Confessions of a Six Figure Professional Blogger

How to Get a Brand New Blog Off The Ground [Traffic]

November 14, 2008 | Blogging, Marketing

One of the biggest hurdles to a brand new blogger is often the one which results in the most frustration. That hurdle is traffic.

Yeah, its a biggie. You put all this work into your new blog. It has the makings to be a hit. You’re certainly hopeful. But, once you’ve put it out there for the world to see, nobody seems to come to your site. It can be frustrating and rather depressing. It makes you wonder how all those other people out there managed to do so well.

Trust me, there is no magic pill. It isn’t that those other guys just got lucky. It probably has more to do with the fact that you simply don’t know what to do. You’re new to this.

I’m going to give you some pointers here to get rolling, however keep in mind that this IS work. Nobody said blogging was easy. :) You can’t just upload a new blog and expect people to magically find it. You’ve got to go out and get them. So, here we go…

Videos. Lots of Videos.

People LOVE video. And you need to give it to them. Take whatever your blog is about and start making videos related to that. And then you want to throw those videos up on as many different sites as you can. What I do for PCMech is have a profile on the following sites:

We then use TubeMogul to launch all of our videos simultaneously to all of these sites. For DavidRisley.com, I tend to put my videos on Youtube and Vimeo, as well as my Facebook profile.

But, you get the point. Make videos and spread them far and wide across the Internet. Put descriptive text (with your URL) in the video description field (for the search engines) and be sure to use some basic video editing software to put your site URL into the video itself.

Each and every video you do, on as many sites as you can get them on, acts as a beachhead that captures eyeballs and potentially sends them to your blog.

Get Social.

You simply cannot be a blogger (a successful one anyway) and hide on the Internet. You’ve GOT to get out there, be yourself, and have people get to know who you are. That means you’ve better get busy using social media (if you’re not already). This includes:

There are, of course, a boatload of others out there. But, I consider these the most important.

If you’re not on these sites, set up profiles. If you already are, then log into your profile and make sure all the information in your profile is modern and up to date. Even more importantly, make sure that your site’s URL is in your profile.

After that, here are a few tricks to get going:

  1. Set up a widget on WidegetBox. We have one for PCMech, for example. It simply pulls your latest posts from your blog’s RSS feed and makes it into a portable widget. Then, not only promote that widget on your blog, but use it to get your latest post headlines onto your social media profiles (where allowed). Put it onto Myspace, for example. For each and every site you can get your widget onto, that is yet another outpost for your content which can drive traffic back to your blog.
  2. Set up a profile on TwitterFeed so that your latest blog headlines are sent automatically to your Twitter followers. Just be sure to participate in Twitter like a normal person, too, because you do NOT want your Twitter presence to be nothing but your latest blog posts. People will not want to follow you unless you’re a real person.
  3. Set your blog up on FriendFeed so that your latest posts automatically show up on FriendFeed.
  4. Install the Friendfeed application onto your Facebook profile. This will ensure that your tweets and latest posts from FriendFeed (and hence your blog) also get posted to your Facebook profile.

There are numerous other tricks in the arsenal, but the idea is to have presences across the social web. You want all your blog activity to be automatically spread to all your social profiles and have all your social profiles point back to your blog. By doing this, you cast a wider net across the Internet.

Leverage.

If you already have any presence on the Internet, you can use them to draw traffic to a new online endeavor. For example, when I launched this blog (DavidRisley.com), my already large presence at PCMech most definitely helped me get this site off the ground a little quicker. The audiences are completely different which is why I still have to promote this blog elsewhere, but it is a bit of a headstart.

You might not already have your own PCMech, and that’s fine. The idea here, though, is to use any social media presence or other presence on the Internet to help jump start your new blog.

Be Active

Having all these video profiles and social media profiles is one thing. Using them is more important. You’ve got to get out there and actually PARTICIPATE.

Blogging is not a one-way flow, where you sit there in an ivory tower and lecture the masses. It is a 2-way activity. You’ve got to be yourself and you’ve got to be accessible to your readers. As your blog expands, the ways in which you handle that might change for the sake of time. But, that 2-way connection remains important.

