Tactics for Blog Traffic

[StrategiesforWomen]

If you want to look at driving blog traffic from social Media, then I would say Facebook over Twitter. You have a lot more versatility on FB, can more readily promote your presence (especially now with the new page features) and you can always get them to repost automatically on to Twitter. I personally am a great believer in blogs, online Content will always be king. If you do not want to have your own blog, because you know that you will not use it, then you should write a short article (300 words, anything less and Google may ignore) and ask bloggers out there if you can do a guest post on their blog. Each post should be unique, as Google do not post copied content. Just make sure that you have a backlink included in the content. This way you can piggyback on other peoples sites and get more traffic and brand exposure and get a valuable back link.

If you want you can post a post to my blog, just leave it as a comment and I'll give you a live back link. Same applies to others (must be unique or Google will just ignore, so no one wins.)

[MichelleJ]

If you want to look at driving blog traffic from social Media, then I would say Facebook over Twitter. You have a lot more versatility on FB, can more readily promote your presence (especially now with the new page features) and you can always get them to repost automatically on to Twitter. I personally am a great believer in blogs, online Content will always be king. If you do not want to have your own blog, because you know that you will not use it, then you should write a short article (300 words, anything less and Google may ignore) and ask bloggers out there if you can do a guest post on their blog. Each post should be unique, as Google do not post copied content. Just make sure that you have a backlink included in the content. This way you can piggyback on other peoples sites and get more traffic and brand exposure and get a valuable back link.

If you want you can post a post to my blog, just leave it as a comment and I'll give you a live back link. Same applies to others (must be unique or Google will just ignore, so no one wins.)

I agree with a you as far as Facebook giving more versatility than Twitter and blogs are a great way to attract traffic, I do think that anyone who allows guest posts on their blogs will require a unique article. I know that I am open to allowing guest posts but I do insist that they are unique and within the theme of my blog.

MichelleJ

[David Hurley]

Here's a list of urls that you can ping your blog posts to. If you use Wordpress, you can set it up to auto ping each post. Go to "Writing" in the "Settings" section of your blog admin, then paste the following list into the "Update Services" field and click the "Save Changes" button.

http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://1470.net/api/ping
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://bblog.com/ping.php
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPCsub.com/ping
http://blogmatcher.com/u.php
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc
http://coreblog.org/ping/
http://ping.myblog.jp
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.bitacoras.com
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/
http://ping.blogmura.jp/rpc/
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://trackback.bakeinu.jp/bakeping.php
http://xping.pubhttp://ping.weblogs.se/

[RobBright]

Here is a strategy that I use to gain more traffic to my blog.

I make sure I update it 6 times a week (gotta take sundays off LOL) and then i share that post with relevant groups in Facebook and then through twitter. If you target it right you can gain silly amounts of traffic very easily to your blog.

For example if I am writing or posting something about financial matters or investing i could share my post with all the Rich Dad Poor Dad groups on Facebook etc.. best of luck to all the bloggers just starting out

[MelJames]

yesterday, I came across this article (http://www.trafficgenerationcafe.com/7- ... ting-ideas) on how to be more creative about old blog posts and one point says that you can do a post exchange with other bloggers. What do you guys think about this? Is it okay or will a duplicate content from another blog get you penalized?

If you want to look at driving blog traffic from social Media, then I would say Facebook over Twitter. You have a lot more versatility on FB, can more readily promote your presence (especially now with the new page features) and you can always get them to repost automatically on to Twitter. I personally am a great believer in blogs, online Content will always be king. If you do not want to have your own blog, because you know that you will not use it, then you should write a short article (300 words, anything less and Google may ignore) and ask bloggers out there if you can do a guest post on their blog. Each post should be unique, as Google do not post copied content. Just make sure that you have a backlink included in the content. This way you can piggyback on other peoples sites and get more traffic and brand exposure and get a valuable back link.

If you want you can post a post to my blog, just leave it as a comment and I'll give you a live back link. Same applies to others (must be unique or Google will just ignore, so no one wins.)

[David Hurley]

@Rob: Nice tip about targeting blog posts to a specific group of forums. Just one question: How do you do it without getting clobbered for spamming if you are not an established and respected forum contributor? I guess the best way would be to update your signature file whenever you post a relevant article on your blog.

@Mel: Interesting blog - I have to dash now but will respond to your question later tonight...

[MelJames]

thanks David,

would be great to know your thoughts on it

@Rob: Nice tip about targeting blog posts to a specific group of forums. Just one question: How do you do it without getting clobbered for spamming if you are not an established and respected forum contributor? I guess the best way would be to update your signature file whenever you post a relevant article on your blog.

@Mel: Interesting blog - I have to dash now but will respond to your question later tonight...

[RobBright]

Do you use SEO pressor, thats a useful little tool that is installed into your blog to help with your keywordign and helping your site rank, bout $97 I think but well worth it

[David Hurley]

Hi Mel,

Sorry for taking a while to respond...

I like what Ana Hoffman has to say about reworking old blog posts into articles you can offer as guest posts:

"Rewrite, paraphrase, add some fresh facts and examples and you are all set to go. Of course, you can use the same strategy for article marketing."

She also talks sense about "duplicate content" here:

http://www.trafficgenerationcafe.com/duplicate-content/

Personally, if I find a good article on another website that allows you to publish their content, I will happily post the article on my blog. Usually, I will add an introductory paragraph. Wordpress users can also excerpt the article - and that is where you can add some more unique content by paraphrasing the article for your readers and adding your own commentary.

