There’s tons of web stuff to do for my sites, but I just can’t be bothered getting to it – I’m being lazy. If I was smart, I’d be doing some link building or trying to grab some traffic. How? Here’s a few simple ways I could use to get a few links and some traffic to my site.
- Go search on Twitter what people are talking about. A lot of twitter users have blog, and you can find those in their twitter bio. Check out their blog, find a post you like, and leave them a good comment. (nothing like:”great post, kthxbai!”. You hate spam too right?).
- Check back in that long-lost forum you haven’t visited in months. Double check if your forum signature is still relevant. Chances are that you have found a better keyword to focus on, so change your signature accordingly, and leave a few new posts.
- Write a blog post for a popular blogger. (gawd I’m funny!) Give it your best shot – the better your article, the better chance you’ve got for them to publish it. Also, their readers will see how awesome you are and come check out your blog. (Granted, this might not be ideal for lazy bloggers).
- Think of ten interview questions and write these down. Then go ahead and email this out to other bloggers. As soon as you post the interview on your blog, chances are that they will link back to their interview with you. People like linking to stuff about themselves. I know I do.
- Go answer questions on Yahoo Answers. Loads of people there, find the right questions and reel in their visitors. If you can answer if someones cat has schizophrenia, or how to get big hair, you’re sorted. People will love you and worship you online.
- Set up us the Google bomb. If you’ve been reading John Chow’s blog long enough, you know what I’m talking about. If not, basically all you need to do is get other bloggers to link back to you with a certain keyword you want. To make sure they do, give away tons of free stuff. Contests are an excellent link building strategy.
Now, let me just whisper a little piece of advice in your ear – DON’T CARE ABOUT FOLLOW OR NOFOLLOW! A link is a link. Pagerank is overrated. It just seems valuable, because people think it is valuable. I say screw pagerank. I have sites with PR0, yet they are #3 in Google out of 100.000.000 results, and they get me 1.4 million pageviews per month. Its all about the SERPS, not about PR.
So, by the time I finished writing this post, I figured I’d best take a piece of my own advice and try to have this submitted as a guest post. And if you’re reading this, that means my advice worked, and I’ve built a new link to my own blog!
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Good suggestions. I hadn’t thought of the Yahoo Answers thing, or the interview one. I know the interview one works, because I’ve been interviewed a couple of times, and I spread to word to as many of my readers as I could, which generated links and views for the sites who reached out to me.
Doh damn dude that is lazy, but looks like it worked well for you.
I just launched a new blog last night so I am again starting from step one. But, this time I have the schooling of JC and DR to build upon.
Nice list, I do have to look into this yahoo answer business! BTW, I welcome guest bloggers on my site in case you want to write up more links
All info necessary is on a page in the main menu, SY
Great points. The nofollow note is an important perspective that not a lot of people get, but you’re 100% right.
How many links should my blog or website have to get at least one thousand visitors a day?
It doesn’t really work that way. SEO isn’t some secret formula that will give you x visitors for x links. It all depends on the link locations.
It depends on how well you do with your blog content, the relevancy of your backlinks could affect the ranking too, the number of links is not the most important factor.
10links are from relevant blogs will be better than 100links from unrelevant blogs.
Regards,
Lee
Hey John Keep on this timing because that’s twice I just finished a post then check out your FB status. Like I said on Facebook outsource. I have the time and you got the money,even though you minimize page rank it’s not just serps when your assess the real power of your site. If your site was a PR7 you’d agree. Anyway Nice share on the traffic tips etc
Peace stumbled from Blogger Bill whoever the hell he is
I’m glad to see that someone other than me thinks PR is overrated.
What a nice post. Just loved the way the post flowed. Would be following these rules for sure.
And, hope to get some traffic back..!!
Also, would want to submit a post to popular blogger.
And would take care of the rule,
SERPS are important than PR…
John I have only recently discovered your blog! It is exactly what I was looking for! This article is great and I look forward to implementing these technique to drive more traffic to my own blogs!
Following your advice and leaving a comment here….
Actually, just wanted to say, all good advice and your suggestions are things I really should be spending more time on, as I have been neglecting all of these tactics lately.
You know how it is though, you get preoccupied researching and building sites and forget to make time to do the basics.
For most of us, multitasking is a surefire way of failing to follow up on our initial goals. Focus on one thing, and one thing only. Move on when you’re done.
That is true. You just built a link to your blog. You can also submit your post to a blog carnival.
