Amongst all kinds of traffic generation methods, blog commenting is still one of the very best. It not only drives immediate traffic that’s already interested in your blog, but can also help you network with others in your market. That is of course if you do it right. In this article I’ll reveal my formula for getting the most out of your blog commenting efforts.

First let me tell you that I use a daily routine. At the beginning of each day, to get my writing juices flowing, I comment on at least ten different blogs. This helps me get in the mood of writing and gets my creativity going, since I’m commenting on articles of various subjects.

At the end of the day I do the same. Just like running, you have a warm-up and cool-down. The latter is essential to mentally put an end to the day, so that your mind is empty the moment you leave your computer. Plus it can bring you some ideas to write about on your blog the next day.

Now I’ve found that there are good blogs to comment on for different purposes. Those with high readership can bring you a bunch of traffic. Those with a high Pagerank will increase yours and thus your rankings in the search engines. But to build a relationship with another blogger, which will later bring you a lot of traffic and maybe even a joint venture - is to comment on a blog that rarely gets any comments.

That last type of blog is my favorite to comment on. It gives me direct access to the person I’d like to become friends or do business with. The blogger will notice my comment and actually have the time to personally respond to it.

My formula for these kind of comments is actually pretty simply:

1. Comment on the article, providing additional information or discussion without promoting my own sites.

2. Putting in something personal, obtained by reading the About page or simply doing a few minutes of research on his blog or on Google.

3. Responding back whenever he replies on my comment.

4. Giving him a hand, by offering a guest post, some resources of even my time to have a friendly chat with him.

By following the formula outlined you above you actually nail the requirements for forming an initial relationship with the person. You show understanding and appreciation. Then you show that you’re intelligent and want to contribute to the blogger’s success, instead of only being there for your own win.

You can easily find these blogs by going thru the so-called Blogroll. Try to find those blogs that have great and thoughtful content, but haven’t been noticed by a big crowd yet. Generally these bloggers post several times a week, participate a lot in blog carnival’s and their only comments are from those trackbacks.

In my next article I’ll introduce you to my Blog Scorecard, a trick I use to motivate myself and keep on track with my goals. So stay tuned!

Popularity: 12% [?]

Most of today’s websites are build using a Content Management System (CMS) and a template put around it. Therefore templates have become really hot.

You can easily find thousands if not millions online, however just a few websites out there really provide templates that are worth their money. Other sites often offer the same templates or some that are of such a low quality that no visitor would ever stay on your site.

The design of your website is just one part of the game. You also need to have a good navigation and make the coding clear and concise so that the search engines don’t have a hard time going thru it - resulting in lower rankings. Those are the two most common pitfalls when buying a new ‘skin’ for your site.

BuyTemplates.net offers great and unique templates, but goes much further. Next to their standard service you can also have your design customized for you. Have them customize the look and feel of your site, put the content in place and put it on the web for you.

But there’s even more. And I say this because I’ve rarely seen any business offer this wide range of extra services to it’s customers. They truly supply a ‘business in a box’ if you’re willing to pay for it.

You can hire their technical staff to have a site custom built for you, using the popular Ajax, CSS, .NET technology and even have it made 100 percent search engine friendly. From there you can also get your website hosted at their servers starting at just $10 per month.

Later, once your website is finished, you can hire their team to do your keyword research, optimize your site, build links and even have them manage your Pay Per Click campaigns. Basically everything you need to get your website to produce the leads or sales you want to.

Check them out at BuyTemplates.net

Popularity: 11% [?]

Sun Tzu’s book ‘The Art Of War’ has often been referred to in business and marketing, since business is actually war. You’re in business because you have a competitive edge over your competition, and you want to do everything to keep it.

For that reason, many blogs have a clear strategy in place. This strategy is all about what the blog Is about and what it’s going to be and look like over time. To support the use of the strategy, many people set goals and milestones to track their efforts. That way you can easily see if you’re still working on your strategy and getting closer to your goals.

To keep myself on track with my strategy I’ve setup a timeline for my business. A sort of agenda with To Do lists to grow my blog in terms of traffic, readership and content. This brings me closer to the goal of reaching more readers, breaking into the Technorati Top 1000 and making more money from the blog.

Here’s how you can create a Growth Agenda for your blog:

First write down where you want your blog to be at the end of the year. Use specific numbers to set goals for the number of visitors, readers, subscribers and links back to your site. The more detailed and specific you are, the better your results will be. It also helps to envision the benefits of getting there, like more money and respect from the marketplace.

