by Brenna Mae

Created on: December 23, 2008   Last Updated: December 20, 2009

There are so many articles for getting traffic to your blog, but what about articles telling you how to get your visitors actually engaging in it? A good practice of SEO, web directories, and participating in forums can get you a high website ranking, but in the end, a blog's true value is how much each visitor stays, participates, and appreciates your blog.

I've seen blogs with a high search engine ranking, but no more than 5 comments per post. On the other end, I've seen blogs with low to mediocre search engine rankings, that have 30+ comments per post. What's their secret? How are they more popular than those who are actually getting more visitors per day?

I've been blogging for years, both for personal and professional reasons. Through my experiences, trials, and troubles, I've acquired a standard set of tips that anyone can use to gain, not only more blog traffic, but more active blog traffic.

1) Analyze your Blogging Style

Before I get into how to get the right visitors to your blog, you need to know how to right a good blog post. Why? Because visitors will be more apt to comment if they know what they want to comment right away. Are you offending them? Asking them for their opinion? Helping them out tremendously?

If you have content in a blog that your visitors will want to bookmark, you're on the right track. If not, read up on some articles about writing website content. Here are the basic tips for writing good blog posts:

- Make sure it's an appropriate lengh. Too long and your visitors will get bored, but too short and it won't be informative enough.

- Stick to one topic throughout a single post. Don't talk about a cool website you found, and then about what you did today in the next paragraph.

- Make headlines informative. Readers like to skim through posts, and your blog title should describe exactly what they'll be reading about.

- Make your post easy to scan. Readers don't actually read; most skim. Separate it into small to medium size paragraphs, and use headers when necessary.

- Be opinionated. Whether your visitors agree, disagree, or are even indifferent about your opinion, they'll comment with their own. Be careful with this one though. Remember that it's OK to have an opinion, but it's another to be disrespectful to your visitors if they disagree.

2) Comment on Other's Blogs

By commenting on another blog, you're being active in their blogging world. You're starting a conversation with them, and that personal touch means they're more likely

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