Traffic Generation for Your Blog

I’ve been working on writing about traffic generation this week while writing my new e-course ‘10 Days To Limitless Traffic’ (you can get the e-course by signing up for my mailing list, see the right-hand side bar). Traffic has got to be the most important component of a profitable website or blog and there is so much to cover that a 10 day e-course just isn’t enough.

However, I thought it would be a good idea to add at least one post with a few tips in this Blogging for Money series because it’s that important. Please understand however, this is just skimming the surface of the subject of traffic generation.

There are a few easy ways to drive traffic to your blog. None by themselves will generate huge traffic but lots of little trickles soon lead to an unstoppable flood.

Each of these are easy and most can be done in a few minutes each day. Getting in the habit of doing at least one of these each day will soon create the traffic you need to be profitable.

Here is a quick list of some of the things that will help your blog traffic increase.

1.    Commenting on a related blog with a thoughtful comment and a link back to your blog
2.    Posting a video with your link to YouTube
3.    Bookmarking your content and others’ content at Stumble Upon, Digg, etc.
4.    Commenting on others’ pages at MyBlogLog, BlogCatalog, etc.
5.    Posting on Twitter about your latest post
6.    Using Facebook and including your RSS feed on your profile there
7.    Adding your RSS feed to a Squidoo lens, Hub page, Wet Paint, etc.
8.    Writing articles that link back to your blog and submitting them to various article directories

By no means is this everything. For more ideas, subscribe to my mailing list and get my new e-course ’10 Days To Limitless Traffic’.

Commenting on others’ blogs – Commenting on other people’s blogs has two benefits. If the blog is set up with ‘do follow’ (this blog is) you get a back link to your blog. Even if not, you can and will get traffic from people reading the comments if…you actually take part in the conversation and add value to the post. This also builds up your name recognition in whatever niche you are operating in and helps build your credibility. After all, your goal is to be recognized as an expert authority in your niche.

Posting video – Adding a video about your topic to YouTube or any of the many other video sites can also add back links and new visitors. Make sure you start your description with the full url of your blog – http://yourdomain.com

Adding a podcast – Audio is easy to use and you can create an mp3 file with the free tool offered by Audacity from SourceForge ( http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ ). If you hold teleseminars most services record them for you and you can use that in mp3 format as a podcast. Add these to your blog using appropriate plugins (Podpress is a good one) and then submit that feed to all of the various podcast services.

Bookmarking – Using social bookmarking services such as StumbleUpon, Digg, etc. will increase the amount of traffic you receive. Remember though that these are communities and you should not be bookmarking just your own sites but other sites that have value as well. Bookmarking posts that you have commented on is a great way to indirectly bring more traffic to your site and will increase the number of bookmarks of other sites you have on your account.

I have found it best if 20% or less of all your bookmarks are your own. Feel free to bookmark some of my posts ~ .  You’ll find a bookmarking plug-in to help you at the end of every post (it’s a good idea to have a bookmarking plug-in installed on your blog to make it easy for your readers to bookmark your posts).

Blog communities – I use two blog communities Blog Catalog and MyBlogLog. Of the two I find MyBlogLog to be the better choice if you only have time for one. You can join communities there, add in other social sites you are using like Digg, Stumble Upon, Twitter, and Facebook and your updates to any of those will show on your profile. You can install the widget on your site to allow others to see who has been visiting your site. I get a lot of traffic from other blogs I’ve visited because my face shows on the other blogs widget.

Twitter – Twitter is a micro-blogging platform and can really help you get visitors if you are posting regularly, have a decent amount of followers and add a tweet when you add a new post. Like commenting, you must take part in the conversation and add value not just tweet your posts.

Facebook – Another great social site as it is becoming a ‘must participate’ site for businesses.  You need to make sure to add your RSS feed to your profile so your visitors will see your latest blog updates. Recently I also joined another social networking site similar to Facebook called Eons, it’s a social networking site for those who are 50+.

If you join either of these sites, be sure to add me as a friend, my profile can be found under RebaCollins, just do a search. Also, at Eons, I have just taken over the Marketing/Internet Marketing Group, please stop by, join and add to the discussion. Honestly, I really need your help there, the place is like a ghost town, please help me out and join in!

Squidoo, Hub Pages, etc. – Squidoo and Hub Pages along with others are like blogs on steroids. Because there are lots of people constantly adding content to their pages at these sites, the search engines like them and rank them well.

Adding targeted anchor text leading to posts on your blog and having your RSS feed displayed on these sites can be a great traffic generator. I have a lens at Squidoo about blogging and another about setting up a virtual assistant business, both have links to the articles here and generate traffic for me.

Article submission – Writing quality articles and submitting them to the various article directories is another way to generate back links for your blog which in turn helps you to rank higher in the search engines. Ezine and website owners can use your content but have to link back to your site through the resource box and this creates the additional back links and visitors you are seeking.

