Written on February 12th, 2010 at 01:02 am by Darren Rowse
7 Considerations on Generating Traffic to Your Blog
Over the last few weeks I’ve had three conversations with readers regarding different sources of traffic.
In each case I had a number of email exchanges with each blogger (all on the same day) and ended up laughing to myself at the common theme but extremely different opinions being expressed by each of the bloggers.
In each case the bloggers had strong opinions (and experiences to back those opinions up) on what type of traffic was ‘best’ and how to get it.
- In one case the conversation started with a blogger telling me that I focus too much upon social media traffic and not enough on traffic from search engines. Their niche didn’t work with social traffic but with search traffic they did best.
- In another case the blogger told me that they’d been told to forget about search traffic in their niche and work more on building traffic from other sites and to convert it into ongoing traffic with newsletters.
- In the last case a blogger told me that in their opinion the best type of traffic was social media traffic and they didn’t see the point in newsletters.
I was reminded through these conversations just how many different valid approaches there are to blogging. I also came away with a few thoughts that I thought I’d jot down here on the topic of driving traffic to blogs.
1. There are Many Valid Sources of Traffic
The above chart shows just 8 of many sources of traffic to a blog. As I write this others are already springing to mind (for example some bloggers run paid advertising to drive traffic to their blog – others get it from banner exchange programs). The reality is that there are many potential sources of traffic.
2. The ‘Best’ Source of Traffic Varies from Niche to Niche
As I thought about the 3 bloggers I was chatting to above it struck me that each had found great sources of traffic but that they were each operating in very different niches.
The first blogger who had written off social media was in a niche that people were simply not using social media for (I won’t reveal the niche as I don’t have their permission but it was a very very niche focused blog). Perhaps they could have driven a tiny bit of traffic with social media but for them Search was a much better place for them to invest their time.
3. Different Sources of Traffic Will monetize differently
Another important factor to consider is that some sources of traffic will monetize ALOT better than others. I’ve found that search traffic can work very well with AdSense for example (it depends upon the niche and intent of the reader). People arrive on your site searching for specific information, read your content, see an ad that relates to their search term and click on it.
RSS readers on the other hand don’t tend to convert for AdSense as they tend to be loyal readers and many don’t even click through to your site to read your content. RSS readers (and social media traffic) however can convert really well for affiliate promotions or selling your own products to.
4. Traffic Patterns Change over the life cycle of a blog
As a blog matures its sources of traffic often quite naturally change.
There’s no typical one size fits all pattern to this but at first the traffic might mainly come from other blogs or forums where you comment – or blogs where you guest post – or articles that you write. In time you might start to see more traffic from RSS or newsletters as a few people subscribe. Perhaps then some traffic will come from other sites who link to you (people who subscribe via RSS might have their own blogs) and from social media. After a while your search engine ranking might kick in as a result of the links from other sites and your guest posting and article writing and you might start seeing Google traffic. Once your blog is more established you might start seeing social bookmarking viral events that spike your traffic.
Again – this is not going to be the pattern for all blogs but in time traffic will naturally start to come from different places – the key is to try to leverage it for ongoing good (trying to get your blog to be sticky rather than just having one time visitors) and to work out how to convert that traffic for the goals you have.
5. Bloggers should be open to different approaches
While each of the three bloggers had discovered great lessons and good sources of traffic for their niches and the life cycles of their blogs – I was left wondering in each case whether the bloggers were being a little too closed off to different sources of traffic that perhaps could have added to the overall mix of traffic.
I see a lot of SEO type bloggers write about the worthlessness of social traffic for instance. One common comment that I get from some SEOs (definitely not all) is that social media traffic can’t be monetized. The reality could not be further from the truth. It won’t always convert but it certainly can. For example I know in each of the E-book launches that I’ve done in two niches that I’ve seen significant conversions from Twitter traffic.
On the flip side of things I hear some social media focused bloggers write off SEO and say that it works itself out and you don’t need to optimise your blog for search if you just produce good content. While there is some truth in that (good content does tend to generate natural incoming links to some extent) with a basic understanding of principles of SEO and a few minor tweaks a blog can rank much better in search engines without compromising the integrity of the content.
I guess what I’m getting at is that if you get exclusive about the type of traffic you are after you could actually be limiting the potential of your blog’s incoming traffic.
6. Too many Eggs in One Basket Can Be Dangerous
I used to be very focused upon search traffic in my early days of blogging. I worked hard to optimise my first blogs for search and got to a point where I was making a full time living from the ad revenue I was getting almost exclusively from Google. As a result I got a little lazy in some of the other areas – I didn’t work to convert readers to be loyal with newsletters or with prominent calls to subscribe to RSS, I didn’t build too many relationships with other bloggers to generate referral traffic and I was very inactive in social media (although it was much more limited back then).
As a result when Google decided to adjust their algorithm one day and my rankings dropped (and almost completely disappeared) in their results I lost almost all of my traffic – and as a result almost all of my income.
I was lucky in that Google readjusted their algorithm a couple of months later and I regained a lot of (but not all) of that traffic but in the mean time I looked for and found a ‘real job’ – and more importantly learned an important lesson about the power of having more than one source of traffic.