Second you should break down these goals into monthly goals. Normally you can do this by dividing them by twelve. This are your monthly goals. For example your monthly goal for traffic might look like: January 1,000 unique visitors, February 2,000 visitors…

Then the third step is putting them on paper and finding the ways to get there. In other words, you should translate the goals to a To Do list. Write down the exact steps you’re going to take to reach your goals. Some examples are: participating in blog carnivals, networking with bloggers that are on the level you want to be, offering guest posts at other blogs.

Last but not least you should put them in your agenda and go over them everyday. Start the day with answering emails, checking your statistics and reviewing the actions of the previous day. Then go over your list of items for today and start working on them.

It’s also good to have moments planned for reviewing yourself and getting back on track. The first is important to see if you’re still heading in the right direction and if your action is actually brining you closer to your goals. If they’re not working, throw them out! The latter is handy if you’re really busy. You’ll often notice that you can’t complete everything in one week. Therefore you should schedule time to do these things later.

Tomorrow I’ll reveal my simple system to keep myself motivated and grow my blog a bit every single day, without fail.

Popularity: 10% [?]

In my previous article you could read how you can build a community from your blog, and why it’s essential you start creating a cooperation between your customers and staff. Once you have your community up and running, normally the members supply a lot of content and value to each other.

Next to that you can add more value, and also earn more from it. This article will show you exactly how to make more money from the community you already built.

It was Jay Abraham why once taught me there are three ways to make more money: gain more customers, sell more products to your customers, sell your products more often. By focusing on all three at one time you can achieve exponential growth. Following are my tips for all three paths to grow your business.

1. Expanding Membership Thru Trials

A good way to get any prospect over the line is to offer a free or cheap trial. A trial that exceeds 1 month is even better, since the member has enough time to evaluate the value he’s getting for his money - plus others might forget to cancel.

A lot of membership sites and newsletter earn their money this way, by small charges that people forget about and at one point even forget the source of these transactions.

Make members feel appreciated and special right from the start. Give them an unannounced bonus, let them know what they can expect from you or the product in the coming months. Also involve them in your business by thanking them for subscribing, asking them questions and giving them the opportunity to give their thoughts.

2. Strategic Alliances With Complementary Businesses

Often blogs and newsletters include guest appearances by other experts in the same industry. Some newsletters even rely on this type of information. But while you’re setting up an interview or co-authorship deal, why don’t form it into an exclusive strategic alliance?

Most likely the expert you’re working with has more influence or targets a completely different group of prospects. This can mean a lot of money for both you and your partner when you setup what internet marketers call a joint venture. Get him to promote the interview or product in return for a share of the profits.

3. Exclusive Member’s Only Deals

Some businesses over-do this and look like they’re only there for the money and not to give any value to the customers. Therefore the golden rule is to only offer special deals, like lower prices for someone else’s product when they’re completely complimentary to yours.

You may want to do a survey amongst your customers to see what they want, not need, and give them just that by setting up joint ventures with other businesses. By doing this you add extra income streams to a hungry crowd of proven buyers.

4. Interaction And True Cooperation

The community feeling discussed earlier can only be attained by interaction and cooperation between you and the members of your site or newsletter. If you want people to feel ‘a part of a special group’ and bond with them is has to be special.

Add this special feeling by having clear ways for them to provide you with tips and ideas. Thank them for their cooperation at all times. Next to that you may also want to have a good way for members to communicate with each other, promoting that place often and even joining the discussions.

By implementing these four tactics you’re on your way to exponential growth of your community. In the end your community is there to make you money. The only problem is that once a community starts declining, a snowball effect is started. Nurture your members and in turn they will give you their money for leading and joining them together.

Popularity: 9% [?]

The top bloggers are doing it right at their own blog, others are using social networking - but still many companies and marketers haven’t created a community around their business. If your business relies on other sites linking to you or good search engine rankings, they can pull the plug and your business can be dead instantly.

Working around this problem is simply, and many marketers have already found that the average retention ratio and Lifetime Customer Value has increased enormously. Involving your customers into a community makes them feel special, ‘in charge’ and more appreciated, which leads to customers buying more and more often.

Following step-by-step tips on how to set this kind of community up have been made after studying Dan Kennedy, who has over 5,000 paying newsletter receivers at all time. Recently he sold a big chunk of his business for an 8-figure amount.

