This is a republished guest post by Brand Connell from Brandonconnell.com
As you may know, RobsWebTips.com will be shutting down some time in the near future (was thought to be Jan 1st but that is clearly not the case), so Brandon’s guest articles on there will be published here.
When I first started out with my blog(s) I would have given anything for a detailed plan of action from someone who has done it already. I would have saved many hours of my valuable time, and my blog would have taken off much sooner.
I have noticed that many of the how-to ebooks out there that cost upwards of $50 still don’t provide the tactics that truly work. Nobody seems to want to give up their working marketing strategy in fear of empowering their competition.
Today, I will provide you with a fast-track marketing plan that if you were to start today, you would see an increase of reader commentary and traffic to your blog. You want to have your social networking accounts already in place.
Get Social
You need to sign up with:
- Digg
- StumbleUpon
- Delicious
- Content.com
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Technorati
These are my biggest social traffic sources. Facebook allows you to import your blog rss feeds into “notes”. This pulls your blog posts and places them on your FB wall. This technique alone has brought in a steady flow of traffic. You want to add like-minded “friends” to your network though so that traffic is coming from somewhere.
In addition to notes, you need to establish a Facebook Fan Page. This will allow you to network with others in your niche and post unique content to your fan page. You can then direct fans to your blog where you provide more detailed information on the subject that you write about.
The trick with Digg, Twitter, StumbleUpon, and Delicious is to follow others in your topic, interact with them, and get them to follow you. If you are using WordPress, there are some excellent free plugins that integrate these social networks into your blog articles. Your readers can share your articles and bring you traffic. Now that’s what I call free advertising!
Content.com and Yahoo! Buzz work a bit differently. Content.com has brought me hundreds of visitors alone without networking with anybody. Now imagine if I networked with other users. Yahoo! Buzz is a bit harder and requires you to draw attention to your submitted article while getting people to Buzz up your article. The higher the Buzz number, the more traffic you will receive.
Technorati is a good traffic tool for me. It is widely used by bloggers and allows your blog tags to be indexed and searched. I find daily Technorati traffic appears in my statistics.
Tracking & Building
Make sure you sign up right away with Google Analytics. This tracking tool will help you get advertisers in the future, as well as help you keep track of your marketing plan to see what works and what does not.
Do you have a product yet? When I started my blog, I did so with the intention of promoting my new ebook that I released on Amazon. I should have created the ebook as a freebie in order to build a newsletter list. I am playing catch-up with getting subscribers because I failed to do so when I first started blogging. Your newsletter is going to be your money-maker. It is what you use to promote your affiliate products to a large audience. It also allows you to bring in a flood of regular blog traffic every time your newsletter is mailed out.
You can create your product in Microsoft Word and convert it to PDF when it’s finished. Your ebook is a residual profit tool because you can recommend products within it by using your affiliate link. As this ebook circulates and more people download it, your potential affiliate revenue increases as well. Your ebook can be 20 pages long, but remember that the longer your ebook, the more potential you have to make money from it.
Traffic Flood
My biggest failure with my blogging venture was bringing in immediate traffic so that I get comments on my articles right from the start. I thought that they would get lots of attention when search engines indexed my blog. Boy was I wrong! If you have a brand new blog, or a blog that is struggling to get comments on your articles, then you need to start interacting with other bloggers immediately.
Blog commenting is your biggest immediate traffic source. When you go to related blogs and comment, that blog owner is more than likely going to return the favor. You will also receive their reader traffic and build links to your blog in the process. Because my blog is designed to teach bloggers how to market and make money blogging, I can comment on any blog related to any topic and receive traffic. But if you have a narrow niche, then it is wise to stick to it with your comment strategy.
If you are brand new and do not have many articles yet, you might want to write 5 or more articles ahead of time so that you have the content ready to publish in a crunch. Once you have a few articles published and commentary taking place on your blog, it is time to write more articles. But this time, you are writing them for other bloggers. Write your best work, and contact related bloggers asking if you can guest post on their blog. Make sure that when your guest post is published that you go to it daily and reply to reader comments. The link credit in your guest post will bring you traffic, but so will the CommentLuv in the discussion area.
By this time, you should have a steady flow of traffic. I sure wish I knew this stuff way back when. It makes it a lot easier, but if you don’t take care of these things ahead of time, you will find yourself working extra hard in the future to get comments on old articles. Over the past few months, I have made many guest post appearances. It has become so expected that many bloggers simply wait for me to contact them and they know I’m coming.
