So are you taking advantage of current trends in your blogging? [ 2:39 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

First let me wish you a Happy St Patrick’s Day the day on which the whole world is Irish for at least the day. That is part of the point of this post.

Catching a hot trend can often be helpful when you are looking for ideas for your latest blog posts. Sometimes you actually need to go searching for hot trends, but I would bet that most of the time you are already aware of what is hot without even opening trends.

For example I could have written my post for today a month ago and know that as today is St Patrick’s Day anything with a slant towards…

• St Patrick
• Leprechauns
• Shamrocks

or similar items will be hot today. They are every year. Any holiday that is popular can be a good topic.

Likewise for a US audience anything that ties into the big start of the NCAA basketball tourney today or “March Madness” would be a good way to slant things.

If you check the screen cap from trends you will see the following in the right column related to St Paddys Day.

• guinness
• st.patrick s day
• shamrock
• corned beef and cabbage recipe
• four leaf clover

And there is a result for the NCAA with bracket predictions. All of these would be expected even last month.

There is no surprise that the majority of the hot topics has to do with the trouble in Japan with the nuclear reactors and related topics. These are not predictable like the earlier items mentioned for today.

They can be a good hook though if they relate to your topic.

Will you always be able to do this?

No you won’t. When you can do it and it makes sense you should. It can be helpful with drawing new readers because the top trends are attracting attention and when you can ride on that and have it make sense with your topic, you are more likely to go viral on the social sites.

What do you think and have you used this in your own blogging? Leave your comments below.

About the author

Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy. After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably. If you would like help in building your business check out my coaching offer.

Technorati Tags: blog traffic, japan nuclear reactor, march madness, st patricks day, trends

One way to draw more subscribers is to have a contest. Make it worthwhile for people to publicize your blog.

You need a reason to do it and here is an example that you can check out and look at for ideas.

Barbara Ling is redoing her blog at http://www.BabrbaraLing.com.

Right now all she has is a maintenance page but she is working hard on getting some publicity for it.

She has created a fan page where you can guess what the new theme will be and have a chance to win one of her products.

So she is running people through her Facebook Fan Page to get the noise started about her new theme. This should be worth following to see what else she will add to her contest as she unveils the new look of her blog and looks to increase her visitor flow.

If you are looking to generate extra traffic to your blog think about what type of contest you can have to generate extra buzz.

Remember to add in things like Twitter, Facebook and blog posts to allow people to win extra chances to win and have a reason to promote you.

And for those that missed yesterdays post I am still looking for ideas on themes that you like for my upcoming make over on a few of my blogs. Just leave a comment about what you like here and why. I appreciate your input.

About the author

Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy. After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably. If you would like help in building your business check out my coaching offer.

Technorati Tags: Barbara Ling, blog contests, blog theme, blog traffic, Facebook, twitter

Wow time sure does fly and some how this project got away from me. Have been working trying to work on reviving an old blog that was dying.

My original idea was to post regularly (yeah right) about 3 times a week (hasn’t happened) and add the site into my commenting strategy. The latter part I actually have done for a few days after each post.

Instead as other things have interfered that has not even been close to happening. Last post was November 1 and in a bit over a month I have added only 4 posts total. Not at all what I had planned he says with shame.

Now the good thing is that I have added the posts I did to Traffic Bug to get them promoted. So despite not getting even close to my original goal the traffic has increased.

Here is the way it was going in mid October.

Having posted on the 12th and 14th there was a bump each day.

Here are the stats so far this month.

As you can see the traffic has doubled on a regular basis from the start of this experiment despite me not doing my part. It was the first week in November that I submitted the posts through Traffic Bug and that has definitely led to an increase in the traffic.

Now if I can actually do my part and add more content we will get a better idea of how fast the blog can be revived.

It was an life support at the time of starting this and now has had the respirator removed but still in ICU but with minimal effort.

Will try my best to prioritize new content for this blog and see what it looks like next month. That will allow us all to see if it can be saved and how new content will effect the traffic.

