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Learn how to market your blog by blogging for traffic…

What’s the use in creating a blog post, no matter how beautiful and eye-catching, if nobody’s going to notice it? The cost effective method I use, and what I’m going to teach you in this article, is to get your blog page to rank on the first page of Google. This is a little easier said than done of course, given the fact that ranking on page one competes with literally millions of other sites, but when you use my blog traffic tips, it’s not only easy, but can be really a lot of fun!

So what’s so fun about learning “how to market your blog”?

For me, it’s like a video game. When I put my three strategies together, I love entering my keyword phrase into Google and see my site rise higher and higher to page one. And, just like a game, sometimes it goes down, so I need to figure out why and tweet it again. (This can be addicting if you’re not careful LOL!) And, what I really love about these blog traffic tips is that they’re all relatively free. Why mess around with pay per click only to “gamble” your money away? If you’re new to online marketing at all, that’s an easy way to lose your business fast. When you learn how to market your blog through cost effective strategies, it’s not only fun, but you get to see your bank account increase – which is really fun!

So here are my three “blog traffic tips” for how to market your blog…

Blog Traffic Tip 1: Keyword Research

Start with keyword research. This is actually quite fun once you get the hang of it. Once you have an idea of the subject matter you want to blog about, think of a keyword phrase, that is, several words you are able to repeat within your post, and begin your research. You can find out how many people are searching for your keyword phrase by using the free Google website “adwords.google.com”. Notice that in this article, I’m using the keyword phrase “how to market your blog”. So the object of the “game” is to get to where when you enter in how to market your blog into the Google search bar, you’ll see your site appear on Google’s page one.

Blog Traffic Tip 2: Social Syndication

The two most popular sites to syndicate through, of course, are Facebook and Twitter. You’ll want to make sure that your content contains real value of people so will have a reason to click on your link. Basically, there are two reasons why people search the net: to alleviate pain of some kind, or to gain pleasure. Whatever it is that you’re promoting, make sure your blog post is centered on how your reader can limit pain or gain pleasure. For example, “Three things to avoid when you’re learning how to market your blog” will tell your reader that if he clicks on your link, it’s apt to find a short cut to “blogging for traffic”, thereby limiting the pain of trial and error techniques.

When you’re using social syndication in blogging for traffic, the easiest way is to establish an account with onlywire or ping.fm. Either of these sites will submit your blog post link to about 40 different social media sites with the click of a button.

Blog Traffic Tip 3: Back-linking strategies

This technique calls for linking to a high page ranking site. In my strategy, I enter two links at the end of my article or blog post. These are both sent to high page ranking sites. Why? Because when Google ranks your post, there are two things taken into consideration, relevancy and popularity. Your keyword phrase used through your post will make to relevant. But how to you make it popular? You could wait until you have enough readers to view and click like and tweet your material… or, if you’re impatient like me, you’ll want to use back-links.

Learn how to market your blog using back-linking strategies…

Here’s my secret: I insert a link for my “anchor text” to a high page ranking site, which is already popular on Google, and that brings up the popularity of my own site. How can you tell if a website is popular? Google uses a scoring system called “Alexa”. You can find out the popularity of any site by going to alexa.com and downloading the toolbar for free. The lower the score, the more popular, and the higher the page rank. I use YouTube, which has an Alexa of 3 out of millions for one of my links, and my team blogging site, as my other link, having an Alexa of 800 out of millions.

But what about blogging for traffic if you don’t have your own blog?

It’s not necessary to spend hundreds of dollars creating your own blog. You can simply use the team blog site and customize it to your own specifications, and use that as your blog platform. From there, I’d send links to YouTube and a high page ranking article directory site. The idea is to get as many high authority sites linking to your material as possible.

Learning how to market your blog is as easy as 1-2-3 when you begin with a team blog site that is already popular…

Blogging for Business: Tips and Strategies to Make Your Website’s Blog Work for You

If you’re in business online, you probably have a blog. If you don’t have a business blog yet – you need to get a business blog. Blogging for business is a crucial (and free) way to advertise yourself, your website and your products. It also helps with search engines to affiliate your business website with crucial keywords.

