3 Tips for Getting Blog Traffic Without Spending Money

05/05/2012 By Angela Leave a Comment

Getting Blog Traffic Without Spending a Cent

Are you constantly banging your head in frustration because you are not getting the blog traffic you would like to get? Are you tormented from information overload listening to all the latest free blog traffic tactics? Are you stupefied by all the seemingly constant changes to Google that caused you to drop in the search results? You can employ traffic tactics and be getting blog traffic without spending dime. However, knowing how is the real deal.

Here are 3 ways you can go about getting blog traffic without spending any money

1. Link it

Of all the effective blog traffic tactics that can get you best results, linking to and from other websites is the one of the most widely-used method. Just make sure that the businesses you are exchanging links with are relatively if not utterly related to your own business. And of course, don’t overkill as this might ban you from search engines. One of the best ways I have found to get blog traffic is with a tribe. A tribe is a group like minded people who share, collaborate and comment on each others blog content. It is a great way to both build relationships and create links to your blog. My favorite is TribePro because it is free and is a large, friendly community.

2. Meet Meta Tags

Another way of getting blog traffic is through having your Meta tags contain specific keywords that target your business. Meta tags help search engines in describing your web page. If you’re good with the HTML aspect of your web pages, manipulating your meta tags would be a breeze.

3. Keyword-rich AND sensible content

Writing articles that provide solid information regarding your business is one of the best ways of getting blog traffic. Making use of free keyword suggestion tools such as Overture will help you on which keyword or phrases to work on to better lead more traffic to your website. Making these write-ups very readable and genuinely informative will bring you many repeat visitors to subsequently become repeat clients.

Submitting these articles to various article directory listings will provide more visibility for your business as long as you keep your resource box in tact to create for yourself numerous back links.

These methods, if employed properly, will not only make your blog popular but will help you achieve the desired results of getting blog traffic and thus – higher conversion rates.

To living life by design!

Angela Paige

angela@angelapaige.com

Connect with me on Twitter – Angela_paige

Connect with me on Facebook – Angela Paige

Interested in working with me – Work with Angela

Which is Better SEO or PPC?

04/21/2012 By Angela Leave a Comment

Choosing Between SEO or PPC for Promoting Your Business

SEO or PPC are two of the best ways to promote your business since there are millions of consumers that tap into the internet looking for what you have to offer. Those searchers need to be able to find you so you need to decide whether you will choose SEO or PPC or both.

At the same time, the internet also poses a quite different challenge. The easy access that the internet provides also gives you as much competition as you can imagine. It can be crowded and congested.

Just having a website is not enough to open the flood gates of your business. You must get your business out there to for the online community to access. The two best ways to do this are through SEO or PPC.

You have to expose your website. Make it known. It has to be visible. It has to be frequently targeted by consumers and surfers and SEO or PPC will help you get the people to your site.

If you want to create an online business you need to invest in marketing your site. There are basically two options available to you, SEO or PPC. These two are probably the best choices for your strategy in search engine marketing.

Comparing the two, SEO or PPC?

1. SEO

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Some researches indicate that 60% – 70% of internet surfers use Google to find and locate web sites and pages, for what they are looking for. SEO is the steps someone uses to make sure that the internet uses will find your website by having it ranked among the top results of a Google search.

In SEO, there is no need for you to pay for the clicks although it will require you to spend time doing research to get the traffic you are looking for. The SEO process is a long term strategy. It requires months of work before you start to see the outcome you want, but once the goal is accomplished, you will definitely get a steady source of profit.

The advantages of using the SEO strategy

SEO allows you to show up in search engine results without paying per click

SEO allows you to get traffic over and over at no cost

2. PPC

PPC means Pay Per Click. . These are sponsored listings that you see whenever you are searching. You will be charged whenever a visitor or web surfer clicks on any of your ads. There will first be a bidding process. The highest bidder for the price per click will definitely get the chance to be first listed in the search engine.

