Want a bit of Link Love!

Link Love!

I am coming to the end of my blog traffic series for creating blogs, and I would like to point out that they have not been posted in any particular order, and that there are obviously a lot more ways to get traffic to your blog. It’s just these are the main ones that I have come across on my travels and use.

It’s been very interesting to write, as I realise that recently I haven’t used some of the techniques as much as I should, and links is one of them.

Don’t be an ‘insular blogger’ , you will hear a lot about this from experienced bloggers - participate in the blogging community and spread a bit of ‘link love’ (and the does and dont's), and they are right. I should do this more, I don’t do enough, but it’s just been finding the time! I think that’s more a call for me to be more organised.

So what is ‘link love’. Well, when you join in on blogging message boards or forums then you can leave a link at the end of your message taking them to your blog. Or when reading another blog and you decide to leave a comment or join a blog roll, then again you can put in a link to your blog. Now I always try to think about my comments and try to do it when I have something constructive to say, rather than spamming my link all over the place, because you’re not going to get thanked for that, and remember they’ll know your blog address!

Now, there’s 2 chances to get more traffic to your blog, and if you happen to link on higher traffic blogs than yours, then those chances start to look even better. But don’t abuse it, comment and link with respect and you’ll have a good name in the blogging community. Blog to help each other out and you’ll get the most out of blogging. And I will make sure I join in this great community more!

Creating Blogs

Get Traffic from Emails!

So how can you get traffic to your blog from emails?

Add your blog address to your email signature like we did with forums. You can add a message to the signature, inviting your recipient to pass your information on to a friend if they enjoyed your blog.

Then every time you email your list (if you have one) or family or friends, then your blog address is sent with it, giving you more exposure. And hopefully if they do enjoy your blog and pass it on, then it can become viral and bring in traffic for your blog over some time!

Creating Blogs

Drive Targeted Traffic to your Blog using Google Adwords

Google Adwords is a great tool to drive targeted traffic to your blog. You can target specific keywords from your blog that you know people will be searching for. You’ll know the keywords from having done your research on search trends and competition when you set up your blog. Which obviously means you are putting your ad in front of a hungry audience (the best kind!).

Now there’s a lot of free and paid for information out there for Adwords. I started out by using Google Cash, it was recommended to me by a writing newsletter I subscribe to (Google Cash 3 has recently been released). I also subscribed to any free courses that I came across (they are after your email address but you can always unsubscribe afterwards).

But don’t forget Google itself! adwords.google.com explains exactly what adwords does and the best way to utilise it. It also has a help centre that’s crammed full of information, demo’s, guides, troubleshooting and FAQ’s. The information is useful and they take you through each step in producing an adwords ad. It’s all free to use, just sign up for an account and have a look around.

If you would like to see more then click on the Google Adwords button on the left.

Create Blogs

Classified Adverts - Online or Offline?

Just because you work online doesn’t mean all your promotion needs to be done online! So why not try an offline method, and place a classified advert in a local newspaper to drive traffic to your blog. Depending on where you live and which newspapers you pick, the fee can vary a lot from free to big money, so pick wisely!

Or you could place classified adverts online. Now if you searched in Google for classified ad sites I’m sure you would have a huge list. So I would like to talk about 2 sites for classified ads that already receive huge amounts of traffic every day. Craigslist.org and Ebay.com.

Craigslist
It’s a free classified ad site that’s world wide, and in the top 10 most visited sites in the world (= lots of traffic). You just pick a city and place a free classified ad promoting your blog. It doesn't really have to be near where you live, as your directing them to a blog, so they won’t be collecting something they have bought (depending on what you are selling!). The only problem I see with this, is you have to submit per city - rather than countries (as with Ebay), so you would have to submit to a few cities to help get traffic - I presume. It also defaults to the San Francisco Bay Area site, so you have to pick a city from there.

Ebay
Again another site in the top 10 most visited sites in the world. You can place a classified ad on Ebay ($10 for 30 days). Now it’s not an auction, you’re not selling anything, but you can promote your business or blog in them and hopefully drive traffic to your blog. I know this service is available in the US, but may not be available on all of Ebay's sites, so use ebay.com (it gets the most traffic).

And that’s 2 ways to get your links onto high traffic sites and hopefully drive even more traffic to your blog.

Create Blogs

Creating Blog Traffic with Forums

To be honest I have only recently started to use forums for creating blog traffic - and realised their potential. They are more than just somewhere to post your news and articles to, to enable you to generate traffic. They are communities that you can tap into, and interact with a wide range of people, make friends, ask questions, learn more and even make deals. All on top of the basic fact that they can drive traffic to your blog.

You can find a forum (or message board) on pretty much any subject you can think of. Search for ‘[your subject] forum’ and see what comes up.

I’ve recently joined the Warrior Forum which is an Internet Marketing forum. It’s really helpful and motivating reading the different threads. There’s the chance to see how other people do things, and the ability to network with a lot of people in your chosen field. When you start to post don’t forget to add your signature, where you can place links to your blog or any other site you would like to send traffic to. So every time you ask a question or reply to a post your signature is added and also the link to your blog, giving you more exposure. So the more questions and replies you make the more traffic you may be able to generate. The potential of forums is undeniable.

I was going to add another list here of forums, but I’ll let you explore on your own!

Creating Blogs