Seth writes 54 ways to get traffic to your blog.
What do you agree or disagree with? What would you add?
About Darren Rowse
Darren Rowse is the founder and editor of ProBlogger Blog Tips and Digital Photography School. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
how about spamming?
I’m now opting for paying the full price of advetising. I’ll report my progress.
I think it would have been better to post which ways he thought were the best, as opposed to just throwing out 54 possibilities. Another idea would have been to include fewer possibilites but give his opinion (good or bad) on each one.
I agree, I guess it’s written as an eye-catching parody. There are of course pearls in the pile in there, but most of them contradict with each other.
A post that is more entertaining than informing, I believe.
there are some good points there
I disagree with being anonymous… I think there isn’t anything particullary helpfull in staying in the shadow. There are a couple of reasons why:
1. Your blog is your word
If you have something to say, stand behind it. Don’t try to hide. I have a lot more respect for bloggers who I can identify and who really do care to stand by the things they write.
2. It’s good marketing
If you can evangelize a product, why couldn’t you evangelize yourself. People like Jeffrey Zeldman, Guy Kawasaki, Steve Pavlina and our own Darren Rowse have branded themselfs nicely. I come to their blogs to hear what they have to say. I want to hear for example Darren’s opinion on something, because I trust him. Why? Because he as an author has given me reason to.
3. Trust
Giving a blog a face, a name to fall back on gives people some reasurance on the content. Hey, somebody wouln’t put their name to an article if it wasn’t something they truly didn’t value it.
4. It’s more professional
Ok, so an advertiser wants to contact some blog author to buy some ad space. Ok, so I have to e-mail Mr. BlackMamba… Right… :)
Don’t follow any rules. Blog at will, readers notice when you’re enjoying your writing.
This could be another way to get webtraffic. Nice Catchy Heading.
Hilarious — the list seems to parallel the results of the Highly Effective Blogger series. What works for one might not for the next!
A silly little (giggle) list — someone said a parady and I’d agree.
There a few diamonds in the rough!
Wow, I’m hurt, Anti-BlackMama.
I disagree, personally, with using full names for my own reasons (I might regret being famous someday, I don’t want to be discovered by people I used to know, and I love the personality and uniqueness nicknames bring) and also for safety.
But I also feel annoyed that so many bloggers I see linked to from Pro Blogger are very Name Important, like Seth Godin, himself. Although Seth tries to sell his work, so he sells himself. Many of these blogs use full names in descriptions, but that tells nothing. To me it tells of arrogance. Still, is this a blogging blog, a business blog? Sounds like a personal blog, but we still don’t know, and don’t yet care.
When I visit blogs, I get nervous with full names. I was always taught about safety, I suppose. I would never dare publish my last name. I don’t understand why it’s the norm, nowadays. I’m quite puzzled.
Then there’s Harrod’s and Barney’s girl … their blog does extremely well, imho. And we’re all mystified by Manolo the ShoeBlogger. Alex the ShoeBlogger wouldn’t be the same.
I also discovered months ago that I absolutely refuse to work for anybody else. I tried freelance for a company, and I got one criticism and knew I was through after that. If I like my work, I am complete. (Yet I still do fine in my college creative writing workshops. For fiction, I’m still learning.) So I don’t want to sell my name to companies to write for them.
If I want to publish a book, I don’t need my name on a blog to do it, either.
11. Don’t write about your cat, your boyfriend or your kids.
13. Write about your kids.
can someone please clarify this, should I be having kids or not?
hahahhaaa……..
*laughing at rowf’s comment”
he had me baffled too.
Here are a few more:
100048. Use Blogexplosion: Battle of the blogs, Rent-my-blog
100047. Talk about popular topics
100048. Use “the Secret” it actually works for any part of your life.
100049. Create a podcast/vid cast featuring your content as an ad for your site.
100050. Advertise on different parts of the Internet. Not just the “Web” portion of the Internet.
Advertise on email (don’t spam), Groups, Forums, P2P, Bittorents ect.
