It is the golden chalice of blogging, or of any online marketing activity really. Traffic. We all want it. We all need it. But we all don't get it. Sometimes you can do something online for months or years - write a blog, update a website - and no matter how hard you work it just doesn't happen for you. Other times, you can strike lucky and in no time at all, you have more traffic than you know what to do with. But how can you go from one to the other?
Before we look at this though, there are two very important questions you need to ask yourself:
What kind of traffic do I want (not how much)?
Sure, we all dream of having our Feedburner statistics show five or six figures. But, go back to your strategy again - who is it that you want visiting your site? If you are a property developer, for instance, perhaps the only important visitors for you are potential investors. Having every Tom, Dick and Harry might be nice, but if you only have 50 subscribers, all of whom are people you want to influence, then you have achieved your goal. Is having 150,000 readers really that important to you? Is that what your business needs? Are there even that many people out there in your target audience?
Sometimes, quality is more important than quantity - something only you can determine.
What do you want this audience to do?
Having 150,000 subscribers who read your blog is pretty nice for the ego. But is just reading the blog what you want? Do you want them to interact or comment? Do you want them to come to an event you are holding? Do you want them to purchase your product? Provide feedback so you can improve it? Support you when you go for office? In reality, traffic numbers are just that - numbers. It is when that audience actually does what you want them to do when they become really important. Of course, that may be simply that you want them to read what you have written and take that information with them into their lives or businesses. That's great. But make sure that if you do suddenly get a load of traffic, you also have the facility for them to take the next step if that's what you want.
Enough of the questions. I want it! How do I get it?!
There are more blogs out there about getting traffic than I would be able to reference. Just do a search in Google and you will know what I mean. So, I am not going to just repeat a full explanation of what everyone else had said (because that would be boring). Instead, I am going to summarise the top 5 which should almost go without saying.
- Good titles, great content: How many times have we heard it? Here it is again...
- Get yourself known: guest post, contribute, comment, discuss...
- Immerse yourself in social media: that's immerse, not just dipping your toe
- Link love: link, link, link, link, link. And then when you think you're done linking, link some more.
- Give value: it's all about your audience. It's not about you.
I would say my favourite posts on this are:
Seth Godin's (of course - sometimes the old ones are the best)
Randfish's post over at SEOmoz
Darren's tips over at Problogger
And I also discovered Amy Greer's post which I thought was very good.
Fantastic...now what
Notice how I jumped quite quickly over the how to do it? I think it is because it is such a well covered subject that adding to it wouldn't have given much value (I am practising what I preach here). Now...the important bit.
Get to know these people.
Don't think of them as an additional increment on your subscribed list. They are real people who matter to you. Getting to know them isn't always easy, but ask them questions, engage them in conversation, install MyBlogLog or one of the other community widgets so you know who's visiting, examine your analytics, encourage people to email you, run competitions, ask for guest posts, encourage them to follow you on Twitter. Remember, this is a conversation. Because the fact we are all sitting behind monitors means that it can't be as personal as a face to face meeting would be, you are going to have to work that little bit harder to get to know your audience. But it is worth it, because ultimately, that's what will make your blog work.
The next post in this series will be Advanced Blogging: You've Got The Look
Thanks to Poagao for the image
Read the rest of the series on advanced blogging
- Advanced Blogging: Your Blogging Strategy
- Advanced Blogging: Constructive Conversation With Your Readers
- Advanced Blogging: You've Got The Look
- Advanced Blogging: Stepping Away From Your Navel - Guest Posting
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