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How to Get Dynamic Traffic to Your Blog-Part 3

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This entry is part [part not set] of 3 in the series How To Get Dynamic Traffic To Your Blog

This is the 3rd post in a series by Guest Blogger Ron Whitaker

Well, friends, we’ve reached the end…the end of my little series, that is.

In Part 1, I discussed the importance of keyword research before writing and publishing a blog post.

In Part 2, I provided some best practices on where to include those keywords in your blog posts.

Now, in Part 3, I’ll provide some tips that I’ve learned over the past few months about how to drive traffic to your website once you’ve completed the above steps.

But first, a question?

Were you popular in high school?

Were you the popular cheerleader or jock who everyone wanted to hang out with? You know, the one who got invited to every party and activity?

If you were, I envy you!

Granted, I had friends, but definitely didn’t fall within the cool crowd.

But that was then…and we’re in a new age: the Internet age! And the good news is, the game’s changed!

Whoo-hoo!

So today, I’m going to show everyone who reads this post how they can be cool and popular online.

Is it easy?

No. It WILL take work, but it’s doable! And the rewards can be fantastic!

What does being popular have to do with driving traffic to my blog?

Good question.

Let’s delve into that topic with another question:

Thinking back to those popular kids in high school, how did you know they were popular?

Maybe they were nice?

Maybe they dressed in the coolest, hippest fashion of the time?

Maybe they knew all the words to the latest popular songs?

What exactly did they do or say that clued you in that they were popular?

Perhaps the famous quote by John Kuebler will provide a hint: Show me your friends and I will show you your future.

The playwright Euripides also provides a clue: Every man is like the company he is wont to keep.

Thinking back to the question above—how did you know they were popular?—the obvious answer to tell that those kids were popular was by the quantity of friends they surrounded themselves with.

So, there it is in a nutshell. They had friends. And lots of them!

But what does that have to do with driving traffic to your website?

How to be popular on the Internet

Well, if you want to get traffic to your website, you’ve got to be popular on the web!

How?

Just like in high school, you knew the popular kids were popular by the number of friends they had, the same principle applies to the Internet!

Man typing on keyboard

Image courtesy of suphakit73 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Here’s the secret: search engines like Google recognize how “popular” your website is by the number of links from other websites that point to your website.

Show me a website that ranks high for a particular keyword in Google, and I can pretty much guarantee that that site has a fairly high number of links, also known as backlinks, pointing back to it from other websites from around the virtual world.

Great! I wanna be popular on the web and get links pointing back to my website. How do I do it?

There are many ways.

I’m going to focus on two in this post:

  • Guest blog posting
  • Blog commenting

Guest Blog Posting

So, what’s guest blog posting?

Well, it’s what I’m doing here! I don’t own Blogging for Boomers, Rosie does!

Though my website lies elsewhere in the virtual world, Rosie was kind enough to invite me to come on over here and do a series of guest posts.

What does guest blog posting do?

Several things.

Guest posting allows you to build relationships around the web. (Hint: make friends! The more you have, the more popular you become!)

Also, when you guest post on another blog, it allows you to create a link or two back to your own website.

How do you find blogs for guest posting?

As an example, say you have a budding blog centered around the topic of vintage auto restoration.

Head over to Google and perform a search like the following:

Auto restoration “write for us.”

What does this search operator do?

Boomer woman at laptop

Image courtesy of stockimages / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

It returns websites centered around auto restoration and that allow guest bloggers to post on their blogs (hence “write for us”).

Here are some other searches you can use to find blogs that allow guest bloggers on their sites. We’re still using our example of auto restoration as your business. You can replace “auto restoration” with keywords that are related to your own blog.

  • Auto restoration “guest post”
  • Auto restoration “guest blogger”
  • Auto restoration “submit an article”
  • Auto restoration “submit a blog post”

Those ought to get you started!

And here’s a hint, when you provide a blog post for another site, make sure it’s your best stuff! Show the world what you know about your topic! Sock it to ‘em!

You’ll make new friends along the way (becoming popular!), you’ll build credibility with a new audience, and you’ll get a sweet link (or two) back to your own blog.

Blog Commenting

What’s blog commenting?

Actually, I feel another story coming on!

Once upon a time there was a new website owner/blogger who wanted to start making friends around the webosphere.

He started commenting on blogs that were related to his own website, and who had audiences he was trying to reach as well.

One day he left a comment on a blog about blogging for boomers. Someone named Rosie noticed, replied to his comment, and invited him to post a blog series on her website.

The end.

And it all started with commenting on a blog!

Commenting on blogs simply means finding those blogs that are centered around topics similar to yours and then visiting them and posting comments at the end of posts.

It’s that simple, but I have a STRONG word of caution.

