HOW TO MAKE YOUR BLOG VISITORS STAY LONGER? 31* WAYS

All bloggers obviously want one thing in common – they all want there visitors to stay longer on their blog that is they want their blog to be sticky . All blogs have some tracking code installed which bloggers quiet often check to find out different information like checking the time spent by visitors on their blog (and also traffic volume, number of visits on particular pages, traffic sources, time spent on the site, returning visitors, new visitors, traffic location etc) because this is very crucial to serious bloggers specially for those who want to make money from their blogs.
All bloggers know it very well that visitors are the “Life Line” for any blog – a blog without visitors is just a dead blog. The time a visitor spends on your blog is as important as the number of visitors. More the number of visitors and more their time spent on your blog more will be your chances of earning revenue from your blog. For this you would have to transform your blog into a ‘Giant Magnet’ which will pull visitors and keep them hooked to your blog for longer time – in other words you would have to make your blog sticky.
In this post I will share with you some of the strategies or steps adopted by the famous bloggers to make their blog sticky. You will get real practical information minus the hype. Apply as many as possible to your blog and make it a success. This will be a long post as I have tried to explain each point so go get yourself a drink (hard/soft/hot – its your choice!)  and start reading …..
1. Post Title – Make your post titles interesting, unique and attractive. This will initiate an urge in the visitors mind to read the post further and subsequently if he likes the post too – it will create a lasting impression and he may get interested in reading some more of your posts or even bookmark your site to return later to read some more posts or to check out your new post – thus making him stick to your blog. All this can start with a magnetic title only. Titles must be like pieces of very strong magnets that will pull visitors.
Post title is the part we all read in search engine results to select which page to visit. Post title also plays a crucial part in drawing visitors from social sites or from blog directories to your blog. Read my next post which will give you some interesting templates to write a sticky and magnetic post title.
2. Good Content – Considering that you can write real sticky post titles which draws a lot of visitors from search engines, social sites or blog directories etc what if they find no matter or poorly written content in your post – they will never come back again to your blog and may be you will loose these visitors for ever because next time they see one more sticky post title that draws them towards it but then finds out its the same site again then they will just take a u-turn (remembering their past experience). On the other hand if your post titles are sticky and the post also has considerable good content then the reverse may happen.
Even sometimes the post title may not be great but a visitor may start reading the post because it has something he wants to know – in this case too a good and well written content may encourage him to read more posts or come back again. Its rightly said that “Content Is King”.
3. Update Frequently – Visitors expect blogs to be updated frequently. So update your blog with unique good content as frequently as possible (if possible daily) so that you always have something new to offer to a visitor each time he visits your blog. Some blogs update with even three to four posts per day.
Say a visitor reaches your blog for the first time and finds it interesting then surely he is going to return to your blog – now if he finds nothing new to read the next time he returns and this happens quiet a few number of times then it will certainly create a bad impression. As a result slowly his visits would get less frequent and soon die off. On the other hand if a visitor finds new valuable posts each time he returns then he is surely going to return again and again.
4. Blog Design – First impression matters and this is where a good blog design can steal the show. A well designed blog gives the unique feeling of comfort to many visitors and instigates an urge in them to hang on and find out what the blog is offering whereas a clumsy and ill-designed blog may start a feeling of uneasiness in the visitor’s mind and he may quit. This is something like – whenever we meet a new person for the first time we all like to talk to or get interested in knowing about a well dressed and smart person and avoid dirty clumsy persons no matter what qualities they have. So get your blog a neat and attractive design which will give your visitors one more reason to stick to your blog.
5. Easy Navigation – Make navigation easy within your blog by providing a navigation menu bar, topics section, archives section or important posts section in prominent locations so that a visitor may be able to reach any page of your blog with one or two clicks max. A complex navigation may annoy a visitor and he may leave for ever. An easy navigation on the other hand gives easy access to different section and posts helping in keeping the visitor longer.
6. Topics / Categories Section –  Have a topics /categories section based on the labels(tags) of your posts and place it in a proper location – this will help the visitors in finding more posts on the topic that interests him thus he will stay longer.
