We know a blog can be a great tool for businesses. If you’ve finally got your blog off the ground, the next step is to get some traffic to it. This guest post by Andrew Rondeau of Webuildyourblog.com offers up 6 tips to getting the traffic flowing in.
There’s a popular saying in business, that the hardest part of anything is simply showing up. While it holds true throughout many aspects of corporate culture and success, it’s certainly not true for the blogging world. If the blogosphere’s got anything, it’s millions of people who’ve shown up, some uninvited. Showing up simply isn’t enough to become a blogging success anymore.
You’ve got to generate traffic and promote yourself.
You’ve got to create timeless posts that circulate throughout social bookmarking services for years to come.
You’ve got to take an active presence in getting your blog out there.
It’s no longer about simply writing; promoting is the biggest part of blogging today.
Here are six tips for getting traffic to your new blog.
#1: Don’t just write for cash
It’s tempting to write solely for Adsense revenue, but doing so is a bit of a failed metric for success. There are ultimately two different kinds of blog content, made-for-revenue and organic. When you focus on revenue-generating content, you end up destroying your long-term financial potential. Focus on generating readers, not just cash, and start looking at monetizing your blog later on.
#2: Guest posts are great for generating traffic
There are always going to be bloggers out there with more traffic than you, regardless of what niche you write on or how often you write. There are millions of blogs around, and the spread of traffic between them all is truly stunning. Don’t think that you can get it all to yourself — cooperate and collaborate with other bloggers and expand your reach. Contact a big blogger about guest posting on their blog, and you could see some serious traffic come over to yours.
#3: Social bookmarking loves images
Got a post that could succeed on Digg or Reddit? Make sure you’ve included images in the post’s body copy. Most social bookmarking services seem to favor articles that have images and dynamic media included in the page, so ensure you’ve got something interesting for people to look at, as well as something interesting to read. Make sure you add tags to your images.
#4: Don’t sell out to promoters
Promotional posts are great, so long as they’re intelligently targeted and used sparingly. However, subscribers hate unnecessary promotional content, and using too much of it is a great way to see your readership dramatically decline. Focus on generating traffic, and leave promotional or sponsored posts out until you’ve reached a sustainable subscriber level.
#5: Experiment with different posting mediums
Video blogging is fun, and experimentation with it could generate more readers for your blog. Trying different post formats, topics, and styles is great for boosting traffic. When more people enjoy at least some aspect of your blog, more people talk about it, which means much more traffic.
#6: Use social media to compliment and sustain your blog
A Twitter account is great for promoting your top blog posts, generating buzz, and of course, increasing traffic. When you pair your blog up with social media services, you give yourself an avenue to drive traffic to your blog. A Facebook page might cost an hour of your time to set up, but it’s well worth the long-term promotional benefits.
What tips would you add? Share your views in the comments below.
Andrew Rondeau is the author of the free guide Income Blogging Guide. Click on the following link to grab your complimentary copy of Andrew’s Income Blogging Guide.
Want to be our next guest author? You can! Click here for details.
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I know most of these things but haven’t implemented them yet. My biggest hang-up is creating a video post.. I’ve started contacting people about guest blogging, so hopefully that’ll grant my young blog some much needed exposure!
Moon Hussain´s last blog ..Why Automating Your Proccess Is The Only Way To Stay Sane
Some good points are made here especially the first one. Many bloggers start their blogs with the sole aim of making money. The infrequent posts, surrounded by Adsense ads and “this blog is sponsored by” graphics that result, tells readers straightaway that there is little of value to be found.
I encourage my clients to use a blog as a place to showcase their really useful, practical and helpful articles. Make the content the key feature of the blog and eventually the money will follow.
It is very important that social media marketing is used to support a blog. The problem is usually that people do not have the time to post to all of the social networking sites they should to be found. I am a great believer in posting content once to a blog and getting that content automatically distributed to the relevant social media sites. This grows traffic to the blog (sometimes in a matter of hours) that can then be harnessed into revenue over time.
To me that is a sensible way of getting traffic and running a blog for the benefit of its readers.
I have bookmarked this post because it is important for new bloggers to understand what you have highlighted.
Greg Spence´s last blog ..Google Buzz – 7 Days On
@Moon
I know, video is tough. It’s probably one of those things you get better at as time goes on.
You’re more than welcome to guest post here sometime – we’ll do our best to get some traffic heading your way.
Matt
Hi Moon,
Guest blogging is a great way to start to get extra traffic. (Hence me writing this one here!).
What’s is your hang-up re: video blog post? Being in front of the camera?
You could start with a text based video first.
Andrew
Andrew @ Blogging Guide´s last blog ..Facebook Applications – The Best Ones To Use
Andrew, Thank you for this insight. Every time I visit here I find useful content that makes me thing and helps me focus.
I agree that doing a guest post is a great way to get in front of a new audience and pickup some new readers. I know that you just did a guest post here so it is hard for me to give you a good excuse why I don’t do more of it. I think that it is a time issue, but you have to start some where.
One of my goals this month is to have 4 new post a week on my blog. This has help me out my blog a lot. Next month my goal will be to do 3 guest post, will see if that has the lift that I think it will.
