Some of you have asked me how you get more folks to read your Weblog. [Some have asked directly; others have asked rhetorically on their Weblogs. 
] I’ll offer you an example of mine: just post more. To wit:
IJSM.org has lots more traffic than GFMorris.com, which has more than GFMorris.org. Check the relative posting volume of the three, and you’ll see the simple correlation: posting more means more visits.
Now, if you’re concerned about getting people to post comments and interact with you—and yeah, feeling like you’re shouting into a vacuum sucks—the answer to that is simple: ask questions. If you tell a story about something that happened in your life, ask a question at the end of it: “Has something like this ever happened to you?” or “What would you have done in my shoes?” are both good choices.
Do not fret over a lack of interaction. It’s hard to know what people will respond to and what they won’t; I’ve had entries that I’ve never gotten comments on and thought no one read, but then had friends mention to me as something they thought was witty or insightful or something. I’ve also found that soul-searching and declarations typically don’t drive comments, for whatever reason.
hmmm… who you talkin’ bout?
Well, you are one of the people that have asked. I know it’s hard to get off the dime, but the best thing that I can tell you is to try to have realistic expectations for your writing and understanding that your improve your voice and find your audience with practice.
You know what else might beget traffic, Geof?
Having the RMFO-Blogs tyrant change the alt text on one’s link to something other than “(Inactive)”.
Just sayin’.
Fixed!
Also try to remember that we’re never quite as interesting as we think we are. Ask yourself, “Why would anybody WANT to read my blog?”
If you’re writing posts about having a fun weekend with your friends or how much you like coffee, the answer is probably that there isn’t much reason to read your blog if people don’t know you.
Also, consider including pornography in your posts.
Hehehehheheheheh.
Another way to get some traffic (though not necessarily increasing a regular reading basis) is to post about what people are searching for.
For example, if I post about some local news story as soon as I see the headline, and Google indexes me (as he does regularly), I’ll show in search results for the non-competitive search term. Since it’s a non-competitive term, I’ll rank near the top, and people will click and read.
The interesting thing about it is that (as far as I’ve been able to tell), Google seems to take the logic that if my site is applicable for 1 search term I rank well for, then chances are good that my other postings are applicable to search results.
In the last several months, I’ve seen my traffic (visitors and search engine referrals) grow exponentially, and it’s (in part) because I’m ranking well for a lot of different terms in Google.