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WORKSHOP VII, Monday, 3:15-4:15 PM
Location: McAfee Fieldhouse Game Room (Upstairs) Instructor: Thomas Umstattd, Web Guru
12 Tips to Boost Blog Traffic Not getting many visitors to your blog? In this class you will learn 14 ways to drive people to your site and get them coming back begging for more. Why Care? The more readers you have the more _____________ you become. Blogging is great _____________ for future communication. The more readers you have the more ____________ you receive. Tip #1 Provide Valuable Content The number one way to boost your blog’s traffic is to provide information that people need. People don’t _______ about you. Write with a ________ focus not a _______ focus. Provide ________ to your reader. #2 Focus Your Content It is better to focus your content on a ________ _________ than to have an _____ site. There are 50 million blogs. Why should people read yours? For more about Google Analytics visit http://www.google.com/analytics/. #3 Allow Email Subscriptions Allowing people to subscribe to your blog by email can _______ the number of your subscribers. I recommend using FeedBurner.com to deliver emails from your most recent posts automatically. #4 Read Other Blogs Recommended Blogs: • CopyBlogger.com - a great blog on writing good blog posts • ProBlogger.net - a great blog for blog promotion. • SethGodin.typepad.com - Seth has one of the most popular Blogs on the internet. If you want to imitate the best imitate Seth. • AuthorTechTips.com - Great site helping authors blog, tweet & Buzz.
ThomasUmstattd.com
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#5 Solicit Guest Posts To attract guest writers you blog bust have a blog __________ Joining a blog _____ is a great way to practice blogging. #6 Guest Post on Other Blogs Why would writing for other people’s blogs help boost traffic to your blog? #7 Be Bold No one wants to read a ______ blogger. Focus on thrilling a _____ group of people. #8 Allow Low Friction Sharing The _____ it is to share your articles the ____ people will bother to do it. Sites that can help you share your blog with others. • • • • • •
Delicious.com Digg.com StumbleUpon.com Twitter.com Facebook.com ShareThis.com - Grand Cahoona
When I setup a blog, I install the Share This plugin that allows people to email a post to their friends right from the site. It also lets them share a post on Facebook with all their Facebook friends. Integration with digg is another good way for people to share with each other. #9 Optimize Your Site For Search Engines Search engines give priority to sites that have good incoming _______. A site with _____ incoming links will rank better than a site with ______. More important than the _____ of links is the _____ of links. Quick Search Engine Optimization Tips: 1.1.1. Pick ___________ post titles. (Don’t be generic!) 1.1.2. Make sure the ______ of each page corresponds with the _____ of that post. 1.1.3. _____ each post. 1.1.4. __________ each post. 1.1.5. Use friendly URLs. Don’t have www.YourSite.com/?p=123 instead use the title www.YourSite.com/2008/post-title/ 1.1.6. Incorporate an ____ site map 1.1.7. Keep your comment section free from ______ 1.1.8. Provide ____________ content that people will want to link to from their blogs. 1.1.9. Spread some “link love” by linking to other blog posts and asking them to link to your blog posts.