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A Blogging Writer Quickie

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5 Little Words, 24 Hours, 100 Comments

Blogger Chris Brogan wrote just five little words on June 10, 2009. Within 24 hours, those five words had already provoked over 100 comments and counting!

What was it that created such a stir? With just those few words, Chris struck a chord that continues to resonate throughout the blogosphere, screaming - debate with me! That five-word post was thought provoking (to say the least) and had the necessary elements to stir up controversy, to explain his point of view on the subject of Facebook, and excellent marketing ability.

Brilliant, Chris, just brilliant.

Three Things You Can Do to Improve Your Blog

Improve the Look and Feel of Your Layout

• Organize and De-Clutter - Get rid of widgets and buttons that do not offer anything to your reader, or to you. Eliminate anything that causes a "cluttered" look, or is distracting. smooth out the appearance, align the sidebars and contents in a way that creates a "clean" look and fresh feel.
• Create Usability - place common objects in a place that is to be expected. people will look for certain things to be in a certain area, and readers will appreciate being able to find these things easily. Thanks for the tips, Skellie!
• Add - Elements, colors and pictures - in a non-distracting way, of course. Think of it as a sort of eye-candy, or entertainment for the eyes that keeps your reader interested. Plain text can appear boring and blah when you have been on a site for a while. If you want your readers to continue reading and viewing your content, you'll need a little flair and style!

Increase Traffic

• Build Links - Using link building techniques such as comments, blog submissions, community forums and deep linking will help to build your blog traffic, increase traffic through search engines, and help build credibility for you as a blogger.
• Social Networking - Social networks and social media are extremely useful if your content is able to generate a buzz.

Improve Your Content

• What You Offer - Consider the usefulness of the information you offer
• Provide Resources - In doing so, you earn the opportunity to become recognized as a resource, and you yourself may ending up an expert in your niche.
• Avoid - Stay away from writing styles that could confuse or distract the reader. If you have bad writing habits that prevent readers from understanding your point, you'll quickly lose any potential readers.
• Create Usability - User-friendly, easy to read information. Create content that is laid out in a way that is easy to understand, and readers know you have a point. Their time is valuable, and your content should convey to the reader that there is something of value that you have to offer. If your posts are long and indirect - readers are more likely to get bored and move on.
• Study - Go back and look over past posts. Re-read some of the older ones that you once considered great posts. Compare your writing style and ability to convey your message with now - and see how you've grown or changed as a writer.
• Read - Make sure that you are regularly reading other blogs, whether for inspiration, ideas, commenting opportunities, or simply to learn more about your own niche. Don't get yourself stranded on a blogging island.

Increase Traffic Through Link Building

Okay, for all of you who are looking for insta-traffic, you're likely to be disappointed with this advice. We all want instant results, but the reality of the situation is that we - as bloggers, must work for this. True, there are a few exceptions to the rule, but most bloggers are starting from scratch, and building traffic will not be an instantaneous, single-action button click. If it were that easy, the blogosphere would be weighed down with splogs (or spam-blogs) that offer no value to the reader.

Comment Traffic

Now, keep those A-listers in mind; they should be part of your plan to build traffic. If you are already reading an A-list blog, either for inspiration, learning, or just for entertainment, your first step should be to start participating in the conversations. Posting a comment on an A-list blog is a spectacular way to get noticed, especially if you write an insightful and edifying comment. A well placed link in a comment, or even a comment well placed (such as in the first five comments) will create visibility, and quite possibly become a permanent source of traffic.

Forum Traffic

Forums are a good place to become part of a community of bloggers. While many people believe that you can just sign up for membership in a few free forums and place their links, then disappear - this strategy will often fail. To develop any sort of real traffic from forums or message boards, you must first earn the respect of your fellow community members. Many bloggers don't want (or feel that they don't need) the support of fellow bloggers, but this line of thinking will often put you on a blogging island.

• Fact: Bloggers often link to other blogs they read, especially when they find a blog particularly useful or valuable.

Not all Links are Created Equal

The basic rule of thumb when it comes to placing links is simple: Links placed in high-traffic areas will have more visibility = more traffic for you. For example: if you place a link on a rarely read blog, your link will be rarely seen. When you place a link on a site where it will quickly disappear will cause your traffic flow from that link to also disappear. This means that if you are placing your links on a site like Craigslist, your links will have a maximum 7-day shelf-life. Much of your time spent placing links such as this will be lost, and so will your traffic.

By becoming part of the community, (i.e. getting involved in the conversations, regular participation, helpful advice to fellow bloggers, etc.) you have the opportunity to develop relationships with other bloggers. This can turn into a valuable source of traffic, especially if you regularly contribute valuable information. Bloggers will link to your blog or certain posts that they feel are useful to their readers.

As a forum member, you also have the opportunity to place links to your blog in your signature. This is especially useful for the active forum participant, especially if you post useful information. By doing so, you will earn respect, and your blog and posts in the forum will be perceived as valuable. For example: if you post tips or information that other bloggers charge money for, people will automatically click the link to your blog to see what else they can learn from you. All too many new bloggers feel that the good stuff should be kept secret, and instead their blogs end up full of fluff. Keeping some of your best secrets to yourself is normal - but to keep it all to yourself could downgrade the usefulness of your blog, and it could easily be disregarded as useless babble. Some of the most famous and successful bloggers share some really great information and that is often what sets them apart from the rest.

How To Produce a Traffic Spike in Your Blog Stats

If you are writing consistently, but haven't yet seen an increase in traffic, there are a few things you can do to create an instant traffic boost. But all things done in order, you need a great blog post first. Not just a good blog post, but a really awesome post. You also need a really intriguing blog title, as well. This title will be the grabber for your readers in this style of traffic boosting, so it should not only be a great description of what your article is about, but grab the attention of the reader in a way that they just can't resist but to click on your article's title.

