What is The Best Way to Increase Blog Traffic?

[Brian Lee]

What is the most efficient use of time dedicated to increasing blog traffic?

-Forums?
-Comments on other Blogs?
-Submitting to social sites like Digg or Reddit?
-Making lots of friends on social sites?
-Submitting to web directories?
-AdWords?
-Guest Blogging?
-Contests?

What other activities have worked for you?

[SeriousKidding.com]

Aside from Steve, this guy has it all:
Copywriting tips for online marketing success from Copyblogger

[Caveman Joe]

Write quality, original content. Ensure that Google can see it and make sense of it. Update regularly. Ping after every post.
Aaaand that's about it! That's all I needed to do to make Project Wonderful Talk and JAMMA Forever appear on the first page of Google search results.

[Savage]

I'm probably in the minority in saying this, but I still believe the quality of the content is the single most important factor in building traffic. You can try all kinds of tricks, but ultimately if you write great content that provides value to your visitors, you'll experience no end of referrals without having to resort to tricks.

When you hit the "publish" button, do you come away feeling you've posted the best you have to offer?

Content creation is the strategic aspect of traffic building. If you get lost at the tactical level and never get the strategic level correct, it's hard to grow beyond a certain point, and you'll always feel you're trying to game the system instead of simply giving your readers something that really matters to them. Plus you'll be doing something that will ultimately attract massive competition because just about anyone can duplicate your tactics. A good strategy is much harder to duplicate.

[Brian Lee]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

Content creation is the strategic aspect of traffic building. If you get lost at the tactical level and never get the strategic level correct, it's hard to grow beyond a certain point, and you'll always feel you're trying to game the system instead of simply giving your readers something that really matters to them.

That's good insight, Steve. It's easy to get caught up in techniques, stats, etc.

[Joe826]

Yeah, quality content is key. Lots of content is also a really good start. Do some basic SEO on your blog, and the engines will pick it up automatically. Also go look for like minded blogs and arrange a link swap.

My blog is just for fun so my promotion strategies aren't very serious, but ultimately, content is king and word of mouth is a close, related second.

[Damara]

I agree, content is definitely king. But I also think you really have to take time to know who your competition is. And spend time posting on forums/blogs in your niche to build a reputation for yourself.

I'm also still a big believer of article marketing

[JasonS76]

Yup. Quality content is king indeed. No doubt about it.

[JerryS]

write what you're passionate about.

[Dave B]

No doubt about the content. Good quality and relevant content is vital...

A good practical way to increase traffic, which wasn't mentioned in the original list, is to post quality articles to your blog and then also to an authority article site like Ezine...the search engines visit Ezine regularly and your articles can get ranked highly if you set them up correctly...a simple link from your Author Bio in the articles back to your blog and you'll get traffic for sure.

Dave B

[restlesslimbs]

Yes, good content is key, but traffic takes a while to build even with outstanding content. It can be months before you even get a comment on your blog, let alone a link from another site.

If you want to build traffic faster, then you'll need to also advertise with Google, Yahoo, Msn, etc.

I think you should have at least 20 posts though before you waste your money on advertising (if your trying to monetize your traffic).

[John Wesley]

I totally agree with good content but you also need to get noticed so people start reading your content in the first place.

The best way to jump start this is with social media: Digg, Reddit, Delicious, StumbleUpon. The way to succeed with these sites is to write posts with a good amount of mass appeal and a provocative headline and list type format. It's hard to get a post popular, but when you do the exposure is great.

You shouldn't write every post hoping to get on these sites though because your content ends up becoming generic. These sites don't really like the best content, they like the content with the most popular appeal.

[kos]

As has been mentioned, the single best way to develop dependable, long term traffic is to simply keep posting!

Quality content of course, but at first it also helps to know specifically what people are looking to find out in your niche. Visit more popular blogs to view their chosen topics, use the web2.0 social tools to see which content is the most popular, and use forums/newsgroups to identify demands for information which have not been supplied.

Within a relatively short period of time (not more than a couple months with regular posting), you can begin using your visitor tracking software to look for keyphrases people type in to reach your site. This will provide you with a continuous source of new possible in demand topics.

Other techniques which are usually especially effective for blogs include forum postings, blog commenting & track-backs, and adding posts with well written headlines/descriptions to social networking sites.. how to's and top 10 type posts work well for this.

