Using Social Networking to improve Blog Traffic

It is no secret.  Facebook is a Phenomenon like no other has been seen on the internet.  It has so twisted and weaved its way through ever bit and piece of the internet, there is no getting away from it.  I, personally am not into the whole social networking as far as the social interaction is concerned.  I am not that much of a people person and tend to find myself bothered by sites like Facebook.  So, as of this time, I do not have a facebook account.  And I have no intentions of starting a Facebook account.  No real time or interest. 

But from a blogging traffic standpoint, it can not be overlooked, nor can the other forms of social networking be overlooked.  So, lest discuss this process a little bit.

Using facebook as an example first off.  You have a chance with your facebook pace to let a large number of people know that you have a blog, and in turn you can direct a whole lot of traffic in one quick swoop, just by letting all your facebook friends know that you have a blog and would love people to check it out, through a simple status update.  This is nice, this can be, if nothing more a huge ego stroke.  And ego plays a big part in the continuation of your blog.  Even if you don't look at it that way.  You will become much more excited to do something if you are receiving some sort of positive affirmation of your efforts.  It is human nature to do so.  And there is nothing wrong with that. 

I would like to make sure I am not confusing the reality though.  You are not going to rank better in search engines if you occasionally mention your blog on your Facebook page.  Google could care less.  But it is short sighted to think it is not worth the effort then if you are not going to place well in Google from a link. 

All along I have been preaching one thing over and over again.  And that is awareness.  Awareness is the key here.  The coveted "Golden Ticket" you may say is in that awareness.  Because what you HOPE will happen, is sooner or later, from that awareness you create, you will start to receive real, non-solicited backlinks to your blog.  And these are worth more than any link you can build on your own.  Not only to Google and the like, but to your overall traffic.  Every time you get a random link from a new source you have opened up the opportunity to new viewers, new audience pools, and this alone my friend, is how you continually repeat the cycle.  This is how you slowly but surly take your little blog to something that can be much more.

So.  Now I think you get the idea I am going for.  Creating awareness using social networking is a very powerful tool.  Since I am not a Facebooker.  I found other sites I use.

Twitter, is a wonderful option.  It is very easy to build a large follower list.  I am not sure how many followers I have at the moment, but I can tell you it is in the hundreds easily and I do not do anything to build my followers list.  So, whenever I post a new blog post.  I tweet that I have done so.  It usually results in instant traffic to my blog.  Or Awareness article, or Backlink Article.  I will tweet any new property.

On top of that, I use Linkdin.  It is a more business orientated Social Networking site.  It really does not drive much traffic to my properties, mostly because I have very little interest in the site, and do not spend the time to build up a friend list.

And the last site I use is, PeopleString.  Ok, it is pretty much Facebook with a twist.  They pay you to use the site.  They don't pay a lot.  But like I have said before, I am driven by money.  And every little bit will slowly add up.  It all makes a little difference.  People string is a social networking site, with a forum, and games, and message boards, with the twist being, they pay you a portion of their ad revenues, on a scale, depending on how much you use the site.

I am not here to get everyone to Join Peoplestring.  Although, if you do use my referral link, it will improve my earnings (Hint hint).  But What I am saying is, there are other sites besides Facebook, that can work equally well, if you give it time. 
Twitter has been a wonderful tool for me.  I use it all the time.  I would recommend this one highly.  Facebook also is probably the strongest tool out there for self promotion within your circle.  And Peoplestring is a nice alternative for those of you who would like to try and earn a couple dollars along the way.

Again, it has not made me rich.  Some claim that they make hundreds and thousands per month with the site.  I have to casually question these statements.  But who really knows.

Thank you for reading blogging for beginners, please come back soon!

What are Awareness Articles?

So, what exactly is an awareness article?  Some may call it by a different name.  Some may even think they are a waste of time.  I mean, the reality is, they are not going to improve your position in Google, and for many, that is all they are really looking for.  Personally, my belief is, awareness is awareness, and the larger web I can create, the more likely new people are to find me.  So, this is why I find awareness articles important.

There is another reason to enjoy awareness articles…..MONEY!  And that alone drives me and what I do on the internet.  It is a very strong pull for me and there are MANY opportunities to make income on the internet.  Other than that from what you can make with your blogs.  There are many sites that will pay your for your content.  Usually paid per view from a unique party.  And I have to admit, the income is not great.  But it is still what it is and it is still something that should be considered.  Because, not only are you making money from your work, but you ARE creating awareness of you, the author, and of any link you include in your article. 

