Amateur Blogging Series: Drawing in Traffic II

Welcome back! Last time, we discussed the generalities of bringing in traffic, and how to tailor your blog to the audience you desire. This time, we’ll dive into some specific methods of bringing in traffic.

Before we begin, I need to tell you that each of the methods I’ll discuss have their good and bad points. I also need to point out (and listen, here, this is important), no method is sure-fire. Especially for a new blog, traffic will be very light. It takes time to bring in steady traffic. It takes even longer to bring in regular readers. Even after a year, only about 24% of my readers are repeat visitors (based off of weekly stats). Don’t get discouraged, just know that it takes time. If you’re just starting a blog, you’re getting in on the explosion of the blogosphere, and the web 2.0 hype that includes blogs. As more and more people discover and turn to blogs for information, your readership will rise. You may be at my level in only six months, perhaps even less. It’s just the timing, sometimes. Okay, with that out of the way, Let’s get started.

Methods to Draw in Traffic

As I mentioned, before, there are several viable methods of drawing in traffic. Before we start, though, let me ask you a question. Do you have at least ten or twenty good, solid posts written and on your blog? No? Then go write them. You need a good base before you start really promoting your blog. Promoting with only an entry or two may work for LiveJournal or Xanga, but it doesn’t float so well in the blogosphere. Ready? Good. Here we go…

Surf-for-Click

Surf-for-click sites are popping up all around the internet. One of the biggest is Blog Explosion. If you want more, go to Google and search for “surf for click”.

Surfing for click is precisely what it sounds like. You register your blog on a surfing site, and then you surf other members’ blogs. For ever blog you surf, you get a certain amount of credits. Each credit guarentees someone surfing to your blog. You’ll usually get a 2:1 ratio, for every two blogs you surf, one person will surf your blog. These are valid methods to pump up your hit stats. Unfortunately, most surf-for-click sites only require you to view a blog for around thirty seconds before you’re able to move to the next blog. This doesn’t seem like such a bit deal until you realize that most of the people surfing are doing so only to bring in traffic to their own blogs, and will only be staying on your blog for around thirty seconds, before moving on. Heck, when I surfed for clicks, most of the time I didn’t even give each blog more than a passing glance. I just knew that for every hour I spent surfing, I’d have sixty people surfing my blog. Of course my traffic went up, quickly, but noone stayed around for very long, and didn’t really pay attention to the articles. If you go with surf-for-click, you need to grab people’s attention right off the bat.

BlogExplosion

BlogExplosion offers many more methods of drawing in traffic, aside from just surfing for clicks. They offer a concept called the Blog Rocket, which is a rolling list of 25 blogs (when someone adds their blog to bottom of the list, the top blog srolls off the list). People routinely look at this list to find new and interesting blogs. Some people open every one (in hopes of finding “mystery credits,” usually), but most often people are only going to the ones where the description interests them.

BlogExplosion also offers a Battle of the Blogs, where you can bet credits against another blog. You win 75% of the total credits bet (if you bet ten, and they bet ten, you get a total of fifteen credits (75% of 20) if you win). I guarentee that people will spend at least a couple of minutes on your blog when they’re voting. BlogExplosion also has member-frequented forums, where you can include your blog in your signature. They also offer “Knowledge,” which is a place where you can ask (and answer) questions. There’s a knowledge area specifically for “blog help” and “rate my blog” style requests. That’s often a good way to draw in people. If you answer knowledge questions - and participate in the community - you’ll often get visitors. It’s a slow trickle, but it works.

BlogExplosion also has the “Rent My Blog” addition. Essentially, you bid credits to “rent” others blogs for a one-week period of time. If the person you’re renting from is any kind of a blogger at all, they’ll promote your blog in an entry when you rent. You’d be surprised at the traffic this can generate. My renters average around sixty clicks per week when they rent from me. That’s not too shabby, especially if you consider you can rent from multiple blogs at one time, and the sixty if just from my blog. Now, keep in mind that not every blog will generate that amount of traffic, but if you check stats, you can find the best generators out there.

Commenting

A well-placed comment on someone else’s blog can be a great traffic generator. My favorite way of using this tactic is to find a blog that mentions a subject I’ve blogged about in the past. Then, I’ll make a comment about their entry, and include a link to my own (something like “Oh, yes, I completely agree. In fact, I blogged about that (link:before). I think that…..”). Even if you’re never blogged about the topic before, almost every blog out there will link your name (on your comment) to your blog. In fact, the only one I’ve found that does not routinely do this is Performancing. Just remember to make sure your comments are applicable to the subject at hand. An off-subject comment - especially when you include a link - is usually considered spam, and is often deleted, or you’ll be blocked from commenting.

Forums

Do you participate in discussion forums at all? Well, then, why not add your blog (with a link) to your signature. That way, on every post you make, your blog link shows up. If you make relevant posts, you’ll often find people dropping by to give you a look. I’ve had some pretty decent success with forums. Don’t forget, in the “introduce yourself” areas, it’s more than okay to mention that you’re a blogger, the topics you blog on, and include your link. Don’t forget about the “introduce your blog” areas, as well.

Pingback and Trackback

You would be amazed at the amount of traffic a trackback can gain you. The top referrer to my blog is still a single trackback I made, ages ago. What’s even more amazing is that this referrer has beat out every search engine, etc… in terms of total referrals. Whenever you write a post that is based off of, inspired by, quotes, or is in regard to another’s blog post, make sure to include a trackback (and, perhaps, a link to them in your post).

