Blogging 108 Traffic Generation

You probably already know that it is going to be important to continue to keep the traffic on your site. You must take the proper steps to bring in the traffic even after your blog has been created and launched. There are different ways for you to do this.

 

1. Search engine optimization (SEO)
2. Backlinks and anchor text
3. Pinging
4. RSS
5. Submitting to blog directories

 

How to use backlinks and anchor text

 

 

You've already learned about metatags and keyword research. The same keywords that you found from your research can also be embedded in anchor text. To use anchor text effectively, put the keywords you are promoting into a link that points back to your site. Here's an example: <a href='your blog's web address'> desired keyword </a>. The words 'desired keyword' will appear as a link. This can be used in article marketing, link trading and any other promotional techniques you use.

 

Create an incoming link by leaving comments on blogs belonging to other people. It is acceptable for you to do this on most blog comment forms. When others use search engines to visit that blog they see your incoming link and can directly visit your blog.

 

Visit forum posting that are related to your blog, then leave the link to your blog here. You can do this by making it part of your signature. You generate a new link each time you leave a comment. You can also agree to exchange links with other sites and blogs that are on related topics to generate more traffic to your site.

 

What is Pinging?

 

Pinging is another way of bringing traffic to your blog. The way it works is by letting search engines and other feed directories know that the content on your blog has been updated. Sites such as PingoMatic and Pingoat are two that are set up to provide this service. Technorati is one of the most high-ranking pinging sites available. They inform other sites that take content from blogs that you are updated and all you have to do is visit the pinging site each time you update. The more sites they ping, means that more potential visitors re coming your way.

 

There are two ways to use a ping site. One way is by having your blog added to directories and then you tell them when the updates are normally made. They will checks for updates every so often. However, the best way is by having blogging software that will ping specific services automatically whenever your blog is updated.

 

RSS Explained

 

Most all blogging software has a built in script that will create an RSS feed. RSS are the initials that stand for Really Simple Syndication. The way it works is easy, both the title and a small potion of your blog post is contained in the feed. Then this feed is picked up by other feed directories.

 

The best way to ensure that your feed is picked up by feed directories is to add it manually. You should also use search engines that update often such as Ask, Yahoo and Google.

 

What you need to create your own RSS feed

 

In the event that your software does not create the RSS feed automatically, you can do it yourself. You can find the tools you need on the internet for free. One link where you can find a tool to create an RSS feed for free is http://rdf.mobrien.com/xml/rss/open/make-rss/.

 

After your RSS feed has been created then you need to add your feed link to the feed reader of others. It is important to know that you have two types of feed readers. One type is the offline which are programs that stand alone such as FeedDemon. The offline type also includes NewsGator, which is a feed program that is part of an email that works with Outlook. Some programs such as Mozilla products have the feed reader built into the program. The other type of RSS feed reader is the online type which include Bloglines.

 

Basically both types work the same. The person visiting your blog will have to click on an icon that will add your content to their reader or start pagers such as Google Personalize Home, My Yahoo or My MSN. This technique is great for getting search engines to pick up your blog content.

 

After creating your RSS feed you then want to add it to feed directories. You can receive a free list of RSS directories that contain the top fifty-five sites at http://www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55/. However, if you want a list that has been updated and put in top priority you can receive this by subscription.

 

RSS feeds are great for generating new content for your blog and allowing others to have your content available on their blogs. This means more people have access to your blog, which helps to bring in more visitors. With more traffic you have better ad sales.

 

The importance of Feedburner

 

Feedburner is an important service that makes it easier for people to gain access to your content. It does this by organizing your RSS feed and making it more attractive. You can register for this service for free by simply supplying your feed address. After the registration process has been taken care of there are several options available for you to publicize the content of your blog.  

 

You can improve your feed to make it compatible with most feed readers to reach more people. Your feedburner will also give you the option to bookmark or email items into your feed. This means you have the ability to add links, photos, descriptions and change titles in your feed.

 

With feedburner you also have the ability to convert feed to HTML, automatically ping services when updating and add email subscriptions to your feed. There are two ways to show viewers five of your newest headlines with animated graphic. Just look under “publicize” for this option to make visiting your blog even easier. You have two version available, one is flashy silver and the other is more modest and better for emails.

 

Blog directories

 

Blog directories are another great way to get visitors interested in your blog. The way it works is by placing blogs in different categories according to their topics and contents. This makes it easier and faster for people to locate blogs that interest them.

