Networking Techniques to Increase Blog Traffic

It excites me everytime I see my mailbox full of messages from my blog readers. And thus, one of my ultimate blogging dream is to have continuous traffic on my blog. Because that would just prove that I am making some sense to other people. I got to be honest, my blog is just pagerank 3 and I havent been earning that much from blogging so why would people care to read what I am writing?

I am not expecting internet users to read my money making techniques or whatsoever. I just want to put everything in a journal and maybe someday when I become successful, I can look back and say “Hey guys what I have mentioned before regarding this ..& that… are working. You can see me now, I am earning 4-digit a month because of affiliate marketing, adsense, paidposting, etc” (in my dreams!?!?... Well, lets wait and see…) Also, I am writing these things so that other successful bloggers who may be peeking or taking a glimpse of my humble site can tell me if what I am doing is right or wrong. I have always been checking other blogs to compare notes, see if I am taking the right path. So now, let me tell you some basic tips which may have been one reason why I have google pagerank 3 and why I have readers subscribe on my feed (thanks to you guys!).

1. Blog hopping. If you have been reading my blog, you would always notice that I often use the phrase “Blog Hop” & “Blog Hopping.” And the truth is, I really do blog hop. Why? As I have mentioned above, I am not an expert so I want to learn techniques on how to be a successful blogger. I need to know what my co-bloggers are doing which may have been working with them , thus, I can try it on my end. Also, I blog hop so that I can collate links of helpful information that I can share with others (it works both ways because I also get to promote the Website that I like).

2. Taking Advantage of Blog Comments. I am not saying that in every blog that you visit, you have put comments (not necessarily). But I do believe that every blog has its own beauty, if you can devote quality time with a blog that are of your interests, try to check out its archive and you can definitely see one post that is worthy of a beautiful comment. If you really care about the blogger (and have enough courage), then you can add a feedback on how to improve the site.

3. Joining popular online communities. This I guess has the greatest contribution of what I have achieved already. Some of the online communities that I am into right now are :

• Blogcatalog – Very accomodating community where you get to meet a lot of bloggers that are writing about different topics. If you want to look for bloggers that have the same interests as yours, then you can check out the blogcatalog group. Blogcatalog is one of the largest and well-known blog directory so you should have your blog url listed in this community.
• Entrecard – One of the most popular networking strategies in the blogging world is entrecard. I actually consider this as an advertising community because, the idea is to basically visit a site through the entrecard badge. Although some may say that entrecard dropping is not a good idea, I think it still depends on the blogger. What I actually do after clicking on the entrecard badge, I still take some time to read the blog and check out some interesting posts. There are times that I even got inspired by this unknown blogger. So be wise when using entrecard and make the most out of it.
• StumbleUpon – This is a very helpful tool in sharing good content. What you actually do when you use StumbleUpon is similar to the idea of adding frequently visited sites on your browser’s Favorites or Bookmarks and sharing your list with your family & friends. Install the StumbleUpon toolbar and get started with your favorites list.
• Technorati – Quite similar to stumbleupon but this doesn’t require any software installation. Just create a Technorati profile and you can start storing your frequently visited blogs on your favorites. Im still learning the process and if you want to know more about it to check out Technorati Support.
• Mybloglog – Just like blogcatalog, mybloglog allows you to get connected with other bloggers. It also has a large community so you get to meet and be linked with many people. Moreover, you also get to add a widget and track your site visitors. To get more information about Mybloglog, visit : http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/mybloglog
• Friendster – I’ve been a member of friendster (I think long before I started blogging). My original goal was to meet my long lost friends and family. Also, to update my loved ones about my interesting life. But lately, I noticed other friendster friends, that they have shoutouts about their blog. That’s a good idea. So I inserted my blog URL on my shoutout. And if you don’t have any blog, you can actually create a blog on your friendster account.
• Myspace – I am not a subscriber of myspace but I guess it works just like friendster. But I’ll be subscribing on this community soon at : http://www.myspace.com
  

4. Blog Tagging – Some bloggers are fond of this strategy. Well, I am not into tagging because there are times that the topic they are discussing is not in line with my blog theme. So, in as much as I would like to participate, I tend not to react to that tag or if I will respond, I do it on my other blog. I believe tagging is more appropriate to personal blogs where you can write about anything and yes, it really helps in expanding your network.

That’s basically it! If you have networking techniques that are not on my list, I’ll be glad to hear them out. =)