John Wesley over at Pick the Brain has written one of the best posts I’ve read in a while about how to get more traffic and more feed subscribers: 27 Lessons Learned on the Way to 3000 Visits a Day and 2200 RSS Subscribers.

The entire post is a motivational call to action for bloggers, I think. It’s definitely something I’d go back to read, especially two to three months into a new blog - I always think that two to three month mark is the make-it-or-break-it point in terms of whether you have enough commitment and persistence to keep going with it.

I especially liked no. 17: “Make people think. It doesn’t happen very often and they won’t easily forget it.”

But best of all is John’s final point: “Do what works for you. Be completely genuine. Trying to promote a fake persona isn’t sustainable. People will see through it.” It seems to me that this is THE question to ask yourself before you even get off the drawing board for a new blog. But it’s something that’s easier said than done ahead of time - I find that quite often, it takes me a while to actually settle into the rhythm of what a blog will be for me, even when I have a pretty clear vision of its purpose.

Getting your voice down, truly nailing it, is the key.