We're back again to talk to you about more ways to get traffic to your blog, which will in turn send more traffic to your list building or squeeze page. Last time, we talked about setting up and adding content to your blog. This time, let's discuss other ways of getting traffic.
Natural search or what they term "organic" search traffic is great, but it takes a while to build up. But there are other search engines you may not be aware of. They're specifically geared toward searching for blogs. One of the oldest is Technorati at http://technorati.com. If you have a blog and haven't "claimed" it at Technorati, it's probably a good thing to do. Your site will be indexed and ranked, and you could pick up an audience, too. The more people who like your blog the higher it will rise in the rankings.
There are other less "interactive" blog searches, too, like Blogsearch.Google.com or IceRocket, but there are many more. List your blog with as many as possible.
But the interactive sites are very popular right now. I'm sure you've heard of MySpace and YouTube, or you've been hiding in a closet somewhere. These sites bring traffic, but there are hundreds of sites that will have the same effect, if you get involved in what's called "Web 2.0."
StumbleUpon: When you write a post, you can "StumbleUpon" it. Give each of your pages a StumbleUpon vote and watch your traffic soar. To get to that page, rather than just the first page of your blog, you'll need to click on the post's title (if you're using WordPress) or click on a link that says "permalink." That will take you to a page with the precise post number included. StumbleUpon those each time you post.
SpicyPage: This is somewhat like MySpace in that you'll have people asking to be your "friend," or you can find friends of your own. SpicyPage is different than Digg or StumbleUpon in that you can include not just your blog postings in your profile, but your web sites as well. Make a lot of friends, get lots of votes for your site, and your traffic will climb.
Digg: Digg was created mainly to mark news stories for its members--news stories of interest. Well, when you post to your blog, that's news right? Unless you've posted nothing but a picture or silly nonsense or random musings, Digg will accept your vote for other people to see what you've voted on. Be sure that your post is an article, though, or your page might be "buried." You don't want that.
Most of these sites work the same way or similarly to the sites above. Others include Furl, Reddit, and RawSugar, but there are hundreds. Sign up for as many as you can, and each day enter your posts into as many sites as you can. The more you enter, the more your traffic you'll get to your blog.
One more way to get traffic to your blog would be:
Wikipedia: This online, user-generated encyclopedia is an incredible source of incoming traffic, if you can meet the editors' requirements. At the bottom of every post is a section called "Other sources," and this is where you'd enter the link to your blog. Just be sure that you're providing quality information in that category and that your site isn't commercial.
If you have a non-commercial blog, as with my own at ADHDWebsites.com, where I do nothing but talk about ways to control ADD and ADHD, then you might consider adding your link to Wikipedia. Just be sure to follow the guidelines or your link will be edited out, almost before it takes hold.
All of these sources will bring tons of traffic to your site. They take some time to set up, but many of them have toolbars or buttons you can put right on your browser to make submitting easy for you. The whole thing is to be consistent. Add good information to your blog, and then be sure to favor your posts every time you make them in as many places as you can, and you'll be amazed at the traffic you get. For even more places to submit, go to http://www.go2web20.net/ .
Next time, let's discuss another way to get traffic to your list building pages... writing articles.