That experience was the beginning of me doing a few things that included working harder on capturing readers as subscribers (email and RSS), networking more with other bloggers in my niche and getting more involved in promoting my blog in other places (mainstream media, social media etc). My hope in doing all of this was to build up other sources of traffic so that if Google ever switched off my traffic again (temporarily or permanently) I’d at least have enough traffic to survive.
Google still does send me around 40-50% of my traffic (it varies a little from blog to blog) but I’m in a position now where I could survive for an extended period if it all disappeared (not that I’d like for that to happen).
7. The Importance of Personality and Being Yourself
I’m sure there are other factors that are at play that might be worth considering when looking at traffic. One of these (that I’m yet to fully think through) is personality type.
For example a lot of my my technically thinking friends seem to enjoy the challenge of SEO a little more. They love experimenting with and testing what happens when they make small tweaks to different aspects of their blogs. They’re constantly testing different setups and do quite well from it. I am not technically minded and find their attention to detail very very unusual (and so far from where that I’m at that I feel like I’m from another planet).
Other friends are perhaps a little more social by nature and as a result seem to do well on Twitter.
Others seem to do better by applying their freakish ability to write blog posts that get tonnes of links from other sites and which do brilliantly on social bookmarking sites..
Others are networkers and spend a lot of time interacting with other bloggers and site owners and tend to get links and traffic that way.
Others just seem to be brilliant at building community on their blog and as a result retain almost everyone who ever comments and build new readers from those people telling their friends.
I guess the lesson here is to be yourself and work with your strengths. Of course you don’t want to let your strengths dominate so much that you ignore or become lazy in areas that you’re not as strong in – but do follow your natural abilities and leverage them as much as you can.
Remember that there is no wrong or right way to generate traffic for a blog. If you were analyze the sources of traffic on many top blogs you’d find quite different factors at play!
104 Responses to “7 Considerations on Generating Traffic to Your Blog” - Add Yours
@stuartflatt
February 12th, 2010 1:53 am
One of the better posts in recent times on Problogger. Some slightly different ones that people may not have thought of
Guillermo
February 12th, 2010 1:54 am
When I read this…
“a niche that people were simply not using social media for (I won’t reveal the niche as I don’t have their permission but it was a very very niche focused blog)”
I smiled!
I always thought I was the only one to suffer such a niche!
Any hint to check this guy’s blog? Or at least a DM to @los_ziegler? Please? It’d be of great help!
Thanks!
Paul Swaney
February 12th, 2010 1:59 am
Diversify. Diversify. Diversify. That’s the lesson I take away from this article. It’s also a great reminder that the ultimate key is persistence, even when you’re at a point that many would consider to be successful.
Thanks Darren for the morning pep talk!
Vishal Sanjay
February 12th, 2010 2:04 am
Use diversified means of traffic, thats what you meant to say a Darren, I believe in that, but you see when you first start your blog, you’ll have to depend on social media for traffic and exposure and also to generate links for search engine traffic in the future.
http://www.dumblittleblogger.com/
Rod Kirby @ The Success Center
February 12th, 2010 2:06 am
Hey, Darren, good observations. I relate closely to #7 – I’m extremely social and find that when I’m most active on social networking sites is when I get the most traffic. I’ve also built a pretty good community of devoted readers, followers, and network of bloggers.
It’s extremely important for bloggers to experiment, maximize what works, and minimize what doesn’t. More importantly, don’t be afraid to get out there and try different approaches. The worse you could do is waste your time and the best you could do is gain new readers.
Thanks for your insight.
Nick's Traffic Tricks
February 12th, 2010 2:12 am
Great post. There are many methods of getting traffic and it varies from niche to niche.
For most bloggers I recommend using social media to help build a community of people that keep coming back. I believe return visitors to be one of a blog’s greatest assets.
Return visitors don’t care about your Google PageRank or your search engine optimization; they care about your content and interacting with you.
You can be banned by Google but return visitors will keep coming back.
Jason
February 12th, 2010 2:30 am
I found it interesting that you mentioned that generating traffic varies from one niche to the other.
I think you’ll are correct when you say it’ll have to be added in one basket. Even though I am fairly new I did think it is important to get as much traffic from as many sources as possible.
Thanks for the great post
Dave Doolin
February 12th, 2010 2:37 am
My search traffic is out of whack, percentage too low. I’m willing to take a short term hit on commenting and traffic to build more search engine friendly content (which means long, technically accurate articles on coding, etc). Need more traffic diversity.
Kosmo @ The Casual Observer
February 12th, 2010 2:46 am
“RSS readers (and social media traffic) however can convert really well for affiliate promotions or selling your own products to.”
That’s a good point. I’m tinkering with the idea of making some of my longer fiction stories available in audio format (when I’m able to actually find a quiet moment in the house that would make recording possible). My RSS readers might be a good target for this.
Paul
February 12th, 2010 3:00 am
Lots of great points here. It’s important to be open to all different avenues and focus on the most productive for your niche.
It is crucial to remain yourself though.
