Written on December 15th, 2009 at 12:12 am by Darren Rowse
My REAL Secret to Growing Traffic to a Blog
“Tell us how you ‘really‘ get traffic to your blog?”
After presenting to a group of bloggers at an event recently I was surprised to be asked this question by someone in the audience.
I wasn’t surprised that people would want to know about how to get traffic to a blog – it’s something most bloggers want to know about – I was surprised to be asked it at THIS event because i’d just finished speaking for 30 minutes on the topic of ‘getting traffic to your blog‘.
After 30 minutes of sharing how I generate traffic to my blogs – I was asked to share what ‘really’ works. Hmmmm – was my presentation that bad… or was there something else going on here?
I sat down for a coffee with the person who asked me the question to dig a little deeper and as the conversation unfolded it became clear to me that the blogger was after a ’silver bullet’.
He wanted some secret method of generating traffic that would flood his blog with new readers, some new technique that most bloggers had not cottoned onto yet that would lift him above the rest and propel him to blogging super-stardom.
He told me that he’d tried all the normal tips on how to get traffic – some had worked and had found him new readers and others had not – but now he wanted something new. What advice could I give?
I decided to share my ‘real’ secret to big blogging traffic.
Identify What Works…. and Do it Again…. and Again….. Improving it Each Time
Here’s the thing – there’s no one technique that is going to bring every blog new traffic.
But if you try lots of different approaches and identify what does work – even if it only works a little – you’re on the way.
Find something that works for your blog, your niche, your demographic and then build upon that.
Here’s an example of how this worked for me:
- A couple of months after starting my photography site (a few years back now) I started a Group on Flickr which allowed readers to share their best shots – to show them off, get some critique on their work and see what others on the site were doing with their photography.
- Readers LOVED sharing their shots. We soon started a forum with a specific area for sharing of shots – (ingeniously called the ‘Share Your Shots‘ section).
- This section of the site became so popular that we expanded it and started a ‘Critique‘ area where people could not only share a shot but get feedback on it.
- This section was so popular that we started multiple critique areas – for different types of photography (eg: Landscape photography, Portrait photography etc).
- Also early in the life of the forum we started doing Weekly Assignments to let readers all go out and take shots on the same theme each week and then come back and share their best one.
- To this point all the sharing of shots happened in the forum – but I began to realize that not all of the blog readers visited the forum so on a whim one day I asked readers on the blog to share their best shot ever. We had 300 comments left – most with links to their favourite shot on Flickr or a photoblog.
- I continued to invite readers to occasionally share a favorite shot on the blog in comments – usually when we posted a tutorial on a specific type of photography. Each time I did this we had heaps of comments left.
- Earlier in the year I decided to give readers a ‘photographic challenge’ – to photograph something within 10 meters of them. People really responded to the idea of a challenge.
- As a result I decided to start ‘Weekend photography Challenges’ on the blog – similar to weekly assignments on the forum but for those who either didn’t become forum members or those who wanted two challenges a week. At first they were only every few weekends (the first was a Landscape one) but as readers responded so well to them we made them weekly.
- The challenges continued to become popular so we added a plugin to the blog that allowed people to share photos IN the posts (see this in action in our Pet Photography Challenge) – not everyone uses this feature but it increased participation a lot. We also improved the challenges by getting people to tag their photos on Flickr with a common tag and link to the challenges.
What started as a fairly simply idea (giving readers a place to share their shots – not even on my own site but using Flickr – evolved into multiple ideas that built upon that initial idea. Each time we evolved the idea we created buzz, reader engagement, traffic and site stickiness.
Keep in mind that this process has taken us over 3 years. The changes have been gradual, we’ve made mistakes along the way, but instead of spending all our time trying to find a ’silver bullet’ that we could just drop into the site to bring heaps of traffic – we improved something that showed promise in the early days.
A further example of this would be the site’s email newsletter list. In the early days when we first tried it I remember wondering if it was worth the effort of sending a weekly newsletter out to 100 people… but I saw some potential in it and each week it grew, each week I learned something new about improving the newsletters and each week it became more worth the effort. Today it drives hundreds of thousands of visitors to the site each week.
Some questions to help identify what is working (or what might work) with your readers and niche:
- What topics generate most comments on your blog?
- What topics generate most comments on other blogs in your niche?
- What other sites do your readers visit a lot? What activities are they doing there?
- What features are readers asking for?
- What was your biggest traffic day – what brought it about?
- Which of your posts seem to get Retweeted most on Twitter and passed around most on other social media sites?
- Which of your posts are getting linked to most from other blogs/sites?
- What other sites send you most traffic? How can you build relationships with these sites?
This list could go on and on – really it is about looking for points of life on your site (even small ones) where there’s some kind of energy or positive outcome happening – and then repeating them in some way – looking for opportunities to build upon and improve what you previously did.
Got any examples to share of where you’ve done this on your own blog?
