How to keep people glued to your blog!

Some people just see your blog post topic somewhere in a social networking site or as a trackback in another blog and come to your blog to read the post. And after they read you post, what’s next? Yes, you can ask them to Digg and Stumble it! But wouldn’t you rather want them to spend more time on your blog and read more posts? Get to know your blog more so they come back? Now we’ll see how you can make ‘em.

1. Display related posts!
By displaying related posts, you have multiple benefits. I have many personal experiences where I actually subscribed to a few blogs, because I read the related posts and was impressed by the content. If you have like 100+ posts in your blog, then this can come in handy for you. If you don’t have as much, then don’t bother too much about this. By displaying the related posts, you always give your readers a reason to stick around. And if they are impressed and consider the content highly useful, they would always subscribe. Another advantage is that you can make use of those posts you wrote when you were starting off the blog. Your older posts which are also relevant have a good chance of getting displayed, rather than getting piled under.

2. Use good footnotes.
Have a common footnote appearing at the bottom of every blog post. In that small paragraph, briefly describe what your blog offers, few of your top categories, and politely invite them to subscribe to your feed if they like what they see. A first time reader will always read your footnote. And when they do, if you provide a clear and concise description of your blog and offer a link to your feed, you will have a good chance of getting one more loyal reader. And what’s good is loyal readers are always glued to your blog!

3. Have a description of your blog in the sidebar!
Rather than having an ‘about section’ of you, the author in the sidebar, why not consider having an ‘about section’ about your blog? First-timers to your blog land on an unknown land in the cyberspace! And in search for directions or just to see where exactly they landed, they always look at the sidebar. And if their eye-catches an ‘about’ tag, they are sure to follow it. So don’t make it too long. In few words, explain what your blog is. If it’s exactly the kind of blog the reader is looking for, he’ll sure to be glued to it. And yeah! None of this would actually work if your about tag isn’t in a place where everyone can see.

4. Show out your categories.
I’ve seen some people virtually ‘hide’ their list of categories in the sidebar, when they display two AdSense skyscrapers. Don’t do that. Showing out your categories have many direct and indirect benefits. Especially when you want people to stick to your blog. By just reading the list of the categories, your reader gets a bird’s eye view of your blog! And it’s always good in convincing your reader that your blog indeed is a content rich site. And it gives the same benefits as the ‘Related Posts’. People tend to click through the categories if they like and what they find is good, they’ll glue themselves, no questions asked!

These are few things that I think that you can do to get people to Scuba-dive your blog. And yes! Getting visitors to your blog is a totally different art. But a good blogger should always know how to keep those readers circulating inside. Comment me up on what you think!