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How To Drive Traffic to Your Blog – The Advice of a 12 Year Old

Posted By Darren Rowse 13th of February 2007 Blog Promotion 0 Comments

Remember 12 year old blogger David Wilkinson from Techzi? David and I have kept in touch with one another since I posted about him last and recently I asked him to consider writing a guest post here at ProBlogger. I thought a 12 year old’s perspective on how to get traffic to your blog might be worth hearing. Here’s his post.

When Darren Rowse comes up to you, and asks you to write a post for ProBlogger.net, it’s not something you can really say ‘no’ to. Not that you’d want to of course, but more the fact that it’s the opportunity of a lifetime. Why should I write, of all people though? Well Darren wanted to hear the methods that I as a young person use to drive traffic to my blog, without spending any money.

Learning the basics

First you need to grasp and understand that the Internet is a big place. Several billion web-pages, and often with very little time available to the end-user, they’ll use several techniques to find what they’re looking for.

SEO

Search? Standard engines like Google, Yahoo and Live are the most popular nowadays, and optimizing your site to be found easily, can be easy and hard based on many factors.

My best advice for someone starting out would be to start by building quality content for somebody to see, then progressing to “The Three Cs”. This way, you’ll get noticed by genuinely interested people, who’ll actively want to play a part in your site’s development, by giving you quality feedback on ways to improve, design and usability.

If you have a blog or a website that’s been going for several weeks, perhaps a month or two, and you’ve done “The Three Cs”, or at least some of them, would be to start focusing on building on your existing content, with fresh, interesting, relevant and unique content. Note I say ‘relevant’ and ‘unique’. This is important. There are so many splogs out there now-a-days, that people can quickly distinguish whether an article has been written by somebody or not, at least the majority of the time. Relevance too, like I said, is a key factor. If you have a very personal blog, then one day write something completely off-topic about a new type of golf club that comes out, people will start to wonder if you and your blog actually have an aim or a purpose, which is yet another vital thing to consider.

If you’re somebody with a very mature blog, that is several months or more old, you can now focus on the technical side of things, which is mainly down to the spiders. If you’ve been blogging this long, then if you’re not on your own domain, or hosting, I recommend it, as it allows for greater flexibility, design and SEO. Search engine optimization? Yep! A Google Sitemap can be stuck on your server for the Google-Bot and metatags can be added, which let you pre-define information about your page automatically, such as the author, a description, keywords and feed information. This also makes usability easier for feed-ready browsers like Firefox and Internet Explorer 7. Tacky pre-set designs become a thing of the past too, and upgrading to WordPress can be a smart move, as the developer community there will help you along the way with every aspect of your blog, from the writing itself, to the advanced functionality like widgets that are available, and the themes that are freely downloadable to customize your blog’s look. Of course you could always give design a go yourself as I did at Techzi.net – though admittedly I enlisted the help of two professional designers as well.So, what are these ‘C’s that I’ve been talking to you so much about anyway? Read on to find out…

Community, communication, consideration.

The three founding principals of marketing your blog to an audience, whether general, or specific. People want to get be a part of the next thing, so give them a chance.

1. Community

Whether you start up your own community, or join others, via means of MyBlogLog, MySpace, LinkedIn, Xing and others, this is a guaranteed and proven way to get visitors, to get hits, impressions, and often quality traffic, because you know that these people haven’t just clicked on a random link or search engine listing, but have seen you or your website’s profile, and followed it through to your homepage/landing page. The best ways to get the profiles themselves noticed? See below…

2. Communication

I don’t mean ‘spam’ by this either. Get involved in genuine discussions, with other people of similar interests, start up a civilized, profitable, knowledgeable discussion, then when you’re finished, ask if they’d take a look at your blog or website. You’d be surprised how many loyal readers have come to my own blog in this way. Simply leave comments in communities, on social networks, on other blogs, etc.

Still not quite your way of dealing with people?

3. Considering

All the time, you have to consider the reader. Who are you writing for? The reader. Who will be navigating your blog? The reader. Who should you devote your time, energy and attention to? The reader. Consideration is important, and you can show this in many ways. Either by having a clutter-free, easy-to-follow design, or you could alternatively try getting the readers involved, by asking questions in blog posts, or website statements, and opening up comments. If people comment, strike up a conversation with them, and keep them coming back. Answer their queries and requests with solid, reliable, dependable answers, and take note of the feedback they leave by using it, and putting it into action. If someone states that your text is hard to read, change the colour to stop it clashing so much with the background, or simply make it slightly larger.