116 Responses to “My REAL Secret to Growing Traffic to a Blog” - Add Yours
Ryan
December 15th, 2009 1:21 am
I find the most difficult part isn’t necessarily generating the traffic but getting it to stick. While this will heavily depend on the type of visitor, my company; jitZul, struggles to keep our visitors tied down. We found that almost 90% of our traffic finds us by searching for a very specific piece of information on Google and once they find it; they leave. We continually experiment with different options for keep “leech” traffic engaged and have seen some results but it seems like an endless grind.
just my 2 cents :D
Lee Ka Hoong
December 15th, 2009 1:22 am
I believe that the ideas for your Digital Photograph School is only for a well known published site or blog, when you have a certain number of traffic, your readers will be driving in more new traffic to the site as your regular readers will be writing about the photo in their blog or site and link to the forum (I believe that they will add a link), but for a new site, that’s not that easy.
Anyway, Darren you do have nice strategy for the forum.
Regards,
Lee
John Paul
December 15th, 2009 1:23 am
I really like your email list tip. I’m at that point where I have a small group of readers and I finally decided to send them a weekly newsletter.
Glad to see there is benefit in this even at such a small scale.
Sajib @TechiePost
December 15th, 2009 1:25 am
Great post. Commenting regularly on other blogs is another way that really works.
MrCyberSmart
December 15th, 2009 1:26 am
You never know what will work until you work at it. Maybe Digg will work for some blogs but not for others. I have noticed at my new blog Cyber Smart, many people have picked up my podcast feed. Many more than have picked up the main blog fee!
This tells me that people like my podcasts, so, since I love podcasting anyway, I’ll do more. Give the readers what they want.
Darren is correct, there is NO one thing that will work- and each blog will be different. It is finding what does work through trial and error and building from there. Time- Hard Work-…
Raja Habib
December 15th, 2009 1:29 am
Hi,
Really useful tips. I am new to blogging. I have read your tips for beginners too. I am hoping to get good traffic on my blog too. I will implement the tips you have mentioned.
Thanks again!
Best Regards,
Raja,
http://www.about-dog-breeds.blogspot.com/
Henri
December 15th, 2009 1:29 am
Couldn’t agree more. Often the people that are looking for a silver-bullet haven’t been taking action enough. They say it doesn’t work, but when you really dig deeper, they haven’t applied what they’ve read. For me guest posting is my favorite way of promoting my blog and getting traffic. I also comment and spend a lot of time in forums, which helps spread my name and blog. It’s all about taking action!
Rich
December 15th, 2009 1:31 am
I run a bipolar support site/blog detailing the challenges that my wife and I go though in our own bipolar marriage. As expected, the posts that really seem to hit hard and get attention are the posts that cover the dark side of bipolar disorder and how it can affect a relationship. Some of my posts touch on some hard topics and although it’s difficult to talk about, it’s one that many can relate to and bring in quite a bit of traffic, although more stealth type visitors.
Thanks again for the great information, Darren!
Mr. I
December 15th, 2009 1:34 am
You just opened my eyes!
For last several days, I have been hunting for a “method” that could get me more traffic. However, what I ignored was that the traffic has already risen a lot(and that too, without much work from my side!).
I have just checked what caused the growth and now, I know how I will get more! Thanks! :)
Nate
December 15th, 2009 1:44 am
Silver bullet…yeah, I see that a lot. There will be an article on all the different traffic building techniques, yet there are people who still think there is one magic answer. The real answer is it’s hard work. I think that’s why people tell you to focus on your passion…or at the very least, something you’re extremely interested in. Anyone can slap up a simple website…that’s not the hard part. The hard part is doing the leg work after that. Providing good content, participating in the community in your niche, working on traffic building, etc.
Thanks for the reality check here!
Tomas Stonkus
December 15th, 2009 1:46 am
Dear Darren:
Thank you for sharing the “real” secret to building traffic :)
Time tested truth that you just have see what works for yourself. I think the most important thing is guest posting and engaging with your readers and getting their feedback.
Just like you said, many of the brilliant ideas start out as one simple idea and everything else just grows on top of it depending on what the readers want.
For example, my blog started out being on Blogger, then it moved to Wordpress, I have changed the design many times, I erased various articles to make the blog conform to what I wanted it to be about. It’s a never ending process.
I am sure you are working on improving your current site as I am writing.
Thanks :)
Best,
Tomas
HomeBiss
December 15th, 2009 1:48 am
An interesting post with lots of thought provoking ideas.. Thanks.. :)
Dana @ Online Knowledge
December 15th, 2009 1:50 am
You seems do hard work there because it took 3 years to achieve the success. So, there are no silver bullet as conclusion.
Btw, i already aware of most commenting content post and it is work when i optimize the theme.
BLOGitse
December 15th, 2009 1:50 am
Isn’t it more important to have interaction than traffic? For me it is!
Why the traffic is such a big issue?
A blogger has to be active FIRST. Not just sit and wait.
(I’m not talking about making money online, that’s a different case.)
George
December 15th, 2009 1:59 am
Great point about success in general. It’s so easy to just go through our day on automatic pilot. But when we stop and ask, “What is working?” it completely changes our results.
