Driving Blog Traffic

[tommy]

I just started my first blog and admitted blog neophyte. How does one drive traffic to a blog...how do people even search for specific topical related blogs. In my case it's a blog for sales professionals.

I'm not looking to make money off of it...I just want to see of anyone cares what I have to say.

Advise is appreciated.

Thanks.

[GreatnessBlog]

Put it in your signature, for one. :-) Also, be sure to comment on other people's blogs.

[Henrik]

Have a look at problogger.net. Start with this series Blogging for Beginners. I found it very helpful get an overview of the different aspects of blogging.

I also like Steve´s article on How to Build a High Traffic website http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/200...-site-or-blog/

[michael.shearer]

Here's a good tool, OnlyWire: The Only BookMarklet You'll Ever Need!. Read this post about it:
Get your post listed on 25 sites in 10 minutes !

Commenting on other blogs is a good idea, like previously mentioned. Put it in your email signature block, post to social bookmarking sites (described above), write outstanding content.

Good luck, what's your blog?

Mike

[tommy]

my blog is

The Secret to Breakthrough Sales Performance
http://sales4life.wordpress.com

[GreatnessBlog]

I'm getting an error, tommy.

I fixed up the URL in the link so it no longer gives an error. The link is now working as intended.
- Bruce

[michael.shearer]

The Secret to Breakthrough Sales Performance I assume?

[tommy]

yes that's it

[Neutral]

Listen, I'm kind of in the same boat as you and I've never ran a blog or had a "internet presence" either but hear me out anyway.

I don't mean to be completely discouraging but it seems like the internet is near a blogging glut. My instinct tells me that it seems like it'll peak pretty soon too.

I know this conflicts with Steve's "Abudance Model" of reality and I may be jumping the gun but I see many blogs about literally EVERYTHING, with many of them rarely offering good value. It's cool that everyone is expressing themselves (which is really the point) and blogging is a learning experience but many blogs seem to be authored by people who just started learning about the topics they post about.

The main opportunity, and there still is time left, is to find an area in blogging with weak competition, so that you can come in and dominate. The successful blogs are the ones that are obviously more knowledgable than everything else, not just "Web 2.0" shills. Did I just contradict my own argument there?

Anyway, if I were you, I'd become an expert in a field like Steve did (easier said than done, huh? Took him a years). Google "tim o'reilly", "web 2.0", "search engine optimization" get into there mindset, while remembering it's an insular view. They use many words that seem like buzz words and hype like, "monetize" and "Web 2.0", it reminds me of the year before "Web 1.0" collapsed.

And one last thing to remember. In this world...Tim O'Reilly is God.

[Belle]

Originally Posted by tommy

how do people even search for specific topical related blogs.

If you want to search just among blogs, use Google's Blog search. You'll find that blogs usually get good listings in the main search results, too. And if your blog isn't listed in Google's blog search results, you can add it here: Google Blog Search Ping Service

Originally Posted by Neutral

I don't mean to be completely discouraging but it seems like the internet is near a blogging glut. My instinct tells me that it seems like it'll peak pretty soon too.

Take heart - there are still lots of niches where blogging is still new. Or if not new, still, blogs are just starting to take off. And there are many niches where there are lots of bloggers, but if you go in armed with knowledge about SEO and driving traffic to your blog, you can get a pretty good start.

Also, lots of people start up blogs, but I suspect that a lot less actually keep up their blogging.

The other thing is, once you've got one established blog, it's much easier to start new ones and get traffic going to them.

[Mike]

Also sign up with technorati and feedburner. Most blogs fade away after 6 months, so persistence is the key.

Trade links and leave comments on related blogs.

[Leonard]

Originally Posted by tommy

my blog is

http://sales4life.webpress.com

your url is wrong. it should be The Secret to Breakthrough Sales Performance

[Dating Specialist]

There are a myraid of ways to drive traffic to your blog. Using SEO techniques, virul marketing, creating backlinks etc.

