Confessions of a Six Figure Professional Blogger

Top 3 Suggestions For Driving Traffic To Your Blog

April 22, 2009 | Blogging, Feature, Marketing

Most bloggers don’t really have a hard time writing and figuring out what to say on their blogs. The big challenge is driving traffic. How do we get people to pay attention to us?

Dustin from SageProfit.com asked me:

I’ll like to hear your top three suggestions for driving traffic to a new blog. Content creation comes easily…it’s the marketing aspect that creates a challenge.

Let me tell you what I get the most bang from.

#1 – Guest Posting on Other Blogs

This has probably had the single biggest impact on my traffic growth to this blog since I started. Mind you, I haven’t made a habit of it and I should probably do it more. I have written for ProBlogger, John Chow and I did an interview with Yaro Starak. In each case, I contributed to the audiences of those blogs by talking about my approach and opinions. These 3 bloggers, however, are currently among the top players in the "problogger” market.

Definitely take the time to identify the other bloggers in your market. Read those blogs. Get involved in the comments. When you spot something you can contribute to those blogs, write a guest post and send it in. Here are my guidelines for guest posting on other blogs.

TIP: When a major player in your market posts a new post, try to be one of the first people to comment on that post. Make a meaningful comment and make mention of some post on your own blog that discussed the same topic or elaborates on it.

#2 – Build A Social Network

You’ve got to take the time to build up your online tribe. Build your Twitter presence through participation in the conversation. Build your Facebook network and connect Twitter to your Facebook profile. Set up your FriendFeed profile and have your tweets and your blog posts piped into your account. Get involved with StumbleUpon and Digg. Get involved with MyBlogLog.

Yes, these things take time to manage, participate in and use. But, it is worth your time. Without your network, your blog is an island nobody knows about.

TIP: When using social media, spend more time promoting other people than you do yourself. It is a matter of reciprocity and being a good member of the party.

#3 – Post Videos Everywhere

Create videos and use TubeMogul to get them out onto every video site you can. Use the description field for your videos to put your URL right at the beginning of your video description. Then, put a keyword-rich description of the video and tag your video with related search keywords.

You might need to get creative with how you use your videos, too. If you want a video to spread and get ratings, then use your site’s mailing list to seed the views and ask your visitors to rate your video. Use your social network to perhaps do the same.

SNEAKY TIP: On Youtube, you can use the video reply function to post your video as a reply to a related popular video. That increases the visibility because you’re attached to a video which is already popular.

Generating traffic is a science and an art. There are a LOT of tactics to do it that I can’t even get into in one post. The general motto, however, is simply not to be an island. Your blog might be your online home, but you’ve got to be everywhere on the Internet in order to get people to the blog. Be wherever your audience is.

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

  1. How to Get a Brand New Blog Off The Ground [Traffic]
  2. Blog Outposts – Master This and Traffic Isn’t a Problem
  3. 4 Tactics To Increase Your Blog Traffic THIS WEEK
  4. How To Get Blog Traffic By Pissing Off Your Audience
  5. Driving Behavior, Not Conversation

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  • D.L.SARGENT
    As always , find your post /guest post all very informative...lots of good points and ideas!
  • dorothybellisario
    I enjoyed reading all your post on getting traffic. That has been my problem and I was procrastinating but after reading your post I'll get off my lazy butt. Thanks for the great writing
    Dorothy
  • I need to get into video. Fast.
  • I love this statement "Generating traffic is a science and an art." :)
  • Good points. Also don't forget to use Onlywire or Social Marker to post to your favorite social networking sites and promote other peoples bookmarked posts. Reciprocity....
  • Thanks for sharing this tips.

    1-Guest posting is a good idea. Also posting comments on “follow” blogs is powerful.

    2-I’m using facebook and twitter… they are cool tools. Bookmarking site like delicious is also a good way to get traffic to your blog.

    3-Videos can be dificult to do but google like them. I believe it has a very strong impact for your business. I always use tubemogul, it’s great tool to upload.
  • Hi David,

    I find video is the most prolific method followed by Article marketing. Social media sites are a close third and growing in popularity.

    I tried guest blogging but most half decent blogs are not open to strange people aking for a guest spot.

