first. I will rarely fail to add commentary or at least add a "Quote of Note" to a NY Times article I abstract because you'll see it all over hell and back, if you haven't read it first yourself. But I may not add anything to a Reuters abstract. Major newspapers use Reuters, but I can post it first. THAT is sufficient value-add for most folks.

And the internal links are important to me. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I believe most A-List editorial bloggers owe their traffic to Trent Lott. I wasn't around at the time. So I've got some of my best stuff (and I've seriously slacked about keeping my best stuff indexed) in the permanent archives. And I have reference material that folks find useful.

Now, stuff specific to P6.

My first major bump in traffic came from Alas, A Blog linking to my Racism series. Another came with the Reparations series. Believe it or not, the next jump came from being publicly dissed by someone a lot of folks were angry with at the time. And traffic cruised at that level until the Black Blogger discussion, which I collated from personal interest and it blew up…TOTALLY unexpected.

I was noticed by a couple folks. I'd name them but I'd miss some. But my biggest traffic boosts came from retreads—being nominated for The Bloggies and two Koufax Awards brought in a HUGE amount of traffic and a big chunk of the folks decided to keep reading.

Obviously, a link from the A-List will get you a big bump in traffic. What will sustain you is general quality. Crap like Blogopoly will bring folks in but if that's all you got your traffic will return to pre-gimmick levels like immediately. But if you're a writer (which I consider myself to be), crap like Blogopoly could give you a decent permanent increment.