In today’s web, operating a successful website is more than a challenge. Even niche sites are competing with thousands if not millions of other sites for visitors. Standing out is not only difficult but can be a time consuming and discouraging process. This is why it might be more important to be consistent than to stand out. Like a snowball grows in size, a website can grow in popularity. Seeing how blogs are increasingly becoming the standard for websites, we will focus on a few things that can be done to increase the exposure of your blog on the World Wide Web.

Don’t give up – Trust me I know the feeling. You spent all this time designing a website, researching the niche and selecting a theme. After a few posts you look at your Google Analytics account only to find that you have three visits and that two of them are from your best friend. Instead of getting discouraged, it might be better to view this as your own personal challenge to grow your visitor base. Don’t compete against other websites, compete against your own and make sure you are making progress everyday. It is important not to compete with other websites because they can be your biggest allies. Other bloggers might be an important source of future traffic if they like what you have to say.

Don’t blog about something because it’s trendy – Trends come and go. Hopefully, your blog is going to outlive the latest trend. It is for this reason that you have to be passionate about what you are writing or risk the chance of becoming unmotivated. When selecting a topic or niche, it is important to do research but it is even more important to use your blog as an outlet and means of communication with other like minded individuals who you can learn from and exchange ideas. The moment your blog adds value to a particular community, word is likely to spread virally and you should experience an increase in traffic.

Write articles and submit them to article directories – Why write articles? They provide great exposure for lesser-known websites. Article directories allow users to post their articles on other websites provided they do not alter the resource box with your website information. Your article might be picked up by another more popular website resulting in higher traffic for you. Article directories are a good way to get one-way links back to your page. The higher the number of links to your page, the more the search engines view your website as an expert on your particular subject and as a result, your rankings increase. The process of writing and submitting articles can be quite time consuming and tedious. Typically, it takes close to the submission of 20 articles before you will see any tangible results. Shorter articles of between 350 to 500 words seem to work best and it is often wise not to offer the same content that is in the article on your blog. There are several services such as Article Marketer that will automate the article submission process. These vary in price and might be worth it if you are serious about your website and your article marketing efforts.

Network with other bloggers, post on forums, work the Web – The more exposure you give yourself, the better known your website will be and the more visitors you can expect hitting your site. Don’t be rude or cocky in your responses and when you feel a fellow blogger has done a good job on a particular post, comment on his blog and let him/ her know. Good karma will do wonders for you online.

Don’t expect to build Rome in one day – Throughout this process and journey, it is important not to get frustrated, fret, worry or panic! All things large and little come from small beginnings. Keep writing, keep reading, keep learning and keep smiling. Even when Google Analytics says you had negative visitors to your site.

Even when you cannot sell one single text ad. Even when you get suckered into buying another service that promises to deliver you web traffic and does nothing. Always remember that things could always be worse and that there is nowhere to go but up.

Write original, useful content – Do not steal content or ideas from other bloggers. Think about your topic and why you chose to write about it. Think about the message that you want to get across to your readers. Even if you have no readers, write as if you were writing the speech for the President’s inauguration. This way when you do have readers you will be disciplined and well practiced.

Spell check, proofread. – Mistakes are ok. Everybody makes them. It is important however to try and maintain a professional image to enhance your blog’s brand. Spell checking and proofreading do not take much time and will get your message across in a clearer fashion.

Titles are important – Titles to your articles and posts are important. Not only should they be attention grabbers but they should also follow some basic SEO rules such as including your keyword in the title.

It is important to understand the basic principles of Search Engine Optimization. I suggest that you do some reading in order to better understand what simple things you could be doing to better position your site. Things such as Meta Tags, Site Maps and Anchor Text are important design and content issues that should be implemented. In a competitive world, use all the tools that have been provided to you.

Have a plan, set objectives and a navigation route - When Christopher Columbus discovered America, he had a plan and a route. His route was to India where he was to trade for spices and bring back exotic items to the Spanish crown. Even though he never reached India, it was his planning and preparation that allowed him to “discover” America. In other words, even though things might not take the direction that you expect or want from your blogging activities, it is important to have an end in mind. You can measure this goal in number of comments from readers, number of pages indexed in Google or the most common measure: number of visitors a day. How you decide to measure your progress is your decision. If you do not have a plan and lack direction, then it will be impossible to measure how well you are doing versus your expectations and you are not likely to succeed.

See yourself succeeding and work towards that success – Every day when you wake up, feel like you are one day closer to reaching your goals and objectives. Wake up and give thanks for all you have and for all that the universe is in the process of delivering to you. Visualize and believe that success already is yours. Visualize the stats counter you subscribe to showing 1,000 unique visitors a day. Work towards that goal with perseverance and persistence. If you do this constantly and consistently reaching your goal, is only a matter of time.