Blog

6. Blog -

 Of all the techniques I have listed, blogging is the most work to keep up with. It is also probably the slowest growing method on the list. In order for one of your blog posts to go viral, people have to know your blog exists. With so many quality blogs already in existence, it may take some time to get your blog noticed. It requires persistence. Before you decide to begin blogging, make sure you are interested enough in the topic to write about it on an almost daily basis. For a blog to be effective, you need to post at least 3 – 5 articles a week. While the posts do not need to be long, they should at least contain the elements that any technique needs to go viral; a unique point of view on a subject, informational, entertaining, and fresh. Not only do you need to be consistent in posting new information, you also need to work at marketing your blog. There are several easy ways to start getting other people to pay attention to your blog. Start by finding other popular blogs that cover a similar subject as you cover. Leave insightful comments on their blog. When you leave a comment, you can include a link back to your own site. If some reads your comment and like what you have to say, they may head over to your site to see what else you have to offer. If the blog you leave a comment on is very popular, this could drive a fair amount of traffic to your site. Another method of getting your blog notice is to write a post on your blog commenting on something you read on someone else.s blog. You add a link in your post pointing back to the blog you mentioned. In blog language this is referred to as a “trackback”. When you put the URL of the other blog in the trackback section of your blogging program it sends a message to the blog you are linking to informing them that you mentioned them in your blog. They come and read what you said, and if they like it, they may write something on their blog about your post. Their viewers can also click the link, which will drive traffic to your blog.  It is very easy to get started blogging if that is an area you are interested in. There are several good online blog services that will allow you to set up a blog for free. Some of these services, like Blogger.com, even allow you to set up AdSense advertising on your blog, which will let you earn a little extra income with your blog. If you would rather have the blog located as part of your own website, programs like WordPress are very easy to set up and use. The best part is, it is free to use. If you write good blog posts, and can effectively market your blog, your readership will grow. The more readers you have, the greater the chances of one of your posts going viral. The key to success is quality material that is fresh, and holds the readers attention. You can not get away with recycling what you read on someone else.s blog. When visitors come to your blog, make sure you give them a compelling reason to go to the main part of your site to look around. If your blog becomes popular, this method could drive a flood of traffic to your site that will continue on an almost daily basis.

21 Viral Traffic Generation Techniques

Below are 21 techniques that you can use to bring traffic to your website. Whether there is a flood or a trickle really depends on your ability to give your visitors something they can use or enjoy. It is important to remember that your customers are not stupid. They will know whether what you are offering is something they want, or if it is a cheap advertising ploy. If it is, they will pass the word along. If it is not useful, they will leave your site and say nothing to others about you. The key to all of these techniques is to give something that adds to the user.s experience. This can be by offering useful information, telling them about something new and exciting, or something that is entertaining or humorous, but the key is to make it the highest quality possible. With so much information on the internet that is just a click away, what you are offering has to be unique. This can mean being completely new, or it could mean looking at something old from a different and unique point of view. If your message does not touch them in some way, your message will not go viral. You may still get some traffic out of it, but that traffic will come the old fashioned way,  through hard work, search engine optimization, and daily on-going marketing efforts. While for many people, going viral is a one-time accomplishment, others manage to see repeated success. When one of your messages goes viral, not only does it drive a flood of traffic to your site on a short term, but many of those people will become subscribers, which increases your daily traffic. If you can continue to write unique, compelling material, those people will be more than likely to return to your site, and to tell others. The more eyes that see you message, the better your chances of repeating your viral success. Viral traffic generation should not be used as a stand alone technique. It needs to be a part of a larger marketing strategy. Many of the techniques by themselves may only send a small stream of traffic to your site. That is why you need to use more than one marketing method. One stream may not amount to much traffic, but several streams could be significant. As your message starts to go viral, these several streams could quickly become a flood. Look though the list of items listed and think about which ones will work for you. Chances are, not all of them will work for everyone. Some of them will naturally go together, others will not. The list is not meant to be a comprehensive list of everything possible. It is meant to be a tool; an example of things that have worked for others. As you read through the different techniques, keep thinking about your own business. It may help you to come up with other ideas on your own. Be creative. Modify some of the ideas listed and come up  with something new that is unique to you and your business. The only limit to what is possible is your imagination.

How Can I Make My Message Go Viral?

This is an often asked question, and there has been a lot of time and money spent to find the answer. The truth is, there is no guaranteed way to make your message go viral. There are some things you can do to increase the chances that it will take off, but you can not “make” it happen. Successful viral traffic generation is part skill, part creativity, part timing and circumstances, and part luck. You may try dozens of things with no real success, and then strike gold in a completely unexpected place. There is a quote that says “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” If you continue to market your site, and continue to lay the groundwork for success, you greatly increase the odds that you will be “lucky”. For some sites it takes a long time to become an overnight success. By presenting your message in a useful, unique or entertaining way, it encourages people to spread the word. It requires creating a message with a wide appeal, and has a high potential of getting passed along.  Once it begins, there is no telling where it will go, how far it will spread, or who it will reach. If you happen to be one of the fortunate ones who have several messages going viral, you could easily reach millions of people. It does not happen for everyone, but it could happen for you. 

How Much Does Viral Traffic Generation Cost?

The cost of viral marketing really depends on the type of marketing campaign you decide to use. With the 21 Viral Traffic Generation Techniques listed below, there are many that are free, or very low cost. Some may cost a little more to produce and get started, while others could become quite expensive. How much you spend is entirely up to you and the how you want to use the different methods. One of the greatest things about viral traffic generation is, once you get the initial message out, it really doesn.t cost you any more once it goes viral. Your customers bear all of the time and expense of spreading the word. All you have to do is be prepared to handle the traffic when it comes. Depending on your website hosting service, there may be some costs for additional bandwidth as more customers flood your site, but if your sales increase because of the traffic it is worth the additional cost. 