Haha. Yes JC, your advice did worked. I read it from start to finish, and your are so right. pr is overrated.
Hey,
It’s not by JC.
But, by Bob Jones..!!
I really like the interview idea – I used to do that a couple of years ago. Why do we foget such great ideas? A great reminder – thanks John.
Andrew
Thank you for reminding such simple things.People usually know it but don’t use it in their work depriving themselves spare opportunities.
Thanks so much for an interesting post. I think you’re right about page rank. People who are interested will eventually find your website.
Melinda
Hi John,
Fantastic info for getting traffic to my blog,much appreciated.
Derek
Good advice John. Interesting that you don’t rate PR. I was thinking that myself… Mine (being new) has a PR 0 but I do OK for some keywords even though the blog is less than 2 months old…
Well it should help to get that ‘popular blogger’ to read your post. I tryed to get you a msg thru twitter DM, but i`m sure you did not read it
here`s the link to my msg for you
http://otd.to/url/JohnChow/
you remind me these methods using a funny way. this is what I want to read! great job
if your website is usefull pr follows naturally,though it may take some time.
Agreed. While PageRank is definately something that I would not go through the effort of ‘scuplting’ as some SEO types like to do… It is however a reflection on how useful your site / blog is, and therefore is important.
In addition, because many people have a belief that PageRank is important, it will be important for bringing you increased ease of life in the form of people providing you with content (guest posts), free stuff to review/give away, etc.
I totall agree with you about PageRank. In fact, I was just telling a friend this the other day. I can’t monetize PageRank and I sure as heck can monetize page views—and do!
Thanks for continuing to challenge the status quo based on actual experience!
Great ideas! Interesting about the PR, so many bloggers are obsessed with it. I won’t anymore!
follow or nofollow links are all followed by the search engines anyway. PR may not be important as long as you are doing good in SERP which also depends on content that keep on bringing visitors to your site.
I have always want my blog to get the type of exposure and confidence from the readers, and not depending on the PR. However, for small or medium type blogs, they still need to have at least a good PR between I can say 1to4 to get good monetization. Advertiser still depend on PR to evaluate the cost of advertising. However, a superblog status like JC is totally out of this case. You don’t longer need PR because you’ve got all the attention and quality content in your blog. Well done. I’m very much impressed with the way you can battle against google and their PR…
I love how nearly half of the commentators so far think John wrote this post. Do you guys actually read the post, or are you just here to leave comments?
I saw it, honestly I did. That was where the LOL part about writing for other blogs came in.
I saw it, honestly I did. That was where the LOL part about writing for other blogs came in. Great article by the way. I would add blog directories to the list.
i love number three tips , which i have done it for you john and i got i great response for that… i wonder when i can do some interview with you ( actually there are only five questions , hahahaha )
Thanks john i found something new here. I was thinking about it but wouldn’t try yet. Sure i’ll try about go answer service of yahoo. It will make good effect in peoples.
I think guest post is not easy for non-English speaking blogger like me
I think doing the interviews will definitely help especially if you are able to get 5 interviews where you can market it as an interview week with popular blogs.
Bob, you have a great guest post here! Btw, I’ve never tried Yahoo! answers before, are we allowed to insert our URL in our profile or bio? So do we get backlinks from there?
Regards,
Lee
Your MessageYou forgot mybloglog and blogcatalog eventhough the bounce rate is terrible.I have started to use Answers but just as long as you post your link not use it as a source
PR or Alexa Rank are really not that important. They not guarantee you traffic. I think the key factors are good written articles and keywords you are focused on. You might have awesome PR, but if you fail to identify “correct” keywords you will never gain traffic.
Nice reading as usual:)
Never Gain Traffic… I Disagree…
#1 – PageRank comes as a result of incoming links.
#2 – Despite what many SEOs may claim, humans still use the internet and follow said links.
#3 – High PR = lots of incoming links = lots of traffic. The traffic from Search Engines is the cherry on top!
Thank you so much, Bob!!! Great ideas presented here. I will be launching my blog in the next few weeks and need all the ideas I can get…
Bob Jones… Good call! I was wondering why John would say ‘And if you’re reading this, that means my advice worked, and I’ve built a new link to my own blog!’ – Doh! I guess I should pay more attention…
By the way… thanks for the comment on my blog…. lol!
Very well said with regards to your closing statement.
From what I have seen the Yahoo Answers stuff doesn’t work anymore cause their site links are no longer dofollow plus if you post the same link 3-5 times they cancel your account.