Love to have your input as to whether this type of case study is helpful for you. Leave your comments below.

About the author

Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy. After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably. If you would like help in building your business check out my coaching offer.

Technorati Tags: blog traffic, increase blog traffic, increase traffic, revive blog

Drive Traffic to Your Blog by Making Top 10 Lists Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Ever wonder why Letterman is always using top 10 lists on his show? It is a regular feature for a reason. The reason is that people are always interested in lists. If they were not it would not have become a signature part of his show.

Now Letterman does it with off the wall jokes but as a blogger you can take advantage of creating lists to get additional traffic.

You know that people like lists. Providing people with weighted lists of the best topics in your niche makes it much more likely that others will share your lists.

It becomes newsworthy. People like to share newsworthy items.

In this age of social networking it is easy for people to share your list with others. (You can make these easier for them too by having your blog set up to allow them to do just that.)

They may tweet it to their followers on Twitter, like it on Facebook or share it on their blog.

Each time that happens your blog can get exposed to new readers. The more people that share your list the more new readers you can get.

Now the key is to take advantage of those new readers and give them a reason to get involved with your blog. This may be an ethical bribe for subscribing to your update list or making it easy for people to subscribe to your feed.

The initial traffic from creating your list and generating back links is great but getting people to become regular readers is the big advantage of using a Top 10 List to generate new visitors.

Take advantage of top 10 lists to get your content shared and then make sure you are set up to convert those one time visitors to regular readers.

About the author

Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy. After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably. If you would like help in building your business check out my coaching offer.

Technorati Tags: blog, blog traffic, Facebook, initial traffic, social networking, top 10 list, top 10 lists, twitter

Twitter and Facebook have long been good traffic sources for me. Interacting with the various social networks and using them can be an excellent source of traffic for your blog.

Now I am finding a third site that has started climbing up the stats for traffic. IM Faceplate is very new (about 6 or 7 weeks) but has started showing up more and more in the tip 5 of referrers for my blog.

There is a reason for it and it is not because I built a huge group of followers. After all I have twice the number on Facebook and many times that number on Twitter.

The reason is that I am active on the network. I add new content and items of interest regularly.

See the key with any social site is to actually be active and taking part in the conversations going on there.

It does not matter if it is the big ones like Twitter and Facebook or newer ones like IM Faceplate. It is being active and having interaction.

The same thing is true of forums too.

Everyone is always looking for the easy traffic sources but just joining and expecting traffic does not happen.

Now you do not need to take a lot of time on any of these networks but it is important that you are interacting and adding to the conversations.

If you are not getting traffic from your social networking look and see how much you are adding to the conversations there. If you are not getting traffic you probably are not taking part in the conversations.

Your comments and questions are always welcomed. Lever them below.

About the author

Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy. After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably. If you would like help in building your business check out my coaching offer.

Technorati Tags: blog, blog traffic, conversations, Facebook, im faceplate, social networking, social networks, traffic sources, twitter

Beyond creating content, the toughest thing about blogging is promoting it…

Making sure you get traffic, ranked in the search engines and ultimately creating a blog that makes money is a full time job in itself…

What if you’re blog promoted itself every time you posted?

WP Syndicator

Andy Fletcher has created a new WordPress plugin that automatically promotes your blog every time you post…

It syndicates your content across the top web 2.0 properties and automatically generates high quality, high traffic one-way links with the anchor text in the keywords of your choice back to your blog.

WP Syndicator

The reviews are in and people are seeing some serious results. This takes a job that would normally take all day and does it automatically…

Every time you make a new post, you get free permanent links and a surge of targeted traffic. This is hands-down the coolest “must have” WordPress plugin I’ve seen this year…

WP Syndicator

If you need more traffic to your blog, or you want to get a new blog indexed and ranking high in the search engines in record time, then you need to check this out…

WP Syndicator

This is a plugin I have been using since the beginning of last month on multiple blogs and both the plugin and the support has been excellent.