As far as the other things that you suggest, most will not take a lot of time and we all could use some more work in those areas. Social bookmarking takes me 30minuts after a new post. That’s 2 hours out of my week, not a big deal.
Thanks for the post Andrew it was real helpful.
Rob
Robert Wagner SBA Loans´s last blog ..7 Principles for Small Business to Adopt to Survive the Next 5 Years
Great post. Simple points, but very valuable. What do you recommend for getting more action on the digg posts?
Alex´s last blog ..The New Lifestyle of a Retired Entrepreneur
@ Greg
Thanks for the bookmarking. You say, “I am a great believer in posting content once to a blog and getting that content automatically distributed to the relevant social media sites.” What software do you use/recommend to do that?
And you are right – so many bloggers think ‘cash’ first. Adsense all over the blog and 10’s of flashing adverts. They don’t understand what blogging is about.
Andrew
Andrew @ Blogging Guide´s last blog ..My Blogging Guide Blog Is One Year Old
@ Robert
Social Bookmarking can take a lot of time and effort but it can pay off. There are a few WordPress plugins that can help like twitter tools that will automatically update your Twitter account when you publish a blog post.
Plus services like onlywire.com can speed things up.
I’m hoping Greg (other commenter) will come back and share what he uses.
Andrew
Andrew @ Blogging Guide´s last blog ..The Pros and Cons of Social Bookmarking
@Andrew
I share how I do this with my own blog subscribers so no problem sharing with you. I developed a system that links several components together including Twitter, several social networking sites, video and article directories. My clients also use this and are getting some good levels of traffic, often within less than an hour of posting. I call it Automated Marketing, and no I am not leading up to a sales pitch here because I offer it for free for the benefit of the blogging community. And for all those people struggling to get traffic. If you visit my blog (just click on my name) you will be able to learn more about it and get the 26-page implementation guide.
I would be more than happy to write an overview post as a guest blogger if you like Andrew.
Greg Spence´s last blog ..Google Buzz – 7 Days On
Thanks Greg, I can use all the help I can get.
Rob
Rob Wagner SBA Loans´s last blog ..Obama Adopting Reagan’s policy for small business? Compare the two 27 years apart (Video)
These are all great tips, and I especially agree with #6 regarding social media. Using feeds is particularly a great tool for getting the word out about your blog posts. After hearing about some of our friends and partners’ success with it, we’ll soon be using twitterfeed (twitterfeed.com) to share blog updates on Facebook and Twitter. It’s worth checking out!
Thanks Greg – I signed up for your report. Will read over the next few days.
Andrew
Andrew @ Blogging Guide´s last blog ..Facebook Applications – The Best Ones To Use
Hi Andrew,
Wow thanks for this great list. What can I say?
Perhaps I could ask a question:
What is the best way to convince someone to let you guest post? Or maybe phrasing it differently: where/how do you look for guest posting opportunities?
I don’t mind working long hard hours that pay off. Would really appreciate the reply.
@Eric
Here is a great resource to find blogs that are looking for guest posts:
My Blog Guest
From the site:
“MyBlogGuest is a unique community that is based on one simple principle: if you provide quality, you don’t need to pay to be heard. It unites bloggers who are interested in connecting to other bloggers, journalists and other content creators in any niche and publish their high-quality articles on their blogs.”
I’m on there and can vouch for the quality of the interactions – very clean, not spammy, check it out!
Matt
@Andrew
Thanks Andrew. Would be interested in your feedback once you have read it. Let me know what you think.
Greg Spence´s last blog ..Email Marketing System
@ Matt,
Thank you so much!
Eric
Eric´s last blog ..Special Thanks To….
Social bookmarking loves images was a first one for me. I do use images in my posts just to keep it interesting, but I am glad to know there actual benefits to it!
Best,
Ana/YourNetBiz
Ana from YourNetBiz Training´s last blog ..Do You Know How To Speak Twitter Lingo?
Cooley
Thanks for the tip on TwitterFeed. I use Twitter Tools but just added a FaceBook fan page so I need a tool that updates both.
Andrew
Andrew @ Blogging Guide´s last blog ..Get Backlinks – Here are the 11 methods and backlink tools I use
Eric,
You may want to check out Cathy Stucker’s mail list at http://www.bloggerlinkup.com. Twice a week you will receive an email with a list of people that need guest posts with subjects listed, and also another group of people that are offering to guest post about listed subjects. It’s all free.
Andrew
Andrew @ Blogging Guide´s last blog ..Get Backlinks – Here are the 11 methods and backlink tools I use
Ana,
If you are using WordPress I would also recommend you use the SEO Friendly Images plugin – it helps with SEO.
Andrew
Andrew @ Blogging Guide´s last blog ..Get Backlinks – Here are the 11 methods and backlink tools I use
i think you’ve rounded them up very nicely. writing for cash and high integrity blog will be an easy task for a wise or perhaps already established (?) but not so for the still-rising one. sometimes bloggers are torn between thinking of money first then quality contents.
dimaks´s last blog ..Pacquiao’s Coach Birthday Wish