As a rule, I prefer articles with 65%+ uniqueness, but I am not afraid of getting penalized for duplicate content if I choose to publish an article that I picked up from an article directory or a site that allows you to republish their articles. Sure, the article is not "unique" - but if it is good for my readers then I'm happy to post it. Certainly, Google will understand that it is not the original source article, and will rate it appropriately. Again, that's not a problem, as far as I can see.

The word "penalize" carries a lot of emotional weight, but if you are creating a good quality blog and use syndicated articles from time to time, as well as a lot of good quality unique content, you have no need to worry about being "penalized" by Google (IMHO).

David

[MelJames]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts David... Sometimes I do read posts that I think are worth re-posting. I guess it makes sense if you want to include an article from another source if it's a really good one and you have permission to republish as long as you don't overdo it. I wonder if the effect is as much for a site with a low PR than it is for a website enjoying high PR.

Hi Mel,

Sorry for taking a while to respond...

I like what Ana Hoffman has to say about reworking old blog posts into articles you can offer as guest posts:

"Rewrite, paraphrase, add some fresh facts and examples and you are all set to go. Of course, you can use the same strategy for article marketing."

She also talks sense about "duplicate content" here:

http://www.trafficgenerationcafe.com/duplicate-content/

Personally, if I find a good article on another website that allows you to publish their content, I will happily post the article on my blog. Usually, I will add an introductory paragraph. Wordpress users can also excerpt the article - and that is where you can add some more unique content by paraphrasing the article for your readers and adding your own commentary.

As a rule, I prefer articles with 65%+ uniqueness, but I am not afraid of getting penalized for duplicate content if I choose to publish an article that I picked up from an article directory or a site that allows you to republish their articles. Sure, the article is not "unique" - but if it is good for my readers then I'm happy to post it. Certainly, Google will understand that it is not the original source article, and will rate it appropriately. Again, that's not a problem, as far as I can see.

The word "penalize" carries a lot of emotional weight, but if you are creating a good quality blog and use syndicated articles from time to time, as well as a lot of good quality unique content, you have no need to worry about being "penalized" by Google (IMHO).

David

[simply]

Hello Michelle,

The first post on my new blog is titled, "What I learned from Three Years of Blogging" and that what it is all about exactly. Obviously, I haven't really learned everything about blogging within that span of time because I wasn't focused on it. I spent most of my time writing articles for others.

On this post, I mentioned some of my personal observations and on the last one, I talked about the importance of a scheduled posting so readers would know exactly when to come back. I'm going to past of my post if you don't mind so you'll know understand where I'm coming from.

The most successful blogs post daily but if you can’t do that, I don’t think it would be so bad to post once a week as long as your weekly post is of quality. I mean, there are a zillion blogs on the web as of this moment and I don’t think my readers would mind not having to check my blog on a daily basis. This way, they can have other days enjoying other blogs too and me on my part, can have more time to prepare a post worth the read. What do you think?

Obviously, if I want to improve my blog traffic tremendously, posting 3-4 a week is recommended. But I guess I wanted to hear what you guys think:)

thanks,
Iand 'm sorry for the very long read
Rachel

I think also by posting to your blog at least 3-4 times a week, the search engines will favor your blog more one they catch on that there is constantly new fresh content available there. So keep updating your blog on a regular basis this is a big help.

MichelleJ

[simply]

Hello David,

I love this thread! Very interesting discussions:) I now understand more about "duplicate content" from reading the comments as well as the blogs. I think Ana Hoffman's blog is really helpful, I bookmarked it. I just have something to clarify.

Because I am interested in a lot of topics, I started using different blogs (1 on wedding, 1 about dogs, 1 about writing and the other one about shops). The last one is my active blog, i haven't been able to update the others as much. I plan to transfer the content from these blogs (blogspot) into my new blog at wordpress, just one at a time in between my new posts. Would it be okay?

ps,
I looked in the Settings - Writing section but couldnt find where to place the ping sites... I only have Formatting, Press This, and Post by Email

Thanks,
Rachel

Hi Mel,

Sorry for taking a while to respond...

I like what Ana Hoffman has to say about reworking old blog posts into articles you can offer as guest posts:

"Rewrite, paraphrase, add some fresh facts and examples and you are all set to go. Of course, you can use the same strategy for article marketing."

She also talks sense about "duplicate content" here:

Personally, if I find a good article on another website that allows you to publish their content, I will happily post the article on my blog. Usually, I will add an introductory paragraph. Wordpress users can also excerpt the article - and that is where you can add some more unique content by paraphrasing the article for your readers and adding your own commentary.

As a rule, I prefer articles with 65%+ uniqueness, but I am not afraid of getting penalized for duplicate content if I choose to publish an article that I picked up from an article directory or a site that allows you to republish their articles. Sure, the article is not "unique" - but if it is good for my readers then I'm happy to post it. Certainly, Google will understand that it is not the original source article, and will rate it appropriately. Again, that's not a problem, as far as I can see.

The word "penalize" carries a lot of emotional weight, but if you are creating a good quality blog and use syndicated articles from time to time, as well as a lot of good quality unique content, you have no need to worry about being "penalized" by Google (IMHO).

David

[JackieGold]

I think also by posting to your blog at least 3-4 times a week, the search engines will favor your blog more one they catch on that there is constantly new fresh content available there. So keep updating your blog on a regular basis this is a big help.

MichelleJ

This is definitely true - especially with Yahoo! and Bing. They seem to be big fans of "new" material.

[MissedOps]

thanks for linking I was looking for that info

[Tiger33]

Keeping up with your blog with a new post at least once a week should be atop every blogger's to-do list. The Google "Freshness" approach rewards new, original content.