Blog Traffic Tips Weekly Newsletter
by Yaro Starak – The Blog Traffic King
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There’s a very good chance if you are a regular Internet user that you spend a fair amount of time at online forums. For the people reading this newsletter who don’t know what a forum is, here’s a brief introduction.
Online forums or “community forums”, are dynamic websites that allow users to start discussions by posting new topics, which other members of the forum can reply to. Forums are available for any topic with a following – from hobbies, to business, to gossip, entertainment – virtually anything!
While forums come in different sizes, from the brand new that resemble ghost towns because no one uses them (yet), to large uber-communities, with tens of thousands of new posts made every day.
I won’t go into more detail because forums, while being simple in concept, are complex in features, you really need to go check some out if you have never seen one. Forums bring together like minded people with a common interest. If you are a forum virgin I think you will quickly become addicted once you join one full of people who share your interests and passions.
If you want to check out an example right now, try my blogging forums, which you can access here –
http://www.blogtrafficschool.com/forums/
HOW TO USE FORUMS TO PROMOTE YOUR BLOG
Let me start with how not to use forums to promote your blog. DON’T join a forum and make your first post something like this –
“Hey check out my blog, it’s great – www.myblog.com”
Blatant self promotion doesn’t go down well in forums, especially if you are a new member. Forum communities have rules for conduct and won’t tolerate bad behaviour. Often rules are available as “sticky” posts, which are at the top of each forum page, so read them if you are unsure of what is expected from members. Even if there are no specific rules, it’s never a good idea to start off your membership in a community by trying to sell or promote something. Would you start a new friendship by trying to get a person to buy from you? No you wouldn’t, so don’t try it in a forum either.
Credibility, as I’ve mentioned before, is important, and when using forums as a traffic tool for your blog, your credibility is important again. Forum communities often have what I like to call “elders”. These are members who have made thousands of posts and have a lot of respect in the forum. They may be moderators who have been members of the forum for many years. Elders have a lot of credibility since they have devoted so much time to the forums.
ADDING VALUE TO A FORUM
You don’t have to become an “elder” in a forum, although if you find a forum which has the perfect audience for your blog, becoming an “elder” it may be one of the best traffic strategies for you to aim for long term.
The important concept to grasp is — to actually get someone to click through from an entry you make in a forum to your blog you need to have credibility and add value. The more often you add value, the more credibility you gain.
Adding value to a forum is just like adding value to your blog. If you help people to solve problems, gain insights or make money, you add value to their life. How you eventually gain traffic is simple – you leave links to your blog in posts you make in forums.
Here’s how I do it –
Step 1: Forum signature and photograph
Your forum signature is the most important tool for gaining traffic from forums. In your signature you leave a link to your blog and for most forums your signature can be automatically added to the end of every post you make. Once you set it up you’re done – every post you make to a forum is a little advertisement for your blog.
Make sure, if the forum rules permit it, that you set this up first. Some forums only allow you to have a signature after you have made a certain number of posts or restrict what content and style you can use in your signature. Be aware of signature policies before creating your signature. You should also include an avatar/photograph in your profile which is displayed in every post you make. If you are into personal branding like I am, and you should be if you want more blog traffic, it’s important you start exposing your image and name in as many places as you can. Posts made to forums help increase exposure and public awareness of “you”.
Step 2: Add Value
Once you have the basic profile data set up you need to start adding value to the forum. This means you can’t be a lurker – just reading the forum isn’t going to get you traffic. You need to start making posts, demonstrate your knowledge, expertise and personality by helping people, interacting and making friends.
Step 3: Indirect Self Promotion
Once you have built up a little credibility you can start to subtly self promote your blog outside of your signature. It’s still not acceptable to spread links to your blog everywhere, but what I like to do is offer links to my blog pillar articles when one of them is relevant to a question or discussion in a forum. This is a great way to add value to a forum and send traffic to your blog – just remember you have to get the context spot on or you will appear to be self promoting.
SIGNATURE POWER
If you just focus on making 10 value adding posts to forums every day by the end of the year you will have over 3500 links pointing to your blog, sending a nice consistent trickle of traffic to your blog. The more credibility and respect you have in a forum the greater the potential for that trickle to become a stream or even a torrent of traffic.
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
- Are You Trying To Run Before You Can Walk?
- Make Money From Your Blog Selling Text Links
- WordPress Bloggers – Install This Plugin To Boost Your Traffic
- The Power Of Credibility
- How To Deal With Negative Comments On Your Blog
- How To Leverage Online Forums For Blog Traffic
- What Is The Most Powerful Blog Traffic Technique?
- How Important Is SEO For Your Blog?
- The Death Of Link Exchanges
- Where To Find Photos To Use In Your Blog
- What Do You Want To Achieve From Blogging?
- Do You Blog Strategically?
- Don’t Forget The Newbies
- Competing For Attention In An Attention Deficit Blogosphere
- How To Be An Exceptional Blogger
- How To Create A Community At Your Blog
- Does Your Blog Have A Hook?
- Why Being Perfect Can Hurt Your Blog
- How One Blogging Technique Attracted 6000 New Subscribers
- Track Your Long Tail Trends For Traffic
- Track Your Blog Traffic Using Alexa
- 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!
