Estimated reading time: 3 – 5 minutes
by Igor Kheifets, guest blogger
During the earlier days of my blogging career I prayed to meet face to face with the devil (you know, that little guy with horns and a tripod), so I could sell my soul for blog traffic.
I was as desperate as one can get after six months of ?dead blogging.? I was tired blogging for myself ? it?s no fun ?and it brought no revenue.
Now, that I?ve mastered the art of Trafficology, I want to share some tips on how to generate traffic without selling your soul, because, let?s face it, what?s the point of basking in fame and glory of the blogosphere if you?re undead?
Traffic Generating Tip #1-Guest Blogging
Guest blogging proved to be the number one most effective way of getting new subscribers to my blog.
In a nutshell, guest blogging is when you write a completely unique blog post for another blog owner and in exchange he includes a short bio and a link to your blog and/or your social media profiles (e.g.: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube etc).
I like to think about guest blogging as TV talk shows. It?s an opportunity to show your best qualities to large audiences that have yet to know you. You have an amazing chance of charming these people and get them to like you so at the end of the show they want to know more about you and even buy whatever it is that you?re selling.
Traffic Generating Tip #2-Viral Traffic Regenerator
If you?re offering some kind of opt-in bribe for signing up for your list, you can set up a sandwich page with a viral traffic regenerator. It can be anything from a re-Tweet form to a blatant ?send this page to a friend? script.
But remember that your visitors weren?t born yesterday. No one is going to risk looking like a jackass to their friends for nothing.
Offer another gift for referring your Web site to their friends. Make it of different value. If you?re giving away a free PDF as an opt-in bribe, make audio or video your Viral Traffic Regenerator gift (and the other way around).
Traffic Generating Tip #3-BlogCarnival
Submit your posts to BlogCarnival ? a blogosphere content aggregator engine. Your posts nearly always will make the front page of your related niche, resulting in at least a handful of visitors per submission.
Traffic Generating Tip #4-Write Better Blog Posts
Another common issue I see in the blogosphere is authors serving their audience tons of fast food content.
If you want more traffic, make your blog worth talking about, make it worth linking to, make it worth spending time on ? write better blog posts.
You know you?ve written a good blog post if you got a lot of page views (relative to what you usually get) and comments (both for and against your point of view).
If all the comments you?re getting are along the lines of: ?awesome post!? and ?wow, thanks! I was looking for information on how to [name of your blog posts here] for months now! Thanks for clearing it up for me!? then you?ve probably written a pizza article?-too much cheese and no meat!
Read more on how to write better content here.
Get Started Today
Don?t delay, get started ASAP. Pick one strategy from the four mentioned above and get crackin?. Your blog needs traffic just as you need water ? its life depends on it!
Igor Kheifets is a 21 year old genius who?s hooked on personal growth and peach vanilla tea. Check out Igor?s blog at Internet Marketing Tips For Online Entrepreneurs and follow him on Twitter.
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Great Tips, guest blogger is really useful to get more traffic
I just wondering about the BlogCarnival. How BlogCarnival works, I’m using BlogCarnival but it seems not sending me more traffic. Any tips for me?
Thanks,
Latief
Latief@AnotherBlogger hopes you will read…Celebrating 100th Article With 10000 EC From EntreBlast
That’s a great question, Latief. I’ve never tried it, myself. I hope that Igor will drop by and answer your question, because I’m curious, too. I took a look at BlogCarnival this morning, but I’m just not sure what to DO with it.
I am not really an expert on BlogCarnival, Latief.
Yes, it worked for me earlier this year, but to tell you the truth, I
didn’t do anything fancy.
Maybe you should try crafting better headlines, because there are tons
of links to choose from-yours needs to stand out.
Igor
Igor Kheifets hopes you will read…Key To Success
OK, Thanks Igor. I have an account on BlogCarnival, since there’s a little traffic I’m not using BlogCarnival anymore. I think I just get a backlink from BlogCarnival, lol!
Thanks for the reply Igor.
Latief@AnotherBlogger hopes you will read…Celebrating 100th Article With 10000 EC From EntreBlast
Hi Holly!
Great ways to generate traffic. You are right it can get tired and old writing posts for yourself. I have never tried Guest Blogging. It does sound like a great way to get your name out there. I have seen a few blogs that have a link for Guest Posting. Maybe I’ll try it one day.
Thanks for the tips!