With this kind of advertising, you can still basically have control over your campaign as you get to create your own ad. You also have control of the target audience and still stay within the bounds of your budget. Most of the providers of PPC advertising will allow you to specify the target market, either by topic, industry or geographical location.

The advantages of using the PPC strategy.

-PPC is relatively easy to set up.

-PPC can seem to be very costly but if you are know what you doing you can do it quite inexpensively. This video shows an example of how to do PPC for very little cost on Facebook.

-PPC allows you to adjust to changes in market demands and trends.

In deciding if SEO or PPC will work right for you, think of your goals and of your resources. They both have their advantages and disadvantages depending on your needs. The better way to approach this two is to evaluate according to your short term and long term plans.

To living life by design!

Angela Paige

angela@angelapaige.com

Connect with me on Twitter – Angela_paige

Connect with me on Facebook – Angela Paige

Interested in working with me – Work with Angela

P.S Want to learn how to get 85% of your articles on the first page of google using SEO? Check out this free video.

Image: KROMKRATHOG / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: SEO or PPC

Getting New Traffic to Old Blog Posts

02/09/2012 By Angela 1 Comment

Ways to Bring Traffic to Old Blog Posts

It is hard to put time into creating a great blog post, only have traffic seeing it for a couple days and then have it forgotten when the next blog post goes live. It doesn’t have to be that way, there are ways to bring traffic to old blog posts so you always have a good flow of traffic.

Here are 5 ways to get new traffic to old blog posts

Periodically do a best of post linking to your best pillar posts. This is a great way to get traffic to your old blog posts. It is simple to do and a great idea for when you are stuck on ideas for new posts. Simply have a link along with a few sentences about each post and you’ll be breathing new life into those old posts.

Do a topic post. Similar to the last suggestion but here you offer recommendations for reading all your posts on a certain topic. This gets readers that are interested in a certain niche staying on your blog for a while. It is good to have traffic sticking around on your blog both for building trust with the reader and because Google likes when people spend time on your blog.

Use a Related-Posts plugin. There are a lot of WordPress plugins that help you share related blog posts. You can choose one that shares the posts at the end of each entry or one that shares your most popular posts in in the sidebar. I use a plugin called WP Related Posts that shares my related blogs at the end of each entry. For my sidebar I use a plugin called Most Commented Widget that shares old blog posts that have the most comments.

Share old posts with your e-mail list. If you are building a e-mail list you know what readers like and what content interests them so don’t miss sharing old posts with them. Let your e-mail list know about a specific older post that could benefit them. This can send a considerable amount of traffic to old blog posts and it builds more credibility with your list as you are providing valuable content.

Mention links to older posts on Twitter. There are several ways to tackle this. You can manually share old blog posts on Twitter or you can use the plugin called Tweet Old Post. I use Tweet Old Post because it allows old posts to automatically be posted to Twitter at any interval I choose. So if I want to Tweet an old post once a day or once a week the plugin does it on autopilot.

There’s no reason to let your older posts go to waste and miss traffic to old blog posts. Proudly dust them off and use the above techniques to leverage them.

I would love to hear your comments, do you have other techniques to get traffic to old blog posts?

Image: digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Filed Under: Blogging, Uncategorized Tagged With: blog, blog traffic

What I Used That Increased Blog Traffic by Over 1000% Overnight

01/27/2012 By Angela 1 Comment

Easy way I Increased Blog Traffic Overnight

There is a website that is quickly gaining popularity and becoming an obsession for a lot of people. This site has proved to me that not only can I have a fun with it but I was able to use and literally increases blog traffic to one of my blogs overnight. Take a look at the screen shots below and you can clearly see when I started using this strategy and how it exploded my blog traffic overnight. As you can imagine with a spike in traffic I also had a dramatic rise in my opt-ins. So check out what I did because you can easily do this too!

To make this effective and continue to drive traffic you need to be consistent. It is something that I have added to my daily things to do because the little effort to do it pays off well.

