Easy, Effective Ways to Promote Your Blog

You may be content to post a few blog entries and only have them read by yourself and and your friends. However, if one of your goals as a blogger is to earn a little money, then you definitely need to attract more traffic, and that means promoting your blog online. People need to be able to find your blog before they can visit and click on your beautifully-placed Adsense or Widgetbucks ads. Unfortunately, most new bloggers don’t know much about promoting a blog. However, it doesn't take long to learn the basics of good blog promotion. With just a little effort, you can spread the word about your terrific new blog, get it linked to by other blogs, get it recognized and trusted by search engines (such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing) and increase your blog traffic. The nine techniques below are all easy and free, and will definitely increase traffic to your blog. --Mia

1. Building Search Engine Traffic Takes Time

New blogs generally take two to six months before they gain enough trust from search engines to produce any type of significant flow of traffic. Blogs come and go every day, so you have to demonstrate that you are a stable source of content before a search engine will trust you enough to send traffic your way. Many new bloggers get discouraged before the search engines recognize them, but if you're reading this, then you are probably more persistent. That's good. Just keep posting while the search engines learn to trust you. You don't have to manually submit your blog search engines any more. They will find you.

2. Quality Content is Essential

Building a blog that is search engine-friendly is critical if you want to maximize search traffic, so take care of that from the start and focus on creating great content that others will talk about and link to. Great content means posts that are relatively free from spelling, grammatical, and punctuation errors. Yes, the Google software that crawls your pages notices these things and they do indeed count. You also need to write more than one or two words-- aim for at least 50-100 words per post. After all, the search engines need something to crawl and match ads to.

3. Not All Traffic Is Equal

No two sources of traffic are quite the same. My colleagues and I get a good percentage of our blog traffic through social media, but social media traffic is generally less responsive and less likely to stick around than visitors from most other sources. Focusing on numbers alone without considering other information can cause a bit of an illusion. Sure, lots of visitors is great, but are they leaving after being on the blog for 30 seconds and never returning?

Search engine traffic (search results from Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.) is highly sought after because these visitors are actively looking for what you have to offer. Also, visitors who are referred from another blog will generally be more responsive since they have been recommended by someone they trust. Every source of traffic has pros and cons, so try to take these things into consideration when you are promoting your blog and watching the flow of traffic. I recommend using Feedjit widgets like the ones in the right side-bar of this blog to keep an eye on your blog traffic. The widgets can show you what sites are referring visitors to your blog, what search terms they use, how long they stay, what they read, and where they go when they leave.

4. Consistent Posting Is Key

Most bloggers need to keep publishing new posts in order to keep traffic at a certain level. Some bloggers are able to generate large amounts of search engine traffic to older posts to the point that traffic will be fairly sustained without new posts, but this is pretty rare. New posts keep subscribers coming back, they keep social media votes coming, and they keep adding new pages to search engine indexes.

Posting consistently doesn’t mean that you have to post every day, it simply means that you need to publish content on a somewhat regular basis, whatever that may be. Almost every blog that successfully draws traffic is publishing new posts with some consistency. Choose a time of day or days of the week so regular followers of your blog know when to expect something new.

5. Traffic is Inconsistent

Although posting needs to be consistent to keep traffic levels up, that doesn’t mean that it will keep traffic levels consistent. Don't worry about it. Every blog has ups and downs and two days are rarely the same. This is the nature of the Internet. Just enjoy the times when traffic is high, and keep on plugging away to get through the slower times.

6. Try to Attract Repeat Visitors and Followers

Yes, it’s great to see an impressive number of unique visitors arriving at your blog, but how many of them will come back tomorrow? Repeat visitors and RSS feed subscribers are the lifeblood of blogs.

Repeat visitors will not only help to improve your overall traffic flow and stats, more importantly they will be your most responsive visitors in terms of comments, social media votes, sales, and just about anything else. As they keep coming back and reading your blog, you will earn more of their trust, tell their friends, and your network will grow.