    Thanks for sharing
  • uggh- so much to learn! I'm looking forward to getting it all sorted out and put into practice!
    Someone else mentioned how to go about identifying other related blogs when yours isn't a mega-topic... ideas on that front?
  • Thanks for the tips on video. I have made some videos, but haven't gotten to the point of promoting them yet! I need to get to that next step. Tube mogul sounds like a good starting point.
  • Another interesting post. I think video has to be the way to go. It's an incredibly powerful medium, but sadly not one I am happy using just yet - the idea of my face on a video isn't good!
  • Excellent Chuck, you know what your doing. I really like this blog because it helps people and it reminds a lot of us that David is a wealthy but down to earth guy. He has created a great place here.
  • Jody, I'm doling OK but I don't consider myself wealthy. I've got a family so every dime I keep gets spent! :)
  • Thanks Dave! Really insightful and concise. I literally take suggestions like these and work them like a punch list (as time allows).
  • Good tips. Although my blog is relatively new I receive much traffic from being on the first page of Google under very popular search terms. I accomplished this very quickly by applying seo strategies to individual blog post urls, not just the main blog url. For example I had a beef with the Warrior Forum so I wrote about it, worked to get that specific post url ranked on p1 of Google under "Warrior Forum" and related keywords, had a similar Squidoo Lens on the same topic which made top 100, linked them all together like a spider on meth and received traffic from controversial, catchy title. Well that one post became so popular it pushed my entire blog to page one of Google under my main business keyword (out of @10 million results). I've been on page 1 for months all because some nimrods at the Warrior Forum pissed me off. I sent them a thank you card.
  • Get involved, get involved, get involved. You really do have to hit the Internet from ALL angles, all the time, every day. This is where you realize it's very very hard to do this (the right way!) for more than one blog at a time.
  • Great points. I'd love to incorporate some guest blogging, but my challenge is tracking down other blogs in my market. They exist, for sure, but typically represent competitor sites. I suppose expanding my focus could be the solution.
  • Thanks for your important article. My blog's googl rank is decreasing from 4 to zero. What is happening to my blog? please help give me advice for what i should do.
  • Vurtha, not sure. If your traffic hasn't changed, through, don't stress it. People put too much emphasis on the PR.
  • All very true David, I too am trying all this and then some, LOT of work but worth it. If your content is good, people will come back and spread the word. Of course one can always pay to advertise (the easy way out...) if you have the capital, which most do not, especially if starting out.
  • What I like about you David is the simplicity of your posts. They're very useful.

    Yes I agree -- social media can be a full-time job. Bloggers should develop an efficient and consistent content production schedule.

    Having a bunch of prepared great content makes social media so much more fun and rewarding.
  • OK, I do these things but as far as #1 - guest posting on other blogs, what if I had a blog that doesnt have any real big players like a johnchow or problogger? Maybe all i find about a topic are other blogs that are in the same boat as me, and maybe worse.

    Is it worth it to spend the time to guest post for a blog that I know doesn't get good traffic?
  • Eric, just look to see if they have some traffic. Don't discriminate against blogs without a whole lot of traffic because (1) some day they might be larger and (2) it is still incoming links. :)
  • Participating in other social networks and commenting on other blogs can be a full-time job, in and of itself, but it's worth every minute you spend on it. I get as much traffic from other blogs and social sites as I do from any other source.
  • The single most important thing I will take from this article is to promote others' blogs more than your own. I am very guilty of going to social networking blogs only to promote my own blog, not to participate or promote others.

    My reason is that I don't have alot of time to participate, and I am not completely knowledgeable about how to promote other sites (except to give links on my own site).

    But, you are right - reciprocity is important. I need to dedicate more of my time to participating in social networking sites and promoting others and less time promoting myself.

    Thanks for this eye-opener.
  • Thanks for the tips Dave,

    I use Facebook to promote my post and also put link to share it. Amazing, it worked well when I just put single Facebook link rather than Share to many social network. I got some traffic from my readers sharing what I wrote.

    Since my blog is still 4 months old, I consider guest posting will make big impact. Need to find related blogs talking about the same topic.
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