What I Used That Increased Blog Traffic

The site I used to bring an influx of traffic to my site is Pinterest. I am guessing you have heard of it and maybe are already using it. It is now one of the top ten social media sites. The site is growing at a rapid pace and it can be a great way to get traffic to your blog and be a nice way to expand your brand. I have to admit the site is better for some niches than others to drive traffic because right now the demographic is more females and the most popular things I see on the site are food and recipes, home decorating, organization, crafts and fitness. That being said I think there are ways you can be creative with the site in almost any niche and get traffic.

Tips for using Pinterest

Since Pinterest is a social media site just like any other social media site you want to be cool, have fun, be yourself, share helpful and interesting things, give value and be social.

1. Keep it clean. Create clean boards that are organized and easy to follow. Nice photos seem to draw attention and get repinned, liked or commented on. What I found to get me the most traffic was to pin eye catching photos that were paired up with helpful advice. I increased blog traffic by using helpful pins that then linked people back to my blog.

2. Be creative. Have some fun with it and create fun and interesting boards. When you have fun and share interesting things people are drawn to you.

3. Don’t only promote products. Let’s just say for example you sell clothes on your website. Don’t only show clothes. You could create boards with helpful tips on dressing for your body shape, fashion news, how to pair clothes with accessories, etc. I increased blog traffic for my health and wellness blog by creating fitness boards, helpful tips for working out each area of the body, healthy snacks, fitness tips, etc.

4. Connect your other social media with Pinterest. A great way to get more people to your Pinterest page is to connect it with your other social media sites like Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter and your blog. The new Facebook Timeline has an app where you can share your pins. After each pin you can also share it on Twitter and Facebook.

If you are a blogger or own a website and want increased blog traffic this is a site to add to your social media arsenal.

Follow my personal Pinterest page

Follow my health and wellness pinterest page

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: increased blog traffic

How to Get Blog Traffic with Tribes

12/22/2011 By Angela 2 Comments

Get Blog Traffic with Tribes

Tribes are one of my favorite ways to get blog traffic. If you don’t know what Tribes are they are communities of people who work in cooperation to help each other out by sharing each others blog content. Each tribe operates differently but they are all are built around the concept of a community of people helping each other achieve success.

A tribe can help you get blog traffic and quite literally breathe new life into your blog. You should be building not only a viable business, but a community – one that supports and cares for each other. If you’re just out to make a buck, don’t be surprised if no one leaps to defend you or lend you a helping hand when things are tough.

When you use some of the old popular blog marketing strategies to get blog traffic you can get “slapped” by Google, you could get your PayPal account frozen, you could get hacked, robbed, or plagiarized. It happens.

Why use a tribe to get blog traffic

When you join a tribe, you’ll have a whole community on your side. But one thing to remember: The people who do the best in a tribe are the people who create friendships, give without expecting getting in return and are not doing it only for their own reward. A tribe is a great way to build great relationships and you get out of those relationships what you put into them.

The benefits of a tribe are meeting other bloggers and networking, syndicating and learning from tons of great content and having your content syndicated by others. Syndication is powerful because your content can reach a much larger audience than you would reach on your own and that will help you get blog traffic.

There are 2 tribes I use and highly recommend. Tribe TSA and TribePro. Both of these tribes are unique and have different advantages. If you are looking to join a tribe you might find one to suit your needs better so be sure to check them out. One thing is for certain though, they both will help you get blog traffic.

P.S. Want to learn even more about tribes and how they will help you get blog traffic? Watch this free recorded webinar that explains the power of tribes in detail.

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: blog, Blogging, get blog traffic

Why to Start a Blog if You Own a Business

11/20/2011 By Angela 1 Comment

Reasons Why You Should Start a Blog if You Own a Business

The reason to start a blog is that a blog indispensable for most business owners: it will help you bring in an exceptional amount of traffic, brand yourself as an expert and build trust with your customers, give you a place to give more value, gain more customers, and earn additional income.