7. Links, Links, and More Links

Building inbound links is a priority for most bloggers, and for good reason. They drive click-through traffic from other blogs, increase your exposure around the blogosphere, and they help to boost your search engine rankings. Try exchanging links with other bloggers (I'll link to yours if you link to mine...hehe). Getting a few links from respected blogs can help with search engine traffic, but the added credibility that you get can be just as important, especially for newer bloggers.

8. Know Your Google Page Rank

Although the competition is heating up, Google still rules the Internet, so knowing how Google rates your blog is vital to understanding how search engine traffic is being sent to you blog...or not being sent to your blog, as the case may be. Check your Google Page Rank for free HERE.

9. Submit Your Blog to Blog Directories for Free

When your blog is a few months old and has plenty of content that you are proud to call your own, list your blog for free on blog directories such as Technorati, Blog Search Engine, and Blogdigger. Next, submit each of your posts to Digg.com or Dropjack.com. Remember, inbound links get new visitors to drop by, but attractive and high-quality content keeps them coming back for more

What is Widgetbucks and Does It Work?

WidgetBucks heralds itself as the ultimate Google AdSense alternative. The system inserts "dynamic ads that cycle through a handful of products in real-time, while displaying those products star ratings, descriptions and best prices."

I am not currently using Wedgetbucks on any of my blogs or websites, but it seemed worth investigating. Widgetbucks created a stir around the webmaster community with its aggressive, anti-AdSense advertising campaign, and promise of high click payoffs. But does it work?

With WidgetBucks, your income structure is based on pay-per-click, where you are paid for each click made on an ad by a legitimate website visitor. You do not earn anything for conversions, or products sold as a result of those clicks. The main thing about Widgetbucks ads is that they dynamically cycle through a list of products that you select, rather than showing a static ad that only changes with a page refresh. Widgetbucks ad code uses Javascript to generate its Adobe Flash-based ads.

Widgetbucks is a legitimate company, and is managed by the Mpire Corporation. "WidgetBucks is created by Mpire Corporation...Founded in 2005, Mpire is backed by Ignition Partners and former eBay executive and Pay Pal angel investor Richard Rock."

Widgetbucks officially launched on October 2, 2007. The first-ever round of payments have successfully been reported by Widgetbucks publishers during the first week of December 2007. The average waiting period for the first payment was approximately 45 days.

Adsense ads and Widgetbucks ads can coexist on the same page, so you are welcome to use both on your blog.

So is it worth using? Here is Squidoo has to say about that:

"Widgetbucks is a great alternative publishers' program for anyone looking to jazz up their blog or site with a graphical, ever-changing ad that displays multiple products. Note that it is not for those looking to blend ads with the rest of their site - these ads do scream "I'm an ad!", so - other tactics should be assessed for your website(s). Widgetbucks is a good alternative for AdSense users suffering from penny clicks. Even at the minimum, I was earning $0.07 per click for a video site that was previously earning penny clicks with AdSense. Widgetbucks' contextual option struggles, for the most part (it's the option that looks at your page, and displays items that it thinks would be most relevant). Selecting your own categories is highly recommended. Note that some Widgetbucks users complain about how Widgetbucks ads will slow down the load time of a web page. This matter was addressed by Widgetbucks in late October, with more optimized ads. Many webmasters have reported more success with using Widgetbucks ads near the bottom of a page (since the ad will be loaded by the time you scroll down to see it). It should also be noted that Widgetbucks works best on websites or blogs that review products - such as consumer electronics."

Calculate Your Google Page Rank Now!

Your Google Page Rank helps to determine how easily people can find your blog when conducting a Google search. Of course, relevance of content to their search counts, too. However, if I'm search for a particular topic, and there are multiple blogs or websites available that are equally relevant to my search, those with a higher page rank will tend to appear higher on the list. Read this previous post to learn more about exactly what Google Page Rank is, and use the widget below to find out the page rank of any blog or website. Enjoy! --Mia

Check Page Rank of any web site pages instantly:

