The days of easy Google traffic are over and I hear the complaints all the time.
How can I attract more traffic? Will Google ever notice my blog posts?
Well the answer is YES, you can attract great traffic and yes Google WILL notice.
Well…sort of. Someday.
In this post I’d like to address a couple problems holding you back from getting more traffic.
I’ll help you look at blog traffic in a different light.
As usual, feel free to comment.
Traffic terms
Here are some useful terms before we get going.
- Traffic = Online visitors to your site
- Returning traffic = People who come back to your site 2 or more times
- Target audience = People who will take action on your messages
- Online graveyard = Where thousands of traffic-less blogs end up every day 🙁
Ok, “online graveyard” is one I made up 😉
To find the solution to a lack of blog traffic I’d like to look at two problems I commonly see. These problems prevent bloggers from attracting returning traffic and building it into a target audience. That’s something you need after a bit of time. You need people to take action.
Problem 1: We only look at the numbers
I feel like a lot is wrong with the whole “gimme more traffic” world nowadays.
The first problem is we see traffic as just a number.
75,000 pageviews a month, 60% returning visitors, 140 entrances, etc.
It’s a number we all obviously want to increase and if you run a huge blog your traffic number probably looks great. Go ahead, brag about it.
But as a new blogger your traffic number can be really depressing. It’s growing, and needs time.
It’s risky to focus on this number too much. Why? Because you may start to compare it to what you think it should be. You’ll probably feel it’s not enough.
And if you feel like it’s not enough, your blogging will suffer.
You’ll get desperate to create more content and will stop enjoy the little gains in your work. You might even decide to stop blogging.
So what’s the solution?
I’m no Seth Godin traffic expert, but I think I have something that could save you from the traffic blues.
Try viewing your traffic as a actual person, or group of people. That’s all traffic is afterall, right?
It’s sort of like the old “glass half empty or half full” adage. You’ve got to look at your traffic count as half-full of awesome readers who you get to interact with.
It’s awesome if anyone reads your blog. Even just…6 people a day.
If you take these 6 people for granted they’ll probably vanish. But if you take them seriously they’ll probably turn into 6 more.
Here’s what you can do:
- Respond to every single comment at your blog and on guest posts
- Thank people for tweets and retweets
- Be available to answer questions over email
By giving your entire attention to just a few readers you will secure them as fans. Then, they’ll be more likely to recruit others.
They’ll comment, and people will notice. They’ll share your work to a couple hundred others!!
It’s all about starting small and appreciating the small gains.
One loyal reader who shares your blog is worth more than 1000 one-off visits in your @googleanalytics stats #blog #traffic #progress
— Greg Narayan (@gregnarayan) January 16, 2013
Problem 2: Not enough self-promotion (80/20 rule)
This next problem comes with a fancy rule, a proven one.
The second problem I see among blogs is a lack of self-promotion.
Bloggers assume that just by pumping out content either a lot of people or Google or maybe both will notice them.
Trust me, people won’t notice. Google won’t either, unless you can get a lot of actually people to notice first.
The result is often just a lot of under-appreciated blog posts 🙁
Sound like your blog at all?
The DearBlogger launch
When I launched DearBlogger I had three posts up. The first was a basic Welcome Post. It served it’s purpose to explain the site and that’s about it. The other two posts were equally as basic. They were helpful though and conveyed my mission to be a blogging answers community.
You know where all my other posts were? They were all over the darn web. I used them to drive a mammoth amount of traffic towards my blog, all in about two weeks.
I did important Google things, like building backlinks and earning some social stats.
It was sort of a gamble; I had to hope when people arrived they liked my three standing posts. But it paid off.
And it’s paying off as I write this.
So, what’s your strategy?
How much time do you spend building content on your blog? 50% of your time?
Any more would be crazy!
You should spend at least 80% (4/5s) of your efforts as a new blogger away from your blog. This is of course assuming things like design are working well enough at your blog.
Assuming they are, you’ve got to get out there.
