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5 Ways to Grow Your Blog Without Relying on Google Traffic

Posted By Jerry Low 7th of November 2014 Blog Promotion 0 Comments

This is a guest contribution from Jerry Low.

Google is a b*tch

Like so many things on the web, the world of Google is constantly evolving – and while that flex can lead to good things, it also creates a volatile environment for bloggers and websites that rely on their search rankings – which, is pretty much all of them.

The short of it is that, while 90 percent of internet experiences begin with search – but of those, only a small fraction will move beyond the first two pages of results. Needless to say, there’s a reason so many people have invested in SEO to boost their ranking – but that volatility we were talking about makes that a huge risk as all of that work and investment could go out the window overnight should the algorithm changed. Which has happened many a time.

Google Penguin threw the SEO world into frenzy… and you’d think we’d have learned. But they did it to us again in September with the Panda 4.1 update – so much so that some sites are seeing more than a 70 percent loss in search visibility. As ever, we don’t know exactly what the algorithm changes were – only that they work to better hone in on quality content.

You need Google-less approach to build blog traffics

All of this having been said, Google’s algorithms are constantly changing – so it’s important to build your blog’s success in other ways. You know that saying, “don’t put all your eggs in one basket?” Apply that here.

Relying solely on Google’s organic search to drive traffic to your blog is simply not a good business model – you need to diversify. In this article, I am going to share a few strategies that work well for me – these are the mainly how I quadruple my site traffics ever since it got hit by Penguin in April 2012.

Strategy #1: Blog Commenting

First off, commenting on blogs is quite possibly the most overlooked method for building blog traffic – mostly because people suck at making quality, meaningful conversation with strangers (myself included). However, blog commenting is a quality method for building traffic that also happens to be free – can’t argue with that!

Blog commenting, NOT spamming

Let’s back up for a moment – I’m not talking about dropping a link out of the blue or spamming the blog owner with a “nice post – thank you” comment… those aren’t relevant, nor will they get you anywhere.

I’m talking about leaving a quality, helpful comment that intrigues the blog owner and their readers, making them want to learn more about you – which means you need to give other readers a reason (in your comment) to learn more about you.

Effective blog comment marketing

There are two golden rules to blog commenting:

(1) Always write a quality comment – meaning, if you don’t have something meaningful to add to the discussion, don’t leave a comment (Read: Do not leave “Thank you – great post” comments… they’re useless); and

(2) Only drop a link where appropriate – don’t spam, no matter how tempting it may be; it will backfire on you. While not a golden rule, perhaps, it is important – if you leave a link, don’t just give your blog’s URL – instead, link to a relevant post of your own that contributes to the original post and discussion… that relevancy is key.

Real life scenario: Blog commenting done right

Here’s a great example of someone who has done it right:

problogger_comment

For starters, Mr. Miller goes into some detail, offering unique perspective relevant to the original post while also letting readers know about him and his relevancy to the topic. By sharing his own experience, he displays his own expertise in the search field, earning my attention and drawing me to learn more about him… so much so that I clicked on his Moz profile and now follow him on Twitter.

This is how it works… and did I mention that it’s free?

Strategy #2: Freebies marketing

This one is fairly straightforward – after all, who doesn’t like getting something for free?

You, the blogger, will provide readers with an incentive – something free in exchange for joining your email list, subscribing to a newsletter, submitting a giveaway entry… you get the idea.

However, not all freebies are good on their own – you need to think outside the box when you promote them so that you provide the public and other bloggers a reason to talk about your freebie and link back to your blog… the whole point is to get traffic, after all. Beyond that reason, you need to think like your audience – where does your target audience hang around? Where can you best reach them? Venue is just as important as getting your freebie out there in the first place.

Use freebies as a reason to reach out

Also, when you launch your freebie, don’t just sit on your laurels and wait for the visitors to come – you need to stay active, reaching out to influencers to let them know about your giveaway; otherwise, you’re leaving too much up to chance and missing opportunities.

