Here's a quick howto about making a kick-ass site with tons of readers. One of the neat things about being a BlogCadre user is that everything is positioned to tilt the odds of site success in your favor. Once you've read the about page and decided to make an account, it's time to start building a readership.

You've heard the saying "it's not what you know, but who you know."

Metcalfe's law states that the utility of any network is proportional to the square of the number of "users" in the network. Basically, this describres what is commonly called the "network effect." What this means to you is that as more people write here, the utility or "value" of your writing will increase exponentially. And "value" equates to readers.

So here are some quick tips for making the killer site with loads of readers.

Tip #1: Write a post a day
This is the most important thing you can do for your site. Every time you write an article, you are not only dramatically increasing the "utility" and "value" (read: "readership") of your blog, but also everyone else on BlogCadre.

So why 1 a day? Well, it's up to you how often you post, but I think this is a good guideline for a couple of reasons. First, it's an easy goal. It's not too hard to post something neat every day. You probably forward a cool site to your friends about once a day anyway. Just do it on your blog instead. The second reason is that if you post every day, people will come back to check your site more often.

Tip #2: Crosslink
First impressions count. When somebody happens across a post of yours, you want to use that opportunity to introduce them to other things you (or other BlogCadre users) have written about.

Every time you write a post, try to think if it's related to something else you've written about or something else you've seen on BlogCadre. Toss in a link to anything relevant. Every link interconnects your site more and makes your blog network stronger, dramatically increasing the value of your site.

Tip #3: Promote
If you write something great, or if you see something you like from another user, why not promote it a bit? Submit a link to del.icio.us and Digg. Comment at other related blogs and use your website if the comment form allows it. You don't have to get ridiculous, but a little promotion goes a long way.

Tip #4: Have Fun
Write about things that are interesting to you. Chances are it'll interest others as well. Participate in discussions and encourage people to post comments. The community that you foster encourages readers to pass your site along to their friends.

Additional Reading
I wrote another article about website promotion via the slashdot effect. How To Get Slashdotted is worthwhile reading and has some easily adaptable tips for successfull website promotion.

Search Engine World has a great article titled 26 steps to 15k a Day. It describes some simple methods for bringing 15 thousand people a day to your site in a single year using only Google. At least three of those steps are "make one page a day", so go back and read Tip #1 again. It's that important.

Have any other tips? Know of other related reading material? Just add a comment below and contribute to the discussion.

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