In this blog, I probably have given a lot of tips already on driving more traffic to your blog and you could see all of them simply by checking out my traffic and blog marketing sections.
So in this blog post I would like to share to you some *clever tips on driving more and more traffic to your blog. These are tips that are uncommon and on whether they are blackhat/shady or not, its up to you. 
1. Setting referral traffic source as your site.
I’m not sure if this is something that a lot of bloggers and webmasters know but basically you can set your site as a referrer for all sites that you visit.
The way you do that is through your browser. In Firefox you can simply just download this plugin called RefControl. What this does is simply just allow you to set the referring URL either for all sites that you visit or for a specific site.
The good thing about this is that the traffic that you will get can potentially be a repeat traffic(recurring) since you’re letting real people (not bots) see your site/blog. And the best part is that there’s literally no work involved. If you’re like me who loves to read stuffs online, then thats it.
2. Link baiting in forums
Couple of months back I wrote this really definitive guide on how you can drive traffic to your blog using forums. It was well-received by a lot of people and you may want to check that out.
So with link baiting in forums, I’m not really referring to you creating a new thread with some controversial topic and then linking back to your own blog. That’s actually an idea forum members usually frown into. Link baiting in forums is simply just posting a thread that you know a lot of people can relate into.
So as you can see in the image above, I just simply created a thread that I know a lot of people would be interested to engage in. I didn’t even put a link explicitly to my blog and as you could realize, this forum thread reached more than 5 pages and a lot of replies from the forum members. Obviously it drove a lot of traffic back to my blog through the signature links and the header itself.
The interesting thing is that the thread was created May last year and people are still replying up to today which brings up the thread above.
3. Talking about making money online
I don’t know what’s the reason behind it but obviously if you make a certain post targeted to making money online or maybe a tip about it, people generally respond positively to it.
Not so long ago, I wrote this post about how MelvinBlog makes its money and up to know its one of the highest viewed page/post in this blog. It’s even viewed more than the recent post on “making money isn’t hard, its just a lot of hard work” which I thought was the best post I have ever produced.
Of course you may not want to talk about making money if you don’t have an experience with it yourself or lack the knowledge about it.
4. By Joining Guest Blogging contests
Its kind of like odd to include it here right? I have joined a lot of guest blogging contests this year and have talked alot about it too but the truth I think is that it simply just drives you traffic without you really realizing it.
Most people join these contest not to find new readers, nor drive traffic but to win a cash prize and I think that cash serves as an incentive for us bloggers to work harder in driving more and more exposure to our articles. So little do we realize that in trying to win it, we’re unexpectedly driving more and more new readers to our site.
Note: On a little side note, I am participating in Blog Engage contest. Please read, comment and tweet my article on how to drive consistent traffic to your blog. 
5. Taking advantage of your newsletter/email list
Most people now know that having a list is essential in blogging yet STILL believe it or not, most bloggers still don’t have one. What do we do now? Simple, take advantage of the fact that we have a list! Having your own email list has several advantages. You could a).connect with people who are interested in the niche that your are into b). drive them to your blog, get them to read your content c). cultivate that relationship that could eventually enable you to sell and push some products to them.
I know some people would find it quite an investment to pay $20 a month for an email marketing tool like Aweber but I think its really really a major investment. I think Aweber still has this $1 for 1st month promo. If you’re interested, take advantage of it now and see if its for you or not.
So, those are my 5 clever tips that could help you drive more traffic to your blog and more importantly, this is a traffic that converts (as a reader, as a customer). If you have some questions or would like to share some other tips, please comment on the comment form below.
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Agreed! I didnt know about the setting the traffic referrer from my site, that’s something new for me. Thanks!
How about offline marketing as well? I saw that John Chow has his own name cards too, i think that’s also looking at offline branding and marketing – maybe we should also look at marketing from a wholistic (online and offline) perspective too, as we may meet someone offline that may rave (i hope and pray) like crazy about our site and services! =)
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d3so Reply:
November 16th, 2010 at 6:09 pm
I didn’t know about the referrer trick either. I’ll be sure to give it a shot.
Offline, I leave business cards wherever I go. When I go to book stores I leave a card inside a book about marketing and such.