More marketing off your blog + less content on your blog =
- More comments per post
- More klout
- More authority (at least a perception of it)
- More excitement for your next post!
I’m not the only one blabbering like this either. Check out Derek Halpern’s post on Why Blogs Fail.
And of course I’ll note that my bounce rate eBook has tips on scaling blog growth too. Like turning 100 visitors into 10,000 visitors kind of growth.
The web's a big place. If 100 people like what you're doing, why wouldn't 10,000? #blogtraffic #newpost
— Greg Narayan (@gregnarayan) January 22, 2013
List of traffic generation strategies
I figured now would be the time for an living list of traffic generation strategies. By “living” I mean I’d like you to add to it in the comments.
Guest posting is my favorite so it’s first, but the rest are in no particular order.
- Guest post on major blogs:
Big traffic hubs exist in any niche in the form of established blogs. The concept is simple: write guest posts for them and meet a new audience. Making your guest posts really stand out nowadays is the tricky part. Put the time in though, this one is well worth it if you want more traffic. - Encourage shares at your blog:
I like asking readers for a bit help here and there. By encouraging readers to share your work you’ll create more social proof and find more like-minded readers too. - Build your Google+:
With Google Authorship looming, a stronger G+ profile will most-likely rank you higher in Search. Read my guide to Google+ for more. - Twitter mining:
Twitter will always be a good source of blog traffic but not everyone does it right. First you should make your bio awesome, and brief. Then, go find like-minded tweeters. Engage them or offer a retweet. I’ve actually met a lot of long-term blog readers directly on Twitter. - Organic traffic from Google:
Yes, the holy grail of blogging. Organic traffic from Google will keep your business going and at some point, you’ll fail without it. I recommend using Keyword Tool by Google to create posts with “Google Titles” (aka permalinks) that are heavily searched. This naturally helps posts rank based on trend frequency. Even if your posts don’t hit the Google top 10, they’ll get clicks lurking in the 20s and even 30s. Google is a big place, ya know. - Write a niche-narrow eBook:
Writing an eBook positions you as an expert. Being an expert is a crucial step to getting returning traffic, and people can willingly share your eBook to new readers. - Create video content on YouTube
My recent focus has been building pillar content on YouTube. The kind of evergreen videos like this someone will always want to watch. Getting on YouTube opens the floodgates to a whole new audience and is a great way to diversify your online promotional efforts. - Do a live demo
Know anyone that owns a bar, restaurant, or a bit of open presentation space? Post an invite to your Facebook friends, create a PowerPoint, and set up a live demo of how to blog. You’d be surprised how many will turn out and the word of mouth that results will be phenomenal! - Mention other bloggers
Even as a small blogger, you can link back to other websites you admire. If they notice and like your work, they’ll probably throw you a link too. This kind of cross promotion is what blogging is all about! - Build another website
Have some spare time and a diverse set of interests? Create a new website and leverage the strength of your existing one alongside of it. When Dear Blogger was brand new I linked to it from my other blogs and the result was much quicker traffic growth. - Post blog timely comments
In my earlier days of guest posting some comments from ProBlogger were the largest source of traffic at Dear Blogger. Get comments in early, at the top of a list, and make them sassy. People will click the name to see who done said that! - Write for article directories
Writing for sites like Ezine, Squidoo, and GoArticles can boost your traffic stats. These sites let you build your writing portfolio and offer a couple links back to your blog. The top authors per niche get LOTS of attention and probably get offered paid blogging opportunities too. - Email a celebrity about a blog partnership:
I even emailed Seth Godin at one point asking for a blog partnership. I’m going to save that topic/email for another post though. This was a crazy-creative-moment that I think we bloggers can learn a lot from. - Engage in live blog hangouts:
Facebook hangouts, Google, or even getting people together at the local mall’s food court to talk blogging. Just giving people some real “face time” will generate more recommendations towards your blog and more positive vibes for everyone, and remember, real people = real traffic.
So what do you think? If I missed your favorite traffic gen strategy just drop a comment and let us know. Again, think “avoid online graveyard” people.
