Ten ways to increase traffic to your classical music blog

Thanks to Mona Seghatoleslami at WV Public Broadcasting for this guest post.

At WV Public Broadcasting, I’m responsible for the blog Classically Speaking. We started the blog in April 2008, and we’ve gradually been increasing our traffic. In March, we had 1006 page views and 789 unique views, according to Google Analytics.

These numbers aren’t just a way to feel good knowing that a lot of people are interested in reading what we have to say. Eventually enough Web traffic can also be turned into online advertising and underwriting, justification for grants, and other good things.

I was given a mission: with the help of fearless Operations Assistant Bob Powell, double the blog’s monthly traffic by the end of the summer. We did it in two months — here’s how.

1. On-air mentions

It’s hard to tell how much this helps, but we mention the blog often during classical music programs, especially promoting new content and posts related to content on the radio. If I hear something about Gil Shaham on Performance Today, I try to mention our interview with him on our blog at the next break. During our locally programmed classical music show, we try to work in pieces related to content on the blog. Also, we use the blog to post segments from interviews that were left on the cutting-room floor.

2. Telling people — and telling them to tell other people

When your posts concern an artist, a venue, an arts organization, or a community — or even better, all of the above — e-mail them and ask them to link to it, include it in their e-mail lists, post it on their Facebook pages, and tell their friends. For example, the first time I interviewed the Kandinsky Trio, who were playing at Carnegie Hall Lewisburg, I didn’t think to tell the hall about it! I just told the group when it was posted and sent them a CD of the interview.

More recently, when I interviewed pianist Evan Mack, I told Carnegie, and they included a link on their site and Facebook page, and Evan Mack sent the interview to his e-mail list. The Kandinsky Trio post has had 26 views (22 unique). The interview with Evan Mack, meanwhile, has had 169 views (140 unique).

Most of this is through e-mail, but I also just talk to lots of people about the blog. One of my projects is convincing people who “don’t do blogs” that they would be interested in our content.

3. Twitter and Facebook

We have an (unofficial) Twitter account for classical music in West Virginia, focusing on what we do on the radio and the blog. I also share our blog posts on my personal Facebook page and ask the other bloggers to do the same if they have a chance. We can do a lot more with these tools in the future.

4. Having more writers

Until recently, our music director and I have written most of the posts. But lately we’ve featured posts by a news intern, an operations assistant, and someone who works in communications and with the website. They’ve brought different perspectives, and they share their posts with their friends and family, bringing in new readers.

5. Commenting on other blogs

When commenting on most blogs, you’re asked to provide a URL. These days, I always use a link to Classically Speaking. I’m not just commenting to get traffic, but I do find myself a bit more willing to jump into commenting when I remember that it will also bring people to our site. Previously, I might have been shy. Recently, my interest in the Cliburn piano competition led me to comment on the Cliburn blog and write a post (especially because I interviewed the webcast host, Jade Simmons).

6. Variety of posts

As with many of these pointers, I’m not sure how much this helps, but I try to make sure that our posts cover a variety of subjects: a few concert or CD reviews, some interviews, download giveaways, and personal thoughts or stories. Since we cover the whole state, it’s helped to vary the locations we cover as well. Having more writers has also led to more variety in topics.

7. Posting more frequently

Some months we’ve had as few as five posts. Recently, we’ve been making sure to have 12 to 15 posts a month. More posts means more things for people to look at and more chance that a wider range of people will find something of interest.

8. Being listed on indexes and other sites

Because of efforts by our news department, our posts are indexed by Google News. Our blog is listed on Instant Encore, which connects our posts to the related artist pages. I’ve also listed us on some other blog directories (including Blog Catalog), but I don’t think that’s bringing too much traffic yet. We’re also on a few blogrolls, notably Alex Ross’s list of classical music blogs, and we regularly get traffic from those sources.

9. Connecting posts to other related posts

When Jim Lange wrote about music he thought sounded like that of Philip Glass, we mentioned his previous post about Glass. When we posted Naxos’s “Guitar Heroes” giveaway, I linked to all our previous interviews with guitarists. Some other blogging platforms and plugins can automatically generate related links. It helps lead newer readers to older posts they might not have seen.

10. Things beyond our control

Our most popular post this month was Bob Powell’s review of the newest Mormon Tabernacle Choir CD (433 views, 388 unique). We did not expect so many hits for this post — I didn’t think to let the MTC know about the post, but they found it through a keyword alert of something, and it was featured on the Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s website’s front page and somewhere on Facebook. We’ve had a few other surprise hits, and it’s nice when it happens.

Success has come with a price. We’ve been asked to double the current amount of traffic in three months. That means taking us from about 2,000 hits a month to 4,000 hits a month. Phew! I’ll let you know in a few months how it goes.

Things I’d still like to do (some of these are already in progress):

• Fix some technical problems that limit discovery, such as lacking metatags and metatitles (this makes me sad)
• Have a WV Public Broadcasting Facebook page. Look at what NPR is doing with Facebook and how much response they are getting!
• Using our e-mail list to promote the blog or a special post or two.
• Fill more niches. In Morgantown, the home of West Virginia University, the local paper does not review classical music events. Maybe we can find someone there to volunteer to write reviews for us.
• Contact local music teachers, musicians’ unions, universities, youth orchestras, and the like for stories to feature, possible guest posts, and linking and advertising.
• Add links to other arts and classical music organizations in WV in a sidebar and ask them to link to us.
• Feature individual posts on our station’s main page where radio or TV specials are sometimes featured.
• Send a press release to local papers and other media organizations.
• Add links to our interviews on relevant Wikipedia pages that list external links (like at the bottom of this page).

Do you have any suggestions for audience-building techniques for a classical music or radio blog that have worked for you?