As for your actual freebie – it doesn’t need to cost an arm and a leg; what it does need to do is hold relevancy and value to your target audience.

For example, if you are selling your cooking ebook no your blog, you’ll likely want to stay active on mommy blogs or other cooking blogs where your target audience is likely to reside – giving away free recipes on those blogs is a great way reach that audience and intrigue them to learn more about you (and your own blog).

Real life scenario: Free icons at Web Hosting Secret Revealed

Another example – my core business at Web Hosting Secret Revealed (WHSR) is promoting hosting services.

Rather than squeezing into the crowded Google SERP, I’ve found better odds targeting web designers who likely have use for my hosting advice… to land a seat with that audience, I’ve created loads of freebies. Those loads of free icons? Yep – freebies targeted to my primary audience. The free icons actually earned substantial attention from the blogosphere, bringing in new visitors and social followers. If you’re interested, these are just a few of the blogs that featured our free icons:

Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.

Strategy #3: Crowd Sourcing Post

Crowd sourcing is a way of playing in the sandbox with the other kids.

You’ll leverage the reach of other bloggers, customers, business owners, etc., getting a seat in front of their audience for your blog.

The best way to get this moving is to invite others who could benefit from the cross promotion (or simply want their link on your website) to publish their opinions or tips on your blog. The get for them is that they get their own backlink while also getting to establish themselves with your audience – and, since they’re likely to want to share their being featured as an expert outside of their own site, they’re likely to share your post with their own audiences.

Real life scenario: How I did it?

For example, to create this crowd-sourcing post, I reached out to roughly 30 bloggers, asking for their past blogging mistakes. The response was overwhelming and led to tons of new traffic, social media shares, and blog mentions… for free!

Like I said – playing nicely in the sandbox with others.

Strategy #4: (Creative) Social Media Marketing

Social media is a no-brainer – it’s free and a great way to find and grow your audience.

That said, sometimes making that social media endeavor a winner is a bit of a puzzle.

Remember that quality content is key to social media marketing success.

Key to success: Quality content, timing, headlines, creativity, connection with influencers

Before you can drive traffic to your blog, you need to give readers a reason to follow you; the best way is to provide quality content. Take a stand and don’t be afraid to speak your mind – then, write a quality post about it. Here’s a great example from Sean Davis about his frustration creating web forms with Aweber. It’s relevant to a specific audience, it has a voice, and it’s identifiable – net, net; there’s a benefit.

Secondly, timing is everything. Your audience is bound to have peak times and low times that they use social media – time your posts accordingly by applying intel learned from Simply Measured free tools.

problogger_ajkohnWhile a book can’t be judged by its cover, that cover certainly catches eyes – so make a point to write interesting headlines. UpWorthy has a rule that, for each post, you should write 25 headlines – the idea is that your thinking will evolve and you will better hone your message as you let your ideas filter and play on one another. Whether 25 is your magic number, I don’t know – but I do like and stand behind the idea.

Next, don’t forget the value of images. Use as many as possible – not just to add color to your page or because “you’re supposed to,” but to actually add value and make your content more digestible and appealing. Ditch the clipart and instead look to infographics, flow charts, memes, and scenery – they’re evergreen and a great way to attract a social media following. Also, in my own experience, I’ve found that using tall graphics and writing meaty content improved my Google+ engagement rate by 8,400% in one of my recent posts… yes, that’s right; 8400%.

Finally, be fun and creative. Take the lead from AJ Kohn’s Google+profile… okay, yes – people follow him anyway for sound SEO advice, but I bet there are also many followers who were attracted by his beautiful scenery photos.

 

Strategy #5: Q&A Platforms

Forums are another great place to get a seat in front of your relevant, interested audience. The trick is to monitor ongoing conversations in your niche so that you can chime in when you have something helpful to say (and no, not every post is going to be an opportunity – but some will). You’ll need a good feed reader, such as Feedly, to make this work.

Not finding an exact fit or enough on-the-dot opportunities?

