Driving traffic to your company blog is just as important as the content itself. While there are thousands of different tactics and optimization techniques you can use to increase blog pageviews, there are also some really simply steps you can take to build an audience around every post.

Taking a long-term approach to building a company blog will lead to more stability, but having some instantly gratifying small wins are just as important. So, here are five simple ways to start building your blog audience.

1. Submit blog content to forums and social news sites.

   It’s so easy to do, yet so many people neglect to do this. Once your company blog post is finished, share it to sites such as StumbleUpon, Reddit, Squidoo or Infobarrel (i.e., revenue sharing sites), forums related to your post, and niche social sites such as HackerNews or Inbound. Also, post to social sharing sites such as Headliner.fm and you’ll instantly be able to generate traffic. Keep in mind not to submit irrelevant content to everyone of these sites, but if it’s useful content and is aligns well with the site, then share it.

2. Optimize company blog posts.

   You can create quality content without blindly writing words and hoping people will find it. Go to Google Adwords, type in some keywords related your business (e.g., industry, products, services, etc.), find a few related and uncompetitive keywords (i.e., that actually generate traffic), then take those keywords and include them in your blog headline as well as subheaders. Make sure it’s in a natural way, and not something that looks like this: “SEO | Local | Organic | Google #SEO”. If done incorrectly, it is considered over-optimizing and devalues your content.

3. Engage your audience.

   Your audience has given you their attention and loyalty, so why not use it? You can incentivize them to share your posts by creating quality content, inserting click to tweet links next to certain quotes, responding to their comments, and you can also offer them the option to share their commentary.

4. Create an ad revenue strategy.

   I’ve found it useful to create ad revenue on your company blog through a Disqus form, then use the money your blog has generated and buy some ads in Disqus to attract readers from related blogs. This strategy, along with a good SEO strategy are more long-term plays, but they’re essential for generating more visits to your blog.

5. Guest post on related blogs.

   Whenever there is an appropriate opportunity to guest post on another blog, that is one of the most effective strategies to increase traffic. Leveraging other people’s audiences means you gain the trust from their readers and can expedite the process of building a loyal readership exponentially.

There, of course, are many more ways that you can quickly generate traffic for your company blog, but these are three simple steps to take when you have useful content to share. Before you share your content, however, you should make sure you have an email opt-in bar so your visitors can stay updated on your latest content.

There are plenty of good (and bad) ways to maximize the value of your blog. I’m interested in hearing some more ideas as well, so feel free to comment below and I’ll try out your suggestions!

Brandon Pindulic leads growth and business development at Meddle.it, a micro-blogging platform that turns comments into shareable content. He also is a brand navigator for HypeLife Brands, a progressive branding & marketing agency helping brands engage Generation Y. As a self-directed learner, entrepreneur and writer, Brandon is establishing himself as a thought leader in the growth, business development and self-taught space at just 20 years old.

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