PureBlogging

If the growth of your blog has stagnated you’ll need to focus on bringing in new visitors to the site. Developing a base of loyal, consistent readers is of course important, but attracting new readers is a requirement if you want to keep growing.

Here are some tips for attracting first-time visitors:

1. Comment on other blogs.

One of the most common methods of attracting new readers is to leave comments on other blogs. Leaving an intelligent, relevant comment on a post that gets decent traffic can help to give you some quality exposure. However, commenting on smaller blogs can be just as beneficial. When you comment and leave your URL at a blog that doesn’t receive a lot of comments the chances are very high that that blogger will visit your blog. If you comment on other blogs in your niche you can easily get some targeted traffic to your blog. The numbers of visitors you draw may not be huge, but it’s a great method for newer bloggers to start to get noticed. If you always comment on the same 3 or 4 blogs, expand a little bit and start commenting at some other blogs for the first time.

2. Social media.

Every day thousands of social media users visit websites and blogs they have never seen before. If one of your blog posts becomes popular with social media you’ll quickly reach a large audience of first-time readers. Yes, it’s difficult to convert a visitor from a social media site into a subscriber or regular reader, but it can be done. And if you’re looking to reach new visitors there is no faster, cheaper way. If you’re not currently a social media user, the easiest way to get started and attract some traffic is to sign up for StumbleUpon and start networking and making friends. With just a few thumbs up your pages could get hundreds or even thousands of visitors.

For more information, see Join Social Networking Sites to Promote Your Blog.

3. Participate in blog carnivals.

A blog carnival is a collection of links on a specific topic hosted on one blog. Other bloggers can submit a link to one of their posts to be included in the carnival. This is an easy way to get some inbound links and bring some new visitors to your site. While carnivals do not usually draw a lot of traffic, in just a few minutes you can submit your links to 5 or 10 carnivals. That could give you a handful of links each week that bring new visitors to your site and help your search engine rankings. Visit BlogCarnival.com to see a listing of upcoming carnivals and start participating.

4. Write guest posts for other blogs.

When I first started promoting my blog one of the most effective strategies I used was writing guest posts (and PureBlogging was one of the first blogs that I wrote for). By getting your articles published on other blogs you can get your writing in front of large audiences, start building name recognition, work on developing your network with fellow bloggers, and build links to your blog.

Many bloggers put off writing guest posts because it requires some extra work, and others think that it will be too hard to find blogs that are willing to publish their articles. Yes, it does take some extra work, but how else can you spend an hour to reach hundreds or thousands of targeted blog readers for free? And you may be surprised at how many blogs are willing to accept guest submissions. I think I’ve written for about 20 other blogs and I can only remember contacting one blogger that did not wind up publishing one of my posts. There are more than enough bloggers who are willing to take your quality articles.

I’m not the only PureBlogging author that has benefited from writing for other blogs, I know Michael Martine has as well. If you are interested in learning more about the subject, I’ve written a guide to promoting your blog through guest posts. For a list of some places to market your articles, see 9 Ways to Reach New Audiences With Your Articles.

5. Create linkbait.

Most experienced bloggers have realized at some point that inbound links from other websites and blogs are necessary to really grow. As a result, many have created some type of content intended specifically to draw new links. In most cases, linkbait is combined with social media marketing to get attention from potential linkers. With one great idea you can quickly get hundreds of inbound links.

For more information, see Andy Hagans’ Ultimate Guide to Linkbaiting and SMM.

6. Run a contest.

Many blogs have used contests and giveaways to gain some attention, links, and new readers. If you’re willing to spend some money on a prize and willing to put in some time for promotion, a contest can be very effective. Contests, however, are rarely the best method for a blogger to use, as many visitors will be more attracted by the potential prize than by the opportunity to find and read new content. My opinion is that a contest can be successful at attracting new visitors when the contest is just one of the methods used by the blogger, not the only method.