Expert Cred
So you have a few articles going with many more scheduled to post on your blog. You have a few guest posts under your belt and are seeing the increase in traffic and reader interaction. Now it’s time to establish your expert credibility even further with articles. I love writing articles for Associated Content because sometimes I submit them for exclusive publishing and they pay me. On top of that, I receive a cpm rate from them for every thousand pageviews. AC has brought me a good chunk of my article traffic, and can bring more if I network with other writers.
Another article publisher I work with is EzineArticles. They have an ability to get top 10 Google rankings because of the amount of unique content submitted to them on a daily basis. Article sites also allow the articles to be republished elsewhere on the condition that the author credit be kept in place. This can help you with your one-way link building campaign.
By this time, you will have established yourself as a serious blogger. Your traffic will be steadily increasing and your Alexa Traffic Rank should be going to a lower level dramatically. At this point you can slow down, write articles, make an occasional guest post, and continue to comment on other blogs. Use all of the above tools which should be a reflex at this point in time. Within a year or less you can be making a good income from your blog.
Wrapping it all up
Every blogger makes mistakes when they first start. If you want to make it to the big time, you have to take it seriously and implement the strategy I shared with you. Your blogging career depends on it!
What about you? Are you on the fast track?
Digg it
Delicious it
Stumble it
Kube it
{ 24 comments… read them below or add one }
Twitter: Brandon_Connell
January 17, 2011 at 6:51 AM
You misspelled me
Who is this Brand character you speak of?
Brandon (or should I call you “Brand”?
hits on one traffic tactic that has worked like magic for me: guest posts.
Three months ago, I wrote two guest posts for Clickbank’s blog on “how to find a niche”, and those two posts still bring hundreds of new visitors to my blog every month. How did I get such a sweet gig? I just approached the Clickbank reps at their Affiliate Summit East booth!
My advice would be to approach as many mid- to high-traffic blogs as possible, offering them an article on a topic that you know their readers will value, but also on a topic that you have proven experience/credibility in.
Moe
Twitter: Brandon_Connell
January 18, 2011 at 3:32 AM
That’s a great gig to get Moe. Your approach should be to rinse and repeat. Try and get on the same blog a few more times. That should increase traffic exponentially.
Twitter: AnaTrafficCafe
January 17, 2011 at 3:03 PM
I wish I had this kind of actionable plan when I first started as well, Brandon.
I wonder how old this post is though. Considering Delicious is no more… Makes me wonder what else is a bit outdated.
By the way, do you list your social media traffic sources from biggest to smallest or in no particular order?
Ana
Ana @ Traffic Generation´s last [type] ..Keep Your Money- Honey- Which Internet Marketing Products Are Not Worth Their Salt
Twitter: Brandon_Connell
January 17, 2011 at 3:09 PM
Hi Ana. http://www.delicious.com/ looks operational to me. Perhaps you were thinking of something else. Nothing here is outdated in this article.
I didn’t list anything in an order this time around. But Twitter and Facebook are my biggest social network traffic sources and have been for some time now.
Twitter: thiruseo
January 17, 2011 at 10:45 PM
I have been using all those social networking sites mate, excluding content.com which is new to me. But its seems that i am not getting most traffic from that sites. Traffic is very low. I am simply submit all my blog post link on those sites. What can i do more than that to get traffic?
Thiru´s last [type] ..Magazinifycom – Bookmarks and articles into pdf
Twitter: Brandon_Connell
January 18, 2011 at 3:30 AM
You have to be active on these sites and participate. If you only submit your links, it isn’t likely to help you at all at first. Later on after you build your network, the traffic will come easily.
Twitter: LaTonyaSJohnson
January 18, 2011 at 2:20 AM
Hi Alex- I haven’t commented in a while, yet I read all of
your posts. I wanted to comment on this one because I’d like to
thank you for sharing your strategy! You rock. LaTonya
I will be returning to this post over and over for a while, you gave some really great tips and ideas.
Thanks
Patrick Simpson
Patrick Simspon´s last [type] ..Twitter Is Connections Waiting For You
Twitter: Rick_LaPoint
January 18, 2011 at 9:47 AM
Hey Brandon,
You know Alex, he was subliminally ranking you as Brand X. Maybe it was a Freudian Slip, and you weren’t supposed to know how he really feels.