Don't ever forget driving through offline - meaning word of mouth. Could be one of the most powerful way to drive real human traffic to your site.

In the meantime, I think the most important thing to do is to focus on giving good content, consistently. If you post regularly like Steve, you'll get a high percentage of return traffic, which is what you really want. To build up the readership base. So, focus on delvering good content.

[stuart]

Traffic has three elements, whether it's a Forum, Blog or plain ol website. You need (1) Source, (2) Mechanism, (3) Bait.

Source

This is where you have to leverage on places that already have traffic. You latch on to these sites for traffic, which is either bought or traded. You might consider also running joint teleseminars with similar experts to drive traffic to an opt-in list where you continue to feed them valuable information.

Mechanism

There are a whole bunch of these. Blog contributions and trackbacks, pinging, search engine optimization, link exchange, article directory submission, press releases on PRWeb.com, RSS submissions, social networking, social bookmarking, pay-per-click advertising, etc.

Bait

No use having traffic pass through once, right? Have them come over again and again! Articles and writing are one, but have you ever considered Podcasting? iTunes (though I hate the format) has over a million people searching for content on Quicktime. You could also do up a quick video, convert it to flash, upload it on YouTube. AskTheNinja.com is one example of a hilarious, viral site among others. Superior content wins out.

[drgrudge]

What I have learnt is simple. Keep providing value. Give, give and keep giving till you start to recieve what you wanted (it may be traffic, sales, money, whatever that you expected).

You need to have your site established. For that you have to blog with unique content (or interesting concepts). Then it'll be a matter of time before you achieve what you want.

There's no shortcut to sucess. Hard work will reward you one day.

[dcldnl]

wait until you have some content (at least 10 posts) before start to promote your blog, then:

• put links to other blogs (and click on them), every blogger control his statistics, when someone see traffic coming from new blog, if he like it probably he will exchange the link
• comment on other blog
• write a pillar an submit it to digg end reddit, perhaps you'll not gain the first place on them, but you'll receive a lot of traffic
• subscribe to dmoz
• you are using a free hosting, so, invest the money you save for hosting in adwords

[wilsonng]

these are all worthwhile advice -- howto be in search engines, how to get people to link to you.

but the most important traffic is return traffic -- that means you have to work your blog so that the people who come will return. The best way to make a blog popular is still to have really good content, or some compelling feature that makes people want to come back.

[bhopkins]

The best way I've found to start getting trafic to a blog is to first make sure you have some useful content for your readers. If you use wordpress or any of the main blogging applications then there is a method to set up your blog to ping the blog services every time you post. Social Bookmarking also works fairly well. Sign up for StumbleUpon( this one works best for me) and the other social bookmarking services. Traffic will start coming in almost immediately if you do these two things. There are other items you cna do like create a google sitemap and submitting it to Google as well as what the others suggested about posting relevant comments on forums and other similar blogs.

hth
Bruce

[drgrudge]

Did you look at this page:
How to Attract Links and Increase Web Traffic – The Ultimate Guide | Copyblogger

That page has links to resources that you can use to increase your Traffic.

[Gazzali]

Originally Posted by tommy

I just started my first blog and admitted blog neophyte. How does one drive traffic to a blog...how do people even search for specific topical related blogs. In my case it's a blog for sales professionals.

I'm not looking to make money off of it...I just want to see of anyone cares what I have to say.

Advise is appreciated.

Thanks.

Hi Tommy

Nice to know that you are blogging too. I have written something in that respect here at Beneficial Learning for Outstanding Generation

Take a look
gazzali

[Shaden]

Just use your blog as a means of expression. Does the artist worry about how to make a painting that will sell well and draw attention to themselves? No they don't. Instead they create a personal work of art, that is an expression of their internal selfs. If they make a small amount on the side then that's fine and dandy. If they don't get noticed they embrace the fact that they can express themselves freely and without constraint and chase another project.