How to fail at getting traffic
I thought we’d end with some traffic-gen strategies you should avoid.
-
- a. Begging for links: You’ll lose a lot of respect
-
- b. Twitter mass following: You end up following nonsense robo-accounts
-
- c. Facebook spam: Usually irrelevant
-
- d. Comment spam: Totally pointless (thank god for Akismet)
-
- e. Forum spam: Will get you swiftly banned
- f. Content over-stuffing: Mass producing articles won’t magically bring the traffic
If you’ve tried any of these don’t worry, I probably have too. But realize that these activities may actually harm your image and send people away from your site.
Healthy traffic: Where will it get you?
Increasing traffic levels will open doors for you as a blogger or online entrepreneur. You can do virtually anything with it.
You can do a couple things straight away to get more traffic:
- Set up your Google Analytics profile and see how your website is currently doing.
- If your bounce rate in Analytics is too high (over 20% is high) grab your free copy of my bounce rate eBook.
More traffic comes from small adjustments today, that pay off the next time Google hits the Search “refresh button”. It’s a moment we bloggers and SEOs look forward to 🙂
I’d really love to hear how you work to find more traffic. Grey-hat, white-hat, red-hat, whatever. I think if we bounce off some ideas here we may actually develop a new traffic gen strategy or two.
Post a quick comment and help us avoid the ol’ blog graveyard.
Bravo, well written post. Packed with solid information that really does help. I love the idea of remembering that those numbers are actual people looking for help in your given niche. We too have gone looking for information and appreciated when someone wrote a great article to answer our questions. Make others a priority and the rest will follow….
Great tips. Thanks for the ideas! Hope your day is blessed.
Thanks Greg!
I was really looking for tips to increase traffic to my website. I think this article will help me a lot
https://keralatourpackagesguide.com/kerala-honeymoon-packages/
Wow! This is the best article I have read today. I started enjoying it from the beginning that I took my time to read everything. You are a very talented writer Greg. Keep posting contents like this. AI believe you are helping a lot of people.
I love the tips, sadly many of those flaws and terrible methods of generating traffic are things that I have tried. I never really have taken blogging very seriously, but i do enjoy it. As of late I have been interested in improving, and maybe actually taking it somewhat seriously, thus how I ended up here. I am glad that people, like you, who have found success are willing to share your knowledge. It helps clueless amateurs like me not embarrass themselves to badly.
Dear Cort,
I hear ya, and like you hinted at you’re not alone here. Sometimes a method doesn’t work until we try it that one more 100th or 101st time, then it pays off in spades. Guest posting is one example. This one will never go out of style, but you’ll need 4-5 good ones these days.
Your domain looks intriguing 🙂 Yes we can share endless knowledge here. It’s fun to be embarrassed, then you can write about it and other’s may find it relevant! Like that one time I emailed Seth Godin asking for a backlink or when I published relationship advice to try and make it big blogging.
Keep us posted on how you progress goes!
Greg
Great read, I’ve only managed to get 10 readers my first day of blogging (today being my second day)
Double digits! 🙂 That’s an accomplishment!
How do you mean I’m holding out, Chance. This content is not aimed always to readers I assume at your high level. Buy NBA 2K MT
What do you want to know and I’ll try and help.
Superb Post!
All the reasons are 100% true. When a new blogger fails to get traffic on their blog, there is always one of the reason behind his/her failure. This is very helpful for all the new comers.
Thanks.
Greg, truth is that it is not easy to answer all comments in a blog especially when the answer isn’t known. All the same, your article was helpful. I just have to answer since it will help bring lots of engagements and visitors on the long run
Hi Greg,
Very informative post. Could you let me know if this blog cadgist.blogspot.cpm will ever get enough traffic? Or is it because it is a free blog.
Regards
Tajudeen
Really informative, thank you.
I’m the latest one to start blogging just check out my new site and suggest me few ideas! It will be really helpful if you do so!
Hi
nice and wonderful post, full with clarity. am a new blogger, your ideas has inspired me more. i will straight away bookmark your site.
here is my new site and http://www.divineonlineimport.blogspot.com
thanks.
