Drive Traffic to Your Blog

Perhaps “blogging” isn’t such a graceful word. For me, personally, it sounds like a worded drudgery the way cereals can be soggy, skies can be foggy, and the way minds can be groggy. But for now, it’s too late to rename this shortened word for web-logging. Widespread blogging is nevertheless one of the most engaging Internet developments of the past few years. As a medium it gives rise to many new and worthy voices and plays a new and vital force in shaping opinions, political realities, trends, and even our language.

I believe that a blog is simply a tool to use for someone who’s got something to say. Let me be clear in saying that a blog is a poor choice for someone who needs a megaphone to scream out to cyberspace in order to elicit a meaningful response from Internet users. If you want attention and want it now and expect blogging to bring it to you, then this will surely be a disappointment. However, if you like to write and engage others on subjects of which you have some command or experience, then it’s a wonderful application with which you can interact with people who share similar interests as you. The hype is well founded.

Anyway, here’s a list of blogging tips…

1.) Be topical.
Cohesiveness in message is not optional. Readers may or may not be interested in your topic, but if your message is haphazard that few will bother remembering to return to your blog because it essentially would offer nothing to remember. This doesn’t mean blogs can’t jump from subject to subject. For instance, a blog with a humorous focus has all the leeway in the world for subject matter, but it would be foolish for such a blog to turn the humor on and off. In such an example, the aspect of humor would be content’s glue, the strength of the blog. The beauty of staying on point and on topic is that eventually, due to the nature of the Internet, you will find those interested solely in your topic. (as opposed to online diaries. There are millions of them on the internet, few have any readers. Email me with examples if I’m wrong and I’ll be able to show you why you’re showing me a blog and not a diary.)

2.) Refresh your content
Create a schedule and stick to it. Realizing that blogging requires time and effort, don't create unrealistic expectations and be unable to deliver. An occasional lapse or holiday is generally understood but readers returning to find stale, out-dated content are going to find another blog with similar content. New blogs and RSS feeds are popping up on a daily basis. If you have worked hard to develop an audience and a community you don't want to lose them due to lack of communication. And remember, what’s old is not new and, for blogs, thusly not interesting. 2006 isn’t the time to rail against Enron or Vanilla Ice. Insight doesn’t matter much to yesterday’s news.

3.) Clear Language Counts.
Blessed is the blog with a clear line of logic. Write without inside jokes, clique-y catchphrases or ambiguous logic. First time readers need to be close to your message. They are more likely to return to blogs that strike them positively. If the first read is confusing there will not be a second read.

4.) Feed the Spiders.
Search engines take notice of active blogs and blog search engines are especially sensitive to activity. If nothing else, search engines are smarter today than they were yesterday and are only getting smarter. In constantly improving they are seeking to aggregate quality; quality blogs are updated several times a week, if not daily, as opposed to once or twice a month. I don’t mean to scare you but a big spider is watching, so dance for them.

5.) RSS.
Think of RSS like a magic to blogging world, because that’s the effect it’s had. RSS feeds are a way to exponentially sound your voice to the interested. These feeds are a great means to increase the distribution and readership of your original content.

6.) Spell check.
Hey man, use the spell-check. I do – if I didn’t you probably wouldn’t have made it to #6. It only takes a minute and can save you from looking like a hack.

Your weblog audiences will be small at first. And, frankly, that’s the way it should be. Who are you to think that half the internet will flock to you after three or four posts of your blog, anyway?

If you tough it out while maintaining quality, readership will materialize. You will link to good, relevant blogs and, in turn, they will to you. While your voice may be unique, your niche likely isn’t and if your content is emitted smartly to the Internet those relevant readers will respond through readership and interaction. That I guarantee.

Source: http://www.site-reference.com...

Did you know that you can considerably increase the number of visitors that come to your site on a daily basis from Google?

And it's not continually improving your position in Google search engine result pages(SERPs) for your competitive keywords which can take some time after working on your search engine marketing campaigns.

