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5 Clever Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Blog…

by Melvin · Nov 14, 2010

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.

Melvin = Dead?

by Melvin · Oct 30, 2010

With just 3 posts for this month, with this one being 4th you’re probably wondering on where Melvin has been? Is he dead? Has a serious illness hampered him that he can no longer type using fingers? Is he on the court now battling some lawsuit cases against him? or what?

One of those may be correct but the real reason why Melvin hasn’t been active lately is because he’s busy…

Lols, of course it’s me talking here and I just thought it would be nice to talk in the third person at least for the introduction. So yep the reason is that I’ve been busy with a lot of things lately. Here are those:

Personal Stuff

There’s been some personal issues that I have been battling lately. Some family issues as well as some illness to a family member that I cannot really disclose for a reason. Also I’ve been quite struggling with keeping my sane as far as being the interim head of the family is concern.

But I’m expecting that go away after October ends. 😉

Work

I don’t want to stress it that much anymore as I’ve mentioned it already myriads of times. Since August my responsibility has increased and I was assigned to become a software tester while keeping my designation as an online marketing guy.

I don’t really consider it tough but if you combine everything, traveling, going home late, partying every fridays or saturdays, then its gotta take a toll on your body I guess.

Consulting & Client Work

Ok, a lot of you probably aren’t aware of this but sometime last year I did some consulting in SEO and online marketing in general. I got a couple of good clients who are willing to work with me to increase their search visibility and stuff like that.

It wasn’t really a core of my online business but I decided to open it up last month (even though I was hyper busy). Eventually I got this client who has nabbed my services for at least more than 2 months I’m estimating, and that has been considered as my other work aside from my job.

What’s next for MelvinBlog?

Am I selling it? Heck no, at least for the moment. Its funny because the traffic has still been consistent even though I haven’t posted here nor have done anything in the blogosphere. The advertising income is still somewhat somehow consistent thanks to the loyal sponsors.

As for the content, I have some really really good stuff that’s currently in draft so stay tuned for that. Also expect me to throw a bunch of guest posts out there. I’m looking on returning on the normal posting frequency here for the next month so stay tuned.

Lastly, if you want to keep in touch with me closer by following me on Twitter and/or on my Facebook Fan page. Till then folks!

Joidiamonds – The Company Behind my Twitter Background

by Melvin · Oct 17, 2010

So I was about to post this a month back but I was too occupied with some of the other things that I have to do first. But now the time has come to talk about it.

A lot of people have asked me who’s behind my slick twitter background that I released about 2 months back. And in today’s post I intend to talk about him her. OK so the company behind my twitter background is Joidiamonds. Joidiamonds is a one girl designing company that is situated in Atlanta, Georgia. She does almost every kind of design work such as Twitter layouts, WordPress Designs, logos, headers, banners, business cards and whatever you could possibly think of.

Speaking of business card, she’s also the one assigned to make that one for me and I’m currently collaborating with her with regards to it. Just in case you’re curious what her name is, it’s Crystal. 😉

Going back to my twitter design, just in case you haven’t seen it yet, it looks like this (click the image for a larger view):

Don’t mind my face in the right side. 😉 It’s totally my idea, lols. Anyway Crystal has been really really approachable as far as the design is concern. I think it took us about one month to complete it due to the fact that we’re both busy and I’ve been really not giving my instructions clearly so it’s my fault. But nevertheless we were able to get it done.

You could also follow Joidiamonds on Twitter because she occasionally gives out discounts so that is something that you may want to take advantage of.

All in all if you’re looking for a premium design and you don’t want to shred hundreds of dollars only to be surprised that there are just limited number of revisions, then you may want to check Joidiamonds as one of the options. I would definitely recommend her services for these types of design. What say you?

Have You Ever Thought of Revamping Your Marketing Plan?

by Melvin · Oct 10, 2010

Revamping something is one thing that is always feared by people for two reasons, a) is because they’re afraid that everything or mostly that they exerted would put into waste and b). because of skepticism. It’s really hard and there’s no doubt that it would take much thinking and suggestion to actually decide on whether its time to change or not.

I myself had been into these situations. With affiliate marketing for instance where I mostly do my campaigns via PPC and Facebook ads, there were times that I had to change my strategies to adapt to some changes in guidelines that these networks usually impose (especially Facebook). The hardest part of this is that sometimes strategies that have worked a lot of times for you are the ones that you need to revamp.

This can also apply both to internet marketing product launches and just the typical blogging. Over the past few years we’ve seen so many guys changing their strategies/marketing tactics on their business. For instance Shoemoney which came from the pay-per-click/ringtone affiliate marketing has been into list building and product launches as you can easily notice if you’re subscribed to his email list.

Traditional marketers like Jeff Walker, Frank Kern and other ones are getting more into content-based stuff. You can see them tapping blogs or even incentivizing something for their joint ventures.

Another great example is our blog marketing plan and strategies. Before, its more on the more active you are, the more traffic you can pull. If you can be a top commenter on 20-50 popular blogs then it may alone be enough. These days it still works but we have to be more creative in order to justify a good return for our efforts. As you can see guest blogging seems to be the “in” thing since at the start of the year (although it existed a long time ago). Who knows, maybe next year it will not be as effective as it is right now.

Bottom line here is that marketing is a continuous refining process. There may be something that works superbly for now but is obsolete tomorrow. There are also some factors to consider like FTC intervention, saturation, legal type of stuffs and so on which just makes things more complicated. What do you think?