There are lots of ways you can show consideration to your audience, and it shows just how loyal you are to your readers through this. If someone spots an inaccuracy in a blog post and tells you, don’t be lazy. Go change it! They’ll keep coming back, they’ll tell their friends, and in turn this C will do word-of-mouth marketing wonders.

The Element of Surprise

You’ve looked at both SEO, content and the ‘C’s now, but my last tip is probably what has brought me the large majority of my visitors, both loyal and one-off traffic hoppers. Differentiate yourself, do something different. Be daring, be random! Try something wild, or something completely unheard of, whether it’s outrageous, or greatly beneficial to the reader. Sometimes, even beneficial to the writer! (http://www.techzi.net/donations/) Mad things work out great sometimes, other times, they really can lower your reputation, so it’s time to take calculated risks here.

My advice? Follow your instincts. Be an entrepreneur. Take that risk. Make it happen. Throw a competition (http://www.techzi.net/competition/), for all the good it will do. Stand out and be different. Darren will sure know what I mean by that…

David Wilkinson writes at http://www.techzi.net/

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About Darren Rowse
Darren Rowse is the founder and editor of ProBlogger Blog Tips and Digital Photography School. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Comments
  1. I really enjoyed this article.
    It is very well written, and at times I could not believe it is written by a 12-year old. Keep up the great work.
    I will take a look at his site, I’m sure it’s as useful as this article.
    Thanks to ProBlogger for a great add.
    Vitaliy Dadalyan
    http://www.tempsurgeon.com/

  2. Hi there, a very interesting read.

    My blog is quite new, and I’m experimenting with ways to get some traffic.

    I have discovered a few tricks that I’ll continue to explore. If you’re interested I have a post about them here:

    Driving Traffic To Your Pathetic Blog.

    Thank you for sharing your secrets, if we all do this, we can all benefit.

  3. I’ll take this good advice. The 3 “C’s” are easy to remember! I’m implementing the second “C” right now :)

  4. Thats some good advice little man! I see its paying off for you, would love top hear about any new ideas you may have.

    -Chimbles

  5. Not really all that new, still something good for a newbie to go over. Mind you, I am only a year or so older. Lot more things you can get traffic through, just need to work at it. In general, there are no rules to follow, the way you go about can get you traffic or fail. Just depends on your niche and how you chose to get it out.

  6. As someone who is new the the blogging community I am amaized by how many differnt ways there are to transform your blog into a heavily visited site. Are there professional companies that will do this for you?

  7. WoW!

    I see another Shankar Ganesh here..
    Keep going David.

    Bala

  8. The main problem for me is that I just can’t find any audience for my blog!! And sometimes I wonder if anyone is interested in tech news at all..

  9. Needless to say that I am impressed by David’s writing style. I am more impressed by the advice given here. He’s an expert! Keep up the excellent work!

  10. Wow, very impressive. Keep it up!

  11. Thank you very much for this .. it was very useful

  12. This is great. I have read many articles like this but they are too complex and makes me break my neck. This is simple but focused and really informative. Thanx.

  13. Hei, this is a really great article! Helps me quite a lot, as I am a startup blogger!

  14. Great article. Thanks a lot. I do have a mature blog as you call it. I have a lot of content but no clue how to drive traffic. I have a steady audience who are fantastic but as always I need new people :)

    Thanks again

    http://lostandloster.blogspot.com/

  15. Great article, i can’t believe 12 yr old actually wrote this !

  16. Wow. Great post. It’s very well written especially for a 12 year old.

    And you made some good points too, very informative.

  17. John Doe says: 12/16/2008 at 2:08 am

    Perhaps it seems it is a time for young bloggers. I recently came a cross David’s blog, but I have seen a blog of 16 year old Aditya. He is good at his work and really enjoy his posts. He is the owner of http://www.anddjournal.info

    A new generation of bloggers is on – watch out.

  18. Nothing really, when I started blogging at late 12, I had 1 million page views within a few months.

    I now achieve over 30,000 page views a day with little effort. With over 3 million total page views, I am at the status of some top websites.

  19. Wow I am very impressed David! You have a very impressive knowledge of both blogging and writing for someone of your age. I’m 25 and still getting a grasp on the blogging thing :) I’m sure you will accomplish great things in your life!

