Part 7 – More Traffic Sources
Getting links from other websites is not the only way to attract
visitors to visit your blog. This time, we are going to explore alternative
methods to attract high quality traffic with both free and paid methods.
The first thing you can do to generate traffic is to recycle all the
content you have written on your blog. What I really mean is to turn your blog
posts into little “manuals” or articles that help people solve their problems
or offer valuable information and submit them to article directories. These
article directories are like aggregators that collect articles of similar
themes together in one place, so they receive thousands and thousands of
qualified visitors every day.
When you submit your articles to these directories, you are exposing
your name to the thousands of pairs of eyes visiting them for free! On most
article directories, you are also permitted to include a “resource box” where
you can include your contact details, a simple biography and so on. This is
where you can truly leverage the traffic of the said article directories.
Some good article directories to get you started:
www.ultimatearticledirectory.com
Another excellent way to gain traffic is to join internet forums that is
based on your niche. To find these kind of forums, just go to any search engine
and enter “<your niche> +forum”, without the quotes. You would want the
most focused forum with a substantial number of active members, and preferably
always bustling with activity. Just check the dates of the threads posted on
the forum.
When you join active forums that focus on your field of discussion and
post very useful and valuable posts, your peers will start noticing you and
paying attention to what you have to say. In most forums, you are also allowed
to append a link to your site in the signature line, which is under every post
you make on the forums. People will click and visit your blog if they find your
posts helpful and informative. This way, your credibility is built even before
they land on your blog, so traffic from the forums would be easier to turn into
profits if your blog is selling your own products or recommending others’ as an
affilliate since they are already convinced you’re an “expert” in the field.
The strategy we’ll discuss is word of mouth. Let’s say you already have
a daily visitor count of 100. What if you compiled a small report or gift and
posted it on your blog, saying that if a certain visitor can refer three of
his/her friends to visit your blog the gift will be his/hers for free? If your
small report or gift is lucrative enough, it will generate a small buzz among
your blog readers and they will surely refer their friends to this blog that
they frequent!
You can also utilize the “blog and ping” technique that everyone’s
talking about. Basically, when you update your blog, you can let blog portals
such as www.technorati.com know by
pinging them. You can ping a lot of portals at once by using the free www.pingomatic.com.
Besides the techniques described here, there are also paid methods like
buying links from high-ranking pages or buying banner advertisement space. A
thing to keep in mind when buying paid traffic is to always weigh your profits
generated from the paid ads. If your profits do no offset the expense, you will
end up losing money, so choose wisely.