Create some custom content relevant to a particularly hot conversation. For example, if someone asks how to do something with .htaccess code, you could write a tutorial and post it to your blog – then, in the Q&A section of the site, respond to the requester with a teaser, linking them to your blog to get the full codes and demos. Odds are that if one person asked the question, others have that same question – and your forum answer and link will live on to advise them as well when the time comes.

Real life scenario: Where to start?

In terms of which Q&A platforms to use, I recommend Quora, Klout, and Yahoo! Answers – these are three of the best general Q&A platforms out there. If you are a publisher selling programming books, StackOverflow is right up your alley – at a minimum, ask your writers to stay active on the site. For travel bloggers, I highly advise staying active on Trip Advisor.

Bonus: Sponsor, speak at, or organize an event

Here’s something that lots of people overlook: you can market your blog offline. Events are a great opportunity to establish yourself as a leader in your space and to promote your blog in the process.

Real life scenario: ProBlogger Event

Take for example Darren who created Pro Blogger to fill a void. Initially created as a roundtable concept for bloggers, the event grew substantially in just two years – so much so that more than 30 speakers had access to an audience 550+ strong. Can you imagine getting to speak to a relevant audience of that size – and directing those attendees to your blog? That’s potentially 550 new hits in just one day.

15067474775_1d79f98176_o.jpg

Some events will invite speakers, whereas others take submissions. Do some searching and see what you can find – odds are there’s a relevant opportunity for you, but in the off chance there’s not, take a page from Darren’s book and launch your own. And when you do get that opportunity, don’t be shy – shamelessly shill for your blog, Pinterest boards, Twitter handle – you name it. Be a real resource and offer attendees a way to continue getting value from your experience.

What’s next?

One thing often overlooked: getting that traffic is only a part of the game – you still need to know what to do with it.

Remember that you’ll need to focus on maintaining that traffic – so focus on creating an ongoing conversation and way to continue the dialogue. Landing pages are key here, providing you a quick way to get information from and to your reader.

When your visitor lands on your landing page, make it clear what you want them to do – that could be signing up for your newsletter, following you on Twitter, commenting on your blog – the list goes on. The point is, be clear and direct – this is not the time to be coy. Also, take the opportunity to include a sign-up form that collects their email address; this is a seamless way to grow your brand and create remarketing opportunities.

There are plenty of ways to grow your blog’s traffic – without relying on Google. Better yet? Most of them are free!

Have a method I missed or questions about one I included? Please share your thoughts below.

About Jerry Low
Jerry Low – geek dad, SEO junkie, founder of Web Hosting Secret Revealed. Connect with him on Twitter or find out more about him at his personal blog The Real Jerry Low.
Comments
  1. You’re 100% correct when you say that people have to be direct when trying to hook visitors to their websites. Too many people are shy–“Well, i don’t like those pop-ups, so I shouldn’t bother others with them.” But the fact is, they work, and they work VERY well! Hearing the pros say that it’s worth the time to buck up and be assertive always helps.

  2. Hi Jerry
    Good post, especially considering the fact that search engine traffic is becoming unpredictable of late due to the huge number of algorithm updates (some even affecting the good websites). You for got to mention (or was that implied) about guest posting. Get your post on a popular blog and you can get good number of visitors. If you have USEFUL stuff on your site, one can gain good number of subscribers. That ensures repeated visits from loyal followers. That is the best way in my opinion.

    Regards
    Blogician

    • Yep, how could I miss that? Indeed guest posting is another effective method to build traffics and expand your blog reach. The key – as you mentioned it – is to find a blog with real readership. And, a good way to do so is to use web app like Buzz Sumo or Peer Index to find influencers in the industry.

  3. This a very very good one, i kept thinking for long while about it. I said to myself we don’t have to build our success around another man’s success. There must be a way to get traffic independently. Thanks alot I am grateful.

