You are blogging daily and hoping to see plenty of traffic. However, what should you be doing every day to make sure that you are achieving the traffic levels you desire? Here are 4 invaluable steps.

Step 1 – writing a day’s post
Yes, the first step of each day’s blogging is to write a day’s post. But not today’s! To get the best possible writing for each post write your posts in advance. Write them, save them and file them away. Maybe something will come up that means that you have a sudden urge to post quickly and that is great, but for planned posting, prepare the post in advance.

Then, come back to that post another day and read over it once more. Does it still make sense? Does it say everything you wanted it to say? By writing and posting on the same day you can miss errors and omissions when you proof read. By writing the day before you post and reviewing just before you post you are likely to catch those mistakes.

And if you are really up for it, write another post or two. Just in case you don’t have the time to write one day soon. It is always worth having a few posts ready written!

Step 2 – review your comments
No comment anti spam is perfect, so review your comments. Go through those in the spam folder and mark as not-spam any that shouldn’t be there. Mark as spam any in the pending queue that should be marked as spam. Then carefully read all new comments and approve them (or delete them). It is also a good idea to reply to the people who left comments so that they feel appreciated for commenting. It also builds a community feel to your blog and encourages others to leave you some comments.

Step 3 – check your traffic
No need to become obsessive, but is your traffic within its normal ranges today? Is it high or low? If it is low, is there an obvious reason? Has it been low for a while? If so, it could mean something is wrong somewhere on the blog and it is worth looking at the pages that people are arriving at. I did this once to discover that a plugin had destroyed the sidebar (including navigation) on older post pages.

If you are receiving more traffic than normal also investigate why. Are you getting direct referrals or search engine visitors? Have a look at where the extra traffic is coming from and see if there is anything you can do to encourage more. If it is direct traffic from another blog it could be that the blogger has given you a mention. A quick thank you comment can go down very well. If it is search engine visitors then looking at what search terms and pages are suddenly driving the traffic can give you pointers for future writing.

Step 4 – share the word
A bit of self promotion can go a long way. Whether this is by popping over to another blogger’s blog and leaving useful comments or publishing an article to a directory you are helping to tell more people that you exist and hoping to drive more visitors your way.

Follow these 4 simple steps and you should see your traffic really increasing. And do leave me a comment if you find it works for you!