I take this example from Google because I've experienced it some time back now. Apart concentrating on getting and maintaining a top 10 ranking in Google, there are lots of easy traffic sources that you haven't exploited up till now.

We are still talking about search engine traffic here. What's that approach you ask? The answer might surprise you but it's a technique that works and is pretty legal. It's not creating stand alone or doorway pages with practically no content, excessively optimized with keywords and a link back to the homepage. Doorway pages work but only if you know how to do it well. And this article will talk a bit about this topic as well.

The strategy is to search for ignored keyword phrases which are not too competitive and create effective doorway pages related to these keyword phrases. These pages can be promoting a product for instance. Imagine you come up with several keyword phrases that generate a few monthly searches, you now have several pages.

So each page targeting a specific keyword phrase is worth traffic and not any type of traffic but it will be targeted. So if you have one page which brings you only 1 visitor per day and you have 50 pages, you can easily receive 50 visitors per day for free. You see the potential now.

Keywords that have about 1000 searches on Yahoo! Search Marketing Solutions previously known as Overture valuable keywords with lower competition.

If you are using wordtracker , a keyword with only 10 searches per day can get you a good ranking and bring you traffic.

If you have already a website which is generating traffic, you can dramatically increase your numbers, simply by adding relevant doorway pages targeting a specific keyword.

These pages have content and have your optimized navigation menu on it with their specific keyword phrases. These pages are just an entry to your site nothing more nothing less. They should not be excessively optimized with keywords but they must have some optimized content which is readable by your visitors and friendly for the search engines as well.

If you have a good website which is crawled by Google's robot called "Googlebot" often, your new pages will get spidered and indexed fast and will start bringing you small loads of targeted traffic.

But be careful when adding pages, don't go in a frenzy with this and add hundreds or even thousands of pages all of a sudden.

For eg if your site has 50 pages already indexed in Google and ranking well and you add 100 new pages at once, your indexed pages might suffer a temporary drop in rankings.

The key here is to add pages on a regular basis say 1 or 2 pages daily until you reach the total number of pages to be added. Why not take advantage of on this free source of traffic?

The key is to research your keywords well first, work on your content and create these pages afterwards. Your website will grow bigger and bigger with time and it will attract loads of targeted traffic from multiple keyword phrases.

Good luck and happy research and optimizing.

There are literally thousands of blogs by eBusiness insiders. This has changed the landscape of guerrilla marketing. At first it was seen as just something cool to do ... but blogs are now being used to build personal and corporate credibility that will eventually attract customers (they hope!).

Blogs are a goldmine of formerly hard to get insight from CEO's, marketing guru's and others who never used to have a public forum. These business leaders are utilizing the internet to convey their personal thoughts on happenings in their industry and life. They are blogging for the same reasons they do public speaking, to build credibility for themselves and their company's. Blogging has become a new … less time consuming and less expensive way to reach potential and current customers.

Big Blog Company associate Jackie Danicki comments in The Times (London) on CEO blogs, "You basically have a lot of CEOs who are sitting there and writing about what they know. Also adding personal things in, talking off-topic, about their holidays. ...It gets readers to feel an affinity."

Danicki continues, "Executives start blogging for a number of reasons, They want to raise their personal profile. They want to reach out to customers and members of their own staff without going through official channels and PR departments. They want to be seen as a forward thinking company up to date with the latest trend."

The effect is powerful viral marketing with blogs linking to other blogs. "The real value is things that you don't expect," says Danicki. "I know from our perspective, the amount of people we've ended up talking to and doing business with just simply thanks to our blog is amazing. Producers in Hollywood. People from publishing companies in the States. People who in another time without this network we would never have made contact with."

So, what kind of information is in these blogs? I remember reading Jupitermedia CEO Alan Meckler's blog where he warns "all trade show operators about the perils of working with the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas". Real time concerns by big time CEO's, now that's what the internet was invented for!