The awesome thing about blogs (and the internet) is it allows us to accurately measure what is working. And then by simply doing more and measuring we can improve.
Great post!
Eat Smart Age Smart
December 15th, 2009 2:09 am
Darren,
I really like your ideas to generate interaction with your audience.
I’ve been playing with a few ideas in my head and your post made me realize that until I test a few of those ideas there is no way of knowing what will work.
Thanks so much for sharing.
Krizia
Dustin | Engaged Marriage
December 15th, 2009 2:11 am
This article got my brain working this morning, and I’m now kicking around some more unique ideas for a promotion to get some new eyes on my marriage blog. I still think content is king, and the new readers won’t stick without it. However, after you have some interesting things on your site, I think a strategy aimed at getting more eyeballs to see it can pay off big.
My blog is growing well, and the single biggest thing I’ve done to date to get new readers is form a blog network with somewhat related (and much larger) blogs. Our cross-promotion power is significant…and it’s fun to have more cyber-friends!
Vishal Sanjay
December 15th, 2009 2:13 am
Really useful Darren, but this more like a theory I was wondering if you could provide practical traffic generation methods.
Angela
December 15th, 2009 2:15 am
Great tips, thanks. I’ve noticed that among the social networks, the ones who redirected more readers toward my blog are StumbleUpon and increasingly Twitter, while I’ve found Digg and Reddit less useful.
I write about travel and sometimes I do notice some posts attract more audience than others, even if I didn’t expect so much interest in those particular topics. Other times, instead, my high expectations were cause of disappointment, as there were only a few readers or comments in posts I put greater research and time on.
I guess it takes a lot of time and patience, especially for small bloggers like me, who need to build a name, too.
Cheers
Angela
Oleg Mokhov
December 15th, 2009 2:24 am
Hey Darren,
Fail often to succeed faster.
Like with any goal, there’s no hidden tricks to growing traffic.
You just selectively try as many things as possible, see what works, do more of that while dropping what doesn’t, test again, rinse and repeat.
With time, like you demonstrated with DPP, your site has more and more of what builds quality traffic and less of what doesn’t. Articles that you like to write and people want to read, projects readers want to get involved in, products people want to share, and so forth.
Thanks for sharing your results, and also reminding us to not focus on “silver bullets” but instead just keep on trying new things, finding what works, and doing more of that.
Never stop testing and bettering our site,
Oleg
Joe McCoy
December 15th, 2009 2:25 am
Great post. There really IS a secret to blogging…and it ties in a little bit to hard work and watching what works best. Brilliant. The secret is valuable, but knowing how to schedule myself to actually USE the secret didn’t happen until I started following the “30 Days” workbook.
Very helpful post to get people started on the right growth plan.
Alyson Stone
December 15th, 2009 2:26 am
Best logical explanation of organic growth I’ve ever read. Superb!
Eat Smart Age Smart
December 15th, 2009 2:31 am
Also Darren, I forgot to mention that it’s important for you to write that it tool 3 years to get to this point.
When we start a blog we often thing that results should happen within a week or so … that’s really not possible and this post shows that it takes time to become a problogger!
Krizia
gargi nath
December 15th, 2009 2:35 am
If You own a website to promote it and to get traffic, you need to get plenty of one-way links pointing to your site and for that to happen article marketing is one of the best way.
scheng1
December 15th, 2009 2:39 am
haha, you should ask him to get a hearing aid! If he tries all methods and fail to get traffic, probably his blog is full of nonsense.
teasastips
December 15th, 2009 2:41 am
Darren I have to read your blog because your posts always put me back on target. Its so easy to become discombobulated and distracted, however reading your posts always help me regain my focus. Thanks for being you Darren.
Thomas Shay
December 15th, 2009 2:45 am
Hello Darren,
Too many people are looking for the fast way to make cash. I see one of the best ways to build traffic to my blog is through great content and posting everyday. I post on a average 6 days a week.
I just started my blog, http://www.im-organizer.com/blog at the end of Sept. and I am slowly building a readership. I am not looking for huge amounts of traffic yet, but looking for it to build over time.
This is only one way to build traffic, and we all need to use many other ways also. I love the idea of looking at my biggest vistor days and see why they all showed up. I will be checking this out soon.
turisuna
December 15th, 2009 2:56 am
I understand if most of bloggers want to get lots of visitors to his blog, but what they don’t realize is, everything needs hardworking and time. I’m not surprised if your blog gets so many visitors, because I see that you are very details in maintaining your blog and watching all the progress, and your writing style is also enjoyable. It’s not always easy to imitate someone’s method, so willing or not we should make improvisation to get visitors.
Gabe | freebloghelp.com
December 15th, 2009 2:58 am
Getting comments is vital for the morale of new blogger.
Coincidently, I just published this last week: How I get more comments than blogs that have 10 times more traffic.
Jon
December 15th, 2009 3:07 am
Thanks Darren. There’s always the old standby of, dare I suggest it, writing good content and trusting that your audience will find you and spread the word. But your experiences clearly demonstrate that smart and thoughtful strategy and a willingness to be flexible can help you reach the stars that much faster. Thanks for sharing.