This post is straight to the point and I love it. Thank you.
Great post !
All the reasons are hundred percent true. When a new blogger fails to get traffic on their blog, there is always one of the reason behind his/her failure. This is very helpful for all the new comers.
Thanks.
Great post & well explained. Really i appreciate.Keep on posting.
Hi Greg!!!
With my blog a little over a month old, you can imagine how useful this blog post is to me. I had read it few days back, but had left without commenting. Self-promotion was the key tip for me. Previously I was under the impression that only adding content was sufficient for any blog. But being more active productively on social media did help me get my 10k views within the first month was huge for me. Though it might sound like a dismal number, but it means a great deal to me…
Pinjaman uang
Thanks for the ideas. Buy I want to ask? can I set up an editorial team to publish massively to my blog? Will publishing massive yet original and data driven contents impair my blog; like publishing 100 articles in 30 to 60 days?
Hi man,
Recently, I called my.own fitness blog http://www.gymperformance.ch into life.
I appreciate such articles and I will definitely use some of these tevhniques to promote my page.
Best,
Martin
Is google Panda Update affect my Traffic???
hi Greg,
that’s the key
we see traffic as just a number
and finally we will get tired of writing content for our blog
thanks for sharing
Hi Greg,
Beautiful piece! thank you! im about to Set up my Blog, but stuck at choosing a name for it!! 🙂
Greetings from Namibia 🙂
Nice Post… It is really helpful to those who want to get more traffic to their Blog.
hmm really great, i am completely agree with you.Follow this instuctions and increasing traffic.
Awesome post. Point no .9 mention other bloggers never came to my mind. Its an amazing idea. I am new blogger; should I make an ebook now or wait till I have good amount of readers
A nice post to think upon!
This is a nice blog but I have one query regarding the traffice to Shopping site. As I can see ton on page who prefer blog will make awaysome traffic to site but no one is saying without blog you will get traffice to your shopping site for new/returning customer.
Any commnet or tips will help as my site don’t have blog but it works for deals, offers and free coupons shopping site for more than 500+ brands and 100+ affliates.
Thanks in advance.
I found that this post is very useful, especially for me as a beginner. Thank you Greg..
Hey Greg,
This post has provided me with some valuable and relevant information as a new blogger. I can definitely relate to this as I was constantly checking my stats when I first launched my blog.
Hi Greg!!!
With my blog a little over a month old, you can imagine how useful this blog post is to me. I had read it few days back, but had left without commenting. Self-promotion was the key tip for me. Previously I was under the impression that only adding content was sufficient for any blog. But being more active productively on social media did help me get my 10k views within the first month was huge for me. Though it might sound like a dismal number, but it means a great deal to me…
Thanks for sharing such valuable tips which are extremely useful..
Hi grey
i completely agree with you
self promotions are much needed to get healthy traffic.
thanks for sharing …
Hey Greg! This has been super useful thank you. My boyfriend and I are just at the very beginning of our blogging journey and really want to do the right things to get our content out there! We hope that we can be super helpful to current and potential travellers by sharing our experiences, both positive and negative:)
We are definitely going to spend more time building up our relationship with other bloggers, as I agree that this is a good way to increase traffic and get some much needed support from others who understand where we are on our journey and where we want to be.
thanks for everything Greg I will stay tuned for more advice:)
Reading this article made me a little bit to understand and do not want to fail again in search for blog traffic, everyone can learn from failure to success, thanks for the great tips.
Hey Greg,
Wondering if you could help me with initial set up of WordPress.org.
I downloaded the wordpress.org package on my MAC, opened it, and now have no idea what to do with it. The “Famous 5-minute Installation” on WordPress.org speaks a language I don’t understand. What is MySQL? Do I need to host on HostGator? I just need this outlined for me in layman’s terms pls! 🙂
Dear Deanna,
Don’t worry about MySQL. Hosting on Hostgator is a good idea. Visit my channel on YouTube (narayguy) for the full scoop!