100051. Make a Introduction to your site on MySpace and Tagworld.
100052. Adverstise OFFLINE. This guy at my job has a blog called NewsBlab and he actually drives
around with website information on his car like a network marketer. The local newspaper, friends
Didn’t find it very helpful. To sum up all of it, write entertaining, useful, and timeless content. Also, write short posts.
I was hoping there would be some key techniques and tools, so it was kind of a let-down. Kind of “duh-ish”…
Cheers,
JP
Designer Ella,
Hi name is Rob Elam. While I do understand why you would be apprehensive about giving out your last name, I think if one is really serious about being a “problogger” and they want a real bond with their readers there is nothing more connecting than giving a full name and a picture.
I think of A-List Bloggers as Blog Celebrities. How far will a celebrity get if they don’t want anyone to see them? There are some writers that have very few pictures (like one of my personal faves Carlos Castaneda), but the writers that are larger than life are celebs (King, J.K. Rowling, Maya Angelou ect).
P.S.:”Wow, I’m hurt, Anti-BlackMama.” —
Ivan Brezak Brkan wrote Black MamBA one of the world’s most deadly snakes. (is that the one that will kill you in five minutes? better google it.)
i’m blogging in chinese, most of the times, the same way that can gain traffic for english blogs can’t be used in chinese one
If I were to write such an article, I would add a title that doesn’t sound like “reading this is wasting your time”.
Be anonymus. What’s that suppose to mean.
On anonymity:
For many types of blogs, anonymity is a strike against you. People are more likely to trust you, as it was pointed out, if you are willing to put your name on your words.
But there are other types of blogs, such as mine, for which anonymity is quite useful and possibly vital. I wouldn’t expect Iranian bloggers writing about their repressive government to use their real names, for instance. (Then again, few or none of them are trying to make money from such blogs.) And in my field, there is a significant risk of the name simply getting in the way, as people focus more on who said something than on what was said.
That’s why, for the longest time, I published under a pseudonym. One might say I still do, and you may never know for sure. :)
I saw this list on Seth’s blog this morning and did blog about it in one of my blogs. It is great to see a list like this because I for one always get focused on just a small number of things. My mind works like this; Post, get backlinks, check design, think of more topics….post again… I seem to have five or six thoughts about my blogs swimming in my head at one time but it is nice to look at a list and see 54 things to think about.
I know that I for one will be having a wider thought patten over the next few days about what is important or not for my blog.
The idea of anonimity has come up a few times in thes comments and I believe that Darren has written quite a bit about it in the past and the fact that you need to put a name to your opinions. I guess I had better do that sooner rather than later.
This is my first time of discovering this site, and I’m amazed at the wealth of information for online marketers it archives! I guess I’ll start living here now. “54 Ways to Get Traffic to Your Blog” is fantastic!
@Ella
Ok, I respect that you want your privacy, but I wasn’t talking about what was good on a personal level, but what was good for a blog author. Believe me, I use my nick all the time (except here though) and I don’t have any problems with presenting myself as who I am. I’ve seen to many people hide behind their nicknames on forums, chats and so on, so somebody who says something but doesn’t want to say who he is, just doesn’t have my respect… For example, someone may write a bad review of for example a product of some sort. How do I know that just isn’t a competitor trying to make the product look bad? I can’t.
Privacy and so on is good, but for online publishing, I just think people trust authors that come clean, that have the respect for their readership to say: “Yes, I’m xxx, I want to tell you something because I think it will help you!”.
@rob
I just picked that nick randomly, don’t know why :)
Yes there is so much good information here for us who are new to the blog world!
Very useful tips.. thank you..
List Your blogs to blog directories.
I loved having 54 choices. Some of the choices are easier than others and some are more appealing than others.
The bottom line is, there was something for everyone. So, no excuses for your blog not to be awesome.
Seth, I think I love you.
Alia
Can you explain it in duh terms! How do I back link, or track back? How can I get authority on Technorati? What determines rank? Please no theory, just exact directions…Thank you! You’re the best problogger…I almost bought your book, but it’s too pricey, so I read most of it at the bookstore!
oops, Seth do you have a book??? Ya, I was gonna buy your book too..jk.. Your articles are great, no wonder you get paid the big bucks!