How to Drive Traffic to Your Website or Blog - Part 1
I recently left corporate America to pursue my dream to positively impact the lives of 1,000,000 people by March 15, 2008. In order to achieve this, I have been intensely building both my public speaking skills as well as my website blogging skills.
I love speaking in front of a live audience and I also believe in the power of technology and the ability to help people even when I am sleeping. Since EdithYeung.com was launched on April 2nd, 2007, I am grateful to have had 811 unique visitors in the first 29 days. For the first 9 days in May, there have been 497 unique visitors. My goal for this month is to surpass 5000 visitors. I believe I can do it.
Several friends from National Speaker Associations (NSA) have asked me to write about my lessons learned (so far) about driving traffic to my website. Keep in mind that the following is based my own personal experience and results. Obviously there are many other ways to drive traffic, but I prefer methods that are simple, repeatable and incurr zero cost.
Here we go:
BlogCarnival.com A blog carnival is basically a community that creates online “magazines”. Each carnival is a collection of blogs and articles focused on a specific topic. You can submit your blog to multiple carnivals. If the carnival organizer likes what you submitted, they will publish your work on their website and will link back to your site. (For Example: Networking Carnival (May 4, 2007 Edition) ) Blog Carnivals are an excellent way to drive traffic and meet other experts on topics that you are interested in. I typically visit Blog Carnival once a week and submit my articles to various carnivals in time for their “Next Edition” coming up. One third of my traffic comes from carnivals that I have submitted to.
Digg.Com I digg everyday. Digg.com is a reader driven social content website. Once you become a Digg.com member, you can submit content, read content submitted by other users and “digg” the content if you like it. The more people “Digg” you, the more popular your blog would become. The “Digg” community has a very large readership. One quarter of my traffic comes from Digg.com.
Squidoo.com As some of you know already, I am a big fan of Seth Godin. Seth started Squidoo.com to allow people not only to talk about specific topics that matters to them, but also to allow others to comment on the same topics. You can also make money if your readers decide to purchase anything because of your content. For example: In The Dip Squidoo, you will find EdithYeung.com gave a blurb about Seth’s new book “The Dip”. One tenth of my traffic comes from Squidoo.com.
Stumbleupon.com StumbleUpon helps readers to discover and share great websites. Users download a StumpbleUpon toolbar. When the user finds a website they like, and they click the “Stumble!” button, the toolbar delivers pages that match the personal preferences of the users. You can also recommend and rate any websites that you like. I got hundreds of referrals one day from Stumbleupon.com a couple weeks ago. Admittedly, I am still fair new to StumbleUpon, but I would definitely recommend this as it has been generating some nice traffic.
Mylot.com Mylot is very similar to squidoo, but not necessary focused on specific topics. Users can participate in online discussions or check the latest blogs. It will provide news based on their personal preference. You can also submit your blog to Mylot.com and it will fetch the latest content from your site. I have had very good experience with MyLot.com and I participate in some online discussions once a week for about 15 – 30 minutes. The readers referred by Mylots.com appear to be my most loyal readers to date.
LinkedIn.com LinkedIn is an online network of millions of professionals. Each user creates a profile (similar to a resume) with professional accomplishments. LinkedIn uses your profile to match former colleagues, clients, and partners. You can add your own connections by asking them to join. It is a free service and a great way to find connections. I receive about 5 – 10% from LinkedIn just because my former colleagues are curious to know what I have been up to. Feel free to add me to your LinkedIn network.
Blog Top Sites.com – Blog Top Sites is a directory of blogs. Ranking of the sites is done according to the number of unique visits each blog receives every week. You can register your blog on Blog Top Sites and categorize it to specific topics. If your content is great with good traffic, you will be ranked towards the top which drives even more traffic. Edith Yeung.com is ranked 569 in the business categories right now. I probably should change categories as my focus really is on personal development. I will work on that. J
Google Analytics – I use Google Analytics to track my traffic. It is a great way to know what is my top content, number of visitors, where are they from, how long they stay on EdithYeung.com, etc. There are many other engines out there which do exactly the same thing, but I found Google Analytics very user friendly and easy to understand. Just like playing a ball game, you need to know and keep track of your score, right?
Email Signature – This is a very simple thing to do, but I am surprised a lot of people don’t do it. Every time you respond to an email, make sure your signature (with your website) is included. This is how you declare who you are. A lot of my friends (who I forgot to tell that I left corporate) found out about my recent decision to leave corporate America because of this.