When you start a blog you have a great way to communicate with customers

When you start a blog for your business it creates a place to have conversations with customers, it allows you to share your brand, answer questions, and provide value. It gives your customers a place to be heard and a way for you to build relationships with your customers.

Letting readers and customers comment on your blogs allows you to get feedback and input on your blog and this type of interaction tends to create a sense of community amongst users. Having a blog with a sense of community translates into loyalty, and loyalty means increased sales.

When you start a blog it lets you showcase your brand

A blog gives you more transparency, honesty, and accountability, and your customers will respond to that. It gives you a venue to to give customers a genuine look at who you are. A blog allows you to humanize your business by sharing stories and showing some of your style and personality.

When you start a blog you can drive a lot of traffic

A blog happens to be one of the best ways to drive up your SEO ranking, which means increased traffic to your site. Google loves blogs because they are very different from a static website where the content rarely changes. Blogs are very dynamic, always changing and provide fresh content. Google also loves the relevant incoming and outgoing links on blogs.

If you are going to start a blog I highly recommend using a self hosted WordPress blog because it allows you create a highly customized blog and gives you total control over your content. If you feel you are not technically inclined you can have a Wordpress blog set up for you.

In short, when you start a blog for your business it means increased traffic, more customers, more feedback from the market, increased value to customers, and ultimately more money.

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: blog, business blogging, start a blog for business, why to start a blog

Blog Traffic-Unique Ways to Get Traffic To Your Blog Part 8

03/04/2011 By Angela 2 Comments

Blog Traffic-Unique Ways to Get Traffic To Your Blog Part 8

Create a Freebie to Give Away

If you’ve ever gone to a trade show and come home with a suitcase full of squishy balls, highlighter pens, and t-shirts that you’ll never wear, you know the power of the freebie. And when that freebie is actually useful and valuable, the power is even greater. That’s why by giving away a valuable piece of quality content on your blog or website, you can not only demonstrate your expert status in a very tangible manner; you can also lure people to your site and encourage them to become part of your community.

Of course, as with any marketing tactic, there are some do’s and don’ts to be aware of:

DO create something of quality. Giving away junk – unedited PLR, a flimsy report full of errors, or other disposable content – won’t win you any fans. You don’t have to write a 100-page report, or a series of 20, one-hour videos; but whatever you do create should be VALUABLE. Internet marketing superstar Jimmy D. Brown often refers to creating “Useful but incomplete” content. The information you provide should stand alone in its own right, but it should also make people want more from you.

DO think outside the box. “The short report” is a common giveaway for online businesses, and they can be very useful. But what about a series of short videos, or a special audio interview? A top-ten list or a template of some sort? A blueprint or a mind map? An iPhone app or a free consultation? A set of inspirational stories? Get creative: The more unique your offer, the more attention it will gain.

DON’T deliver before opt-in. Your goal, when people visit your website, is to capture their information so you can continue to communicate with them even after they leave. Typically, this means getting them to opt-in to your email list. Don’t give away the goods before you’ve gotten, at a minimum, their email.

DO follow up. The delivery of your freebie should be just the first step in an autoresponder series to keep your visitors interested and engaged. Feed them into a series of email messages, newsletters, etc., to keep them coming back for more.

DO encourage them to spread the word. Ask new subscribers if they know of anyone else who might be interested in your freebie, or encourage them to forward the giveaway so others can enjoy it. Your goal is to get that freebie into as many hands as possible, drawing attention back to your site.

DO reuse the content you create. If you record a series of videos, turn them into a special report to distribute to your affiliates, or break apart a short report into articles or blog posts. Never let any content you create do single-duty; make it work over and over again for you!

If you offer a unique, high-quality freebie, and let people know how they can get a copy, your work will speak for itself. You may even find that your content goes viral and becomes the next “must-have” giveaway, driving tons of qualified traffic to your site.

