Kids of conversation © by Kris Hoet

I’m amused by Google’s fumbling around the social space. Some times when they get it right, they turn around and kill good progress elsewhere.

And sometimes they seem like they’re starting to get it right consistently, as some would say they are with Google Plus.

I believe they’re on the right track but like any other network, I want to study it for a year before I let the leash off my cautious optimism, after whatever initial prognostication and reactions I have.

But because they’re Google, everyone is so busy looking at the latest statistics measuring how fast or slow Google+ is growing – or not. Few are examining the value of the platform itself, apart from the Business Pages.

Google’s  Like a New Blogger In That Way

Google!! © by billibala

This isn’t a post about whether or not Google will survive in the social space, but its toil in the space is relevant to the discussion – don’t they remind you of a fledgling business blogger?

I remember what it was like for me – and I had a small audience back then already, but it was no less frustrating.

I had all the data structured in a way that’s appetizing to search engines but tailored to humans. All I did was write passionate posts that I thought people would find useful to read, and want to link to, and let the blog software bear the burden of optimizing.

Yeah, I paid attention to titles, tags, and did as much linking as I could myself. And I employed every ethical technique I knew of to get people to come to my site and stay.

(And yeah, this one time, I tied a person to a chair. Allegedly. Which is not as ethical. But it’s not like I got caught or anything. Okay that never happened. Checking to see if you were with me or just skimming.)

But what ultimately got me from 10 visitors a day to as high as 10k once in a blue moon was creating content I thought my target audience would love. Because then they responded.

Commentary to Conversation

Wide Audience View © by heresiarchic

What I couldn’t figure out at the time, in those early ten-visitor-a-day times, was how to get people to go beyond simple responses.

Isn’t it funny that Google has that down now? The one thing I see on Google Plus that I don’t see as much on Twitter anymore (space/time limitations) or on Facebook (built more for commentary than discourse) is true conversation.

Someone sparks it, and people go back and forth at length, not just with the author but which each other, then off on tangents and back to the point. Like someone poured chatter fertilizer on Google Groups.

And to some? That’s still failure. Because people aren’t talking enough.

Why isn’t commenting enough? What’s the key difference between commentary and conversation? We’ll talk about that next.

You know me.

Okay, just in case it’s your first time on this merry-go-round, I’m a capitalist – a compassionate one, but a capitalist none the less. I own a business, and I don’t believe in doing things with my business that are

• pointless
• unprofitable, or,
• inefficient,

Therefore, there’s no way I’d advise you to blog if it didn’t impact your sales in some way. Of course, this doesn’t mean that your blog is supposed to be an endless stream of sales pitches. I’d actually advise you not to pitch in your blog. It reads as desperate.

Besides, there are so many more elegant, productive ways to connect visitors to your sales process.

Sometimes, when I’m not sure if something I’m going to write crosses that line, I think to myself, “if my blog was a how-to manual, would I be comfortable with this blog post as a chapter? Or would it sound out-of-place, like a sales pitch for another book?”

Maybe you’ll think of your blog as a venue for gatherings related to your business. In that case, you wouldn’t get up and make a speech about how great your business is. You’d talk about what your customers need, or what they want to know. And in the program, or on your business card, or after your speech, you’d have plenty of opportunities to talk about what you do and how your company can help.

This afternoon, I had a meeting scheduled about this topic, and for it I quickly put together a few slides illustrating how blog traffic turns into sales. You can view that presentation below, or if you’re reading this via syndication, follow the link to view it in Google Docs.

You know what’s as important as blogging consistently?

Responding to the people who take the time to help spread your word. Now, there will, of course, come a time when you can’t manage respond to every single person one on one. But just letting people know that 1- you hear them and 2- you appreciate that they’re mentioning you can go a long way.

And even worse, not doing so can have absolutely detrimental results.

I can’t tell you how many opportunities I have missed when I haven’t responded. Sometimes I physically couldn’t do it in time. It’s something I just live with. But it happened enough times that I put a little routine into place.

If someone comments on my blog and I can’t answer them in time, I put them on a list of people whose content I’ll share at some point. When people retweet me, I put them on a Twitter list called “IOU Retweet Love” to let them know that first, it was noted and appreciated and second, will be returned at some point.

Then when they send out a quality message that has the potential to get a good response, I help them pass it along via a retweet to my group.

You can’t live on blog island – without the sustenance of the Blogosphere, your blog will die. So find a way not only to respond to people who help magnify your voice or comment on your blog, but get involved with other blogs. Comment and share other people’s words too.

Evergreen Traffic” width=”300″ height=”352″ align=”center” />

I need your help in thanking someone. All it’s going to cost you is a link, and maybe an email. If you want, you can even make money from it.

You might have checked your email yesterday and seen a message from me about Evergreen Traffic, and read about my story. Some people I know had never heard about that part of my background, and if you’re one of those folks, it probably explains a lot. If for no other reason than to satisfy your curiousity about me, go by and skim the page on Marlon Sander’s site.

