Build A Blog To Increase Your Site Traffic

Not too long ago, the question seemed to be "To blog or not to blog." But now the blog has truly established itself as a formidable web presence and the question has become, "To blog or not to be." But it can be a lonely feeling when you write a blog and nobody is there to read it. How do you create a blog, but more importantly how do you create one people will actually read? This post will introduce you to the common everyday blog and show you how it can carry you to uncommon and exceptional heights.

Just in case you haven't heard, the term "blog" is short for "web log" (leave it to a bunch of computer geeks to squeeze a couple of words together and make a new dictionary entry). Originally blogs were similar to an online diary, or a log of places you visited on the web. But today the blog platform has emerged as a content manager, an easy way to create a web site and manage your articles and other posts. A blog is a great way to easily post the latest information, and that is why the search engines love them.

Whenever someone says "search engine" and "loves them" in the same sentence you should pay attention. Yes search engines love blogs because they are a constant source of new and changing information, and that's what search engines seek. I not only recommend that you start your own blog, but I recommend that you start two.
Here's why:

Use one blog as a content management system. You can build an entire website on a blog platform like WordPress, and if you have a web host with cPanel access and Fantastico, you can create a WordPress blog in a few clicks. If building your own blog from scratch seems a little overwhelming at first, you can get a free WordPress blog at wordpress.com and you won't even have to host it.

Create second blog and use it as a true web log. Journal all about your online activities and refer to the articles and posts in your first blog. Each time you link to your first blog, you've just helped your search engine results. Build this second blog at www.wordpress.com or give www.blogger.com a try. Blogger is operated by Google and it is believed that "search engine" really "loves them" (remember what I said about those phrases together?

So as I already said, link between these two blogs often. You can create a little network of related blogs, all linking to each other, and each helping the other with search engine placement. Here's an important tip: use keywords in all your blog names, URL's, post titles, article titles and in all of your links; when the search engine spiders follow your links you don't want there to be any doubt what those links are about!

If you have an existing web site you want to promote, link to it whenever possible in all of your blogs. Talk about new features and offers at your site; the more you can log on your blog, the better.

How To Build Traffic Through Giveaways

If you wouldn't mind indulging me a moment, I'd like you to think about a virus. What does a virus have to do with anything of interest to you? Well, a virus is something that enters the body as a microscopic germ and spreads until it virtually takes things over. Doesn't that sound like the perfect internet marketing campaign? How would an internet germ get through? You can start a viral marketing germ with a free tool, service, template or report, and if conditions are correct it can spread like wildfire. This post will share a few ideas about how offering a free product can perform wonders for your online business.

It is a well known fact that everyone loves free stuff. If the free stuff is something useful like a tool, template, service or valuable information, then so much the better. But many of us have a large section of our hard drives full of things we've downloaded for free and will never use. The original idea seemed good and we probably exchanged our email addresses for these bits of hard drive clutter, but something about them just didn't pan out. Maybe they weren't what we expected.

So if you're going to give away something free, and your motive is for it to create a viral marketing effect and be passed around the internet, you're more likely to be successful if you give away something that's really useful. What can people within your market really use? If your free giveaway is just some gimmick or even worse just an attempt to sell another product, it isn't going to get passed around.

But even if you do offer a true quality giveaway, what will make it go viral? You could have the greatest free tool which anyone can use, but what is going to make anyone take the time to pass it on to a friend? Can you simply ask them to? Maybe, but what if you gave a real reason to pass it?

Are there any affiliate links in the product? It may seem like this only applies to an ebook or report, but sometimes a tool will have a link to the author's web site. A free template will usually have a link somewhere around the copyright notice. What if these links were to an affiliate program, and what if the person who passed your free offer on could replace the link with their own affiliate link? Wouldn't it motivate someone to pass on a nice tool or template if they thought they might make a little money from it?

If you want someone to perform an action for you, you've got to show that person what is in it for him/her.