If you find yourself in a traffic spike - work it. Keep those readers intrigued, and keep them coming back for more.

First, you need to be aware that it’s happened. If you sit at your computer all day, then your notifications will keep you in the loop. But it doesn’t hurt to do a mid-day stats check.

If you see a big spike in your traffic, you want to make your blog sticky. Make it interesting enough to attract subscribers - and clicks.

So, as Darren suggested after I had the My Yahoo spike on Cooking Gadgets, I put up a welcome post for all my new readers. We put up a similar post here on Blogging Help after we were featured in a local paper. This welcome post did a few things:

- caught their attention

- gave me an opportunity to introduce the purpose of the blog

- let me link back to my best articles

- gave me a chance to introduce myself

Now, that was a large traffic spike. Something like 10,000. I wouldn’t expect anyone to do this every time a few hundred new visitors came in. However, you can do some things.

1. The most basic - WRITE MORE! Such an easy thing to do! Increase your output for a couple of days, then make sure not to slack for a week or two.

2. Get involved in your comments

3. Know your strengths - link back to your best pieces in a subtle way by perhaps taking a new angle on one so the link is a natural extension

4. Promote your other blogs, where appropriate (if you, like me, write on more than one)

5. Visit the blogs of people who have commented on your blog and get involved

6. Update any about pages that could better promote you

7. Ask for comments in new posts. Get people interacting.

Overall, be a generous linker, be a great comment attractor and have fun. :)