— Greg
i think i find the hidden secret to increase traffic to my blog. Thanks for share details article.
i hope you found it here…
other wise tell us! 😀
Thank you for this post, Greg. I am beginning a new blog and while a lot of this information will benefit me later, it has all been very helpful for me to design my plan of attack. In particular, your advice on 80% promotion struck me, surprised me, and then inspired me.
I’m thinking of starting on WordPress.com before gaining some funds for .org. But I also see a lot of benefits to using Google+ as well and I wonder, do you have a preference?
To elaborate a bit on my blog’s purpose: It’s a self help and reference blog, using a combination of the personal experiences of various people, specific psychological theory, and various written resource works to examine pick up and hook up culture.
Anyway, that’s just to give you an idea of what may be better. Please keep writing these wonderful posts!
happy to inspire ya, Libby. you should definitely join G+ yesterday and start meeting people in that niche while adding to their content. i don’t think G+ alone is enough though even though G+ posts rank in Google like an article would.
wordpress.com is fun, just be careful paying for addons. i hate that approach – it’s like wading into the freezing deep end instead of jumping – and you pay more in the long run.
did you know wordpress.org can cost as little as $4 per month? not to nudge you but i have a coupon worth 40% off hosting you can use but it’s gone mid February…if you were planning on starting soon.
maybe that’s TMI but let me know what you cook up, would love to read! — Greg
Now you’ve got me haha! I spent all of last night working on planning for my blog’s design, navigation, launch date, and how I’ll be managing my posts both on the site and as guest articles elsewhere. A large part of that time was spent reading your many advice columns, so again thank you!
After reviewing .com and .org myself, I definitely agree with you that, at this point, it’s simply far more worth it to work on .org. And I would love to use that coupon if you’re willing to provide. I’m sure you get a commission off of it, and I’m certainly glad to support your great work.
And yes I am starting soon. I actually plan to launch within a week, with at least 2 weeks backlog and plenty of time to work on design while taking a cue from your advice about using premium themes!
haha, love it! remembering those fun planning stages now…sigh
coupon code: dearblogger2015
it’s a 40% off HostGator coupon code and you’re absolutely right, i do stand to earn a commission – thanks!
premium themes can totally save you!! but there are good free themes too, the most robust IMHO being Vantage and Virtue. have a friend who doesn’t know about blogs/websites give it a look over before you launch.
as you can tell i love talking about this stuff 🙂
🙂 I can definitely tell at this point haha!
Thank you for the code and the heads up about the themes! I’ll definitely take your advice with having a friend look over them. Personally, I find myself gravitating toward Virtue. The design of having articles on the front page represented as pictures with titles that you click on and get taken to the page appeals to me. Especially because I think the look and feel will respond to my readership (i have about 78 people eager to read my work at launch).
But I think I might be missing something. Looking between the two, Vantage seems to be boasting more customization, and I’m not sure if Virtue is optimized for blogs that involve as much text. It appears to be primarily for other more visual media, while Vantage seems to have that functionality as an addition (widgets).
Functionally, do you have an opinion on which offers more in terms of malleability?
I realize the fact that they’re free probably makes this speculation unnecessary, but like you said: I’m entrenched in the planning days, and my heart is pounding as launch day draws near!
I am thinking of starting a similar blog… What is your blog’s name?
Am trying to open a photography blog and am wondering which site is better for me. Thanks Greg I will keep all your advices in check.
good luck! i’d go wordpress.org (or mayyybe tumblr) and look up best themes for photographers
Thanks for the time and trouble you’ve taken to write this. I’m particularly interested in what you say about promotion vs content.
Great read, I’ve only managed to get 10 readers my first day of blogging (today being my second day). So I’m hoping these tips REALLY work, especially the 80/20 rule, hence I’ve been doing it the OTHER way around!