 

Here is a list of popular and influential blog directories.

 

 

• Blog Ranking
• Blog search engine
• BlogCatalog
• Blogdex
• BlogFinds
• Blogflux
• BloggerFind
• Bloggernity
• BlogMap
• BlogMatcher
• BlogOrama
• Blogsweet
• Blogtree
• Bloguniverse
• BlogWatch
• Blogwise
• Blogz
• Bloogz
• BoingBoing
• Complete RSS
• DayPop
• Diarist
• FeedsFarm
• Findory
• Globeofblogs
• LSBlogs
• Plazoo
• Postami
• RDFTicker
• ReadAblog
• RocketInfo
• Search4Rss
• SynBlog
• The Weblog Review
• TruthLaidBear
• Wilsdomain

 

 

Things to do before submitting to a blog directory

 

When you submit to a blog directory you will need to supply some basic information. To speed things up and make it easier for you it would be best to have all this information in a file ready to be cut and pasted. This will include the title of your blog, feed address, web address and an interesting description of your blog. You should have several descriptions of various lengths available as different directories require different lengths. Also keep in mind that this description is what makes people want to visit your blog so make it appealing.

 

You may be asked to put a banner on your blog that links back to their directory site. Many times complying with this request will get you a free listing. There are two main types of directories one of which includes a particular niche and the other includes general listings. In other words, some focus on certain regions such as the UK or Canada while others puts the focus on the arts.

 

Using blog rings for promotion

 

Have you ever heard of a blog ring? It is yet another way that you can promote your blog. A blog ring is very similar to a web ring because blogs that have things in common join together to create a ring. It could be blogs with similar content such as hobbies, writing or people that have similar jobs. Some of these rings are made up of blogs from the same region or country. It is very simple to do; you place a link on your blog showing that you belong to the ring along with links leading to the next person in the ring.

 

It is suggested that you check out the blog ring before joining just so you will know what the other blogs are offering. After all you are sending visitors to other blogs from your site, but in return other blogs are sending traffic your way also.

 

What is Tagging

 

People that are familiar with the social web or Web 2.0 already have a good idea of what tagging is. It is a modern way to both categorize your content and publicize your blog. Tagging can be done with as little as one word, a group of words or a phrase.

 

The key to tagging

 

The key to tagging is actually very simple, the words you use for tagging need to be ones that will be commonly used by people. This will make it easier for visitors to find your content. If you did a good job with your keyword research it will help you be more successful with tagging. Search engines can list tags very quickly making it easy for your site to be found.

 

Social bookmarking is tagging sites of interest so they can be shared with others on the web. Tagging is the main feature used for social bookmarking and this type of marking is available in two types.

 

 

Tagging and bookmarking, how to get started

 

The first thing you need to do is get a social bookmarking account. This is a simple process that requires a username and a password. You can use your browser or other bookmarking services to import and tag bookmarks. If you want to, you can add a bookmarking to your toolbar. This will allow the process to work automatically. You can also add bookmarks to your blog manually.

 

Take a good look at bookmarking sites over a period of several days. The tags that appear in the biggest type are the most popular ones. If you tag posts that are similar to yours it will help your post to be noticed quicker. You may also be able to receive backlinks from sites with related content.

 

You can also get automatic links from people who take feeds from bookmarking sites. Over a period of time you will be able to use this as a great tracking tool. This is because normally you can see how many people bookmark a link and see what they have to say about this link.

 

It is very important to make your tags specific due to all the thousands of posts tagged for major search engines. You also want to make sure readers can easily add the content of your blog to their social bookmarking sites.

 

Some of the top social bookmarking sites are listed below in alphabetically order.

 

• Blinklist.com
• BlogMarks.net
• BlogMemes.net
• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Furl
• Kaboodle
• Ma.gnolia
• Reddit
• Scuttle
• Shadows
• Simpy
• Spurl   
• Yahoo! My Web 

 

 

Technorati

 

Technorati is the most dominant blog search engine around. They track over fifty million blogs and using their services is a great way to get your blog noticed. First you will need an account. Then enter the URL of your blog. After this you will have to decide between two options. You can write a post which will need a link for your Technorati account or you can add a code to your blog which will be supplied by Technorati.

 

Tagging with keywords

 

To bring more traffic to your blog you need to tag it. This is done after it has been claimed and you need to use keywords and other tags that are related to the content of your blog for this tagging. Your blog will appear when a person clicks on the tag that you provided. Using Technorati is suggested if you want to start another blog. Their top favorites can show you what topics are the most popular at this time.

