10 Free Methods to Better Blog Traffic
August 10, 2008
As we build out the initial character of The Stratius Blog, I am going through the motions of some simple internet marketing steps that I always put in place when launching a blog or website.
These steps are the easy ones, the free or very cheap ones that anyone can do to take care of initial design, SEO, and Social Media efforts. These steps can go a long way, over the course of a couple weeks, towards giving you some good initial traffic. Make sure your content is good and they will keep coming back.
- Improve your design - Customize your header and graphics, use pictures in your posts, especially info graphics, if you do not have access to software for this, try a free stock image site and free online image editing software. Also include sharp badges and image links in your sidebar linked to your best content or content network. Don’t go overboard, ask your friends if your not sure
- Personalized URL - About 30% of all blog pageviews go to blogs with their own domains. Millions of blogs use generic host domains, i.e. blogname.wordpress.com. this is a pretty significant stat. Having a unique domain will help readers remember you and can improve search performance. It will run you about $20 or $10 if you already own the domain.
- Dish Out Easily Digestible Insights - Top ten lists, quizzes, tables, graphs, video, etc.
- Connect to a Community - Check MeetUp.com, Squidoo, Facebook groups, Craigslist, etc. If the community or group does not exist, even better, start it. Community = interaction = improved experience.
- Partner with Similar Sites - Browse blog networks for sites similar to yours. Look in search engines for sites that show up where you want to be. See what you can do for them. Offer them some type of value and eventually that value will return.
- Social Media Links - Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Youtube, Flckr, Slideshare, etc. All these sites allow you to create a profile and then feed content of all kinds. Do it.
- Bookmark Everywhere - Add your domain to delicious, stumble, furl, digg, technorati, etc. Submit to each when you have a worthwhile post on your blog.
- Invest in Others - Comment on other blogs, comment on forums with link backs, include links in your email signatures.
- Interaction - Turn comments on, list visitors in the sidebar, create polls, ask questions to readers, allow them to control a new feature, post, design, etc. When your readers are allowed to influence your content they feel ownership and will become a much more committed reader.
- Profile Links - Linkedin, Naymes, Brightkite, kluster, etc. Create a profile fo any site where you have an opportunity to list a link and website description and then reach out to as many people as possible on that network. Do not spam, but be friendly.
- Got any to add of your own? Comment on.
Good post,you could include:
Good useful content with that targets your prospects
Use of long tail keywords to get Search Engine traffic.
Jerryl
very cool - i would say this is a great list of first steps to initial traffic steps.
my additions:
grow your friend’s list everywhere, especially on social linking sites like digg, stumble, etc. its great to post to these, but beyond stumble, if you have no friends, it wont go anywhere. beyond that, make sure you have large lists of trusted friends through email, facebook, twitter, etc. using those services without friends is pointless. and if you dont have these friends, get them, the best way to do that? link to them, promote their stuff, give value to them before you expect value
Look at http://www.Polldaddy.com for polls.
Have easy RSS links for feed folk
Have an email subscription link http://www.feedburner.com
Beyond that, as said above, grow your netowrk. Friend people that are doing it right and build a relationship before asking for their “link” support, but the goal is to get links to the site/blog
Include links to all your social networking on the site.
Create fanatics, rope in a couple of your friends to be steady traffic for the site if needed. If you have good enough a friends get them to comment, digg, email others, etc on a regular basis, then do it. Then grow your fanatics with good customer service.
[...] 13, 2008 A cool list of 10 simple steps to improve your blog traffic. Add to the list if you have tips of your [...]
[...] initial design, SEO, and Social Media efforts. A great kick off to easy 500+ hit days for your blog.read more | digg [...]
Nice post. Thanks for sharing
Excellent tips for traffic generation to a website. Everyone want to know how to drive targeted traffic to their webpage, and these tips will help people to get more webpage visitors!