The whole purpose of a blog is to put your content in front of as many viewers as possible; so many new bloggers are disappointed when their blog doesn't get a flood of traffic right off the bat. Quite simply, it's not that easy. Blogs have a number of built in features that make it much easier to get traffic that a conventional website, but that doesn't mean you don't have to provide some input to get the traffic flowing.

With that in mind this article covers 7 ways you can get more traffic to your blog. All the tips are tested and proven to be effective.

Tip One: Get Yahoo on your side.

By submitting to My Yahoo! you can get a good return of viewers to your blog. Submit your RSS feed to the My Yahoo! site and you are more or less instantly spidered and added to the Yahoo search rankings.

Tip Two: Get Google On Your Side

What's better than Yahoo on your side? Having Google on your side, of course. You can submit your site to the Google Reader and watch the results you get from being listed in Google's Blog Search.

Tip Three: Submit Your Site to DMOZ and other directories.

Google just plays favorites with some sites and the DMOZ directory is definitely one of them. They are a picky bunch, so you may not have your site accepted, but the resultant pickup in traffic if you do get listed is well worth the effort of submitting your blog.

Tip Four: Add some PING to your site.

Blogs have inbuilt ping capabilities, but you can increase listings by adding to their default list or using an online service such as Ping-o-Matic to get the word out every time you make a new post.

Tip Five: Know Your Keywords

When you first set up your blog you should have researched the hottest keywords for your niche. Don't forget them. Keep using keyword rich articles. Keep checking on how you are performing for each keyword. Keep tracking and testing. Keep an eye on what your competitors are doing to rank above you.

Tip Six: Get Social

Social Networking is without a doubt the biggest change in the way the web works since someone connected one network with another and thought they might be onto something. It's about participation. Use sites like Digg and Stumble Upon to get yourself back links and potentially heaps of traffic.

Tip Seven: Piggyback on your opposition's success.

If there's a site ranking higher than you work out why and duplicate it. If they are a blog then post a comment or three and get yourself a cheap back link to your blog. If Google likes their blog so much then how much emphasis are they going to put on a link back from that site?

The key to real success with a blog is continuous sustained activity. Keep posting, and keep building back links to your site. Traffic can come in a flood if you hit the front page of Digg or something similar, but it is far more likely to be something that builds up gradually over time.