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How to Get Traffic for Your Blog

After choosing a suitable niche and setting up a blog, it is now time to let the world see your work. Unfortunately, many people think that all they are supposed to do in order to get traffic is to write posts. Even though you need to provide interesting content for your readers to come back, this is not all it takes. I will now give you a few guidelines that should be followed when starting to build traffic for your blog.

1. Write well and constantly.

You will never manage to build high constant traffic for your site if your posts are poorly written or if you only post two articles a month. Let's try a little experiment to prove my point! Imagine you are surfing the internet and run into a link to a blog that seems interesting. You follow that link and it takes you to a blog in which seems to be the home of spelling and grammar mistakes. Most of the posts are very short and have no point, and in the longer ones the ideas have no beginning and no ending. It's a complete mess! Are you ever going to come back here? Probably not. But let's assume you are willing to give that blogger another chance: you come back the next day to check for updates. Hmm... no updates. You come back after a week, but the sight is the same: no new posts. What are you going to do now?

Now imagine that blog is yours. You definitely don't want your readers to visit your blog and find a complete mess, do you? Make sure that each of the articles you write have a good descriptive title and a main point. I also strongly advise you to check for grammar mistakes twice before you hit the publish button. A good idea would be to use a browser that has a spell checker included. I use Firefox, for instance.

2. Socialize.

The best way to be spotted when you start blogging is to socialize. If you are not yet part of an online community (like a forum, for instance), make sure you become one soon. Start posting answers in forum threads that relate to the subject of your blog. How is this going to bring you visitors? Well, most forums allow you to have a signature that will appear under each of your forum posts. You will use this feature to advertise for you blog. Write a few words about your site and kindly ask people to check it out. But while you are using this method, make sure your posts don't resemble spam (you could even get banned if your answers are not related to the topic).

Another way to get your blog a some more traffic is to post interesting comments on blogs that somehow relate to your niche. When filling in the "Post a comment" form, most blogs will allow you to enter your site address. If the other visitors of that blog find your comment interesting or are just curious to find out who you are, they will give you a click. Again, make sure you don't spam, otherwise your comment will be deleted and you'll achieve nothing.

Some other great places that can bring you visitors are the so called "social crowds": Digg.com, Stumbleupon.com, Reddit.com and others. These are places where you can submit your blog articles and people get to see them. If your posts are interesting and well written, there are chances you'll get some votes. Unfortunately, it's very hard to get enough votes so that you can reach the front page. If you manage to get to the front page on any of these popular web sites, a huge amount of traffic is likely to come. Your way to success would be officially open!

Well, folks, this is all for now. Stay tuned for the next part of the article and please feel free to share with us any method of driving traffic, that worked for you!

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3 comments | Posted in » Blogging, Social Bookmarking, Traffic Links to this post  

5 Ways to Stay Motivated while Working at Home

When you first choose to start working in the comfort of your own home, you assume everything will be just wonderful: no bloody boss, no tight schedule and a lot of spare time. The first week turns out to be exactly how you imagined and you are very happy. But then the day comes when you wake up with no willing to write, so you decide to take a day off. You do this more and more often, until, one day, you realize that your blog hasn't been updated for weeks. You have no willing to start working again, so you ditch the idea of making a living from blogging.

Eventually, every blogger is confronted with this lack of motivation, but only a few manage to get over it. If you want to avoid this lack of motivation, you might want to consider some of the tips below.

1. Set attainable goals.

Of course, everyone wants to earn $50,000 a month, but don't give up if you don't manage to do this in the first month. What I'm trying to say is that you should set lower goals in the beginning and work to accomplish them in a short period of time. When you'll see that you managed to earn $200 shortly after starting blogging, your motivation will certainly boost.

2. Chart your progress.

Write down your traffic stats every week. Work on bringing more and more visitors to your blog and keep writing. After a little time, you'll probably realize that the traffic level is constantly improving. There's no greater reward than seeing that your blog is read by more and more people every day!

3. Read.

Reading can also help. When you feel like having no inspiration for writing a new blog post, go browse the blogs and forums you like. Reading about a regular Joe, just like you, who managed to earn thousands of dollars from his blog will definitely motivate you.