Dan Kennedy based his whole business around a paid newsletter. His customers are referred to as Inner Circle Members, a status that comes with the newsletter and many other benefits. He clearly explains them at his website and in a ‘Welcome’ letter sent to all new subscribers.

Step 1: Give Your Community a Special Name

Use a name to refer to all members at one time, and use if often enough so that both members as well as prospects both know about it and the benefits of being part of the community. You can easily increase the perceived value of reading a blog, subscribing to a (free or paid) newsletter or buying a product by giving these people a special name.

Potential names include Inner Circle, Mastermind, Exclusive, Best Buyers Only, Preferred or even Friends Of.

Step 2: Make People Crave To Get In

An often seen marketing technique to increasing the perceived value is setting up requirements. Make sure not everyone can become a member, so that it stays special. But be sure to make it easy enough for your ‘ideal’ customer to become a part of it.

Another technique is to give the marketplace a glimpse of what’s inside, or what your customers may expect. Having reviews and even testimonials about the special treatment they receive greatly increases your chance to convert prospects into customers.

Step 3: Give a Place To Contribute

A community is not a one-way communication tool. You are the leader and give people the tools to communicate and make sure the value is of a constant high level. But the real reason people want to be part of a community is that they can talk and cooperate with others.

They can use a community to increase their own status and reputation, gain more clients or form joint ventures. Some want to show off their work or feel obligated to help the less successful people.

Give them the tools, as simple as an invitation to join a discussion on a forum. You may also want to feature your best customers on your blog or in your newsletter, so that other readers see the true benefits of being active within the community.

Step 4: Keep Them, Lock Them In And Form Them Into Fans

The true, exponential growth starts when others are talking about you outside of your ‘circle of influence’. Nurture your community members, over-deliver to them and make sure they perceive what you give to them as high value. (If you think you’re over-delivering to your customers, ask them to check if they agree - you’ll be surprised about the answers)

Simply features like contests, link-bait and other incentives for your community are generally enough to get members to promote you to their friends. You have to actively pursue this though, since most people won’t think about this on their own.

Extra Tip: If you don’t have at least some activity going on, people may think you’re dull (losing out on social proof). Create it yourself by posting comments and such on your own site, under a nickname.

That’s have you can easily create a community on your blog or thru your newsletter. Be sure to also check my next article entitled ‘How To Make More Money From Your Community’.

Popularity: 9% [?]

I was doing my daily Analytics check this morning when I noticed something that reminded me of this post from about a month back. It analyzes the differences between getting Digg frontpaged and getting noticed by an A-list blogger. I decided to take a closer look at this idea using my own site as a reference for a sort of case study.

Amit makes a lot of good points in this article. Some of which are links from A-list bloggers generate more active and friendly users (check). Digg generates more overall traffic but results in a ton of Dig and leave visitors (check). Digg users click less ads (check, although they still click, just less).

Taking a Closer Look - Page Views by Source

I think one of the best ways to compare the quality of Digg traffic vs A-list blogging links (as well as other sources) would be to compare the Page Views per Visitor of each of my top 10 referrals.

This list is sorted from top to bottom by the number of overall referrals. Digg is my main referrer with over 60,000 unique referrals, yet it has almost the lowest Page Views per Visitor. That’s to be expected since most Diggers visit for one article and leave. Next on the list is direct (people who go straight to NBB from their browser) which has a slightly better PV/V, but not great. This can also be explained: many direct visitors are repeat visitors who have already seen much of the previous content. So most of them come just for the new updates which I show the full text of on my frontpage.

Another interesting thing is that visitors who found my site via Google really stuck around. The average Google visitor browsed at least 2 pages. But this isn’t really a surprise because we all know that organic traffic is the best kind of traffic - that’s webmastering 101. What is actually important to notice, however, is that the only other top 10 referrer that generated over 2 PV/V was John Chow. Most of my active referrals from John come from commenting on his blog, but I also did a guest appearance there yesterday which accounts for some of the traffic. I’m not sure if John is exactly “A-list” but he’s certainly well-known, and I’m sure he’s on someone’s list. We’ll call him an A minus blogger.

One last thing to point out is that StumbleUpon (another social bookmarkingish site) visitors averaged 1.8 PV/V. I was a little surprised at this especially since most of my SU traffic comes in 2-300 bursts over an hour or two at a time and then sputters out for a couple of days.

Conclusion

If you absolutely have to prioritize where you want your traffic to come from I’d have to say: 1) search engines, 2) A-listers, 3) social networking/media. But why be so cut and dry anyway? If you don’t learn anything from me, take this with you - all traffic is usually good traffic. Why settle for just a link on an A-list blog when you can get one on Digg too? Diversify your marketing plans and you will succeed. If you focus in and settle on one strategy, you’ll fail more often than not.