Like I said earlier, these tips are just the beginning. Traffic generation has so many avenues you can take. Subscribing to my e-course will give you a little more detail, which is great because it’s all about taking baby steps and learning as you go. I suggest playing with some of the techniques in this post, while going through the e-course.

If you feel you want to take it to the next level, check out StomperNet’s new product Formula 5. I haven’t seen the product because it hasn’t launched yet but I have their Stomping the Search Engines 2 program and it was far and wide the best information I’ve EVER seen on search engine optimization and learning how to drive traffic to your site. I’m sure their Formula 5 program is just as good.

My next post will be about advertising your blog. So, until then…

Ciao!

Reba

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Blog Posting Tips For Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

It’s been a while since I posted in my series about blogging for money, the holidays kind of got me sidetracked. But I’m back and want to finish up the series, there are just a few more posts after this one.

I have to be honest here, I don’t always follow the tips I’m going to provide in this post. I tend to write for my readers rather than for the search engines. That decision will be yours to make but my take is that if you write for your readers, the search engines will soon find you. That being said, if you want to blog for money, search engine optimization and following these tips will get you indexed and ranked much quicker.

When you researched your niche, if you were following the advice I gave in my post, Finding A Good Niche For Making Money Blogging, you probably did some keyword research. This research will now come into play. You will want to start by posting for your long tail (multiple word) phrases first.

Make each post include a single phrase only and use that keyword in the title of your post.

Example:

Let’s say your keyword is “red silk duvet cover”. In your post use that keyword phase along with “silk duvet cover” and “duvet cover”. This post will be about all three but specifically about the “red silk duvet cover”. Make the title of your post start with your longtail keyword phrase, so in this example, it will start with “red silk duvet cover”.

The next item you’ll need to pay attention to will be the title tag. If you followed my instructions in the Setting Up Your Blog Properly Series, it is set to use the title of the post in both your URL and as the title tag. That is the default when using the All-In-One-SEO plug-in.

The problem is that you have two parties you are trying to satisfy; your reader and the search engines. All-In-One-SEO will allow you to give each what they want.

Now if we go back to our example, let’s say your post title “Red Silk Duvet Cover For A Sensual Bed.” Both the reader and the search engines are satisfied as your keyword is the first thing in your title.

But…

If you had a title of “Five Things You Must Look For In A Red Silk Duvet Cover” you have a problem with the search engines. The keyword you want to rank for starts at word eight of the title and the search engines won’t put much weight on it in that position of the title.

However, if you want to get your post read, you must make it as compelling as possible and “Five Things You Must Look For In A Red Silk Duvet Cover” is as compelling as you can get.

The solution is to use the All in One SEO Pack. After you type your post, scroll down to the All-In-One-SEO on your posting page and add a new title -

Here you can change your title to “Red Silk Duvet Cover – 5 Things You Must Look For”.

Now the search engine has the keyword you want to rank for in the beginning and your reader will still have a compelling title that will lead them to read the article.

In testing on other blogs, I have moved a post from page 3 or 4 of Google to page 1 for a specific keyword just by changing the title tag, so this is an important component for search engine optimization. When blogging for money, traffic is essential and you will get more traffic the higher your post ranks in the search engines.

Finally, the order that you post will definitely make a difference in how fast your blog ranks.  It is much easier to rank for very long-tail keywords phrases such as those with four or more words than those that are only two word phrases.  Once you are ranking for those four words phrases, you will eventually start to rank for the primary keyword phrases that bring in even more traffic.

The next post in the ‘Blogging For Money’ series will be tips for finding and writing great content.

Ciao!

Reba

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Learn And Use A New Online Marketing Technique

This is Day 2 of 10 of my tips to help you increase your online business profits in 2009.

By making just a few changes in the ways you handle a few little things each day, you can grow your business and increase your profits substantially.

Stay tuned over the next ten days and I will share ten important ideas that can help you increase your business and grow your profits in 2009.

Day 2 -

LEARN A NEW ONLINE MARKETING TECHNIQUE

This tip is an extremely effective one. Let’s say you have four main marketing methods you use to promote your business. For example, let’s say those four methods are:

1. Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC)
2. Link Building
3. Social Network Marketing
4. Blogging

This is an excellent group of advertising methods to combine and implement. However, what if you were to add another method such as article writing?  That would increase the methods you use to generate business to five and each would constitute 20% of your marketing efforts.

That means you can potentially add as much as 20% more business and increase your profits by a significant amount by just adding one new marketing method to your existing campaign.