David Walker
December 15th, 2009 3:24 am
Hi Darren, thanks for finally sharing your ‘real’ secret to getting traffic to your blog ;)
It’s true what you say about monitoring my blog and other niche blog posts for the amount of comments they generate. I have been surprised sometimes at the amount of comments a post will generate for days after.
I find something like commenting on ten other blogs a day generates traffic, as well as offering information and help for free, like a fee webinar.
I’m now considering guest posting and hope to expand my network as well as get more traffic.
Srinivas Rao
December 15th, 2009 3:29 am
I recently developed my first quarterly marketing plan for my blog, and using some of the questions that you have listed there, I identified that certain sites were sending alot of very sticky traffic to my blog. While they may not have had the highest volume in terms of referral traffic they were sending people who were spending quite a bit of time at my site. So I reached out to the owners and asked for a once a week guest posting opportunity. Even the lesser known blogs can be of tremendous value to you in terms of traffic, especially if it’s sticky traffic. To me 10 users who stick around your site for 9 mins, is better than 2000 who stay for 10 seconds.
Chris Jacobson
December 15th, 2009 3:35 am
For me, it’s Twitter, Facebook and a little bit of Google, but mainly social networking is where most of my traffic is delivered from.
Aqif
December 15th, 2009 3:56 am
Thanks for this great post Darren. I knew this could be your answer when first time I ask myself “What is Darren secret weapons in bringing massive traffic to his blog”.
But, always I do keep in mind that it ain’t easy and it does takes a long day to work it out. (Problogger took some hard time too isn’t it?).
Anyway, there is no use having a massive traffic if you don’t know how to maintain those traffic. Thats why you need to have a superb content and personalize yourself to keep you off from the competitors.
To your success,
Aqif
Antonio
December 15th, 2009 4:01 am
Hi Darren,
You’re right and got it all in a nutshell on one single post. In fact, you’ve listed all the critical success factor for an enduring and ever growing blog.
Thanks for your contribution, it’s always a pleasure to read your opinions and experiences.
Regards from Portugal.
Antonio Caldas
bloggerspeed
December 15th, 2009 4:02 am
‘Try which works and improve it’ sounds simple but not many people realized it before. I like it Dareen:-)
bloggerspeed
December 15th, 2009 4:03 am
‘Try which works and improve it’ sounds simple but not many people realized it before. I like it Daren:-)
Young
December 15th, 2009 4:05 am
Sounds just like to produce a product, follow the consumers’ need.
Deborah Richmond
December 15th, 2009 4:12 am
I have found that you really do have to try a variety of methods. Some will work really well, and some won’t. It does seem to depend on the subject matter, the product, the goals of driving traffic. I just discovered an avenue that is successful in driving traffic to a free Ebook I offer. Since this one method is working, I’m spending all of my traffic-driving time on that method, and I’ve stopped spending time on the others. That is not to say that the others aren’t good, they just aren’t good for this product. Perfect advice to find what works and do it over and over and over.
Denise
December 15th, 2009 4:19 am
You’ve given me lots to think about in this post Darren. I’m not lacking in creativity, mostly just need to be pointed in the right direction. This is a great post for that. Thanks.
Denise
ps. Where exactly are you that it’s December 15 for you? Just curious.:-)
Domain Investing
December 15th, 2009 4:22 am
Great post and all very good points. I’ve found that techniques that work for some bloggers don’t necessarily apply to every blog. It is important to experiment and find-out what really works the best for your blog.
Tim
December 15th, 2009 4:36 am
Interesting post. I just do a personal motorcycle travel blog but I also get a fair amount of my traffic from photography forums that I participate in, mostly specific to Canon and my model.
After one of my trips I’ll put up a forum post of my best pictures from the series and ask for feedback with a link to the bottom to my blog post on it for the background story and more pictures. I found as I did more of these forum threads they drive more and more traffic to the blog, the old ones continue to drive some traffic and as you build up more forum links it ramps up over time.
Another way is from my motorcycle forums. If I do some customization, repair or mod to one of my bikes and do a blog writeup on it I’ll also do a short forum post with a link back to the blog for more. These drive huge spikes in traffic but taper off and peter out more quickly than the photography ones. However, if someone asks about doing the same thing in another thread later I can always link back to my article again.
Dean Saliba
December 15th, 2009 5:25 am
There is lots to think about in this post. Traffic is something I’m VERY intersted in generating, and if I can do it for free then all the better.
Avinash
December 15th, 2009 6:13 am
Obviously, there cant be a single silver bullet which fits everywhere. Only one thing iis common everywhere and that is hard work.
You need to work on your blog each and every day in one way or the other to make it big.
Avinash
December 15th, 2009 6:14 am
Obviously, there can not be a single silver bullet which fits everywhere.Only one thing iis common everywhere and that is hard work. You need to work on your blog each and every day in one way or the other to make it big.
Anthony Licari
December 15th, 2009 6:30 am
People tend to think traffic first before the content/service of their site. Without anything for people to come to your traffic result will always be the same. You need content and an analytical mind. With that you can create something, analyze the outcome and make adjustments.
sat
December 15th, 2009 6:30 am
This is how we should engage readers to our blog……..
