11 Sources and Tips for Building Blog Traffic

In my earlier posts, I have mainly written about search engine optimization , because it starts form choosing domain name , so new blogger can have benefit and bloggers who are already having blogs can optimize their new posts.

But search engine though a main source for traffic , it is not the only the source which a blogger should explore for traffic. There are many other sources for blog traffic and in this post we will discuss about that.

We will list those blog traffic sources with some explanation and list websites where you need to sign up. So I am trying to give information as What to do ? How to do it and where ( which websites) to do it, to make it easier for new and average bloggers. And they need not run here and there finding resources.

Following are the 11 blog traffic sources which you can use for your blog.

1) Source #1 : Blog directories :You need to submit to few popular blog directories after you have at least 5- 10 posts on your blog. Most of the blog directories will ask you to give reciprocal link on your blog. In some cases you need to enter reciprocal link url , then you can create a new post for giving links to such directories rather than giving link on main page of the blog. If they ask for RSS feed please enter http://yourblog.blogspot.com/rss.xml. You also need to enter your keywords as Tags or generate tags . Some directories will ask for specific size banner , so design a banner using software like photoshop , upload it at free space like pages.google.com and provide the link of the banner to the blog directories. For example banner for this blog is at http://umeshsmiles.googlepages.com/blog-traffic.jpg
Popular blog directories are listed below which allows free submission , please do not go for paid submission.

2) Source #2 : Comments, Emails, Profiles , chat , groups :
You need to comment on other blogs , develop relations with bloggers . This leads to visits from this blogs and bloggers.
You can send at least 10 emails per day writing about your blog and requesting to visit .Please do not send bulk mails or spam mails. You can mention about your blog in your profiles at google, yahoo, myspace , facebook etc. and also in chats, groups. You can answer at websites like answers.yahoo.com for related questions mentioning about your blog.

3) Source #3 : Linking to other blogs:
 You can ask for link to your blog or post to other blogs and you also need to reciprocate by giving link to other blogs or posts. This leads to link building and more traffic . Link building is beneficial for search engine ranking.

4) Source #4 : Forums, discussions,community, groups :
 From the list of websites given below, on many of them you will find discussions , groups , forums, communities .You can join groups /communities or create new one .You can take part in discussions /forums. Ask for help or give help. This leads to more traffic to your blog.

5) Source #5 : Socializing :
Digg.com:Socializing site.You can find more here - http://digg.com/about .
What all you can do at digg.com is at http://digg.com/how

StumbleUpon.com is a social network . You need to download and install a toolbar, then, when surfing the net, if you like a page and you want to share it with the community, you press a button (you stumble the page), and the page goes into the StumbleUpon circuit. On the toolbar, you also have the Stumble button, which, once pressed, shows you pages stumbled by other members.You can use stumble upon without toolbar also, once you have a account there.

6) Source #6 : Writing and submitting articles/ posts/ reviews : 
You can write articles for others / reviews for products or services. Please check websites like payperpost.com , reviewme.com

7) Source #7 : Converting new visitor to regular visitor
 - Write better providing sufficient information on the subject with proper home work done. Group /Categorize / List /Organize the content properly so it becomes easier to read and understand . Add pictures and video where ever possible to make post colorful and attractive. Rather then writing longer, cover all information in less words because on internet , visitor wants more information in less time.
Providing rewards, free e books, contest etc - You can provide some type of reward to visitors /bloggers like link or few dollar prize for comments /review of your blog or have a contest on your blog . You can write a e-book yourself and offer to download it free or you can use free e-books available on internet . This encourages visitors to stay more , visit again , subscribe to your blog posts etc. Please note that buying and selling of links is against search engine guidelines/policies.

8) Source #8 : Branding , banners, free banner exchange :
You can think of nice logo / banner /header picture for your blog with a slogan /punch line for it. You can use that logo on you posts , emails , profiles etc . As your blog grows and if related to business/products/service, you can go for brand name . While submitting your blog to directories ,some of them asks for banner so you can submit your banner here. There are free banner exchange programs run by blogs and blog directories , you can participate in that. I will try to provide list of websites for this.

9) Source #9 : Try other media :
 Think creative . Where else you can mention about your blog or display your blog . Some newspapers allows you to submit your post to them and they publish selected posts in their newspaper with blog name. So try sending your blog posts to print media.Can you display your blog url on your vehicle ? Your t-shirt?

10) Source #10 : Paid promotion :
All the above options are free to use but you need to spend many hours on internet . So if you do not have time , you can go for paid blog advertising like google adwords and other paid promotions .Please do not buy links .Please keep good and sufficient content on your blog and basic blog promotion done before going for advertising .

11) Source #11 : Mobile blogging :
Blogspot offers you to post using your mobile. Many socializing sites now offer mobile future, this saves on your time .So if you efficiently use this feature you can save time to be active more at other promotional activities which leads to more traffic.