What makes a successful blog? This is one of those answers that’s as simple as it seems. A blog is a necessary extension of your business website. Your blog is a great marketing tool, but it’s a mistake to use it solely as a marketing tool. Readers don’t want to return to a blog that is completely self-serving and reads like an infomercial.

Here are some great tips to help make your blogging experience more fun and more beneficial:

Offer Quality Content
Seems like it goes without saying, but you might be surprised at how often this is overlooked. In order for your blog to be successful, it needs to be engaging. Plenty of people may follow or read your blog, the key is to get the to leave comments and remember what you had to say. Comments aren’t the only way to make your blog interesting and interactive. You can also make use of questions, polls, interesting facts, links, relevant videos, your favorite things, and many other things that involve human interest and touch on emotions.

Catchy Title and Opening Sentence
Your title and opening sentence are your post’s first impression. You know what they say about first impressions. Make your title and opening sentence engaging and interesting and your reader is more likely to stick around and read the rest of your post. They may even share it! Also, good use of words in a blog title is more likely to be scooped up by the search engines. Ask yourself ‘is this something I would want to read?’ If not, there’s a good chance your reader won’t want to read it either.

Post Regularly
If you’re blogging for business, then you should get yourself on a blogging schedule. If someone is a devout follower of your blog, it won’t take long for them to tire of stopping by your blog to see the same post they saw last week. With so many blogs to look at they may move on to someone who posts more frequently. Don’t let that happen. Post regularly. Even if regularly is only once or twice a week, it keeps your content fresh, keeps people interested and gives them a chance to connect with you. Whether it’s a favorite quote, video or picture… it’s still new content. Another idea I employ is to have blog posts written in advance to post for those times when ‘life happens’.

Keep it Positive
One of the worst things you can do is to be negative. If you’re in the business of complaining or trash talking your competition, chances are-you won’t have many readers. If you do have readers, they’re likely not the readers you want. A business blog is not the place for highly controversial topics and negativity-you alienate readers and risk coming across as unpleasant or difficult. Some may argue that controversy draws traffic, but that’s not a chance worth gambling your business credibility with.

It Takes a Friend to Make a Friend
Comments. Who doesn’t love ‘em? One of the easiest ways to bring attention to your own blog is to leave comments on other blogs. Not only is it good free publicity, it’s a nice thing to do. Besides-you just might learn something or uncover some good tips or a sale. Win-Win.

Make it Personal
I can’t say it enough. Take advantage of social media (Facebook, LinkedIn…) One of the best things about social media outlets is that they offer a targeted audience to share new ideas, products and information. Blogs and social media outlets allow the buyer/potential buyer to see you on a more personal level which is almost always good for business.

Guest Blogging
Guest blogging is a great way to promote other businesses. You’re giving your guest the attention of your audience and at the same time, you will be introduced to a new audience of readers and gain some publicity by being a guest blogger on their site. Everyone wins: new exposure & new readers for the writers and new perspective for the readers. Nice.

Use Links & Keywords
Your blog is one of the best places for you to take advantage of relevant links and search engine friendly keywords. Whenever possible link back to your website, your previous blog posts and/or your social media sites. When you share the other places you can be located online, it saves the reader the trouble of having to research the information. It also gives you credibility and shows your willingness to showcase your wares across several channels. Aren’t you savvy and established to be all over the place!

Analytics and Trackers
Take advantage of the free analytic and tracking software available out there. You can find out what sites or keywords brought visitors to your blog, where they are ‘bouncing’ to, the geographic demographic of your readers, how long people were on your site, what posts were most popular and so much more. Try Google analytics to get started.

End on a High Note
Your first few sentences determine if your reader will stick around. Once they have gotten to the end, the trick becomes getting them to come back. I always suggest ending on a positive note, as well as with a call to action. Both will make the reader feel engaged and curious about what’s to come. Don’t you agree?