Internet Babel

Try to remember that search engine traffic is only one way to get traffic. For me it’s always been a very small contribution which is why I would not really care if I ever got banned from Google, although I don’t want to as it’s not going to benefit me, I wouldn’t really be bothered as it only accounts for about 3% of my traffic.

I think if you’re getting the absolute majority of your traffic from Google, your putting a lot of trust into one source and I really think you should give yourself lots of traffic sources so that you’re never dependant on just one. Just like when John Chow got… well, he recently stated he never got ‘banned’ from Google just sort of ‘knocked down’ a bit. So as I was saying, when John Chow got ‘knocked down’ by Google, it really didn’t affect him much at all, as you can obviously see by his still… prolific blog, despite almost abolished Google rankings.

Here are some other ways, other than search engines to get traffic when developing your blog or site…

1. Profile sites

• MySpace
• Bebo
• Facebook
• Friendster
• hi5
• MyYearbook

There are also many more, those are just a few of the most dominant for you to take advantage of.

Getting traffic from profile sites…

So how do you get traffic from these sites? simply create accounts in each of them themed on your blog or site. Promote a small amount of your best content on that profile. Say if you own a blog, use a headline animator. Which you can find in Feedburner, if you are using that. Also use large captivating images, make the profile design clean, readable and easy on the eye. Promote your site graphically and verbally. Link promotional graphics to your site.

Next, you just add friends. Add as many as you can within your niche. If you own a blog about Internet marketing then go find any groups remotely related to making money, making money online or anything you can sensibly relate to your topic. Add as many people as you can from each of those groups. If you add a lot then expect to wait a while before everyone accepts you.

As soon as you have a sizable friends list, expect lots of inconsistent but decent traffic to your blog / site simply from profile views. Then on top of that you can obviously post bulletins to capture your ‘friends’ attention.

2. Video sharing sites

• YouTube
• DailyMotion
• Metacafe

Now to be honest, YouTube is so dominant even though other video sites are big… YouTube is SO dominant that you may as well just upload there. But obviously there’s no harm in using the others either.

Getting traffic from video sharing sites…

Traffic from video sharing sites can be… slow to say the least. Even with a lot of views the traffic never seems to be prolific. I mean, I’ve never achieved a front page YouTube video… well, except for one I cheated there but I have had videos with views of 25,000 and so on. But that’s over time. So, don’t expect magic traffic from video marketing, but it can be very worthy in a viral sense. Even if the views from the videos don’t convert that well into physical traffic, the subconscious lasting of your brand name over a memorable video can be brilliant.

To get traffic… just upload videos with a link to your blog or site watermarked on them. Simple as that. You can either put a link on a separate title clip at the beginning and end also, but I would have a watermarked link throughout the video as well as that is a constant reminder of the link to the viewer and as long as it’s not too big, it’s not annoying. Also, put your link in the video description, it will be clickable and that is usually where most traffic comes from.

If you’re wondering what videos to make, just make videos relevant to your site or blog or whatever. If you own a personal music blog and your a musician, post videos of yourself singing or whatever. If you own a film review blog then post videos of yourself reviewing films, verbal digression and voice-over is much stronger than letters on a page. As you have the emphasis of yourself and you can talk freely without worrying about grammar or sounding right, it just flows. Which is why video marketing is so class.

3. Social Bookmarking sites

• Digg
• Sphinn
• StumbleUpon

I wont go into listing a ton of these as most people reading this will probably know them already. But I’ve listed a few of the most advantageous.

News submission sites like Digg… to be honest, just seem to be random so I can’t give too much advice other than keep trying. I mean, I did write an article on it before (here) and you can obviously do things to catch people’s attention and what not, but to be honest… these types of sites are so unpredictable these days. I’ve sort of lost faith in the logical process of them, you get lucky or you don’t. You can of course add friends and all of the usual applicant advice to help your chances but honestly… just submit worthy stuff in the correct sections and you’re more likely than not to eventually hit big on Digg.

As for StumbleUpon I think that’s more about quality Stumbling. If you’ve just started using it then you’ll probably notice a lot of sudden splurges of big traffic from there, which slows down and eventually almost stops. This is presumably because you have not been giving back. If someone Stumbles your site, you will probably get a big rush simply because your in a sense… a ‘new’ discovery, maybe someone people in your niche have not seen so that is why. Also, they don’t mind if you Stumble your own articles but don’t JUST do that as it wont be favorable to you in the long-run. People will get annoyed that you just continuously try to better yourself and don’t give anything back. So make sure you Stumble daily, Stumble good sites and give good, quality reviews. It’ll be worth it.

Miscellaneous traffic services…

BlogRush- Obviously the very well known widget released only 30 days or so ago by Internet marketing guru John Reese. This guy once made 1 million dollars in less than 24 hours and he’s now come out with this goldmine widget. BlogRush had 15,000 users in it’s first day. Wow. Simply click the link to go to BlogRush and watch the intro video as John explains it perfectly in that.