Before you even ask, by the way, there is a slight difference between pingbacks and trackbacks. Trackbacks were introduced by Six Apart, the makers of Moveable Type. They are the “industry standard” when it comes to such things. Pingbacks were designed by WordPress, and use the XML-RPC system. They’re essentially the same thing, but pingbacks work only with Wordpress blogs. (They’re pretty much interchangeable. Every major blogging platform supports trackbacks. Wordpress supports both.)

Link Exchanges and Directories

Link Exchanges are exactly what they sound like. You, and another blog, exchange links. Often-times this is done through an automated system that displays a certain number of random links. For every link you display, your link gets displayed once. Other methods include the ages-old asking other bloggers to link to you. Darren Rowse over at Problogger has written a good commentary on asking for link exchanges. The most important thing to remember is to be cordial, and do not be demanding. Also, try to only ask once. I had one individual ask me to link his blog in every comment he left, and he e-mailed me a couple of times, asking me to link to him. Even though he linked to me, he severely hurt his chances of my linking back to him. Don’t be offended if people don’t want to link to you. Most bloggers are very picky about the blogs they link to. I know I am. Also, if you promise to link to someone, do it. It’s okay to remove links, occasionally. If a blog goes defunct, doesn’t update for a long while, or you no longer wish to associate with it, then by all means remove it. If you’re just shortening your list and want to remove by date, then I say leave the link exchange up there at least three months before removing it.

Directories. Directories are just that. Simply put, they’re a massive listing of blog links, organized by subject. Submit to each directory, sit around, and wait. It may take a while to get your listing approved.

Link exchanges are important for search engines, I should point that out. Often times, your ranking in a search engine will be influenced by the number of links coming into your blog. The jury is still out (and the debate is fierce) as to whether or not directories help or hurt your ranking. Overall, if the directory takes care not to list splogs (spam blogs), then you should be fine listing in it.

del.icio.us, Bloglines, et al

Del.icio.us and Bloglines, and other social bookmarking and blogmarking sites are great ways to bring in traffic. I firmly support having a “del.icio.us this” link on each and every entry you publish. Get a plugin for your blog (or write it into your template), and list it on the individual entry page, at the bottom of the entry (before the comments). I’ve got a few links on each of my posts, and they’ve come in handy. I’m rather surprised, usually, by the number of links from del.icio.us (and others) I find on some of my entries.

Even if you just del.icio.us your own entries, you’re still getting them listed, and people will find them. Sites like Reddit, Digg, and Slashdot are also viable weapons in the traffic war. Feel free to list your own entries, there. Yes, some consider it spam, but if the entries are interesting and relevant to current topics, you’ll usually get promoted a bit, and people will come and read. Sure, you’ll get flamed in comments, but hey, some people consider just breathing, spam.

Getting Dugg and Dotted

I’m listing these in their own major heading for one reason. Getting on the front page of Digg and Slashdot can make or break a server… literally.

First off, how do you get dugg/dotted? Well, the easiest method is to get someone (a friend, perhaps) to list your post on digg, or to write a short article on slashdot, including a relevant link to you. It’s an artform, really, on getting to the front page at Slashdot, and it rarely happens. The trick is to think of the sites like a PR (Press Release) type of thing. Digg is primarily direct links, where the userbase at large votes to promote (or “diggs”) a post. Slashdot is article-based, and usually includes inline links in a blurb about the article. If you’re submitting, yourself, you’ll do better at digg. As for how to get slashdotted, search on Technorati or for “How to get slashdotted”. There’s a wealth of information.

Surviving the Digg and Dot Effect

Getting dugg, or dotted - especially on the front page of either site - will lead to a massive influx of traffic in a short period of time. Remember when I said that it could make or break a server? I was being serious. You can go from a few hundred hits a week, to over 10,000 in one day, with a slashdot front-pager. Digg traffic is a bit less than that, but still substantial (5,000 - 8,000 a day). The traffic influx rarely lasts beyond a day or two, though.

Surviving the Massive Initial Influx

There’s a well-defined trick to this. Make sure that your website is designed to load quickly and easily. On a broadband connection, your site should load within a second (two seconds with a lot of images). When your blog starts getting that massive amount of traffic, your bandwith will be sucked quickly. I’m lucky in that I have an exhorbinate amount of bandwith per month. Most people, are not. If you find out that you’ve gotten slashdotted, or dugg, to the front page, then go in and disable all but the absolutely required images. I usually leave the rss subscription chicklets, but I disable other images that run from my server. If you have a link to a photo gallery from your blog, you might want to remove it, temporarily, to prevent a lot of people from clicking through to it and sapping bandwith. Digg and Slashdot are the reason that so few blogs use a lot of locally-hosted graphics (and the reason I use so few graphics, period). If your server starts to balk, and starts to slow down, you can try disabling some of the more database intensive things, such as link/blogrolls, etc. If you go down, well, you go down. Wait for your webhost to send you the standard complaining e-mail, apologize, and get your site back up. These triage measures may have to remain in place for a couple of days. Usually no more than five, though, and most often only a couple.

Surviving the Post-Influx Let Down

Oh my gosh! You got several thousand hits in one day! For nearly a week, your traffic was outrageously high. Now you’re looking at your stats, and you’re back to the same-old, same-old traffic. What happened?! Well, the dotters came, and left. That’s what. Often times, they’re coming, looking, and leaving. Don’t worry, though. Some of them will be back, and some of them may even blog about your entry in their own blogs. That will, over time, bring in more steady traffic. Don’t despair, and remember, the slashdot and digg effects were only temporary to begin with. Your traffic will probably rise, overall, as a result of your getting dugg/dotted, but it will take time.

So What’s Next?

In this conversation, we discussed specific methods from bringing in traffic, including getting dugg and slashdotted (and how to survive it). Next time, we’ll talk about drawing in traffic from search engines, and a little bit about SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Stay tuned, and see you soon!

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