The post itself should be either newsworthy, or just full of fantastic information that the reader feels compelled to continue reading. Most of your blog posts or articles will not have this level of greatness, and it may take you a while to write such an article. This is a very important fact you must realize, that the article must truly be fantastic in order for this tactic to work, otherwise if you try it with too many mediocre articles or posts, readers will get to know that, and once you have the article that truly is great, you may have already let potential readers down and they may not be as willing to read the next one. Once you have that article, you're ready for the next level.

If you would like to see some great examples of the type of article I am speaking of, take a trip over to reddit or digg and read some of the hot topics and articles that are being posted. The articles on the front page of both of those sites are the best of the best. This is where you're going to find your "instant" traffic. When you've got your great article reader-ready and published on your blog, sign into one of these sites, it's free, and submit your article. Within just a few minutes, your article will be exposed to millions of readers, hungry for something great to read. You'll notice a spike in your traffic, which will actually help you in the long-run as well. By submitting your best article, you expose readers to your whole blog.

If it is truly a great article, readers will be likely to come back to your blog to check for more articles, and you could be looking at an increase in traffic on a more regular basis. If you are actually capable of writing articles of this level quite often, you'll definitely develop a larger flow of traffic that continues to grow. However, if your articles don't match that level of greatness, you'll simply enjoy a momentary spike in traffic and your stats will fall near the level they previously were before you posted your best article. You may even get the pleasure of attracting a few new readers who enjoy your blog for what it is.

Are You on a Blogging Island?

Isolating yourself can be good for a short time, but if you figuratively live on a blogging island all of your own, you may not end up having the best response to your blog. As a blogger, you've got to find a way to get yourself out there, making yourself known. Creating a place for yourself as a writer in the blogosphere at some point becomes a necessity. This can happen in quite a few ways, but is always much easier if you have great content.

However, for some bloggers, there can be a large amount of work that goes into carving your name into your niche. Whether you start your day at the local coffee shop with fellow bloggers, or have a few of your favorite blogs that you regularly read and comment on, you will probably find that your visibility will increase if you network with other bloggers. But it's got to be done right, otherwise could receive the less-than-desired title of a "splogger". Get to know some of the bloggers in your niche, or at the very least, get to know their blogs.

Bloggers, Are You Reading Enough Blogs?

If you're not reading the blogs of others, you may be missing out on inspiration, education, and entertainment! Some of the most successful bloggers are avid blog readers, and find that they are more in touch with what's going on in the blogging world. Most bloggers who have popular blogs read more than they write. Connecting with other bloggers can be a great way of getting feedback on your ideas, sort of testing the waters. You may even discover some very important trial and error lessons learned by others, saving you time on making mistakes that have already been explored.

By reading other people's blogs, you are exposed to what is popular at the moment. You learn what people are doing. You can see what subjects are most read about, most talked about, and creating the most buzz. You have the opportunity to network with other bloggers, and create business relationships that are essential to driving traffic towards your blog. You begin to see your blog through the eyes of others. Sometimes bloggers write from a journalistic point of view, and some write take a more personal approach. The point is to learn what works for you, and many times, the very thing you hold back on could be the key to your success.

A Few Good Places to Add and Submit your Blog

Once you're blog is up and ready to go, or if you want to improve your traffic and ratings, you'll want to submit your blog. Submitting isn't the end of the line though, you'll have to ping the sites when you update to make sure the crawlers are returning to your site often, picking up any new content you publish. This will help your blog get to the top of search results as well, because your content will always be fresh in their system, and pulled up in relevent searches.

Try submitting to some of the sites below, and then go to Pingoat or Ping-O-Matic and ping the sites you've submitted to, letting them know when you've updated.

ReadABlog - Blogarama - Globe of Blogs - BlogDex - Blog Universe - Ice Rocket

You'll also find a pretty extensive list at Pingoat where you can submit your blog, as well as ping them when you update. This is a pretty intensive part of your blog advertising, but once it's done you'll most likely see a jump in traffic after just a few weeks. Don't forget to comment on other people's blogs, and as long as the topic is relevent to your blog, go ahead and include a link. It can help your rankings as well!

Commenting for Traffic

It's among the commonly used tactics for bloggers, but how does it work? Many bloggers who attempt this technique make a common mistake, which is to leave an irrelevent comment on a blog, which is actually considered spam. Comments should be left on blogs that you actually read...you do read other people's blogs, don't you? If you're blogging solely to make money, then you may not have anything relevent to say on another blog. However, if blogging is actually a passion of yours, then chances are you are reading the blogs of others - and enjoying their work. The same way you hope that other people are reading your blog, they are hoping that you will read theirs, and your comments are one way of showing that you are.

When a blogger notices a new comment, often times they will read the comment, and very possibly click on the link to the commenter's blog. You have unofficially invited them to read your blog by leaving a comment. Also, you have left your mark for other readers of their blog, and they may also click over to your blog. Most posts remain visible for at least 30-days, and often times they are permanent, meaning your comment will most likely send a small amount of traffic from that particular blog. If your comment has something profound to say, the chances that you will peak interest in your blog are even better. However, on the flip side, if you leave a spam comment, it may either be deleted, or in most cases - ignored by readers. This is usually a dirty tactic used by sploggers, which is a term to describe "spam bloggers" - a blogger who has nothing meaningful to say, and hopes to earn money by sitting on their butt and claiming to be a blog writer. The point? I digressed - the point is that by commenting on the blogs of others, with a comment that directly relates to the blog post, you will spark interest in your blog, and therefore point a few readers towards your blog. If you're writing an interesting blog, the readers will be likely to return. It's a great way to get a few targeted readers interested in your blog.