And So You Got Traffic What Next?

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Clik here to view.What follows is this blog’s first official guest post by diTesco who covers SEO, SEM, and tons of other online money making tactics at iBlogZone.com…so sit back, enjoy, and do not leave without maing a comment!

First things first. I want to thank Caleb for giving me this opportunity to guest post on his blog. Reciprocal friendship exist on the blogosphere, and this is proof that such thing exist when you are serious about your objectives and your blogging journey. Caleb has guest posted an article on my blog about, How To Get Indexed Quickly, and I hope that we can continue on with this newly acquired cooperation in the future.

And so, You Got Traffic. What next?

Quick answer: Make your blog compelling enough to make your visitors stay and want to come back. When they come back, it almost certain that your blog will convert. Conversion is when a visitor performs a certain action, such as clicking on an affiliate link, subscribing to you RSS feed, going deeper into your inner pages, making a comment and so on. When a conversion is made, not only does your bounce rate decrease, but is also a sign that your visitor is appreciating what he/she sees.

Ok, you might say. This is easier said than done. That is true. And this is the reason why we should not only be concerned about getting traffic, but also have something to add value for our visitors. When you add value to someone, they will react. Normally, such reaction will be positive and then the fun begins. You get returning visitors, you see your subscriber count rising, your Alexa rank improving, you get natural unforced backlinks and consequently a higher PR, you become popular, etc. Put this all together and what do you get in return? Loyal audience and a sure fire money making machine.

Answer this question. Why would you revisit a blog that adds no value to you? All you see are nice little flash animated “crap” and ads cluttered all over the place. That would certainly be a knock off and most likely you will cross them off your list.

Be Trustworthy
Webmasters, site users, directory editors, and search engines may look for things like a privacy policy or a physical address as signs of quality. Beyond Algorithms: A visitor may look for many things in order to classify it as a trustworthy site – these can include:

Availability – be available, respond to emails, on their comments, etc. Have a “Contact” sign for your visitors to send you inquiries and make it visible.
Credibility – build credibility, do not lie. For example, you can post something about an Open Source Apllication, that you think may be interesteing but have not tried it yet. Tell them that. When you say something, tell them what benefits will they have. Don’t limit yourself to “check it out”.
Authorship – Content is no longer King. It has been demoted to prince. The new King is original and unique content (I am not going to prolong myself here on uniqueness as the only thing that is unique is you, the author – it’s the way you express your opinion and views. Those among other things are unique.
External Links – Do you have a nice blogroll that could interest your readers like here on MSB? Are your external links pointing to something of value (like my blog) or are they all pointing to you:) Do not be afraid to link out of your territory, it is polite and people will see that you can recognize, good from the bad. Time to see if those links are pointing to banned sites, spammy or malicious ones. Hint on internal links: Do you test them once in a while? Do you have broken links? That’s a kick off.
Legality – What? No privacy policy on your blog? That is not good, specially if you run AdSense and other affiliate programs. Did you know that you are on your way to get banned by Google by not having it? You can view my private policy at iBlozone for reference.

When you get trusted, your readers will tend to believe more in what you have to say. If you tell them that a specific affiliate program is worth their trouble, they will most likely go for it and that is “bling bling” for you.

Don’t drive your visitors away!
You got their attention through your promotion efforts. You got people to visit your blog or website. Now it’s up to you to Make your traffic stay. Remember that when a visitor lands on your page, the first thing they will see is your “home”. After all, this is why we call it our homepage:) Take this as an example. Say I am a new visitor on your blog. What do you think will I do first when I land on your blog? Did you guess it? Yes, I will look around and glance through your blog’s design and theme. Forget bells and whistles. While they can be slightly entertaining they do not add value.

Of course don’t make your site look like somebody died. Dark, gloomy, scary and without life. Do the math, a perfect balance of good content, nice clean colors, good navigational structure, and of course well placed ads – will give you a waterfront view for your visitors. Which reminds me, blogging for money – the reverse order, is an excellent post about “thou shall and thou shall not” on web design and selecting your theme. A must read, specially for those who have started their blogging journey recently. But don’t take my word for it. I think that experienced bloggers can also learn a thing or two.

To summarize:

Make Your Blog Compelling Enough
Be Trustworthy by being available, unique and above all, build your credibility.
Give your visitors a waterfront view of your blog.

That’s it. While I am unable to cover everything here, these are simple basic must do’s. Turn your visitors to loyal readers and you are one step ahead of the game.

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Clik here to view.