I’ve been reading a few blogs here and there as I recover from my holiday hiatus. There are a few resolutions that I think can help you get more out of your traffic this year.
1- Get Rid of Dead Weight in Social Media (but consider holding off for a week for reason number 2)
I got this from Lyndon over at Cornwall SEO. You should read his post for an in-depth look, but here’s a quote that sums it up.
Humans are complex things, but to reduce the presence of another human being to an avatar allows a more mechanical reaction. I look at any of the avatars classed as a friend on digg and a process occurs. “Does this friend ever vote on my stories?â€, if the answer is no put him on the delete pile. “Does this friend submit cool stuff and link to me regularly on his blog?â€, remove him from the delete pile and put onto the daily digg file. “Does this other friend not vote for me and has not even friend-ed me back?†Yes, delete the bugger right now and stop him (or her) slowing down my ship.
If you’re an up and comer though, I’d advise you to be a bit less malicious. Same thing if you’re a power user with infrequent participation.
One reason is that some people are going to resolve this year to be more active – maybe wait a week or so and see who sticks, then do your house cleaning.
2- Be More Active in Fewer Mainstream Social Web Sites If You Haven’t Been a Power User
If you want to have profiles everywhere, knock yourself out.
But I’d advise you to pick your top five favorite sites and really get to know them intimately. In so doing, you’ll find that you’ll be more successful at a handful of sites you use religiously, than attempting to be a jack of all trades.
Right now I’m thinking of going with del.icio.us, Stumble Upon, Facebook, Mixx, and Digg as my mainstream sites.
I don’t like Digg so much but I’ve built some relationships there, and am used to getting a certain amount of news from the site, and attention for some of my friends. (There are about 5 Niche sites that I’m going to dedicate more time to as well, but that’s another article. Here’s a hint: the Niche sites will be the stars this year as disgruntled folks continue to migrate. The traffic will be less in quality but of much higher quantity.)
3- If You Have Been a Power User, Leverage Your Influence to Spread the Heavy Lifting Around
I got this one from Maki over at DoshDosh, not from his New Year’s post, but from an older one about Influencing the Influencers. This is often much smarter than being an influencer yourself.
The catch is that you may first have to become an influencer for a while if you don’t have any other chips to bargain with.
4- Comment and Trackback More
Think of blogging as a war between centipedes. Whoever has the most, and the strongest legs, carrying the sexiest body wins. Those legs are comments and trackbacks. This analogy is getting gross. I hate centipedes, why did I do this?
The point is, if you’re not getting into the conversation, it’s like trying to make lemonade with no sugar. You’ll have a drink alright, and it’ll be yellow. To the untrained eye it may even look like the real thing. But the people who take care to look closely will know it’s not genuine. And they’re the ones that can sink your boat.
What is with me an all the analogies, smilies and metaphors today?
5- Write Shorter Articles In Your Blog/Newsletter/Etc or Blog Less Frequently
Your every blog post doesn’t have to be a novel. I really need to take this advice myself. I produce less premium information because I’m making longer posts, which also eats into time that could be used for consulting or training.
So either I need to say less with more, or balance my longer articles with fewer posts. That’s one of the reasons I’m going to do membership sites again.
6- Make a Plan, Then Tie it To a Schedule
Your traffic actions yield more the more organized you are about their execution. The problem is either not sticking with a traffic method to fruition, or not knowing what to do next in the first place. Stop flitting from one technique to the next, commit, and see things through to the end.
Plan your traffic tasks ahead for a month, then break them down into steps.
7- Elevate Your Relationships
Take your newsletter relationships to the occasional snail mail. Call your power affiliates on the phone. Take your IM conversations to Skype. Take your voice conversations to video conferences or meet in person. The Relationship Economy has been here for years, and the world is less and less slow to embrace it, which means you must be too.
Make friends, or at least connections.
8 – Commit to Creating and Receiving Less Noise
This is a big one. I’m a pack rat and I hate to throw things out. And every month it hurts me to sift through my reader and toss out blogs that don’t update at least twice a week, unless I have some personal relationship with the blogger, especially since I know I’ve been guilty of the same.
Of course in my case, it’s because I don’t want to be part of the noise, I want to be part of the conversation. And I fully expect people to delete me when I don’t update — sometimes it’s Why I’m quiet.
But that’s another story for another day.
For this year, it’s going to mean that every post of mine will have even more of an emphasis on concrete take-aways. What Loren said in a New Year’s Resolution post inspired me:
Instead of trying to cover all of the search news which comes out daily, perhaps writing more opinion and tutorial will be of greater value to our readers. In October and November I started publishing more link building and SEO tutorials and lists, and these attracted a good deal of positive reader response, bookmarks and interest; so I’m thinking that this is a good sign.
Now, do you need to do all of these? Probably not. But if you do, they’ll help cement your online relationships, increase traffic, and build trust. All three of those will lead to greater profit.