About the author

Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy. After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably. If you would like help in building your business check out my coaching offer.

Technorati Tags: backlinks, blog traffic, link wheels, traffic, WP Syndicator

If you are like me you are always looking for more ways to get more traffic to your posts and a higher ranking in the search engines is one of the best ways. These 3 tips will help you do just that.

Start using them regularly in your blogging and they will help you get more visitors. They do take time and continuous usage to really kick start your traffic.

• Focused content
• Using tags
• Getting backlinks

Lets go into more detail on each of these.

Focused Content

This starts with proper keyword research. You can rank for any term if you are willing to put in the effort but some are easier than others. I prefer to go for low hanging fruit first. These are terms that have a reasonable amount of searches but not overwhelming competition.

You can get a free trial of Market Samurai along with some great training videos that will show you how to find these topics. Once you have a topic focus on that. Keep your post to a single topic and you will be more likely to rank for that and the higher you rank the more potential traffic you will get.

Use all the tags

Make sure that you are using a title tag on your blog post. The default in WordPress is your blog title so unless your theme changes that make sure you are using a plugin like All In One SEO to customize your title tag.

Make sure you are using the header tags for your keyword you are looking to rank for in your post where it is appropriate as that too will help the spiders decide what your post is about.

Finally make sure you are using your keyword in the alt tag in any images you use in your post.

Backlinks

Get or create back links to your post. This can be done in a variety of ways. Commenting on related blogs that use Comment Luv is one of the easiest ways.

You can use the various parasite hosts (Squidoo, Hub Pages, et al) to create anchor links with your keyword in them to your post.

Article marketing is another way to create back links to your post. For more ways to create back links check out Backlink Flood.

Using these 3 tips regularly will allow you to generate more traffic from the search engines to your blog. After that the key is to convert that traffic into something useful but that is a topic for another day.

About the author

Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy. After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably. If you would like help in building your business check out my coaching offer.

Technorati Tags: backlinks, blog title, blog traffic, blogging, header tags, keyword-research, low hanging fruit, search engines, seo, title tag, topic focus

Got an email yesterday from a good friend with an SOS in it. Basically the message was I screwed up my blog and it no longer shows online.

Now I sent back on email asking exactly what they had done and got this response.

I uploaded wordpress by hand using the directions at http://codex.wordpress.org/Upgrading_WordPress

 

I must have done something wrong though…

Those directions are very complete and I have never had trouble when using them. I have upgraded blogs literally hundreds of times for my own and my customers.

I checked the blog and the things that normally go wrong. After all this is not the first time I have had some one have trouble and give me a holler.

None of the usual suspects like a config file that had been overwritten had happened. Gave this person a call and started asking questions. Doing that showed there had been a step or two that were skipped.

In this case the problem was caused by not turning off the plugins before upgrading. As the blog was on a very, very old version the plugins were causing a huge problem. It was very easy to fix once I knew what step had not been completed before upgrading the blog.

[hidepost]The fix was quite simple. Just delete all of the plugins on the server and add them back after we regained access to the blog. Any time you have trouble with a plugin logging in through FTP to delete or rename the plugins will usually solve the problem.

There was one more important step that they had not done that could have created a major problem had we needed to reinstall the blog. Always get a data base back up before upgrading your blog.

You should also copy your wp-config file and any theme you are using that has been edited before upgrading the theme.[/hidepost]

The point of this post though is not the problem that was created or the fix. The point is that often we skip steps even though if someone asks you would say I did what this says.

This is particularly important when you are following some one else’s steps to get a result. Let’s take getting traffic to your blog.

In 15 Minute Blog Traffic I cover a number of steps to do regularly to increase the traffic to your blog. The key to making it work is to do them on a regular basis.

If you do them all and do them consistently the system works. If you only occasionally do them or only do one or two your results will be inconsistent.

So if you are following a system and find that it is not working take a minute to review and make sure that you are not skipping steps. All too often when you think a system does not work it is your implementation rather than the system that is causing your lack of results.