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Melvin Reply:
November 21st, 2010 at 7:23 pm
heheh really? That sounds tricky for me.
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The Bad Blogger Reply:
November 29th, 2010 at 1:10 pm
eh… leaving a card in the book… I think..that’s against the author of the book permission, well you better not get caught… because you might be sue either by the author himself or the sponsor…
Just imagine u write a book and I put my card in your book and introduce the reader to me… tell me do you like that?
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well Reply:
December 7th, 2010 at 8:49 pm
the same applies to referral, don’t ya think? Doing the referral trick is pretty much useless. Way outside this blog, no one checks their stats everyday… so better not to spam!
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I’m not sure if understand #1 and the referral traffic. Is this traffic to your site from the owners of the blogs you have visited? They look at the stats and see that you have come from your own site to their site (instead of from somewhere else)?
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Melvin Reply:
November 21st, 2010 at 7:26 pm
Not sure I understand your question either but the way it works is that if I have it installed in Firefox, had it set to my own url and then I visited 25 blogs, these 25 blogs will then see my blog as a referrer of traffic for their site.
So if for instance I visited your blog for lets say 30 times in a month, you would see 30 visits in Google Analytics that came from melvinblog.com. In short, you would think that my blog is driving you traffic (30 hits)
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The Bad Blogger Reply:
November 29th, 2010 at 1:13 pm
Wo… that’s sound a bit tricky… because is almost like they thought traffic was coming from ur blog, but actual fact is you visited him or her blog 30 times…
Sound confusing hmm…
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I didn’t know about this FF add-on.. will try it now
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Great tips! I didn’t know about setting my site as the traffic referrer. That’s a really good idea and I just got the addon for firefox that your recommended. Thanks for the tip.
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Melvin Reply:
November 21st, 2010 at 7:27 pm
you’re welcome Richard.
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I have never heard about the first one. It sounds interesting if you like to browse all the time… Let’s give it a shot. Thanks
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This article can be better coined as “5 essential ways to drive traffic to u r site ” which I opine will suit better
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Melvin Reply:
November 21st, 2010 at 7:28 pm
heheh, I don’t really think too much about the titles of my posts.
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The Bad Blogger Reply:
November 29th, 2010 at 1:16 pm
well… you should, because if your post is link to somewhere, chances are… title is the only way to attract reader but anyway… it’s personal choice, that’s just what I thought that’s why I spend quite some time in my post title…
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Great tips Melvin and some new ones – always great to learn new blogging techniques and tricks.
I’d be interested to know how many forums you visit and how many times a week and how this is working for you traffic wise?
Natalie
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Melvin Reply:
November 21st, 2010 at 7:29 pm
Well for now I don’t visit that much but during the time I was growing this blog, I do visit forums on a daily basis and interact with as much people there as possible.
Traffic wise, it will be always good especially if you’re interacting with forum members genuinely as oppose to just spamming links out there.
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Another good way is to mass follow people on Twitter with the same niche. Also, set up auto tweets and DMs. I get amount of traffic doing that.
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Melvin Reply:
November 21st, 2010 at 7:31 pm
DM’s is kind of spammy so I try to stay away from that.
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Hey, nice tips here bro.
I have not yet tried #1, #4 and #5.
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Good stuff Melvin, but the one that really caught my attention was that FF addon. Will check it out now and see it works. Thanks for the heads up
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Hi,
I think I done mistake by not participating in any guest blogging contest.Will revamp my promotional tactics.
Thanks for sharing the tips.
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Melvin Reply:
November 28th, 2010 at 11:17 am
You should participate Madav. If you don’t win, at least you get exposure for your writing which will easily lead to increased blog traffic
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the referral traffic is really cleaver why i never thought about this before im testing it now to my own website hop in few days i will noticed change , thanks alot
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Nice one Melv! This steps are definitely way to go to get more traffic to your site. As simple as they may sound but some of the techniques here like guest posting needs effort and time.
Haven’t tried referral traffic but this one is a good idea. might as well try it too ^_^
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Thanks for all these tips Melvin.
I have now registered in a certain forum related to my blog and now trying out the link bait technique.