Graham Jones - Internet Psychologist
February 12th, 2010 3:01 am
This is all very good, but it focuses online. The world’s top websites spend almost all of their marketing dollars offline. Sure, generating traffic from online sources is very important, but bloggers might gain more success if they take a tip from the worlds’ leading websites and spend their efforts in offline marketing. Generating traffic from offline sources should not be neglected. In fact, for many sites, most of their traffic is generated offline. How do you think the BBC gets much of its traffic? By constantly promoting its web activities using offline methods. Sure online traffic generation is important, but perhaps too many bloggers are not getting the traffic they could receive because their minds are focused too much in online activities.
Chrystal @ Happy Mothering
February 12th, 2010 3:13 am
Great roundup of traffic sources. My blog is still relatively new, so I’m getting most of my traffic from social media and niche directories like Top Mommy Blogs. However, that doesn’t mean that I don’t write search friendly content. I know that as my blog grows in popularity and I generate more and more inbound links, I’ll start popping up in the search results more often. So, I think it’s important to balance your SEO and Social Media strategies.
Benjamin Barnett
February 12th, 2010 3:21 am
While my niche gets about 50% or more of its traffic from searches (quite of bit of that from image searches, and I’m not even a photography site) I find it wise to keep traffic coming from different streams, as you stated. Great blog, btw.
Ms. Freeman
February 12th, 2010 3:36 am
Tapping into every possible resource is a valid approach, diversified avenues. But, I wonder what would we do if we actually got all the traffic we wanted.
Be careful what you wish for…..
Are our blogs even ready to handle the traffic, are they designed well, do we have our products in place and ready to convert.
I want boat loads of traffic, but heck I am no where ready for it….
Drezz
February 12th, 2010 3:36 am
Traffic generation is an ever adapting thing – you could do well with social media, then all of a sudden, people tune you out. Or you could have a huge email list and RSS subscribers that take in your newsletters and see your pitches for new products, but less people bite because your newsletters wind up being missed in email inboxes.
Sometimes you have to try different things and roll with what people are in tune to at that particular moment. There’s no rule stating you have to promote yourself in a certain way – do what works well for you, and also don’t be afraid to try something new.
They say if it aint broke, don’t fix it – but they also say that a change will do you good.
Free Article Directory
February 12th, 2010 3:37 am
We are currently have equal traffic percentage wise. Search Engines, Direct and other site each bring in 30% of our traffic. I agree that each source of traffic = different ways to make revenue for your business. Learn and study each visitor to understand what it is that they need and provide it.
Harsh Athalye
February 12th, 2010 3:42 am
Very informative post. This principle of diversification applies to every aspect of life, not just life. If you are investing all your money in single company, you are doomed. If you are concentrating on single income source, you are at risk. If you are dependent on only single technology, be ready to sell pencils.
Besides, why not give each of the option a try at least, if it doesn’t take much of your time. Explore different sources of traffic and see which one works for you. If one option works most and rest brings in little traffic only, still skewing towards only single most source can prove dangerous.
Kit
February 12th, 2010 3:50 am
Very informative post. I belive that all kinds of traffic will help you out in the end and that it will change from time to time. Posting to search engines have ruined some blogs that i have seen so just be careful.
Liezl
February 12th, 2010 4:14 am
Thanks for sharing this helpful information. I believe everyone has the chance to be a pro blogger but not everyone can be, depending on the paths they choose to take. Say, you aim for traffic to your blog and you keep exchanging links with everyone. Yes it will drive traffic, but is it the “targeted” traffic? Are your driving the right group of audience to your blog? This can just be one of the valid approaches to generate traffic but it will not hurt if you will aim more. Hope the 7 factors posted can be an eye opener to those who think they have already get it on. At the same time, hope this post can guide aspiring bloggers to achieve more. Thanks.
sexy legs and body
February 12th, 2010 4:18 am
Hi, very informative post, my traffic has actually improved since I use twitter more, and as a result of your advice. But then, I have also lost more then 50% of traffic due to Google’s throwing me around. It is slowly getting back to normal.
Thanks for sharing!
Have a super weekend and lovely valentines day!
Colin.
JackNguyen.com
February 12th, 2010 4:19 am
Great advice here. It’s important that although you’re really writing for your readers, you should also be writing for the search engines. Treat your blog like an ecommerce site by adding header tags, keyword-rich titles, decent keyword density in the post, image optimizations, etc.
Wayne John
February 12th, 2010 4:31 am
Diversification is king once you gain ground on a few tactics. Same goes with money generating activities, why wouldn’t the same be true for social and traffic generating activities?
Well said Darren
Brian Satterlee
February 12th, 2010 4:45 am
Don’t they say that there’s no such thing as bad pub? Having said that, I think that certain types of traffic are worth paying for and certain types are not. From my experience, random traffic like stumbleupon is often short lived, where traffic that comes from a targeted nitch area typically will stick around. My best traffic, but most expensive, comes from blog directory paid advertisements.
There are so many free ways to advertise on the internet and you can’t go wrong getting free traffic. You may want to put your time in where you will get the most results though.
Liezl
February 12th, 2010 4:50 am
Thanks for sharing this helpful information. I believe everyone has the chance to be a pro blogger but not everyone can be, depending on the paths they choose to take. Say, you aim for traffic to your blog and you keep exchanging links with everyone. Yes it will drive traffic, but is it the “targeted” traffic? Are your driving the right group of audience to your blog? This can just be one of the valid approaches to generate traffic but it will not hurt if you will aim more. Hope the 7 factors posted can be an eye opener to those who think they have already get it on. At the same time, hope this post can guide aspiring bloggers to achieve more. Thanks.