So, actively participate in Twitter. Post little things that don’t have anything to do with your blog. Send replies to other Twitter uses. Be a regular member of the community. Same goes for any other social media profile. It is called SOCIAL media for a reason. So, be social.

And as for the videos, yeah, you’ve got to make them. don’t be shy. And don’t worry about professional, TV-quality editing. It just isn’t that important. Obviously, you want to think about the image you portray. But, most of the videos I do are done using my Flip Video and iMovie 08. We’re not talking big budget here. And training videos are using screen recording software and my webcam.

Hopefully these ideas have given you some ideas so that you can start getting some readers on your brand new blog. This isn’t rocket science.

If you enjoyed this article, you might also like...

  1. Top 3 Suggestions For Driving Traffic To Your Blog
  2. Blog Outposts – Master This and Traffic Isn’t a Problem
  3. 3 Powerful Tools For Monitoring Your Brand
  4. TubeMogul Offering Video Posting to Multiple Sites
  5. Is Social Media Killing the Blogosphere?

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  • that guy
    David Risley, you are a lifesaver, or is it blogsaver?! I'm so glad I read this that I'm going to go through the archive and pick up all the hints for my blog and use them to their fullest! If I had not read this I would still be a very lonely fur in Blogger Land. Thanks!
  • Great info bro. I started a Steelers fan blog a few months ago called Pittsburgh Blitz and have had very little luck getting the traffic to come. The old saying, "If you build it they will come" is not always true.

    I am going to try some of your ideas and see if they hel. Thanks a ton for the information.
  • I know this post is older, but it's still great advice that I always use and suggest others use as well.

    Just going through some of your archives Dave, not new here, but just seeing what I may have missed
  • Hi David, I came to this article a little late, however, as a new blogger, I have found it quiet useful. Will be hanging fire on the videos for a bit though, the world has suffered enough of late!
  • This is my first comment here, even though I have read hundreds of posts already in your blog in past few months. I just loved every post I have read till now. I have seen so many blogs with top quality contents with less or no traffic at all. I am also in a stage where I just started with my new blog, so this information will be a great help to me. Thanks.
  • Great information, david! I did not know that there is a software, that uploads to different video sites simultaneously - that will save me a lot of time in the future.
  • I agree veru much with video and placing them on all the uploading sites with your url.

    Since we started doing this, out traffic has increased.

    Good point too about placeing your url into the description text.
  • Excellent post. The list of sites and the ideas you had are worth spreading around!
  • Thanks for the tips. I think your point about the videos and using YouTube is really good - especially since it's so easy to embed videos now. Cheers
  • Thanks for the info. I know it works. I'm part of Disciplined Monkey Studios and we are small and use video and social networking to promote and bring back traffic. It works! On the other side of the fence is my personal
    ( www.thepoetrydude.com ) site/blog where very little traffic comes in, although I promote through social activities online, I've yet been able to devote much time to the media aspects, especially video. I'm going to look into the widget and hopefully find more time to promote both sites.

    Thanks,

    Wayne
  • Misca Mihaela
    That is a good guide because following your advice about starting a business for myself,making videos for a brand new blog can be a great tool to generate traffic.Thanks.
  • I think you are right about making videos. But it is difficult to get started. It is just that when I see a bad video, I don't want that to be me - and for it to be captured forever. I think I'm going to start with some screen casts ;).
  • Mia
    Great post!!! Especially loved that you pointed out that social media is about being social, I think that part's often overlooked :)
  • G-R-E-A-T POST!!!! I have been quite flustered lately because I believe I write about some pretty cool things going on around the net and I'm getting page views but no one seems to want to participate. It (at times) makes me feel like I've got this ora that no one connects to or that no one finds what I find interesting (except me)...

    I am a member of a lot of places like facebook, twitter, sezwho, stumbleupon and so on but I just cant seem to (like I said earlier) get anyone to comment letting me know they like what I've written :(
    It can be a frustrating bummer quite often.

    Thanks for the post though...it was some good reading!!

    Have a great friday!
    -Barb :)
  • Awesome dude. Yeah, I just made a video while I was driving in the car. When I watched it, I realized I accidentally hit the zoom button on the Flip Video and zoomed in WAY to close to my face. Just too freaky to post. Oh well.
  • Great information detailed information man. Working on my Videos as we speak!
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