One thing you wrote really struck me, it’s about spending too much time on creating new content everyday. That’s exactly what I was doing. I took a few days off to focus on promoting and the number of visitors doubled! I remember reading somewhere that why should you create a lot of content while there’s no one there to read? I’m gonna split my time 50/50 on writing content and promoting from now on. Thanks for the wake up call. I always thought content is king.
happy to shake things up, Van. thx for that awesome comment.
content really is king in my opinion. but people will always believe that “if you write, they will come” and they will fail because that’s far from true online.
Dude, you are awesome. This is what exactly I was looking for. Thanks for the priceless tips.
You got it, Suresh.
ps. YOU are pricelessly awesome 🙂
great greg narayan
hey bud, thanks, keep up the good blogging on your end!
I think you should move G+ to number one for traffic generation. It’s such an easy way to get targeted traffic. A few posts into some related G+ communities lead to instant traffic.
I am struggling a little bit with getting traffic to my site. I will definitely try some of the tips you have in your article. I hope it helps me get more traffic to my blog. Thank you.
If I can do it so can you Kojo!
hey Greg I really liked your article. I am not a blogger but yesterday I wrote something and thought if I could also blog.
Its in peices and bits. But I want people to read.. Could you guide me..?
Really love your post…i have learnt alot of things..
It actually drives me crazy when i don’t get alot of pageviews and cos of that i almost gave up blogging but something kept me going and thats the joy i get when blogging.
Guess patience is really the key to everything in life and you’ve helped alot of people realise that with this post including me.Thanks alot Greg and keep doing the good work
You’re very welcome Kosy. Listen, a magical moment for me happened when I helped JUST ONE person. It wasn’t easy, but it was that “something” like you said. The rest was sorta history. So focus on small things, keep your design airtight and jump on every opportunity you see!
The article is very good and unique. It is very helpful in increasing traffic to your website / blog. I guess I should update my blog. I will share on my twitter. thank you. MN.
You’re very welcome MN! Let me know any specific questions that come up for you.
Most people are present on different social media platforms such as Facebook, Google+, Twitter and others. Check where we have the biggest number and most active followers and make a public announcement that we’ve started a blog that covers. Write our industry/niche there and add a link to our blog. The first readers are usually your friends, family and acquaintances. They are easy to catch online.
Hi Yusri,
Yep, a public announcement of a new blog is important – just not too soon because you have one change with people.
And of course playing in out on the big there social networks. I like focusing on just one first, then bragging elsewhere about it 🙂
Thanks for your comment!
Thanks for the post – I know a TON of bloggers who could find this useful, definitely sharing w/ them.
Take care and thanks for the tips.
Hi Sarah!
Sounds good to me 🙂 Glad this helped, hope to see ya back soon.
All the best,
Blogger
These tips are quite helpful, so thanks for sharing them. Keep up the great work!
Hey Eric,
Thanks…you too! Though I can’t telepathically predict what you’re blogging about… 🙂
Best,
Blogger
Yes greg, am completely agree with you about building authority amang other blogger. Thanks mate
I think the best and most effective way to drive traffic to website are unique content writing and high PR backlink building.
Hi Avinash,
I think you’re spot on there – get to it.
Thanks for droppin’ by,
Blogger
Really great post, and very helpful, pointing out how to actually write a blog and then how to promote it. I have spent a year not really knowing what I was doing and I am just starting to actually write like I talk and hopefully provide some interesting content at least now and then. You are right, people spend too much time looking at and thiking about numbers and letting it pressure them too quickly. My blog gets about 20 views a week, very low I know, but it is 100% better than a month ago as I now promote through Social Media. The points you make really do impress on me the need to promote each post much more and even better. The more I promote, the more views I get and hopefully this will lead to comments and critiques that can help me become a better blogger and provide the content people want.
Thanks Phil, great to see ya at the blog.
You’re on the right track it seems; remember if a handful of people like your work, there’s no reason a couple hundred people wouldn’t feel the same way too. Keep on growin’.
Happy to help solve any issues along the way,
G
Great post and so true! I am learning the “spend time away form your blog” as being very valuable. I used to just try and push out content and promoting it once I hit “publish”.