  4. Thank you – great post! J/K. Don’t forget these other Google-less traffic strategies for blogging:
    – Add your URL/link to all of your not-so-obvious online profiles such as eBay, etc.
    – Add quality comments to Reddit, Craigslist forums, and other websites, not just on blogs.
    – Participate in relevant online forums and include a link in signature and profile
    – Paid traffic (everyone’s favorite, right?)

  5. I have really gained a lot from this post because i use to find it difficult commenting on other people’s site but i see it as wasting of time and not knowing it is very valuable in building one’s site. Thanks

  6. I was always in the habit of dropping that “nice post – thank you” comments; now I have seen that It’s not healthy. But must we always drop lengthy comments like Miller?

    • same with me. i am kind of use to that short comment. speak at, or organize an event. i think that is a great idea

    • Hi William,

      I don’t feel you’ll always create such in-depth comments; I think Jerry means to make an impact where you show up. Like, if you really vibe with the topic write something like Marcus, but even if you don’t, be authentic, and share 2 or 3 paragraphs at least to show that you care, and that you’re listening, and to build a bond with a fellow blogger.

  7. It is always a good idea to not have everything invested in Google. They are always changing things and you never really know how you stand with them. Thank you for sharing this information.

  8. Thank you for laying bare your blogging secrets. Google is indeed standing on the side of readers and searchers so that we publishers should just simply improve our readers’ online experience if we are to receive favors from Google. Ultimately this will make the whole blogosphere a nicer place.

  9. Jerry, thank you for sharing some great tips in your article.

    I have experimented with many (but not all) of these options, and I certainly agree that crowdsourcing articles, commenting and social media can get a great response. However I have not used Q&A forums or speaking yet. I can probably start the Q&A immediately and build up to public speaking!

    • Well you should really try out Q&A sites – it works pretty well in long terms.

      As for speaking in an event – I witnessed this first hand when I was in Web Summit in Dublin (just few days ago) – where a simple tweet from the speaker could generate dozens of retweets and new followers easily. The method works. But – as mentioned – gaining on traffic (and social followings) is only part of the game.

  10. Thank you!
    I just started building my site and have many things to learn. I find your article very motivating, I have so many new ideas about applying your strategies to my site. But I need to make some decent page content first :)

  11. Google is a b*tch
    LOL) SO CRUEL ! V ProBlogger Event – when and where You are going to organise the next one ??

  12. Google is a great source of organic traffic, but bloggers and website owners shouldn’t heavily focus on specifically optimizing for Google traffic. It pays to be diverse as an affiliate marketer-article marketer-blogger and optimize your blog or website with your mind naturally, because no one truly knows what search engines are looking for. This is why it’s vital to the success of any online business that depends on unique content to bring them business from search engines to keep putting out “lots and lots of content” that’s deemed of quality and unique.

    Here’s how Article-affiliate marketers and bloggers can get better rankings:

    1. Write and submit as many articles a week to any reputable article directory

    2. Create unique content daily for your blog or website “specifically 1,000 word posts or close to it.”

    3. Use YouTube and include a link in your video description to get better SEO and “referral video traffic.”

    4. Create .pdf files and include links back to your site in the body of the content and share on social networks to create a viral buzz.

    5. Consider social bookmarking as a means of getting exponential traffic in addition to search engine traffic.

    When you strategically diversify your “internet swot content marketing strategy,” you optimize your mind to the height of Optimus Prime to achieve top rankings and capitalize on receiving viral traffic from all corners of the web for years to come! :-)

  13. Great post. I really hate having to rely on google traffic for my website. I wish there was a better search engine that didn’t monopolize traffic for it’s own benefit.

    • To be honest, things were not better when Google was a much smaller player during the early 2000’s.

      I remember this clearly because I had hard time balancing my SEO effort between Yahoo! and Google; and I had my friend wrote me a specific php scripts to measure the conversion rates between the two. So from a pure SEO’s perceptive, I don’t think having Google monopolying the search market is 100% bad thing – at least we have only one b*tch to serve ;)

  14. Hi Jerry,

    You mention here some great way to bring traffic without search engines. Search engines are always dancing and it is a better way to build a brand to bring traffic for a long time by blog commenting, social media marketing, forum posting, guest posting etc.