This free page rank checking tool is powered by Page Rank Checker service

Know What Pages Your Readers Are Viewing

If you have signed up for Google Adsense or have sold advertising space on your blog, then the next step is to find out what pages your readers are viewing. You can do this in Adsense by enabling Channels, but there are other ways, too. My favorite is some free software called FEEDJIT. There is a premium version that costs money, but the free version is quite sufficient. By customizing, copying, and pasting a few lines of HTML code into your blog's sidebar, you can have a widget that calculates your most popular posts/pages each day, records what post each visitor looks at, what search engines are finding your blog, and what websites are referring traffic to your blog and where visitors go when they leave your blog. You can also see the locations of visitors as pinpoints on a world map. And, as if that isn't enough, FEEDJIT can increase your blog traffic by promoting popular posts. Information like this can help you decide where and how to display ads on your blog, how much to charge for ad space, and more. Knowledge is power.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Just remember to use the "options" link in the widget to tell it to ignore your visits! Unless, that is, you want it to record your every visit!
Good Luck!
--Mia

The Best Guide to Making Money Blogging

Buying a reading a book may not be at the top of your to-do list as a blogger. After all, there is plenty of information online about blog monetization, right? Not exactly. How to Make Money with Your Blog: The Ultimate Reference Guide for Building, Optimizing, and Monetizing Your Blog is the quintessential guide to monetizing your blog. Authored by a marketing professional and a computer technical writer and published by the well-respected publishing house McGraw Hill. Click the icon above for more information and to order your copy now.

Whether you re an experienced blogger or an absolute beginner, you can make money with your blog. Simply follow the step-by-step advice of two expert bloggers and industry insiders who have launched many successful sites of their own. They ll walk you through every step of the blogging process, and they ll even share their most profitable tricks of the trade.

• Generate income using various types of ads
• Tap into the power of other blogs
• Maximize searches for more hits and more money

Where Should I Place Google Ads On My Blog?

One of my readers recently posed this very good question. After all, ad space in general is limited, but in a blog it's even more so. As a result, every millimeter counts. Don't waste space on ads where nobody will notice them. Obviously, your content needs to have first priority, or there is no reason for people to visit your blog. So, if you only have space for one or two ads on a blog, where should it/they go? Below is the answer from Google Adsense Help Forum. I have also posted previously on making optimal use of Adsense in blogs. I hope this all helps! --Mia

The best location for Google ads varies from page to page, depending on content. Here are a few questions to ask yourself when considering where to position your ads: What is the user trying to accomplish by visiting my site? What do they do when viewing a particular page? Where is their attention likely to be focused? How can I integrate ads into this area without getting in the users' way? How can I keep the page looking clean, uncluttered and inviting?

Certain locations tend to be more successful than others. This "heat map" illustrates the ideal placing on a sample page layout. The colors fade from dark orange (strongest performance) to light yellow (weakest performance). All other things being equal, ads located above the fold tend to perform better than those below the fold. Ads placed near rich content and navigational aids usually do well because users are focused on those areas of a page. While this heat map is useful as a positioning guideline, we strongly recommend putting your users first when deciding on ad location. Think about their behavior on different pages, and what will be most useful and visible to them. You'll find that the most optimal ad position isn't always what you expect on certain pages. For example, on pages where users are typically focused on reading an article, ads placed directly below the end of the editorial content tend to perform very well. It's almost as if users finish reading and ask themselves, "What can I do next?" Precisely targeted ads can answer that question for them.

Ad Formats Best For Blogs

From the Google Adsense Team:

As a rule of thumb, wider ad formats tend to outperform their taller counterparts, due to their reader-friendly format. Readers absorb information in thought units (that is, several words at a time). The wider format lets them comfortably read more text at a glance without having to skip a line and return to the left margin every few words as they would be forced to do with a narrower ad. The wider ad format also lessens the likelihood of readers leaving the ad unit altogether.

If positioned well, these ad formats can increase your earnings significantly. The formats we've found to be the most effective are the 336x280 Large Rectangle, the 300x250 Medium Rectangle, and the 160x600 Wide Skyscraper. Keep in mind that while these ad formats typically perform well, you should use the format that best complements your pages.

Tip for making the most of a little ad space: Try one of our streamlined link unit formats, shown below. These formats are lean, mean, and versatile enough to fit in locations normal ads don't.