List of the websites ( I will keep this updating) :

1) Blogcatalog.com - Blog directory ,discussions , Groups.
2) Blogskinny.com - Blogdirectory
3) Topblogarea.com
4) Blogflux.com - Directory , forum ,Polls
5) Blogtoplist
6) Bloghub
7) Getblogs.com
8) Bloglisting.net
9) Blogdirs.com
10) bloggernity.com
11) Stumbleupon.com
12) Digg.com
13) Bumpzee.com
14) Mybloglog.com
15) Blogrush.com
16) Reviewme.com
17) Payperpost.com
18) Blogcrowds.com
19) Topblogging.com
20) Topofblogs.com
21)Entrecard.com - banner exchange by credit earning.


Managing better : You need to register on above sites so it is better to keep a separate email address for blogging and common username , password for all these accounts. Also wherever possible subscribe/forward all your discussions , replies, comments to this email id so that you can check them all in one session and does not miss anything and more you remain active at any of the websites , more will be your points /visibility /traffic.

I will keep updating this post .Please tell how you find this post, your comments and suggestions are welcome.

Blog Traffic - Title optimization widget

In my previous post on title optimization , I discussed about that title of the post should get displayed as Post title + Blog title to get better search engine ranking.

I found one such widget at http://widget-based.blogspot.com/. It is for blogspot users.

After installing this your post title will get displayed as Post title + Blog title.

But I also found one problem with this widget i.e. after installing this widget when I go to Layout and try shifting the position of page elements and click save , it does not save the changes.

Please do not use this widget for title optimization , if you already have good search engine ranking.

Blog Promotion Offer

I feel visitors coming to this blog are finding my posts useful. I get encouraged by their comment to write more and to help more.

So a blog promotion idea has struck to my mind.

A blog promotion group can be formed here to help each other.

And following can be first step towards that.

I feel I should create a new search engine friendly post on this blog , where I should provide links to blog promotion group blogs (including this blog ) with proper anchor text ,title tag etc. to boost their search engine ranking and traffic. Then group members need to copy this new promotional post on their blogs.This will give boost to all group blogs as each member will get 14 search engine friendly links.This group we will be formed from the visitors coming here and wish to join.
I plan to have around 15 members for this group , so those who want to join please leave a comment here with your blog url , anchor text for link and short description of your blog in 10 to 15 words.

Please note that new post will be created after I get around 15 members here. And these are not just text links but optimized links .

Please note that some visitors might be looking for links with related content , but these links will work as links with related contents as there will be related words . So even if you are looking for link on related content blog , you can join here.

Please note that this group will continue for more promotional activities and all members will give ideas for that.

I would like to quote following which I have read on internet today while surfing.

Coming together is a beginning.
Keeping together is a progress.
Working together is success.
- Henry Ford

Your comments and suggestions are welcome.

Blog traffic - keyword research

In my earlier posts I have told that one need to do keyword research for the subject of his/her blog. And try to find popular keywords. Then after finding this keyword one should use it in domain name ,title etc as I have said in my earlier post.

Now how to do this keyword research ? What are the free tools available ?

Please check following sites for keyword research.

http://www.wordtracker.com/index.html ( go for free trial)

http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/

http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/search.html

http://www.google.com/trends


After finding the keywords , you need not select the most popular one , because sometimes you can not get top ranking for that keyword. So you need to choose smartly among the popular keywords. For this wordtracker.com will be useful.

Please comment as how you find this post.

Picture / Image optimization on blog

During my visit to many blogs , I found that many of them have not optimized the pictures on their blog. So I am writing this , it is very easy and helps to get higher search engine ranking.

This is for blogspot users.

When you create a new post or edit a existing post , above post body , you find a chain like symbol called 'Insert link' or Link. You have to select the picture with single mouse click and then click insert link icon , it will ask you to enter http:// .Here you have to enter your blog URL i.e. yourname.blogspot.com.

After this click on 'Edit html' above post body , located beside compose.

You will find alt " " .You need to enter your keyword in the quotes i.e. alt"keyword"

Now you can publish your post , check your picture by clicking on it and by pointing mouse on it.
Your picture optimization is done. You can also rename your jpg file to your-keyword.jpg.
Please do not optimize all old images on your blog at a time .

Please also check from where you are loading images (picture url) and file size of picture in kilobytes ,because some times due to this your blog gets loaded slowly.You can reduce file size using softwares like Photoshop.

I have also done keyword optimization by text link optimization , in this post .Find out those and leave a comment here.

thanks

What is title optimization

There are two type of titles 1) Blog title and 2) Post title

When we visit main url of the blog , what we see on top most line of browser is blog's title and when we click on individual post this line displays post title.

In my earlier posts , I have mentioned that your chosen keyword should be used in post title as well as blog title to get better search engine ranking.The earlier the keyword is found in title , more marks you get for ranking. Please do not edit your old titles for optimization.

But in case of blogspot blogs, the title of the post is displayed as Blog title + Post title.
In case of wordpress blogs the title of the post is displayed as Post title + Blog title.
In case of normal website individual title of the page is displayed without adding title of the main website. In case of blogs, posts are webpages ,but title is displayed differently (as mentioned above) and hence we loose marks during search engine ranking.

So for blogspot blogs we need some technique or widget by which we can display post title as Post title + Blog title i.e. reverse of normal way.

