How to get more traffic to your weblog...
I got an e-mail a couple of days ago from a guy who wanted to know how to increase traffic to his weblog - god only knows why he chose to ask me, but there you go. I'm not entirely sure that my advice was quite what he was looking for, because I didn't give him any revolutionary tips about secret search engine strategies or ways to control and influence the minds of young, hip and trendy scene-setters. In fact I can summarise what I said to him in just a few points:
- Search Engines: You can get traffic off search engines, but is it the kind of traffic that really interests you? The people who seek your site by running a search about "Sex with lubricated badgers" are going to be disappointed with your thoughts on identifying the gender of the black and white animals. And if you're hoping to catch people who are just looking for a good weblog, remember that there are hundreds of thousands of other weblogs which are just as likely to appear in their search results. My opinion? Don't bother.
- Site of the month/day/week etc Again - why bother. Most of the sites that give out awards do so to get traffic, not to give it to other people. And if they're easy to win, they're essentially useless, and will clutter up your site with badges and logos and buttons. If they're not easy to get mentioned on - such as Blogger's "Blogs of note", then your chances of getting a link are almost ridiculously small - and frankly would be enhanced by paying attention to the only really important parts of the weblog process... Which are...
- Good quality design and content It may be dull, but it remains true - if you write good stuff and present it elegantly, then you'll be well read in no time at all. Case in point - Trabaca is a site that I stumbled upon fairly recently. I've got quite entrenched in my weblog reads of late, and don't tend to wander that much. But this site had an immediate visual impact for me - and it stuck in my head because of that. And then I discovered that it was a delight to read. So now it's a regular destination for me. That's the best model for encouraging regular visitors to your site - give them something worth coming to.
And even though I told myself I wouldn't do this - here are a few ways in which you can up the quality of your design and content:
- What's your site about? You don't have to define yourself too closely, but if you can identify a spirit or a set of subjects that matter to you or that you have opinions about then you're one step towards developing a weblog that people will be able to relate to.
- Branding It sounds really corporate, but just think about it for a minute - if you were building a site about hamsters, then you might do something kind of cutesy. If you were building a site about body-building, then you'd probably go for something really macho-looking. If it's about the things you care about then it should have an appropriate look - one that is right for the discussion of the things you care about. Identify colours, images, themes and a name that works for you and is easily memorable. Make the name short!
- Opinions There are a thousand sites on the net which duplicate the popular links of the moment. Since the appearance of Blogdex, this has started to happen even more regularly. But this is not necessarily a problem unless those links are all you have to offer. What's your opinion of the link? What's your opinion on the story? These are the only things that people can't get on any other site but yours. You may as well play to your strengths!
- Story-selection You went to the shop. That's nice. You had a cookie. Great. You picked your arse. Excellent. Why are you writing this down? A hundred thousand things may happen to you in a day, or maybe nothing will have happened at all, but there will always be something worth talking about. And for everything worth talking about, there will be dozens of things that you did during the day that no one gives a damn about! Today I went to the loo, took two painkillers for my toothache and drank pink grapefruit juice. Do you give a damn? No.
- Good quality writing This one's a bit tedious - check your grammar, check your spelling, feel comfortable going back and re-editing posts that don't make immediate sense to your when you re-read them.
I'm not going to pretend that I do all these things all the time, or that I do them very well. Still - that's my two-penneth. Hopefully you'll find something useful in it.
Comments
Please stay on-topic, informative and polite. I reserve the right to remove comments for whatever vague capricious reasons seem reasonable at the time.
Addenda: i) On 'story-selection' it has been pointed out to me that as a weblogger you shouldn't always want to appeal to an audience. I say that this doesn't matter - whether or not you want to write about what you find interesting, or what an audience might find interesting is up to you. But if neither of you find it interesting, then why publish it? ii) A further aside: Remember that this piece is about how to make a weblog get more traffic - not to make it a worthwhile, socially valuable or "good" weblog. How you do that is a completely separate article!
→ Posted by: Tom Coates at January 17, 2002 10:58 PM
See also http://www.nobody-knows-anything.com/websuck.html - Why (most) webjournals suck - which is basically agreeing with the points you make and going into a bit more detail in some places.
→ Posted by: Jo at January 25, 2002 12:16 PM
Thanks for popping in Addenda: i)
I do a personal site for me not for traffic. It's my way as a web designer to keep a wee note of my life and I only started doing it cos I found a diary ( the one and only one i ever did) from 1996 and had a giggle reading back - hopefully in a couple of years I'll be able to do the same with my blog.
→ Posted by: fairycakes at January 25, 2002 12:21 PM
Amen to that fairycakes!
→ Posted by: Jigzaw at January 29, 2002 5:23 PM
Interesting read for sure.... I think my site (without sounded big-headed) is one of those rare sites. I am very proud.