And yes, that’s what I want you to link to, talk about, etc, but let me tell you why first.

What I really want to talk about first is how this whole thing happened – how I ended up suddenly having one of the people I admired first and most online decide that I needed to revive my product line, and how he dragged me, kicking and screaming, into creating another product that explains the core of the traffic system I use on my own sites.

You might know Marlon Sanders from The Amazing Formula, a product that’s been on the market as long as I’ve been in online marketing. It’s one of those things that, if you lost it, you’d buy it again.

For me, having him suddenly come into my life as a customer is kind of like being on American Idol and having Stevie Wonder ask you to sing at his birthday party. Yeah, I have a rep of my own that I’ve earned through my talent — but he’s the Real Deal, you know? If I was to stay in this business that’s the kind of success I’d be shooting for.

Think of the person you look up to like that in your profession, coming up to you and saying, “hey, we’ve got to get your product line back up and cranking- you’re talented!”

Can you imagine?

I was really… resigned to retirement status.

I still have some lose ends to tie up and was hoping to get some of my friends together to help me with a fundraiser to get that going and maybe some residual income. But it’s been hard to coordinate, and with me not knowing until I wake up in the morning whether or not I can conduct life semi-normally, it’s been tough to commit to interview times.

Cindy, Violet, and Morgan are a HUGE help, but it’s gonna take five people to take over what I was dong at my peak. That’s not to brag, it’s just the long and the short of the issue. So I’d just about given up hope of ever doing the part of my life that I love the most, which is sharing the details of the information about traffic, search and marketing that you find on this site.

I would think to myself: At least I have my consulting clients – for the most part, if I can talk and coordinate research with other folks, I’ll always have that. But there’s something about being able to reach masses of people with good information.

Anyway, not even a week ago, I get a Facebook message and a friend request from Marlon. I thought, this has to be THE Marlon Sanders, because most of the folks who would spoof him aren’t old-school enough to remember him.

And it was.

And he was writing to tell me that he thought I was talented, and why was all my stuff down?

So I told him.

And long story short (or at least less long), he convinced me that I needed to keep on sharing what I know, starting with a new product. And that’s how Evergreen Traffic came about, through the kindness of Marlon Sander’s heart.

I hemmed and hawed and made excuses but he cut through my BS and got me working. I know some people who would have modified what I told them and sold it as their own. But the successful people are Never like that.

Isn’t that funny?

Marlon has resurrected my dream. I’m still going to have to retire for health reasons, but because of him I’m going out with a bang instead of quietly fading away. But until that day, I can create my best work and not have to worry about certain nutty details. I won’t bore you with them, but suffice it to say that without flexibility on those points, it made it hard for me to be able to make products as I’d like.

He has also helped me to remember what I needed to keep in mind the most.

You.

In all these issues I’ve been having, I can’t say I forgot about you… I always think about you. What I forgot was how much you guys … love me, to put it in Marlon’s words.

In return for Marlon’s generosity to me, i want him to make a mint off this. Yes, i get a cut, so you’ll be supporting me too.

Here’s what I’d like you to do, if you would.

1- Go to Marlon’s special site for affiliates, where currently instructions for promoting Evergreen Traffic appear on the front page. If you want to make money, create an affiliate link. If not, you can use the same information to link directly there.

2- Make a blog post about it. If you link here or send a trackback, of course I’ll link back.

3- If there’s anyone within the sound of your blog/voice/del.icio.us that you think would be helped by learning about the Evergreen Traffic System, send them a note, whether it’s your list, a friend, or someone you know who just started their internet business.

4- If you think that more than 50 of the people you know could pick it up, contact Marlon directly. He can make you a special partner or create a special page for you.

That’s it. Just four steps and you’ll be helping me show my appreciation for Marlon and all he’s been willing to do to help me.

If you do, make sure you send me the link in Facebook or make a comment here because I want to send you something special for helping out. In any case I appreciate you perusing my rambly thought for the day.

Okay, I just appreciate you, period.

Everyone wants more blog comments – enough never seems to be enough. As a blogger, you can get addicted to how much feedback you’re generating. Be careful that you’re not posting just to be controversial, instead of focusing on the value of your post itself.

Having said that, with a few exceptions, posts that inspire comments from your audience can become part of what makes your blog more popular, and can keep it that way if the comments keep coming. Right or wrong, blog comments are seen as an indication of how successful your blog is.

1- Make it as easy as possible to comment.

No logging in before commenting, don’t force them to validate their email address, don’t moderate comments, no captchas, and let people know comments aren’t moderated.

Later, you can re-enable any of these to stem the flow of either real comments, spam or both.

2- Find out what people want to know on your topic and write about that constantly.

If your sites is about pet lovers, and people want to know all about organic dog and cat food, write about it. It might not be your favorite topic, but if it brings you engaging traffic, make it a regular conversation point. Your site is there to serve your population.

3- Stay on topic.

