Blog Traffic Tips Weekly Newsletter
by Yaro Starak – The Blog Traffic King
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I was speaking to Brian Clark who blogs at copyblogger.com via instant message. I asked him a simple question, a question that a lot of people are asking him lately:
“How did you build so up so many subscribers to your blog in such a short period of time?”
Brian only started his blog in January 2006 and by the last few months of 2006 he had over 6000 daily RSS readers. That’s some rapid growth!
Brian answered my question with a brief statement:
“I focused on providing value to my readers.”
Yes, a simple answer but one worth thinking about.
HOW OFTEN DO YOU FOCUS ON YOUR READERS?
Many bloggers follow the traditional diary style blog where they write what is going on in their life. This isn’t a bad technique, and people with interesting things to say, interesting lives, strong opinions, good ideas or who are simply good writers, can build a popular blog.
You need to be careful about providing value to your audience if you do decide to base most of your topics on aspects of your own life. Smart bloggers are able construct an article that discusses events of their own life, but also provides advice, or entertainment – something impactful to their reader’s lives.
There is a fine line when you blog about your own life between coming across completely boring and irrelevant to anybody but you and your closest friends and family (those who know you well enough to care when you babble on about your girlfriend or new car or school or husband), to providing applicable content to a wider audience – your readers who are interested in the niche you write about but ultimately care most about themselves and how your blog can help them.
Brian approaches things from one end of the spectrum – he doesn’t talk about his personal life and focuses 100% on his reader’s interests. He doesn’t extensively discuss his background or personal life but he has still managed to establish a huge following of readers who genuinely care about him and his blog. He has achieved this by becoming indispensable to a lot of people.
Each article Brian writers enhances the lives of his readers so they repay him with steadfast loyalty and spread the word about his blog. Many of his readers have become evangelists, the holy grail when seeking to build your blog traffic.
BLOGGING STYLES
I’m not going to advocate any specific style of blogging as the “best” for building blog traffic. Brian’s example shows by applying a specific focus on reader value, your traffic results can be spectacular without any loss of rapport with your audience. By interacting with his readers via comments made to his posts Brian demonstrates his expertise and dedication without ever going off topic.
The lesson from Brian’s case is reinforcement of the “What Is In It For Me?” concept. Blog readers are human and if each person who reads your blog takes something away that is directly applicable to their own lives for benefit, you are well on your way to replicating Brian’s success.
For many bloggers it can be difficult to produce valuable content and unique insights in every single blog post. I can’t do it in every blog post I make and the pressure of attempting to achieve this would likely take it’s toll in time.
I suspect even the best bloggers run out of unique materials eventually and start to rehash old ideas. This is not a bad thing as often your audience cycles and your current readers may not have been exposed to your concepts when you first wrote about them 18 months ago. That is why you will see many of the older blogs digging through their archives and highlighting their previous work to a new generation of readers.
If there is one thing I want you to take away from this newsletter it is to step into your reader’s shoes and consider what they will derive of value from each article you produce before you publish it to your blog – preferably even before you write it. If there isn’t an idea, or technique, or resource, or piece of news, entertainment or education within your words, then you probably won’t be helping to build your blog traffic. If you read carefully, this last paragraph is in fact my attempt to implement the technique I just taught you.
Here’s to your blogging success,
Yaro Starak
Blog Traffic King
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More Newsletters
- How To Choose The Right Blog Topic
- How To Get More Blog Comments
- How To Build A Popular Blog
- Don’t Make This Mistake With Your Blog
- The Secret Of My Blog’s Success – The Pillar Article
- Is Blogging About Your Mistakes A Good Idea?
- Do You Have To Blog Full Time To Succeed?
- How One Technique Increased My Traffic By 25%
- What Is A Trackback And How Can It Increase Your Blog Traffic?
- How To Interlink Your Blog Articles To Increase Traffic
- How To Laser Target Your Blog Traffic
- How To Attract More RSS Subscribers
- Start Relationships For Win-Win Blogging
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- Make Money From Your Blog Selling Text Links
- WordPress Bloggers – Install This Plugin To Boost Your Traffic
- The Power Of Credibility
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- What Is The Most Powerful Blog Traffic Technique?
- How Important Is SEO For Your Blog?
- The Death Of Link Exchanges
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- What Do You Want To Achieve From Blogging?
- Do You Blog Strategically?
- Don’t Forget The Newbies
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- Why Being Perfect Can Hurt Your Blog
- How One Blogging Technique Attracted 6000 New Subscribers
- Track Your Long Tail Trends For Traffic
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- Does Your Blog Design Matter?
- Why You Must Be A Thought Leader
- Establish Preeminence With A Pillar Article Series
- Is It Time For A Kick In The Pants?
- Why Do RSS Readers Unsubscribe From Blogs?
- Have You Considered Selling Ads Directly From Your Blog?
- Sell Direct Advertising On Your Blog Using This System
- How To Attract Blog Sponsors
- How To Kick-Start The Launch Of A New Blog
- Try This Tip To Attract Offline Traffic To Your Blog
- Apply This HTML Code Tip For Better Blog Headings
- The Most Powerful Blog Traffic Technique
- Can You Make Your Blog Readers Feel Like This…
- The Secret To Successful Blogging
- Why Bloggers Don’t Make Money From Affiliate Programs
- How Does Getting Paid $500 An Hour Sound To You?
The following lessons are from my original “blog traffic king” email newsletter, my first ever email course with one lesson per week delivered for a year. There are some real gems in these articles too, so don’t skip them!
