How to Get More Traffic to Your Blog-The Traffic-Getting Conundrum

I am a heart of the matter kind of guy. So when someone comes to me asking for advice on getting traffic to their blog or website, I always have to ask the question, “what do you hope to accomplish with more traffic?” Sounds easy enough, right? Without knowing what you are hoping to accomplish, you and your site can be more akin to a rudderless ship drifting in open ocean and lost. And without a goal in mind, you won’t have anywhere to aspire to. Frankly, your internet marketing strategy depends on what you are hoping to do. Traffic for traffic’s sake is not worth anything…..

• Having 40,000 followers is not a clear indicator of reach…CTR is…
• Being listed in the top 10 in organic search is not an end all solution if the searchers aren’t doing what you want them to do…
• 500 stumbles isn’t a good metric for success if they are staying on your page for 3 seconds….

At any rate, here are the things I plan on discussing today…

The challenge- Getting to the Point where YOU Matter to the search engines

The challenge- Getting to the Point where YOU Matter to your Market

Getting to the Point where YOU matter to the search engines

Search engine traffic, at least from a conversion perspective, is the possibly the best traffic to get. The reason is simple.

• You have an issue (like how to remove that wart on the side of your face)….
• You google the issue….
• Google provides you with sites that it thinks are most relevant in terms of what you are looking for…
• Site gives you a solution (or links to a product that provides the solution)

Organic traffic is largely not social. But just because you are using a social platform like a blog doesn’t preclude you from an organic traffic strategy.

A blogger’s strategy to generating organic traffic

One of the biggest issues to generating traffic organically is getting that “authority” status or, in the very least, having google trust you enough to be willing to put their credibility on the line. With that in mind, if you are new to organic search engine marketing, you should live by the “creed”…. The Long Tail is your friend…. Most bloggers think of SEO as an afterthought. They think solely in terms of visitor. They think of their market in the broadest view possible. For instance, a blogger who is in the make money online market thinks that they should solely optimize their site for make money online. The problem is, in order to reach such heights, they will need a ton of patience. Niche Marketers understand the long tail. Typically, they will build a mini-site that is ultra-focused on one to four keywords. If a niche marketer was going after the traffic generation conversation, they would figure out what long tail keywords would be attainable quickly with the least amount of work. Here are some articles they may (or may not) write:

• Get Traffic to my blog
• How to get more traffic to your blog
• Get FREE traffic to your blog
• and so on and so forth…

The ultimate word for the site would be ” get traffic”, which is worth, at least according to google, gets searched for roughly 3,000 times a month. That would be the homepage. But each page or article you write would be ordered in a way which targets each conversation. Internally linking the sites together, either in a SILO format (where each article points to the next article down) or in a keyword sniping format (where each article points to the home page with “how to get traffic” or some variation of it) will help establish more relevancy. What happens is that, depending on your competition, you will begin to rank for the long tail first, which should result in a smattering of traffic, while you slowly gain authority and trust rank along the way.

The Parasitic Host Paradigm

Another very popular way to get more traffic to your blog is to write for things outside your blog. The Article Marketing strategy is a popular method for doing this. The reason it works is you are basically leveraging the authority of sites such as ezinearticles or hubpages to rise in the ranks more quickly. Make no bones about it. Sometimes ranking for even a long tail keyword with little competition is hard if you have a new site. EzineArticles and hubpages will both catapult you into the top ten listing quickly and then it is all a matter of working out how to get more click through’s to the site you are promoting. I have used this strategy to generate hundreds of visits to my sites per month, while I am developing trust and authority with google.