Mary McGown
February 12th, 2010 5:15 am
Darren, you give wonderful advice, especially to us nre bloggers – Thanks.
Kevin Boon
February 12th, 2010 5:21 am
Thanks Darren for these ideas. The visual is great too!
One question that I had is about ping.fm and tools like this. Seems like there is a growing number of people signing up for these services so they can be in more places.
I haven’t done this yet but plan to.
Any thoughts or are their similar tools you would suggest?
Kevin
Cheryl from thatgirlisfunny
February 12th, 2010 7:10 am
Hi Darren,
My blog is half-way through it’s first year and I’m still learning the mechanics of driving traffic to my site.
I’ve recently had good luck with google sending traffic for an “accidentally” good keyword. Looking forward to the day, when it happens “on purpose”.
I love my social network marketing: twitter and facebook and stumble. I’m just trying out ehow, although they’re having technical difficulties preventing people from posting new articles (yikes!). They’re busy launching their UK version, but I’m sure they’ll remedy the situation soon.
Guest posting – me posting on other people’s sites and other people posting on mine – is one of my favorite traffic drivers and link builders.
Lots to explore and figure out. We’re all different and things change from one day to the next. Sorta like being in a relationship.
Speaking of which, Happy Valentine’s Day, Darren. mwah!
Nick@Subject2.com
February 12th, 2010 7:27 am
I remember a short while ago when I started to get more serious about blogging that I was more focused on search results.
Now, I just have fun with it, give out great content and use whats working. I’ll agree, not all sources work for all blogs. For me, search and social media don’t seem to be that great but I’ve got great readers who share the content themselves and that seems to work just fine with me.
rick@ilovephotoblogs.com
February 12th, 2010 7:45 am
While I agree that a multi-pronged attack is a good strategy, I strongly feel everyone can benefit from learning more about SEO..other than what it stands for…Unless you have incredible name recognition or dominate a niche, bloggers should focus more on how to maximize SEO for their site, rather than spamming Twitter or baiting subscribers with free e-books.
Kellie
February 12th, 2010 8:22 am
Well I’m fairly new to the entire process but I am a self professed “social butterfly” so I tend to go the social media route. Facebook & twitter have been good to me according to my stat. Not a lot of comments but people are looking and each day my numbers are growing. I do agree that putting all your eggs in one basket is not good. The more diverse you can be the better off you are because as we all learned with Real Estate,trends change. Thanks for your insight, you’re a new bloggers go to guy for sure
Joshua Black-The Underdog Millionaire
February 12th, 2010 8:26 am
I really think the two points of having your own voice (I mean who wants to listen to the same thing over and over from different people?) and NOT keeping your eggs all in one basket are critical.
I too found out the hard way and once I allowed myself to open up to new avenues for traffic I now understand that a customer gained from ANYTHING is one more customer than you didn’t have before. Sure social media is generally anti-capitalism, but that doesn’t mean that you won’t get customers from it. Pigeonhole-ing yourself is a huge mistake, so kudos to Darren for pointing that out today.
-Joshua Black
The Underdog Millionaire
Darren Rowse
February 12th, 2010 9:08 am
Dave – not sure how long you’ve been at it but one factor is the time your site’s been around when it comes to search traffic. The other major factor of course is incoming links – so building relationships with other bloggers, writing guest posts and basically putting yourself out there is important to start that happening.
Darren Rowse
February 12th, 2010 9:09 am
Kosmo – it doesn’t always work that RSS/social traffic converts that way but from my experience they’re more likely to convert than a one off search visitor.
Darren Rowse
February 12th, 2010 9:13 am
Graham – offline is certainly important but it can be a bit difficult to compete with the likes of a BBC who have a TV network to leverage. Not saying bloggers shouldn’t look offline (I wrote about some methods for doing it here and in a series here) but in most casees I think bloggers primary focus as it gets more bang for their buck will be online where their potential readers are already gathering. That’ll vary from niche to niche and person to person depending what they have offline to leverage.
Darren Rowse
February 12th, 2010 9:16 am
Kevin – I’ve not really used ping.fm or any others like it. I guess it’s worth testing to see if it works for you. Let us know what you find out!
Darren Rowse
February 12th, 2010 9:16 am
Cheryl – thanks for the reminder of V-day – must get out and pick up something for Mrs ProBlogger today.
Darren Rowse
February 12th, 2010 9:17 am
Rick – I agree that people should learn the basics of SEO. It’s certainly worth getting some basics down pat as it can really lift things over the long term of your blog.
marty@scrollandgun.com
February 12th, 2010 9:43 am
Content is always king. A lot of SEOs are now realizing that you can only do so much to build backlinks manually. Social media and traditional ideas of branding are now increasingly important.
adrienne
February 12th, 2010 9:44 am
I’m working on learning seo and using twitter because I’m not a technical or social person. Your right, you shouldn’t use only one form of generating traffic because some reader would rather interact with you on twitter than comment on your blog.