Sebastian Sjöberg
December 15th, 2009 6:45 am
Thank you, Darren, for once again writing a post that reminds us of what should be really obvious, but seldom is.
I have been actively blogging for over a year, but only since September this autumn have things really started to take off – I (apparently) needed a lot of time to learn the craft and figure out the true identity of both my readership and the blog before it started working.
Now, things have really started happening. My blog is dedicated to professional computer gaming and electronic sports – a field that has few to none bloggers but several very well established community sites. My traffic numbers have never been very high, but after I started doing audio interviews with various celebrities within this niche and publishing them on Youtube numbers have rocketed. After ten weeks of interviewing, I have had close to 20,000 video views and heaps of comments.
Granted, a very small portion of these visitors travel all the way back to my blog despite many inviting links to do so – but Youtube has never the less brought me hundreds of more visitors every week, and continues to do so. As my library grows, so does the average percentage. This formula certainly works for me, and it can be tweaked and improved a lot – and so I wanted to share this idea.
Sorry for writing a minor novel, call it a severe stroke of blogger enthusiasm :)
Robby G
December 15th, 2009 6:59 am
i need to re-read this when i have time. It’s a really good post though.
abrablog
December 15th, 2009 7:11 am
find a good topic, hot topic and hot keyword. With that, it also will hep to grow traffic.
Bar Advisor
December 15th, 2009 7:26 am
I had an epiphany about two weeks ago. I put a post on my blog about a board game that supposedly helps people study for the bar exam. (http://baradvisor.blogspot.com/2009/11/skymall-helps-you-pass-bar.html.) I posted it thinking, at best, it might elict some random humorous comments. Instead, it has been the most successful product I have ever linked to via Amazon. While the amount sold is minimal, it got me thinking that what people want is a solution that seems fun, interesting, different, but also effective. This board game promises to lessen the drudgery of studying for the bar exam, and people are buying it for that potential.
I guess the trick is to come up with these sorts of solutions and offer them to your readers in good faith and with an open mind. Their response may surprise you.
Darren Rowse
December 15th, 2009 8:47 am
Lee Ka Hoong – it certainly helps to have traffic – however when I started DPS I only had a small group of readers. When I started that first Flickr group I remember it only had 40 or so members – but the energy I saw their among readers was good – I saw potential to grow it so went for it. The same was true for my email list – it started small but grew.
This stuff doesn’t just work for big sites – they all start small and in my case it was about identifying the type of posts and features that my readers were responding to and then adding to them/repeating them. This is how the site became bigger. As it grew the momentum grows and it does get easier, but it all starts with small things.
Darren Rowse
December 15th, 2009 8:48 am
MyCyberSmart – exactly, you’ve noticed a spark which could become a fire which could become an inferno! Your podcast could be the beginning of something that brings a lot of life to your site – go for it!
Darren Rowse
December 15th, 2009 8:49 am
great stuff Henri – keep doing that stuff – if it’s working now it’ll continue to work!
Needmoney.com
December 15th, 2009 8:51 am
Try everything, when you find something that works, do your best to ramp it up. It’s that simple.
Darren Rowse
December 15th, 2009 8:51 am
Rich – thanks for sharing that. While I don’t blog about anything near as serious as that I too notice that it is often posts where you share honestly and in a personal way about a problem you had or a mistake you made that seems to touch people and draw people in. People like stories, they like to feel that they’re not the only ones with issues/problems and they’re looking for hope – tap into that and you’ll certainly keep connecting with people! Thanks for sharing that!
Darren Rowse
December 15th, 2009 8:53 am
BLOGitse – I guess it comes down to your goals as a blogger – sometimes traffic is more important to a blogger than interaction – in other cases bloggers prioritize interaction or something else. Guess it comes down to why you’re blogging.
Darren Rowse
December 15th, 2009 8:55 am
Vishal – check out my Finding Readers archive page – lots of articles on that page with many that are more ‘practical’.
Living with Balls
December 15th, 2009 8:55 am
Thanks for this. Generating traffic has been something I’ve struggled with since the inception of my blog.
Caitlin
December 15th, 2009 8:57 am
I like how your example is building upon what worked before. I think many beginning bloggers will see try something that shows some small result, and then either think “this worked, but not enough, I’d better try something else” or “I’ll try this exact same thing again”.
Darren Rowse
December 15th, 2009 8:57 am
Joe – glad you found the 31 Days Workbook helpful – its interesting how many people have reflected back to me that the workbook gave them structure to help them actually do what they previously knew but never did.
Darren Rowse
December 15th, 2009 8:59 am
Denise – I’m in Australia.
Darren Rowse
December 15th, 2009 9:00 am
Sebastian – thanks for sharing your story. That kind of thing is exactly what I’m talking about. Now the key is to build on it and look for ways of drawing people back to your blog and leveraging the interviews! You’re on the right path!