It usually is with me and I am sure that most of the time it is with you too.

Leave a comment and let me know if you have found this to be true.

Technorati Tags: 15-minute-blog-traffic, blog traffic, follow system, upgrade wordpress

Traffic is the lifeblood of any blog. No traffic and you end up writing to yourself.

Unlike the movie, Field of Dreams, blogging does not follow “If you build it they will come”. You will need to do a bit of promotion to get people to find your Field of Dreams.

Here are 3 ways to get started in letting others know that you have actually built it.

Guest blogging

One of the easiest ways to start building an audience is to find an existing audience and get in front of them. Contact different blog owners in your niche and offer to provide them with quality content. It is a win win because the blog owner gets extra content but you get exposure to your writing.

Those that appreciate the post you added will be very likely to visit your blog for more of your content.

Blog Commenting

Commenting on blogs can be a great way to attract visitors. Adding quality comments and taking part in the conversation can get your name known. You get to add your site when commenting on other blogs and if you are adding value other readers are likely to click through and see what else you have to say.

If the blog you comment on uses Comment Luv then you get a link back to your latest post with each comment. A good title on your post that is listed can increase the number of people clicking through to your site.

Article Submission

One of the great ways to generate extra traffic is to submit articles to the various article directories. As a blogger you are creating quality content regularly.

It is easy to reuse the content and create articles from your existing blog posts. A bit of editing and in a few minutes you can have an article ready for submission. This is a very effective way to leverage what you already do.

Add a signature file that links back to your blog and this can become a significant source of traffic to your blog.

So start using these 3 ways to generate traffic to your blog and take advantage of the efforts you are already putting in to your blog.

About the author

Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy. After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably. If you would like help in building your business check out my coaching offer.

Technorati Tags: article-submission, blog traffic, increase blog traffic, quality comments, quality content

5 Ways To Maximize Your Blog Traffic

Copyright 2010 – Mike Paetzold – All rights reserved

I have yet to meet the blogger that gets too much traffic. We all are always looking to generate more visitors to our blogs. Here are 5 ways you can maximize your traffic while doing the things you should be doing anyhow.

Blog Comments

Commenting on related blogs and taking part in the conversation is an easy way to generate more traffic to your blog. If you are providing quality content through your comments people will click your link to see your blog. You will be generating back links at the same time and increasing your reputation within your niche.

Articles

Using the article directories does not have to be hard. As an active blogger you are already creating quality content. Repurposing your current content into quality articles only takes a few minutes. Submitting them to the directories with a quality signature link with a good call to action can add visitors. The power of duplication comes into play here as people pick up your content for their newsletters and posts sending even more visitors to your blog.

Forums

Forums are a great place to do research for topics for your blog. Taking part in the conversations there and having a link to your blog in your signature (where allowed) will let you generate traffic while doing the research to create more quality content.

Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking using some of the bigger sites like Digg, Stumble Upon and others can be an excellent traffic draw. The key is to bookmark others good content. This will build trust in your recommendations and increase the chance of people clicking through to read your post. Once you have these set up it takes very little extra time to do this during the course of your day.

Twitter

Using automation makes it easy to let your Twitter followers know when you have added new content. The key here as with forums and social bookmarking is to be sharing other quality content and not just yours. The more value you provide the more likely people will follow your recommendations.

All five of these are easy to add into your normal day. Make it a habit and you will soon be maximizing the traffic you get with minimal extra effort.

Mike Paetzold has been blogging since 2003 and is an expert on using WordPress to market in various niches. You can find out more about generating traffic to your blog at 15 Minute Blog Traffic.

Note – You may use this article as long as it is used in it’s entirety and all links are maintained. If you are an affiliate of 15 Minute Blog Traffic you may substitute your affiliate link for the link in the signature.

About the author

Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy. After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably. If you would like help in building your business check out my coaching offer.

Technorati Tags: article marketing, blog comments, blog traffic, bookmarking, increase your blog traffic, twitter