The Mortgage and More Blog

Posts Tagged ‘blog traffic’

Over the almost 2 years of blogging, I have been told many things to try when it comes to generating traffic. Each person that tells me something new swears by what they say. The problem with most of them is they just seem to never stick. The main reason for that is that most of these suggestions are based on one thing and they never really come out and tell you. Well, I am actually going to tell you from the beginning. If you want to increase your blog traffic with traffic that will stick around, then you have to write good sound content and do it consistently. This is the biggest thing that I have discovered.

Many people rely on traffic to be sent to them from social media sites like digg, reddit, or stumbleupon. Other bloggers use sites like LinkReferral, Entrecard, or Adgitize. Then there are the programs that promise you thousand to billions of visitors. Some of these programs are Billion Blaster, Amasses, or TrafficSwarm, to just name a few. Out of all of the ones that I have named and tested, Entrecard has really ever been the ONLY one that has given me consistent readers. The issue with the others that I have named is that most of the traffic that is sent to you is artificial and does not stick no matter what you do. Before you get any ideas about what I am saying, I am not telling you to not use any of these programs. I think that they have their place, but after time, do not get caught up in them being your personal traffic generators.

I sent an email out to 10 of my favorite bloggers. All 10 of them responded to me, yet it seemed that only one actually took the time to write an honest answer. Lin over at duck and wheel with a string was that person. The first thing that she told me is that she is blogging to get interaction from her readers. She gauges her success by the amounts of comments that she obtains when writing an article. She also looks at the quality of those post. Frankly, I think that she must be on to something there as she is consistently getting comments daily. With that said, there is one thing that sticks out to me than anything else and it is one of the biggest things that I mention to new bloggers when they start out. I call it reciprocal commenting. If you want people to comment on your blog, you really should think about commenting on theirs. Also, while you are at it, when someone takes the time and effort to comment on your article, at least acknowledge their comments by responding. The last thing someone wants to do is write a comment and be completely ignored. You might as well just delete the damn thing.

I found Lin through Entrecard and I am glad that I did. I stick with her blog not because of Entrecard but because of her post, not because of Entrecard. I truly believe that is what all of her readers stick around for. By engaging her readers, she accomplishes her goals, and that is what blogging is about. As Lin told me in her email, setting goals for yourself also helps you determine what it takes to help you get started. But, remember this if you remember nothing else; these programs are meant to help build your traffic in the beginning, not to sustain it.