It’s not about how much traffic you get in a day, but rather what you do with the traffic that you do get. The important thing to know is that any blog that even gets as little as ten visits a day is a win situation. So many bloggers get upset, frustrated and angry that their blog has a low volume of traffic. The important thing to consider is the fact that you are indeed getting traffic.
It doesn’t really matter how much traffic you get in a day, the important thing for you to focus on is what you are doing to capture the traffic that you do get and convert them into regular readers. How can this be done? Simple. It is all in your blog’s design. It is all in how you present the information to your visitors and secondly it is all in how you shape and mold the path in which your traffic travels on.
If you have too many options for your traffic you’ll spread your traffic out too thin. If you don’t closely control what your traffic does, you’ll leave your traffic to wonder aimlessly on your blog. All in all as I had mentioned in my last post, you need to have a purpose and a goal in place for your blog before you even begin to deal with considering various strategies on how to get traffic to your blog.
Once you have a plan in place for your blog, whether that be a marketing campaign for an affiliate product or something as simple as just wanting people to drop you a comment on your blog, you have to build your blog in a way the herds your traffic into the spots that you value as being hot. It’s all about traffic control. In driving, when you see a “red light” that means, STOP. When you see construction barriers on the side of the road, you know that you’re blocked and have to keep on going.
The same is true for blogging and how your direct your traffic flow. Funneling a bunch of traffic to your blog is one thing, but what you do with the traffic while they are one your blog is a complete different ball game. In my experience, there are three hot sections on a blog. The top, the middle and the bottom. The sides are dead… the right side is more dead than the left.
Consider a movie. A movie has a title and then quickly within the first ten minutes it captures your attention. The middle of the movie “the bulk” or in your case, the chunk of your blog post, is the plot. This is pretty hot too as you have captured your readers into somewhat of a daydream. it’s lesser effective than the top or the bottom because the read really doesn’t want to click away because they want to read the next line and so forth. The bottom of a post is very hot and at times hotter than the top fold.
After a reader is done reading the post, what’s next??? What do they do now?
Do you want them to comment on your post, do you want them to subscribe to your RSS feed, do you want them to purchase the product you just pitched in the last 1000 words on your blog post?
For me… my hot spots are the top, bottom and middle. And if I had to choose one over anything else, it would be the bottom largely because of the “What Next Factor”
[Click to view full size]
Darren Rowse at www.Problogger.net asks his reader’s, “What’s Next?”
Excellent question… and you will clearly see the options he has presented to his readers. Traffic control is vital towards the growth of your blog. Creating options for your readers is very important because you don’t allow your visitors to wonder aimlessly on your blog with no purpose.
What I would recommend now, is going back to your blog and put yourself in the shoes of your visitors and consider the different things that your visitors can do while they visit your blog. If there are too many options for them to leave unexpectedly, then fill close the hole up so that you can prevent traffic leakage.
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Date/Time: 5-27-2008 22:26:51 Comment #14591
That’s a nice post, and you make some good points. I run several blogs, most of which get very low traffic. One of the biggest things that that I’ve noticed to date is that I’ve done fairly poorly at turning search engine traffic into repeat readers.
I may try some of these ideas to get more control on one or two of them. Keep the tips coming… these are enjoyable to read!
Date/Time: 5-27-2008 22:30:47 Comment #14592
Thanks Jess.
Oddly enough of all the blogs I have, this one here has been the most tricky trying to figure out how to convert the traffic. I have a big handful of posts (ironically, stupid ones too) that score a huge amount of traffic from Google and I haven’t been able to figure out the right mixture just yet. Last night after writing the post I made quite a bit of a change to the bottom section of my posts by creating the “What Should I Do Now Section?”
So we’ll see how that goes. Currently this month, which commonly seems to be the trend of my blog, around 80% to 85% of my traffic comes from Google, one hit wonders. The day I hit jackpot and convert my traffic better on my personal blog is the day my opt in mailing list and RSS subscription numbers sky rocket.
Date/Time: 5-28-2008 07:29:33 Comment #14603
I really need to work on my “what’s next” for my different blogs. My traffic each month isn’t bad for being fairly new blogs, but I really need to work on keeping them coming back for more. Good post!!
