Written By: Sujan Patel On June 1st, 2007 | 22 Comments
Often, bloggers come to a point in their blogging careers (usually early on) where they sit back and take a serious look at what kind of traffic numbers they are pulling in on a daily basis. A lot of times, rookie bloggers (those that have been blogging for less than six months) get discouraged when they find out through the use of stats tracking programs that they aren’t getting the kind of traffic that they feel they deserve. They may even have some great, “pillar” type articles and regular content updates but are left wondering where everyone is at!
Why aren’t people coming to your blog like they should be?
What I’m about to tell you will answer that question. Whether you’re brand new out of the gate to blogging, or even if you’ve been around for a little while – I want to go over some very basic, but highly effective ways to drive quick traffic to your blog to get that little “spark” that you need to really set the traffic on fire!
1.Take advantage of Social Bookmarking sites. This method alone could provide the boost that you need to grab some loyal readers and subscribers for life. I’m assuming that as a blogger you know what I mean when I talk about Social Bookmarking sites (Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Netscape, Slashdot…etc). These sites are basically lists of internet resources that users find useful/helpful/funny which are free and available to the general public. These sites are where you want your “all-star” articles to be bookmarked and you can accomplish this a couple different ways. The easiest way, obviously, is for you to submit them yourself. This is a matter of clicking a few buttons and sending them in. Same goes for the second way – a lot of times your readers will submit the articles for you, which is also fine and dandy. Now assuming your article is a great one that provides value to someone who reads it, then you’d better hope your hosting company can handle some major bandwidth usage because it’s not unusual to get hundreds or even thousands of hits in the matter of a few hours. Again, that’s assuming that your article is fantastic, which leads me to my next point. Don’t overdo it on submitting to these Social Bookmarking sites! Only submit those articles that you would consider your best work. The last thing you want to do is spam these sites – because eventually people will notice the spammage and won’t “vote” or “tag” your articles anymore. Trust me though, if you submit a hot article at the right time (afternoon time is usually best), your traffic will literally double, triple or even more in a very short period of time.
2. Comment, comment, comment! A highly effective way of driving quick traffic to your blog is to start getting involved in other blogger’s discussions and comments. By now, I’m sure you’ve picked a niche to write about and are probably familiar with the “power-houses” or “A-listers” in your field of expertise. What you want to do is make a list of the blogs that are related to yours that have active discussions, and hop right in! By leaving intelligent, insightful comments on popular blogs, people will want to know more about you so they click through and check out what you have to say on your own blog. Doing this on a regular basis can bring in quite a bit of traffic, and since you’re participating on a related blog, you will not only get increased traffic, but you’ll also probably end up with some loyal readers and subscribers! Spend an hour or so of your internet time commenting on other blogs, and I promise the return in traffic will be well worth your time.
3. Link to other blogs like it’s going out of style. You may be wondering what I mean by this, and why would you want to send away traffic to other blogs? The worst thing you can possibly do as a blogger is to be “link-stingy”. By linking to other blogs, even to your competitors, it is almost a given that you’ll get linked back to. You see, the “blogosphere” is built around linking or spreading the “link-love” to other blogs/sites. When you spread the link love, people always return it and link back to you and send visitors your way. It may not be immediate, but trust me, at the very least, sometime down the road they’ll link to you and you’ll be glad they did. Not only does generously linking to others bring more traffic, it will also help boost your Google PageRank because eventually you might get links from the big time blogs/sites that have a higher PR than you, which is golden. I often link back to other blogs very quickly after they link to me, as it falls under “blogger etiquette”. Try it, you won’t be disappointed.
4. Build up quality content on a regular basis. Experts in the blogging field often say, “more content = more traffic”. This is a very true statement and it behooves you to post to your blog every day if you are able, as this gives the search engines more pages to index which in turn will bring you tons more traffic. Post to your blog everyday and after 6 months you’ll have, at the very least, 180 pages indexed in the search engines! That’s quite a lot of pages, and will definitely help people find your blog if they happen to be looking for a topic that you write about. Remember – more content = more traffic.
5. Be different, even controversial. This may sound evil, but you have to understand that EVERY niche has tons of different writers, so unless you’re one of the popular ones, you need to do something to stand out. Being controversial can be a very risky and tricky, but potentially very rewarding method to build traffic. In order to stand out from the ever-growing list of bloggers in your niche you need to be different. Most people are more traditional and write about the same thing that everyone else is. Be different! If you spot something on another blog that doesn’t sound right, then call them out on it. Remember the most important aspect of blogging is putting your opinion behind your words. You’re not CNN, you’re you, and you want to offer people your unique opinion. That’s why they read what you write, because they value your opinion on the subject. Be careful when you cross into the field of controversy, because if your facts aren’t straight, you could take a major hit in your credibility. Be sure you have facts and sources to back everything up that you say.
