Other than Facebook, Myspace and Twitter and your writing sites, how do you increase traffic to your site?
Okay, I can't get people to follow me on Twitter let alone on a blog. No one sees the tweets unless they are already following you, right? I don't get it.
Okay, I can't get people to follow me on Twitter let alone on a blog. No one sees the tweets unless they are already following you, right? I don't get it.
http://kasi-kcblake.blogspot.com
This is so true, but I wanted to correct one misconception here.You increase traffic to your blog by writing well, and linking to appropriate blogs.
You increase traffic to your blog by participating in the conversation. Comment on similar related blogs with appropriate, specific comments that will interest readers enough to click your byline link and visit your blog.
You increase traffic to your blog by saying interesting things expressed well, so that Google and other search engines list your posts before others, which brings searchers to your blog. If the conversation is interesting, random searchers will stay, and continue the conversation, and thus creating a community.
Ultimately, it's all about the quality of the conversation and the quality of the writing.
This is so true, but I wanted to correct one misconception here.
I've studied Internet Marketing for over two years, and I know how Google ranks websites. Obviously, I don't know their exact algorithm, but I do know what they look for.
First, you must remember that Google isn't as smart as a real human being.
With that said, for search engines like Google, the most important factor in getting ranked is backlinks.
Let me explain. If you have a site, yoursite.com, and you post an article targeting a keyword, say, writers contest. You would want to post it as yoursite.com/writers-contest, and you want to include your keyword in the title of your article as well as in other prominent places in your article (H1 tags, first sentence, last sentence, etc.). This lets Google know that your article is relevant to your target keyword.
The next step would be to get backlinks from websites, using your keyword as the anchor text. So on website 1, you would want a backlink that looked like, "Check out so and so's <link>Writers Contest</link>."
Google considers each backlink as a vote. The more authority the site has with Google, the more the vote counts. So a link from msn.com would count a lot more than a link from newblog.blogspot.com.
The best way to get relevant backlinks to your site is to create link worthy content.
My blog is less than 2 weeks old, and so far I've only had around 140 or so visitors. But, I've tried posting a "Pay it Forward" event, where I promote the sites of those who leave a comment with no strings attached. I have found this is a great way of getting backlinks and traffic.
So, one great way of getting people to link to your site is holding a giveaway event where you give your readers value, something that is useful to them. Like a free pass for a writing workshop, for example.
This is so true, but I wanted to correct one misconception here.
I've studied Internet Marketing for over two years, and I know how Google ranks websites. Obviously, I don't know their exact algorithm, but I do know what they look for.
First, you must remember that Google isn't as smart as a real human being.
With that said, for search engines like Google, the most important factor in getting ranked is backlinks.
My blog is less than 2 weeks old, and so far I've only had around 140 or so visitors. But, I've tried posting a "Pay it Forward" event, where I promote the sites of those who leave a comment with no strings attached. I have found this is a great way of getting backlinks and traffic.
Yes but how does this linking work? For example, I'm going to give away free tee shirts - do I say "Free tee shirt drawing - link to me for your chance to win" or something else?
You make connections. Building community builds readership; readership builds traffic.
Put your blog in your sig here; don't be a drive-by spammer, but participate honestly in threads here.
Pay attention to the conversation--read related blogs; comment where appropriate. Don't be self-aggrandizing, but be courteous, thoughtful, and engaged in the conversation. Link to smart posts, and send a courteous email to the person you're linking to--hey, I like what you said I thought it was smart and I linked to it here.
Let people know with a polite note when you add them to your blog roll.
When you see a post that reminds you of a post a third party wrote, comment or email with a link to that third party's post, explaining why you thought it would interest them.
Include a sig in your email with a link to your blog.
Use smart titles--human understandable titles--in your blog posts.
Be generous to your community.