I think Derek Halpren of Social Triggers says, “20% of content creation & 80% on promotion” I am starting to follow what he says and it seems to be working for him 🙂
Great post, thanks for sharing. I’ll follow all the steps on my blog to improve my traffic.
You can increase more traffic via product my link in address website above.
Thanks for stopping by Michael.
Greg, this may be a stupid question, but I’m new at this blogging game, and I have followed your advice on building traffic, however, the blog still only seems to be “ticking over” not gaining any traffic, I work hard just maintaining some sort of traffic, by commenting, social media etc. Anyways, I have never really understood backlinks, trackbacks etc. What are backlinks and how do you build them? and where should one build them?
I’m so glad I found your site! Thank you for leading us novices to the right path….
No prob Kris, good to see you here. I’m going to turn in for the night, will add to this tomorrow.
zzzzz
Hi Greg!
I will send you a list af questions, you try to answer, add what ever you think important. Than I write an article with it. If we like it – I translate the article and post it to my blog. Sound’s ok?
Sounds good to me 🙂
Hi Greg!
Found you among my Twitter followers, Thanks!
Very good reading you have here!
I would love to translate some of your posts for my Russian blogs and may be we can do a brief interview?
Love my Twitter traffic Sergey! Welcome 🙂
Thanks, yes I could talk interviews, what do you have in mind?
I still lack a lot of things attracting traffic, this post gives me a hint.
I have troubles with these:
1. Using twitter. To be honest I sucked using twitter, I guess I spent too much time on fb. Another thing, none of my friends uses twitter and G+.
2. Guest posting. I have only guest posted 3 times, I guess I should do it more often to create relationship with other bloggers.
3. My google + is very new. I should promote more on G+
4. writing for ezine. I submitted a lot of times on ezine articles but they often reject my articles probably I am not good with english grammar and using symbols like dots or commas. I am not really a writer, I am more like a webdesigner.
I’ll absorb this post post… thanks greg
Permalinks Dustin. Permalinks is where it’s at.
I’m more of a web designer too 😉
First time at your blog, Greg – like what I see so far. Thanks for sending me this way through your comment at TGC.
Curious about your use of Twitter embeds (that’s what those are, right?). Looks like they’d be more persuasive than any “click here” plea. How are they working for you?
Welcome Ana, thanks. Excited see ya here.
Yeah I just click details in Twitter then paste the URL. Oddly those get almost no interaction, the ones here work much better for reader usage.
But I think they look pretty and add to a point 🙂
I need to find a more reliable way to test where my Twitter buttons get pushed the most – so far I haven’t found the magic formula.
🙁
I also did this in my latest post Greg, learned from ya. It works better than Click to Tweet tool.
🙂
I liked your post and your explanation bro, you have mentioned very good points and every newbie should notice them.
Well, next your blog design is looks very nice and attractive, Thanks for share.
thanks Sai! I’m never sure about design but this works at least.
always trying to nudge the newbies along.
what are you bloggin’ on lately?
Greg, Found a good blog today and its yours 🙂
Stuffed with great tips and awesome posts on Blog traffic and love to follow them and implement them on my blog!!
🙂
Glad this helps Josh. Keep on commenting.
It’s really amazing how new bloggers are advised to post more than necessarily. Posting more two or three posts daily as newbie blogger is simply tantamont to failure.
Spending more time promoting older posts is supreme.
Great hear from ya Kabenlah.
Yep, that actually may be the #1 cause of blog failure.
Just read your Adsense Alternatives post. Wow, had no idea there were that many ad networks…awesome.
Greg,
Great piece – just sent it to the marketing guy at our company!
Keep it up,
Mac
thanks Mac!
that’s awesome, hope it does wonders for the blog! 😀
Hey Greg, great post. I strongly agree that once we’ve got the content, we should focus on promoting the blog.
Guest posting would be my thing, too. Since it’s one of the fastest and best to reach new readers. Just started my blog, and I’m working on it rightnow.
I’m thinking of putting up a resource page for my subscriber (or just visitor). In it I planned to fill in websites, blogs, and product that I’ve found useful and had great experience with.