7. Related Posts – Install a related posts gadget or widget and show some related posts that may be of interest to the visitor after he has finished reading a post. This is an effective technique and visitors tend to read some more posts that interests him from this section so he stays longer.
8. Your Best – Show your best posts at a prominent place in the sidebar under the heading “My Best” or “My Best Creation” etc. A visitor who reads a post and gets impressed by it is more likely to s
how interest in your bests. Remember to put posts that you think are unique and are worth mentioning as your best creation. keep listings not more than 10.
9. Visitor’s Choice – Show posts which your visitors have read and liked the most with the heading “Visitors Choice” and place the section at a prominent location in the sidebar so that it does not escape the eyes of a visitor. This will help you in holding your readers longer as generally a visitor seem to give more importance to posts which his co-visitors have preferred.
You may instead name the section “Visitors Choice Last Month” and place posts that were liked most by visitors last month. This will help in keeping this section refreshed as at least some of the listings will have to be changed. And this will also help in holding back your returning visitors who will now find new listings each month and will try to relate themselves with the listings. Keep listings not more than 10.
10. Upcoming Posts – Show your upcoming posts on your blog in the sidebar or below posts or in any other easily visible spot under the heading “Upcoming Posts” or “Soon To Come” etc . This will draw your visitors and instigate them to return again and again or subscribe to your blog. So always try to be innovative and write unique posts that may interest your visitors. This section requires a bit of pre-planned approach.
11. Recent Posts – Show your recent posts in the sidebar to offer more choice to the readers so that they can hang on longer.
12. Comment Section – Provide a comment section at the end of each post and encourage readers to leave a comment about your blog or post. You may also encourage them to ask questions or give suggestions through the comments section. This will make your readers interact with you and form a bond which will last longer making him visit your blog often – we all love a friendly atmosphere.
13. Answer Comments – Remember to answer any questions that are asked or appreciate any comment or suggestion made through the comments section. You can answer comments by posting further comments or occasionally writing posts on common comments. Make the visitors feel that they are important – we all love to get importance from others. This will get you more comments and many loyal visitors gradually who will love to spend time on your blog and also advertise for you.
14. Add Video – Adding some video posts is a good alternative of written posts and also adds a different flavour to your blog. It also helps in changing the mood of your visitors who may have got bored reading written posts regularly. Some people also like watching videos instead of reading posts. You can add your own video posts if you can make them or you can add some video from YouTube. You can also add some funny videos occasionally to have a change.
15. About Page – Add a decent ‘About Me’ page to your blog. Tell something about yourself (if possible make it interesting but do not bluff) and also say something about the goals that you want to achieve with your blog. Be polite in whatever you write but sound confident. You can also add some of your own and family photographs and video to this page. The more people will know about you the more they will be able to connect with you – the more they are able to relate with you more will they believe you and become your followers.
16. Add A Poll – Add an interesting poll to your blog on topics that are relevant and may be of mutual benefit. This will engage readers and make them attached to your blog which will keep them longer. Try also changing the polls (weekly or monthly) so that returning visitors can interact.
You can add a pole asking what type of posts they would like to see on your blog and provide some relevant options attached to your niche. You can add a pole asking how can you make your blog more interactive, attractive and helpful by providing some relevant options. You can think of many such polls and apply them to your blog to engage your readers longer.
17. RSS – Keep the RSS subscription option at a prominent position so that interested visitors can find it easily and subscribe to your blog. This will allow you to reach your readers more efficiently. You can allow full feed but if you want your subscribers to read posts by visiting your blog then do not allow full feed (I hope you understand this can have both positive and negative effects so apply caution). I prefer allowing full feed. It is also seen that RSS subscribers quiet often goes to the blog to read posts rather reading them in RSS readers.
18. Keep Email Subscription Option – Some readers prefer to read posts via email so you must keep arrangements for them too.
19. Social Media Sites – Provide links to social media sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, Facebook, Twitter etc so that your visitors can share your posts if they like it with their friends which would get you more worthy visitors (because reference always have a positive effect) besides making the visitor stay longer.