I hope you enjoyed this series on unique ways of getting traffic to your blog. If you missed any of the posts you can find them here-

http://angelapaige.com/social-media/blog-traffic-host-a-contest/

http://angelapaige.com/social-media/blogging/blog-traffic-write-a-series/

http://angelapaige.com/social-media/blogging/blog-traffic-interview/

http://angelapaige.com/social-media/blogging/blog-traffic-roundup-post/

http://angelapaige.com/social-media/blogging/blog-traffic-twitter-chat/

http://angelapaige.com/social-media/blogging/blog-traffic-tour/

http://angelapaige.com/social-media/blogging/blog-traffic-host-a-carnival/

Be sure to get my FREE blog planner. Print it, download it and use it over and over.

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: blog, blog traffic, Blogging

Blog Traffic-Unique Ways to Get Traffic To Your Blog Part 7

03/03/2011 By Angela Leave a Comment

Blog Traffic-Unique Ways to Get Traffic To Your Blog Part 7

Join in or Host a Blog Carnival

Blog carnivals might bring to mind lion tamers, elephants, and pink popcorn balls, but in actuality, they’re pretty tame. In a nutshell (a peanut shell, of course!), a blog carnival is a group of blog postings on a particular theme. Numerous website owners and bloggers post content on that topic at a particular time – usually the same day of the week – and include links to each other’s posts, or to the blog carnival host. It’s an easy and fun way to share traffic and develop relationships with like-minded bloggers and business owners.

Hosting Your Own. It’s very simple to organize your own blog carnival; you simply pick a day and theme, and publicize it through your normal social media channels, inviting others to take part and explaining the concept to them. Sometimes the themes are very narrow (“30-Minute Recipes” or “Social Media Horror Stories”) or broad. You can make your carnival open (anyone can participate) or closed (only people you invite can join in). Typically, participants include a link at the bottom of their post, linking back to the hosting blog so readers can find the rest of the posts in the carnival.

When hosting a blog carnival, you may want to use a free linking tool such as LinkyTools (http://www.linkytools.com/) or MrLinky (http://www.misterlinky.net/) that will allow participants to easily add themselves and their posts to your carnival link list. If your blog carnival goes well, you might choose to make it a regular event, occurring every first Monday of the month, or even more frequently. If it becomes a regular event, you might consider creating a blog button that participants can add to their site for more visibility.

Joining in the Fun. If you’d rather test out a few carnivals before you start hosting, you can find lists of carnivals by topic on a number of sites, including BlogCarnival.com and BlogCarnivalDirectory.com. Or google “blog carnival YOUR NICHE,” such as, “blog carnival parenting,” for a list of individual carnival opportunities. To be a good participant and get the biggest results from your efforts, here are a few tips:

Stick to the guidelines. Read the theme and deadline information carefully to make sure you’re meeting all the requirements, including the links you must include at the bottom of your post. Participants can be rejected from carnivals, and you don’t want to spend a few hours creating a perfect blog post, only to find you didn’t follow the directions!
Think about your title. Some blog carnivals have dozens of submissions, and you want yours to stand out. Usually, the list of participants includes only your blog name and post name, so an evocative, descriptive title will get you more readers.
Do your best work. Your carnival submission may be the one and only time some visitors may be introduced to you, so show your stuff. Don’t toss off a half-baked post unless you want half-baked results. First impressions count!
Thank the organizer. Carnival hosts are not paid, so go out of your way to thank them for their work. A simple email telling them you appreciate their efforts will go a long way towards developing a good relationship with them – which may result in a different partnership further down the road!

Have you missed the last posts on unique ways to get traffic to your blog? Check them out here-

http://angelapaige.com/social-media/blog-traffic-host-a-contest/

http://angelapaige.com/social-media/blogging/blog-traffic-write-a-series/

http://angelapaige.com/social-media/blogging/blog-traffic-interview/

http://angelapaige.com/social-media/blogging/blog-traffic-roundup-post/

http://angelapaige.com/social-media/blogging/blog-traffic-twitter-chat/

http://angelapaige.com/social-media/blogging/blog-traffic-tour/

Come back for another unique traffic generation method tomorrow.

