e-Business-Formula Internet Marketing Discussion Forum

[Steve MacLellan]

Until last Summer I had pretty well given up on blogging. As a matter of fact my last blog post using Coranto was Dec, 2001. Then last Summer I found that blogging was "catching on" so I revamped my blog and started blogging again.

In May 2004 I had an average of 129 visitors per day and since I started blogging again I'm hitting (some days) over 500 with an average of 486 so far for this month on a daily basis. It has been steadily growing each month.

Now I miss the odd day here and there, but I try to blog almost every weekday, and weekends when I can. So...

I would like to ask everyone here if this is consistent with their results. How often does every one post to their blogs, and what has it done to their traffic.

Best Regards,
Steve MacLellan

[Kevin Robb]

Hi Steve,

This is an interesting topic and I look forward to others presenting their numbers as well.

I am relatively new to Blogs, my oldest http://www.ebusiness-advisor.com started in September 2004.

From a zero start this month the site has averaged 245 visitors a day and continues to grow.

On an average I post to it three times a week...what is noticeable however is the traffic spike almost immediately after each post.

Clearly I need to post more often, but that being said I am happy with the traffic to date given that I am still learning a lot in regards to using a Blog to advantage.

I expect to see better results as the year develops but from this learning experience I am confident a new Blog I'm about to launch will receive a higher level of traffic than I get now simply because I have a better handle on how to promote and draw traffic to it.

Cheers

Kevin Robb

[LizTomey]

Everyone says blog and you will get traffic... HOW? WHY?

Am I missing something?

Liz

[Steve MacLellan]

Hi Liz,

Once you have your blog set up you should visit [url=http://www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55/]RSSTop55 - Best Blog Directory And RSS Submission Sites[/url] and submit your blog to all of the applicable links, as well as to your myYahoo! account.

Most of my extra traffic comes from the special directories that parse your RSS feeds into headlines, and allow subscribers' to manage multiple newsfeeds from their accounts.

There is a fairly good percentage of my traffic that subscribe to one of my RSS feeds, and I constantly use the blog features like trackbacks, pings and comments to let other sites know I've published something relevant to one of their topics... which brings in another bunch of visitors.

Best Regards,
Steve MacLellan

[LizTomey]

I was fine until you said trackbacks... Everything else I am totally understanding. Steve, you always do such an awesome job explaining things!


Steve's Idiot Guide For Liz




Liz

[Steve MacLellan]

Hi Liz,

Trackback? I had to have them explained to me too. The blog software I used a few years ago didn't have this feature.

A picture is worth a thousand words (or so they say... if you can believe whoever "they" are...)

If you take a look at [url=http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2005/01/the_google_watc.html]this post[/url] by Seth Godin and look at the sub-head [b]TrackBack[/b] under the main article the first thing you see is the TrackBack URL for this entry.

The comments below this are from people who wished to reference Seth's post and used that URL to to automatically include the first few lines of their own post of their own blog article and have it appear under this sub-head on Seth's article.

This is how multiple related discussions and articles can be carried across the Internet through-out various blogs, but also lets you capitalize a little bit on the other blogs traffic. Some one reading this post might be interested in the views of the people who posted a TrackBack, and come to your blog to read your opinion.

See... Seth didn't put those TrackBack comments there himself. The individuals whose brief comments appear (using blog software that supports this feature) copied and pasted the TrackBack URL into a special text input on their own blog. This in turn sends either the first few lines of your post or excerpt to the blog post you are referencing, and displays them along with a link to your post on the topic.

So... let's suppose you are visiting your favorite blogs and see 3-4 sites with a post about something you would like to make a summary of and add your own thoughts. You could put the TrackBack URLs in the appropriate place on your blog software, and now the first few lines of your post (or excerpt) will appear on each of the 3-4 sites you are referencing automatically.

A great way to bring in extra traffic, and more importantly a good way to let others know you have something to say on the topic.

Now that you know a little more about it, you might want to enable this feature in your own blog software.

Best Regards,
Steve MacLellan

PS
Thanks goes to Paul Short who [i]helped me[/i] figure this stuff out.

