This is a simplified, summary of the 20 best tips on the net to help you increase traffic to your blog:

• Link to your own articles: use keyword rich labels in your articles to link to your other articles
• Mix blogging with social networking: make use of blog widgets on Facebook and LinkedIn, post highlights of your best articles to Digg, del.icio.us and StumbleUpon, use your blog content to answer questions on LinkedIn, Yahoo answers, forums and newsgroups
• Treat your blog like a publication: write compelling titles, introductions and conclusions, offer useful content, pay attention to grammar and spelling
• Keep track of relevant news: subscribe to RSS feeds and Google alerts for key sources of news from your industry or profession and report on anything newsworthy quickly
• Participate in the blogosphere: offer useful comments to blogs that cover relevant topics and include links to your articles
• Submit your blog to blog directories, blog aggregators and blog carnivals
• Submit your best articles to well ranked, reputable article directories like Ezine Articles and Article Dashboard
• Remember that your blog is a marketing tool: craft the look, message and language in order to establish the desired brand identity with the appropriate audience
• Collaborate in group writing projects
• Write as a guest blogger on another relevant blog
• Write something controversial, if it can be done in a manner that would be consistent with the positioning of your brand
• Introduce yourself to bloggers writing about relevant topics
• Cover key topics in the form of a series so that all the articles in the series link to each other
• Create a blog roll to publicize links to your favourite blogs
• Link to relevant blogs in your articles
• Learn how to write short but valuable and interesting articles so that you can blog frequently while also offering the occasional list or comprehensive study
• Promote your most popular blog articles on your blog
• Create a newsletter and invite readers to subscribe to it
• Promote your blog offline: list your blog address in your autosignature, on your business card and other marketing materials
• Learn from your blog traffic reports and update your use of keywords accordingly

This list on how to increase traffic to your blog is a simplification of the best tips on the net.

All 20 tips are based on one underlying principal.

The traffic your blog generates will depend on the extent to which you participate in conversations with other bloggers, your readers and an extended social media network.

The incremental traffic will help you to build your business if it aligns with your desired target market and if your conversations, formal and otherwise, consistently reflect the strategic position of your brand.