
Every blogger love to see traffic pouring in to their respective blogs. But the main stats that matter the most are the total number of pages they are browsing and total time spent in your blog. Just a couple of days back I was watching the statistics of a fairly popular blog and was bit surprised to notice that close to 400 visitors visit the blog but browse only one page on average before leaving! They read the blog post they are interested in and then leaves as if theres nothing more to read. Yet there may be some really good posts, much more interesting and resourceful than the one they have just read. If you are a blogger you know what am talking about
The main trick lies in how much ‘food’ you are actually offering and how fast you take to serve it. ‘Speed’ does matter. Google too recognizes speed as the king.
So what can be the remedy for this? These are some of the few things which can stop your visitors from leaving your blog too early :
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Do not make heavy blog templates: Try to make the template as much simple as you can. Do not include too many heavy images specially in the header section. Instead try use less number of images in the template so that you can use more of them inside the posts too add some spice. Use less amount of HTML and more amount of CSS. Also try to make your template as much browser compatiable as possible.
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Do not include unnecessary widgets in the sidebar: External widgets like flash/javascript clocks, local weather, music, etc., slows down the blog and increases the frustration of the visitors a lot. In case you do include these widgets always include a webpage preloader.
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Save all the pictures in the same server: In case your blog is hosted in a free server (like Blogger, Blogsome, etc. as in most cases) and you are permitted to upload the pictures (tiny, small or big) in the same server then save it there instead of referencing them from other servers. This reduces a few milliseconds too. For example I saved the image that says “Add this blog to my Technorati favorites” in the same server. The same is applicable for almost all the images and this reduces the loading time to a great extent. In case you own the domain where your blog is hosted don’t give any second thought. Start saving your images there.
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Insert some links to your most popular posts at the end of each post: This actually entices the visitors to peep in to those posts and enhances the interest too. Who knows what he/she may be looking for?
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Try something unique yet innovative: Remember that the key to success now a days is innovation and creativity. Last night I made a small Java Script widget which ‘asks’ a question to the visitor each time he reaches the bottom of the page. I have placed it at the footer of each page in an experimental basis. (Please scroll down to see) I have already got a very good response and noticed that 20% of the visitors responded to it. Pretty exciting! Am currently trying to improve this and make it more useful.
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Create a customized 404 error page: This is pretty important as many of your valuable visitors might land in a page that cease to exist. For example some blogs might link to a post of yours which you have deleted for some reason! Provide some useful information instead of presenting a blank page on where shall they go next.
Get some expert blogging tips from Darren Rowse at problogger.net
Updated on 21st November, 2006










