It’s All About The Traffic

No blog survives without traffic. More so, less traffic only means that the content is not that good. However, there are also instances wherein a great blog does not have enough traffic. The key in getting traffic is to come up with a strategy and make everyone notice your blog. There are a few things that you need to consider with regards to generating traffic to your blog and these are not that different from planning a regular Web site.

The only exception is that blogs can generate traffic a lot faster. What you need to consider first is your target audience and where exactly you are generating your blog’s traffic.

The Content

The content of your blog is most important. It is the reason why people visit your blog. Try to make your blog interesting and learn to master the ideas included in your blog. The content should also be relevant and of high value to the audience. Find out what your audience wants and if what you are writing satisfy them.

The content is especially important if you are planning sales from your blog. First, you must become a trust-worthy and credible source of information before people try the product. Blogs are excellent medium for sales since they allow you to connect and converse through the use of the content. You must realize that without a great content, your blog cannot fully achieve power and leverage against others.

In order to gain audience for your content, remember not to publish infrequently. Additionally, do not criticize others if you do not have facts to support your claim and references for those facts. If you criticize, do it in an objective non-personal manner. What you can do is to publish often and make sure that the entry you are about to publish is meaningful and of high-value. Lastly, be yourself to help your audience relate to you but do not reveal any private information.

The Ping

Some bloggers take the extra mile just to ping and do not solely rely on the blog software pings. The blog software pings’ job is to update the servers for the purpose of announcing your content updates. Search engines and blog directories then checks these update servers for the latest updates; this is the reason why your blog’s content gets into search engines quickly.

Pings make blogs excellent search engine optimization tools. There are even instances where it only takes a day before your content gets into search engines. However, your blog’s content will only take hours to a few days to get into most search engines, on average.

When starting a blog, always check the instructions included. There might be a section where you can turn on the blog software ping automatically, which activates on the background. By doing so, whenever you publish content in your blog, it will instantly transmit ping updates.

RSS feeds are also important. Not only will you be able to publish your content within a short duration but also replicate your content through the use of your RSS feed. Nowadays, the flow of your content is real-time and the RSS allows you to show your content to a wider audience.

There are several ways to promote your blog. However, keep in mind that there is no strategy for quick money when it comes to profitable blogging. It requires dedication, time, a strategy for the content and patience before the cash starts flowing in.

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My way of saying “Thank You!”

My Comment Commitment: If you leave an approved comment on any of my posts, I will visit your blog and “share it” in some way whether on StumbleUpon, Twitter or Facebook depending on if I can find a nice fit.

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Originally posted 2009-11-16 21:47:17.

Top Blog & RSS Directories

Most of these directories are free to submit to and only require you to enter a valid email address. Some require you to register before you can submit your blog or RSS feed. Any directory listed with an asterisk (*) does require a fee or a reciprocal link to be placed on your site before they will list your blog or RSS feed.

In addition to the blog and RSS directories, you may be interested in joining the Facebook group a friend of mine setup for bloggers called the Bloggers Network.

The Bloggers Network is a group for bloggers to network with each other. Advertise your blog, post your latest blog posts, plus discuss anything to do with blogging. You can access the group by visiting:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/BloggersNetworkGroup

To compliment the group, Derek also setup a Facebook page. You can access this page by visiting: http://www.facebook.com/BloggersNetwork

If you find any broken links, directories no longer in service or would like to suggest a directory, please let me know using the Em@il Me Tab above. 

Blog Directories:

A1WebLinks *
Aboutus
Allforblog
Aviva *
Biggerblogger *
Birmingham Bloggers
Blawg
Blloggs
Blogarama
Blog.com
Blogaz
BLOGbal *
Blogbib *
BlogBunch
BlogBurst
BlogCatalog
Blog Collector
Blogs Collection
Blog Directory
Blogdir
BlogDirectory001
BlogExplosion
Blogfinds
BlogFlux
BlogFolders
Bloggapedia
Blogged
BloggerHQ
Bloggeries *
Bloggernity
Blogger’s Choice Awards
BlogHints *
Bloghub
Blogging Fusion *
Blogintro
Bloglines
Bloglisting
Blogmob
Bloggernow
Blogobbler
Blogoculars
Blogotion
BlogPulse
Blogrankings
Blogsranker
Blogs.com
BlogsByWomen *
BlogsCanada
BlogScholar
Blog-Search
Blog Search Engine
Blogsrating
Blogtree
Blogville
Blogz
Blurt It
BOTW Blog Directory
Britaine
Bulletize *
Buzzerhut
Chefsblogs
Christians Unite
Crayon
Dfwblogs
Dmoz
EatonWeb *
Ezilon
Feedmap
Feednuts
Feedplex
Flookie
FyberSearch
Geekyspeaky *
Getblogs
Globe of Blogs
Google
Google Blog Search
Gozoof
Grokodile
IBlog Business Dir *
Icerocket
InfoListings
JewishBlogging
Liquida
Loaded Web
LSBlogs
Minnesota
Mozdex
Mvblogs
Myblog2u
MyBlogDirectory
Nycbloggers
Ontoplist
Photarium
Quick Blog Directory
RateItAll
Regator
Roask
SmallBusiness.com
Small Business Blog *
Spicypage
Spillbean *
Sports
Sports Blogs
SomethingJewish
Submitblognow
The Blog Resource
Theseoking
TheVital
Topblogarea
Ubdaily
Wilsdomain Reciprocal
Weblogs.com
Webloogle
Websandiego
Webworldindex
Yahoo! Local
Yahoo.com
Zimbo