Even if you have a themed day that’s a little outside your topic area (like our Tool Time Fridays with Morgan Lighter) make sure all those posts can still relate back to your central subject.

For example, the other day, Morgan wrote about a tool that can turn YouTube videos into a format compatible with iTunes. Put that together with some of my tips on how to get traffic with web video and you have a whole new use for recordings you uploaded to YouTube and other sites.

4- Post regularly to become part of your reader’s daily habits.

People are habitual creatures. They’ll most likely find your site and include it in their new habits through doing one of their old habits.

Today, someone got up, brushed their teeth, got ready for work, went to their office, read their email, then the news or their RSS feeds (or both.) If they found your site through some other blog’s feed they read, and decided to add you, whenever you have a new entry, they’ll at least read the headline.

That opportunity only comes up each time you publish. After that first six weeks, it’s not as important that you’re doing so daily. But you should be putting up posts in a predictable fashion IF you want regular commenters. Whether it’s approximately every 24 hours, or every Tuesday and Thursday at 2:21 pm isn’t as important as making it a regular occurrence.

5- Leave an open-ended question or query at the end of each post.

If you look at Chris Pirillo’s blogs over at Lockergnome, instead of “Leave a Reply” above the comment form, it often says something like “What do you think?” Sometimes I change mine to “What Are Your Thoughts?”

In addition, when you create a post, the last sentence of your post can be a question to your audience that allows them to continue the conversation. If all other barriers are removed from commenting, sometimes the issue is that you’ve done such a good job writing the article that there’s nothing else to add.

Remember the last date you had? Chances are you asked the other person questions that would have to go beyond yes or no, in order to get them to open up to you. Most of us do it subconsciously. The people who are Really good with people already have questions in mind. We ask things like where they live, what they do, if they enjoy their jobs, etc., and the conversation continues.

Leaving your post open to input stimulates conversation online in the same way.

6- Give incentives for responding.

When people leave me comments, one of the first things I do is visit their site. If it’s an okay site and not spam, I make a point of telling at least one other person about it, usually someone on the staff or a friend, or I’ll comment on the site to let them know I’ve been there. They visited my site and left a comment, and I’d at least like to reciprocate.

If it’s good, I’ll find a recent blog post to add to del.icio.us, post the link on Facebook, or otherwise share via Social Media. If it’s great, I’ll write a blog post about them and send them a trackback, or submit it to more than one Social Media site, usually one with more traffic like Stumble Upon or Digg. I’m also a DoFollow blogger.

If you make a habit of reciprocating, you’ll be cementing the relationship. Not all of them will flourish and bloom into long-term partnerships or even friendships. But the ones that do are worth hundreds of the ones that don’t.

7- Interact with people in conversational communities.

I mentioned Facebook earlier. It can be a major source of traffic for you in dozens of different ways, and it’s not the only site that will send you daily traffic. This is one of the bigger secrets to interactive communities.

You want to find sites where conversations are already taking place. That’s it. Whether it’s Google Groups, Facebook, other forum sites, your own forums, sites like StumbleUpon, or Q and A communities, you want to go where people are already talking about the topic you specialize in, or a topic you want to know about that is related to your market.

It is much easier to jump into hundreds of discussions taking place and help advance one, than to attempt to start hundreds of conversations on your own.

Bonus hit: start the conversations with a pre-planned group of fellow bloggers, family or friends the first few weeks. Even if you’re writing for the same blog, when people see that comments are being made, they’ll follow with more comments. After a week or so, you won’t need to plan at all.

8- Engage the blogosphere.

Obviously other blogs have the conversational communities you want to join. Don’t just comment once and leave, comment weekly, even daily. Engage. Track the comments you leave to see who is responsive and start relationships with those people. Link to another blog from a blog post. Send a trackback. Share the posts you find.

Every month or so, make a point to discover new blogs.

9 – Respond to all your comments. Make an effort to do so as quickly and predictably as possible.

Realistically, we can’t be at our computers twenty four hours a day just waiting for someone to post so we can answer right away. It’s just not happening. Some times I write my posts days in advance so following my comment feed doesn’t help me– I might not remember what post you’re talking about?

So instead, I check in every day and answer comments, approximately every 24 hours, all at once. Of course, I’m also not actively attempting to generate more blog comments. Now they just happen as a result of the momentum we started years ago. To help kick start your own momentum, answer each and every comment.

You should even acknowledge the generic comments (as long as they aren’t spam). One of the reasons is that people often look at the number of comments on a post to decide which one to read. The logic (erred as it may be) is that the post where all the action is has to be the best post on the site.

10 – Install plugins that highlight comments and those who make them, on your blog.

Especially if you have WordPress, there are plugins you can use to feature conversations in your sidebars, and even link to the people who are making the most comments. If your site isn’t busy, don’t worry, most of them can be easily configured to accommodate different activity levels.

