… of the Year, is now online.

You have no idea how close it came to being the last one ever…

Whew!

In this Christmas Issue:

Five Seasons Freebies
Four Traffic Weapons
Three Blogger’s Resources
Two On-Going Contest
and a Funny Chirstmas Video of Me!

Can’t wait to see you there!

I don’t think that’s the official name, but I also didn’t want to give it away. So why should you obey my commands, actually Leave My Site and go visit his?

Because I said so.

Okay, I knew that wouldn’t work. First of all, his blog is gorgeous. An example of working Both form and function. Marshall left me a comment yesterday, and I clicked through to his site out of curiousity like I always do. (Reason #238 why you should comment – I am so nosy that I can’t resist visiting every non-spam-commenter’s site).

I went to his site and found tons of useful posts – not just useful but friendly, open and … there’s just something about the way he writes, where he somehow makes you feel really comfortable and laid back. Recent post include one on tagging, another on Feedburner that will help a lot if you’re confused about the initial sign up, as well as a short and sweet intro to blogs.

If you’re at all intersted in web tools, or want to learn more about Web 2.0, do yourself a favor and mosey on over to Marshall Kirkpatrick’s blog. Quite a treat

Resources: Visit Marshall’s blog here. Drag this link into your RSS reader to subscribe.

It comes as a surprise to many, but there are many sites out there that are willing to send traffic your way, and you don’t have to trick them or threaten them with the stink eye to get their help.

We’re not talking about search engines and specialized directories yet – we’ll soon come back to that.

First, let’s talk about what I call blog helper sites, for easy reference.

There are all kinds of resources out there for bloggers, you just have to know where to look, and figure out what works.

I tend to shy away from regular blog link exchanges, because despite all the free information, I’m running a commercial site. If you’re running one as well, you may find that regular blog exchanges don’t necessarily work to bring you buying traffic any better than link exchanges bring traffic to your site.

That’s not to say they don’t send traffic– they do. But do they send the right traffic, action-taking traffic at acceptable conversion rates? Not really.

So what other blog resources are out there to help you?

There are sites like Technorati, that bring blog readers and bloggers together. One of the ways they do this is through tagging. it might not appear like such a hot idea at first, inviting your audience to leave by posting links to tags.

But tagging also brings traffic into your site. And if you’re doing your best to capture traffic that subscribes, helping them find more material on the subject you’re writing about will still work in your favor.

People don’t like to constantly hunt for information – be the resource that tells them where they can get it, and they’ll come back.

There are also sites like Blog Top Sites and Blog Carnival that exist just to help you get more traffic, but in a way that serves both you and your readers.

What are Blog Carnivals? I first learned about them when Wayne Hulbert of Blog Business World invited me to one called Carnival of the Captialists. The basic idea is that a community of bloggers organizes efforts to blog on a topic they agree upon, taking the format of a blog-based mini-mag.

You can read the full definition in the Blog Carnival FAQ.

Tags: free traffic :: website promotion :: Blogging :: blog :: blog readership :: traffic :: blog traffic

Resources :: Wayne also talks about Blog Roundtable Discussions :: Learn more about increasing your Blog Traffic.

I just found out that I’m being reccomended from a blog I have been sporadically frequenting. The blog has been alive several months longer than mine. In it, Olga shares marketing ideas - her honest opinion on things she has read and some new ideas she came up with when reading them. You can also start from the top of her site about starting a successful online business.

Thanks for the link back Olga!

Okay, here’s the last one for today. Even if you can’t afford John Reese’s Traffic Secrets package at $1000, you’re missing out if you don’t follow his blog and newsletter. Very motivating stuff.

Now I’m going to take a nap. Go read it.

Go on.

Oh yes, it’s the day you’ve all been waiting for – Google Tuesdays. In full effect.

First up, for all you Gmail fans, my Slashdot headlines informed me of a new blog that uses Gmail to make entries. Haven’t seen it in action yet. You can read about it at Slashdot or on the Gallina site.

More in a few.

In a recent article on SearchEngineDownLow.com, there’s Jason Dowdell points us to a list of Blog search engines.

If you’re a blogger, I have to tell you from first hand experience that it’s a good idea to get into these, whether you have a commerical site or not.

Pretty much everyone and their great grandmother is blogging, though I’m pretty sure that few people blog well. I’m still in the process of redesigning my blog, and deciding if adding advertising banners is worth the trade-off in the feel of this space. So far, I’m leaning towards a “no” – but that doens’t take into account how much I’d stand to lose, versus the gain of the current layout.

That’s for another day though.

Another bit of news I’ve discovered at InternetNews.com ponders whether the blog revolution – re-energized by the marketing potential of blog feeds – is an effective enough tool to eliminate corporate marketing departments. Definitely a chin-stroker….

If you want to get free traffic to your website, you’re already in the right place. if you want to learn how to make money with that traffic, you need to go see John Reese. His marketing blog is a great launch pad for new ideas, will stimulate your thinking, and give you good lessons on methods of making money with your site.

In a previous tip, I referenced an article I wrote that featured a site where you could check your Google rankings, called, appropriately, GoogleRankings.com.

The creators of that site now bring you YahooSearchRankings.com – and I find it to be pretty accurate for a Beta tool.

To refresh your memory, using Google Rankings, I can see my blog ranked number one out of 5 mllion sites for free traffic tips, with a link to Google I can check their findings against. Using their Yahoo Rankings site, they have the same thing, and a similiar link where I can see my blog ranked number two of 7 million.

With this tool I can track the progress of other harder to get search terms I want to rank for- which helps me decide how to set up my content for placement. Bookmark both sites to monitor your own web property for free.