The challenge- Getting to the Point where YOU Matter to your Market

Mattering to your market is a huge conundrum for most bloggers, especially if their market is so generalized that the competition is fierce and visibility becomes a very big challenge. This is primarily for social traffic, by the way. First Issue: Rising Above the Noise actually will make you matter more… Kind of a no brainer, right? BUT it is a no-brainer that most bloggers don’t get. The majority simply follow what others are doing and repeat the process. The result is a very large echo pattern in the echo chamber. I call these types of blogger the “me-too” blogger. Socially driven blogs are different than organic search because in organic search the most “relevant” (and relevancy equates to link popularity as of this writing) is what is on the first page while socially driven blogs that rise above the noise offer “different, opposing, or entertaining” viewpoints. Keys to rising above the noise:

• Actual Value in Terms of Scarcity- If your niche is “dog training”, then writing an article that will teach your dog how to sit may demonstrate value for someone who needs Fido to sit but the information isn’t scarce, probably won’t be linked to and unless you are trying to rank organically for the term, will likely be forgotten….like 5 minutes from now. Scarcity is the killer here. Writing articles that are thought provoking can be a challenge but are necessary to rising above the noise. The Scarcer information is, the more valuable it becomes….write that down….
• Lowering the bar and getting Ultra-specific- Another technique is to not be too generalized in your writing and focusing on a niche within a niche. This has a two-fold benefit. Let’s say that you are in the make money online niche. Rising above the noise can be a huge challenge because of the scope of the market. Instead of focusing on a general keyword or conversation, you could instead opt for a niche within the niche; something like article marketing. Or you could even go smaller with something like how to make money with hubpages. The traffic may be lower but I can almost guarantee you that you will not only be viewed as more of an authority (which is a separator in and of itself) but the traffic you get will be easier to monetize because it isn’t general.

Second Issue: How to become more Visible If your blog is new-ish, not many people don’t know you even exist. You could be writing opus after opus, be the blogger’s version of a Leonardo Di Vinci and if no one knows you, then you may as well not even be writing. Visibility on the web comes from 2 sources…

1. Citations from other blogs in your network…
2. Links from other sources that you control….

Let’s tackle the links issue first…. From a social perspective, signature links in forum posts, comments on people’s blogs, and the use of parasitic hosts will all be tools that you can use to become more visible in your network. The key to rising above the noise and actually mattering to your network boils down to how you resonate with your network and the value you give them when you speak. The more value you give, the more you will get. Posting comments like “nice blog” or “man, I totally agree”, may earn you some points from the blogger you are commenting about but in the case of a comment that some random Joe may follow, it means nothing. A pointed comment that actually adds to the conversation, shows your expertise or gives another viewpoint will. Here is an example. This “comment” which was one comment among 97 comments, netted me 28 visits, 93% of which were new to the site and didn’t know I existed. The key to the success of this comment was that it was different (I call them mini-blog posts because of the length…I cover more real estate and force the reader to in the very least, notice me), offered a unique view, at least to his audience, and forced a lengthy reply.

I could give more examples just like this. Good, thought provoking comments command the comment pages. That comment cost me 10 minutes and resulted in 28 visitors who not only visited my blog, but spent an average of 3.47 minutes on the blog, looked at 3+ pages AND subscribed to my RSS feed. Not a bad time investment for the ROI,right? Comment posting to generate traffic does work. But not in the way most bloggers use it. In short, if you don’t have anything worth saying that is thought provoking, you best bet would be not to say anything at all. It simply ain’t worth it. The same goes for forum posts as well. Two liners or a short paragraph typically won’t imply authority (unless you are Seth Godin). A lengthy expose that adds to the thread….now that opens eyes, separates you from the pack and displays authority…assuming you know what you are talking about. Citations from other blogs You have to get citations from other blogs. The key is getting them to notice you. Most bloggers think in a top down kind of thought process. The process goes like this…

• If I am blogging about blogging, how do I get Darren Rouse to notice me?
• Well, maybe I should hang out on his site and comment a lot…then he will definitely notice me….

Under most circumstances, your chances of catching the attention of an A-lister by visiting their blog is next to nothing.

You need a bigger net….work….