The first rule of commenting is when guest commenting make sure you enter “quality” comments.

Do NOT, under any circumstance, simply write “Nice post. Thanks.”

Just don’t go there!

When commenting, make sure your comments are heartfelt and really provide VALUE to the comments section. Provide a comment that offers a new point of view, or affirms through your experiences how you relate to the points that were made by the author.

In other words, provide quality comments.

You never know what might happen. You just may receive an invitation to guest post on that blog.

I did!

How Martin Diano Gave Birth To His Blog

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The Birth of Dianosphere– A Labor of Love

by Martin Diano

I can recall vividly the birth of my first blog. I decided to spend three months during the summer of 2007 in Greenville NY, where my wife, Annette, and I have a second home so we can be closer to our grandson. Annette, who works as an RN, would commute from Arizona, our primary residence, to New York during the same three month period.

Although I would frequently be visiting with my daughter, Michelle, and our grandson, Alan, I still had lots of idle time on my hands, which I had originally planned to occupy by reading. One evening at dinner, upon mentioning the possibility of boredom setting in because Annette would be away most of the time, my daughter said, “Dad, why don’t you create a blog. That will keep you occupied and you like writing.”
While I was certainly aware of blogs, and subscribed to several, it never occurred to me to publish a blog of my own. I had no clue how to begin. Where to host a blog, the cost involved, the time commitment required. Can I make money blogging? Michelle had a personal blog she began in 2006, where she wrote about motherhood and posted pictures of Alan, so she pointed me in the general direction to start my online journey.

The next morning I sat out in the back yard and mapped out a strategy for what would eventually give birth to Dianosphere.com.

I began my blogging journey by reading just about every book on blogging I could find? over a dozen books in all? and subscribed to numerous A-list bloggers on the topic. At first, it was a daunting task. So much to learn! Gradually, though, I developed a sense of what I had to do and took the plunge.
Two years and 199 posts later, with a few fits and starts, Dianosphere has seen a steady climb in readership. And the experience has been intellectually fulfilling.

I do not consider myself in a position to offer advice about blogging, preferring to leave that to the likes of Rosie Horner, I can say that blogging can be a very satisfying experience. Clicking the ‘Publish’ button on your first blog post for the entire online world to read is an exhilarating and memorable moment.
But I do have advice to offer. I have listed below two issues that you may want to research yourself, or confirm with a blogging consultant. The two issues I learned that are the most perplexing are: 1] the length of a blog post and 2] the frequency of posting. Blogging can be a very time-consuming adventure and these two issues are critical to consider.

With regard to the number of words:

As part of my research, here’s what I discovered some of the experts on blogging have to say about the length of a blog post: over 100 and under 500 words; 200-600 words; one pro blogger recommends 250-1000 words because that’s what SEO experts believe. “…anything longer than 300 words is not a post,” asserts a professional blogging consultant. And, finally, “Shoot for 500 words or less,” touts another expert. The question of the length of a blog post, as you can see, has no right answer.
It is my view that the length of a blog post takes second place to the quality of the content. If content still reigns as King and you have something particularly compelling to say, why should it be limited to an arbitrary number of words to convey your message? As long as there’s a take-a-way for the reader, something that he/she can put to practical use in their business or personal life and you need 595 words, or 870 words or 1275 words or 2,000 words to make your point, then just do it.

As to the frequency of your blog postings:

“If your blog isn’t updated regularly, why should people come back to it,” I read in one book. ”They don’t,” says the author, who suggests updating your blog at least two or three times a week. If you accept at face value the author’s advice, you would have to post to your blog even if you have nothing especially important or valuable to say because, according to the author, if you do not post two or three times a week your readers will not return.
What about the quality of the content, I asked myself? Why would readers return if I am publishing content, just for the sake of frequency, solely to ensure reader retention? If a blogger has nothing compelling to say for a week or two why then post unusable content that may very well have the opposite effect – drive readers away! There is a growing consensus that indicates whether you post once a week or not, the quality of what you have to say will always trump blog post frequency.

There are some terrific books on blogging, too many to suggest in this posting. Go to Amazon.com enter a search query and you’ll see all the bestsellers. Read two or three of these books. Subscribe to several A-list bloggers, like Rosie’s Blogging for Boomers or Chris Brogan’s blog. Many of the A-list bloggers also offer free eBooks and great tips.
Blogging is still in its infancy. Some advice and recommendations for new bloggers should indeed be followed. If you’re reading this blog, then you are well on your way to becoming a better blogger and enjoying the experience that much more.
About Martin Diano
Martin is a retired public relations professional living in Arizona and New York. His blogging experience with Dianosphere led him to create, in 2008, the Baby Boomer [Knowledge Center], a web destination for and about the baby boomer generation.