Note: I am also working on How to Drive Traffic to Your Website or Blog - Part 2. Coming soon!
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edith | Money & financial Independence, Technology
Hi Edith!
Thanks for sharing your resources - as well as comments on well they have been working for you. I’m looking foward to checking a few of them out.
Cynthia
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[...] presents How to Drive Traffic to Your Website or Blog - Part 1 posted at Edith Yeung.Com: Dream. Think. [...]
web 2.0 Blog Carnival - May 28, 2007 Edition…
Welcome to the May 28, 2007 Edition of the web 2.0 Blog Carnival. A lot of great entries this week. It’s always fun to look at the latest in web 2.0. Props to the authors for their submissions!
Read On for the Posts:
Madeleine Begun Kane pre…
Great tips! I hope you reach your goal!
Great article! I’ve posted it as part of my Blog Carnival at techloaf.com. thx
[...] presents How to Drive Traffic to Your Website or Blog - Part 1 posted at Edith Yeung.Com: Dream. Think. Act.. This is a list of sites and tools that will help you [...]
[...] presents How to Drive Traffic to Your Website or Blog - Part 1 posted at Edith Yeung.Com: Dream. Think. [...]
Make money blogging - June 15, 2007…
Welcome to the June 15, 2007 edition of make money blogging.
Guhan presents Blogging lesson for starters : How to make/earn money by blogging? - Part 3 posted at Make money online, make money by blogging with internetbazaar tips!, saying, &#…
[...] timeless thoughts and ideas of life, career, money, relationships and passions for the busy people. How to Drive Traffic to Your Website or Blog talks about her lessons learned about driving traffic to her [...]
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[...] presents Edith Yeung.com Dream Think Act » Blog Archive » How to Drive Traffic to Your Website or Blog - Pa… posted at Edith Yeung.Com: Dream. Think. [...]
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make money blogging 101 - July 23, 2007…
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Welcome to the July 23, 2007 edition of make money blogging 101.
Praveen presents The …
Thanks for sharing. Good info to check out.
[...] Yeung presents How to Drive Traffic to Your Website or Blog - Part 1 and 53 Ways to Make Money on the Internet posted at Edith Yeung.Com: Dream. Think. [...]
[...] presents How to Drive Traffic to Your Website or Blog - Part 1 posted at Edith Yeung.Com: Dream. Think. [...]
[...] How to Drive Traffic to Your Website or Blog - Part 1 [...]
[...] Yeung introduces a number of creative ways How to Drive Traffic to Your Website or Blog - Part 1 beyond the obvious. On the same topic, Ant presents 3 Ways to Increase your Blog [...]
Great ideas. You might also want to look at my suggestions for getting a web site noticed:
http://www.grahamjones.co.uk/indepth/2007/07/10-ways-to-get-your-web-site-noticed.htm
[...] presents How to Drive Traffic to Your Website or Blog - Part 1 posted at Edith Yeung.Com: Dream. Think. [...]
[...] presents How to Drive Traffic to Your Website or Blog - Part 1 posted at Edith Yeung.Com: Dream. Think. [...]
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[...] presents How to Drive Traffic to Your Website or Blog - Part 1 posted at Edith Yeung.Com: Dream. Think. [...]
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[...] with our readers, and this one from Edith Yeung is important. Edith shares her own experiences driving traffic to her fairly new blog, and she is apparently having [...]
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Thanks Edith. It was very interesting to see the distribution of traffic from those various sites. My experience with Digg is a short term burst of traffic followed by a slow dribble of traffic. Natural search has been a lot stronger for me.
Great tips. Thanks.
One thing I’m focusing on is creating great content. A lot of advice out there makes it sound like if you don’t get several thousand people to your blog in the first two weeks, you’re doomed.
But I think ultimately, it’s content that drives visitors in the long term.
Yeah, this is a very very cool blog.
I just added you to my favorites.
Thanx,
Mikey
Great tips. Thanks. You have a praise worthy goal and i wish you luck in achieving it. =)
Great advice. There are definitely a few sites on this list that I had not thought of.
I opened shop myself on November 30th, 2007 and as of December 10th, 2007 I have 767 unique visitors. Thanks to these tips I hope to have many more in the future. 5000 mark here I come!
-Harley Stagner
http://www.searchmarked.com
[...] and self-reliant (American). She’s crafted several ways to find mentors and colleagues and to encourage other young Asian immigrants to do the same. After finding success as a high tech executive in [...]