Blogs are a very popular way to create an online presence for business or personal reasons. You can easily build a blog for free and begin posting content in just a couple of minutes. But, what is great content if you have no readers. Here are ten ideas to bring in the traffic your blog needs to survive.

Of all the successful money making blogs on the Internet, hundreds more have failed to become successful. Running a blog is similar to running a business website. Unless you are willing to put the time in and treat it seriously, you won’t be blogging long.

That is not to say that the failed bloggers weren’t serious about blogging. Mostly, new bloggers aren’t prepared for the work that goes into creating a successful blog. Just building the blog doesn’t mean that people will necessary come to you. Persue your audience and make a posting to give them a reason to follow and see what you’re about.

1.Fresh Content – no one wants to visit a blog day after day and see the same old stale posts. Update your blog content at least twice a week. This will be easier if you write several posts ahead of time and upload them at the appropriate times.

2.Article Marketing – for niches that interests you and the subject of your blog. If it is interesting you will spend more time doing it. Always create content first for your blog but also submit to article directories and other blogs. Use the resource box to ad your link to your blog and so people can find you.

3.Social Networking Web 2.0 - these sites are all over the net. Join Facebook, MySpace, Squidoo, Twitter or a dozen others and make connections. You can join groups of likeminded people who are also bloggers or entrepreneurs.

4.Viral Marketing – this is word getting spread about your blog by others. Talk to friends, family and even strangers. Give out business cards that have your blog address on them.

5.Use RSS Feeds – RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication.” Readers subscribe to your feed and get updated when post new content. this way they can keep up with your blog and not have to spend all day online.

6.Submit Blog to Search Engines – this will allow your blog to be picked up and ranked. Yahoo and Google! are two of the more important and popular search engines you want to spider your blog. It’s not a gauranteed top ranking, though. You’ll have to do a little more work for that.

7.Joining Forums – as a blogger you are a budding entrepreneur. Right now you are marketing yourself to find traffic and then profit. Become a member of business forums, work at home forums and others to meet new people and share ideas. Make sure to add a link to your blog in the signature line so others can find you.

8.Visit other blogs – show your appreciation to your visitors by posting comments on their blogs. It is a kindness that shows others you are not just out to advertise your blog alone. Post your links in your comments.

9.SEO Marketing – write using relevant search terms. Keyword density between three percent and ten percent is best for getting high page rankings in search engines. Base your postings on keywords you research to find the most popular search terms used in the search engines for your niche.

10.Social Bookmarking – submitting posts to social bookmarking sites allows others who are members of those sites to track you back to your blog.

Using any of these ideas will start the traffic moving in your direction. It will take time but eventually if you continue to work at it you will build your empire and the readership you want.