This Guest Post was written by Wendy Piersall from eMoms at Home.
When I look back over the last 11 months of how my own blog has grown, it’s safe to say that the person who has had the most influence in my traffic and growth has been Darren. Getting to meet him at Elite Retreat was incredibly cool, and at dinner one night we chatted about his Group Writing Projects. I mentioned that they had made a massive impact on creating long-term readers, links, and was the key to several very strong partnerships I have made along the way (especially when I first started out). The conversation got me thinking about all of the ways I have leveraged the audience of this site to grow my own blog.
Big blogs wouldn’t be big if they didn’t have a big audience – and on ProBlogger, Darren has created massive opportunities for you to share his fame, traffic and exposure.
Group Writing Projects are the easiest and best way to tap Darren’s audience. Here are my tips for getting the most out of these week-long traffic festivals:
- Get your entry in the first day
- Spend more time on your headline than you do on your post
- Make a splash by submitting your best work
- Keep your post on the short side, preferably under 600 words
- Make it easily scan-able with subheads and bullets
- Spend 30 minutes or so each day visiting other submissions, and be sure to comment
- Actively link to the posts that are most relevant to your own blog
- Stay active in the project the entire week
You don’t need to wait for a Group Writing Project to start tapping each others’ resources. Other ways to leverage the ProBlogger audience are:
- Visit the bloggers that leave comments here, and consider introducing yourself to them
- Link to each other frequently – Darren’s readers are a goldmine of knowledge!
- Join Darren’s MyBlogLog Community, and use his widget to find others in your niche (I ALWAYS click the mom avatars!!)
- Comment on his readers’ blogs, letting them know you found them through ProBlogger
- Answer each others’ questions in the comments on this site
- Praise each other in the comments on this site (I assure you, that will get you noticed!!)
- Subscribe to the blogs Darren links to and leverage their traffic in the same way
Blogging is one of the few marketing mediums on the planet in which it’s not only ok to try and steal readers, it actually helps everyone when you do. Darren has a vested interest in your success – and has created a community on this site that can help you as much as he can directly. Leverage it to your advantage and watch everything grow.
Edit: Sorry everyone – somehow I turned comments off of this post! I’ve turned them back on now. *sheepish grin* -Wendy
[…] I promise I’ll be back in full force tomorrow. Until then, you can read my guest post over at ProBlogger today if you haven’t already. I wrote it at 4:00am this morning on my layover, so if you find freaky typos, can you please let me know? Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. […]
Don’t ask me how I did it, but when I wrote this I somehow turned comments off on this post. I just turned them back on. My bad! :)
No wonder Wendy – I think a lot of folks (including me) were practically banging on the door to leave comments here! No worries.
The ultimate way to leverage the traffic of another blog is to befriend its blogger. We talk about link building and traffic building – but the ultimate is relationship building, because it feeds the other two.
And you’re a prime example of a successful “relationship blogger.”
Thank you, Wendy, for such excellent advice. Commenting on blogs is likely the hardest new habit for me to develop, but this is clearly critical.
I’m happy that you mentioned offering praise – that’s the best way to create a win/win situation, and make everybody feel good.
Nice job! :)
Hi Wendy, this was a good read and also reminded me to buff up my blog info on MyBlogLogs. Looking forward to meeting you at SOBCon in May!
Hi Wendy,
I’ve actually come to this post in the opposite direction (saw you won the competition on Aaron’s site), went to emoms, then came here for your guest post. I’m not really a blogger for money (mine’s just for me and my friends) but best of luck in your endeavors :)
Great post Wendy!!
I click on mom avatars on MyBlogLog all the time from now on.. thanks to you!
=)
[…] How to Leverage the Traffic of an A-List Blog […]
I agree, great advice Wendy. When I first started blogging I was much more active in the social circles… but somehow that’s faded over the past few months. Thanks for the reminder that I need to get back on it and not be such a hermit.
[…] P.S.> Also See: How to Leverage the Traffic of an A-List Blog […]
Hey Wendy ,
I am vinne a student . I read your post . It was very useful to plan how to blog and achieve success in it . I like your tip to blog with project. Keep posting friend & I will keep-on commenting :)
Relationships are a key factor in the offline world. But considering that the online world is maintained by offline people, relationships are at least as important.
I don’t know why, but building relations online seems hard for me… maybe I’m not doing enough.
Very encouraging post but I have a query. The comment by Wendy – “ok to try and steal readers, it actually helps everyone when you do” – can somebody please explain this part to me. I very much want to make sure my blogging enterprise is ethical and I can’t read into this in a postive way without assistance. Anyone?