ESN
February 12th, 2010 10:27 am
Right post at the right time for me. Thank you for the useful tips.
Ms. Chow
February 12th, 2010 11:02 am
Hi Darren,
I agree with not nesting all your eggs in one basket. I have tried to build more networking and social media networks but that appears to be my weakspot so far. So building on SEO appears to make sense and it hit home when you said that optimizing for the search engines makes sense rather than simply focusing on quality content. I have been able to build some good content in my articles section, while keeping close attention to optimization as well and so far its been good. I have alot of readers complimenting on the content so it is reaching my intended target and at the end of the day, that’s what truly matters… the personal satisfaction that I’ve helped another.
Jazz Salinger
February 12th, 2010 12:06 pm
I like to use Google Analytics to see where the majority of my traffic is coming from and focus my time and energy on those areas.
Dana @ Blogging Update
February 12th, 2010 12:31 pm
For me, Search engine traffic is the best — but rss traffic also is worthy to increase because they are loyal readers.
Paulymath.com
February 12th, 2010 12:38 pm
#7 is so important in my opinion. For every article I’ve read that says “Never do this” there are countless examples of where “this” worked for someone else.
Oraea varis
February 12th, 2010 12:45 pm
Thanks so much for this post. I’m just starting to look at the monitization of blogging after a year of getting hooked on the enjoyment factor of writing blogs. Your steps helped clarify some of the different approaches and the validity of them all. Much appreciated, Oraea
Bala
February 12th, 2010 1:29 pm
Great advise. Now I realize the importance of good content to keep readers on coming back. thanks Darren.
Bruce Nunnally
February 12th, 2010 1:41 pm
Good topic well addressed. Leverage your strengths and work through your weaknesses seems very good advice.
I think step 0 not addressed is recognition and analysis — are Bloggers collecting the metrics and understanding where their current traffic is coming from?
Randy @ Just Point and Shoot
February 12th, 2010 1:51 pm
This is a good post, definitely helps push the idea of staying diverse. Though at the same time, while starting out, trying to be diverse made my head spin. It was a killer trying to keep track of all my different ventures for blog promotion, but now it’s evened out and gotten easier to manage.
It’s a bit ironic, I’m a total geek and have been designing websites since I was a freshman in high school, but I can’t stand SEO. Maybe I’m just taking the wrong approach to it…
Living with Balls
February 12th, 2010 2:12 pm
I definitely think the best strategy is to try and gain loyal readers. Google searches will fluctuate but loyal readers will always come back…and tell their friends too.
michael
February 12th, 2010 4:11 pm
David, I like so much your tender and at the same professional manner to elaborate the things unknown to the amateurs. I liked your 6th and 7th points as they summarize your ideas to be yourself and not to be lazy.
Dave, being an amateur I am wondering whether I can ask a question. Is it worth to transfer well established website to the recently created WB blog which is now is included in my main website as a page? The concerns are whether I won’t lose any ranking even after rightly done redirections. I am sure it will help to my poor designed set outs but in reality would not it be easier to optimise Blog than a website and so on?
So warmly and with gratitude,
Michael. (I am following you in Twitter)
Rudy - Quit Smoking Blog
February 12th, 2010 5:21 pm
I am currently focusing my traffic on search engines (SEO), blog commenting and forums. I guess I have to extend far more than that if I want to be a successful blogger.
This article really inspire you get out of your comfort zone and do something to promote your blog.
Thanks.
Darren Rowse
February 12th, 2010 7:56 pm
Bruce – “Leverage your strengths and work through your weaknesses seems very good advice.”
Yeah – that’s become a big part of my approach over the last year or two.
In terms of analysis – yes I think its important for bloggers to have a system for working out where traffic is coming from and to know how to monitor how it’s trending.
Darren Rowse
February 12th, 2010 8:00 pm
michael – were you meaning me – I’m Darren not David ;-)
I always feel a little risky in transferring sites. I think with the right redirections you’d be ok but you’ll probably want to get an SEO expert (I know a bit but am no expert) to help you with that one.
Cemil | Online Business Blackbook
February 12th, 2010 8:30 pm
Important Point “Too many Eggs in One Basket”
This is a universal thing is it not?
We hear it everyday in all aspects of out lives and I definitely believe that following this statement is important. Yes OK, different people have different ideas and many bloggers have a fav method of generating traffic, but what would be the harm in diversifying your effort over a few more different strategies.
Some work better than others and some work great together.
Palm pre chargers
February 12th, 2010 8:34 pm
There are many ways to generate traffic for your blog. I like to use Google Analytics to see where the majority of my traffic is coming from and focus my time and energy on those areas.
Mohammed Rhalmi
February 12th, 2010 10:46 pm
Great post Daren!
Dropshipping
February 12th, 2010 10:52 pm
Brilliant post suggesting various ways to bring traffic to the blog. Being yourself is very important while blogging. One has to keep a track of the traffic patterns as it keeps changing.
online shopping cart website design
February 12th, 2010 11:33 pm
Getting traffic is a combination of many things, the goal is to create great content that visitors want to use, search engines will love and other websites will naturally link to.
