Why isn’t anyone reading my diary blog?

April 22, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Because no one wants to read that.

No seriously.  That’s why.

No one cares that you got stuck in traffic, the dog made a poop in the living room, or that your kid made a funny face today.  There’s nothing more boring than that kind of site.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t write it.  If it makes you happy, go for it.  Some people just like to keep a diary, and if others want to read it, fine!  However, you shouldn’t expect people to come flying to your site in droves.

If you DO want to have a high traffic site with this format, it better be damn good.  The writing and stories better be phenomenal.  You had better have me falling off my chair with laughter each and every time.  Then, maybe you have a shot.

Otherwise, just be happy with what little traffic you have.

Filed Under: Don't Do It, Strategy Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Boost Your Site Traffic in 30 Days

March 30, 2008 By Leave a Comment

I stumbled upon a an old post on ProBlogger about increasing your traffic in just 30 days. At first, I didn’t notice the date it was published, but I really believed in what it was saying. Then I noticed the date, and it made me laugh because the tips still hold true today.

Tip 3 was worth highlighting:

Finally, I made effective use of trackback links to popular sites. If I commented on a post on another site I would make sure that I set up the appropriate trackback for it. The results from this are varied depending on the site and post that you are linking to but since I liked to comment and interact with the wider blogosphere anyway, it was free traffic!

Even though this is from 2005, it is still true today. If you want to gain respect in the blogosphere, you have to earn it. Just writing your posts and sitting around waiting for the readers to flock in doesn’t work. You need to proactively get out there and make your name known.

However, I caution you against belatedly plugging yourself where ever you go. Don’t just comment on someone else’s post because you are looking to get clicks back to your site. And don’t make your comments into a big advertisement for yourself.

Instead, actually contribute something worthwhile to the conversation. That will gain you more blogging street cred

Filed Under: Site Traffic Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

How to Get More Visits without Spending Money

June 17, 2007 By 1 Comment

One of the questions I am most often asked is:

“How can I get more people to look at my site without spending money?”

The answer is pretty simple, but it usually isn’t what people want to hear. Folks, you have to put in effort…daily. That’s it. Really. It sounds simple enough, but for whatever reason, people don’t want to do it.

One of the keys to increasing site traffic is to update your site every day. Yes, EVERY DAY. At minimum, Monday – Friday. I don’t care if you are a shoe store or a stock broker. If you have a website critical to your business, you should be updating it every day.

What’s the pay off? More visitors, and many more return visitors. If you are lucky enough to have someone visit your site, the hope is that they like what they see. But what if they come back again next week? They are going to expect to see something new! If they come back, and it is the same thing they saw last time, they are never going to come back again. Period.

Eventually, the goal is to have your visitors checking back on a nearly daily basis, therefore, you need to have something new there.

Ok, how do you make your site new and fresh every day? The easiest thing to do is start a blog on your site. That word (blog) scares people who aren’t Internet savvy peeps. It’s ok, calm down. A blog for your purposes is just a means to an end. It’s an easy format to constantly keep your site up to date.

For example, let’s say you own a modestly popular steakhouse. Your neighborhood locals come regularly, but you would like to expand your dining reach to the surrounding area. Heck, why not…money is good! But how on earth can you keep a restaurant website updated daily? [Read more...]

Filed Under: Business Tagged With: , , , , , ,