→ Posted by: Jamie Leigh at January 31, 2002 12:44 PM
The importance of e-mail cannot be overstated. If you want to stay fresh in people's minds, e-mail is the way to do it, as your fans will anticipate your next mail, and people who've forgotten you will be gently reminded that you exist. Put a signup form on your page, get people's e-mail addresses, and mail them stuff.
→ Posted by: Dan Walker at February 1, 2002 6:21 PM
I have been struggling with the same question. A few other ideas that may work:
-Textads/pyrads/other variations in weblog communities. They aren't terribly expensive. I believe you can buy 9600 impressions in Blogger for $10 and every 1000 impressions in Metafilter for $2. Daypop has a similar rate. The majority of people who go to these places are webloggers and if you have an interesting caption, some people may actually check it out.
-Join communities of likeminded people. Your signature on the e-mail messages that you post to any forum is a good way to introduce your weblog.
-This helps.
-Posting messages to forums like these. Hoping that someone actually reads them and gets so impressed with your brilliant and insightful remarks and they click immediately on your url!
→ Posted by: Kaushik at February 5, 2002 10:18 AM
In the previous post, I meant to reference:
http://newhome.weblogs.com/pingSiteForm
at 'This helps'.
→ Posted by: Kaushik at February 5, 2002 10:22 AM
Thank you Tom, for sharing with us your thoughts on increasing traffic. I agree with what you said, about the importance of contents, in terms of attracting audience. having focus, or what you said "branding."
Who would not want followers? However, a few can cut to the chase, of bubble vs. meat.
The best to you,
→ Posted by: Daisy Antonio at February 6, 2002 8:26 PM
Thanks for the tips!
→ Posted by: chris at February 11, 2002 5:17 AM
you heard me!
→ Posted by: Ghostbusters at February 20, 2002 1:57 PM
*nods* posting messages and comments on peoples websites helps... being NICE to the people is always a definite plus (no one wants to visit your site if you tell them off on their webpage... just a hunch.) and then there is always the "threaten your friends with bodily harm until they visit your webpage" approach.. :-)
→ Posted by: tray at February 27, 2002 11:50 PM
i went to the store once AND had a cookie :)
I just put stuff up because i can. come by and see me sometime!
→ Posted by: sistahbeth at March 4, 2002 12:09 AM
Don't forget affiliate programs too, like nodist net and other places, small text adds for everyone in the group, can send plenty of traffic your way. And word of mouth, i've been writing my blog for around a year now, and suddenly i'm getting 500 (uniquie IP) hits a day looking through my site, and they actually stay on it and follow my links out. It's all fairly cool :)
TP
→ Posted by: KwanYu at March 4, 2002 6:57 AM
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→ Posted by: Morteza Habibnia at March 4, 2002 2:57 PM
What about posting in this forum?
→ Posted by: bastaard at March 30, 2002 2:43 AM
Sex sells. Virtually any sexy blog is sure to get traffic. Not that I have an first 'hand' experience with this...
→ Posted by: Tristan Tom at April 8, 2002 5:09 PM
My weblog is pretty new and not getting much traffic. But it gives me a place to hang my thoughts. Which might be enough... but it'd be nice to get some feedback on my thoughts. Even criticism would be nice compared to the deafening silence.
http://www.monkeyx.com/
→ Posted by: Seyed Razavi at April 9, 2002 2:46 AM
THIS IS A VERY COOL SITE
→ Posted by: Cohkan's Palace at May 2, 2002 4:24 PM
Hi,
Please can you inform me if a page-blog (a portion of one site) indexed on Google, can have increased its ranking if there is great traffic from different users and no one site with link pointing to them (to the page-blog and to the site where is the page-blog) ?
→ Posted by: Ruy Miranda at May 7, 2002 10:46 PM
this site is awesome
→ Posted by: eric at May 15, 2002 11:41 PM
I have my own personal webpage, as web design is a hobby of mine, and I'm not getting many hits either. So what? It's a hobby!
Anyway, this site rocks
→ Posted by: Tock V at July 8, 2002 5:53 AM
the best
→ Posted by: seby at July 21, 2002 8:24 AM
I can't even make a web page, but i have a web journal ;) how's that?
→ Posted by: Ryan at September 28, 2002 11:15 PM
another way to get people to visit your web site is to make contributions on other people's websites ie writing articles.
→ Posted by: shaz at October 16, 2002 4:30 PM
Thank you for the tipps. :)
→ Posted by: Michelle at March 25, 2003 11:00 AM
Hi
I want know how i make keywords for a page?
suppose I have about us page of my site. how i make a good keywords for this and how i set my phrase. Please tell deeply.