7. Participate in contests.

You don’t have to be the one running the contest to benefit. A few months ago I participated in two contests that included links to blog posts written by the participants. Everyone then read each other’s articles and I gained a number of new readers as a result. In this case you don’t even need to be the winner to get some valuable benefits.

8. Participate in forums.

There are a number of good forums for bloggers, including Authority Blogger and Bloggeries. This is a great way to meet other bloggers and start building a network. Many of the bloggers you meet there will visit your blog, and it’s always good to have other bloggers as visitors and readers. Most forums also provide a thread for you to introduce yourself and get some feedback on your blog from members.

For more information, see Using Forums to Grow Your Blog.

9. Order a paid review.

If you’re willing to spend some money, ordering a paid review is another option. Services like PayPerPost match bloggers up with advertisers. As an advertiser you can pay someone else to write a review of your blog. If you choose to do this be sure that you’re prepared so that the review presents your blog in the best light possible.

10. Change your design.

Sometimes a new design can create a bit of a buzz. Other bloggers may write about it or review the new design. Additionally, a new design may make your blog more attractive to new visitors once they reach your site.

11. Advertising.

Another paid option is to buy some advertising spots on other websites or blogs. Advertising can be expensive, but it doesn’t have to be. Many smaller blogs sell ad space for very reasonable space. Obviously, the success of your advertising campaign will in part depend on the ad itself as well as the audience to whom you are advertising. Finding the right place to advertise is critical. If you are looking to advertise I believe David is accepting ad submissions here at PureBlogging.

What other ways have you been able to draw new visitors to your blog? What methods have worked or not worked for you?

Did you know website promotion could take place on the road as well? Well it can, and the good news is it does not take a lot of effort.

• During your trip, you will probably stop at a few rest areas to stretch your legs and maybe use the restroom as well. Before you leave the restroom, place your business card in the stall and on the sink. I do this at every rest area when my husband and I travel. After all, you never know who might pick up your card and visit your website. In fact, not only have I left my own business cards in stalls and on the sinks, but I’ve discovered business cards left by others and placed them in my purse to check out later.

Alternatively, you could print out some brochures and staple your business card to the back of each one. This gives the potential taker more information about the website your promoting, and who knows, if they plan to be in the stall a while, they’ll have some reading material to occupy them.

• Another place to leave your business card or brochure is at restaurants. You can place the business card or brochure under the salt and pepper shaker when you leave, but don’t forget the tip.
• Design flyers to take with you on your trip as well. Then when you stop at the gas stations and convenient stores, ask the attendants if you can hang your flyer in their store. Many gas stations and convenient stores have bulletin boards for promotional materials, and some will tape the flyers to their door or window.
• Before you checkout of your hotel room, leave a brochure on the nightstand.
• If you’re traveling in your own car, place a bumper sticker promoting your website.

The above are just a few ways I utilize my website promotion when I’m on the road. This on the road website promotion allows me to reach thousands of other travelers, and you’d be surprised just how effective it really is. Go ahead and give it a try the next time you take a vacation… you have nothing to lose.

Getting your name out there can be just as difficult as coming up with creative topics for your blog. There are not many things that are more damaging to a person’s psyche than constantly checking your blog’s visitor stats, only to find that no one cares. This can be depressing and humbling, but it’s easily fixable.

One solution to this problem has to do with social networking, blog style. These sites are just like networking giants MySpace and Facebook, but geared specifically to those in the blogging world.

When you join one of these sites, you can begin to establish a reputation (preferably good) that will keep readers coming back for more day in and day out. As your community grows, you will find that more people are reading your blog and commenting on it than ever before.