Being a blogger, professional or otherwise, is no walk in the park. There’s work involved, and someone has to do it. If that someone is you, avoid being overwhelmed by arming yourself with knowledge, forming a plan, and then working it to reach your goals. And remember, blog comments aren’t necessarily a measure of how well your blog is doing. But a responsive community can help indicate whether you’re on the right track.

Some folks have realized that they don’t necessarily have to be bloggers to benefit from blog traffic, and have taken to commenting on blog posts to increase traffic and links.

It’s not the best method out there, but hey, whatever pays your rent.

Seriously though, if you’re incorporating blog commenting into your overall traffic plan (you do have an Overall Traffic Plan don’t you? Mon Dieu…) and you’re new to commenting, here’s …

11 Idiotic Things Commenters Can Do to  Guarantee a Pissed Off Blogger.

You know, the one who you hope will publish your comment and send you traffic.

Yes. I’m looking at YOU. If you’ve ever done one of these, and you were a new blogger or I knew you from somewhere, I probably let it slide the first time and sent you an email. If your comments disappear after that?

It’s probably because you did one or more of the following. Take heed. I’m not the only who gets pissed off by these…

1- Be Sure Not To Use Your Real Name.

We don’t care who you are, and we Love to enhance the credibility of our blog with links out to people who think their keyword is more important than their identity.

Hint: Most people will find John Doe , the Your Keyword-er to be acceptable.

2- Make Your Comment as Generic As Possible.

We’d never figure out that your comment couldn’t possibly have anything to do with our specific post.

3- Be an Ass Kisser to Increase Your Chances.

Of getting deleted.

4- Leave your Link in the Body of the Comment.

Because I didn’t see it in that spot that says “URL” or “link”. And it won’t get auto-moderated into a queue where I will then remove it.

5- Cut and Paste the Same Comment Everywhere.

I don’t ever go to other sites. I’m a blogger not a- hey, wait, I’m a BLOGGER. By Definition I go to other sites. What do you know about that?

6- Be Way, Way Off Topic.

Every conversation, sooner or later, is about Viagra, isn’t it? Thanks for skipping the foreplay. Real time saver.

7- Send a Fake Trackback.

If I’m a busy blogger, they won’t get moderated until right before Google would give you some potential credit. And speaking of Do Follow/I Follow/No No Follow…

8- If I’m a DoFollow Blogger, Make it Apparent that You Could Care Less About Interacting, And Just Want a Link

That’s SURE to get me to turn off the NoFollow attribute for that comment. Oh, you didn’t know we could control that? Sucks to be you.

9- Mistake My Blog for the Support Department.

If you’ve got a question for me? You should probably use the email I gave you.

Or the form on the site.

Or the email address on the site.

Or if it was a phone order, the number on the sales page.

Or the direct number I gave you.

Or Facebook private message. Or Stumble Upon private message.

For reals? You should ONLY resort to a blog comment as a means of reaching support if all other methods fail.

And then you should do something in your comment that would get it moderated, but not as spam, being as how you’re always including your credit card number, phone number, home address or some other personal information that I cringe at when I finally moderate comments later on in the day.

10 – Never Come Back.

What freak show said that comments were about community? If God wanted comments to have anything to do with community he would have started the words with the same four letters.

Why should you form partnerships or get to know me for a while, so your request for a favor later won’t sound off the wall and out of the blue?

11- Ignore My Comment Policy.

I wrote it for my health, not for something silly like, oh, I dunno, your benefit. That’s not why I put a link to it on every page and again under the big button.

Of course, to be fair, in the old theme it doesn’t look like a link. But it’s not like I’m the only person whose comment policy you’ve ignored.

Why pay attention to some page I took time out of my life to write? It’s not like it gives you guidelines guaranteed to help you get your comment published, so that if all you want is a link anyway, you can get it.

It’s not as if I might to Stumble, del.icio.us, Sphinn, or even Digg the sites of people who comment on my posts, or include them in a post on another day. Why should you bother to increase your chances of getting as many free one-way, traffic sending links as possible?

Don’t be silly.

is now online.

In today’s charming issue:

• How to Get Me to Do All Your Marketing Chores
• Two Facebook Classes
• Three Free Online Seminars
• How Search Marketing, Social Media, Blogging,
• and Partying Can Beat Lymphoma
• How to Get a Lot More Publicity and Exposure
• The Secret of Social Media Marketing for Online Retailers

See You There!

Someone’s always asking me why their blog isn’t getting traffic/making money/converting leads. These are the top seven mistakes that are related to all three of these issues.

1. Being Too Anonymous

The general public still have only the vaguest idea of what a blog is. For those people, this is how it goes. They go to a search engine or a site they already frequent. They search for something or follow a link. They end up at your blog.

In 10 – 30 seconds, from 25% up to 90% of the time, they’ll then leave, not having found what they want, never to return.

What makes the percentage of people who stick around higher? It’s typically 3 things.

A- There’s so much information at that site in a topic that interests them that they will be back.
B- They get the sense that someone is “minding the store”,
C- Least likely, they believe that they will find what they’re looking for or and feel connected to a real person who might be able to answer their question, or direct them to something better.