Why Should I Use Viral Traffic Generation?

You may be thinking that viral marketing techniques are only for the major players with big budgets, and that it can not work for small businesses with small budgets. If that is your thinking, I can assure you, you are wrong. You might not be able to afford to produce the highly polished ads like the big companies, but there are still a lot of opportunities for success. Any business or individual with a message to get out or a service or product to sell can benefit from a well crafted marketing campaign. There are several reasons that you should be using viral traffic generation techniques to build your business and attract customers to your website.

1.) It is a fast, effective way to drive traffic to your site. Like I mentioned above, once the word starts to spread, it can spread very quickly, and there is really no limit to how many people can hear your message. Because your message often comes to someone from a person they already know, it has more credibility than if the message showed up uninvited in an email from someone they do not know. Once the message starts to spread it picks up size and speed as it goes, like a snowball rolling down a hill. You may start out thinking that your efforts were not very effective, then one morning you open your email to find it full of new orders. When it works, it can work very fast.

2.) It can be very inexpensive. Once the word starts to spread, there is not much additional cost. The biggest cost you will face is paying for all the additional traffic to your site. All of the cost and effort of spreading the word about what you have to offer is taken care of by the people spreading the word. More than likely, the biggest expense will be the upfront set up or production costs. Depending on which technique you decide to use. After that initial expense, the cost remaining costs are nominal.

3.) It can help shield you from negative comments One thing to remember is that a negative message can go viral, too. Unfortunately, you are not going to be able to please everyone. If you do enough business, eventually you are going to have someone who is unhappy with you and your business. It only takes one customer that is dissatisfied to put a shadow of doubt in your customer’s minds about whether they should do business with you or not. Once that doubt is there, it is hard to remove it. If people are not happy with the service they received, they are more likely to tell people about it than if they are happy customers. As unhappy customers start spreading negative messages about you, the word will start to spread, and there is not much you can do to stop it. The more it spreads, the more untrustworthy your business appears. All you can do is have enough of a buffer in place that the negative messages do not overpower the positive messages. If your message goes viral, not only will is send a flood of traffic to your site, but other sites will link to you, and your site will rank higher in the search engines. Your name will also appear on other high ranking sites. If a negative message does start to go around, it will have a much harder time getting out, because your positive message is already so highly ranked that the negative messages can not find their way to the top of the search engine listings.

4.) It can find hidden customers. Despite the time and money you spend trying to narrowly define your customers, figuring out who they are, and more importantly, where they are, there will always be people that you have missed. Once your message goes viral, there is no telling where it will end up, or who will see it. Because of the widespread coverage that can occur, people that you had not even considered to be your customers will get a chance to see your message. They will decide whether they are potential customers or not. As word continues to spread about what you are offering, you do not have to worry about finding all the possible niches your customers might be hiding. You do not have to go find them, they will find you.

Other Advertising Options

Other Advertising Options

There are plenty of other advertising options if you do not want to go with 

AdSense. A search for “ AdSense alternatives” will net you a long list of

other advertising opportunities.  Some work in much the same way as 

AdSense, others provide inline ads or

banners. You should try a few different advertising programs to see which

one works the best for your blog.  Some advertising opportunities are similar to

 AdSense and display text ads;

others display contextual ads, the double underline words in the body of

your text, and others work with graphic ads. Here is a list of other

advertising sources for your blog, any of which may be the perfect

advertising solution for you.

Clicksor  – This advertising solution serves contextual ads within the body of

your blog. These ads are simply words that are underlined twice and when

clicked, send users to the sponsor’s website. 

TargetPoint  – Cost per click ads that display ads relevant to your content.

They claim to pay out 50% of click revenue and offer many customizable

features.

Adbrite  – They have a few different advertising options including text ads,

banner ads, inline ads, and full page ads.

Chitika  – This advertising option is designed specifically for blogs and there

are different advertising programs to choose form including text ads, inline

ads, and graphic ads. Most of them operate on a cost per click basis.

 

Veoda  – They also have different ad options including text, graphical, flash

and inline ads. The good thing about Veoda is that they do not require a

minimum number of visitors to sign up and do not require tax information

which is good for small blogs that are just starting out.

Kontera  – This is another inline advertising source where ads are placed as

highlighted words that display a message when they are hovered over.

Text Link Ads  – This site allows purchasers to buy text ads on blogs for a

fixed monthly fee. The more popular your blog is, the more your ads will

cost and the more money you will make.

Affilia te Sensor  – This advertising solution combines the best of text ads

with affiliate marketing. You earn revenue through Clickbank, an affiliate

marketing program, without having to market directly in your blog. Text ads

are placed, matched to your content, on your blog that link to Clickbank

products.

AllFeeds  – You can display a variety of ads through AllFeeds, from

contextual ads, popaway ads, and text links. You can also display news and

whether right form your blog with this service.

Bidvertiser  – You only display ads from the highest bidder with this

advertising soloution and you can block ads that you do not want to appear

on your site. The payout level is set relatively low at just $10.   

As you can see, there are plenty of other advertising solutions for your blog,

and there are plenty more out there besides the ones mentioned here. You

can always sell ad space directly, to companies or businesses that are

related to your blog topic.  There are a few things you should remember

 before placing ads on your blog, however. Unobtrusive ads will seldom drive

 traffic away, but too many tacky ads will cause visitors to leave. You want to

find a good balance where you can earn income but not chase off visitors.

 Make sure your ads are relevant and not annoying. Make sure that they

do not take up too much space or become the focal point of your blog.