MyBlogLog- Basically a network for bloggers. You build a community based around yourself and your blog, which in turn will bring more readers and you can display a recent readers widget on your blog and essentially this leads to a circulation of readers clicking each other creating a huge blogging network. This is also a service for tracking where your readers are coming from, hence the ‘Blog Log’ part. Nice service now owned by Yahoo.

Miscellaneous techniques for getting traffic…

• Commenting on top blogs- Not a huge way to get traffic but it can be surprisingly advantageous on big blogs like Shoemoney’s. His Top Commentator Plugin is… fairly high up, it can be easily seen so being top commentator will bring you a fair amount of hits. I’ve been top commentator on there before and recieved… moderate traffic from that one link. Not amazing but very good for a free link on a blog. Comment on the very top related blogs to get free extra targetted traffic.
• Posting in forums- Posting in hugely popular forums can bring a surprisingly big amount of traffic. How I got this blog started right away was by posting my best posts in related sections on Digital Point Forums otherwise known as DP. I’m not saying spam like mad, just saying to post quality content, quality articles in related sections on relevant forums. I don’t see anything wrong with that. I honestly don’t see that as spam, it’s not a sales letter… I mean… it’s relevant quality content. Don’t do it avidly, just your best work and free offers.

This started out as a small post but as usual expanded into a very big, detailed one. Hope you don’t mind hope you enjoyed the read and got some value from it. And if you’re very inexperienced I hope you can put some of those practices to good use to better your traffic. Cheers!

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This is a great video of Shoemoney going into detail about paid links and Google’s incentive.

I just felt like posting this video as he goes into nice detail and I wanted to just give my opinion on this. Even though my opinion probably isn’t worth spit

Anyway, I would agree with pretty much everything Shoemoney said. Messing with Google just isn’t smart. I mean, look at their resources and money, trying to outsmart them or rebel against them will ultimately only hurt you. John Chow was aware he wasn’t meant to be doing paid links, reviews and all that yet he still did it so all you can really say is he has himself to blame.

But, I do think it’s very unfair for Google to blast Chow out yet allow big companies to get away with it. It’s essentially favoring the richer for their own advantage and I would say by doing that to Chow they only made themselves look worse. By doing nothing, they would of just look complacent or maybe favorable of Chow given his web status. But the fact they kicked him out yet turn a blind eye to the really big guys just makes them seem unfair and manipulative.

But… at the end of the day. With all that said, despite what you think of them, or their flaws and what not. The basic lesson is… don’t mess with Google!

Review of conversion-matters.co.uk

Domain Name – Don’t usually like dashes in domain names and I refrain from using them whenever possible as a lot of the time people forget to put the dash in if they’re just typing it and end up on the wrong site and just forget it. But since it’s a blog the aim is to get people to subscribe so they read your RSS and what not anyway so I suppose it’s OK.

Design – Nice, clean design. Again, maybe try using some good plugins to improve your blog, maybe a top commentators to entice comments and a top post plugin somewhere in eye-line to gain longer visiting time from readers.

Ads – No ads… no comment.

Conclusion – In conclusion you have a standard blog with a clear design. No ads, revenue, but that’s fine since I presume it’s still relatively low traffic. I notice you have been going since May though so maybe really give it your full effort in terms of traffic pushing now to get your blog to where it should be after… 5 months. Fairly good posts, a lot seem to be very short and pithy though which is fine but I think at the start of a blog you really should give it your all in terms of detail and quality. Also maybe try add some viral quality to your blog, spice up the design, spend what you can on advertising and tweak everything to the best unique persona possible.

Review of thomassinfield.com

Domain Name – Um, not much to say, just your name. Which I think is fine if you have a memorable name. Maybe you could of gone with a nickname though or something more viral, although your name is pretty easy to remember… maybe using your own name isn’t the best idea when your not at all known. But as long as you put full effort in with your blog then… that’s how you may become known so… yeh,  domain is fine.

Design – Nice design, very clean and defined. I rarely like blog designs, most people just seem to have a mashed design with plugins hammered everywhere, Adsense shoved in the content and all that. But your design is nice and tidy, not flash but professional and very easy to look at and use. I think you should maybe have a ‘Comment Here’ button or something higher up so that it’s in clear view and maybe a top commentators plugin to entice as many comments as possible.

Ads – Can’t see any ads. Which can sometimes play to your advantage. If you blog quality, constantly and keep providing your best knowledge without any ads, users will appreciate this and will know you want to build a quality blog as apposed to just making a quick income. I think you would be wise to keep ads off until you have a big amount of regular traffic.

Conclusion – In conclusion, you have a very nicely designed blog, very clear and usable. Easy to read, use and look at. Just keep playing around with plugins and design tweaks to try and make the best blog you can and most of all keep providing quality. Good blog.

Review of atmaxplorer.com

Domain Name – Not really sure what to make of the domain name. Let’s just say it’s… good? yeah, good will work.

Design – Fairy decent design. Clean, tidy and pretty well structured. Standard navigation in a nice position, the only thing I would say is to make everything a little more defined, since the sidebars seem to be a bit… blurred, in a sense they are kind of indistinguishable from each other. Again, no real brand or unique quality, maybe try get a logo designed or design one yourself or at least design the header writing in a memorable fashion.

