Five Ways to Drive Traffic to your Blog

Five Ways to Drive Traffic to your Blog

Friday, November 16, 2007

When you blog for money you need to create your own content (and lots of it!), implement advertisement programs like Google AdSense and WidgetBucks, and last but not least – you need traffic.



In our offline lives we dread it, but online we embrace it. I want to give you 5 ways to start driving traffic to your blog today. With a little time and patience, you will slowly start to increase your viewer ship.

(In no particular order)

5.) Post comments on other blogs.

Blogs are everywhere – there’s certainly not a shortage of them. You should have no problem finding other bloggers in your niche that are popular and interesting. Bookmark those that you like, follow their topics daily, and if you find something that sparks your interest – comment.

Become a participating voice in the community. The more interesting your comments are, the more likely your peers will follow you to your blog. And who knows – you might stand out among the crowd and be recognized by the author, which can spin off into better opportunities.

4.) Register with blog networks like: Technorati, BlogCatalog, and MyBlogLog

It’s important that you get your blog out there for others to see. You can start the process by submitting to search engines, but that’s just the beginning. Technorati, BlogCatalog, and MyBlogLog are just a few of the high profile blog networks on the web. Register with them, network with other people in your releated area, and get your word out.

When you register with these services remember a couple of things:

1.) Create a detailed profile. Let people know a little bit about you and draw them in. Without that personal interaction people may flee quickly.

2.) Tag your blog properly. Tags are very important – they’re usually one or two word descriptions of your blog. So for example my blog would fall under categories like: Money, Business, and Finance. Dig around the specific service and look for popular tags and try to use those for your blog. It allows people who are interested in these topics to easily find your site.


3.) Register with several forums.

Do a Google search for forums that are related to your niche and register. Try to be an active voice in the community. People will flock to you if you’re interesting. Not only that but it allows you to find out what others are doing and what makes them appealing.

When you register with a forum, make sure to fill out the profile, similar to the blogging services. And equally as important – make a signature that is a direct link to your blog. Your signature is shown in every post that you make – helping you gain visibility. This is all the more reason to create thought provoking discussions.


2.) Social Bookmarking and Article Submission.

Social networking, bookmarking, and article submissions are all the rage today – don’t let it pass you by. Some of the major networks include delicious, Furl, and of course, Digg. These sites will allow you to tag, bookmark, and submit articles that you think are interesting. What’s more interesting than your own work? People should know about it so go spread the word.


1.) StumbleUpon

StumbleUpon really falls into tip #2, but I decided to break it away from the pack because it provides quicker results. Like the rest of the social networking sites, you create a profile and network with others. But what makes StumbleUpon so darn unique, is that you can “stumble” thousands of sites that you’re interested in by the click of a button. So what does that mean for you? Well, you can stumble your own site. By doing this you get into the Stumble rotation, and any people that you network with can stumble across it as well.

In my experience StumbleUpon can bring great surges of traffic for short periods of time. Due to the nature of the service, you’re likely to get overlooked more than not; however, those that do stop – tend to stay. And if they like the site, they can rate it and review it for all the friends in their network to see. Are you getting the picture here? Your viewer ship has the potential to explode!

As with most things in life, there’s no silver bullet for getting traffic. It takes a lot of research, careful planning, networking, patience, and time. If you have what it takes and start using my recommendations, you will definitely start to see an increase. Hopefully that increase in traffic will help you blog for money.

Earn from home Links

Get paid $20 for your first blog

$5 to $15 for every blog selected.

Get free membership

Blogging for fun turns to profit - True story

I started my blog because I enjoy what I write about. I still struggle to come up with quality content that feeds the readers information. I am of the opinion that you must write good posts, share information, help others in their need, to grow your readership.

Don't get me wrong, if I can earn an income from it then I would enjoy that also. I haven't reached that plateau yet and do not know if I ever will but I will continue blogging.

How to Earn Money from Blogging - Phase 2

Starting a website can provide a secondary income:-

It's an appealing fantasy: Start a blog. Watch it take off. Then, quit office life, sit at home, and live off the advertising revenue.