Thanks for this informative post. I found few interesting points through this post.
ahoo answers is one of the largest web based community. There are plenty of people focused on answering questions, it is best to answer the most recent questions preferably within the first three hours.
Writing a blog post for a popular blogger sounds like a great idea to me. DO you have any tips on how to go about the process in such a way as to guarantee that your offering will get accepted? That could be a whole new blog post in its own right!
One key is to be following the blog for which you intend to create a guest post for. Do what you can to make yourself know, at least slightly to the blogger. I feel the best way to do this is to leave insightful and useful comments, and do it often without spamming comments like “great post, you’re awesome”.
Step Two, get familiar with the style of the blog and the length of posts. For example, if I were to write a blog post for John Chow dot Com, I know it needs to be a medium length punchy to the point post. That is the style that seems to work well for the blog.
Step three, write a blog post that ties into the current themes that are being offered up. For example, right now we know that John will be going over email list building. He is likely doing this, because #1 he wants us to succeed and #2 he wants 30% of Aweber’s income for life.
Step Four, Do It!
I actually don’t have time to post a comment in a forum.
I just put some link on my signature.
I like the idea leaving comment on other blogs.
Good advice indeed. I liked finding blogs on twitter idea and then making some guest posting. I started my own blog recently and I’ve started receiving good traffic just by a page optimization strategy. Theisis theme is helping a lot in these rankings. Awesome theme.
I can’t imagine how well it will rank once I will start a guest post strategy…am on it now..
Any takers who want a few posts from me?
Some common sense tips but ones we sometimes forget about.
I long ago gave up worry about what my page rank is and trying to concentrate on better content.
Twitter has quickly become a great way of building links and gaining traffic. Holding contests is also great for promoting a blog. Thanks for mentioning about not putting value in “follow” or “no follow” blogs. Pagerank is extremely overrated. At least now more than ever before.
You always have to keep getting links and if you’ve neglected that part of your marketing, you’d better get started.
Yahoo Answers?
You are likely to get booted out of Yahoo Answers if you are trying to use them to get traffic.
All that effort and the BAM – they ban you.
Regards
Gerry
I’ve been using it for some time now, and I have never been booted. It all depends on how heavily you (ab)use the system I guess. Just use some common sense.
Ah, your second tip reminded me to revisit a few of my old online haunts and get my signatures updated. Thanks!
That is what I love about Yahoo Answers. Guys who abuse the system and go nuts get banned. It just leaves the more crafty ones who actually place their links where things MATTER and relate.
Love it Bob
Surely these tips will help.
I love your FB Connect Implementation.
I can’t write smth like “Good advice indeed” or smth like this one – “Good suggestions”…..
BECAUSE THESE “solid” steps are not solid at all!
They are simple! And real web masters understand that if you want to have a great site or blog with a lot of visitors FIRST OF ALL YOU MUST WORK HARD!
For example, John Chow! If he created his famous site for one day or for one month! NO, NO, NO!
He was doing a lot of for for the LAST 8 -YES, 8 YEARS!
Long and hard work! It’s hard to creted smth good less than 5 years!
So, I think that this tips are good, but they simple, I don’t create too much traffic! And I don’t believe that your another sites makes more than 1.4 million per views! Because this is more than 47.000 views per day! I see that Alexa showing that you main site – JohnChow was creating only 5k or maybe 10k visitors per day last week. So I don’t believe in this Story! It’s not true!
Seems you are missing the point here.
Great ideas! I’ve tried the interview method before and it works almost all the time.
It’s true that these steps build traffic and links. It just takes work and a lot of time. The reason I think most people don’t get the results they want is because they’re just not doing the work
Good point you got here. Its a No Pain, No Gain scenario.
Nice informative post. Some of the things i know but u introduced some other which are just amazing.
Interviewing blogger? That is a nice Idea. OK I’ll try to find bloggers with great blog/blogs
i agree with you, page rank is just one of the factors in seo, and surprisingly it seems that its one of the factors that has a low weight compared to other ones like the choice of keywords
Honestly speaking, I’m just a newbie in blogging. And I’m still in the learning stage to pick a strategy that best for building links and traffic. Thank you posting such useful techniques. More Power!
Great list Bob. People can work with this list, some valuable info
I have been reading about the “hold a competition” link building strategy in a few places lately. Might be worth a try. Anyone have any ideas on what to give away? I was thinking an Ipod touch, or should it be IM related?