I sincerely hope that the above tips help you in your quest to garner more traffic. If followed correctly, I guarantee that the traffic will flow. You have to understand that while these are quick ways to get more traffic - the ultimate traffic builder is time. Keep posting quality content on a routine basis and the readers will come. I promise you that.
If you found this article helpful, subscribe to the Single Grain Blog
Written By: Sujan Patel On May 30th, 2007 | 2 Comments
So you want to increase your RSS subscribers. The best way to increase your subscribers is to give your readers what they want (but not all they want). The following are a few ways to increase your Subscriptions:
1. Choose a Niche
The most important thing about increasing your blogs subscribers is choosing the right niche for you blog and sticking with it. It doesn’t have to be the most popular niche but be sure you have a passion and some expertise for the niche you choose. It is very easy to get off track when you blogging especially if you’re running out of ideas. Here are a few ways to come up with a great idea. Keep on track and turn your visitors into subscribers.
2. Social Media
Submit you blogs best post to sites like Digg, Stumble Upon, Netscape. These sites can generate thousands of visitors and potential subscribers. Here are a few other social bookmarking websites you should submit to:
Delicious
Bumpzee
Reddit
Blinklist
Spurl
Furl
Magnolia
Simpy
Raw Sugar
3. Design
It is important that your blog’s design is professional. The design is often more important than the content. A professional design gives you credibility, it makes you look and sound professional. The design assures the reader that what you are saying has to be accurate or important without them even reading a single word.
4. More!
Leave the reader wanting more. Write pillar articles, split your long post into two parts, keep your post up to date. These are a only a few of the ways to leave your readers wanting more. This will give them a reason to return.
Subscribe to Single Grain
Written By: Sujan Patel On May 16th, 2007 | 8 Comments
Before starting any good business one creates a business plan, just as you should create a blog plan before starting your own blog. A blog plan assures that your blog reaches its full potential.
1. Goal
What do you want out of blogging? The goal is simple. Some people want to make money from blogging, some want to get their name out, or some just want to blog for fun.
2. Research
Who are your competitors? Are there tools that can help you? What blogging platform should you use? Who is the authority in my niche? Research is the key to any marketing campaign. Ask yourself the questions above. Identify who you competitors are (other blogs that are in your niche and other similar niches). See if you can look for any tools that can help make your blogging experience a little easier. Look at other blogs and see what plugins they are using. Plugins will not only make your life easier, they will help optimize your blog for search engines and improve the usability of your blog. Find as much information as you can about blogs in your niche, other niches and read up on how to blog. It is better to have too much information than too little.
3. Audience
Who is your ideal audience? Who is actually going to read your blog? What is the best feature of your blog? What will your audience think of your blog? What does your audience want? These are questions you should ask yourself before you start blogging; unfortunately not all of these questions will be answered initially. Knowing your audience and knowing what they want is the key to having quality content. Once you know who they are and want they want, all that’s left is giving it to them.
4. Purpose
There are 62 million blogs, why should people read yours? What are you offering your audience? Your blog’s purpose is different from your goals. Your blog’s purpose is for your audience while your goal is for you, the blogger. Give your blog a purpose:
Example: I am an SEO and my blog provides information to help market websites. My goal is to get my name out as an SEO specialist. My purpose is to provide bloggers with information about SEO, PPC or blog optimization.
If you found this article helpful, subscribe to the Single Grain Blog
Written By: Sujan Patel On April 6th, 2007 | 1 Comment
Using good keywords in your headline can help increase traffic to your site through search engines. Most blogs receive traffic from social media, however only their latest and greatest posts receive a high volume of traffic. What about the posts that are good, but never receive any traffic because they aren’t caught on by digg or stumble upon? That’s where keywords come into play. Keywords will help drive traffic from search engines to your old posts. Keywords alone won’t do the trick, you have to make sure your blog is optimized for search engines. The first step is spending a few minutes to do keyword research, which doesn’t have to be extensive, just something very top level. I use Overture’s keyword tool,it’s free and easy to use, the only down side is the tool is slow and doesn’t always load. Then search for keywords that best fit your topic and make sure to keep track of these stats (I usually write my blogs in Microsoft Word and have all extra information at the bottom). One thing people should not do is go keyword crazy. Keep the headline catchy and understandable. Check out Copy Blogger for great headline formulas. That’s all there is to it, it’s very easy to do and often overlooked. Remember…search engines are a blog’s best friend.