4. Reward yourself.

Work on a rewarding system for your accomplishments. For instance, reward yourself every time you manage to achieve one of your goals. Take a couple of days off, go out with your friends or buy yourself something you've always wanted. This will certainly make you feel a lot better about working at home.

5. Have fun.

Don't make working at home feel like a burden! Make sure you spend time on enjoying yourself and turn blogging into one of the most pleasant chores. For example, set up a rule according to which you are allowed to drink Coke and eat chips only when you are writing a blog post. Make sure you follow that rule!

As much as you would like to stay motivated all the time, you need to remember yourself that you are not a machine. You are human, and humans can't always listen to their conscience. So when the time comes and you feel no will to move on, try applying some of the these tips.

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5 Reasons Why You Should Join a Community

What's more relaxing than going out to shoot some pool or to see a movie with your closest friends? Every person feels the need to be loved and to have someone to count on, no matter what.

As long as this helps in your private life, why wouldn't it help on the web? Joining a community, no matter if it is a forum, a social networking website or even a blog, could really help you achieve your goals. The feeling that there is always someone out there for you is priceless.

Joining an online community is simple and only takes a minute. Building a reputation is a little harder, but the rewards are worth a lot more. All you have to do is to express your opinion when you feel you have something to say and try to help others with their problems.

Here are a few reasons why you should join a community.

1. Readers.

Do you remember high school, where those who were self confident and had no restraint in talking to the others were popular, and those who were too scared to get out of the box and stand up for themselves were always ignored? Well, this not different from what's going on on the internet. The bloggers that get involved in actions that take place outside their website will always have more readers than those who only focus on their own blog.

If you choose to be part of a forum, for instance, you can include in your signature a link to your blog or to some of your best posts. It would be a good idea to get involved in forums that are somehow related to the niche of your blog.

A better way to get traffic from a specific community is to join the so called social crowds, like Digg, Reddit or StumbleUpon. Actually, a huge part of my visitors come from Digg.com and this is because I've been especially focused on creating a good account here.

Another example of a community is the group of people that constantly visit a specific blog. Try to find blogs that are focused on the same subject as you and start posting interesting comments there. You can also add these blogs to your blogroll. This way, if one of the authors visits your blog, he might just add your link in his blogroll, too.

2. Friends.

Online communities are, of course, one of the best places in which you can start new friendships. I've never thought I will be chatting online with people from India, China or the USA, but that's what I am doing every day. In real life, it's hard to find someone that shares the same interests like you, but on the internet things go much easier.

3. Learning.

Joining an online community is a great opportunity to learn new things! People all over the world have been confronted with the same problems like you and they might be willing to help others solve them. Don't forget you are also part of that community, so make sure you try your best to bring your own contribution.

4. Motivation.

Sometimes, nothing can be more motivating than seeing people talking about your blog. Encourage the members of the community you chose to be part of to express their opinions on how your blog is configured and try to consider every idea that could improve it.

5. It's fun!

On the internet, nobody is part of a community unless he wants to. Try to enjoy yourself as much as possible and take part in actions that you really like. Surrounding yourself with friends can only be good for your ego and for your blog. Not everything is about work, so there is no reason for you to only stay focused on this.

Being able to count on someone is really great, no matter if we're talking about real or virtual life, and this is what joining an online community helps you do. Even if you are the kind of person that likes to make everything on his own, trying to join a community can do no harm, believe me!

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2 comments | Posted in » Internet, Motivation, Social Bookmarking, Traffic Links to this post  

And the Winner Is...

As for the other participants, I want to thank you all for joining this contest. Don't be disappointed, there will certainly be other contests!

For a matter of fact, here is the next contest! It starts today and will end on the 30th of September. The rules are the same with the rules from the previous contest, but the only difference is the prize which is given away: the winner will get a month of free advertising on Blogarish dot com (I will place an image of minimum 125x125 pixels in a visible place of my blog). For many, this may not seem to be such a big deal, but this could drive a nice amount of traffic to your website, as I already have very good traffic records and a "one week average" Alexa rank of 125,000 (the "three months average" is irrelevant, as long as this is a brand new blog).

These being said, let's take a look at the rules of this contest.