So, with this awareness article, you are not only creating a link back to your web property, but you are creating an awareness of yourself.  And you are as important in this article as the link itself.  Undoubtedly, the link will be a No-Follow link.  And this of course means that Google will not give you “Credit” for the link, but what you can gain from this link is direct traffic to your blog, or Hub or whatever else you make link to it.  And being that these sites sole purpose are to drive traffic.  They tend to get a healthy amount of traffic, and they tend to naturally place well in search engines without a whole lot of work.  This alone gives you a chance to make an impression.

The goal of these articles should be to create a spark or create interest in what you are and your writing style.  You want these articles to be snappy.  You are trying to catch people.  Remember, that what you are trying to build is a web of links, you want them to spend as much time in your web as possible.  Because sooner or later, you will attract permanent readers, repeat readers who will come back every time you write more.  And this is really our goal.  Whether it is income driven or just your drive to be recognized and for people to see you is irrelevant.  You are just trying to capture a persons interests. 

So, above I stated that there are many places that offer this kind of service to you.  Some I have mentioned here before.  Some may be sites you are well aware of.  Some formats you may like.  Others are not all that great.  But, as with all things when we are talking about awareness.  Variety is key here.  Don’t be afraid to have multiple sites you write for.  Work smart and create a similar article for every site and have them all posted.  It will pay off in one way or another. 

Well, what are these sites you might ask…

Here they are, in no particular order.  There are others besides the ones I will cover, but I use these and find them to be very suitable for my needs.

Helium:
Helium has been around for quite a while now.  I believe I have been a member of helium for years.  They have a huge library of topics.  And you are judged by your peers.  Every article is judged independently.  And the system they employ will require you to judge articles as well, if you intend on earning income from your own articles.  You can just post and not earn income.  That is completely acceptable, but if you do a little extra work, they will pay you per view on your article.  The pay scale varies depending on how well you rank within a particular topic and what the topic is about, and it will not pay a lot.  As an example, I have 30 some odd articles on Helium and I rank in the upper 75%  and make a few dollars a month usually.  It is not going to make me rich.  Maybe if I had thousands of articles, I could say it may make me rich, but the shear volume needed to reach that level is beyond my comprehension really.  I tend to right on a whim, it comes and goes in spurts.  I just lack the focus to maintain a consistent writing schedule.  But, in any way, helium is a well rin site that had a great reputation and should not be overlooked.

Bukisa:
Bukisa is relatively new.  And lately service has been somewhat sketchy to say the least.  They have had a lot of server issues.  But, when they are running smooth this site is super easy and pays well comparatively.  They have no specific topics, meaning you can write pretty much about anything as long as it falls within their rules.  And you are paid on a set scale. Based on 1000 unique views.  I make good money from Bukisa, I get lots of views, but that may be soley based upon my topics.  I chose topics really well and they immediately ranked well in Google.  Well, immediate in Google terms.  It took a few weeks.  Again they allow you to add back links and an author profile.  But links are No-Follow.  It is a site I would give consideration to if you have a hard time confining yourself to particular topics.

And the Third I am going to mention today is

Associated Content:
Ok.  Something is amiss with Associated Content.  You can still write for it, but it is now owned by Yahoo, and I honestly do not know how it even works now.  Once I have the chance to investigate, I will let you know.  Join if you want, I am pretty sure it will still provide a very useful tool.  I am just not sure how at this moment, and do not want to wait on publishing this post.

So, there you have it, and understanding to what awareness articles are and how they will benefit you and your goals at becoming a blogger that is reconnized in the blogging community.  These articles are not amazing link builders and they are not going to give you a great SERP by writing them, but they will start to create some constant online income.  And in many cases that alone will give you drive to keep working at it.  Becoming discouraged by lack of change from your efforts is all too common.  I hit several road blocks along the way that made me want to quit.  In fact I did quit a time or two.  Feeling that the amount of effort was largely unbalanced to the result I was seeing.  And even now.  Close to two years in to my commitment to seeing this thing through, I am still not to a point to which I can retire and happily spend my time blogging.  But I can see progress.  And with time and effort you can too.  Just give it that, time and effort, and a huge helping of patience.  The internet works in a very slow and methodical manner.  You will most likely not become an overnight success.  But you can build it and find your success at some point.