Popularity: 25% [?]

I have spoken about SubmitEdge in my Case Studies so it was nice they contacted me to give a full overview of the services they offer.

Having used them I can whole heartedly say they were very pleasent to deal with, concise and did exactly what I paid for. I cannot ask for anything more really. I will always outsource my off page Search Engine Optimisation roles so I’m sure to be using SubmiteEgde a lot more in the future.

The first thing you see when hitting SubmitEgde’s main page is SubmitEdge is Ethical Search Engine Optimisation. Straight away I like the sound of that from a business point of view, and It sets me at ease and tells me something of how they treat their customers from the outstart. They started out in 2007 and already have completed work for over 4700+ websites/online businesses.

What SubmitEdge offer:

Directory Submission
Article Submission
Social Bookmarking
Search Engine Submission
DMOZ Listing

Other Search Engine Optimisation Services:

Search Engine Optimisation
XHTML Validation
Rank Tracking
PPC Management
SEO Web Design

We all know how tedious directory submission is but what an important roll it plays in marketing your website online - SubmiteEdge take that job away for you letting you get on with other important tasks of running your online business.

Directory Submission -

SubmitEdge manually submit to all directories (no automated software). Their 23 staff members are all well trained to follow submission guidelines. The links are all one-way permanent links for and not reciprocal.

* They constantly, review, verify and update all the links on their 950+ directories.
* They provide excellent customer service. All queries will be answered within 24 hours.
* They give a full report on your submission.
* They submit your site to directories with high PR rank.

Each submission to a directory will cost 8 cents, their directory submits are among the most competitively-priced on the internet. $60 will get you nearly 750 directories.

They also allow their users to give ten unique titles and ten unique description to avoid duplication of content.

You can test their services out for as little as $15 which would get you 100 Directory Submissions. The Package is designed to submit your site to 100 High PR Directories and you’ve choice of ten unique anchor titles & ten unique Description. This is a limited offer at the moment.

To test their service I used their Article Submission service and I was very happy with the quality of the Article and the directories it was submitted too. At $35 you get their 100 Article Submission Service with a free 500 word Unique Article. Read more about Article Submission.

The next service I will be using will be their “Complete Link Building Service” which is great for new and older online businesses. I will be using it for a new eCommerce Store I am currently building.

Complete Link Building Solution -

This will start and improve its search engine ranking and build all important one-way links. This package includes directory submission, article submission, social bookmarking, DMOZ submission, and search engine submission. This leave’s me to get on with building the store and other marketing that I actually enjoy doing…like Pay Per Click.

You are given access to your own admin area where you can see the status of your order and when it will be completed. This really adds to the customer service/support which I really liked with SubmitEdge.

The Platinum service is well worth it at $299 in my opinion and will start the fundementals going in your marketing strategy online. Building links and writing Articles is something you need to do weekly and this will get you started at a very reasonable cost. Even for older sites I would look at paying for this package monthly.

To sum up I have had a great experience using SubmitEdge and I’m sure to keep them as a partnership I will use for years to come I hope.

I do highly recommend this service. Go and bookmark them and keep them in your outsource folder >>>> SubmitEdge.com

Popularity: 20% [?]

Brian Clark has an excellent post about relying too much on Google for traffic.

Believe it or not, my strategy since the beginning of Copyblogger has been to pretty much forget search engines exist. Don’t get me wrong… I’m not doing anything to annoy them, and I certainly don’t turn away visitors from search engines. I just don’t depend on them for traffic.

This is a timely post because of the Google has been dropping the PageRank on some sites that sell links. Danny Sullivan, a premier search journalist, contacted Google about this and this is what they said:

[Google] confirmed that PageRank scores are being lowered for some sites that sell links.

In addition, Google said that some sites that are selling links may indeed end up being dropped from its search engine or have penalties attached to prevent them from ranking well.

Maybe Google even targeted this site because we’ve gone down from PR5 to PR4.

How to Stop Relying on Google Traffic

Brian’s post gives three practical ways to stop relying on Google. First, he talks about focusing on getting repeat visitors through subscriptions. Bloggers should always be encouraging their readers to subscribe to their RSS feed. If you have a readership that is not very tech-savvy, you should also promote a RSS subscription through email. If you have a static site, build a list. I recommend Aweber for this.