Yes it totally depends on type of blog ie your niche. So if your blog requires to be fresh then it’s good. But also remember that don’t blog excessively so that your readers may get obsessed with it. Let them digest your content.
Matthew Needham
February 12th, 2010 11:59 pm
Personally I use all methods to drive traffic. (Although less paid advertising). Social are big sources for me, but also are links from other sites and guest posts.
There’s no one size fits all but you do need to be out there in all possible ways and connect with your target market.
Terry Tiessen
February 13th, 2010 12:06 am
I recommend this blog to all my clients when they start blogging. It has more useful info then some blogging courses I’ve paid for.
Agent Deepak
February 13th, 2010 12:35 am
I now see why I didn’t succeed. I was leaving out many options to get traffic. I need to be open.
Thanks.
Mike Shaw
February 13th, 2010 1:04 am
Thanks,
This has help to increase my blog traffic massively!
Cara Lumen
February 13th, 2010 2:06 am
Hi Darren
I’m new to your blog and I have a question. I can’t find your name on your posts. I can link to your site and I still have to go to About to see who you are. I’ts because I’m new, not because you aren’t out there. What is the protocol about attaching your name to a blog post like we do on articles. And even a copyright date for when it gets picked up and forwarded.
Thanks for your great posts. I keep learning,
Cara Lumen, Your Idea Optimizer
Michael Barry
February 13th, 2010 2:51 am
Darren:
Let me start by stating that I am very new to blogging. I started building my website in October, kinda got it up by the first weekend of November, and really got it rolling as a true blog Jan 4th when I implemented Squarespace and re-launched the site. Early in this process I discovered ProBlogger and have been extremely loyal to you guys and thank the Lord everyday that I discovered you because you have been an invaluable source of knowledge.
However, I do find it interesting that you are posting an article like this because I feel that everything you have said is pretty much common sense. Since we re-launched Baseball Underground on Jan. 4th, we have 750 total unique hits and are averaging 25 unique hits/day. These are not great numbers, but they’re numbers I’m pretty happy with considering we have not paid a dime for any advertising. What we have done is (to use a stock market term) diversified our portfolio. We have exchanged links with several websites (which we exchange stories & guest blog with), utilized a number of different social media (Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Delicious & BallHype), and last night I went in and tweaked our keywords for search engines. We have also have free accounts with LinkReferral & TrafficSwarm. LinkReferral has been a great asset to us.
Has this added to HUGE financial gains for us? No. However, instead of focusing on the money we aren’t making, we are looking at our unique hits and have created clearly defined goals for those hits. For example, our goal is to break 1,000 total unique hits by the end of February and reach 3,000 total unique hits by the end of March. (Both goals I feel are very attainable but which would demonstrate considerable growth.) We are also maintaining the philosophy that increased unique hits will translate into increased money made through our affiliate programs. (I say programs because we also diversified those. Some AdSense, some Commission Junction and Link Share, and we recently added Amazon to our affiliates.)
As I said at the beginning of this comment, I operate a very young blog, so I’m new to this industry. However, having worked in sales (and hating it, basically because I was always taking orders from bosses who weren’t in the field), I feel that two things are extremely important: 1.) Realize that increased unique hits and one of the few things you can actually control and that more unique hits=increased revenue; 2.) Diversifying your portfolio will never hurt you; and can only help you.
Thanks for creating such a great resource and I look forward to learning more from you.
Sarah Baron
February 13th, 2010 2:54 am
Just finished reading through the article and the comments. Here is a quick summary of what was said in terms of ways to get traffic to your blog. I’m going to take this list and flush it out for my new blog, add tasks to the ones I think will work, and then experiment. Thanks Darren and all those who commented. Also, by the way, I am a member of problogger.com, and the help there is amazing!
Ways to get traffic to the blog – see what works for your strengths and niche
1. Social bookmarking
2. RSS to email
3. Social networking
4. Search
5. Email Newsletter
6. Other sites
7. RSS
do not convert well for adsense
8. Other blogs
9. Paid advertising
From search traffic, adsense works well.
10. Offline advertising and PR – from comment section
Order of traffic for new site – blogs or forums where you comment or guest post or articles your write. Then RSS or newsletters. Then from other sites that link to you.
Sarah Baron
February 13th, 2010 2:59 am
One more thing! I met with an bus exec earlier this week whose business is based on internet marketing. He suggested that you look carefully at what your readers will be looking for. In my case, they will most probably NOT be using google search, but will learn about it from other blogs, social media, and friends. So, while he told me not to ignore SEO, he suggested I spend time on other blogs and social media.
My site, by the way, so you can understand his advice, is for women about friendship and how to make their long term relationships more interesting and fun!
Prasanga
February 13th, 2010 3:25 am
Great post. I think one of the greatest way to get traffic is through article marketing. This is a matter of writing quality articles and submitting it to the article directories.
Marc
February 13th, 2010 4:21 am
Good point Darren,
It is good to have a mix of everything and “bee seen”, but I have found that the more I try and “force” traffic the more dismal the outcome (meaning a lot of un-targeted traffic who don’t buy, interact, or share).
Have good content and let people know your around in different places online, plus some good SEO should work pretty good… and luck! (one can hope)
David Siteman Garland
February 13th, 2010 4:38 am
I can definitely attest to personality being a major key and playing to your strengths.