Darren Rowse
December 15th, 2009 9:01 am
Bar Advisor – another great example. Humor/Quirky stuff is often a great way of building traffic.
Daniel Johnston
December 15th, 2009 9:05 am
Definitely. It’s just like in football: Run a play until they stop it. If something works once, try it again, is surely a life lesson on how to improve your life; and your blog.
Davor Gasparevic
December 15th, 2009 9:07 am
to reply to the first post, I also get a lot of new traffic, something like 80% of all traffic I get are new visitors from search engines and reffering sites.
lately I’ve seen an increase in direct traffic and returning visitors, because when I first started % of new visitors was more than 95% lol.
it’s a constant struggle I agree…
Matt Rittorno
December 15th, 2009 9:25 am
Thanks for the post =)
I find that adding friends on myspace, and containing a link to your site on your profile, generally draws hits.
Also, paying for ad space on google or myspace will draw a lot of exposure and traffic, but you have to pay per click. So if you can generate an average of $.10 profit for everyone that comes to your site, and pay $.05 for every click, then you will be rich.
-Matt
Ms. Freeman
December 15th, 2009 9:33 am
It is nice that you sat down with the person after they asked the question as well as did a follow-up post for us here.
Do you start to feel after awhile that folks want you to “do it” for them. What I mean is you have clearly laid out the steps to get more traffic both in your speech, I’m sure, as well as repeatedly here on your blog, but still the same question arises. Why is that?
We Fly Spitfires
December 15th, 2009 9:53 am
Love reading articles like this Darren because it just goes to show how much hard work you put into things and how much you enjoy what you do!
I recently had a big spike in traffic because I was linked to by a large news site. The reason they linked to me was because of an article I wrote for my niche. I’ve realised that I need a good mix of articles – some fun and some indepth, constantly looking to push the boundaries of my niche and explore the topic in depth.
Technology Slice
December 15th, 2009 10:36 am
Good post. Testing what works is a good way of identifying where to keep working.
Sebastian Sjöberg
December 15th, 2009 11:45 am
It’s inspiring to not only read a post like this, reminding us that simple solutions when refined often are what dreams are made of, but also because it allows for interaction with other people in the same boat – regardless of niche and type of blogg. Good luck to all of us, and trust me when I say that Youtube can be a savior :)
steve
December 15th, 2009 1:35 pm
Right now I’m struggling to get traffics to my blog and I’m doing the best I can. This is my first time actually doing a blog and I know i will face alot of difficults, but you just can’t give up and thats what i believe. Thank you for writing this article because I always want instant traffics or become instant popular blog, but it just wont happen that fast and I need to keep remind myself everyday. Also, you need to put the woods in the fire first before you can have the heat.
Randy Mejias
December 15th, 2009 2:15 pm
I’ve been experimenting with different methods for a little while now. I’m glad I read this, otherwise I would probably drop anything that didn’t drive the kind of traffic I want quickly, but it makes a lot more sense now to keep at anything that works and improve it over time.
So far my biggest problem is adding value while promoting myself. I believe it was somewhere on this site that it was mentioned to avoid just joining a forum or a group for no reason other than self promotion, since it looks bad.
vunhome
December 15th, 2009 2:49 pm
Thank you for sharing this info.
Ed Cabellon
December 15th, 2009 2:56 pm
Great post, thanks for sharing these great tips! I’m still a newbie blogger so this really helps!
@EdCabellon
Clarence
December 15th, 2009 3:25 pm
I think this is so real. “Identify What Works…. and Do it Again…. and Again….. Improving it Each Time”. There is no shortcut to this. Especially if you are very new to it. Look at the long term goals. You build a blog because you feel to share and give your visitor something they can benefit from. Then cross selling probably will only come in later. It is so hard to tell people that no shortcut of doing so. But that is the reality.
toner
December 15th, 2009 3:26 pm
I think however you compliment bloggers is a good thing and adds to your credibility and increases your visibility as well. That, in the long run builds your following. I tweet and share blog posts all the time so my followers/readers can get the best info there is on any given subject. People will follow those who help them. Thanks for you comment!
Darni
December 15th, 2009 4:36 pm
I think the real secrets to get traffic are time and patience.It is always that some ways work this person but not for others.We need to try different ways to find out which ways work for us.It needs time and patience.But the process is very interesting.
Kamloops Real Estate Blog
December 15th, 2009 5:30 pm
Great advice for the newbie blogger. Do what works and keep making it better. Try and keep trying. Don’t give up.
Sase Antic
December 15th, 2009 6:35 pm
Thanks for sharing the “traffic story” of DPS website!
Useful.
Kris Roxas
December 15th, 2009 7:01 pm
Really? Well, that makes sense. I’ve been doing this at WarriorForum, and with blog comments, and stuff. Even with Twitter – although not as much.
I think I need a way to get my blogs community-spirit up somehow. Got any ideas how? I like your contest idea – I think I’ll start one up somewhere!