Then there is Jonathan's Blog. Sounds innocuous doesn't it? Well, Jonathan is none other than President and Chief Operating Officer of Sun Microsystems. Sure, he has a pony tail, but at least he isn't wearing pajamas. Jonathan is usually pointed and philisophical in his frequent blog posts as in this recent excerpt, "Please do not listen to the bizarro numbskull anti-Sun conspiracy theorists. They were lunatics then, they are lunatics now, they will always be lunatics. We love the open source community, we spawned from it."

Billionairs have blogs too. Dot com billionair Mark Cuban who is starring in "The Benefactor" reality show has been blogging since March. In one post he dumps on Trump, "I don't think its dawned on you just how hard Mark Burnett threw you under the bus. … Nice job on Leno last night Donald. At least you admitted that you hadn't seen The Benefactor. But saying that it will fail. That's a little much Donald, even from you."

The CEO of Tucows, a big domain seller, blogs us with his insider insights that future domain sales will be done via auctions. Elliot Noss states, "The market for expired names is changing. The old one (framework) wasn't working. Not for everyday registrants and that is who we should all be thinking about. Not for Verisign and not for ICANN. Those who say that either of them like the status quo really do not have a clue."

Robin Hopper, CEO & Founder of iUpload, talks about how major consumer marketing efforts are starting to utilize blogs. "Coke's online brand manager Mark Dooley reveals they've been keeping a close watch on consumer generated marketing including blogs and that they plan a social networking-oriented marketing effort soon. Bottom line, consumer generated marketing is going to be a must have tactic in your arsenal…"

The Jason Calacanis Weblog shows how blogs often reflect where one has traveled to. Jason is currently the Chairman of The Weblogs, Inc. and has previously started and sold several dot com ventures. In this post Jason is at the Gnomedex conference (on blogging) in California ...

"Speaking at Gnomedex right now.. I'm blogging this from the stage of Gnomedex."

Well, its not always biting commentary, but it is fun … and in the end it's marketing. Possibly, the most powerful type of corporate marketing per dollar spent ever invented. 

Source: http://www.webpronews.com/ins...

Isn't it frustrating? All you need is a new computer desk (or whatever you may be currently shopping for), but you can't make a decision you're comfortable with. It shouldn't be this hard, should it? What's holding you back? Probably lack of information.

Here's something every web site owner should know. When visitors come to your site, they are looking for a reason to buy from you. Think that's stating the obvious? You'd be surprised! I come across countless sites every day that do everything but give the visitor a reason to buy, subscribe, click, call or otherwise take action. It's a fatal mistake in any business, but it's especially damaging for web-based companies.

Let's continue with our example of buying a computer desk. You start with the Big 3 office-supply stores. You click the "office furniture" link, and you're faced with a barrage of links to pages about lamps, printer stands, bookshelves and more. Then you get to the desks. Computer desks, desk collections, metal desks, workstations… geez! There are lots of links, but no information. Finally, after trudging through pages of links, you find some actual copy that describes a desk you think you might want.

You look over the features. You write down the price. You gather the shipping or delivery information. Great! Now, on to the next site.

When you arrive, everything looks almost the same except the logo. Same navigation, same links, same inventory, same prices. The shipping amount is the same, and the delivery policy is identical to the one on the site you just came from. As you click from site to site, it's like déjà vu. How are you supposed to make a decision to buy when all your options are equal? What will be the determining factor between site A and site B?

If you're feeling frustrated just reading this scenario, imagine how your site visitors feel. When they come to your site, they are looking for a clear reason to buy from you instead of all the other sites. Do you give them a reason? Do you give them several reasons?

If all factors are equal -- even if all factors are similar -- your visitors will find it difficult to make a decision. When they start guessing which site would be best to buy from, you start losing business. Maybe they'll choose you, maybe they won't. There is a way to ensure you are chosen over your competition. You have to clearly point out how you are different or better than every other option available.

MarketingExperiments.com recently published their findings in regards to differentiating your company from others. They reported that when asked what their most unique aspect was, most companies answered, "Our great customer service." I have bad news for you. That won't cut it. Why? Because, in most cases, when customers are visiting sites to gather information and make purchasing decisions, they won't come in contact with your customer service department. It would be a non-issue until something went wrong.