  15. I was shocked after reading the title of this post, which actually forced me to click on it and see what’s inside.

    You did great justice with the article by sharing techniques like commenting, freebie marketing etc. which are obviously a great way to bring people on your site and make them your loyal readers.

    I have personally tried giving away some free themes on my blog when I launched it few days back. And you would be surprised to hear that this blog alone generated $233 this month (it’s not getting traffic from Google as it’s very new blog), which is a great thing at start.

    Thanks for explaining other methods to kick Google out.. ha ha..

  16. Despite everything, in the end one has to rely on Google heavily for proper and passive exposure. It takes time but if one follow the methods you wrote about, one can certainly enjoy success both over Google authority as well as on general grounds.

  17. What are your feeling about using social bookmarking as a means to seeking alternative traffic from Bing, Google, and YaHoO! ?

    And, what are your feelings also about traditional free methods of online promotion such as article marketing and document .pdf distribution?

    • It works. I have seen countless blogs and websites grew by simply using the methods you mentioned. Question is – are you doing it right?

  18. Thank you for laying bare your blogging secrets. Google is indeed standing on the side of readers and searchers

  19. Hi Jerry,

    Marcus really nailed it with his comment as did you with this post. Being genuine helps one comment effectively. I could post a 1 line comment but who would care? Not many folks, because you remember folks who make you feel special.

    I wrote an entire eBook on how to create an online empire through blog commenting. I pulled back from my Marcus-style comments for a bit because I was busy publishing 10 eBooks but now I’m returning to my effective, impactful comment style. We get what we give, right? Well, blog commenting helped me gain endorsements from Chris Brogan, Yaro Starak and it also helped me land a speaking gig at NYU. If that’s not a sales pitch for what blog commenting can do for you, I don’t know what is.

    Google will always change but if you remain true to yourself and your brand, you’ll never lack for business. Google’s next update will wipe out bloggers who rely on Google for their livelihood, and it will not affect those of us who rely on ourselves for our blogging income. Like, if my blog commenting is solid, as are my blog posts, and if I promote others, I’ll be true to me, and my blogging friends will always be my blogging friends.

    Those blogging friends will also promote me despite what Google does, and I’ll naturally prosper with my Google-free approach.

    On the flip side I still do SEO and intend to drive Google traffic, and the irony is, the more you focus on creating in-depth content, with some keywords peppered in, and the more you really over deliver, the easier it becomes to make a stunningly big impact on your audience and on Google. That’s the secret; doing a darn fine job at whatever you do, and blogging successful will find you through multiple channels. Google, Social, other blogs, etc.

    Thanks Jerry,

    Ryan

    • Google is a good source of organic traffic, but DNN agrees with you that you shouldn’t solely rely on them. They are always changing face in search and you never know what they are looking for.

      Like you and others do daily, just create great content and don’t bother optimizing for one specific search engine. Yet, write naturally to satisfy your readers.

    • Hey Ryan,
      Tony Here: Got your email and I would be honored to do a book review for you. Just need to know how I can get a hold of the book so I can read the book and write something about it. I really enjoy reading stuff on blogging…

      It gets my blood moving in my brain and keeps me motivated like exercising, but again just let me know to if you would like me to post it on my website also.

      Thanks again,
      Tony

  20. Jerry!

    You’re right that blog commenting is one of the most overlooked traffic generation strategy. Commenting, when done in a right way can massive amounts of targeted traffic that has the huge potential of conversions. Even if you drop hundreds of generic comments, across all the blogs in your niche. You will hardly get a click.

    Instead of that, leaving a great insightful comment of around 200 words on a blog like ProBlogger, drives you lots of targeted traffic with lower bounce rate.
    Being the first one to comment on highly popular blogs in your niche, is a great way to drive traffic by blog commenting.