1. I’m adding value to my blog visitors, they’re getting good stuffs from me.
2. My blog visitors will know which source am I inclined to. Good if they’re readers from another side. It builds bond. And credibility.
3. Blog visitors will visit the page frequently to get practical update.
4. Affiliate
5. so on.
Anyway I’m still working on it. Need more time.
Greg, what do you think about that? Also, any thought on using twitter as a blogger?
Take care there.
YUSOF
thanks for that awesome comment Yusof
yes start guest posting today, you’ll be happy later
I like your list but add “build landing page” to it. then use that page to tell readers what they stand to gain from your blog…!
that was a big one for me
well you’re on twitter…what do you mean?
Cool Greg I found your post about traffic to be really cool
I wish my blog had a guest post of yours…
help me with more tips
is that a formal request Dinesh 😉
what tips?
Yes it is formal if you can you should post a guest post on my blog as I have audience of young bloggers and tips i mean to increase traffic, attract people towards posts and make it more of a regular platform
Loved the post Greg, I’ve tried most of the strategies you shared above and also tried some of the traffic-gen strategies too.
Now as Problogger and DBT closed guest post submissions, which is your target blog to guest post on Greg?
Ehsan whats up. yea this post was prolly too basic for you 🙂
probly Pick The Brain, i like them a lot have you heard of it?
i don’t know though 🙁 it’s sad. good thing you got in DBT in time huh?
It wasn’t too basic for me Greg, I loved it!
I think Pick The Brain is in different niche, isn’t it?
Yup, I’m glad to be featured in DBT in time.
The awesome thing about PickTheBrain is it’s a very interactive audience.
Yeah you’re right, self-help/self-improvement niche. Which is so cool!
Greg, Very good points mentioned here, i have started writing guest post on other blogs i think i need to start writing in article directories as you had mentioned in point no.13 and writing ebook positions as an expert but it requires some time to work on ebooks. Even having a very good content without marketing doesnt help in getting good traffic. Thanks for the great post.
hey Lokesh. thanks for dropping back in great to see ya
advice on an eBook:
1) do it 🙂
2) sooner rather than later
3) make it niche narrow and market it with a landing page
have you planned out an eBook at all?
Hi Greg,
I like your blog’s format because you don’t just give information in your posts but you actually TALK in your posts. Secondly, I want to say that “not everyone is made for blogging”. Blogging is a mixture of writing and marketing. I am a successful writer but a failed blogger 😀
Thanks.
so well said Arfa!
yea this place kinda feels like one big blogging conversation 🙂
what have you been writing lately?
Just joined a technology blog, I am currently associated with 4 blogs as a writer. So, finding time for my own blog is pretty difficult as it is not generating any revenue.
I would like to take suggestions from bloggers of your community. I’ve a photography blog which does not even have ad sense on. No sponsors no advertisers. I can’t even post regularly. What should I do with it?
Let me see what answers I can dig up from the community.
Would you mind if I featured your comment (anonymously) in a post and asked for some feedback Arfa?
Yes sure, that would be great help from your side. Thanks
Great Great Great Piece of content.
You are right that in early days every blogger keeps checking their stats and soon they feel that nothing is going right in right direction.
For becoming a good blogger we should know the good marketing skills too.
Thanks for the share.
hey Kulwant. awesome to see you back
yeah the stats are so annoying. i limit it to once a week at most, especially with analytics and alexa
there’s just so many other positive things people should focus on
hmm yes greg, i am completely agree with you about building authority amang the other blogger.
if we hade some respect , it will be easy to next level 🙂
right Yecruzsulla. i think the authority comes from:
1) self-promotion, a lot of it
2) giving a ton to your readers
thanks for commenting
That was a really valuable post. Also, I feel that begging for links is the worst because people would eventually seek you as a spammer, a blogger hungry of traffic. That wouldn’t do any good to your reputation as a blogger or your blog’s growth. And, by far guest posting has the best results for newbie bloggers.