I receive many emails from people asking advice on starting up a new blog, or building traffic at their current one, and am always happy to help. I have no problem with more competition, I would rather see conservative voices all over the place, growing the pie that we all have to share. The more people talking about conservative views, the more people who will be candidates to visit my place from time to time. And if you are blogging on another topic, that's fine too.
I have an email I send to people, and am going to post part of it here, so I can just link people to it from now on. If you have any further questions that you think I could help you with, email me. I wrote this about two months after I started this blog, which would make it about 4 months ago. When I had less traffic, I used a couple of other things to build traffic, like Digg and other social networking sites. I don't do so anymore, but those can be useful.
I started this in June full-time, with about a dozen viewers a day, mostly friends and family, but I developed clear goals and a partial plan to build it. By the end of the month I was up to about 50 a day, by the end of July I was up to about 125, and I'm guessing I'll be around 200-300 once the bump from my latest article dies down.
The first thing I decided was that I needed to provide original content that provided value to my readers (along with the daily grind posts that just report what is going on and give a few thoughts on it) every week. If you don't provide value, you have no business wanting people to look at what you wrote. I'd work on doing 1 piece a week that is your "anchor" post, totally original and intended to bring in readers by providing great value of some kind.
I try to plan one article a week as an anchor. That's what my 24 Best Conservative Blogs was, and I've gotten 4000 views in four days. (Update: that post has now been viewed more than 15000 times, and is how most readers have found me.) My comparison between Reagan and Obama was my first one. My Top 10 Positive Effects of an Obama Victory was my first one to be picked up elsewhere, and really helped a lot. One link from Conservative Grapevine will get you 1000 visits. (Or 1500 in the case of my most recent one).
I gathered a list of the emails of bloggers at my favorite sites, and when I have a piece that I think is worthy of being picked up and worth the time and hassle of bothering others about it, I write a short email telling them that I have a post up that I think they and their readers will like (UPDATE: I haven't done this in months. I probably should do so more often). If you keep these requests to a minimum (every week or two in my case) most bloggers will happily take a look at it and consider linking to it. And sometimes you make a friend, which is even better. (UPDATE: I have made a few friends and even a couple future business partners doing this.)
Whether or not you want to make money, you deserve to make money if you are providing true value to your readers. Once you get to a thousand viewers a day, you should look at monetizing it, if not before. Loyal readers value your opinion. If you can point them to a book you like, a product that has helped you in life, or another site they are likely to enjoy, then you should earn something for that service.
Think about how you provide value and try to use the majority of your blogging time providing exactly that. Given your schedule, I'd try for 2 hours per week on some kind of marketing and the rest on building valuable content, and you'll grow every month and most weeks. Here are some great pieces that helped me a ton, some of which I have put to use, and some of which I won't until I'm over 1000 viewers a day (which I will be by election time, according to my plan). (UPDATE: I made it.)
How to Build a High-Traffic Blog (Great read)
How to Make Money From Your Blog (Great read)
That site has tons of great articles on all aspects of personal development. Here's more:
These from ProBlogger are good: 10 Ways More Readers, 19 More Ways, Make it Sticky, More Ways .
And these from Performancing: Linkbaiting, Traffic.
And this is awesome:
Blog Profits Blueprint (much more than just profit in here) (UPDATE: Should you decide to take his class, please use my link in the left sidebar to sign up for it. I have not taken his class, but I do read a lot of his stuff. I feel comfortable saying that I am confident that the information Yaro provides would be helpful for anyone who wants to make money blogging.)
Any questions - feel free to email me.
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