‘Just put a site on the net and wait for people to rush in.’ It’s a
nice marketing trick some site building software or services vendors
sell or hint to people. The problem is – this hardly transforms into a
real life scenario.
There is a never ending supply of Internet entrepreneurs who keep thinking all they have to do is get a nice site with some content together, and – VOILA! They are flooded with readers and customers.
Guess what? They’re in for a nasty surprise.
In the September 2010 NetCraft web sites survey report suggested that there are at least 227,225,642 sites on the net. Think about that number – a little overwhelming, isn’t it? The Internet is not waiting with bated breath for your site. However, that’s no reason to give up, just be prepared for a long battle.
Here are two basic rules of having a successful blog:
Rule #1: traffic is everything.
Rule #2: traffic is not guaranteed.
You have to work hard to get your traffic, and the work begins even before you have the site up and running. So, how do you get it?
- Do your keywords research diligently! You absolutely have to know what people are looking for in your specific niche. What keywords are the most popular? What keywords are used by pay-per-click advertisers and so bring buyers and not just browsers?
- Follow the principles of SEO – Search Engine Optimization, and use an SEO friendly shopping cart or content management system. People look for information and products to buy using search engines – you use Google to find stuff, right? So if you’re nowhere to be seen on the search engines, you’ll never get traffic. Make sure your site is optimized for your target keywords, and then get links to your site to help build your search engine ranking.
- Content, content, content – Both on-site and off. You need good enticing titles together with helpful and involving posts on your blog. Put content on other sites to get your name out there. Google is designed to reward the best content.
- Social networking sites are great for short bursts of traffic. For long-term traffic, techniques like article marketing, commenting on popular blogs in your niche and participating in relevant forums are some ways of putting links to your main site out there. The links which you’ll have voting for your site in the eyes of search engines will improve your ranking and search results positioning.
- Focus on the soft-sell, delivering your visitors useful and interesting content, rather than marketing and advertising. Run your blog with viewpoint of helping people to make their lives better and efforts more productive.
- Always encourage your visitors to join your email list. Email them any time there’s a new interesting post or relevant news around there. Make sure you send them to read the rest of the content on your blog, increasing the traffic and generating more action right on it.
- Use Google Analytics to know exactly what worked and where the traffic came from so you can improve on that and dump the dead methods. This free service would save your time and help you build a never stopping river of visitors.
Remember that getting traffic is not hard, it’s just hard work. You need to be persistent, have realistic expectations, and done well, your traffic will increase every month.
There is a never ending supply of Internet entrepreneurs who keep thinking all they have to do is get a nice site with some content together, and – VOILA! They are flooded with readers and customers.
Guess what? They’re in for a nasty surprise.
In the September 2010 NetCraft web sites survey report suggested that there are at least 227,225,642 sites on the net. Think about that number – a little overwhelming, isn’t it? The Internet is not waiting with bated breath for your site. However, that’s no reason to give up, just be prepared for a long battle.
Here are two basic rules of having a successful blog:
Rule #1: traffic is everything.
Rule #2: traffic is not guaranteed.
You have to work hard to get your traffic, and the work begins even before you have the site up and running. So, how do you get it?
- Do your keywords research diligently! You absolutely have to know what people are looking for in your specific niche. What keywords are the most popular? What keywords are used by pay-per-click advertisers and so bring buyers and not just browsers?
- Follow the principles of SEO – Search Engine Optimization, and use an SEO friendly shopping cart or content management system. People look for information and products to buy using search engines – you use Google to find stuff, right? So if you’re nowhere to be seen on the search engines, you’ll never get traffic. Make sure your site is optimized for your target keywords, and then get links to your site to help build your search engine ranking.
- Content, content, content – Both on-site and off. You need good enticing titles together with helpful and involving posts on your blog. Put content on other sites to get your name out there. Google is designed to reward the best content.
- Social networking sites are great for short bursts of traffic. For long-term traffic, techniques like article marketing, commenting on popular blogs in your niche and participating in relevant forums are some ways of putting links to your main site out there. The links which you’ll have voting for your site in the eyes of search engines will improve your ranking and search results positioning.
- Focus on the soft-sell, delivering your visitors useful and interesting content, rather than marketing and advertising. Run your blog with viewpoint of helping people to make their lives better and efforts more productive.
- Always encourage your visitors to join your email list. Email them any time there’s a new interesting post or relevant news around there. Make sure you send them to read the rest of the content on your blog, increasing the traffic and generating more action right on it.
- Use Google Analytics to know exactly what worked and where the traffic came from so you can improve on that and dump the dead methods. This free service would save your time and help you build a never stopping river of visitors.
Remember that getting traffic is not hard, it’s just hard work. You need to be persistent, have realistic expectations, and done well, your traffic will increase every month.
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