Do you have frequently updated interesting content? Do you have a counter that shows that you don’t get any hits? If not, get one free from www.sitemeter.com or www.statcounter.com . That way you will know for sure if there are any visitors.
You have to get the search engines involved, but you won’t get listed by them, automatically. You have to do some work, let them know that you’re there, that you want to be listed, and that you are worthy of being listed.
1) Get your friends to link to your blog, where your blog is relevant.
2) Participate in forums, where your blog is relevant, and include the URL.
3) Comment on other blogs, in relevant comments, and include the URL.
4) Put relevant and useful content in your blog.
5) Some search engines may index your blog using the site feed. Be sure to activate the feed.
6) When you have done all of the above, your blog will have some weight. Submit your blog to the search engines, for indexing.
7) Post frequently, and keep the content of your blog moving.
Search engines can take months to index your blog fully. And even when indexed, don’t expect for a search to some key element in your blog to give you an entry on the first page of the search hits. And remember that owners of other blogs, like yours, are actively working to be included by Google too. Try to ignore the trolls who babble about SEO.
Use Google Webmaster Tools, and Yahoo Site Explorer, to watch the indexing progress, keep an eye for problems, and know when the blog is indexed. And to setup a sitemap, which is useful to the search engines.
And use a visitor meter, to know objectively when you get readers, and how your readers find the blog. Both FlagCounter, SiteMeter, and StatCounter are free, easy to install, and will give you the beginning blogger the detail about your visitors, that you need and can use easily. The first gives you simple visitor counts, tabulated by country. The last two give you rudimentary visitor logs, as well as simple visitor counts. Google Analytics, that’s suggested by some helpers here, is more useful to small businesses and corporations.