Wordcamp 2010 Recap and Photos

by Melvin · Oct 3, 2010

The last few weeks and days have been pretty crazy for me. As you know I was planning (back then) to attend Wordcamp Philippines and so the way I did it was I slept in office to be able to come early to the event. Eventually I did, through the help of a good officemate named Chigs who offered to accompany me to the event.

Ok now back to the event. I arrived early as in really (6:30 am, event is 8am) early. I stayed in McDonalds for half an hour and went to Benilde at around 7. The organizing team was kind enough to welcome me even though they were surprised I was that early (shame on me!).

Anyhow I just waited patiently. And after quite some time, I met my friends named Paul Gerard and the hyperactive Eymard in the event. These are the same guys whom I met in iBlog event last year.

So this year was kind of like different from the previous year. This year, they had 2 parts. First one is the breakout session and the latter part is the Plenary. Most of the talks in the breakout session (w/c was held in different rooms with limited number of participants) were kind of like fundamental to me but I know its really really valuable especially for the right person.

The Plenary talks were interesting. Topics that were covered are: Social Media powered by WordPress, Blogging Ethics, Google University talk and some sponsor talks. They were of great value and its nice that a lot of people ask questions with regards to it.

The most interesting part though is the Q and A with Matt Mullenweg, the founding developer of WordPress. A lot of people asked interesting questions and its nice to see Matt answering all of them in a very straightforward matter. Questions related to plugin marktplace, Thesis theme and even the Hello Dolly plugins were all asked. Lastly, Matt encourage everyone to approach him personally if we ever have questions or we want to take pics with him. Now thats something not all famous persons would say.

I really like Matt a lot, I mean he’s a smart guy and a very nice person. You may have seen him speak in interviews and stuffs but in person he’s really really such an approachable person. So Matt if you’re reading, its nice to meet you! 😀

Some images

So just to make this post longer (lols) and seriously just to give you some of the neat stuff in Wordcamp, here are some images.

To see more photos from this event, kindly just head on to my photos page.

Conclusion

Overall it’s a nice event as I was able to personally meet Matt and some others there as well. Networking-wise, I failed badly since I hardly talk to anyone aside from my friends. I’ve planned a lot for this and even prepared a document with regards to networking and making more friends in the event. Unfortunately, I’m very shy and it didn’t help that Eymard and Paul weren’t as engaging as well.

But all in all, it’s really nice. The breakout sessions is something that I think is unique. I liked most of the talk and the event overall was great. I’d like to thank the organizers avatar media for really working hard on this event, the sponsors, Matt and everyone who attended the event. Now I’m excited for Wordcamp 2011. 🙂

Driving Consistent Traffic is the Key

by Melvin · Sep 29, 2010

You wonder how those bloggers can actually just spend very little time in a week yet they still get the same amount of traffic to their sites? You wonder how they participate so little in the blogosphere, almost never make comments on other blogs nor do they lurk on forums? There are two simple answers, 1). They’re already an established blogger and 2). The traffic that they get is pretty consistent.

Now the first answer is understandable, they are an established blogger. We all know it takes time to be an established authority blogger. Some of the top bloggers in the space were fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time.

But for us who’s definitely not considered as a top blogger in this space or any other space, what we could work on is getting consistent and recurring traffic to our blog. Yes, this is the same traffic that could repeat again and again with little to no maintenance at all. By driving consistent traffic, there’s a better chance of getting more loyal readers to your blog as oppose to just a one time visit.

Here’s a short quote on my guest post on BlogEngage about driving consistent traffic:

“One thing that sets apart good bloggers from just the average ones is the ability of the former to drive traffic on a consistent basis. Driving traffic these days is easy but what counts the most is on whether the traffic that you’re going to drive is going to convert or not.

Conversion can vary depending on the goals that you set as a blogger but the bottom line here is that every serious blogger must aim for consistent and returning traffic, not just a one time spike.

In this post, I would like to talk about different things that you can do in order to get that consistent stream of traffic. But before that, let me just cover first the facts about traffic and why you need to aim for consistency.”

I also happened to share some personal stuff on this post on how I thought I was already getting consistent traffic but still I don’t so you may want to check the article out.

Blog Engage Crazy Guest Blogging Contest

by Melvin · Sep 24, 2010

Cash contests and guest blogging seem to be the perfect combination these days. Just after one and one and another one have been done, it seems that new guest blogging cash contests keep on springing all over. So for this edition, it’s Blog Engage turn to host its own contest. You can read more about the contest here.

So basically it’s just pretty much the same (as far as rules) as with the other guest blogging contests. In order to win, you have to put in a superb guest article and you have to promote it.

Contest Prizes and Awards

2 year free hosting (3 GB space/15 GB bandwith) + 1 free domain

Leading Travel Directory for Travel Websites

My Guest Blog Media Sponsor

Newark Airport Parking

Other prizes: Non-Cash Sponsors

Platinum Package ” $125 value + stationery design “Business Cards, Letterhead and Envelopes” 100$ value

One year membership at Elegant Themes From Nick

Simply Fresh WordPress theme

Free Blog Review at Bloggeries Blog Forum

One Year Free of HostGator’s Business Web Hosting Plan (a $179.40 value)

So that’s it, make sure you don’t miss it out and please do support me in the contest. As always I just don’t join contests, I try to win them too. 🙂 And it doesn’t end there, I actually hand out superb value by writing a really good article so make sure to check out my post entry there and let me know what you think