Starting a blog is a terrific way to create an online presence for both personal and business reasons. You can build a blog for free and begin posting content right away. But what good is that content if no one is reading it. When that's the case then you're really creating that wonderful content simply for you and that's not your goal. You want readers, buyers, traffic!

Here Are the Top 10 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Blog

1. Fresh Content

No one wants to visit a blog day after day and see the same 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. Write a blog series to entice your readers to return for each post in the series.

2. Article Marketing

Presumably, the niche you've chosen for your blog is one that interests you, one that you are passionate about. If it is interesting you will spend more time working at it. Create content not only for your blog but also to be submitted to article directories such as eHow, Hub Pages, eZine. Use their resource box to advertise your blog so people can find you.

3. Social Networking

I'm sure you know about social networking sites - sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, MySpace, Squidoo, or a dozen others and make connections. You can join groups of like-minded people who are also bloggers or entrepreneurs and interact often.

4. Viral Marketing

This is one area where many bloggers fall short. This is where you spread the word about your blog. Talk to friends, family and even strangers to spread the word verbally. Give out business cards and post flyers that have your blog address and a brief description on them.

5. Use RSS Feeds

RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication." Readers can subscribe to your feed and get email updates when new content is posted. It is an easy way for them to keep up with your blog without spending all day online. I must admit that I've had mixed results with RSS feeds.

6. Submit Your Blog to Search Engines

This is easier than you think and doing so allows your blog to be ranked in Google, Bing, and Yahoo! You want the most popular search engines to crawl your blog pages and match them to keywords and phrases people are searching for. This won't guarantee top ranking, you'll have to do a little more work for that.

7. Join Forums

Remember that 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, blogging forums, or forums in your niche to meet new people and share ideas. You can add a link to your blog in the signature line so others can find you.

8. Visit Other blogs

This is a crucial step. Show your appreciation to those who visit you by also posting thoughtful comments on their blogs. It is a kindness that shows others you are not just out to advertise your blog alone. Plus you can add links to your blog in your comments.

9. SEO Marketing

This takes a bit of thought and research but in whatever you write use relevant keywords. A keyword density between three and ten percent is good for getting higher page rankings in search engines. Base your keywords on the research you do to find the most popular words/phrases used in 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. Of all the successful blogs on the Internet, hundreds more have failed. Running a blog is hard work and it takes so much more than just writing unique quality content. You must pursue your audience and give them a reason to see what you have to say. Using any of these top 10 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Blog will help get the ball rolling and start the traffic moving in your direction. It takes time but you will build the readership you want. To help your efforts and get traffic moving more quickly check out the total Web Traffic System for a comprehensive step-by-step guide for attracting targeted traffic.