Is your blog collecting dust and not getting enough traffic? It’s a common theme for bloggers. I myself have 4 other blogs and 23 websites in various stages of development. Though my others have flourished under my constant care, I’ve let this blog languish as you can see – nothing fresh since my first foray a few months back. Typical. It’s like the barber having the shaggiest haircut in town, eh? Pardon me for a moment while I rap my own knuckles.
The companion website to this blog, www.eCommerceGal.com, is not languishing in the least. It’s a rich resource of Internet marketing wisdom that’s now destined for greatness with a sudden burst of steam. The site consists of 2,727 web pages on topics ranging from Adsense to Website Traffic. At just a few months old, the Alexa rank for this young thing has climbed to 745,109. The heat is on, and there’s a big fat carrot on the stick I’m chasing. I say that to say this: you’re going to be hearing a lot more from me on this blog.
So, a lot of folks who keep a blog or web journal really are good at it. Their blogs are informative and fun to read, but no one is coming to visit. I myself don’t suffer from this syndrome with my blogs. SectorMatic Money Journal is about 6 months old now. Published under my pen name Jack Schmidt (yeah, really), the journal gets a respectable 4,000+ visitors a month. Think of it this way: a baby born six months ago is just holding up his head and babbling, but my Jack is likened to a senior in college – not rakin’ in the big bucks yet, but off to a roaring start. As an old friend of mine used to quip, “Chicks dig it, and all the guys are jealous.” I think I’m qualified to give you the what’s-what on blog traffic.
People in this business want to know how to increase their blog traffic. Increasing traffic is actually easier than it seems – provided you know how. The first thing to do is to change your mindset; you can’t drive traffic alone. You’ve got to leverage the efforts of those who’ve gone before you, the trailblazers who’ve beaten the path. Take advantage of the many blog traffic tools available to you, both free and paid. Free is better because, well, it’s free. But like anything else in eCommerce, you’ll want to test and track your results. Let’s go over 7 specific methods for increasing traffic. These are proven methods to draw more visitors to your blog.
Tip #1: Sign up for pinging services
It seems pretty obvious, but most bloggers, even those who are more experienced, don’t sign up for pinging services. If you’re new to blogging and don’t know what pinging means, pinging basically means that when your blog is updated, a “ping” is sent out by the service to let pinging sites know that your blog has been updated. People who are visiting sites with pinging services will then see your blog flash across the side of the screen as “newly updated”. Pinging services include Yahoo’s blo.gs, weblogs.com, Google Blog search, and ZingFast.
Tip #2: Sign up for Technorati
If you go to technorati.com, you’ll see an option on the left side of the screen to “Claim Your Blog”. Doing so allows you to get updated link counts, add your photo or branding to Technorati, and see your Technorati link. Having your blog claimed on Technorati helps to increase traffic because the millions of people who go to that site will have a chance to see your blog on there.
Tip #3: Sign up for FeedBurner, an RSS service
What FeedBurner basically does for your blog is it helps you to promote your blog’s content, build your audience and measure your audience. In other words, it helps you increase your blog’s traffic.
Tip #4: Bookmark your blogs at places like del.icio.us
You can set up an account and profile at del.icio.us. Then, using that, you can add links to your blog along with excerpts from your blog. Anytime someone visits your profile on del.icio.us, they will see a link to your blog and excerpts. There are other social bookmarking sites that you can use in much the same way. The bottom line is, using these social bookmarking sites can help you increase traffic.
Tip #5: Post comments at other blogs
No, this doesn’t mean you should go and spam other blogs with comments that are only there to promote a site. It means that you should visit similar blogs to your own, post legitimate! (as in, “not dumbass”) comments and then sign your name along with a link to your blog. Hint: I just gave you permission to post a comment right here on my blog. This way people know you aren’t there just to promote your site—you’re there to post a good piece of feedback and also say where you’re from. It means you’re a good citizen, an upstanding member of the Blogosphere, and you have something relevant to say – “relevant” as in, “Google loves you.”
Tip #6: Ask owners of other blogs to post a link to yours
Find other blogs that are similar to yours. If they seem to be decently popular (that is, they have a good amount of comments for each post), you can try to contact the owner of the blog (Hint: uh… such as, me) to add a link to your blog if they have a links section. To make them really want to do this, you can offer to link back to their blog on your blog. People do this reciprocal blog linking all the time and it does help to increase traffic. Bribes of alcoholic beverages sometimes work about as well.
Tip #7: Use keywords in your blog
Like regular web pages, having good keyword density on a blog is a terrific way of getting search engine spiders to notice your page. (FYI: Search engine spiders are programs from search engines that browse sites and report back their findings to the search engine database, which then lists that site. The more keywords on your site, the more likely it is for a search engine spider to pay a visit.)
If your average blog posting is around 200 words, try to use 2 to 6 keywords per blog post. Using 2 to 6 keywords in a blog posting of 200 words is a keyword density of between 1 and 3 percent, a respectable number. Remember that you don’t want to use too many keywords, as that will make your blog look bad. Also be sure that the keywords used are relevant to your blog. Before even making a blog posting, decide what the post will be about and then select a keyword or two to use in your post. Then do it. It’s a surefire way of getting more traffic to your site!
There is serious money to be made online. Don’t think the party’s over – it’s just beginning. But making money takes savvy, hard work and commitment, just like any other business. Let me help you take some angle off your learning curve. Head on over to www.eCommerceGal.com for some free tools and a wealth of proven techniques to make your business soar!
Good commerce,
ECG
