One of the most appealing aspects of “Web 2.0″ is its potential for personal interaction with content, and Web logs are a key element of that interaction. Since only a small percentage of readers take the time to comment on blog posts, a comparably large audience is required to have enough commenting readers for a rich, interactive discussion on a topic.
Since many RPG Athenaeum readers are bloggers themselves, its seems that discussing methods for increasing site traffic would be a valuable exercise, with the goal of getting enough readers involved to have authentic conversations about our favorite games – outside the boundaries of “offical” discussion sites moderated by the compaies that produce them.
This post will focus on free methods for increasing traffic, since most RPG blogs aren’t for-profit ventures with marketing and advertising budgets.
At present, the greatest single contributor of new traffic coming to this site is the RPG Bloggers Network. The network has been growing exponentially in recent months, and if your gaming blog isn’t listed there, your traffic will greatly benefit from your site being added.
Another method for incresing traffic is to list your site with Internet search engines. Submit your site to general relevancy-rank engines like Google, Yahoo!, Alta Vista, Dogpile, Lycos and others, as well as gaming search engines such as RPGseek.com. Note that by submitting to Google, your site will also be indexed for Google Reader, one of the most popular blog readers in use on the Internet.
Of course Google Reader isn’t the only blog directory in use; you’ll also want to submit to Technorati, Octofinder, Blog Catalog, Blog Surfer, and Bloghub.
Another method of increasing traffic to your RPG blog, described in advice postings by RPG Blogging Luminaries Uncle Bear and Chatty DM, is to visit other blogging sites, leaving comments and using the posts of other bloggers as a springboard for your own ideas. By becoming part of the community, you become part of the conversation.
Have you employed other means to increase readership on your blog notmentioned here? If you have, please consider sharing your experiences in a comment to this post.