Of course, it also helps to have incoming links from other sites; acquire them from major directories and other legitimate, relevant websites when you can. However, continue posting new content and you will find both that you rank for unique, low competition keyphrases and that you will gradually acquire new backlinks as other webmasters find your website more useful.

And this is the major point everyone is attempting to make here. Once your website becomes a truly useful resource for many people, you have made a quality contribution to the web and to the lives of others. When this happens, you will become successful.

It takes more time, but I think everyone will agree with me - its worth it in the long run.

Kevin

[twins15]

There are many ways of building traffic...

Obviously content is king, but if all you do is create content and don't worry about anything else, you probably won't get a lot of traffic, at least not for a long time. "If you build it they will come" is generally not a good method of getting traffic.

Best ideas that have worked for me:
- Link Exchanges (obviously is key for search engines and generating traffic from there)
- Comments on similar blogs - Often results in a reciprocal comment or link

Obviously it's a lot more complicated than that, but that is what has worked best for me, along with the creation of good content.

[Raymond Edeh]

Little things like pinging and digging your blog are very important.
If you have quality content but nobody can see it, then you really have a problem in your hands.


Raymond Edeh

[AfteraDream]

HAVE THE BEST CONTENT ON YOUR BLOG!!! Simple as that

[teatree]

You need content, but you also need backlinks.

I personally don't like Link Exchanges - I think Google knows all about them and penalises sites that use them. Build back-links through article marketing, signatures on forums and that kind of thing.

Of course you could do it like Steve Pavlina - write such unique material that everyone rushes to link to your stuff - and the backlinks mushroom naturally!

[MartialDev]

If you really want to increase your blog traffic, just post pics of yourself naked.

Now, do you really want to "increase your blog traffic"? No, you do not--nobody ever does. You actually want something else. So what is it?

[Raymond Edeh]

Originally Posted by MartialDev

If you really want to increase your blog traffic, just post pics of yourself naked.

Now, do you really want to "increase your blog traffic"? No, you do not--nobody ever does. You actually want something else. So what is it?

LOL that's the easiest way to get your blog banned by Google.

Help! I hate being seen naked.

[nikmerchant]

Hello...

Overture or now known as Yahoo because of Yahoo’s takeover, was the original inventor of the use of the P4P or Pay for Performance. Overture saw that the internet was fast becoming the easiest and most convenient way to shop, and advertising was going to hit at an all time high because of the many businesses in the arena.

To get a person to go to a site than others, it needs to be very visible. Providing ads that could direct potential consumers and costumers to their site would allow them to have an increase in traffic as well as sales. Yahoo provides a service that can put a site or company’s ad in their sites that can be shown when certain keywords are inputted.

Yahoo offers a chance for any company to increase their traffic by using their services. With more people being aware of your site, there would be more traffic and visitors to your site given the chance to view your pages as well as your products. With even a small percentage of successful sales, with a high traffic volume this could still be a substantial figure for your company.

Getting a consistent substantial flow of website visitors is every company’s goal. Many methods are devised and utilized to ensure that there would be more people to boost the sales and to be aware of the existence of such a product or service. Website visitors are potentially the life blood of your internet based business.

Yahoo/Overture utilizes the same principle as Google’s Adwords. In fact, they are very similar to each other that they use keyword and keyword phrase searches and to determine which ads to show per search. When a person types in a keyword or keyword phrase to search for anything, the search engines gives out the results in a page. Then at the right side of the page, you will see selected ads that have paid for their ads to be viewed with certain keywords and keyword phrases searched.

For example, Lets say you run a car parts retail/wholesale site. You choose keywords that can prompt or trigger your ads to be shown in the page when a keyword is searched. When a search engine user types in Honda Accord, your ad may come up if you have designated that as one of your keywords. You don’t need to fully optimize your site with Search Engine Optimization methods and techniques.

While some labor so hard to make their site one of the high ranking sites per keyword search, you get the chance to be on the top of the list or at least in the first page of a search result increasing your chance to be clicked on. With that, you drive traffic and website visitors to your site a lot faster.

You will have to pony up some cash when using this service though. There are different ways Yahoo/Overture will charge you. It may be in the number of Keywords or Keyword phrases your ad uses or in the many times your ad is clicked on. Others offer many other services like having your ad show up not only in the search engine pages but also with some third party sites.