Anyway, this is a great list. I learned a lot of this pretty quickly when I got started, probably because I was fortunate enough to have stumbled upon (excuse the pun) people like you and ol’… er, uhm, What’s His Name, (the guy who runs this gin joint.)
It’s articles like this that really give a jump start to newbies, so they won’t stay newbies for long
Rick
Rick LaPoint´s last [type] ..How to Make Your Message Heard Above the Noise
Twitter: Brandon_Connell
January 18, 2011 at 1:44 PM
Thanks Rick. It makes us feel great to know that it has helped someone!
Brandon@Make Money Blogging´s last [type] ..Guest Post for Adsense Revenue Sharing
Twitter: lionslinger
January 18, 2011 at 12:49 PM
I have been blogging for more than a year and I must say that it will take time and hard work to really get results. I have implemented some of the methods you have shared here and they worked for me. However, it’s important that we know what works and what does not.
Twitter: Brandon_Connell
January 18, 2011 at 1:43 PM
You are right with that. Time is the key. Although, if you can get traffic sooner through paid advertising or some sort of celebrity leverage, then it can happen much sooner.
Brandon@Make Money Blogging´s last [type] ..Guest Post for Adsense Revenue Sharing
Twitter: michaelpedzotti
January 18, 2011 at 1:35 PM
Hey BC, that must keep you busy! How many hours do you spend each day/week keeping it all ticking over? Yeah, I know, I always ask this type of question – how many this, how long that. I’m curious as I find it difficult to keep track of a couple of social networks let alone that many. I need to stop programming I think and outsource it all
Michael´s last [type] ..Get indexed in Google in 24 hours or less
Twitter: Brandon_Connell
January 18, 2011 at 1:41 PM
I can’t begin to tell you man. I go from one thing to the other constantly. I stay wired on Ritalin and Coffee when I want to stay focused.
Brandon@Make Money Blogging´s last [type] ..Guest Post for Adsense Revenue Sharing
Hey Nice information provide about Marketing Plan . Thanks for sharing with us. Good day to you.
Nintendo 3ds´s last [type] ..Nintendo 3DS is region locked
If I had this plan when I started…. well I prob still be where am because of the time lapse and commitments! Though very useful info in the comments here
on a side note is there a way to subscribe to you feed via email? I clicked the button on top of the post but I didnt see an option. I find it easier via email because its available on the go :p
Donace@Market Samurai Promo´s last [type] ..Why a com is better that a gov and edu link
So many things to consider when putting it all together. It’s very early days for me and I’m very looking forward to getting things rolling. Theres no doubt I’ll be making use of this article and this website in general when developing my blog.
These are all solid pieces of advice. I can tell you that by just using Facebook and Twitter alone in the way you described my traffic has improved by about 30%. Write consistently and write something of substance and you will eventually get a steady stream of traffic you can be proud of. If you are a newcomer, although some people are able to get off the ground pretty quickly, give yourself at least a year and if you put most of these tips to use, I can almost guarantee you will be successful like many of us. The only bloggers who fail are the ones who give up too soon before they find out what works for them! Now get to work people, success is within reach.
Sandra Gonzalez@Sears Coupon Codes´s last [type] ..Sears Coupon Codes To Apply and Save
I like your blog.Which free blogging platforms allow the use of java-script? which allow the insertion of java applets.Thanks.
Twitter: hinavya
February 14, 2011 at 5:39 PM
Yeah Brandon, these Social Networking sites play a vital role tp build the rapport n to promote our business. Facebook is really rocking…
Navya´s last [type] ..Ebook Cover Sample – 34
Hey thank you for the great tips I really found them helpful…
Atwine´s last [type] ..How to start a blog and make money with internet tools and on line jobs: Pt.1
THANK YOU, THANK YOU SO MUCH! For writing down this Blog post as i am one of those bloggers too who are Struggling at their Marketing Plan but now i am hoping that after implementing all of the guidelines i will definitely Survive! =( !
Twitter: valadams014
March 30, 2012 at 1:55 AM
I guess all bloggers struggles at the beginning. I don’t know if there is any blogger who made it in to this online business without getting into these social media sites. Perhaps when Facebook and Twitter where not yet around, and blogger (with the power of adsense) is the most powerful CMS or blog.
Anyway, these are cool tips. Thanks for the post.
Val Adams@Charlotte computer repair´s last [type] ..Welcome
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