"Talk the Talk" - Participating in Discussions to Increase Traffic

Monday, July 17, 2006

Just a quick thought today, and its something I recently posted on 43Things and it has to do with being a part of the conversation that blogs facilitate. I'm calling it "Talk the Talk."

Blogs from the onset, were created as a tool for communication. They allow people (like you and I) to speak their mind and in turn the entire world has access to their thoughts, although for most bloggers very few ever read what they write. But blogs aren't just about one person talking, blogs are more of a discussion as evidenced by the ability to leave comments on your and other people's blogs.

So if you're looking to increase the amount of discussion taking place on your blog (and thus increase traffic to your blog) then first take your thoughts to where the people are. Go find other blogs about similar topics to your own and participate in discussions on those blogs. Don't just go to post a comment and hope someone clicks back to your blog, be genuine, thoughtful and courteous. If you add to the discussion happening on another blog then it is much more likely that someone would clickthrough to come read more about what you have to say.

Running a blog is about having your voice heard, in order to do that, first let your voice be heard where the people already are, if they like what you have to say, then they'll come.

Blog Directory List - Building Links to Your Blog Series #2

Saturday, July 01, 2006

As a blogger you have a small advantage over other sites in building links to your blog because not only can you submit your blog to free web directories but you also can submit to blog-specific directories. Below is a list of many of the top blog directories, if you come across any others please post a comment and we'll update the list.

Free Blog Directories

www.technorati.com
www.blogdigger.com
www.weblogalot.com
www.blogshares.com
www.blogrolling.com
www.blogstreet.com
www.blo.gs
www.newhome.weblogs.com
www.bloglines.com
www.blogdex.net
www.bloghub.com
www.blogcatalog.com
www.blogarama.com
dir.blogflux.com
www.blogrankings.com
www.blogexplosion.com
www.synblog.com
www.britblog.com
www.blogdirs.com
www.blogsweet.com
www.findingblog.com
www.blogmad.net
www.bloggernow.com
www.blog-search.com
www.blogwise.com

Submitting to Free Directories - Building Links to Your Blog Series #1

Submitting your blog to free web directories can provide a lot of free one-way links to your blog. Doing so can be a very time consuming process but if you're serious about increasing traffic to your blog then submitting to at least some of the free directories is a must.

Resources for Submitting to Free Directories

To make submitting to directories easier check out RoboForm, an automated form filler so that you can enter your blog's info once and have RoboForm fill the same info in for every directory.

Building Links to Your Blog Series

One of the most crucial elements of building traffic to a blog is creating incoming links. Not only do incoming links create traffic when people click on them but they also factor heavily into search engines (e.g. Google, Yahoo, etc.) ranking systems for websites.

Over the coming weeks The Blogging Fool will be highlighting various methods for creating links to your blog and also further detail the reasons for doing so.