blog marketing

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.

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?

What My Readers Are Saying With the Free Report

by Melvin · Jun 15, 2010

Not so long ago, I gave away my first “freemium” product on blogging which is all about marketing blogs competitively. The book was titled “Blog Marketing for Fame” and its a little report where I tackled several ways to make your blog popular by employing creative and competent strategies.

So like any other marketer/blogger, I immediately seek their opinion about the product and so far so good. 😉

Vic Soriano says:

Your report is indeed very much informative. I am amazed at your writing skills and would love to meet you in person one day. I am much older than you are but I am learning a lot from you. Continue sharing your knowledge and being a blessing to others that God may bless you even more!

SantoshKumar B says:

yeah it was beneficial n i find it nesessary for future work..thankss..

Elie Palima says:

The ebook was Great. I learned alot. thanks! 😉

I like the idea about guest blogging. actually I’ve thought about it a lot for quite sometime now.

Brook says:

Sound strategies but very advanced tactics. I like the way you pointed out guest blogging and creative advertising. I find it all innovative

Now I don’t want to fill this post with testimonials for the poor sake of bragging. This is entirely risk-free, you just sign up with the newsletter, get your copy and then read it. If you don’t like it, fine, you can delete it w/no problem at all. But I’m sure if you pay attention well to the product, you can actually benefit a lot from it.

Well just to clarify, the free eBook is just an icing. By subscribing to the newsletter, the main benefit you are going to get is the insider tips, premium email newsletter and case studies that I don’t usually publish here in this blog. Those are really good stuffs and in fact, I’m even considering on selling those insider messages someday as a paid product.

Lastly, the newsletter is entirely me sending you good stuff, not some random guy or a part of the staff (unlike some big marketers). You can see that I’m even using my personal email so any time you feel like replying or clarifying something from the newsletter, I’d be able to help up asap. 🙂 So make sure you’re in!

Do make sure you’re not missing the newsletter or maybe if you have already downloaded the product, make sure to give your take as well.

Best Blog Marketing Tip Contest Updates & Clarifications

by Melvin · Jun 9, 2010

So last week I launched probably one of the biggest contest in blogging history and so far I’m receiving awesome feedbacks and some suggestions as well. As I’ve said, no contest is perfect and suggestions like this can only improve the contest and make it much more enjoyable.

In a span of a week, the contest official post has become one of the most viewed pages in the blog for this year! It’s amazing that it even got retweeted by big bloggers like Neil Patel and John Chow.

But that being said, there is only a couple of entries yet for the contest. In my opinion, I think it coincides with the fact that the contest will run still up to July 15 and most “wise” bloggers would prefer to observe and speculate first before joining. While it’s a wise and clever tactic, I may have to say that starting the contest early is still the BEST way to get it done. Why? Because by doing it early, you will get more traffic, more social media exposure, more retweets, comments and more importantly you can still improve your article based on feedbacks. But then still its up to you.

Another issue I’d like to clear is on whether traffic from blog is a huge part or not. Actually its not. It accounts for less than 30% and I did that thing because I know there are many blogs out there who don’t have that much traffic, yet are writing good content. Remember that we have judges and 70% of the criteria is about the quality. I know most of the recent contests give emphasis on promotion but as I’ve said, the goal of this contest is more on giving back to the blogosphere.

Second, I usually receive the question “What if I don’t have the best blog marketing tip?”

To be honest, is there really is? Perhaps yes, but it’s really all about trying to become creative and intercepting that and the need of your readers. If you can do that I can pretty much guarantee that it is going to be a recipe for success.

You see blogging is not new anymore. You can find soooo many marketing topics already covered around the internet. I’m not saying you should read and rehash those articles, what I’m implying is that you have to be innovative. For me most of the articles on the subject is either incomplete and unclear or is badly outdated.

It’s like essay, give your best shot because there’s no best answer. That’s why we have judges.

