For every purist blogger yearning to speak free, there is another opportunist blogger yearning cash in. Weblogs share certain valuable properties with Websites, but even if you can get two people to agree on what the key differences are, their goals may not align in why they blog, or the “right way” to generate traffic.
The need for traffic though, is a key similarity between the two mediums. Both can use so-called “black hat” tactics, or even “gray hat,” and while traffic-generation is important to most bloggers, this is an area destined for a fight.
In one of our threads at SyndicationPro, a poster brings up the concept of “controversy” in traffic building. The suggestion is to pay close attention to the topics lighting up the blogosphere and play devil’s advocate. One commenter was quick to make a moral judgment, saying it didn’t “seem right to fool people” into visiting your blog.
That does bring up an important point though. Following those hot topics is a great way to generate traffic. On Technorati’s homepage, you’ll find a list of Top Searches and Hot Tags. Write about those topics (even just a short post), tag the post, and ping Technorati to let them know you’ve updated.
Personally, I’m a purist blogger. I’m such a purist, I barely even want to be found. Besides, if my Mom found it, I’d be in big big trouble.
That said, I have experimented with the Technorati hot topic concept and it worked like a charm. I didn’t lose the purist side of things though. I was genuinely angry at the rash of searches for Tammy NYP (at the time, half of the top searches were for some variation of this). The blogosphere was searching for the stolen sex video of Singaporean teenage girl.
My traffic spiked just by mentioning it, and though I had given the blogosphere the old what-for about how sick that was, some dirtbag still found it necessary to leave a comment linking to the video.
That brings up the last gray area for traffic boosting tactics: guerilla linking. Just like with regular websites, blogs are boosted by in-bound links. You can follow blogs with similar topics and “do it the right way” by asking for a link exchange (or even earn natural links), or leave a comment with a link back to your blog. Instant link love.
I’m just not sure if that’s okay
Any other advice or comments on building traffic for your blog? Discuss at SyndicationPro.
