How do I get more traffic?
Probably the most asked question on the blogoshere.
If you are a beginner blogger, you’ve probably written a few posts
and then you think….umm…where’s the traffic?
Traffic doesn’t just magically appear, you have to …
]]>How do I get more traffic?
Probably the most asked question on the blogoshere.
If you are a beginner blogger, you’ve probably written a few posts
and then you think….umm…where’s the traffic?
Traffic doesn’t just magically appear, you have to actively find them.
We all know the benefits more traffic can bring – more sales, more revenue, higher opt-rate, good ranking and so on…
Imagine being in a crowded place and you are attempting to push a product,
your method of approach isn’t working and no one is paying you any attention.
At that moment, wouldn’t it be nice if someone handed you a megaphone?
Using one would get your voice out there – loud and clear.
It would certainly grab people’s attention and eyeballs.
Let’s look at 4 Megaphone equivalents on your blog.
You’ve probably heard this a million times before, and it’s so true – Your stuff has to be good and useful.
People value their time, and would only invest in what brings them good returns.
Using our megaphone analogy, if the message being conveyed is anything but useful, then person is simply ignored.
In order to have useful content, you need to identify the group of people you’re trying to serve and where to find them.
Find out which market they are in and stick with them. By doing so, you have the opportunity to know them better and understand their needs.
Depending on what this is, you can decide to offer a solution product/ service to them – achieve this and you’ll become their hero.
This is essentially putting yourself on their radar.
If your customers or readers are on Twitter, Myspace, Facebook, Youtube – be there as well.
Let them see you as a new discovery – one that they will bookmark and keep coming back to for reference.
Be unique in your delivery. Be unafraid to go against the grain, and more importantly be yourself.
Chances are, thousands of other people are doing what you do, but only you can deliver it in your own unique way.
Have these 4 elements in place and you’ll truly have a megaphone in your hands to draw attention.
Once again, If you are new to blogging or are in the process of starting a blog there are some essentials WordPress tools and services you need to have in place,
(1) Get the All in One SEO plugin. This would handle all your search engines optimisations.
(2) You will also need Google XML Sitemaps. A plugin that alerts search engines of changes to your blog by generating XML sitemaps
(3) Sign up to Google Webmaster Tool. A free service by Google that allows you to monitor and improve your site’s visibility in Google search results.
Let’s face …
]]>Let’s face it, the WordPress back-end is an interesting place to be.
There is so much to fiddle with, Comments to moderate, Stats to check, Plugins to update, Source code to tweak and so on. But these things eat into your time.
Don’t get me wrong these tasks are essential, but wouldn’t it be better if most of it were automated? That is why I love Askimet spam blocker – one less admin task to do and more time to provide value to my readers.
Saving valuable time as led me to list 5 of my favorite AutoPilot tools.
WordPress Database Backup
This backup plugin automatically backs up data on a regular basis.
Available options
Posts
Yes, the actual WordPress post functionality.
Generally, I tend to write a number of posts in one go, so I have them sitting in a queue waiting to be published at my specified time.
Available options
Update services
Update services is a feature within WordPress that automatically notifies submission directories of my new blog post. – It saves me a lot of time.
To locate, go to Settings – Writing – Updates Services
Aweber
Aweber automatically handles all my email distributions, campaigns and subscriptions on YourBlogTools.com
XML Sitemaps
This cool plugin automatically notifies Google wherever there’s a new post on YourBlogTools.com Get it here
Which auto-pilot tools are you using?
Do you have any questions about these tools?
]]>Let’s check out some tools that would brag about your blog as well as interact with others.
To continue with our series on “Essentials tools for a new blog“, Engaging your blog with community is a good thing.
Your blog is always going to be in a world of its own without communication channels or means of reaching out.
There are several ways to create these channels,
however, in this post I shall focus on four social media ones. Some of which have been applied to this very blog.
Let’s face it, as of the time of me writing this post Twitter is the biggest thing out there. A social networking service that enables you to send and read messages – also known as tweets.
If don’t already have an account – get involved here
And of course there are several third party Twitter applications that would give you a nice tweeting experience.
You can also decide to incorporate your Twitter conversation on your blog in a form of a widget. On this blog I am using Twitter for WordPress
Benefits:
With Twitter Feed, you can auto-schedule your blog post to distribute to Twitter.
Meaning your followers on Twitter would instantly know when you have a new post.
Benefits:
The TweetMeme retweet button is designed to encourage visitors to tweet your blog post.
This would actually be my first time using this widget.
I am keen to see the effectiveness of it.
Benefits:
It essentially does what it says.
The Share This or Share/Save button encourages visitors to add your posts to social bookmarking sites.
There are tonnes of share this application around. The Share button used here is by Add to Any.
Which tools do you use?
]]>Listed below are some of the plugins I first installed
Have you recently started a blog? Can you remember the plugins you first installed?
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