But just like Olympic medals, money-making blogs also elude most people who seek them, despite success stories such as Dooce.com and Problogger.net. The vast majority of blogs, written primarily for family and friends, get under 50 page views a day and earn pennies per month, if anything. It is possible, however, to be one of the chosen few who defy the odds and snag thousands of dollars each month, or at least enough to fund a car payment. Here's how to do it:

Related News

• How Much Do Bloggers Make?
• Enjoying the 'Good Life' on a Budget
• Bloggers on Surviving the Squeeze
• Food Blogs Help Save Money

1) Pick a topic that you love. Of course, it's best if you love something other people also love, such as motherhood, politics, or celebrities. "All blogs have the potential to create revenue, but the more popular ones are tech and product-focused, versus ones that are just a 'day in the life of,'" says Farnoosh Torabi, You're So Money author and senior correspondent for TheStreet.com.

Steve Pavlina, who blogs at his eponymous website, cautions against being overly narrow in focus. "Instead of picking a niche like diet tips, where there's only so much you can write, instead pick a general way of looking at life or an area of interest that you're passionate about," he says. He writes about personal growth, which encompasses relationships, finances, career development, and spirituality.

2) Build up traffic. Strategies on gaining readers could fill an entire book, but the basics involve reaching out to other bloggers, writing quality content, and updating that content daily. Advertisers usually pay a rate based on every 1,000 page views, explains Torabi. Joining a blog network, creating a great title, and gaining a strong following are all ways to build those views, she says.

Pavlina experienced his first spike in traffic in May 2005 when he wrote an article on how to become an early riser. He credits his success to continuing to publish unique articles that help people change their lives for the better. He says he now gets around 2 million visitors a month and his monthly revenue is in the five figures.

3) Wait to monetize. Or start immediately. When to start placing ads on your site is a subject of debate among bloggers. Lynnae McCoy, blogger at Being Frugal, recommends placing ads from the start so readers get used to the look and don't complain when you add them later. But Pavlina suggests waiting until you have 100,000 page views a month (no easy feat), because before that, any monetization will just make "coffee money."

4) Temper your expectations. Blogging is not exactly a get-rich scheme, as many bloggers point out. According to a survey by Darren Rowse of Problogger, who earns over six figures a year off his blog, most bloggers earn less than a dollar per day. "It's like any 'pro' thing," he says, adding that as with sports, most people do it for fun. A smaller subset makes a small amount of money from winning competitions, then an even smaller group makes a full-time living from it. And a very small group makes a lot of money, like Tiger Woods.

His survey also found that about half of the 3,000 respondents earned over $100 from their blogging, with most of those earnings in the $100 to $1,000 per month range.

Many of the bloggers who do earn money are working full-time hours, or longer. Silicon Valley Blogger at Digerati Life works at least 40 hours a week and earns between $3,000 and $5,000 a month, which means she earns around $25 an hour—a rate she hopes to improve in the future.

5) Start strong. Many successful bloggers say the first six months are key, not because they made much money as they were starting out, but because it was essential for them to market and optimize their new blogs in order to stand out in a crowded field. "The first six months are the hardest because you have to work hard to get your blog noticed," says McCoy.

6) Don't rely purely on Google AdSense. While Google ads are usually new bloggers' first foray into advertising because they are so easy to use, they often provide only a fraction of successful bloggers' income. More lucrative deals can come from advertisers who pay directly to have a banner ad or link placed on the blog. McCoy and others say advertisers started contacting them as soon as their blogs started coming up as one of the top links in popular Web searches.

7) Multistream your income. Pavlina says his blog landed him a lucrative book deal as well as talking gigs. Silicon Valley Blogger sells T-shirts and other products. Sites such as cafepress.com make it easy for bloggers to personalize products with their own logo and then earn revenue off the sales.

8) Learn from others. Several successful bloggers have built up a following simply by blogging about how to make money from blogging, such as Rowse, who calls himself a Blog Evangelist, and John Chow, who offers a free E-book on earning money and gives reports on how much he earns each month. (In June, he says he made over $40,000.)

But don't let such wild success intimidate you. The Lazy Man & Money blogger says the first priority should be on having fun. He considers writing about money an enjoyable hobby—one that he now spends about 14 hours a day doing. For his efforts, he earns around $30,000 a year.

More PTC sites

Here is another list of Paid-to-Click (PTC) sites for you to try out. I will not go into the details of minimum pay-out amount or rate per click for each site, mainly because most of them usually have a minimum payout ranging from US$5.00 to US$10.00, and a US$ 0.01 rate per click. So here they are. Enjoy!