Ads – Good ad placement on the Adsense, doesn’t really clash with your content too much but the units are still in very ‘clickable’ positions. Maybe try and rotate other things though as Adsense may not be the highest earner for your site. Maybe even try to get some direct sponsors, email related companies, you’d be surprised on how many would actually be interested. Your affiliate ads under the ‘Sponsored Links’ seem very low down, seems a bit pointless to have them in such a low position on a blog which I presume doesn’t get a huge amount of traffic. They seem somewhat redundant, maybe try removing those to improve user experience or place them in a more prominent position.

Conclusion – In conclusion I think you have a blog with potential. Good posts, good navigation, fairly good structure… maybe experiment more with ad placement, try get direct sponsorship, rotate other units etc. Also I would tidy up your design so that it’s as practical and easy to use for any level of Internet user.

Review of ablogaboutnothing.com

Domain Name – Nice domain name. Easy to remember, nice viral quality. No real SEO quality but who cares, nice name to allow for a very versatile, broad blog.

Design – Don’t like the design at all. It looks very ‘spammy’. By that I mean it’s very bland and lacking in any real unique design, graphics or quality to help it stand out. Also the referral units and the top are messing up the header area, I would sort that out. If you want you can contact me (see contact page) about a blog ‘makeover’ and I can make you a new header as well as just generally tidy up your design for a small price.

Ads – Um, pretty terrible ad placement, the referral units as I mentioned are just distorting the header area. On the post pages the Adsense and WidgetBucks really just help aid that ‘spammy’ look. I think you have to… try and integrate ads these days without disrupting user experience visually or navigation wise. I would just try define an area for advertisements. I just don’t personally like units within content on blogs.

Conclusion – In conclusion I think you have a blog with potential but needs a lot of work. A better design, more structured ad placement and a few other things, the design and structure is what is mainly bringing your blog down though.

Review of adityaspeaks.com

Domain Name – Not really sure about the domain name. It’s short enough and has a unique sort of quality about it which is easy to the remember with the ‘speaks’ part. But your name is sort of hard to remember for a European or American since we don’t see those sort of names over here much. So I mean maybe something less personal or more universally catchy would of been better.

Design – The design looks fine to me. It’s pretty clean which is good but maybe a little more of a graphic header to help stamp a brand on your site would help. Or even a better design on the domain name in the header if not a logo, just to help give your blog a better stand-out quality as apposed to just being ‘another blog’. I like the big subscribe button and the fact you focus on getting people to subscribe first rather than your own income. I really think that should be the primary focus with a blog until the subscriber base is up there. You don’t seem to get many comments for the amount of subscribers you have though so maybe a top commentators plugin somewhere to help entice comments.

Ads – Good ad placement on a whole, standard 468 banner up the top… a few 125′s in the side panel. The only thing I would suggest though is to get rid of the text link ads. You only have 116 subscribers at the moment, I think your absolute focus should be to make them happy and to keep them coming back and to get more. And although some people don’t mind text link ads, I think on such a relatively new blog it might do you more harm than good given that people may be led to believe your more interested in income than quality. Which, even if you are, they shouldn’t know.

Conclusion – In conclusion I’d say you have a pretty decent blog that just needs some tweaking. I would say a more lucrative looking design with a solid structure and professionally designed graphics would do you well. Also I would lose the text link ads and just absolutely make sure the layout and position of everything is to your visitors best interest to make sure they get the best out of your blog.

Everybody’s charging for reviews these days. I like to give my readers free quality reviews so any of you loyal readers still sane enough to still be reading my blog feel free to submit your blog / site below for a free review.

Now, remember, this is FIVE reviews. So after five, if you haven’t submitted your site… it’s too late! I know that’s a bit annoying but it’s first come first serve, it’s the most practical way! So, submit yours if you want one, as a comment. Your link will be removed once I’ve noted the URL but you can post any other message along with your URL to be left as a comment if you want.

The reviews will be quality! I always give my honest opinion so I believe you should get some nice free value from my reviews even if you don’t agree with everything. I am actually going away Friday and Sat but all reviews will be up by Sunday.

Cheers

If you’re currently blogging and not getting much reaction or the reaction is not building up as fast as you had hoped. Don’t stop. Because that, even though it seems stupidly obvious to state it, is the one definite way to fail at blogging.

A lot of people do it though. They start blogging, don’t get as far as they liked as fast as they had hoped and quit. No matter how slow your subscribers are building up and traffic is coming in, keep at it!

Blog as best you can, as often as you can, the more you do it, the more easily it will flow and more of a routine will surface.

Use any source possible for inspiration and use the most effective ways of traffic generation to your full advantage. Make YouTube accounts, MySpace accounts, Fackebook, bebo, Digg, Sphinn. Submit your articles to article directories over and over again, submit your stories to sites like Digg and Sphinn every time. Add as many friends as you can on social networking sites, make relevant, quality videos for YouTube and video marketing. And most of all, blog QUALITY content.