How to get traffic to my blog... how am I blogging?

Blogging is something that I love to do.  However, doing a blog is hard work.  Sure, you post little snippets about whatever your doing, write about something you know, and showing some pretty pictures.

As a blogger it's hard to gather readers, and especially readers who will come back.  As a small business owner one of the challenges is getting attention, finding customers, and essentially marketing.  Blogging for some is a business, for others it may be a way for them to share their writing skills with the world without being published, and then there are people like me who do it as a hobby.  I must admit... I'm a blogging addict!  While I am a bit embarressed to admit this, I have four blogs.  No, not one that I put my whole soul into, and nurture like a infant child, but four.

The other day, I was looking at one of my other blogs (www.weddinglittlebits.blogspot.com) that is all about weddings.  It's a blog I began in 2009 while I was planning my own wedding, and afterwards I just didn't have the heart to take it down.  While that blog has gotten some attention it never really developed a huge following, and only two comments.  I started thinking... what am I doing wrong?  Honestly, I felt defeated.  This caused me to take a long look at myself.  It was time to self evaluate. I had to ask myself some hard questions about why the blog never gained popularity. 

• Do you post regularly?
• What are you posting about?
• Would you read it, and continue to come back for more?
• What content is getting the most attention, and are you listening to your audience or are you just doing what you want?

The answers to these questions were'nt good.  So, I decided to revamp my blogging style, research, and take things in a new direction.  Obviously, my old ways were not working, so what do I have to lose?

On this blog I've done a few things that I hadn't done on my others.  I think its because this blog is for my business, which offers a service, and it's much easier to write about what's happening, then finding and determining content to discuss.

Now, what about advertising?  Since I'm new at this I'm not sure how to go about it. There's a lot that we can talk about.  So far, with this blog I've made an advert on facebook, and I've synched with search engines.  Also, I'm currently attaching this blog to my business website. (www.simplyfinephotography.com) in hopes that they'll bring traffic to each other.  Lastly, I've been adding pins from my blog to Pinterest.com.  Hopefully, this will help draw some attention too.

Another thing I was wondering about business websites and blogging had to do with advertising.  Do you advertise the same way?  Especially since blogging doesn't offer a product or service to market, what do you offer exactly and how do you market that?  Since most blogs offer information only, how do they gain readers and advertise their blog? Because, I know that when I ready to start my day the first thing I DON'T think about is to jump online to shop information or to read about something that isn't going to add to my life. I go online to search a product, but I'm also looking to save money and find deals.  Those both have become two products offered on the internet that I continue to come back for.  I guess blogging must be the same thing.  The BIG QUESTION is does this add to anyone's life?  Or... is it all just a bunch of useless and rambling words that is a giant waste of time for me and my readers?

Ahhhhh-haaa!  I just had an epiphany! Thank you God!  So this is what I've figured out so far:

• I need to write content that people want to read about, and not just posting pictures of random things. 
• Get on board and learn more about Search Engine Optimization, which will help me be more searchable on search engines.  Afterall, if no one can find me... who will read this?
• I need to find other bloggers out there that I find something in common with, and build a relationship with them.  Not only can I learn from them, build (hopefully) a friendship with someone who has something in common, but can recommend each others blogs.
• Lastly, before I put too much emphasis on marketing I need to clearly define my products.  What am I offering the world each time I post?   Is it giant waste of time, or is it really useful information or content that makes someone feel good?