• AdverCash
• Coin Click
• Click Top Sites
• Dollar Clix
• Make Free Money Online
• Paid To Click
• WorldBux

And, for those who missed the earlier posts (and do not want to go back and read), here are the other PTC sites that I’ve tried:

• Bux.to
• TopBux
• WordLinx
• DreamClix

Bloggers? Webmasters? Earn from your blog or website

Are you a budding blogger? Or are you a newbie webmaster or website owner? Then you have to know one thing: your blog or website is a potential income earner!

Take advantage of any traffic that is coming your way from your readers or visitors, and turn them to cash. Sure you’ve heard of GoogleAds. You should try it too. But, with time you find out that it’s a little difficult to earn with it (minimum payout is at US$100). So, how do you earn with your blog or website?

Are you a budding blogger? Or are you a newbie webmaster or website owner? Then you have to know one thing: your blog or website is a potential income earner!

Take advantage of any traffic that is coming your way from your readers or visitors, and turn them to cash. Sure you’ve heard of GoogleAds. You should try it too. But, with time you find out that it’s a little difficult to earn with it (minimum payout is at US$100). So, how do you earn with your blog or website?

Sell Ad Space.

Notice how you have unused areas within your site — the sidebar, below the banner, or even above your footer. You can sell them as advertising space either directly to those who are interested, or indirectly using a third party seller, such as AdBrite and TextLink Ads.

When you sell directly, you could put eye-catching text telling your visitors that the space is available for them to put their ads on. This is quite difficult when you consider how much traffic you’re getting; and it could get quite tedious when you have to track each and every advertiser.

This is where third-party ad-space “sellers” come in. You just sign up, tell them which pages and areas of your site you’re willing to put ads on, and they sell your space for you. You can choose which ads to approve or reject. Plus, you don’t have to go into the nitty-gritty of dealing with your advertisers directly.

Become an affiliate.

Let’s say that your blog or website is all about Web Design. Blog readers and visitors would probably go to your site to read about your tutorials on designing websites, or to find out about your Web Design services. Then, you could sign up to be an affiliate of something about Web Design that complements your tutorials or services. Something along the lines of free website templates, web hosting, or domain registration services.

Sign up to become an affiliate of a service or company that is related to your website, put up your affiliate link, and earn commissions on sales or referrals to their products or services.

With these two options, you can turn your blogs or websites into automatic income earners with no effort from you, other than signing up and putting up a few links.

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Notice how you have unused areas within your site — the sidebar, below the banner, or even above your footer. You can sell them as advertising space either directly to those who are interested, or indirectly using a third party seller, such as AdBrite and TextLink Ads.

When you sell directly, you could put eye-catching text telling your visitors that the space is available for them to put their ads on. This is quite difficult when you consider how much traffic you’re getting; and it could get quite tedious when you have to track each and every advertiser.

This is where third-party ad-space “sellers” come in. You just sign up, tell them which pages and areas of your site you’re willing to put ads on, and they sell your space for you. You can choose which ads to approve or reject. Plus, you don’t have to go into the nitty-gritty of dealing with your advertisers directly.

Become an affiliate.

Let’s say that your blog or website is all about Web Design. Blog readers and visitors would probably go to your site to read about your tutorials on designing websites, or to find out about your Web Design services. Then, you could sign up to be an affiliate of something about Web Design that complements your tutorials or services. Something along the lines of free website templates, web hosting, or domain registration services.

Sign up to become an affiliate of a service or company that is related to your website, put up your affiliate link, and earn commissions on sales or referrals to their products or services.

With these two options, you can turn your blogs or websites into automatic income earners with no effort from you, other than signing up and putting up a few links.

DreamClix is back! Or not

I checked in on DreamClix just now. After a few days of hiatus, and as they promised, their site is back online today! So, I logged in to try and click on some ads. How many ads did I see? “At the moment there are no clickable ads available. Please, check later.”

To quote their news update:

DreamClix is back online again and tomorrow we will send “Paid Links” again. Note we were on holiday and we didn’t receive any orders from our advertisers. Probably first week will be difficult for us.

So DreamClix is back. But not quite yet. Disappointed? Don’t be. It probably won’t be long before they’re up and running. In the meantime, try out CashBux along with the other PTC sites I’ve previously listed.

Have fun clicking (and earning)!