Driving Traffic to Your Blog: Part One

Driving Traffic to Your Blog: Part One

Visitors are the lifeblood of a blog, the traffic is the visitors who visit your

blog each and every day, sometimes many times throughout the day. With literally

millions of blogs online, the greatest challenge in blogging is, generating

traffic: getting those first time blog visitors to find your unique and valuable

content in the first place. There are many ways to easily and quickly drive a lot

of traffic to your blog, but all traffic is not the same – some traffic is worth a

lot and some isn't worth anything at all. An effective traffic-producing campaign

will ensure the first visitors see your blog and spend some time there. But

remember, it’s the actual content of your blog that will keep them coming back day

after day. Let’s check out some of the more popular ways you can produce first time

traffic:

Using Traffic Exchanges

Wouldn't it be nice to have hundreds, or even thousands of visitors to your blog?

And what if each of them were guaranteed to spend 20 or 30 seconds looking over

your main article? What if they would even review your blog? Even rate your blog?

What if they voted for your blog in a competition with the blogs of others? You

know this sounds great, doesn't it?.

This is the beauty and power of blog traffic exchanges . Sites that guarantee people

will visit your blog and spend a guaranteed amount of time at your blog. But

there’s a trade-off: for each person that visits your blog, you have to visit

someone elses blog in the same way.

This is the way it works. You register your blog with a blog traffic exchange, you

make an account specific to your blog. You get credits added to your account by

viewing the blogs of others, which are viewed inside a frame with a clock timer

that measures how long you must stay at that blogsite. After a predetermined amount

of time at the site, you must enter a code into the frame (this makes sure that

people are actually at their computers) and move to the next blogsite. For each

blog you view, you get credit which is traded by you so that others will view your

blog. The more blogs you view, the more visitors you will receive in return.

Here are some of the more popular traffic exchanges:

BlogXchange, Blog Soldiers, Blog Clicker, Blog-a-Zoo, BlogExplosion,

Using Blog Directories

Blogs are gaining more and more popularity every single day, it’s clearly impossible

for anyone to know all the blogs there are and where to find them all. That’s why

blog directories are so useful and becoming so popular: they organize and categorize

the thousands of blogs in their database so readers can find your blog more easily.

Blog directories are usually free to the blogger, though they will sometimes

require you to add a small banner to your site.

It is really easy to get listed in a blog directory, simply visit them and submit

your blog url, accurately describing what your blog is about(your accurate

description helps to insure that your traffic is highly targeted). See what their

requirements for banners are and be sure to use the link they give you – this makes

sure you get credit if another blogger joins from your page. Most blog directories

will require you to host their images on your own server space, so be sure to

follow their directions. Most catalogs will de-list you if they find you stealing

their bandwith.

Here are a few of the more popular blog directories:

LS Blogs GetBlogs Blog Catalog Blogarama Globe of Blogs Blogwise

Using Blog Rings

The idea behind the blog ring is a simple one: blogs with similar subjects join in a

group, each placing a link on their page to the next blog in the group. Visitors

interested in the subject those blogs feature, be it gorillas or Green garden

plants, are encouraged to click on the link that leads to the next blog in the

ring. It’s usually not a good idea to send your visitors away, but in this case

other blogs in the same group are sending their traffic to you.

There are specialized blog rings for automobile blogs, mystery writers, even those

who blog about blogging. With a little searching, you can find a blog ring that

fits your content perfectly.

Whats up with Link Exchanges

A number of websites, known as “link exchanges,” allow your link to be listed on

the sites of other bloggers, as long as you carry on your blog a small ad that

lists the blogs of others who are members of the same program. A link exchange

works the same way as a blog ring, tying all the featured blogs into a big circle,

the difference being that the blogs you link to may not be as closely grouped as

they are for most blog rings. When you sign up for the link exchange, you’ll

receive credits every time you display the links of others, and you use your credits

as your blog is displayed on the blogs of others.

Here are a few link exchange programs:

Gotop LinksPal Link2Blogs Gotlinks

Of Course there are many, many ways to promote your blog for profit or otherwise.

Use your favorite search engine to locate more sources. And stay alert for part 2

in this 4 part series.

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