20. Personal Touch – Add a personal touch to your blog. This can be done by putting your photograph in the header or somewhere else (you can change the photo often), put some photos of you and your family in the ‘about me’ page and in your profile, write in a direct addressing tone, occasionally put some stats showing your visitor count or revenue etc, try to write posts connecting them with your personal experience and etc etc. This will give blog a personal touch and make it look m
ore human than just some collection of content. Because we humans by nature prefer getting connected to other humans.
21. Offer Some Gifts – Offer the visitors some gifts specially e-books that might be of interest to them. If you want you can also get RSS or Email subscriptions in return (as is usually done by bloggers) or just offer them as gifts. The e-books can be your own (better) or written by somebody else but which you think will be of great value to you visitors. Change the e-books offered occasionally so that your visitors can get more gifts from you. This will make them return again and again.
22. Quotes – You can add a quotes widget and add some famous quotes which will give food for thought and inspiration to your visitors. This will also keep your readers engaged.
23. Check Your Stats – You must have installed some tracking code like Google Analytics, Sitemeter or Feedjit etc in your blog. Check your stats often and find which posts or which type of posts receive the most visits. Try to add updates to those posts and write more posts on topics that your visitors seem to be more interested in. This will keep your visitors for longer as they will get more of the kind that they love.
24. Deep linking – Try linking to other posts from all your posts – this is called deep linking. This will present visitors with options of seeing more posts related to the post they are reading. This is a very effective technique and works wonders in engaging readers in blogs for longer time. This also gives you the option of bringing forward the old classics written by you.
25. Write Timeless Content – Timeless content has timeless appeal making them worthy of visits by readers. Often it is seen that old good and valuable posts are discarded by visitors as stale after they see the time stamp. So you may consider removing the time stamp from your posts to  nullify the stale effect. This will helping in engaging visitors with the old timeless classics that you have already created and know that visitors value these.
26. Controversial Posts – Try writing some posts that you think can arise controversy and then just sit down and add occasional fuel to the fire to carry on the debate longer (I hope you understand what I mean).
27. Proof – If your have a decent number of RSS subscribers, Email Subscribers, MyBlogLog followers or Twitter followers etc then show the stats on your blog. You can also show your stats of increasing visitors and revenue in some monthly posts. This has an enticing effect and visitor confidence on you and your blog builds up making them spend more time on your blog and returning frequently.
28. Archives – Show your “Archives” as visitors seem to go to archives section when they like a blog to mine for some more classic posts written by you. Instead of showing of “Archives” in the sidebar consider building a separate archives page where all your previous posts are arranged according to datestamp and also according to categories(with datestamp) and provide a link to the page in the sidebar above the fold – a small link will also help in saving a lot of space of your sidebar. This type of separate archives page gives a better user experience.
29. Contest – Hold a contest for you blog visitors ocassionally as this lets you connect with your visitors in a more practical way. Announce a worthy and useful gift for the winner and see the effect. You will also get more visitors as your previous visitors will refer their friends. Some of these visitors will surely stick to your blog even after the contest is over if you have a good blog offering them food for thought. You can also attach a clause of subscribing to your blog as a precondition for taking part in the contest.
30. Contact Form – Provide a contact form so that the readers can contact you if they want. Respond to their queries and help them if they ask – take them into confidence. This will real make them like you and your blog. In return you will get some good friends and loyal readers who will support you in making your blog a success.
31. Messages – You can send ocassional messages to your email subscribers informing them of your future posts or what you are planning to do next – you can also ask for their opinion on certain matters – just make them feel important and see the magic. You can also do this by sending Tweets to your Twitter followers.
That’s the END !
This list can go on much longer but I have made an attempt to list the ones that are practical, effective and mostly used. I have listed some of the ways that I use and also some of the ways I have seen other bloggers use very effectively. You can find many more that may suit your blog – you just need to be innovative – you will get numerous ideas limited only by your imagination. If you want to ask any questions about any of the ways listed above or give any suggestions then please do so in the comment section below. Have a great idea? – Want to include it in this list? – just post it in the comment section and I will include it for sure. If you have just liked the post then at least leave an appreciating comment. Any response from your side is highly valued and appreciated.