 

Using search engines for your blog

 

It is easy and smart to use search engines for your blog. You simply need to add your URL to the list that gets crawled. Large search engines are great to use but smaller ones can also prove to be very useful. One reason is that the larger search engines crawl the smaller ones.

 

You can submit URLs individually but take care when doing this. If you flood the search engines you could be accused of spamming. This will look bad on your profile and downgrade your site. Free software that allows you to automatically submit to search engines is called WebCEO. Submitting to search engines is easy all you have to do is provide then with some basic information and you are ready to go.

 

Article marketing

 

Article marketing is another way to promote your blog. First you write articles pertaining to your blog. You can even rewrite versions of the information found on your blog posts if you want to. Then you submit these articles to article directories. At the end of the articles you put links in a box that directs readers back to your blog.

 

Once the articles are accepted by the article directories other sites can take the article and reprint them for their sites, but the links to your blog is kept in the box. What this means is that these other sites are providing readers with links to your blog. EzineArticles.com is an a article directory that has an approval process for the articles you submit, but many of the others will publish your articles immediately.

 

Submitting to article directories

 

There are some article directories that will only let you submit your articles manually. This can be very time consuming, especially if you have a lot of articles to submit. Fortunately, you do have other options available. You can purchase article submission software. This is programs that allow you to submit articles to whichever site you choose by simply pressing a button.

 

You can list your article in an e-zine directory, if you created an ezine from your content. Here are four of the most popular ones available.

 

·         Ezinesearch

·         E-zine-list

·         Bestezines.com

·         Ezinelinks

 

Other sites such as Article Marketer can submit to thousands of web publishers very quickly. They have several services to choose from. You can select the free service or they offer a paid service. Both are very effective depending on what you are looking for. With the paid method you can submit one time and your article will be continuously submitted to suitable web publishers, this is a great way to submit to article directories.

 

Link exchanges or traffic exchanges explained

 

Exchanging links with others is another way to bring in traffic to your blog. This is called link exchanges or traffic exchanges. It is similar to a blog ring because you are linked with other, but the sites you are linked to may not have anything in common when it comes to the content. When you use Link exchanges you are allowed to put a link on someone else’s blog directing their visitors to your blog, as long as you put someone else’s link on your blog or a link to the exchange program. Link2Blogs is one of these link exchanges sites that you can use.

 

When using the link exchange you will need to see how it is working for you. If your traffic increase it’s worthwhile to continue, but if traffic slows down due to pages loading slowly or other reasons you may want to reconsider. You should also check to see whose links you are featuring on your site, it could be a competitors.

Understanding blog traffic exchanges

 

Remember that bringing traffic to your blog is the key to being successful. Another great way to do this is through the use of traffic exchange. Choose a traffic exchange network such as Blog Explosion or BlogAzoo and set up an account. Once you have joined a traffic exchange you will be required to visit other blogs for a specified amount of time.

 

The blog you need to visit is normally displayed inside a frame. Here you will see a timer that will let you know if you have spent enough time visiting that blog. Some networks may even require you to put in a code at the end of the required time. This proves that you were actually looking at the site.

 

Earning credit with traffic exchanges

 

visting these other blogs and staying there is the way you earn credit with the traffic exchang. You may be given a few credits just for joining the traffic exchange, but of course the goal is to earn enough credits to get your blog in a frame that require others to view it. This is how you increase the traffic to your blog. It is also a good way to learn of new features and ideas that might help you to improve your blog.

 

However, you do have to visit several sites to earn a visitor for your site. It is also possible to randomly earn bonus credits from some traffic sites. A tip for building up your credits quickly is to have several programs running at once. This is easy if you have a tabbed browser.

 

One thing that you do need to keep in mind is that the people that visit your blog form traffic exchanges are doing so just to earn credits for themselves, but if they like what they see they will keep coming back and may even refer you to someone else.

 

 

 

How forums can increase blog traffic

 

One of the best ways to increase your blog traffic is through the use of a forum. People visit forums all the time and by placing a link to your site on forums you are giving each one of them access to your blog. You want to start by finding forums that are reverent to your blog site. You can do this by using a site that tracks all major forums such as, http://www.big-boards.com/.

 

You begin by joining the forum and creating a signature. Use anchor text when doing this so the link you use looks like keywords. You should click on the option that lets you include your signature each time you post to a forum. You can create backlinks by reply to post from other people or by just commenting on something.