The larger your market, the bigger net you will need. The smaller the market, the smaller the network. Let me explain…. Every connection you make is a potential for you and your blog to go viral. The problem is that most of us stick within a fairly small network. Usually this involves a smattering of blogs and websites that epitomize our interests. Preaching to the choir comes to my mind when I think of this. The key or crux of building more traffic is to make your network bigger. And since most of us bloggers are in small networks even in very large markets, the problem becomes a matter of extending our network by infiltrating other networks. For instance, I can tell you that my primary network is comprised of 2 leaders in the tribe and several “sub” leaders (one of which is me). We link to each other often in posts….we talk about each other in a way that someone outside our tribe would wonder who the heck so-and-so is. My primary tribe has helped me build a nice sized following. New tribe members link to me when they build a website in the niche and I watch as other the past year and a half, my following has slowly grown. If I wanted to grow my network, I would need to “include” others within my network, and expose those in my network to great, remarkable bloggers outside their network. If my network shows interest by visiting the blog, the blogger will take notice because of the amount traffic I am referring. Suddenly, they see my “value” (traffic is scarce), and reciprocate (because they feel inclined to). Reciprocation can be in the form of a citation. It can also be in the form of a contact. But in most cases, if the higher the value (think whats-in-it-for-me), the greater the chance of reciprocation and the greater the chance that THEY will expose their network to their readers….. And the larger your network, the more likely your articles or blog will go viral…

Some random ideas that work well when building more traffic:

Joint Ventures- Fellow Marketer, Chris Rempel, came up with a simple solution to building a list. And even if you aren’t looking to build a list (you should by the way), this strategy can boost traffic and readership in amazing ways. Here is what he did-

• He developed a system that showed how you could make money by building mini-review sites online. He charged $17 for it.
• Rather than promoting it himself, he offered 100% commissions to anyone who promoted his product. In essense, the promoter got to pocket the money as if he built the product himself.
• As a result, the affiliate who pushed this product to his viewership, exposed his readers to Chris Rempel.
• Chris set a net up, capturing the details of anyone who bought the product through any of his affiliates.
• End result? At least 10,000+ new “eyes” in less than a couple months….

JV’s done right can launch you into the stratosphere and quickly establish you as the go-to person in your niche. It will expose you to not one network but several (in some cases, hundreds) of smaller networks. Now you may not want to build a list. You may just want readers (dunno why, but you may). A little out-of-the-box thinking with this example and you could easily build more traffic very quickly. Guest Posting- Guest posts are another way to generate traffic. I have done a variety of guest posts across the blogosphere that have ranged from internet marketing to fitness. In fact, I would say that guest posts are probably the easiest and most valuable things you could do. Here are some benefits:

• Quality backlinks from similarly themed sites that will improve search engine rankings….
• Exposes your site to others outside your network….
• Builds a rapport with your fellow blogger which could lead to greater things.

Before you go willy-nilly over guest posting, there are some things you should consider:

• You should only guest post at blogs that have some traction- What I mean by this is that they should have a history of posting. There is absolutely no reason why you should guest post for a blog that won’t be around 4 months from now. It simply isn’t worth it.
• You should pay attention to alexa scores- The lower the alexa score the more traffic they have going to their blog. Anything below 100k typically will mean that they get around 100 or so visitors a day.
• If your intention is social traffic, then pay attention to responsiveness in comments- More comments typically means that the readership is more engaged. Another thing to check out is how often they are tweeted and who is tweeting them.
• If your intention are backlinks then PR becomes a factor- Guest posts are great for backlinks. But understand that once the page falls off the home page of the blog, that PR doesn’t mean as much. The ball is then in your court to promote it and load it with links.

Makes sense, right? So, let’s review…. To get more traffic to your blog:

1. Build organic traffic long tail by long tail, much like a niche marketer would…focus on the long tail while you are trying to gain authority for the root keyword….
2. Build satellite hubs from parasitic hosts such as ezine articles that will not only help to determine relevance to your page for the search engines but immediately start driving traffic to your website….
3. Focus on quality content that is scarce, increasing your website’s value perception.
4. Use Forum posts and comments as sources for validation and leeching traffic to your page….once again, think value in terms of scarcity…
5. Build your network…when you reach maximum density in your network…expand it into other networks and leech traffic from other network which will grow your network bigger.

Leo di Milo has been quietly earning a living online for over a decade now. He believes that success in internet marketing requires out-of-the-box philosophies and thinks that anyone who wants to make money online should question everything and rather than looking for ready made blueprints, should ask why does it work that way? For more information about strategies and theories in regards to marketing, be sure to check out his best reads section.