    Another thing I really liked reading this post is question and answer marketing.
    Quora and Yahoo answers or undoubtedly the most rapidly growing question and answer communities out there. By properly leveraging, the potential of both these platforms can drive a massive amount of targeted traffic for your blog. The question posted on this communities, index and rank instantly on Google. Therefore, if you have an outstanding answer for the question in your niche, you’ll get massive traffic by users clicking on the “source of the answer”, section.

    However, you forgot to mention the less utilized strategy of WEBINARS for driving traffic and list building. Webinars are a great way to gain reputation, express your skills for your loyal fan base and spread your voice across the web.

    Meanwhile, great post, thanks for sharing.

    Have a nice day ahead.

    • Hey Akshay,

      Wow man great comment especially when you talk about commenting and how it can generate traffic if done right. Also you mentioned Yahoo answers and Quora.

      Now I heard from some other sources about these Q & A forums, but do you have any suggestions it would great?

      Anyways, just thought I would ask…

      Well, I hope everything is going good for you!

      Thanks again

      Tony McCabe

  21. Nobody lost betting in brand and developing the name of a product or service, so if you want to win in markets you can focused in brand.

  22. Here’s another idea for anyone who creates visual/video content. When you come across a great post(s), repurpose the information as an “inspired by” graphic or video. Make sure to give full credit to the original author(s) (“inspired by such and such) and include their handles when sharing on Twitter etc. Then shoot an email thanking them for their post with a link to your graphic/video.

    I’ve found it a nice source of new content ideas, connections with other bloggers and shares. Just make sure to add a unique angle or approach to the information (like creating a visual explanation of a previously written process) and always give full credit to the original author.

    Has anyone else had any good results with this approach?

  23. I have seen some posts talking about the fact that blog commenting is not dead for traffic. Spamming is obviously dead. But Matt Cutts himself have said that leaving a blog comment that has something to say, is not bad for building traffic. I hope they won’t slap bloggers for white hat commenting in the future.
    So I can only agree with it, that blog commenting is not dead, as off now :)

    • Ramul,

      Hey Tony here,

      Just to let you know I just started to comment o blogs and took lots of advice about commenting correctly. They told me it depends on how you comment.

      For example, a SPAM comment: Thanks for the blog article it was great!
      Now for a good comment: What a amazing article about how you explain how to get traffic from different sources, I like the part where you talk about how to write a ad for advertisement and where to market. ect, ect….

      Well you get the point, but what I am trying to say is commenting if done right will get you a lot of attention.
      Believe me I get plenty. Sometimes it can be to much at times, because trying to keep up with it all is hard work.

      Last, but not least… I told a person not listen to others and find the answer for yourself… Take risk!

      Well anyways gotta go.. Hope we can chat…

      Your hope to be good friend
      Tony McCabe

  24. I’ve found that many people (newbies in particular) believe that SEO is the end-all-be-all in terms of traffic – if they aren’t ranking in search engines, their business is bound to fail. It’s as if search engine traffic is the only good form of traffic that exists! As a result, they spend most of their time chasing backlinks.

    The thing is that, backlinks are believed to be sort of a catch-22 situation. You need backlinks to get traffic, but you need backlinks to get traffic. This isn’t really true – if you spend your time using these other strategies, you’ll naturally gain more backlinks anyway through the networking your doing with other bloggers. These are the type of backlinks that are really going to help you in terms of SEO.

    I should also add that organic traffic converts the worse for me and I’m sure this is true for other bloggers as well due to the nature of the visitor. At the end of the day, its conversions that really matter – not silly traffic numbers. Sometimes it’s hard to tell what people are really in business for – to make money or to rank high in search engines, lol.

    Some great strategies are listed here that are sure to help out people struggling for traffic. I also love how you focus on retaining that traffic at the end – that’s equally as important and allows your viewerbase to continuously grow bigger. Great post!

    • James, thanks the compliments.

      IMHO, links at all is a sign of popularity. Regardless of links carrying a nofollow attribute or not. Regardless of context. It’s the popularity that follows from visibility.

      And visibility has always been the top marketing goal.

