This is the next installment in the generating traffic series so the 5 comment rule is in effect.

Commenting can deliver traffic to your site whether or not the blog follows comments or not if…

You add to the conversation. It really isn’t that hard. Stay away from the I like whatever, actually read the post and comment with your opinion. You really need to add something. A prefect example is the previous post here on article writing. Check out the comments and you will see that most added to the value of the article.

A few were just a thank you comment but quite a few either added good information (thank you) or asked for clarification.

Now here are some tips for finding good places to comment on. Search the keywords that you want to rank for are on your blog and take the time to go through and find the active blogs on these topics. You can also search at Technorati for your topics.

Add these into your Google Reader (one of my favorite tools) so you can see when they are updated all from one place.

There are definitely advantages to commenting sooner rather than later, Then everyone that reads the post will see your comment and you will get more people clicking through to your blog if you have added solid information to the conversation.

If they follow you will also get a link back to your blog if your comment gets approved and it will most times of you are adding to the conversation. Both of these will add traffic to your blog.

Finally you can trackback to posts you find that are a good resource. There was a good guest post over at John Cow blog about Traffic From Commenting and they just had a good video added there about Comment Hitching.

This will help me add back links here but…

It helps them because I am linking to their content and it helps you as a reader because I have found more quality content on this topic for you.

Anyone reading those posts at John Cow that comes back to this post is getting more of the content they are looking for.

Everyone wins.

Now if I tried to trackback on a different topic it would be spam. It would not help you the reader it would only be trying to get back links. The same thing with irrelevant comments that don’t add to the conversation.

The key whether you are commenting or tracking back is to add good content to your site and the other persons site.

As always your comments are welcomed and needed for the next post in this series.

Mike Paetzold

Technorati Tags: blog comments, blog traffic, commenting for traffic

Today we will start with the first of the items you can do to help generate backlinks and traffic to your blog – submitting articles. This is because we met the 5 comment rule and that will apply here too.

Submitting articles can be a very effective way to add backlinks. When people use your article they are required to keep your signature links. That is where you can add a targeted anchor text link to your blog.

Lets first talk about using articles generally. There are a number of sites like Ezine Articles, Article Base, et al that allow you to submit articles for others to use. They usually have requirements and this does need to be a content piece not a sales piece or most of the better sites will not accept your article. Always supply quality content whether you write it yourself or outsource it.

This gives you a chance to showcase your expertise and the key for you is that you do get to use the signature file for promotion not the actual article.

Now here are two ways that you can use that signature box. The first and most effective way is the two part article. This is a technique I learned from John Taylor in forums and repeated in his report Article Profit Formula which is a great guide for the price on using articles profitably.

John is a big proponent of the 2 part article. He submits part 1 to the directories and posts part 2 on this blog. He uses the signature file to send article readers to his blog for “the rest of the story”.

Example:

Article was titled “5 ways to grow better roses“

John Smith has been an avid rose grower and writes regularly about tips and tricks for growing better roses. Check out “7 more ways to grow better roses.”

Hyperlink the title to the appropriate blog post with 7 more tips.

The other way is to just use the signature file to send people to your blog with a link using the proper anchor text you want for your backlink.

Example:

Article was titled “5 ways to grow better roses“

John Smith has been an avid rose grower and writes regularly about tips and tricks for growing better roses. Check out his Growing Better Roses blog for more tips on growing roses.

Hyperlink the “growing roses” to a specific article on that topic.

Either of these techniques will both send new readers to your blog directly and create targeted backlinks from every site you submit it to and everyone that uses the article for content on their blog or newsletter.

Submit a couple articles a month and you will be amazed at the traffic and backlinks you can generate if you have good quality content in your articles and on your blog.

Remember that I need 5 comments to continue the series.

Mike Paetzold

Technorati Tags: articles, blog traffic, using articles

The noise online makes it very easy for your message to get lost easily. Someone visits your blog, likes your content and bookmarks your site. They really do intent to come back but do they?

The answer is a great big maybe. If they grabbed your feed and added it to a reader like Google Reader they just may depending on how many people they follow. (My average new posts in my reader is huge). If they bookmarked your site the odds are much, much lower.

Think about it. Go check your bookmarks and see how many of them you actually use or even better remember why you bookmarked them. I have and if you were to force me at gun point I would be lucky to remember half of them and outside of a dozen or so have never used the majority of them even once.

That is one of the reasons that I like to have a subscribe form on my blogs. This lets me remind people to come back again and again.

Now there are multiple ways to do this and you can use a service like Feedblitz but I prefer using my own autoresponder (Aweber because they automate delivery off of my feed). The reason is that I can easily send other messages too with an autoresponder.

This allows me to offer an ethical bribe for signing up to receive updates. For this blog I use a piece of software that most bloggers would find useful. As my topic here is WordPress and blogging that is something of value for my readers.

Previously I gave away some tips on generating blog traffic. Both of these target the reader that will want to come back again and again.

As people return and get value they are more likely to comment and take part in the discussion. You build trust and loyalty by continuing to provide valuable content. The comments create even more valuable content for my blog and build a community here.

I can also use the list to get questions as that is the primary focus of my content here. On another note it is almost time to resend as the questions have slowed down but because I am using Aweber I can send out a gentle nudge to get the questions coming in again (hint, hint use the survey form above or comment).

In conclusion if you are looking to increase your blog traffic (and who isn’t?) then you really need to be asking people to subscribe and giving them a reason to do so.

As always your questions and comments are welcomed.

Mike Paetzold

Technorati Tags: autoresponder, aweber, blog traffic, feedblitz, rss feed

You may have seen that I had a guest posting here earlier this week.

This can be a great way to JV with other people in your niche. Alex Syseof writes on the same topics (WordPress) that I do here. We met in Philadelphia a couple weeks back and found that this would be a great way to help each other out.

Never under estimate the power of getting out and meeting people that do what you do. It can start all types of relationships that can be mutually beneficial.

Well today is payback and I have contributed a great article on using free resources to generate traffic . Check it out at

Using Free Resources To Increase Your Blog Traffic

and take the time to see some of the other good information Alex has there. I know I enjoyed his article that I posted here and he does have some good content there.

As always your question and comments are welcomed.

Mike Paetzold

Technorati Tags: alex syseof, blog, blog traffic, free resources, guest post