Traffic Generating Strategies for Blogs

We all know that a blog, like any website, needs to be marketed in order to kick start a flow of traffic to the site. There are many traffic generation strategies in use, but which are the best?

To search engines, blog are no different from regular websites. However, because of the nature of blogs, being frequently updated, having a normally simple HTML structure, blogs are very much favored by search engines, making it an easy platform for you to perform will in a search engine promotion campaign.

There are, however, some very distinct advantages in using blogs over website, in terms of traffic generation strategies. Here are a few.

Blog Comments and Trackbacks

One of the most effective ways to drive traffic to your blog is to comment in other’s blogs. This can be done in two was – the first, as a regular comment (i.e. typing in the blog’s post comment box and clicking submit) and the other is by sending a trackback.

When you do either of these, alongside the entry to your blog comment is your opportunity to get an in-bound link, and remember, the more in-bound links you have to your website, the better.

Submission to Blog Directories

Another means of bringing traffic to your site is by submitting your blog to blog directories, like BlogExplosion.com, and BlogFlux.com. Some of these blog directories, also act as traffic exchanges, but usually, traffic exchanges do not bring in targeted traffic.

When you submit to a blog directory, it might take some time for your blog to be approved. However, when that is done, you will have an opportunity to receive traffic from these directories.

Tag and Ping

A tag is a means for your to label what your post is about. Usually, one blog post is tagged with one or more tags. After the post has been tagged, the next thing you need to do is to ping the different blog aggregating services like Technorati and Google Blog Search using your blog.

A ping, basically tells the service “Hey, I’m updated, come and the updates”.

When the ping is sent, the blog aggregating services will search your blogs for the latest post updates, and when it discovers that you have tagged the post with a particular phrase, it also labels your post as such, in their database.

When people search these blog aggregating services using the phrases you have used to tag your blog post with, your post will appear in the search results, and that is where traffic comes in.

Conclusion

As you may have already concluded, while search engines treat blogs and regular websites alike, these three traffic generating strategies specific to blogs make it very much easier to promote a blog.

For more great articles on blog marketing, check out Kian Ann’s blog – Blog Marketing Singapore