Date/Time: 5-28-2008 14:27:02 Comment #14621
I think with a site such as Step Family Sanctuary dot Com a mailing list would be in order. You seem to enjoy horses and you and I both know that horses are a very huge and EXPENSIVE market. Owning a horse requires a lot of different things. There are literally hundreds of things that you could effectively sell off your blog coupled with a mailing list.
If you are looking for great software to help build and manage your mailing list I recommend using Aweber Email Marketing Software.
A “What’s Next” would work very well with your blog for sure.
Date/Time: 5-28-2008 13:38:32 Comment #14619
I can relate to parts of this post. My main blog has about 5 times more traffic then a niche blog I started in December. When I started out I was frustrated that I wasn’t getting much traffic compared to my main blog and would frustrated about not getting any clicks. Almost 6 months later my niche blog has transformed, I see more and more traffic every month and get more clicks on this then my main blog with more traffic. They both continue to grow, but as my niche blog grows my revenue does too. I can not say the same about my main blog. Having traffic isn’t always the best thing if you do not have the resources to manage it, or if you don’t know what to do with it once you have it.
Date/Time: 5-28-2008 14:33:25 Comment #14622
Owen,
I love The Linux Blog. It has a huge amount of potential. However, you know where I stand on that. I think there is a much larger audience of noobs who want to learn about the world of Linux rather than experts like yourself who already know the in’s and out’s of Linux.
The Linux Blog could be an absolute Goldmine if you’d cater to the beginner. Think of all the different products and services that you could recommend to your readers. Linux is an amazing operating system, but I speak from experience, I don’t use it because there isn’t a great place for me to go to seek advice, tips and tricks. The Linux Blog could be that.
If you did a redesign on your blog, and did a 180 on marketing to the noob and beginner audience and catch up a little bit on social networking, and take advantage of my offer to write a review about The Linux Blog, you’d 10x your traffic in about 2 to 3 months.
I personally want to see The Linux Blog come out of its shell. I don’t have a doubt in my mind that a site like that could allow you to work much much less hours and allow you more time with your new wife. Congrats by the way… hope you had a wonderful honeymoon.
Date/Time: 5-30-2008 04:55:12 Comment #14728
Hi Garry,
Thank you+E82 for sharing your knowledge and experience! I’m always looking for ways to improve myself and I’m glad to have found your blog. Thank you for sharing with us.
Cheers,
Roy
Date/Time: 6-6-2008 21:52:33 Comment #15161
Nice…..I really like the “What’s Next” thing, it makes your readers take notice. Most posts are done and then…..it’s like it just falls off, there is no call to action, or something to make your reader interact with the post.
Just adding the “What’s Next” or “What Should I Do Now” to the end changes things up quite a bit. Not getting traffic can definitely be a bummer, but, having repeat visitors is also a great motivation.
As I said before, I am learning quite a bit, and I must admit, when I first found out about the comptetition, I hadn’t really looked at your blog, so I kind of discounted it. What it because it wasn’t good? No….honestly, it wasn’t flashy enough! lol Hey, I have to be honest, but, I came back, and actually read the content, and I am officially a Conn Man now!
Keep it up Garry
Date/Time: 11-3-2008 17:12:24 Comment #25718
A good message in a time of lower numbers across the board. So often we lose sight of our initial purpose. Now is a great time to get back to your roots, reach out, and help your core base.
Check out The Writer’s last blog post..Making Plurk Clique
Date/Time: 11-3-2008 19:58:00 Comment #25741
let me be honest right now, i do not have a website, all am doing is to try and see how things will move with a paid system, meaning most of the things online for me now are free. but i want to find out ,how do i add ads to my free blog, aside could u explain wat ORGANIC MEANS
Date/Time: 11-3-2008 21:57:50 Comment #25744
Your idea is nice. I have an subscription invitation and a contact link on every end of my post. However, I read from a top blogger’s post that it is not advisable to invite them at the top of your post. For him, it feels like inviting him to get something that he has no idea yet.
I would be interested to know your stand on this matter.
Thanks!
Check out Angel Cuala’s last blog post..How to use Kaizen to improve your Blog