Gonzo the Great
December 15th, 2009 7:04 pm
Hi Darren,
With much pleasure I’ve read your post, this is really the sole thing that can help your blog to get traffic: play with the content (what topic rocks?how much comments? keywords?), play with your design (putting in ‘related posts’, a clean layout, etc) and spend loads of time examinig what really works for your blog and what doesn’t. That’s the ’silver bullet’!
And after you think you’re done, you can start over again fine-tuning everything. It should be a continious process to achieve your goals for your blogging site.
Thanks for sharing the aspects what worked out fine for your blog and I must say that I’m thinking to introduce a newsletter to? Very good idea!
Cheers & Ciao …
MichaelR
December 15th, 2009 7:28 pm
I’m a fairly new blogger so I don’t have anything to share that hasn’t been shared alerady. But I appreciate the article…it certainly the silverbullet the person was asking for.
Make Money
December 15th, 2009 7:40 pm
I have seen so many posts about how to make money online, how to make money by blog. But none of them give suggestion of increasing the traffic(every one knows the traffic is the most important). I think this is the most important article I have ever seen on the web!!!
Chris Franklin
December 15th, 2009 7:46 pm
Organic growth sure, but I want crazy steroid-type growth for my Blog. Crazier than Christian Bale on a movie set. What then? There’s got to be some kind of Blog “Juice” I can buy, right?
The Padrino Dot Com
December 15th, 2009 8:48 pm
What topics generate most comments on your blog? Contest!
What features are readers asking for? Funny Items
If you always have a contest running 24/7 visitors will fly in to join.
Make sure to always pay what you offer and get the person to write a review for you on his or her website.
Kris Adi
December 15th, 2009 9:21 pm
Hi Darren,
I have same problem with your audience. I have bloggin for about 5 months but until now my traffic is so little. Ok thank you for your blogging tutorial, I will research until I know how to increase traffic to my website.
thank you
Rovacias
December 15th, 2009 10:32 pm
I am new to blogging Really useful tips I will implement the tips on my blog.
Thanks
MrCyberSmart
December 15th, 2009 10:35 pm
@Kris Adi,
Hey Kris, I went to your site and checked it out. It looks real good. I also see you are using WordPress- good deal! One thing that I noticed was that your title tag could use some work. This is the MOST important tag of all. You should use your keywords, and make it longer. Put your top three keyword phrases in this tag. :-)
MrCyberSmart
December 15th, 2009 10:42 pm
Also- If you are not cloaking your links….Google will slap you down HARD! It will not matter what you do. I had a site once that would not show up in search even if I used my URL! I mention this to you because I put in much time and energy, started to get traffic- and then bang…. I was gone in a flash. Hate to see other people go through the same thing…
And… If you use the wordpress cloaking plugin, and you make ONE mistake…CRASH!… now you have to rename your access file and you just lost ALL links…
Michael Holmes
December 16th, 2009 12:56 am
Darren,
This is an awesome post…but seriously…what is the “secret”? :)
Blogging Tips
December 16th, 2009 1:33 am
Yesterday i got 500 unique visitors to my blog via Blogengage,faqpal and other voting websites.
For me these are best source of traffic.
Anali
December 16th, 2009 2:57 am
In the big scheme of things, I don’t have thousands of visitors a day, but I did try a little experiment recently that bumped up my traffic and got my blog post featured on boston.com, which is the website for the Boston Globe, the main paper in the Boston area.
From sitemeter, I noticed that around this time of year, people are searching for Christmas cookie recipes. Oh, I’m a lifestlye and food blogger if you’re wondering about the random topic. I also noticed that people are constantly searching for recipes with Nutella in them.
So I figured that I’d create a Christmas cookie recipe with Nutella in it and see if I could get the Internet to explode! Well, I didn’t explode the Internet, but people love this recipe. Happy Holidays to you! : )
Suzanne Vara
December 16th, 2009 4:36 am
Darren
Blog traffic is not an overnight success. Yes, certain articles may get picked up and traffic is great … for that day and a few days later. The most important thing that every blogger has to remember is to see what works and to stick with it. Drop the thing that are driving a little bit of traffic and concentrate on the ones that work.
So many want to start a blog and have 1000 traffic counts the first day and grow that each day. That is unrealistic. I assist clients with this – set realistic goals and when you hit a number that lasts for a week or so then go to where the most traffic is coming from and see what ways you can tap into that source more. Really it is about learning that area and almost mastering it – similar to new SM platforms. Learn twitter or facebook and all the offerings.
Thanks for sharing how the photog site was able to be such a winner. It just takes time and people have to love blogging to wait out the time.
Blog Tips
December 16th, 2009 6:56 am
One way there is tracking your source of traffic then focus on how you can improve your traffic based from that source.For me SEO is still the best method to get tons of traffic to your site
Alecs
December 16th, 2009 7:18 am
Dear Darren
I thank you for the interesting article and
useful councils of motion of блога
Manal Assaad
December 16th, 2009 10:07 am
I know how it is when people just expect a “silver bullet” that would just make them into stars in one day. That never happens in real life! Your best shot is just to work hard and smart, and not only wait for opportunities but MAKE them.