You need to treat your blogging like this. Keep writing until you have your breakthrough. But never choose systematic manipulation of your expression (SEO) over the meaning of your writing. Just write and be happy and celebrate your small victories. Eventually the ball will start rolling. But if you've abandoned your true self just to make your blog profitable, you're not going to enjoy it as much if you intended from the beginning to pursue expression with integrity.

[John Wesley]

Most of the stuff people have said is good. You are already doing something right by posting to this forum. I get a bunch of visitors from these forums, and they are high quality i.e. tend to look at a lot of pages. Makes sense since my blog is related to PD.

Try using StumbleUpon. Submit your sites with a good review, ask a few friends to vote, but also submit other pages and stumlbe a lot, ranking other pages. This increases your audience -- the number of people who are shown pages you like.

[Damon]

Personally, I would recommend getting your own web domain name. If I come across a blog and it's "xxx.wordpress.com or xxx.blogspot.com" or any other blogging platform, I usually leave after a second. It may be a great blog for me to read, but if the author doesn't take the time to get there own domain name, it's hard for me to take it seriously.

Anyone and everyone seems to have a "xxx.wordpress.com or xxx.blogspot.com" blog, and I find most of it is useless. Please don't get me wrong, there are one or two blogs like that, that I read regularly. But if you do take that route, I wish you the best.

[Vahid]

Originally Posted by tommy

my blog is

The Secret to Breakthrough Sales Performance
http://sales4life.wordpress.com

You have not updated your blog since November 8th, 2006. How do you expect to have any traffic???

Blogs are different from ordinary Web 1.0 sites. A blog is alive only if you update it with fresh content everyday or at least three times per week otherwise it is dead.

[AndrewJ]

Mke sure you have a subscription form to notify readers of new posts by email aswell as rss. You can get a free one at feedblitz.com

Andrew

[kyokushin]

I have the same problem. My blog is a rather personal blog where I post about my life, foreign language studies, my filmmaking philosophy, life, etc. There is no focus, it's more like a personal journal or diary. So I'm not exactly sure if or what kind of value I provide to people out there.

Nevertheless, I'll keep up my blogging activities. Just like Shaden said, blogging for me is a means of self expression. When I shoot films I regard myself as an artist, I want to be able to say the same thing about blogging.

[brooksr]

Where/how do I hook up feedburner into Wordpress? What is the name of the php page?

Thanks,

Brooks

Originally Posted by Mike

Also sign up with technorati and feedburner. Most blogs fade away after 6 months, so persistence is the key.

Trade links and leave comments on related blogs.

[brooksr]

Ok, I figured this out. Downloaded and installed a plugin from Steve Smith and activated it and set the options.

Question: How do I get those little XML and other RSS icons to appear on my website? I'm using Sidebar Widgets and have RSS chosen for the sidebar but nothing shows.

Thanks,

Brooks

Originally Posted by brooksr

Where/how do I hook up feedburner into Wordpress? What is the name of the php page?

Thanks,

Brooks

[mramru]

Remember to post at least once a day.

Life and business philosophy, personal development, self improvement, live an extraordinary life, living a good life, work harder on your self rather than on your job, simple discipline practiced every day. Share experiences here, valuable information for you.

Maybe we can share links : <here>

"You can be a a total winner, even if you a beginner. If you think you can, you can, but if you think you can't, you can't. " (Denis Waitley)

[Addict]

how do people even search for specific topical related blogs. In my case it's a blog for sales professionals.

What you might want to think about instead is "what kind of content is a reader going to be looking for." I would assume most people don't set out to find a blog. Think about how many people found stevepavlina.com because they were looking specifically for a good personal development site. I think it's much more likely that they were searching for a specific topic, maybe polyphasic sleep, maybe productivity.

Apply the same thinking to your own blog. What will your potential readers have problems with. What will they need advice on or be interested in? This is a good way both to come up with good keywords and to come up with post ideas as well.