Be sure to get my FREE blog planner. Print it, download it and use it over and over.

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: blog, blog traffic, Blogging

Blog Traffic-Unique Ways to Get Traffic To Your Blog Part 6

03/02/2011 By Angela 1 Comment

Blog Traffic-Unique Ways to Get Traffic To Your Blog Part 6

Blog Tour

What do The Who, Kenny Chesney, Green Day, Cher and the Stones do when they want to sell more albums? They go on tour. And what should savvy internet business owners do when they want to generate more traffic to their sites? You got it: Go on tour – a blog tour, that is.

Guest blogging, whereby you write a post for someone else’s blog to gain exposure to their audience, has been around since blogs first emerged. The blog tour idea, however, was made possible by the Mostly-Sane Marketer, Nicole Dean, when she was the guest expert at nearly 20 blogs over a 15-week period (maybe she should be called the “mostly-insane” marketer!).*

Basically, here’s the scoop: Line up a number of blogs at which you’ll be hosting, advertise your appearances, and knock their socks off with your wit and wisdom (concert t-shirts are optional).

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Set a schedule. Start out by determining your timeframe. Blog tours take a while to put together, so I recommend planning out at least a few months. At this stage, also figure out your goal – do you want to hit ten blogs, one a week, for ten weeks? Or do you want to blog every day for two weeks? I don’t necessarily recommend starting out with a 15-week blog tour right off the bat, so take on something that seems do-able for you.

2. Target your appearances. When it comes to guest blogging, bigger is better. Aim for the largest blogs in your industry or niche, or those with a complementary product or service. Start with the “big dogs;” you can always lower your sites later and fill in with smaller, less-well-known blogs.

3. Approach targets. Email is a great way to approach bloggers you aren’t personally connected with. If you can get a referral or introduction from a mutual friend, all the better. Create a short message to explain the tour, let them know how you can help them, and what types of topics might be a great overlap of your expertise with their audience. Don’t forget to include details like when the tour is taking place (you might give the “big dogs” their choice of several dates), and why you think you’re a great match for their blog. Remember, they’re trusting you to “babysit” their blog – they’re going to want to know it’s in good hands!

4. Promote the event. Once you have your list of tour stops, create a master calendar and post it on your blog. Start talking about the event (including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.), and ask your hosts to do the same. Each stop on the tour, update your tour page with links to your posts so people can find your new posts easily. Keep tweeting, updating your email list followers, and in general building excitement and momentum!

5. Follow through. The worst mistake you can make on your blog tour is to flake out. If a blog owner plans for you to blog for a day or a week and then you don’t follow through, you’re going to have an unhappy colleague to deal with. It’s much better to underschedule and give yourself some breathing room, than to overcommit and be unable to fulfill your commitments.

Blog tours do require a good bit of upfront planning and coordination, but the efforts are well worth it. When done correctly, blog tours can expose you to thousands of new readers and potential customers, all of whom are more inclined to be open to you and your message because it’s coming endorsed by a blogger they already know and trust. Even Keith Richards and Jerry Garcia would like that kind of clout!

If you’d like to learn more about the Blog Tour method, I recommend you check out Nicole’s guide:

http://www.ebookprofitscoach.com/how-to-blog-world-tour.php

If you missed any other the other unique blog traffic generation methods you check them out below-

http://angelapaige.com/social-media/blog-traffic-host-a-contest/

http://angelapaige.com/social-media/blogging/blog-traffic-write-a-series/

http://angelapaige.com/social-media/blogging/blog-traffic-interview/

http://angelapaige.com/social-media/blogging/blog-traffic-roundup-post/

http://angelapaige.com/social-media/blogging/blog-traffic-twitter-chat/

Stay tuned for another unique traffic generation strategy tomorrow.

Be sure to get my FREE blog planner. Print it, download it and use it over and over.