For my show, for example, it is all about social interactions (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) plus links from other sites.
Sure, SEO is important. Sure, social bookmarking is important.
But I’ve noticed those two happen more organically because of social.
I just had Brian Halligan (Inbound Marketing) on for an interview and made him try to choose between focusing on search or social. After about 9 minutes of hesitation (well maybe not 9), he went with search.
If the question was reversed, I would go social.
Drug Rehab
February 13th, 2010 5:43 am
When it comes to marketing, why not just try everything? I am of the mindset that if one thing doesn`t work, if you`ve tried a lot of things at least you didn`t put all your eggs in one basket… besides, what works today, may by obsolete by tomorrow. So, try it all! Articles, Press Releases, Blogs, Social Media, PPC, Banners, e-mail marketing… even old school advertising like radio and TV!
Curtiis Chappell
February 13th, 2010 12:10 pm
Darren,
Considering your other passion – photography – I’m surprised that using images as a way of generating more traffic didn’t make your list?
I’ve been adding images to most of my posts, after receiving some advice early on in my blogging experience, but I also make sure to tag the image so that it aligns with the post content.
While the ‘stickiness’ of the image traffic is quite poor compared to organic click- throughs from content searches, it represents the fastest growing source of traffic on my blog in the past two months. So the blog is getting a lot more exposure to potential long-term readers.
For any newbie bloggers using images, make sure you’ve added ALL of the Google image searches – they are different for every country – to your update list and you can get a free list of those from Jack Humphrey’s free ebook – The Authority Black Book.
Darren, you are always a source of inspiration, and your interview with Robb Sutton on robbsutton.com shows you truly are a class act! Cheers for the advice…
Write On!
how to mend a broken heart
February 13th, 2010 6:34 pm
Social media marketing is the process of promoting your site or business through social media channels and it is a powerful strategy that will get you links, attention and massive amounts of traffic.Making an website and offer its services in internet is easy but the harder side is to get traffic on your site and your article is very helpful for them.Without traffic even the best designed site will not make it.I will add some more to your post-Backlinks are a link to your website from another website.When they see the link on someone else’s site it sends the spiders over to your site and they index your site getting it placed on a search engine organically instead of you going over and entering it.This is one way to get traffic more on your website.Ne ways good job.
Satria Nugraha
February 13th, 2010 7:38 pm
Like you i already did too many eggs in one basket. I realize that thing is dangerous after i lost all my rank and now i built my blog from the beginning again. It makes me feel sad but i don’t want drown in my sadness and the positive is i have experience that i can tell and share it to my friend that new in blog world not do like i do.
sudharsan @ technoskillonline
February 13th, 2010 7:42 pm
This type of insight view can be written only by a most senior and xeperienced blogger like you…
very nice tips for a new blogger
thanks
scheng1
February 13th, 2010 7:48 pm
I like the point about traffic diversification. It’s definitely risky to rely solely on search engines, since search engine algo changes continuously.
James Stewart
February 13th, 2010 9:17 pm
Good post and some interesting comments.
Offline blog promoting is all well and good but it purely depends on your chosen niche.
Like the post states, there are probably hundreds of ways to drive traffic to a blog, it’s all trial and error with so many influencing factors.
What works best for you may not work best for me.
My advice is keep trying new things, diversify and stick with what works best for you in your particular niche.
The traffic will come.
James
chandan
February 13th, 2010 10:56 pm
There are different source of drive traffic to our blog, just we have to work more for generating traffic to our blog. Now a days SMO is going popular to drive traffic.
Parag Kolhe
February 14th, 2010 12:44 am
Great post.
Chua
February 14th, 2010 3:50 am
May I know if i were to choose only the best way to generate traffic for blog, which is the best way then?
3D Players World
February 14th, 2010 4:03 am
This is so true. I should be open to different approaches. You make me realize that I was probably losing a lot traffic from other approaches that I didn’t put emphasis on it.
Thanks Darren
Always a pleasure reading you.
Arnel Tanyag
February 14th, 2010 8:28 am
Great post. I appreciate you sharing your insights in generating traffic.
lana
February 15th, 2010 6:41 am
i have only been blogging for about nine months and i think listing with high ranking blog directories is a good way to go.
i have found that administrators at more established niche blogs are not always quick to link with a newbie. whether there is anything to it, i don’t know but i have noticed that certain niches, like celebrity blogs, are not given to great written content and they link to other blogs that also don’t have great written content
also making requests to link to a more established site is almost always not replied to, even when the blog fits into my niche. i imagine some people are waiting to see if newbies are in it for the long haul.
in my opinion having a lot of “friends” or “followers” from social networking sites doesn’t necessarily translate into lots of traffic. the bulk of my traffic comes from organic searches in google.
Themepremium
February 15th, 2010 7:42 am
I have been using all the techniques apart from advanced email marketing. I used feedburner email marketing, but it never yields great result for me :|
lana
February 15th, 2010 7:52 am
oh yeah. the type of browsers visitors use seem to be determinants in how your blog shows up in search results. under certain queries my blog shows up on the first page of IE8, but in Firefox my blog shows up on page 3.