Jim
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It’s fun to have others write FOR you for a change, as well, Jim. This post was written by Igor Kheifets, by the way – the traffic generation ideas are not mine, although I did jokingly propose the title. I do hope Igor will drop by to answer questions – I’m rather curious about this BlogCarnival, myself, although as far as I can tell, it’s similar to the “Monday News & Views” posts here, and round-up posts other bloggers do – maybe more formalized.
Jim, guest blogging is very rewarding, you should
try it.
And about the title, it was proposed jokingly, however it was
so original that I couldn’t resist.
@Holly, BlogCarnival won’t give you much traffic,
but it’s a good thing to start with if you’re struggling with
generating SEO traffic or instant social media responses.
Igor
Igor Kheifets hopes you will read…Key To Success
Oh I so KNEW you had a hand in that title.
Dennis Edell hopes you will read…Again – Pick My New Domain Names With A chance To Win $10!
Guest blogging is a really great way to get traffic, either by writing for another blog or inviting bloggers to write for you. If I may add, interviewing bloggers brings traffic too. And the more unique the interview, the more people it will bring. Love the phrase “pizza article”. I’ve never heard that before.
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Wasn’t that “pizza article” a great descriptive phrase? You’re so right – I think the interview posts I’ve done have been among the most popular and widely read of all the posts I’ve written here. Thanks for the reminder, Connie!
That’s because I just coined that phrase. It was a spark
of genius and I had to TM it for a change
Igor Kheifets hopes you will read…Key To Success
Some nice tips for drive traffic. Well I believe in writing great content for drive more traffic on our blog.
I am a regular visitor of blog like SEOmoz, search enginewatch, they are writing are very useful for link building and SEO. I have checked the backlink of SEOmoz blog and they almost gain 100000 backlink to their blog, even I do not think that they join in forum or dofollow blog comment. I think their reason of achievement is their content.
chandan hopes you will read…List of Edu blogs
chandan, I think good content is what keeps visitors coming back time and time again. But good content needs to be promoted so readers can find it. It takes a healthy balance of the two. Now, once a blogger or a site gains a strong reputation in a particular field, people will be eager to attract a little notice from them. In the blogging world, they’re eager for the crumbs from the “A-list bloggers’” table. It does backfire, eventually, when the “A-list” starts looking snobbish and exclusionary instead of grateful and willing to share. There are always fresh, new voices clamoring to be heard – and they will be, if they’re persistent and have something interesting to say.
I agree chandan, SEOmoz and the rest of
the blogosphere elite are where they are today because
they focused on outstanding content more then on
driving the traffic.
Igor
Igor Kheifets hopes you will read…Key To Success
Thank you all for your responses and
Thanks Holly for the opportunity to guest blog!
Sorry it took me so long to answer your comments, it was
sleep time here in Israel when Holly posted the article.
Igor
Igor Kheifets hopes you will read…Key To Success
Great article Igor, I would like to add “Organizing blog contests” to your list of tips, I know it’s not that kind of easy to organize a successful and rocking contest, but it’s another effective way generate traffic from my personal experience!
Good work buddy!
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Hesham,
Blog contest are hard to organize especially if you still don’t have
at least couple of hundreds subscribers to your blog.
Yes, it is a great strategy, but it can be done only
once in a while and you have to have an already established
community of readers and contributors.
Igor
Igor Kheifets hopes you will read…Key To Success
Not entirely true. Contests are a great way to build subscribers when you have few. This is where you ask blogging friends to help and use social networking to it’s fullestr potential.
Grwat article, a very unique way to serve up what is usually “another traffic tips post”; good job!
Blog carnivals (he linked to the original, but there are others) – the main problem new bloggers have is treating them like any ‘ol directory…they’re not. Be sure to read any/all rules/tips/TOS type pages first, you’ll soon see there are extra things you can do and what they can do for you.
It’s been a long time since I’ve used them. I will be again in 2010 and will be posting my experiences along the way.
Dennis Edell hopes you will read…Again – Pick My New Domain Names With A chance To Win $10!
You need an edit comments plugin dear…lol
Dennis Edell hopes you will read…Again – Pick My New Domain Names With A chance To Win $10!
No I don’t.
You know, when we started using FrameMaker at work, several years ago, everyone complained loudly that there was only ONE level of undo. My God – we’d been able to infinitely undo ourselves with Word for so long that we all came undone at the thought! But you know what? It was so horrible that, over time (and a very short time, at that) we trained ourselves to make fewer mistakes.
I’m really just doing you a favor, Dennis.