I am also trying out a certain wordpress plugin called link to this page plugin. It will create an html code that would make it easy for your sites visitors to create a link complete with ANCHOR TEXT to put in their own site.
I think it would encourage your site visitors to link to you since you made it easy for them to create the link code to put to their site!
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Great post Melvin!
I think the overall consensus has been that we did not know of the referral plug in. That sounds pretty interesting. I don’t see anything wrong with it, as all you are doing is getting legitimate exposure from your blog, unless I am missing something…
Thanks for sharing melvin. You expressed your ideas very clearly and were really easy to understand.
Thanks.
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I never know about refcontrol before. Thanks for sharing an additional tip for other bloggers.
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Thanks, those are great way’s indeed,
Especailly Link Baiting,
Talking about Link Baiting, well euh…, I don’t really know if you can relate to this….,
(actually I do know, since this post is about driving Traffic)
Anyway,
Did you ever think:
‘How can I Find an interesting
way to Get More Traffic?’
Than you definitely want to have a look at one of my recent posts about it titled:
‘What Has Sunlight Sparkle
to do With Getting Traffic?’
You can find out all about it at:
http://hpshappyhomebusiness.bl.....water.html
There you can also see a Video I made myself with
Music I also made myself, hope you like it
(feel free to give your feedback)
All the Best,
To your – Home Business – Inspiration,
HP
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Forum posting is great for driving traffic to your blog. Just don’t spam with your links. Links can be attached in signatures in lot of forums if you have around 50 posts.
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I’m definitely getting more active on the forums. I see a lot of results from it so I’m going to keep it going. The all powerful email list is what I’m trying to focus on now. Good post Melvin!
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Will be back now quick visit to browse the great many tips on your blog.wish you merry Christmas and a prosperous 2011.http://forexinternationaldesk.com
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I am a neophyte to this blogging world, the proof is that my blog is still with the blogger platform. That blog was just an experiment for me and someday soon after learning the pros and cons will decide to build a web of my own. Truly melvin, i’ve been reading tips on how to drive traffic to your blog almost two months ago when I just started and this is the first time to get across with your unique tips. Just simply thinking of it and have not tried it yet, i know it will work. Thank you.
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Great post, I haven’t heard about the referrer strategy yet..but i’m still a little unclear as to what you mean and how it works?
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Ref-control addons is really look useful but it makes me little confuse but no worry i got the answer in your replies. I hope this tips will grow my blog traffic. Thanks Melvin.
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Hi Melvin,
I really boils down to being seen, then being interesting once that happens.
If you can be *very* interesting, so much the better.
I have suspected that I have been visited by people with the plugin you refer to. When looking at my traffic stats I’m thinking, “how the heck did I get linked on this site?”
I have avoided guest post competitions because they are a popularity contest, where everyone gets their friends to vote; quality is often a secondary consideration. I don’t have friends and I’m not popular
And many of the business people who read my stuff are too busy to fool with kind of thing. So some of these techniques depend on the audience you are trying to attract.
Nice post.
Rick
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Nice Post..get the good knowledge abt traffic…
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Hi Melvin!
I saw you at iblog7. Nice site! you got some really awesome content here in your site.
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Hi Melvin,
I am curious about guest blogging, do you know of a site or sites that regularly conducts guest blogging? Thanks!
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This are nice tips for everyone who are starting their blogs and want to get attention from the blogosphere. Just be creative enough on what to put on your site and how to market it online with some magic touch of SEO Techniques.
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Thanks a lot Melvin. This is what I really need since my site is struggling, especially when it comes to traffic.
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Nice post, I really have to start guest posting myself. I hear it is a great way to build traffic to a site, but haven’t done very much of it lately.
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Yes, those are just some of the many way’s to drive traffic to your Blog.
On my - Home Business Lifestyle - Blog (when you scroll down a little to the ‘Featured Posts’) you will find a special post with info about driving traffic to your Blog with using Free Video’s,
In ‘The Making Off’ you can even see how you can easily make
your own ‘Promo Video’ by simply using a bunch of Photo’s!
All the Best,
To your - Happy Home Business - Inspiration,
HP
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Some great points. Guest blogging is most important to drive traffic. And forum posting is also very helpful. I’ve never tried it but looks very effective.
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