Bimal Roy
February 15th, 2010 11:54 am
Please put a post on some tools and tricks to rank high in search engines.
Betty
February 15th, 2010 1:04 pm
I agree on receiving and looking at the revenue from all the sources you spoke of. I am a newbie, but I see there is more than 1 revenue source for blogs. Thanks for your insight.
Elizabeth Ashe
February 15th, 2010 3:12 pm
What an excellent Post, most bloggers have different personalty styles and that can play out in how they get traffic to their site. I use a variety of all method and don’t just stick one main one and the idea of constantly testing drives me nuts.
But experimenting with getting traffic is great to find out which one is the right one for your niche.
Houston Librarian
February 15th, 2010 4:57 pm
I think I will go with all of the above to be on the safe side
Avatar Lover
February 15th, 2010 7:46 pm
i am student but i still make money
online with adsense via my vlog.
i have to manage my time to study and
to promote my blog.
well, i can not give all my time
just to get traffic from all resources like
above.
i just focus in getting traffic from video marketing
and seo,i just use these two ways to get traffic.
to market with video marketing I will
upload around 10 videos at youtube.com
and to market via seo i will make up at least 30
backlinks everyday at people blog that has good ranking.
hmm..the result is pretty good.
for me it`s ok if we try just few resources to
get traffic but here focus is the main key!
anyway,,this is really great post.
thanks! :)
Nimit Kashyap
February 16th, 2010 10:51 am
It is important not to be dependent on a single source of traffic, very true point.
Shaune
February 16th, 2010 3:40 pm
Thanks for the post. I’m always looking for ways to improve my online presence and make my blog more useful to the readership.
Cori Padgett
February 17th, 2010 2:39 am
I actually generate the bulk of my traffic through social media, and my blog is just now establishing some traction and receiving some search engine traffic. I agree though, that focusing on just one area is a mistake. It’s never a smart idea to put all your eggs in one basket in anything in life, and especially when it comes to your financial well-being. Thanks for the great post Darren… I’m off to continue diversifying! :)
Warm regards,
Cori
Farnoosh
February 17th, 2010 3:05 am
Darren, excellent observation and advice: Be Yourself. Be unique and truly develop that voice. For me, that is the reason I blog, and monetization, while it would be nice, comes later.
How can we enjoy the blogging process if we lose our sense of identity and our own writing voice, and what does it matter anymore how well we are doing financially if we are not enjoying it?
Consuela Greene
February 17th, 2010 3:15 am
This article has opened my eyes to understanding that you need more than one way to growing your traffic. Thanks
Valentina
February 17th, 2010 3:48 am
Thank you Darren,
I see that my blog traffic is right on track with your flow chart … nice to know that persistence will begin to pay off with other types of traffic (eventually :-)
Forearm Tattoos
February 17th, 2010 11:25 pm
Thank you for this great post. In fact, thanks for the whole site – there is some great stuff here.
Joshua Burkhow
February 18th, 2010 2:17 pm
Hey! Great article! Anybody have experience with ancestry/genealogy blogs and what sources you think I should focus most on? Thanks, Joshua http://www.climbingjoshuastree.com
RickyRobi
March 5th, 2010 9:21 am
You are so right that you shouldn’t limit your self to getting traffic from one source. That would be as bad as only using one method of earning money online. Diversity!
I like to think of driving traffic to a site as building a chain. Each source is a link in the chain. If you miss one, your chain isn’t very strong. I keep trying to make mine stronger.
Margarette Poisson
March 8th, 2010 2:56 am
Anything preceding a 5% weighting for inclusion of keywords, is edging on the insane, and will more than in all likelihood get the article or webpage unobserved. The average is 2% – 5% – – – with 5% being the high end. Google look to choose the 2% mark. Hmmh! that “SEO expert” who advocates anything above a 5% weight for keywords must be that same charlatan who “guarantees” a top10 ranking – tcchh!!
Shelina Ishani
March 16th, 2010 11:38 am
Great tips for a beginner blogger as myself. Thankyou!!
Shelina Ishani
http://coolmamablog.com
http://jazzyseries.com
Mandi
April 5th, 2010 1:09 pm
This is very helpful, thanks! I do think very different niches do get a different response, sometimes you do have to keep yourself from just sticking to the “easiest” or the “immediately most effective” option.
vinay
April 5th, 2010 8:04 pm
I am getting traffic around 200 to 300 per day . But still my PR is “0″.My friends have same niche and almost he is copying my Content.But his PR is 2 AND also he is good traffic.Only difference is i am using blogger he is using wordpress.Is this the problem.Please check my blog
http://www.moviebuffer.com/
and tell me what is wrong,Hope you reply me soon .
Andrew Pelt
May 4th, 2010 7:07 pm
Thx a lot for this post it’s really useful.As a webdevelopping student I find it hard to create a workflow for an application.I start with an application but as soon as things go wrong, I have nothing to fall back to. I’ll definately keep this list and try to follow it as much as possible.
Lialla Igneb
May 6th, 2010 2:29 am
Hi, thanks so much for these tips! My blogs usually do bring readers and responses. One thing I do is engage with the readers. Answer questions in responses and make clarifications where needed. I think they appreciate that I take the time to talk to them.
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