I suppose that’s one way to look at it, if you really want to think outside the box.
The fact remains though, I comment on (literally) hundreds of blog posts per week using a fast hand with big fingers and more times then not, hitting enter before proofing. I don’t make a ton of mistakes, but they are there.
Bad call on my part for not thinking ahead to take the few extra second to proof? Perhaps; oops.
But what it really comes down to in the end, for me at least, is in the spirit of doing whatever it takes to make the lives of those that do take the time to leave their pearls of wisdom behind, easier…what’s your beef girly??
Dennis Edell hopes you will read UPDATED – ONE MORE DAY & MORE DOMAINS! Again – Pick My New Domain Names With A chance To Win $10!
Guest blogging – will use that one tip. Thank you.
Japaul Vergonia hopes you will read…Am not a Facebook Addict Just Lookin Around!
My understanding of blog carnival is it’s a type of blog event wherein it’s not site or blog specific. Holly can host one, let’s say on the topic of Using Fiction Techniques to Take Your Blogging to the Next Level. Or perhaps you can launch one on internet marketing tips. Bloggers are then enjoined to submit their original posts.
Guest blogging is a great idea. Aside from getting new readers, you earn a link from the host blog. It’s hard to do it consistently, however, since you’ve make to sure your submission is your absolute best at the time and not just pizza article as you call it.
So… kind of like what we do now, with CommentLuv, only more topic-specific?
Or kind of like what we do with the weekly/monthly round-up type posts?
I’m still confused about this whole “carnival” thing, Jan. Or was that just someone’s way of trying to claim they invented the idea?
My favorite tip is #4. I talk to so many bloggers who are trying all sorts of tricks in an effort to gain traffic, when the problem is that their writing sucks. Besides, you can’t have #1 without #4.
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Hi Holly, this really is a very useful post. I agree to all your points for generating traffic on your blog. I have tried doing the same thing for my blog too especially guest blogging in the past has helped me a lot. And yes, writing better blog posts, I think that is the most important thing for any blogger. Very often we keep on writing anything on our blog. It is always better to do a research on the topic we want to write about on our blog. And your writing style also matters. Also, I must put here that commenting on other blogs is also one of the best ways to gain traffic. Commenting by leaving links can always bring a very good traffic. Plus there can be many more ways to gain traffic.
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Nice list of traffic generation tips. Right now I’m trying to select posts that will interest everybody and then promote them on StumbleUpon, BlogEngage and Digg. I’ll be checking out the retweet form idea cos I kinda like it. Blog Carnival seems promising. Let’s see if I can double my unique visitors and feed subscribers with this techniques.
Udegbunam Chukwudi hopes you will read Apologies and Comments Policy Reviewed (Again)!
Thank you for visiting my blog, Udegbunam. Someone ought to write a simple “how to” on this Blog Carnival thing. We all think it sounds interesting and promising – but, well, I could use a little guidance.
How would Blogcarnival differ from Blog Catalog and MyBlogLog (are they even the same, by the way?).
Guest posting really is a great way to get exposed. they will start to notice that your blog actually exists!
I have always been partial on "writing a better post." Whether a post is a quality post or not is always subjective. I've seen lots of craps that get lots of traffic (and comment), and I've been to some great posts and was surprised to see that they don't have a single comment!
Great tips still. And if I may add, commenting (with sense) on other blogs is another great way to get traffic (and find new friends too).
(hmm…. I got lost Holly. first time to encounter a comment with form with the site url, name and email located below the comment box).
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I have no answer to those questions, Roy. I wish someone with more experience using any of those would weigh in. I agree with you – better writing, more engaging writing (good writing that actually provokes enough of a reaction that readers will comment and invite others to join the discussion), and guest posting are all great long term strategies. You have to find the right balance between content and promotion – think of promotion as making the map, leaving the breadcrumbs, baking up the sweet aroma that will lead visitors to your door. Keeping them there is all about content and interaction. Getting them to come back, I'm convinced, is a matter of making it EASY for them to find their way back, among other things.
Thanks for the great tips, I definitely look forward to trying some of these out. I recently learned about guest bloging, and now I just have to go about finding myself a quality guest-blogger. Looking forward, also, to checking out BlogCarnival as this is the first I've heard of it. Thanks for great info!
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One good way to find guest bloggers, Kim, is to find people who write posts you enjoy and think would work well on your blog, and approach them – let them know you're open to the idea, anyway. SOMEBODY come back here and give us the low-down on BlogCarnival!