4 - Blogging: Let's Attract Traffic

Getting backlinks from other websites is not the only option open to you in your quest for more visitors to your blog. There are other methods, both free and paid, geared to capturing high quality traffic.

Submitting articles is a tried and tested method. Go through your blog posts and recycle the content into articles in which you help people to solve a problem or offer them tips or a how-to mini manual and submit them to article directories. These directories are repositories for quality articles in many different categories and as people are always on the lookout for good, original, free content for their website or eZine, they receive thousands of visitors every day. By submitting your articles to these directories, you are not only positioning yourself as an expert in your field, but you are also exposing your blog to thousands of people who read your article. How? You are permitted to include your contact details and a brief biography in a "resource box" in your article, so be sure to include the link to your blog!Here are some article directories to try out: EzineArticles.com, SubmitYourArticle.com and Marketing-Seek.com.

The process of manually submitting articles to directories is very tedious and time-consuming. However, this can also be automated or even outsourced. As article submission software applications still require you to perform some steps manually, you might consider making use of the article distribution services of SubmitYourArticle.com or ArticleMarketer.com (the latter permit you to set up a free account).

Participating on Internet discussion boards (forums) within your niche is also an excellent way to attract traffic. Just do a search on [your niche] + forum. Target the most focused and active forums that will permit you to append a link to your blog in your forum signature. The forum signature appears at the bottom of all your posts. Just make sure that you post useful and valuable content. You will gain the attention and respect of your peers and people will click on your link to visit your blog if they find your contribution useful and informative. You'll be building credibility even before anyone visits your site, so that makes it easier to generate profits if people already perceive you as an expert.

Also make sure that you ping your blog, which is a way of letting blog portals know that you've updated it with new posts. Free pinging services are offered by Pingomatic.com and Pingoat.com.

Making use of paid methods of advertising such as banner advertising, purchasing links from high-ranking sites, or Pay-Per-Click (PPC) such as Google AdWords also offer possibilities. PPC is complex and therefore more difficult to master, but a well setup campaign can be very effective. Make sure you consult a good PPC resource before you start, otherwise it can become very expensive. Brad Callen's "AdWords Made Easy" is available for free on the Internet. Excellent resources you can purchase are "AdWords Miracle" and "The Definitive Guide to Google AdWords". Whichever method you choose, always consider if the profits are worth the expense, otherwise you're throwing money down the drain.