Third party sites support ads that have the same theme or niche as them. With more areas your ad is shown, you increase the chances of people knowing about your site or product. With more website visitors you increase the sales of your site which makes your investment with your ads a wise one.

With so many competitions in the internet based businesses, it is necessary to take a huge leap forward from the pack by advertising. Yahoo/Overture will be a great place to start. Many have utilized their services and have reaped the rewards of this decision. It’s a marketing strategy that will increase your website visitors as well as increase your sales resulting to profit.

It takes money to make money, while there are some methods that are basically low cost or free, using a marketing service such as what Yahoo/Overture offers will provide results faster and on a larger scale. Many businesses have learned this the hard way, don’t be counted with them.

[alexplatups]

Hello,

#1...write high quality content

#2...let the search engines know about your content
(this is why it really helps to post articles on your site, and at the same
time post it in a blog, and if you send this article to the best article
directories, this will be the ultimate combination for increasing traffic)

#3...make posts in niche blogs on your topic with your signature, that
has a link to your blog/site

#4...use social marketing, facebook, youtube, twitter, etc

YouTube - Social Media Marketing | Perry Belcher

this is the best explanation, hands down on social marketing

#5...let your desire to create something great, show you the steps to take
because copying someone will very rarely produce similar results, even if
people say that modeling works, actually it has flaws in its design

we are all unique and we should use that uniqueness to our advantage
instead of trying to be like someone else

good luck

Alex Platups

[Raymond Edeh]

Originally Posted by alexplatups

Hello,

#1...write high quality content

#2...let the search engines know about your content
(this is why it really helps to post articles on your site, and at the same
time post it in a blog, and if you send this article to the best article
directories, this will be the ultimate combination for increasing traffic)

#3...make posts in niche blogs on your topic with your signature, that
has a link to your blog/site

#4...use social marketing, facebook, youtube, twitter, etc

YouTube - Social Media Marketing | Perry Belcher

this is the best explanation, hands down on social marketing

#5...let your desire to create something great, show you the steps to take
because copying someone will very rarely produce similar results, even if
people say that modeling works, actually it has flaws in its design

we are all unique and we should use that uniqueness to our advantage
instead of trying to be like someone else

good luck

Alex Platups

Alex,

I think you have summarized everything.
Social bookmarking sites/social networking is the current best thing that has happened to the internet marketing world.


Raymond Edeh

[angus]

It is also possible to get lucky. On my site, I posted an article called Weird Beliefs, and for some reason it moved right up to the third page of Google listings for searches on the phrase 'weird beliefs', and I started to notice hits on Google Analytics. The really cool thing is, people arriving via that search term are spending an average of 15 minutes on the site and reading about 7 pages. In other words, not only is it a good search term for me, but my site is good for the searchers as well—it's content they're interested in. I believe Google tracks behavior after a hit, so this has been helping

To enhance the effect, I made sure to work 'weird beliefs' into my meta tags, and I sprinkled the phrase into some of my other posts on the site. And I keep getting visitors via this 'organic' (unpaid) referral path—initially I got one or two per day, then five or six, and yesterday I got 12! And the time on site is staying high, so I'm sure I'm gaining regular readers.

And here's the cool thing: as of this morning, that post is the 6th hit overall—1st page!—for the phrase weird beliefs. Since I was getting okay numbers of referrals with the post on pages three and then two, I'll be getting snowballing numbers now that it's higher.

So first, get lucky. Then, notice that you got lucky by spending time with your Google Analytics reports—there's a ton of info in there, and it's awesome to know how and why people are coming to your site. And then, enhance your luck by adapting your site.

cheers,
Angus

[rmuller965]

Originally Posted by Brian Lee

What is the most efficient use of time dedicated to increasing blog traffic?

-Forums?
-Comments on other Blogs?
-Submitting to social sites like Digg or Reddit?
-Making lots of friends on social sites?
-Submitting to web directories?
-AdWords?
-Guest Blogging?
-Contests?

What other activities have worked for you?

Hi,

I found the best possible way to increase the blog traffic:
1.SEO
2.Commenting
3.Networking
4.Word Of Mouth
5.Linkbait-Create posts that are designed to grab people’s attention
6.Link Out
7.Stumbleupon-Stumbleupon is this blogs third best traffic source, behind retuning visitors, and Google.
8.List Posts
9.Blog Memes
10.Quality Content

I hope this will help you out.

Best wishes