Again, thank you for reading blogging for beginners.  Talk to you all soon!

How to drive traffic to your blog

I am gonna get right down to it. There will be no beating around the bushes and there will be none of me telling you that in order to drive traffic to your blog you are going to have to buy some sort of product from me. It is just not the way it is, and in fact. Driving traffic to your blog is more a test of patience than it is a test on your pocket book. At least in my mind it is. And unless you are some sort of Uber Blogger with the most wonderful idea in the world. Chances are your topic has been written about once or twice. And being that. Why would you start dumping money into an idea that is not “fresh”. It just is not worth the cost. Because reality is, your not going to make millions. Sorry. Some people may tell you if you follow them and click here and read this and sign up for this program you will also be able to make millions. But reality is, the market is saturated. New ideas are scarce and competition is unbelievable for almost any keyword worth a damn.

So what do you do? How do you drive traffic to your blog. WHERE IS THE TRAFFIC FOR YOUR SPECIFIC BLOG?

Very good questions my friend. Very good questions indeed. And the answer, of course is not black and white or cut and dry. The answer lies in this hazy area. So, even if it may seem that what I tell you is a little bit like beating around the bush. The reality is, it is reality. It is what it is.

As you see below here, I have created a basic tree of building blog traffic. You can see that at the top of the tree, Website is what I consider the apex. Not blogs. This is what it is. Although many of you will consider blog as the apex. That is quite okay. But not reality.

So, below the blogging portion of the tree. You will see that there are several categories. These are the categories that we are going to cover IN DETAIL! I am going to explain exactly what I do in order to build blog traffic using these methods.

So.....Let me stop rambling! Let's get started

1. Link Building Articles

As far as I am concerned, this is and will always be the #1 most important aspect of building blog traffic. And there is more than one way to skin a cat and there is more than one way you should be skinning your cat. There are, in fact, dozens of ways to do this.

My number one most favorite way to build links through articles is HubPages. I love Hubpages. Google gives you huge mojo for Hubpage articles. Not only that but Hubpages are highly popular and have a wonderful community. And wait, there is even more! You can include your Adsense Id and include Adsense adds on your Hub. Hubpages does keep a portion of your Adsense revenue, but what you will usually find is, you will either be paid for your article or you will get true do follow backlinks. You will usually not get both. With Hubpages you do. Not only can you use Adsense, but you can also use your Amazon Associates Id and add, Amazon ads to your blogs.

This means that You can get multiple effect from your Hubs. You can write very Sales orientated hubs in order to sell product on your hub, and slyly drop a couple backlinks to your blog. It is not so much about the traffic you directly generate from the link, but more about the Juice Google places on that link, and how much that link will help you in SERP. Some blogs I built, I have placed well in Google with nothing more that a couple Hubpages.

Now Hubpages is not the only site that is like this. Info Barrel is another winner. Not quite as established, but still a great site. And it is very important to build variation to your backlinks. You do not want them all to be from the same origin. Your backlinks will be discounted if they are viewed as spam.

Another way to build links with articles is article submitting to article directories. Specifically I am going to suggest Ezine.com and Goarticles.com. These are the two that I use and the two I find to be the best. What article directories do is, allow you to submit articles to a general, public directory. In your article you are usually able to include a backlink and also include an about the author section. Once your article is submitted and accepted by the site, anyone can use your articles on their website or blog. This can be huge. This means that you not only get the high quality backlink from the Article Directory, but you will get a link for any site that uses your article on their site. You will not make any money for these articles. But, its not about making money. It is about building links in large quantities. And it is really a must for any highly competitive keywords.

In general. There is no exact science on what to link to. What you really want to create is a web. Something like I show in this illustration. Articles link to hubs and blogs, hubs link to specific posts and to the main Url of your blog. The thing to really be considerate of is, more links per article is not better. 2 or 3 links per article really should be your max. You will start to see diminishing returns on your links if you saturate your articles with too many of them.

I have to stop. I know you want to learn more about how to drive traffic to your blog, but, this post has already hit 1000 words. Nobody likes a chatty kathy. And I would like to save more for later.

For more about links you might want to read my article about internal blog links. That is a good topic.

Thank you for reading blogging for beginners.

And I want to give thanks to Ed at Oldsputnick.com. His interest has inspired me into writing again. I appreciate that, even though he may have had no idea for what he was doing! Good luck Ed and good luck to all of you. And for anyone who would like personal help, please ask. I will always try to help.