Example:
On my first blog, I followed all the steps to optimize for the search engines, but really missed the boat when it came to choosing the right keywords. My goal was to have my blog show up for my name, Sujan Patel. After a few months, I realized that no one cares about me (no one searched for my name). So recently, I started using keywords in my headlines and seeing fantastic results.
Keyword: “Instant Snow”
Headline: Instant Snow
Putting the keyword in the headline of a properly optimized blog will go a long ways. Notice the keyword appears in three places: the title, URL, and headline (which happens to be an H1 tag). Also notice there is hardly any content, just two sentences and a You Tube video. After 2 days of submitting this post, I ranked number 4 for “instant snow” and I rank number 7 as of today. This drives 10-12 visitors a day, which is not a huge number, however it adds up when you do this for all our posts.
This just shows how important your headline is…so choose wisely (no pressure).
Written By: Sujan Patel On April 6th, 2007 | No Comments
Fight your addiction and blog the smart way, without wasting tons valuable time each day.
1. Admit That You’re addicted
This could be the hardest part for some. Once you admit your addiction it will only get easier. You could end up saving 5-6 hours a week.
2. Take A Break
Go watch a movie, hang out with your friends (if you have any), take a walk in the park, and don’t post a blog for 1 day. Going to the park worked really well for me.
3. Planning
Now that you are fresh and hopefully forgotten about your blog for a few hours, you are ready to start the planning. Put aside some time each week to plan what you’re going to blog about.
After blogging for a few months it’s very easy to get bloggers block, if you plan ahead this will help eliminate the block. I usually write down different topics and a few details about them at the beginning of the week.
4. Limit Yourself
Set a time limit for yourself. Don’t spread your work through the day. Just sit down and write for an hour or so, this will prevent you from wasting time and forgetting good ideas.
5. RSS Reader
Download an RSS reader and subscribe to all your favorite blogs. I didn’t notice how much time I wasted a day until I started using an RSS reader. I also noticed that I was subscribing to a lot more blogs and reading a lot more good articles.
There you have it. Doing these simple steps helped me save about 5 hours a week, and not just that, I was a lot less stressed.
Written By: Sujan Patel On April 6th, 2007 | 3 Comments
If you agree with any of the following then you are a blog addict and you need help.
1. You post more than 2 times a day.
2. It brings you great joy when you get a comment on your blog.
3. You have more than one blog.
4. You talk to your significant other your latest blog post.
5. You get your significant other to start blogging.
6. You subscribe to more than 30 blogs.
7. You consider yourself a writer.
8. You ask other men if they have a blog.
9. You dream about blogging.
10. If you laughed while reading this post.
Don’t worry. The first step is admitting you have a problem…Read our 5 step cure to a blogging addiction
Written By: Sujan Patel On April 6th, 2007 | 1 Comment
With fifty nine millions blogs (according to technorati) there are bound to be tons of mistakes. Here are some common mistakes from bloggers that I’ve seen:
1. Spelling and Grammar
Take the time to edit your post and if possible have someone edit it before you try to have your visitors view it.
2. Generic
Customize your theme, personalize your writing, and simplify your navigation.
3. Irregular publishing
Post everyday, Post every week, or at least be post on a regular basis. So if you like posting Monday and Friday… then stick with it.
4. Inconstant
If your blog is about ninja turtles then write about ninja turtles.
5. No Biography
Take some time to make an about page. If I’m reading a blog on SEO, I would make sure the author is an SEO specialist rather than some 14 year old.
Now that you know some common mistakes, make sure that you don’t make any of them.
Written By: Sujan Patel On April 6th, 2007 | 1 Comment
Increasing your RSS subscribers is pretty simple: write informative content, post on a regularly basis, and use proper tracking.
1. Informative Content
“The key to increasing traffic or increasing RSS subscribers is good content.” What exactly is good content? Let’s face it, not everyone can write well, the key is writing informatively. People now-a-days are information hungry… so feed their appetite. If you are a blogger that doesn’t have the best writing skills, but feel you have knowledge that would be helpful to others, you can write your information in list format. Keep writing and eventually you’ll become a better writer, practice makes perfect. Remember that although people are information hungry, they want to be able to access that information with ease. Therefore, the easier you make access to your information, the more people are likely to come back or subscribe to your blog.
2. Post Regularly
Writing daily would be the best, but not everyone has time to do so. Do a little planning and try to set aside time to write. If you are like me and don’t know when you’ll have time to write, then when you do have the time, write a few articles in one sitting. Do not post them all at once. Make it a habit to be consistent when you post. So if you post every other day at in the evening, then keep doing so. This way your readers know you didn’t abandon them. Remember…there are thousands of blogs that come and go, make sure your readers know you’re here to stay.
