Knowing how to drive traffic without using search engines will increase your blog's traffic bottom line. By following the 5 ways outlined, you can expect to build a large base of loyal readers.
The ability to drive traffic to your blog without using search engine is the best safety net you can have. Search engines' algorithm changes every now and then, it is not easy to follow them. While on-page and off-page optimization is always important, you should also be equipped with skills to drive traffic without waiting for search engine. We will harness 5 underestimated powers to drive traffic to your blog. All can be done immediately and will bring you good amount of traffic.
1. Bookmark your pages using various Social Bookmarking Services. This is the first thing you have to do if you have not done so already. Signup with Social Bookmarking Services and bookmark every of your page. Do them slowly; do not attempt to submit all your pages in one day as you will annoy other users. Submit two to three of your pages everyday and track the traffic. Making your pages visible in Social Bookmarking Services usually brings immediate traffic within a few minutes after submitting. Do not forget to tag your keywords appropriately. Tagging allows other users to locate your page after your submission. Some of the popular Social Bookmarking Services are:
You may also consider using OnlyWire.com which allows you to add pages into many Bookmarking Services at once.
2. Write articles and submit them to article directories. This is the most popular technique used by bloggers to get their blog noticed widely. If you have been looking for inbound links, submitting articles to article directories will quickly build your inbound links. Organize your blog content, group some similar topics together and you have a good article to submit. Always submit only useful and helpful article. Some of the popular article directories are:
Write only articles that will benefit readers. Give them some action points that they can start doing immediately. Your objective is to solve the readers' problem. Inspire them to take action rather than just read. Establish a boundary on how much you feel comfortable to share if you have only limited resources or your resources are guarded secrets. Remember to always add value to your readers and respect their time spent on reading your article. Make sure to include a link to your blog so that readers can follow for more information.
3. Master trackback and use it often. When you are reading another blogger's blog and found something interesting that you want to share with your readers, always send a trackback ping back to the blogger. Your trackback ping will be recognized and an excerpt of your post will be included in the blogger's comment. This allows readers to follow the conversation and finally land on your blog for more information. It will bring some unexpected visitors to your blog and can increase your loyal reader base. Always trackback only if the content of the original post were similar to the theme of your blog. You do not want readers to get disappointed after landing on your blog.
4. Participate and share insights in forums Participate actively in forums about your niche. Answer question appropriately in the forums. Provide quality content to the forums even if you feel the content is so original that you do not want to share. Sharing your insights helps to build your profile as an expert in your field. Forums are a big resource for traffic. Other than simply including your signature under each of your post, you can also write a few articles to answer most frequently asked questions in the forum. This will drive a huge amount of traffic to your site if you have done it with respect.
5. Content! Add value to your readers! Before you do all the four steps above, go back to your blog and think of some ways to make the readers stay. You are going to get good traffic by doing the steps above and you want the readers to stay for more. You do not want readers to come and forget about you. You want them to remember about you and return. Build more articles that are valuable to your readers. You may also consider writing article series. Encourage them to subscribe to your newsletter or RSS feeds. If you are giving value to your readers, you will notice your readers are always waiting for you to offer more information.
Getting traffic without the help of search engine can be some extra effort that you need to do constantly, however, it will increase your survivability in the competitive internet market space. The above 5 steps will build your readership and traffic even if there is no search engine. The snowball effect will build itself and you will get more and more traffic from the above sources which ultimately builds a safety net to your traffic, and most importantly, your revenue.