You can add more than one method for even better results. There are many marketing techniques you can use and you may be missing income by not using and knowing about as many as possible. Here’s a list:

- Search Enginge Optimiztion (SEO)
- Link Building
- Article Writing (Article Marketing)
- Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC)
- Blogging
- Social Network Marketing
- Classified Ad Marketing
- Offline Marketing (Business Cards, Flyers, Car Magnet, etc.)
- Offline Newspaper Classified Ads
- Answer Board Marketing
- Video Marketing (YouTube Marketing, etc.)
- Building a List
- Landing a JV
- Email Marketing
- Forum Marketing (Other than IM Niche)
- Outsourcing

There are more, but I’m sure there’s at least ONE of the above that you are not doing at all or not doing enough of.

If you add one or more of the above marketing methods to your existing marketing efforts, I guarantee you will increase your profits and enhance your business over this next upcoming year.

Tomorrow – Day 3

START OUTSOURCING

Cheers!

Reba

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StomperNet Insiders’ DVD of the Month-Volume 1

Brent and I got home from our trip to California on Sunday night and my box from StomperNet was sitting on the front porch carefully hidden by the newspapers that our neighbors had kindly moved from the driveway for us. Yay! I had requested Monday as a vacation day because I knew I’d be tired from the trip and I wanted a day to work on my business, timing couldn’t have been better.

If you read my review of the order process when I ordered my free Stomping the Search Engines 2 that came with a free issue of Net Effect, the new internet marketing trade journal from StomperNet, you’ll remember that I purchased ALL the upsells and the box on the front porch had not only my Net Effect magazine, but 18 DVDs as well. Talk about overwhelming!

Anyway, I decided to dig in and started by watching the Net Effect Companion DVD, it’s called StomperNet Insiders’ DVD of the Month Volume 1. This first volume was free just like the magazine. Going forward it will cost $19.97 a month, and in case you didn’t remember, the magazine, Net Effect, will be another $39.97 a month. That’s a grand total of $59.94 each and every month (plus shipping), but after seeing the information covered by these publications, I’m thinking it may well be worth every penny.

I’ll be honest, when I was offered the companion DVD during the order process, my first thought was, “Sure, I’ll take the free month, and then I’ll just cancel after I get it.” I’m sure that’s what a lot of people thought. However, now I’m thinking twice about making that move.

I haven’t had time to read the Net Effect magazine yet, but I did watch the DVD and I can’t tell you how impressed I am. I’ve been studying internet marketing for quite some time and search engine optimization has always baffled me. I seemed to understand the simple strategies but for the life of me couldn’t wrap my mind around all the details. It was just too overwhelming for me. Keyword lists, landing pages, Web 2.0 sites, LSI, and all that SEO “stuff” was just too hard. So, I never did it.

Now, here we go again. More SEO “stuff”. But somehow after watching this DVD it doesn’t seem so hard. I don’t know, maybe it’s the presentation, maybe Andy just has a way of simplifying the details, or maybe I’m just ready this time, I’m not sure, but it just doesn’t seem so hard now. What I do know now is that I’m going to do this stuff because I’m sick and tired of fooling around and not making any money. And if search engine optimization is a way to get more people to my site, then I’m going to do it.

So, what did the DVD include?

It mostly covered linking both within your website and links coming to your site from other websites. It explained how the search engines read your pages and assign where it will rank. And best of all, it covered why linking to subpages in your site will get you more traffic than always linking to your homepage.  Andy Jenkins shared some secrets on how to make the search engine spiders read your site the way you want them to read it. And at the end, they gave a list of authority sites you can use to link back to your site. Tons of great information that I have never seen anywhere else.

Having this kind of information can truly make or break a website, I just wish StomperNet hadn’t given it away for free. That’s another reason I think I’ll stay on with the subscription. I know a lot of people signed up for the free trial but will cancel for various reasons, not because the information isn’t valuable and worth every penny, but because they can’t afford it right now or just don’t want to spend the money for whatever reason. So, since not everyone will have this kind of great information going forward, it will give me a edge and everyone needs and edge, right?

So, how do I plan to use this information to benefit you as my reader?

Last week I posted that I needed a plan and that I would post one before I left on my trip to California…well, I made my plan and posted the 2008-09 Editorial Schedule for this site and I plan on keeping that schedule. I also stated that I wanted to make public the things I do to make this site an authority site and still plan to do that. Many of the things I’m learning in these DVDs I will use to grow this site and as I use the concepts, it’s my plan to write about them as a case study. So be sure to subscribe to the feed and my newsletter list so you can stay updated.

By the way, the free offer is available. If you want a free copy of Stomping The Search Engines 2 along with the first issue of Net Effect, just click through one of my links. All the “extra” bonuses they were offering through last Monday are gone, but that shouldn’t stop you from ordering the STSE2 and Net Effect for free, or well, for the price of shipping. It’s great information that just may make the difference in your success.

I’ll report back in a few days with the steps I’ve initiated using the new information I’ve learned.

Cheers!

Reba

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