Often times, people will assume that because their traffic is high, their website must be relevant or their content must be great. I am here to tell you that you could not be further from the truth. Having lots of traffic is fine and dandy, but what you want to target is high quality traffic.
To put this in perspective, I am going to relate blogging to my past work in the music industry.
If I were to ask you the question “If you were in a band, which is more important? Playing one show in front of 1500 brand new potential fans by opening up for a major artist, or playing one show in front of 80 of your current fans?” How would you respond.
If you said 1500, you are wrong.
Granted, if you were playing in front of 1500 new people every day, it would be a different story. But for one show you are more likely to achieve success with the smaller show of dedicated listeners. They will spread word of your music, you can cultivate relationships with them, they will buy a high percentage of merchandise and they will be more likely to come to a return engagment.
When you playing in front of 1500 people who don’t know you, you will make some fans. But will they be the returning type? Will they tell their friends about your music or were they just drunk when they told you that you were awesome? There are too many variables to factor in deciding whether that show will be a long term success and create relationships with new fans. The only thing it is really good for is boasting, which if you have been reading here, is one of my biggest pet peeves.
Blog and website traffic can be qualified in the same way. Look, we all want to have our post make it to the front page of Digg. But when it comes down to it, what is more important? 1000 people who will make your numbers look good, but don’t contribute or 80 people who contribute and spread the word about your blog or website?
Long term success is built on consistency, not short bursts of popularity. You may sacrifice a quick dollar now, but you will be rewarded in the long run. With that sad, lets take a look at 5 sure fire ways to build traffic and help you make money blogging.
- Commenting other blogs. You hear this everywhere and there is a reason for that. It works and it works well. But the problem is people have stepped up commenting to a whole new spamming level. The key to commenting is to contribute something meaningful to the discussion. Don’t just show up and say ‘Hey, I like your blog, Check out mine!’. If you don’t have anything relevant to say, don’t comment until you do. There isn’t a rule that says you need to comment someone the first second you read their blog. Take a week or so to read the blog, absorb their perspective and then comment. Provide the same quality with you comments as you would with your blog.
- Social Sites. This is a great way to drive traffic to your website, but not all of it will be good traffic. Sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, and to a lesser degree MySpace and Facebook can sent large traffic flows to your site, if the content is good. They key to using these sites is to, well, USE these sites. Build relationships with other bloggers and readers through interaction. That way you can ensure that the traffic that does come to your site is meaningful.
- Guest Blogging. Don’t sell yourself short. If you are a solid writer, providing a guest blog is a great way to build traffic and send people back to your site. Many of the larger blogs will have no problem letting a newer blogger submit a guest post; provided it is of high quality. At the top of the post, there will be a link to send people back towards your blog. This should provide you with new readers and quality traffic.
- The Twitter Factor. I know this is social networking, but it is very unique so it deserves its own paragraph. The uniqueness that drives the site is the simplicity. It has 140 character maximum post size (just like SMS texting) but people can ‘follow’ you, similar to the friending on a site like MySpace. I love it because I can check and send updates from my phone if I am away, I can promote blogs or products, and I can keep up with all my friends and see what other bloggers are up to. If you haven’t jumped on board the Twitter bandwagon, it is about time you do.
- Stay Active. Staying active in communities, on blogs, and on your own blog is the best way to keep people coming back. When you take breaks, make sure they are well though out. I lost most of my readers when I took a month long break to tend to some family and personal business. If you intend to build a business out of your blog, you must stay active on all fronts of traffic building.
Don’t get discouraged! I am still actively building my reader base. I don’t expect it to grow large in one day, however, I am in it for the long haul!
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