You can affect those last two by being a real person. I know some people have ghost bloggers, CEOs in particular. They give their general ideas to another party who fleshes them out. Or the other person writes all their blog posts. Some sites have a team of bloggers posting on a site where the actual owner who makes the most profit is never heard from.

And that’s fine. Your blog must still have personality. There’s no law that says it has to be Your personality. But if you have an impersonal blog, you may as well not have a blog at all.

2. Not Linking to Fellow Bloggers

Big mistake. Biggest lesson in blogging is that no blog is an island. Why would you expect people to link to you if you don’t link to them? And if you think that’s giving away traffic that won’t come back, think of it this way.

Unless you chain someone to their computer, they’re eventually leaving. And since it’s illegal to do that, you might as well help your visitor along their way. It is imperative that you develop the confidence to know that they’ll come back. And no one can place a gift in the palm of your hand if you’re holding out a closed fist.

3. Not Commenting on Your Blogs or Others.

No popular blogger catches every last comment, true. But to get to popularirty, you better believe they started out that way. You should also comment on other blogs. In fact, forget your link the first few times – you may only need one link to count in your favor anyway. So take the focus off that and add to the discourse.

It’s smart blogging and people don’t forget it.

4. Speaking Like an Expert Before You Know Your Stuff

This is my number one pet peeve. Everyone is an expert on something, but you should Only speak expertly on things you know about. Doctors don’t try to do your taxes for you. It just doesn’t make any sense.

At first, people may listen to you. But once they do what you say and they fall flat on their faces, because of your bad advice, what then? Do you think they’ll be in line to buy your products and solicit your services? Will they become return visitors who may click on advertisements that interest them?

No. Duh!

And yet I see people I think of as truly intelligent make this dumb ass mistake again and again.

It’s so cool to have authority and to have people’s opinions be swayed by your knowledge and expertise, sure. But until you can prove your results, cite supporting research from trusted sources, and maintain a reputation for being a rain maker, you’re shooting yourself in the foot and you’ll probably take your business down with you.

Not to mention all the poor people who are following your bad advice. My favorite thing is when people give contradictory advice on different blog posts in the same week, without even recanting. They state whatever position is popular, just to get visitors, not caring about the fallout they cause.

So if you’re a newbie blogger, how do you get popular without declaring yourself an expert? How can you have power and be influential if you’re the little guy? That’s another article for perhaps later on today.

5. Failing to Capture Leads

There’s no reason why you shouldn’t have some type of lead capture on your site. Even if it’s inadequate and you don’t intend to email your list frequently. Sending them a freebie or some tips once a week is enough to keep your list warm. Send them a tip a day and it’ll be blazing hot. And when your tips hold water, they’ll be ready to spend money on the premium version of your solution to their problem.

The same is true for RSS. More people are using RSS feeds, and sometimes they are fading into the background of other tools they use to retrieve information or do resarch. For the love of Pete, if you’re blogging, turn your site feed on and test to make sure it works.

6. Taking without Giving and Thanking

It’s great when everyone links to you, pays attention to your site, and generally makes you popular. But you have to frequently remember that you’re nothing without those folks. Send a private thank you note. Make a public one.

Add the link of the person who linked you to a social bookmarking site. Comment. Share. Make a blog post about your supporters.

7. Poor Integration of Monetization Techniques

Another pet peeve of mine.

It’s amazing how many times I pull up a blog that has more in-your-face monetization plans than good content. Not that I’m against money. You know me. I’m not ashamed of being a capitalist. The value exchange is one of man’s best inventions.

However. If you want to have paid reviews, an advertiser block, Google AdSense, affiliate links and paid link positioning on your site all at the same time, blend, darling. You can get all that stuff on your blog, and more, if you’ll simply position it properly.

If you don’t know how? Hire a designer.

Okay. I think that was all seven. A long article, but it’s worth it if any one of those seven points puts money in your pocket, traffic in your site, or leads in your sales process.

I know what you’re thinking, particularly if you’re a traditional type of marketer. We’ve discussed this already in my Give Marketing series, but those two articles were about “what-to” more than “why-to”.

Let’s go deeper, shall we?

You want to know how you can possibly get more, or better quality of traffic from sharing – isn’t pointing people to resources other than my own giving traffic away needlessly? What if the person never comes back? Why should I help other people who may not help me back?

I know, I know, you’re not running a charity, you’re running a business. And no, I’m not going to give you any hard evidence that this works, as I normally would.

So you scoff at this idea of Sharing as a traffic method. It’s backwards, crazy, new age, bleeding heart.

Or. It’s the reason why your competitor’s site goes up in traffic instead of down by linking to your site.

Or. It’s the reason the Blogosphere works so well – it’s an environment where those in the know, those who are successful, become more open, and more sharing, which drives interaction and repeat traffic.

Or. It could be why some sites are considered resources, and others are seen primarily as hype machines.