This post was really insightful. The sharing idea is always a great one that’s why I already included an iShare blog in my website. However it hasn’t picked up yet because I haven’t had time to work on it well.
Sharing shots seem to be very viral, but that’s easy for you when “photography” is your topic. People usually love to show off stuff they love and I support that. That said, not all topics have room for sharing fun stuff that would go viral. Like my blog is mainly business-related with a fun twist, and the audience I target is much different than one who has the time to answer challenges (that’s something I know works well because I tried it in my classes and the students responded beautifully).
I guess this is going to require a bit of a creative vision on my sight to work out something.
Thanks for the knowledge!
Scott
December 16th, 2009 4:53 pm
Great tips, Actually learning!
hokya
December 16th, 2009 8:56 pm
identify source of traffic is the best :-)
WebpageLottery
December 16th, 2009 10:42 pm
For me, twitter works pretty well.
Bloggeri
December 17th, 2009 9:14 am
Great stuff! This post inspired me to write about the silver bullet in blogging. Hope it suits many of you:
http://blogidy.com/2009/12/silver-bullet-for-blogging-success/
Reilly Morris
December 17th, 2009 1:09 pm
I’m new to the blogging domain, but I’m already learning that tenacity is one of the cornerstones for success- paired with the desire to provide something of value to others. The nature of blogging is like building a library where you write all the books. It takes times, but people will eventually find items of interest. There will be some dullards on the shelves, but every once in awhile you’ll write something that becomes a best-seller. The process has to start from that desire to want to provide something valuable and long-lasting to your readership.
Darren… I’m still learning. :)
VendingCoach
December 17th, 2009 4:16 pm
Thank you so much for the insights here. I had been wondering about some of these very things wondering if I was right. You’ve got a new follower!
twawki
December 17th, 2009 6:28 pm
Covering hot topics is good – climate skepticism is going through the roof with blogs like WUWT hitting 3 million hits a month!
Digisha Modi
December 17th, 2009 11:54 pm
Hi, Thanks for this post…I am new to SEO marketting and its really a helpfull article to increaser traffic to our site.
Mohammed Rhalmi
December 19th, 2009 7:39 pm
Your tips makes sense! I will try them and see what will happen. I hope I get as much traffic as you get :)
Michael Martine
December 20th, 2009 11:22 am
If you’ve tried all the “tricks” and you have no traffic, look in the mirror: your writing sucks. Nobody wants to acknowledge that, but most of the time your content just isn’t good enough. You’re not connecting with your audience. You’re not giving them what they can’t live without. Your writing has no voice, no personality. You’re not solving problems or entertaining people enough. Your headlines are lame.
The only “outside” force to be concerned about is maybe having a small network to spread your content to. But even that is fixed by having content which people will want to spread, because that’s how your network grows.
It all comes back to what you’re saying, and how you’re saying it.
Chad
December 20th, 2009 3:01 pm
The questions you ask at the end there are very useful, I hadn’t really thought about that before (even though it seems quite obvious).
We’re all obviously aware of days that spike our traffic or posts that generate more comments than others. But, how often do we really think about the specific details of what made that happen, then figure out how to repeat the act.
Thanks for this.
Chris
December 21st, 2009 6:07 am
Thank you for the helpful tips. I, like many others, have just started blogging, and your post has helped me drive traffic to my site.
Best regards,
Chris
http://www.cashcrate-protips.blogspot.com
Jens P. Berget
December 22nd, 2009 4:43 am
This makes me think of a quote by Albert Einstein. It’s his definition on insanity:
Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Bravo
December 24th, 2009 9:51 pm
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Travis
December 31st, 2009 12:56 am
Driving traffic to my site used to drive me insane. I remember when I first put a site up back in 2002, I woke up the next morning and expected that people would have magically visited overnight! Much to my surprise, I realized that I would actually have to work at it for awhile! I’ve found that sharing links, generating good contact, and taking real-world offline techniques to the web work: put up a free classified at the grocery store or gas station with your URL and what your site offers. People will find you – there are lots of people interested in getting online and making money.
Thanks for the awesome site!
Paul
February 11th, 2010 4:26 am
Interesting post, although it will only work for certain niches. Some people just want free information and are not prepared to pay for products.
Is the Google keyword tool accurate? I have my doubts at times.
MobileSmarties
February 13th, 2010 3:16 pm
Hi, I am new blogger, just 2 days old. Before starting a blog, I read you posts and rough plans and really tried to applied them.
I just need a fresh blog promotion plan or some points to bring genuine traffic.
Thanks,
http://www.MobileSmarties.com
Shelly Online
February 19th, 2010 11:06 am
Thanks for putting this up. I searched on how to make good comments and after not getting much I found this which I learned about how a profile can make an impression.
Brian
March 13th, 2010 2:52 am
I have implemented one of your ideas into my blog. My blog is about dual and multiscreen systems, I have created a space in my right column to display the readers PC’s. We will see how this works out. It might suck, it might be wildly successful. It will undoubtedly be educational for myself. creating a place in my blog that is interactive to my readers, or more specifically making my blog more interactive makes it more interesting, I think. Thanks for your insight.
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