  20. We started our blog yesterday and those are great hints, thanks so much!

  21. Out of the mouth of babes!! Super stuff.

  22. Kevin says: 01/23/2009 at 6:54 am

    Way to go,keep it up.Very nice article.I wish I was your age and starting this.

  23. Wow.. that is very impressive. I can say that these days, kids are more articulate than we give them credit… Thanks for the solid advice.

  24. He’s right on the money. Just like the boy said, to get more traffic, I did something crazy. Generosity-Freebies. Just for fun, because it’s my birthday in Feb. I’ve been giving away things fun and interesting things all month. It’s been a ball.

  25. That was great info David Wilkinson!!
    Thanks

  26. Nice job , go on and don’t stop if i new what you now @ this age i will be the very best by now . time is not gone yet am still the best in what i do .

  27. You are phenomenal! Thanks for the tips.

  28. Excellent advice. Just a quick note though.. I really like the “Press This” option in wordpress and advise people to use it more. Sometimes when I have writers block ad really want to provide great content for my readers when I can’t come up with any is to press something from a relevant blog or website. Just be sure you credit the source. Thanks Darren!

  29. Excellent advices . The site of David seems to be down at the moment and from what I see its a problem with the UltimateTagWarrior wordpress plugin. I am getting traffic for writing about rare movies – that many people are interested in – but not that much information was ever written. Also knowing few others blogers that focus on the similar niche does help.

  30. Very good post, I’m going to try what you said and hope that it improves my blog more than what it already is. Keep up the good work.

  31. I’m very impressed! I never expected a 12-year-old to be so articulate and know FAR more than I do about blogs and websites. Go get ’em, tiger!

  32. Well worth info, I just started bloging hope this info would help me a lot thanks

  33. I just started blogging too and this website should definitely be seen by all of those dummies that just started their blog too. Now the question is..my blog is not showing up on google…why??? can someone tell me? thx in advance :)

  34. thanks really great info… doing the same but have to work more to get more traffic.

  35. Nice post, i will try the 3C’s and see the result on my blog becuse i always think of ways of increasing my blog’s traffic. I hope this will work.

  36. Great tips. I enjoyed reading it and I’m going to concentrate on the three C’s!

  37. This kid knows his stuff, I am 20 years old and I am just getting into blogging, good post, good advice. I’ll have to start reading more of your post’s now :)

    Eric

  38. There are many ways to make more traffic to your blog or site . simple ways are links with sites or put their site to search engine . here is my blog . there are many tips to earn money easy

  39. Great Post, I have been blogging for 3 years, I was blogging for my freight company for 3 years and decided to change my blog from freight to SEO, i wanted to know what other people think? Is this a good idea? Will google let me change a blog that has over 750 posts to now post about SEO and web site marketing? I have now been writing everyday about SEO services and mostly about how to use WordPress and Themes for WordPress. I wanted to know what other thought about my transition that i have decided to make for my blog and if this was really a good idea. I have noticed that google has indexed all my posts very well as most of them are number one in the organic listings so i think its working. I just had sold the freight company i owned and did not want to throw away a blog i put 3 years of hard sweat and tears into. I’m more than sure any other blogger will understand that one. Thanks for any information or help any one has to offer me, my blog is http://www.freightnshipping.com/wordpress/
    Thanks Eric

  40. Sandi says: 05/06/2009 at 2:46 am

    I would like to access David’s website but I get a “fatal error” when I click on the link. Has his site changed?

  41. What a great post, its hard to believe it was written by a 12 year old. Really well written. I tried to checkout his site, but the is an sql error showing on the page. Im gonna check back soon and see if its fixed, hopefully i can learn a lot from him :)

  42. I’m getting the same error Sandi and Mystic. Looks to me like the site has been down for a while.

    Extremely well written my friend! Thanks for the tips and the three C’s :D

  43. I have only been blogging a couple of years, I wish Google had been about when I was younger.

    It was a very well written article, DB9 before his 21!

    Well done

    You Could Save

  44. Good one..at age of 12 years you know lot

  45. 12 years old and way ahead of the game. Good job kid :)

  46. He is very good with writing skills(David), but after all of that fundraising, his site is back up, but with no content in it.
    If you are committed to it. If not, just say so on your blog David. I would like to see your site anyway, since I’m 12 also and by a coincidence I do tech news, but I also do reviews.

    It’s a daily updated blog called: http://www.laptopmemo.wordpress.com

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