If you have a blogspot blog please click on one of the post to find out how title is displayed, then click on posts of this blog to find how title is displayed.

So I will add a widget here to do this title optimization , it also has a problem which i will discuss.

Please note that we are talking of post title and not title tag. It is a html tag which I will discuss in some other upcoming post.

to be continued ...........

Please leave your comments

Jump start your blog

I was active last two days on blogcatalog and discussing blog promotions also. It was good experience and was nice to talk to bloggers. I visited many blogs and found that they have missed few basic things related to their blog optimization and promotions. So I felt I should write this post to boost their blog and jump start their blog.

1)Please do keyword research for the subject of your blog. For which keywords you want your blog to be ranked high in search engines ? Find out popular keyword.
2) Try to use this keyword in domain name / blog name.
3) Use this keyword in Title and description of your blog.
4) Submit your blog to good top blog directories. Do not submit to paid one.
5) Optimize pictures/images on your blog by hyper linking them to your blog with your keyword in ALT and TITLE tag.
6) Use keyword in content of the post, do not over do it. Convert those keywords in to hyper link with TITLE tag. See blog promotions word in first line of this post.
7) When visitors comes to your blog he is looking for some content so please see that in first screen of the blog, content of your recent post is visible and not ad or something else.
As 70% user have 1024 x 768 screen, check visibility in that resolution and also in 800 X 600 screen resolution. If for any reason loading of the blog is slower please find out why it is so, many times because we load images from other source so correct it.
8) Will add more tips .......


Few tips above need more explanation so I will add it soon e.g. sites for doing keyword research, how to add hyper link, ALT tag etc.

To be continued.....

Please leave your comment here, it will boost me and my blog :)

Search engine optimization tutorials - SEO tutorials

This post is for new and average bloggers. To get more traffic to a blog, one need higher search engine ranking. And if you need simple guide for search engine optimization (SEO) here it is. It starts from choosing the domain name ( blog name /website name). First you have to decide for which keyword or keywords you need higher ranking in search engines. Suppose your name is Krish, and you want higher ranking for keyword 'Blog Income', then rather than choosing your domain name as krish.blogspot.com, choose the domain name as blog-income.blogspot.com. You can have your blog on blogspot (blogger) or word press or other. After choosing domain name (blog name), choose relevant title matching to your keyword. So in our example rather than choosing Krish's Blog , you can choose 'Increase Blog Income'. Do not have more than 2-3 word for domain name, in case of blogspot blog.

So to make this guide simpler, I will tell you where you should use keyword on your blog.
Please do not edit your old titles for optimization.

Try to use your desired keyword in ( it should look natural use and not look as to inflate search engine ranking)
1) Blog name (Domain name)
2) Title of the blog
3) Description of the blog
4) Title of post
5) Body of post ( matter within post)
6) Labels / Categories
7) In ALT "keyword "of Images/Pictures in the post ( if images are there)
8) Select this image and give it hyperlink pointing to your post.
9) Try to get back links (link to your blog on other blogs) from other blog with anchor text as your keyword.
In our example 'Blog Income' pointing to your blog. Some precautions need to be taken for back links, I will write more about it later.
10) As search engine gives importance to text link as well as Image link to your blog , please go for picture link also, with proper ALT tag and TITLE tag.
11) Do not submit your blog to search engines (?), it is better that search engine spider /crawler finds your blog .
12) Submit your blog in Yahoo directory, Google directory and top blog directories in relevant category.
13) Read Google search engine guidelines.

How to add google adsense in post body

This widget/code is for blogger/blogspot users, who want to add a 200x 200 google adsense unit in their post, either on left side or right side.

After login, go to dashboard, then go to layout, then go to edit html, then click on expand widget template, then within html code search for

After this code add


After this code , please paste google adsense code given below, or your generated google adsense code with the options suggested. The code needs to be parsed i.e. check image which follows code.You can parse your code here http://www.blogcrowds.com/resources/parse_html.php

<script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-xxxxxxxxxxxx";
google_ad_width = 200;
google_ad_height = 200;
google_ad_format = "200x200_as";
google_ad_type = "text_image";
google_ad_channel = "";
google_color_border = "6699CC";
google_color_bg = "000055";
google_color_link = "FFFFFF";
google_color_text = "AECCEB";
google_color_url = "AECCEB";
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>

Check this image for parsed code as it can not be typed here.



Instructions:


1. pub-xxxxxxxxxxx is google publisher code, which you need replace with your publisher code i.e. replace xxxxxxxxxx with your google publisher code.

2. The line 'float:left' is for placing ad on left hand side of post, if you make it right, ad will appear on right side of post. Right side is recommended.

3. Parse code as shown in image, it is necessary. Click on image to enlarge

4. After adding parsed code you need to add div code as shown in picture.

5. Please save your original template before making any changes.

Blog guide - Blog tutorial

This blog will help beginners and average bloggers for

1) How to start a blog ?
2) How to get more traffic on your blog?
3) How to monetize your blog?
4) Tricks and tips for blogs
5) Widgets for blogs
6) Blog templates

Blog traffic - Link love

This page is for those blogs and directories who has given link to this Blog traffic tips blog.



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