And. This is the key to unlocking the need to subscribe in your visitors.

How can this possibly work – sending a person somewhere else? Giving your visitors free information instead of holding your hand out for cash each time? Offering your advice for free, with only a gentle product reminder at the end as opposed to a hard push?

I don’t know.

It just does.

.

.

.

What are you still doing here? That was the end of the article.

What do you mean “Convince me”?

Fine. I’ll give it a shot….

When you’re networking with other business people, sharing what you find to be of value at another site with your audience is a display of confidence. It says “I believe in my resource enough to point you to another, because I know that if you enjoy mine, you’ll be back.”

It also shows your business networking contact that you support them. It says to them, “Thank you.”

Sharing also tells the people who visit your site that you care enough to take the risk that they may forget about you.

It’s a reality that some first time visitor will do a search, come to your site, and leave without subscribing, clicking or buying, never to return. This could be a result of not having the proper subscription options visible enough, or that you link to something so marvelous that in their excitement, the surfer just… forgot about you.

And later, they may even remember you, but not be able to find you again. It happens.

It won’t happen any less if you don’t share information, give free tips, give away free advice in your podcast, link out from your site, or splice external links into your feed.

It’s a reality we all have to cope with – why not face it head on instead of hide from it?
And really, people are naturally attracted to givers. And as they congregate for that free bit, they are self-targeting for you. I don’t want a free hammer because I don’t… hamm. Or what ever it is you do to nails with those thingees.

But a whitepaper on Social Media? I’m SO there. Heck yeah I’ll give you my email address. Maybe you have something I can buy that solves my problem — there, I just self targeted for you.

You do it too.

Think back to the last resource site you went to that you subscribed to – why did you subscribe? Was it to get something free? Or to give yourself the best chance of remembering a place that you were about to exit?

I could go on like this forever. The takeaway point – if you have people in your ear trying to convince you that being more open won’t work, or that linking out of your site is folly, think of the effect it would have on you if you were shared with, or shared by someone who is influential in your field.

Let that be your guide. Just for a little while. Just for a week, don’t just blindly believe me. I have no hard evidence besides the blogosphere and socialsphere.

So try it yourself.

Below is a list of how-to and strategy articles for Traffic Methods I’ve taught for free at this site.

Some of them date back as far as 2004, but I’ve only added the ones that are still relevant today. Depending on your browser, you may have trouble with some of the audio or video posts. In that case, you’ll find downloads for them in our audio and video podcasts.

[ add to iTunes audio | add to iTunes video]

I put this together for a Facebook friend tonight, to help him get his traffic started at a minimal cost. Hi Khuram!

Click the titles to go to the corresponding page for the tip. In future you can get to this page from the “How to Get Free Traffic” Tab.

Enjoy!

Traffic from Social Media Web 2.0 Traffic

1. Free Excerpt from my PDF guide on Facebook Marketing (Which is really UnMarketing, and that makes it FUN. ) [ Facebook UnHyped Networking for Traffic pdf excerpt|280 k]
2. What is Social Presence Marketing?
3. 11 Reasons Why Facebook Rocks – The Shorter, One Page Version
4. Keyword Data for Social Networks
5. 5 Popular Social News Sites That are Self-Promotion Friendly
6. Social Media and Bookmarking – Cure All for Traffic Problems or Another Over-Hyped Question Mark
7. Four Ways to Use Google to Be More Social with Your Visitors
8. Five Ways to Get More Out of Your PlugLife

Non-Traffic Social Media Extras for Better Understanding
Interview with PlugIM’s Ryan Knowles
Video – What is Web 2.0?
It Rubs The Lotion On Its Skin: Understanding the Difference Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 in Layperson’s Terms

Traffic from Article Marketing

1. Traffic Method #227 : Write Exclusive Content for Major Publications
2. Why Article Marketing Still Has Teeth as a Free Traffic Technique
3. Increase Your Web Traffic with these 7 Article Writing Tool
4. 9 Reasons Why Articles Don’t Produce the Traffic and Sales They Should
5. Sales from Aricles Part One : Your Topic
6. Sales from Articles Part Two – Write Your Topic
7. Sales from Articles Part Three: Make Your Site Ready
8. Sales from Articles Part Four: How This Works
9. Sales from Articles Part Five: The Resource Box
10. How to Make Article Marketing Work for You
11. How to Make Article Marketing Work for You Part Two
12. LSI and Article Marketing
13. Using Article Marketing to Get On Google News

Traffic from Ezines

1. Introduction to Ezine Promotion
2. Audio Post on Increasing Credibility with Ezines
3. A Short List of Places to Promote Your Ezine

Traffic From Forums/ Discussion Boards/ Groups

1. Where to Find Forums
2. Why You Should Use (Not Abuse) Forums to Increase Your Traffic
3. Build a Successful Forum or User Generated Content Site with these 7 Community Building Tips
4. Google Groups | What’s New | Why Care
5. 7 Steps to Increasing Your Web Site Traffic with the New Improved Google Groups