In order to be eligible for this contest you have to take advantage of the right that is provided by the first amendment. To be more specific, all you have to do to get in this race is to post at least one comment to any of the posts on this blog.

Anyway, as some of you probably know, Blogger does not require an email address when a comment is left and that is why some people may want to cheat by taking advantage of this "issue". To make sure no one will steal your prize in case you win, please send an email to blogarish[at]gmail[dot]com, just after posting your first comment. Please make sure you write your commentator name in the "Subject" field and you only send that email once, no matter how many comments you post. (Of course, you can simply skip this step, but if you happen to win, there occurs the risk of someone pretending to be you and getting your prize!)

In order to have more chances to get a whole month of free advertising, you can post more comments. Here is how it works... Imagine there are 100 comments left on this blog. Johnny posts 50 comments, Mary posts 20 comments and the other 30 comments are written by some random commentators. When the contest is over (a contest lasts two weeks), I write Johnny's name on 50 pieces of paper, Mary's name on 20 pieces of paper and the other commentators' names on a piece of paper each. I will then put all the paper pieces in a hat and randomly choose the .com domain name winner. As you probably infer, Johnny has a 50% chance to win, Mary has a 20% chance and the others have a 1% chance each.

For new bloggers, this may be a perfect solution for getting some exposure and traffic. Good luck and happy commenting!

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1 comments | Posted in » Contests, Traffic Links to this post  

How to Choose the Right Posting Frequency for Your Blog

When choosing a niche for your future blog, you definitely need to think about the posting frequency you will have to adopt. Your traffic, your income and the time you will spend writing will obviously depend on that. In order to make the right choice for you and for your readers, you will have to take into consideration a few factors. If you fail in choosing the correct posting frequency, there is a good possibility that you will abandon you blog in the future. If you want to avoid this, here are a few factors you might want to take into consideration before starting your blog and setting your goals.

1. The topic of your blog.

As some of you probably realized by now, a certain blog niche requires a certain posting frequency. If you choose to write a blog about soccer news, you will probably have to write more that 2-3 posts a day. This is the reason why a lot of bloggers that chose a topic that requires frequent updates choose to quit. They cannot keep up with the news and the visitors are very selective with the blogs they read. While we are here, my advice for a beginner blogger would be to choose a blog niche that will give you enough time to promote your content. After all, you can write 10 quality posts per day, but what is the use if no one visits your blog? An evergreen content blog, like this one, allows you to adopt a light blogging frequency and gives you enough time to spread the word about your website.

2.Your lifestyle.

When choosing to start a blog in order to make money, you will definitely want to have a lifestyle that will allow you to enjoy yourself as much as possible. Don not forget to consider your personal needs when adopting a posting frequency, otherwise blogging will not make you a good impression and you will want to give up soon. On the other hand, make sure you don not offer yourself too many privileges either. A very lenient attitude towards your blogging career can often be a restraint in your journey to achieving your goals.

3. Post length.

There are a lot of bloggers that choose to write only 100 words articles, but they make up for it with a good posting routine. There are also bloggers that only post once a week, but their articles are usually 2000+ words long, so their readers still come back. Before starting a blog, ask yourself how much time you would be willing to invest in one post. Giving yourself a sincere answer now will certainly help you save a lot of time in the future.

4. Your goals.

No one will ever be able to get massive traffic with only a short article per month. Make sure you keep this in mind when trying to achieve your goals. I guess it is obvious for everyone that the goal setting and the posting frequency go hand in hand. Therefore, make sure you do not set goals that will be impossible to achieve with a certain posting frequency. This way, you will not set yourself up for disappointment.

5. Your readers.

When talking about the posting frequency, less can actually be more. If you post more that 4-5 times a day, your readers may eventually get sick of you and unsubscribe from your feed. Also, you can be sure that most of your readers will not visit your blog 5 times a day, just because they know you have a high posting frequency. They usually only come to your blog once a day, no matter how many articles you publish. Even if you are posting once a week, you will certainly have no problems with your subscribers. If the content you publish is good, you can be sure your readers will stick with your blog.

Unfortunately, there is no secret formula for choosing the right posting frequency. Sometimes, you have to experiment. Sometimes, you have to ask your readers. But once you find a posting frequency that seems to benefit you, make sure you stick to it.

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