1. MyBlogLog is the original and probably still the best networking site for bloggers. It offers an easy avenue to promote your blog and an excellent opportunity to network with fellow bloggers. It also gives you a chance to discover blogs you might otherwise not come across.
2. BlogCatalog claims to be the “premiere social blog directory on the internet.” That may or may not be true but it certainly is one of the largest and most popular blog directories. After becoming a member and submitting your blog, you can begin joining groups, participating in discussions, and becoming friends with other members.
3. BUMPzee is another social networking site geared towards bloggers. It has many of the same features as MyBlogLog and BlogCatalog but focuses on specific communities instead of just free-for-all networking. I like it a lot but find it more difficult to use than some of the other sites.
4. BloggingZoom is the new kid on the block. The primary function of BloggingZoom is to provide a place for you to submit all of your blog posts and gain some additional exposure for your blog. It does have some limited social features that allow you to meet other bloggers who share similar interests. Still in the early stages of development but definitely worth keeping an eye on.

Whether you are just writing for fun or you are looking to make a career of blogging, these networking sites are great places promote your blog and grow your community.

I’m a big fan of StumbleUpon. I use it to generate traffic for this site, find interesting new sites, kill time at work, and reward the top commentators on this blog. And even though StumbleUpon continues to gain users it seems that many still underestimate its ability to generate a steady stream of traffic for your blog.

Over the last few months, StumbleUpon has sent more traffic to PureBlogging than any other source (although Google is a close second). Let’s take a look at how you can drive more traffic to your blog using this innovative service.

What Is StumbleUpon?

StumbleUpon is a social website which allows its users to share and recommend websites that they find useful and interesting. To use the service, you need to register, define your areas of interest, and install the StumbleUpon toolbar in your browser. The toolbar allows you to rate and review any site that you find interesting and view the sites that others have submitted.

How Does The StumbleUpon Toolbar Work?

To get started, just press the on the toolbar and you will be taken to a random website that has been submitted or “stumbled” by someone else. The areas of interest you selected when signing up at StumbleUpon determine the websites that you are shown. To further refine your interests, just click the / as you stumble and StumbleUpon will adjust over time.

How Does That Help Me?

StumbleUpon has the ability to generate thousands of visitors to your blog. The process starts when someone clicks the on the toolbar while viewing a page or article on your blog.

If they are the first person to vote for your blog/article, then they will be presented with a dialog box saying that they discovered a new site. They will also be asked to provide a short review and select which tags best represent the content of your blog/article. After they have submitted your blog/article, it is then available for other StumbleUpon users to view and vote on.

How Do I Get the Most Out of StumbleUpon?

There are several factors that seem to influence the number of visitors that you receive from StumbleUpon. The specific algorithm is not known but here are a few factors that I believe affect the amount of traffic you receive.

• Votes from other users - You can submit your own articles but you won’t see large amounts of traffic until others begin to stumble and review your site.
• Stumbles and Reviews - You also seem to get more traffic if your blog blog or article gets a lot reviews so shoot for stumbles and reviews.
• Build up your network – Spend some time building up your StumbleUpon network by finding and adding friends. The more friends you have, the more likely other stumblers will see your submissions.
• Participate – Always remember this is a community based on interest that relies on user participation. The community will eventually catch on if all you do is submit articles from your own blog. Stumble and review the articles of others and your importance in the community will increase.
• Broad tagging – Try to use tags that are less specific. Broader tags are more likely to be searched for by SU users.
• Stumble Tools - Remind people to vote for and submit your blog/articles by integrating StumbleUpon into your blog or by placing a StumbleUpon button on your blog.
• Stumble Groups - You can also team up with a group a like-minded bloggers or webmasters who agree to stumble each other’s posts.

That Sounds Great But Is There A Catch?

Much like Digg, Reddit, and other social websites, visitors from StumbleUpon are not likely to stick around long. The toolbar allows users to quickly jump from site to site until something grabs their attention. In general, StumbleUpon users are:

• Just surfing and will be looking to move on quickly
• From all over the world
• Web savvy
• Ad blind and hard to monetize

That being said, users are delivered based on their individual areas of interest and there are a few things that you can do make your blog “sticky” or more attractive to StumbleUpon users.

How Do I Make My Blog Sticky?