Traffic from Freebies

1. Traffic Method #228 : Host a Free Tool
2. Why Would You Want to Give Something Away Free?
3. The Right Way to Use Freebies to Entice
4. Audio About the Top Three Secrets to Using Giveaways as Promotional Vehicle
5. The Free T-Shirt

Traffic from Blogging

1. Technorati Traffic Quickie- Accompanied by Video
2. How Long Does It Take to See Traffic Results from Blogging?
3. That Tag and Ping Thing
4. [audio post] How Blogging Can Bring You More Traffic from Google
5. Increase Your Website Traffic with The Blog Virus – Part One
6. Increase Your Website Traffic with The Blog Virus – Part Deux
7. [audio post]How to Catch and Spread The Blog Virus : Part Three
8. Increase Your Traffic with the Blog Virus Part Four
9. Traffic Method # 225 : How to Get Better Traffic by Using Commenting to Form Relationships
10. Three Technorati Traffic Twist Tips
11. 3 Ways to Increase Your Blog Traffic with FeedBurner
12. 4 More Ways to Increase Your Blog Traffic with FeedBurner
13. [audio post] 03.10.05 – Clip from Blog Optimization
14. “I Don’t Really Like to Talk About My Flare”
15. Keeping Blog Traffic

Where Does Blog Traffic Typically Come From?

16. More Blog Promotion Resources
17. Getting More Blog Traffic From Other Sites
18. Does How or When You Blog Matter?
19. How to use your blog to help you make more sales
20. Free Excerpt : Lucrative Keywords for Lucrative Blogging
21. Blog Traffic Methods And Blog References
22. More Visitors to Your Site Through Your Blog

Web Video for Traffic

1. Can Web Video Help Your Traffic?
2. Web Video | The Numbers Make Sense Part One,
3. Part Two
4. Web Video | Broadband Users will Want Broadband Content
5. Web Video Traffic | What About the TiVo Effect? Part One,
6. Part Two
7. Web Video Traffic | Blog of the Day More Web Video Traffic and Broadband Research Sources
8. Traffic Thursdays | How My Friend And I Ended Up On Chris Pirillo Live
9. Traffic Thursdays | The List of Video Sharing Site Lists
10. Traffic Thursdays | What Are Your Live Video Options If You’re Camera Shy?
11. Traffic Thursdays | 5 Reasons Why I Wish I Could Skip Straight To Live Video
12. Traffic Thursdays | Blog Post of the Day (Live Video Post from Marshallk)
13. Traffic Thursdays | Adsense Video Update
14. Web Video Traffic – Viral Video Tactics from the Article of the Day

Updates will include posts about:

• Search Engine Traffic Tips /Linking for Traffic – not including Search Related Tips [current version]
• RSS/Podcasting [current version]
• The Increase Your Website Traffic Series
• The “Traffic Method #” Series

Why don’t I consider leaving comments a traffic method?

Because commenting isn’t meant to generate traffic, it’s more of a by-product.

And yes, there are some things we can use to generate traffic, even though that isn’t their purpose, but only when it’s ethical.

Leaving comments for traffic alone isn’t ethical.

You’re trying to take something from a community that worked hard to get it, instead of getting credit for sharing something with a community that you belong to, and reciprocating when it’s given to you – these are two different things.

I wish there was a plug-in that let me keep people from leaving links until after a certain number of comments, and to turn their links off if they stopped participating.

Andy told me on his ultimate dofollow list about Lucia’s plug-in, which paid commenting may force me to turn to this evening.

Think about how you’d feel if someone did that to your blog, everytime you want to evaluate a traffic method related to blogging. If you wouldn’t mind and allow it at your blog, then knock yourself out, because whatever you are doing to others is about to happen to you.

Commenting to get traffic is also inefficient.

Why?

Let’s say you leave one comment.

That comment will probably only bring you traffic as long as that post is new. When it fades into the archives, you won’t get much traffic from it.

Let’s say it’s a DoFollow comment, and you’re getting link juice.

Sure, your link will get followed by the search engines, and counted among the number of links to your site, which may give you a little boost.

But wouldn’t it be better not to have to share that link juice with the other commenters?

Wouldn’t it better to have a whole post dedicated to your site?

Wouldn’t it be great to get a Permanent link to your site from their Blogroll, on a page that has more weight than a single post?

Wouldnt it be cool if someone discovered you by your link and then shared your link with other people?

So how do you get that kind of action?

Let’s look at it logically.

Good Bloggers tend to make posts about:

• Quality tools, content, services, & products that will serve their community.
• People who are doing innovative, interesting, creative things that will interest their community.
• Quality tools, content, services, & products that will serve their community and make them money.
• News of interest to their community that will either save them from doing a full blog post or help them to do a full blog post.

.. just to name a few.

It follows, then, that if you want a blogger to blog about your site, to share your site with others, or to add you to their link roll, you should :

1. Make comments that will both help and intruigue the blogger and his/her community, which make a good introduction to you.
2. Form a relationship with that blogger on the basis of what you have in common that could serve their community.
3. Form a relationship with other commenters in that community.