Thanks
ajit chauhan
→ Posted by: Ajit at June 17, 2003 12:16 PM
good stuff, adding keywords to a page is simple, you need to use the meta tag in the "keywords" section add your keywords seperated by ,
Good luck
→ Posted by: gambit at December 30, 2003 11:01 PM
i have dang if you dring pink juice :) JUST KIDDING
→ Posted by: fanteja2000 at March 25, 2004 1:31 AM
well, thanks for the tips! i've been blogging for about 8 months...my site doesn't get much traffic, but i'll try out some of the tips. thanks again!
→ Posted by: Rebecca at July 23, 2004 1:04 AM
Will this work? will people actually comeand visit me if I post here?
→ Posted by: robotii at February 16, 2005 1:53 PM
Indeed a very interesting article, traffic on sites is impossible to predict unless you are running a big site with loads of link exchanges , afilliate programs , and good search engine positioning .
Some time back , not too long ago , people would do as someone said above , contribute on other sites with articles and similar activities , that is something that generally works very well , so all you need is the talent , and right place , and you will have half the battle won .
It is hard to build a site and get traffic to it with no money , if that is your case , you will need loads of good and entertaining content , and you will certainly need to have the right attitude towards your visitors .
The best judge of your site will be time , don't give up immediately if you see no traffic , but don't stick to a site that you know is going to die , that is not the way to go about things . Patience , friends , and good work , will pull most sites along .
Good luck to you all with your projects :-)
---
Grigor Muschenko
→ Posted by: Grigor Muschenko at March 5, 2005 7:51 PM
Agrees with most of the tips. Presently my hits have increased dramatically over the last week. Not sure why though either
→ Posted by: Shawn at October 5, 2005 6:08 AM
Thanks. Good tipps.
→ Posted by: InkVis at October 27, 2005 10:24 AM
Submitting your blog to ping services help. I use Ping-O-Matic to swift ping my updates. Reading successful blogs on topics you love and leaving relevant comments help also.
→ Posted by: A.Lloyd at December 4, 2005 12:37 PM
Good advice. I agree about quality content. I for one know that if the grammar is poor and every second word is spelt wrong I won't bother to stay around
→ Posted by: RM at December 10, 2005 9:39 PM
Write about whatever is of genuine interest to you and similar-minded people will enter your conversation. It doesn't have to be any more complicated than that.
Unless you're selling something.
→ Posted by: Tyler West at January 5, 2006 11:58 PM
Tom, you bring out excellent points. I believe it is crucial to determine what you want from your blog in order to define how to write in it. If you want your blog to be your personal diary like fairycakes had mentioned, then traffic should not be a concern. If you want to turn your blog into a portal to your business or website, then you must focus on traffic. When it comes to blog traffic it is crucial to know the audience that you want to appeal to and then write to them as if you are sitting with them in your living room. That is the best way to appeal to a reader -in my humble opinion.
-Guillermo Puyol
→ Posted by: Start An Online Business at June 19, 2006 6:16 AM
I can't be bothered with anything these days, but such is life. I don't care. So it goes. More or less nothing seems worth thinking about. I've just been hanging out waiting for something to happen, but that's how it is.
→ Posted by: Kaka2210 at July 11, 2006 9:20 AM
WOW, this really works!! you are a genius
→ Posted by: Neel at July 17, 2006 2:23 PM
I think its important for you to find niche in waht ever you are doing .Research on your Industry and try to get your ear to the Buzz. Content is still the king even in the new world of web2.0
Whatever you do to promote your business in the Offline world is true in the Online world too .I am not sure about the email thing. Unless you offer something extraordinary which your competitors are not offering, your subscription list does remain stagnating .
I think interactive content makes a huge difference in terms of viewership
→ Posted by: Sean Carter at September 5, 2006 1:13 PM
Just a quick thanks to your guide! I've followed most of what was said, and it's helping me out so far.
Thanks again, you made some great points.
→ Posted by: Sean at October 8, 2006 6:58 AM
You have to be passionate about what you do and be able to articulate your message well. If there are repetitve topics then you must present the content in a new way. Try to be creative!
Also, try to post every day. If you feel comfortable with other people's opinions on your blog, network to find people whose expertise in an area can be utilized in your own site. The more editors you have, the easier it will be to post every day while providing solid content that does not seem rushed.
→ Posted by: Stephen Oakes at October 11, 2006 8:50 PM
Excellent advice:Smart, insightful, literate(which is a rarity, these days.)I'm a retired direct marketing writer, wondering if I should take the blog plunge because Bush, Iraq, et al are driving me nuts. You've been most helpful. Thanks again.
Sig
→ Posted by: Sig Rosenblum at December 16, 2006 8:08 PM
Just wanted to add my name to the long list here thanking you for these tips. Great sound advice, I have been following them with increasing success; thank you very much!
Mike Nutworth
→ Posted by: Mike Nutworth at February 19, 2007 8:00 PM
visit http://kevin1112.webs.com/ its an awsome site thxs TYPEKEY
→ Posted by: Kevin at February 13, 2008 2:05 PM