You can expect visitors from StumbleUpon to instantly evaluate your blog and decide to either browse around or continue stumbling. This means you need to do everything you can to make your blog stand out from the crowd. Here are a few things that can help you do just that:

• Quality Content - If your blog is loaded with quality content you are much more likely to get thumbs up or a bookmark.
• Site Design – Your blog is more likely to grab a visitor’s attention if it has a unique, attractive design.
• Branding – A unique logo or easy to remember URL can be a huge plus for your blog.
• Ads – Advertising is a necessary evil but too many poorly placed ads can be a turn-off.
• Subscription Links – You should make it easy for them to subscribe by prominently placing links to your RSS feed and/or newsletter.

Other StumbleUpon Resources

If you’re looking for more information about StumbleUpon here are a few additional resources.

• A Comprehensive Guide to StumbleUpon: How to Build Massive Traffic to Your Website from Maki at Dosh Dosh
• Stumble Upon’s Fantastic Ability to Drive Traffic from SEOMoz
• Increasing your StumbleUpon audience by Neil Patel
• I Wouldn’t Submit That to StumbleUpon by Muhammad Saleem at Pronet Advertising
• Ultimate StumbleUpon Resource by Mike Bogo
• StumbleUpOn - The No-Magic Facts of Building Traffic by Terrence Chang
• StumbleUpon: Exposure That Lasts by Muhammad Saleem at Pronet Advertising
• Building Your Blog With StumbleUpon by Skellie at ProBlogger

What Are You Waiting For?

So now that you know how StumbleUpon works, get out there and start stumbling!

The following guest post has been submitted by Steven Snell of Vandelay Website Design.

For new bloggers who are looking to find more readers and grow their blog, forums can be a valuable resource. While forums may not directly result in large numbers of visitors to your blog, there are substantial benefits from participating in forums.

Why Are Forums Useful?

1 – You can learn from others and get your questions answered. The information you gain may make the difference between having an average blog and a standout blog.

2 – You can help others by answering their questions. If you are able to be a valuable source of information to others they will remember you and will be more likely to become a reader or refer other readers to you.

3 – Forums are an excellent way to network with other bloggers. Blogging is very community-oriented by nature. All successful bloggers have effectively networked with others. Your network can be a source of information, advice, and links.

4 – You can use a signature that includes a link to your blog. If you actively participate on forums with a link in your signature, some other users will click-through to visit your blog. While this type of traffic is nice, it is not the best that forums have to offer.

5 – You may be able to promote your blog posts. Most forums have specific places where you are permitted to “advertise” or promote your own work. Like point #4, this traffic is beneficial, but it should not be your focus when you’re using forums.

How Can You Effectively Use Forums?

As we have seen already, there is a lot of potential with forums. However, most bloggers who are trying to drive traffic through forums don’t use the most effective methods. While there are ways to get visitors to your blog directly from forums (points 4 and 5 above) that traffic is very unlikely to amount to anything significant. Most forum users are not there to find other blogs to read, so it is difficult to generate big results with this approach.

Instead, here are some tips for maximizing the potential of forums.

1 – Schedule time to use them. While forums are an excellent resource for bloggers, they can also be a huge time-consuming activity if you aren’t careful. If you plan your activities ahead you can be sure to participate on forums without sacrificing time that you need for other priorities.

2 – Provide help and feedback to others. This is the best way to be recognized at forums and to get others to notice you. Don’t be afraid to ask your own questions of others, but focus on providing assistance and you’ll quickly increase your value to other forum members.

3 – Focus on networking, not direct traffic. The key to effectively using forums is to focus on building relationships with other bloggers. Earlier we mentioned that click-through traffic was not the best that forums have to offer, networking is. Forums may not show up in your statistics as large sources of traffic, but you may meet other bloggers at forums that will wind up linking to you, or will be willing to post one of your articles on their blog. This is where forums really become valuable and this is where efforts should be.