In other words, comment to give, not to get. If you get the same amount of love back from comments you make, then great. If you don’t, that’s fine too, at least you got a link, and if you stick to it, you’ll get that love elsewhere.

As far as how to apply this to your comment routine, that will depend a lot on your own preferences.

This is what I normally do.

My Seven Step Method of Commenting to Form Relationships

If I comment on your blog, it’s for the sole purpose of getting a link.

I can buy links, earn them, submit for them, write articles, win awards, be written about, publish a press release, create a podcast…. so what the heck do I need you to link to me for?

It would be nice but…

A link is a consolation prize, not an end in itself.

If I comment on your blog, it’s my way of saying hi, a precursor to a relationship. If we were to use the metaphor of dating, the first comment is the stage where I decide if you’re worth asking out.

Step One – Stalking.

I read a blog for at least a week, looking for common ground, and seeing if the blogger writes in a style that leaves a place for replies other than “good job”.

The content has to speak to me, so that I want to say, “fantastic job”, “thank you”, or “and you know what else”, or “I respect you but you’re SO WRONG about this.”

You can’t expect people to write their most compelling work every day, but if I don’t see at least one memorable shot after a week or so of hanging around and reading archive posts, I’m off.

Because if I’m not electrified, and I’m looking to market to people like me, well, they’re not going to be electrified either.

Sometimes I ignore this rule if their audience loves them for some reason I don’t understand, mostly because some of my readers have the same mercy on me.

Step Two – Introductions.

I comment once, leaving my full name, and making a concerted effort to truly contribute to the conversation. (I make an effort every time, but this first time, I want to be noticed, maybe even impressive.)

Usually the first comment is without leaving my link unless the browser fills it out for me.

If comments are moderated, I may come back if it’s really important to me and I remember. (If your template allows it, enable a subscribe to comments plug-in. Ours doesn’t, one reason I want to change it.)

If not, it’s a quick way to lose my attention, which is why I try to only moderate comments when we’re all on vacation, or if key members are out sick.

Step Three – Flirting.

I comment twice. This time I’m looking for a response from the publisher within a few days.

If the person who writes the posts isn’t responding to me, but is to other people in that thread, I think that’s BS.

Every contributor is important. I don’t want a relationship with a sometimesy person, which also means I’ll probably never, ever buy from them.

If you won’t reply to my comments, you won’t reply to post-sales emails if I need help.

I’ll probably still read though, because you can’t judge the sum total of a person on their flaws.

If the person doesn’t comment at all, either because they have a high traffic site which always produces 25 or more comments per post, I will cut them a little slack.

But I’ll probably read less often, and stop bothering myself to comment, unless I observe interaction between commenters.

Step Four – Yes, I’m asking you out on a date.

I comment three times.

With this third comment, if I make it this far at that site, and they respond or their community responds, I’m moving them up to my priority list to read, link to, write about and reference.

Step Five – I Talk About You All the Time

I share my favorite reads. I may share their posts on del.icio.us, Digg, Sphinn, PlugIM, BUMPzee, StirredUp, Stumble Upon, Facebook, anywhere I’ll see them more often.

Step Six – We Fall In Like

I bond with my new friend. We might poke each other on Facebook or email each other. (Rare for me because I Loathe email.) We may have our own inside jokes on each other’s blogs.

My motives are simple – make a new friend.

If anything else comes out of it, that’s great. If there is something I can do for them, even better. If one day, they do something for me too, that’s awesome. It doesn’t always happen that way, and that’s okay with me.

If it doesn’t, I still get credit when I comment, which I’ll do in bursts of frequency, and at the minimum, traffic and/or links will come from it, and the community that posts there often may post over here, and if they do, I’ll mention them from time to time on my blog and add them to my links.

Who knows, that friend might lead me to another friend who wants the same serious business relationship I’m looking for.

If it does work out, it’s magic.

They’ll write about me, they’ll link to me, they’ll reference my posts, they’ll add me to their Blogroll, they’ll thank me in public, they’ll write me privately to set up partnerships, and I reciprocate or initiate the same with them.

Which results in much more traffic, much better links, an increase in both our audiences and in sales, as well as, a new friendship.

Step Seven – The Mutual Appreciation Party Begins

I Repeat steps Five and Six as much as time allows.

Again, thinking about this logically, what would you be willing to do for a person who was doing that for you? I’ve had people do those things for me, and I’d bend over backwards for them anytime, even if they only got to step five.

Successful businesses are built on good relationships. You don’t have to be best friends with everyone – in fact, I’m really big on not working with people who expect something for nothing, abuse my time, or think that because I’m well-known in an area they want to be popular in, that I somehow owe them something.

However, every good blog traffic method is built on being a good neighbor in the blogosphere. No blog is an island.

Thanks to Isotropic.org for letting me know how many days are left until the end of the year.