RSS Feed Directories:

2RSS
4 Guys from Rolla
5z5.com
9rules.com
Allheadlinenews
Automotive-links
Blogdigger
Blo.gs
Chordata
Crayon
CDRinfo
Devasp
Educational Feeds
Feedagg
Feedage
Feedbase
Feed Burner
Feedboy
Feedcat
RSS Feed Dir
Feedest
Feedfury
Feedgy
FeedListing
Feedmil
Feedmailer
FeedoOyoo
Feedplex
Feedsee
Feed Submitter
Finance Investing
FindRSS
Gabbr
Golden Feed
Icerocket
Its My News
Keegy
LeighRSS
Mediapost
Medical Feeds
Medworm
Metafeeder
Million RSS
MoneyHighStreet
MyMSN
News-Feeds
News Knowledge
News Now
NewsIsFree
NGOID News Network
Oobdoo
Paid Directory *
Plazoo
Postami *
Political Humor
PressRadar
RapidFeeds
RDFTicker
ReadABlog
Redtram
RSS 001 Feed Dir
RSS Buffet
RSS Feeds Dir
RssHugger
RSS Micro
RSS Mountain
RSS Motron
RSS Network
RSS Orange
RSSroot
RSStop10
Rubhub
Scribnia
SolarWarp
Swoogle
Syndic8
Technorati
Topix
Twingly
Urlfan
Wasalive
Weblogalot
Wingee
Yopod
Yahoo! Publisher
Xmeta

Ping Services:

Autopinger
Feedshark
KingPin
Pingoat
PingMyBlog
Pingomatic
TotalPing

Note about Multi-Ping Services: Just be careful not to ping too often, as these services will ban you for over pinging. Rule of thumb is to ping only when you have published new content on your blog.

As this list is updated often as and when new services become available, don’t forget to bookmark the page so that you have access to the latest services.

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My way of saying “Thank You!”

My Comment Commitment: If you leave an approved comment on any of my posts, I will visit your blog and “share it” in some way whether on StumbleUpon, Twitter or Facebook depending on if I can find a nice fit.

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What Is RSS and How Is It Used?

RSS

RSS – The Basics

In a nutshell RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is used to syndicate or subscribe to the feed of a website, blog or just about any media content online (this includes articles, music, video or just about any other digital media).

By syndicating you subscribe to the feed of the site which means you do not have to actually visit the website to read the updated and most recent content. Instead you use feed reading software or a website like Google Reader to read the latest articles. Instead of going to each of your favorite blogs individually you can collect all the feeds of the sites (provided they make them available) in one place. The purpose of syndication is to therefore make it easier for you to consume the content from your favorite sites in less time.

Even if you are not tech savvy you don’t need to know much about XML. It’s basically the formatting language that software and websites use to distribute the content to your feed reader. If you know nothing about HTML then you probably don’t really need to know much about XML either. Just understand that behind syndication is the language XML.

The best way to learn is by practice and example so let me tell you exactly how I use RSS.

Web Based Feed Reading

With standalone software feed readers you have to be on the computer you installed the software to in order to have access to your feeds. Because of this limitation many people choose to use a web based feed reader and the most popular is Bloglines. Bloglines works much like feed reading software except because it is entirely based on the Internet you can access your syndicated feeds online from any computer connected to the web. You can also share your feeds with other people or search other people’s feed lists to see what is popular.

I personally use Google Reader.

Subscribing to a Blog

To continue with my example, I of course subscribe to my own feeds, the RSS of this and other blogs I own. At the top right corner you will see an orange RSS link button. To subscribe to my feed all you do is copy and paste that link into feed reading software or a web based reader like bloglines. You may also have to name the feed. This feed is called “Gayla Baer”. The RSS feed link for this site looks like this – http://feeds.feedburner.com/gaylabaer – and if you click it you will get the XML output of this blog. That’s the stuff I told you about that you don’t really need to understand, but take a look by clicking the link if you are interested. I use a third party service called FeedBurner that adds features to my feed and it provides me with statistics on how many people subscribe to my blog.

All blogs will have a link which you can subscribe to. It might be called Atom, or RSS, or simply Syndicate, but they all do the same thing.

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My way of saying “Thank You!”

My Comment Commitment: If you leave an approved comment on any of my posts, I will visit your blog and “share it” in some way whether on StumbleUpon, Twitter or Facebook depending on if I can find a nice fit.

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