Second, Brian tells us to get traffic from social media sites. The social media audience is among the fastest growing audiences on the web. The key to social media marketing is producing content the social media audience will like and building friendships with the users so they will vote on your content. Don’t just rely on the big sites like Digg, Propeller, and StumbleUpon. There are niche sites too that can send more targeted traffic. Also, Brian considers blogs social media sites. I’ve never thought about blogs that way, but blogs do have a big social element.

Third, Brian says we should start selling. As you begin to build your subscriber base and get traffic from social media sites, you’ll build trust and a reputation that allows you to sell effectively. Whether it’s advertising, reviews, links, ebooks, or other products, don’t be afraid to sell to your existing audience. People like to buy quality products from people they trust.

Totally Ignore Google?

If you have SEO skills, this doesn’t mean you should stop doing keyword research and trying to hit the top 10 of Google. However, you should also focus on the above three tactics. If you focus too much on Google, Google could wreck you and you would lose most of your traffic. Build a defensible site that survives even if Google bans it.

Further Reading

• Build Websites Like Search Engine Traffic Did Not Exist
• Content Without Subscribers Will Become Worthless
• Robots Don’t Spend Money Online, People Do (This relates to Brian’s third point about selling more.)

Conclusion

Are you depending on Google too much?

For more marketing tips, subscribe to Net Business Blog.

Popularity: 18% [?]

AWeber Communications, a leading provider of email marketing software for small businesses and bloggers have just announced that their Blog Broadcast RSS-to-email tool will now integrate into FeedBurner’s RSS tracking and publishing service.

I’m a big fan of AWeber and this news makes me happy as I already know how important it is to track and monitor my email subscribers (something I haven’t been doing with Feedburner) this positive step forward will make things easy for me to track my email subscribers and have far better control on how I contact them.

The basis of this, is that it will enable more options and tools to track, trace and contact your blog subscribers. Offering far more tools than Feedburner currently did with their email subscription set-up. This has opened up another idea for me as I’m going to start offering mini business case studies just for my email subscribers. I can write these mini courses in advance using the AWeber queing tool which will send these emails out daily, weekly or monthly.

Bloggers and podcasters that already use Feedbuner and AWeber to communicate with their audiences will see a jump in the number of subscribers that display on Google-owned FeedBurner’s popular subscriber ‘chicklets.’ These chicklets, which show how many people regularly follow a blog or podcast, provide visitors and potential advertisers with an indication of the blog’s popularity.

“The more subscribers you can boast, the more likely new visitors are to subscribe to your blog, and the more likely companies are to want to advertise on your blog.”

AWeber will report email subscribers to FeedBurner for bloggers using AWeber’s Blog Broadcast tool to convert their blog’s RSS feed to an email newsletter. Bloggers and podcasters collect email subscribers for their blog newsletter through a simple signup form that they create using AWeber and place on their blogs.

FeedBurner will include AWeber email subscribers in their reporting, making it easy for bloggers to see what percentage of their readers follows their blog by email. AWeber expects that seeing those subscribers side-by-side in their FeedBurner accounts will be an eye-opening experience for many bloggers.

Justin Premick, Education Marketing Manager at AWeber states:

“As great a technology as RSS is, it’s simply not as widely understood and used as email is,” Premick added. “The most popular blogs know this, and offer readers the choice to subscribe by email or RSS.” “We hope this feature shows bloggers and podcasters the value of email subscribers, getting them to embrace both email and RSS as an effective way to build relationships with their audiences.”

Take a look at AWeber >>>

Popularity: 14% [?]

Guest article, or guest posts (if you’re a blogger), are one of my favorite marketing tactics. Here are 4 reasons why I like guest articles so much.

SEO
Guest articles help a lot in increasing your organic search rankings. You get the best type of links (content-based). You can choose your anchor text. And you can link to specific pages that you want to rank better.

Networking
Don’t know how to start networking? Guest articles are a great way to build your business contacts. Write a really good articles and ask webmasters to publish them. Webmasters love free, quality content. You’ll make them happy and that’s a good start to a profitable business relationship.

Traffic
Guest articles are a great way to get targeted, relevant traffic. Just make sure to write for well-trafficked sites in your niche.

Branding
Improve your brand by write quality articles for different sites. The more people see you on different sites, the more you will be known in your niche.

So, if you want to build links, network, get targeted traffic, and improve branding - all at the same time, write guest articles. Kill 4 birds with one stone :)

Popularity: 53% [?]