[kellylowe]

That totally confused me. Try it again, Steve...in Kelly speak this time!!!

I'll go get more coffee while you do that.....

[img]http://imagehost.biz/ims/pictes/209221.gif[/img]

[Steve MacLellan]

Hi Kelly,

[quote]Try it again, Steve...in Kelly speak this time!!![/quote]

I guess I didn't do a very good job of explaining it. Maybe it would be better to let someone else explain it?

MovableType offers this [url=http://www.movabletype.org/trackback/beginners/]tutorial on trackback[/url] and I also found a [url=http://www.commoncraft.com/archives/000568.html]similar tutorial[/url] except it might be a little clearer.

If neither of those links help, I will attempt to make it easier to understand.

Best Regards,
Steve MacLellan

[LizTomey]

Hey Steve!

I'm starting to get it now. Now I am REALLY seeing a cool way to get traffic to your site. Use it almost like a forum type thing right? You see something on a blog, comment on it on your blog by using the "thingy" you talked about that some blog software supports, and then #1 your comments are seen on that persons blog and you could get traffic right? So as long as you only do trackbacks on topics you really know about you could really use this to your benefit right????

I "think" I'm getting it. Either that or just REALLY confused Kelly. *lol*

If so, Kelly, I am terribly sorry. Maybe between Kelly and I Steve, we may be able to get this blog thing down.

Liz

[Steve MacLellan]

Hi Liz,

You said:

[quote]I'm starting to get it now. Now I am REALLY seeing a cool way to get traffic to your site. Use it almost like a forum type thing right? You see something on a blog, comment on it on your blog by using the "thingy" you talked about that some blog software supports, and then #1 your comments are seen on that persons blog and you could get traffic right? So as long as you only do trackbacks on topics you really know about you could really use this to your benefit right????[/quote]

That's right. You are able to create a new blog entry about someone's post, and an excerpt of your post appears on their site.

I think you got it!

Best Regards,
Steve MacLellan

[kellylowe]

Thanks for the links Steve. It made sense, and now I understand. Today, I will be updating my blog, and I've already started listing it in all of those directories.

My next question: How might one search for a blog that contains certain keywords in posts? For instance, if I want to blog about the effects of certain fertilizers on plants, and I want to find other blogs that are discussing this, how would I search for that?

Thanks,

[Steve MacLellan]

Hi Kelly,

You said:

[quote]My next question: How might one search for a blog that contains certain keywords in posts? For instance, if I want to blog about the effects of certain fertilizers on plants, and I want to find other blogs that are discussing this, how would I search for that? [/quote]

Some of these directories you will be submitting your blog to can be searched for keywords. I just went and searched two for the keyword "fertilizers" and [url=http://bloglines.com/]Bloglines.com[/url] returned what would appear to be good results. Give it a try!

Best Regards,
Steve MacLellan

[LizTomey]

Okay, this is my last question for you Steve, and then I'll leave you alone for a little bit on blog questions...

My blog is through Blogger. It is hosted on my site, but I use blogger to update it. From all the new knowledge I have, I think I have out grown blogger. I was warned about this when I first started using it. Blogger doesn't offer all the options I want my blog to have. Especially the track back option...

So.... I am going to go with WordPress... Is there a way to move your blog, or am I just going to have to start over?

Any info would be appreciated.

Liz

[Steve MacLellan]

Hi Liz,

[quote]Is there a way to move your blog, or am I just going to have to start over?[/quote]

I haven't used Blogger and I haven't used Wordpress so I wouldn't know. But Paul Short has tired just about every blogging package and he might be able to tell you. You could probably send him a PM through this forum as he is a member.

Or if you visit [url=http://www.forum4bloggers.com/index.php]Forum4Bloggers.com[/url] someone there might have done this before and could offer some advice.

I say might... because I just found out about that forum last week, and haven't read through too many of the posts yet.

Best Regards,
Steve MacLellan

[LizTomey]

Hey Steve!

I'd never heard of that forum. I've got about a billion blog questions.. Just kidding... Only like 100 or so...

Let's see if I can figure this one out....

Liz