Also, since most businesses are claiming excellent customer service, it's an overused promise that has begun to carry less and less weight. You need something solid. You need something that is persuasive. If I were standing in front of you and told you that I was considering buying my desk from you or from Vendor Z, what would you say to convince me to buy from you? Here are some things to consider when trying to differentiate yourself from other businesses:

Offer free shipping (on all orders or on orders over a certain amount).

Increase your inventory.

Decrease your inventory and carry only specialty items.

Lower your prices.

Raise your prices (works well for premium goods & services).

Increase your area of expertise (for service-based businesses).

Specialize or narrow your niche.

Achieve ratings or rankings from well-known associations or organizations.

Apply for a patent.

Win awards.

Offer a customer-loyalty program.

Conduct an online survey of your visitors to ask what they want. (SurveyMonkey.com is great for this.)

Look back over your complaints and other feedback for ideas about how to set yourself apart. * Email existing customers (if you have their permission to do so) and ask them why they chose you.

Whatever you do, don't stay in a position where you are exactly the same as (or highly similar to) your competition. The chances are far too great that you'll get lost in the crowd.

Source: http://www.searchengineguide....

You've got your blog set up and you've started posting pithy, useful information that your niche market would benefit from and enjoy. Days go by, you keep publishing, but no one comments and your traffic stats are barely registering. What do you do?

Like any website you own, you must do some blog promotion to start driving traffic to your site. Here are 16 steps, in no particular order of importance, that you can start doing now to get traffic moving to your blog.

1. Set up a Bloglet subscription form on your blog and invite everyone in your network to subscribe: family, friends, colleagues, clients, associates. http://www.bloglet.com/

2. Set up a feed on MyYahoo.com so your site gets regularly spidered by the Yahoo search engine (see tutorial on http://www.biztipsblog.com) http://www.my.yahoo.com

3. Read and comment on other blogs that are in your target niche. Don't write things like "nice blog" or "great post." Write intelligent, useful comments with a link to your blog.

4. Use Ping-0-matic to ping blog directories. Do this every time you publish. http://www.pingomatic.com

5. Submit your blog to traditional search engines: http://www.submitfire.com

6. Submit your blog to blog directories. The most comprehensive list of directories is on this site: http://www.masternewmedia.org... Tip: Create a form to track your submissions; this can take several hours when you first start so schedule an hour a day for submitting or hire a VA to do it for you.

7. Add a link to your blog in your email signature file.

8. Put a link to your blog on every page of your website.

9. If you publish a newsletter, make sure you have a link to your blog in every issue.

10. Include a link to your blog as a standard part of all outgoing correspondence such as autoresponder sequences, sales letters, reports, white papers, etc.

11. Print your blog URL on your business cards, brochures and flyers.

12. Make sure you have an RSS feed URL that people can subscribe to. The acronym RSS means Rich Site Summary, or some may consider its meaning as Really Simple Syndication. It is a document type that lists updates of websites or blogs available for syndication. These RSS documents (also known as 'feeds') may be read using aggregators (news readers). RSS feeds may show headlines only or both headlines and summaries. To learn how news aggregators/RSS readers work, see this site: http://www.rss-specifications...

13. Post often to keep attracting your subscribers to come back and refer you to others in their networks; include links to other blogs, articles and websites in your posts

14. Use Trackback links when you quote or refer to other blog posts. What is TrackBack? Essentially what this does is send a message from one server to another server letting it know you have posted a reference to their post. The beauty is that a link to your blog is now included on their site.

15. Write articles to post around the web in article directories. Include a link to your blog in the author info box (See example in our signature below).

16. Make a commitment to blog everyday. 10 minutes a day can help increase your traffic as new content attracts search engine spiders. Put it on your calendar as a task every day at the same time. Tip: Use a hit counter to track your visitor stats: how many unique visitors, how many page views, average length of visit. You can get a free hit counter at http://www.sitemeter.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/