      A while ago Luanna talked about why link building belongs to marketing, not SEO nor Google on WHSR and i think it’d be a good read for those who are interested in this topic (http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/inbound-marketing/14-reasons-link-building-belongs-to-marketing-not-seo-nor-google/).

      I do not agree that organic traffic converts the worse – at least not in my experience. Google traffics do convert very well in most of my affiliate websites. Conversion is not the reason why we need to grow beyond Google; stability is.

  25. Your strategy #3 “Crowd sourcing post” seems to be a brilliant idea to attract highly targeted visitors. How a newbie blogger can implement this method? Surely, if I send out such an invitation to influencers, do you think they would respond? Would you?

    Nevertheless, I intend to try it out with my blogging friends.

    • Kidambi – couple of factors to keep in mind for crowd-sourcing strategy –

      1. Are you reaching out the right way? (ie. write short, concise, interesting email)
      2. Are you working on an interesting topic (ie. stop beating the dead horse).
      3. Are you giving back enough to the influencers (ie. think what’s in it for those who responds to your request).
      4. Are you working hard enough? (ie. on 20% reply rate you’ll get 20 influencers in 100 requests. How about reaching out to 2,000 influencers?)
      5. Are you using the right tool? (suggestion: Buzz Sumo, Follower Wonk, Buffer App.)

      Richard Marriot was a newbie when he wrote this http://www.clambr.com/link-building-tools/ The post got more than 2,000 social engagements and 200 comments at this time of writing.

  26. I really like your idea of blog commenting and crowd sourcing, however social media is the best thing to rely on to get traffic, but question and answer marketing is great too. Most important is the strategy that we need to make and follow for best results.
    Many people think SEO is only for experts and fail to attempt it thinking they can’t do it, but actually one needs to discover own techniques though research and practice.

  27. Good day,

    Thank you for an excellent article.

    While making meaningful comments seems to be the number one way to attract other bloggers to your blog, with the limited time one has it is difficult to read as many blogs as possible to make this work, well in at least most cases.

    Social Media is an excellent tool. Twitter has Re-Tweet groups that really get your post out there. Also one must remember to promote your post a few times on twitter & Facebook at different times. Also interacting with your audience on platforms such as Twitter is really helpful. I am currently looking into more tools to get Social Media working for me and convert visitors to regular readers to my blog.
    For a personal -blog such as mine, which focuses more on creativity, entertainment and strong opinions it is difficult to build an audience, especially if I don’t want to only target other bloggers.
    The timing thing seems to make a great deal of impact and I have recently discovered to change timing my posts to a bit later time for a few more views.

    I will look into the Crowd sourcing you have mentioned here or perhaps guest blog posts… A blogger I know has great marketing on her blog by allowing other bloggers to collaborate on a project. I really loved her idea, and it was a lot of fun to collaborate on this project. If you can get other bloggers involved in your project they are more likely to promote it on their social Media platforms thus drawing on a wider range of readers.

  28. Oh! Really inspiring article :)

    I’m from India, In India, most of the internet users don’t know the alternatives of Google.

    We (Bloggers) in our college conducted a survey on the dominance of Google in India.

    From that survey we realized that, more than 85% of the students in our college don’t know what is Bing!!! :)

  29. You have discussed really important points in this post. Slide sharing and doc sharing are great ways to increase quality traffic. If we select only high quality blogs and sites for submitting the above mentioned points, we are sure to increase our website/blog traffic as well as quality links. Thanks for guiding us.

  30. I have an 8 years old blog. My blog traffic has also gone down drastically. Like last year or so it was around 8000 page views/day but now its around 2000 page views/day. I am not sure if its because of that panda update or not, I also wrote to Google support and they said that according to them the blog is ok and nothing wrong with it. I followed the commenting policy as you wrote some two years back, but I believe I have to start that again. Thanks for the good post.

  31. Great tips, Jerry! Suggestion: press releases can work, too.

    • Thanks! So far no luck in press release – which explains why I am not including it in my article. Would be great if you can point me to some examples of success stories.