And lastly, it doesn’t have to be a walkthrough. I know most of us are psyched that long article means good quality. It is, but that doesn’t mean that you have to write a 2000ish word article to qualify. If a 500-word article can do it, then Im fine with that. Right now most bloggers are not newbies anymore so if you can eliminate all the super detailed noob info stuffs, then good.

And here’s the FAQ I set up specifically just for this one:

The contest will run for how long?

It will run from June 1 up to July 15 12 AM ET

Is there any requirement aside from writing articles?

You have to link back to the contest post so I can track your entry.

How if a trackback isn’t generated?

That happens in rare cases but if it ever does, just comment on my blog or hit me up personally.

Any hardened-fast rules on the article where going to make?

None. Just make sure its your best blog marketing tip. 😉

How many winners are going to be selected?

There will be 3 winners from the main writing contest and 10 winners on the retweet contest. As said in the contest post, there are going to be mini contests in the middle of the duration so watch out

Can I bribe a judge to make me win?

Yes, if you know them. 😉

Do I have to comment on the post?

No, its not required

Is retweeting a mandatory condition to win the contest?

No. It’s another contest.

If I don’t like the prize can I convert it to cash?

Essentially no. But the safer answer is it depends on the sponsor.

Can I make a series post instead of the usual one long post?

Yes. Whatever you want it will be just fine

When is the deadline for submitting entries?

July 15 12 AM Eastern Time

Do I have to link out to all the sponsors?

Definitely not.

If you have any more concerns, do so here in the comment form. All relevant questions will be added in this FAQ page

Most Blog Fail at This, Marketing!

by Melvin · Feb 7, 2010

Ever wonder why 90% of the blogs just can’t get off the ground? Simple, they suck at marketing!

Because of the nature of blogging and what it really is, a lot of people doing blogging just couldn’t really make it. Blogging is defined originally as a hobby, something that’s like a personal diary where you can enjoy doing it without needing to spend that much of time. So up until now this is the stumbling block that most newbie bloggers and even intermediate ones face.

Almost always, the case is that bloggers don’t want to learn marketing at all. Selling sucks isn’t it? And besides you never dreamed to be a sales person throwing up stupid sales pitches to your audience. That being said, it‘s safe to conclude that bloggers don‘t think marketing is essential for the success of their blogs.

If you‘ve been reading this blog for quite some time, you always hear me say that blogging is internet marketing. That is true and your success depends on how competent you are with marketing. Some people who want to learn it even pay for those expensive internet marketing courses and programs while others simply just try to learn it themselves.

In blogging, however you really don’t need to know each and every stuff about internet marketing, you only need a few of them to get started. Coupled with building relationships, good marketing can really skyrocket your blog/brand/profile w/c would get you more traffic and obviously the end result is income.

Blog Marketing for Fame

So for the last 2 and half months or so, I took some time in creating this guide w/c would help an average blogger grow their blog on a quick rate. Nope this isn’t a make money eBook or a crappy PLR product. This is a simple info product w/c is targeted to bloggers who like to explode their blog traffic, get their brand known and simply just slay it in the blogosphere. Whether you’re a newbie blogger or an intermediate one, I would like to hope that this product is one that can be very valuable to you. It contains tips on how you can grow your blog quickly in less than one month (or whatever pace you want to). And by saying growing your blog, it’s not just about increase daily hits or huge unique, it’s about building a real brand with real community that will be with you for the long haul.

Edit: This book has been rebranded and updated as ‘Blog Marketing Guide‘

Subscribe now & Get Immediate Access

After signing-up to my blog’s newsletter you will immediately be able to download your copy of the Blog Marketing for Fame eBook. On top of that you’ll also receive my exclusive tips and tricks to market your blog (stuff that is not published anywhere else), insider’s information about my upcoming projects and so on. The newsletter is totally free and if you think the content you’re receiving is crap, you can cancel anytime.

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