3. Tracking
Know yourself your audience. In the perfect world, you would know exactly who you are writing to before you write. However in reality, you only have a general idea of who your visitors are. This is why tracking is so important. You can know who your audience is with analytics software and who your RSS subscribers are with Feed Burner. Feed Burner gives you all the statistics of your subscribers and even allows you to optimize your feed. So now you know everything you could know about your visitors and subscribers except for how many you actually have. With Feed Burner you know how many subscribers, but if you are a Wordpress user you may have more than it actually shows. Use the feedburner plugin and it will redirect all your feeds that Wordpress automatically creates to your Feed Burner RSS feed. For the longest time I thought I had 12 subscribers, after I used this plugin it turned out it was really a few hundred subscribers.
Written By: Sujan Patel On April 6th, 2007 | No Comments
So you’ve read the first three ways to increase your RSS subscribers, and you want more, as everyone should. When blogging, you get so carried away in having rich content and a unique design that you forget about the basics. Here are a few fundamentals that you may have overlooked:
1. Standard RSS icon
There are thousands of RSS icons, but does your blog have a standard RSS icon? In an earlier post, I said “know your audience”. Part of knowing your audience is keeping in mind that not all people recognize what your fancy RSS icon is. I faced this problem a few weeks back. I had a fancy blue icon that looked more like a background image and blended in with the theme. There is a reason why the standard RSS icon is bright orange. Also make sure it is not too small so that visitors don’t just scan over your site and miss it.
Example: Sewj.com
Previous RSS icon:
Two weeks ago my blog made it to the front page of Stumble Upon (buzz.stumbleupon.com) twice. This brought me over 6000 new visitors in a two day period and a few hundred each day after that. This usually should result in a huge increase in my subscribers. Since the icon blended right in with the theme, visitors passed right by it.
Current RSS icon:
I changed over to the standard RSS icon and with only 500-800 visitors a day. My subscriptions went through the roof. I had the same content and my RSS icon was located in the same location, however I just used the standard orange icon instead of the fancy blue one. Due to this simple alteration, my subscribers went from 48 to 100 overnight (0.1% of the visitors subscribed before, now 6.5% of the visitors are subscribing).
2. Offer another way to subscribe
Remember that RSS subscriptions are new and a lot of people either don’t know about RSS or prefer the old fashion email. Offer your visitors a way to subscribe through email, there are quite a few plugins that will let you do this. If you have Wordpress, you can use Subscribe2. This way you get that extra bit of subscribers that would have otherwise passed you by. It will do better if you place this alternative by your RSS icon.
3. RSS icon in clear view
I have seen hundreds of blogs suffering from this problem. They have the standard RSS icon, but it is either cluttered with links and/or on the bottom of the blog. The key to increasing subscribers is to have your RSS icon easily accessible. Do not make the visitors think, that’s what your content is for. Have it in an open space somewhere towards the top of your blog. Make sure to keep it the same location for every page of your site.
Example: Pronet Advertising
The boys at Pronet Advertising have the perfect example of both having an alternate way to subscribe and the RSS icon in clear view. How many subscribers do they have? Around three thousand!
Written By: Sujan Patel On April 6th, 2007 | No Comments
The following data compares traffic from Digg and Stumble Upon using Google Analytics. The first website was on the front page of Digg, while the second website was on buzz section of Stumble Upon. Both articles were YouTube videos with very little content.
Digg
The article was called “Top 10 Useless USB Gadgets”. It was merely a Youtube video embedded on www.scubasewj.com (blog).
It made the front page of digg around noon and drove about 4700 visitors in 1 hour. The amount of visitors dropped drastically after the first hour. The average pageviews were only 1.15 and time spend was approximately 2 minutes. At the end of the day digg brought 32 new RSS subscribers (data not shown).
Stumble Upon
The article was called “How Italians Tell Time”, it too was a Youtube video, embedded on this very blog.It made the buzz page for the humor section of Stumble Upon late night on 12-7-06. It drove about 4100 visitors in a 5 day period. Average pageviews were 1.55 and the time spent was about the same as the article on digg, 2 minutes. At the end of the first day RSS subscribers increased by 50 and continued to increase throughout the days. It peaked at 403 RSS subscribers.
Conclusion
Digg brought a ton of traffic but it was very short living and with most of the visitors looking at only one page. While Stumble Upon brought ton of traffic but spread out throughout a few days and more visitors looked at more than one page. Stumble also increased subscribers by a great deal.
This is information to keep in mind before using Digg or Stumble Upon to drive traffic to your website.