  32. Nice Post Sir.Even though Google traffic is the most reliable source of traffic,I feel that social newtorking sites are also a great way to bring traffic to the website.LinkedIn and Facebook are a good source.

  33. I have been blogging for nearly a year now and I try to learn and use a lot of those tips. I am not normally technologically savvy so it can be hard keeping up. I just want to reach people. Thank you for these suggestions and re-enforcing what I’ve been hearing. I am a writer, a blind blogger, who has just started a travel blog/website. I hope I can continue to learn and grow and evolve.

  34. Excellent resource. SEO is a great investment, however changes are inevitable. What works today, won’t tomorrow. Stay relevant my friends.

  35. Google makes life hard for bloggers by new update in every few months. But time will change and your post will really help new as well as old bloggers.

  36. Thanks Jerry and Darren,

    The post was some what good if your a beginner. The problem is I don’t know how to work around the new Google algorithm. Do you have any suggestions for SEO? Another thing is content and providing the right information. Social media works, but do remember they change policies over time. Another factor with Google+ is the hangout. It good to use because you can do conference calls on it. I used it and its awesome. Let’s not forget to share comments on post in social media. It will help you to get recognized. Crowd sourcing, Public speaking or live events, and get a person to be a guess blogger is really something I know a little about. Any suggestions?

    Thank You for your amazing info,
    Tony McCabe

  37. thanks for this post. I learnt some new stuff like few weeks ago I was asking myself where I ve gone wrong cos my search engine traffic really went low. I never knew there was any Google panda updates.

    It’s good to know relying on Google search alone it’s not the best way to build traffic.

    Thanks once again.

  38. I really feel that blogging is increasingly difficult and hard work. Rules keep moving. It is time for us to create greatness continues to work with what we can cope with the movement of Google. Thank for your very great post.

  39. Fathima says: 11/18/2014 at 4:22 am

    Hi Jerry I am a huge fan and find such value in your posts. I am the behind Blog Addict in South Africa and we still have a very long way to go before we get to this level. Please keep sharing and I will keep reading and sharing with my SA followers.

    • Glad you like the post. Do stay connected on Google+ and Twitter – I’d be more than happy to help if needed.

  40. I switched from Blogger to WP in January and have spent quite a bit of time in the past months updating my SEO on old posts. I’ve seen a huge spike in my traffic since then and quite a bit of my referral traffic is coming right from Google. Which surprises me, but it’s great. I’m not relying on that, however. My second-biggest source of traffic is Pinterest, so I need to work on putting more effort into pinnable posts and images. I’ve also had good luck with the crowd-sourcing and like doing “round-up” style posts. Another good source of traffic I’ve had is to guest post or have my posts be featured by another blogger. I had two huge hikes of traffic on two posts that got picked up by very popular blogs (but that’s hard to plan for, so I don’t know what tips to give to make it happen!). Sometimes it’s just sheer luck! :) Thanks for sharing these tips.

  41. Freebies always works to attract new visitors and to show your entrance in the blogosphere. I recently started a new Tech blog and giveaway $2K stuff and you’ll be surprised to know it worth me every penny, i generated around $1K direct revenue, 7K targeted email subscribers, mentioned on big sites, huge social media followers & setup an authority in the niche & more.

    Regards
    Brian

  42. Thank you for sharing some great tips. I really like your idea of blog commenting

    It’s good to know relying on Google search alone it’s not the best way to build traffic. Excellent post. Thanks again :)

  43. Hey Jerry I enjoyed this post.

    Another great way to grow your blog is by making informational YouTube videos.

    Now a days a lot of people go to YouTube when they want to learn something.

    Tutorials get insane amounts of traffic on there and it is a great source.

    All you need to do is give them a call to action to visit your blog somewhere in the video.

    Of course the higher quality the content for the tutorial the better.

  44. Pascale says: 01/08/2015 at 8:59 am

    Wow. I read a lot about the subject but this article is amazing. It’s already in my bookmark! Thanks!

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