4 – Ask for feedback from other forum users. Most forums will have an area for you to introduce yourself and get feedback from other users. Blogging-related forums often have a place to provide a link to your blog and get the opinions of the other users about your blog design and content. Be careful to solicit this feedback in the appropriate places. Some forums are not friendly towards this type of communication if it is not in the designated areas. When I was designing my blog I got some valuable feedback from others that I was able to use to improve the design (some of it I still haven’t gotten to yet).

5 – Use an effective signature file. As you post to forums you messages will include a signature file that can (and should) include a link to your blog. Rather than just providing a link to your blog, give a quick description of the blog or something else that will interest others.

6 – Follow your messages and build ongoing communications. Most forums will email you when someone has replied to one of your messages. Be sure to read the responses and try to engage in a continuing dialogue. This is a big part of networking.

7 – Be polite. This one should be obvious, but sometimes it’s not the norm. If your goal is to network and build relationships you can quickly ruin those opportunities if you are rude or demeaning to others.

8 – Focus on one or two forums. With the large number of forums available it’s tempting to try to use them all. What usually happens if you try this approach is that you will not use any of the forums enough to really be able to network effectively with the other users. At least when you are first getting started with forums you should focus on one or two. The focused approach will allow for the best networking potential. Once you have used a particular forum for a while and you feel like you could be more effective somewhere else, move on and try one of the other forums.

9 – Use an avatar or picture if possible. With an avatar other users are more likely to remember seeing you on other parts of the forum. It helps to build your identity.

10 – Focus on the subjects that you know well. Most forums will cover a wide variety of topics. If you are looking to network by providing help and assistance to others, you’ll have the best results if you focus on topics that you know the best.

11 – Look for win-win opportunities. One of the keys to effective networking is finding win-win situations. If you meet other bloggers that write on the same topics as you, try to find areas where you can help each other. Maybe you can write a guest post for another blogger and a particular topic that you know well. This would be good exposure for you and it would provide valuable content for the other blogger. Link exchanges are also common.

If you are looking for some forums for bloggers, here are a few to get you started:

• Authority Blogger
• Sitepoint
• Bloggeries

The following guest post has been submitted by Steven Snell from Vandelay Website Design.

All successful bloggers have been able to create quality content for their readers. Unfortunately, creating quality content doesn’t guarantee success for a blog. Without readers to notice the quality of the writing, nothing is gained. If you’re having trouble getting readers to notice you, consider using some of the methods listed below. They all focus on getting your articles in front of new audiences, which will increase your exposure and your subscriber numbers.

1 - Article Directories

One of the oldest methods for marketing yourself through articles is to post them on article directories. There are dozens of directories online with thousands of articles that other webmasters are free to use on their own site. You give them some great content and in return you will get to display a brief author bio at the end of your article with a link to your website.

This used to be the #1 way to spread your articles across the internet. Recently though, search engines have aimed to keep duplicate content out of the SERPs (search engine results pages), which means your article distribution with this method will rarely result in a lot of search engine traffic. Even worse, if the article is also posted on your website you run the risk of search engines identifying your website as having duplicate content. Also, the links from sites duplicating your content are unlikely to boost your search engine rankings.

That being said, article directories still have value. The key to using them successfully is to only use articles that you are not posting on your own site. This way you will not be penalized for having duplicate content on your site/blog. Even if the inbound links from your bio are not helping your rankings, they can still be a good source of click-through traffic.

Some of the most popular article directories are:

• EzineArticles.com
• GoArticles.com
• EasyArticles.com

2 – Write for Other Blogs

Most bloggers spend so much time focusing on creating content for their own blog that they neglect one of the best ways for reaching a new audience. Regardless of what topic you blog about there are probably plenty of others that have a similar audience. By writing a post for another blog you instantly increase your visibility and name recognition while potentially gaining new readers for your own blog.

Every blogger has a need for valuable content (original articles only, not something that’s already posted on your website), and if you can offer high-quality writing to another blogger they are likely to accept. Start with the blogs you read on a daily or weekly basis and look for those that might be a good fit with your writing. You can find blogs who are looking for content at Guest-Blogger.com (and create your own account while your there).

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