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Tuesday, 8 December 2015

12 Things to Do Before Applying for Google Adsense.

I know you want to make some good money with Google AdSense right?
But it’s not easy to get into AdSense program now-a-days. You have to follow few things before applying for AdSense.
You must be thinking that…
How to apply for AdSense
How to qualify for AdSense
Am I eligible to apply for AdSense
What are Google AdSense Requirements
Why Google AdSense rejected my applicaton
This post is going to answer all your questions. It’s going be a bit long so grab a cup of coffee..

What is Google AdSense and Why You Should Use?

Google AdSense is one of the oldest network to offer ad publishing and works at Pay Per Click system. In fact Google used to give AdSense to everyone who used to make blogs through Google Blogspot.
When it comes to the legitimacy of Google AdSense, it speaks for itself. Google AdSense have thousands and thousands of satisfied customers and publishers. AdSense pays on time, every time.
One more reason for choosing Google AdSense is that we can earn huge amounts of money if we do our work in right way. There are many bloggers who are making a complete living from their blogs and Google AdSense. Therefore, Google AdSense should be the number one choice among all the other available networks.
It’s paying rates are better than all of other networks which is the biggest reason it is so popular to all Bloggers and Webmasters. But since everybody is running behind them, they have made the approval system very strict. You make little mistakes and get disapproved every time. Here are few reasons why Google will reject your application.

Why AdSense Will Reject Your Application?

Here are the most common reasons and AdSense requirements which they gives when they reject your application.
1. Insufficient content / Unacceptable site content — Your website do not have enough text on them for Google specialists to review.
Google gives a lot of value and attention to the content of the blog before accepting it. If the content is poorly written and have grammatical mistakes, Google will reject the blog right away.
Not only the content needs to be grammatically correct, it must be unique and has to provide value to the users and readers of the blog. So the number one reason is the poorly written content on your blog.
2. Page Type / Design of your blog — What will you do if you land a page with full bright yellow background with white text on it, having huge buttons all over the place? Yes you’ll click away.
Blogs which are poorly designed and are hard for the visitors to understand, get rejected by Google for AdSense. You MUST have a good design which comforts the eye and is beautiful in the look.
3. No Privacy Policy, About us or Contact Us page — There are some pages which you must have before applying to Google AdSense if you want to get accepted. These are About us, Privacy Policy and Contact Us pages. These pages give the impression that you are a professional and that you are working according to the Google polices.
4. Site does not comply with Google policies — No rich, unique and meaningful content, no organic traffic, pages with little to no original content or bad user experience through clear navigation and organization. Your website may be the one that drive traffic through illegal sources, site with excessive keywords or poor coded design are usually rejected.
So you need a complete guidance and list of thing that you need to do before applying for Google AdSense and supposing that you are ready.

12 Things to Do Before Applying for Google AdSense

1. Privacy Policy :
One of the common mistakes that every bloggers and I made many times before getting approved. Even though there are people out there who say that having a privacy policy for a Blog doesn’t makes sense but they are wrong!
The first thing you will need to apply for Google AdSense and get approval is the privacy policy of your blog or website. If you don’t have it you cannot get approval simple is that. Why it is important? Because this privacy policy means you are not a scam and gives the sense of a serious business. Google will check the rest of the conditions only if you have this policy.
A privacy actually describes to your readers about what they will get on your Blog , what they should do and what they should not. So obviously there is nothing bad in having a privacy policy. While it can affect somehow on your AdSense Approval, you must give it a try. You can write it yourself or find Privacy Policy Generators online (You don’t need a lawyer anyway).

2. About Page:

Like privacy policy you must have a about page so that you can get approved. Like privacy policy this About page also give the sense of a serious business.
An About has major role and importance if you don’t want to apply for AdSense. But when it comes to AdSense, they are about zero chances of getting approved if you are not showing this page.About page simply describes about you and your Blog . This will not only help you establish a relationship with readers but it will also make them trust upon you.

3. Contact Us Page:

It’s quite obvious that everyone has his/her own opinion. What one of your readers likes may be bothering someone else. Than it is better to give them opportunity to speak up to you and tell how they feel about your Blog, what they want to be edited , what they liked or hated.
Create a contact us page, if possible add your professional email there like info@yourblog.com and your social profile links too. Bcreating this you are telling Google that see we care for our customers, visitors and we are ready to help them. They can contact us any time.
It will also show the Google AdSense Team that is viewing your site that you actually care about your readers and not only the money and AdSense.
I’d recommend you to check my contact page to get some idea.

4. Name/ Email Verification:

When you apply don’t forget to put your Name and Email address in some easily visible area like About Me and Contact Us pages. It will confirm to Google AdSense Team that it is the same person who applied for AdSense and not some spam, crappy bots. This will help the Google in the verification process.

5. Age Verification:

This is the mistake that most younger blogger are making who are less than 18. They write incorrect age and get into trouble.
Use your correct date of birth and age while applying for Google AdSense account.
Because Google AdSense is not for people who are under 18. Some people realize this problem after being disproved a few times without any legitimate reason. So I advise you to be accurate while typing your age. Be honest.

6. Minimum Number of Posts:

What should be the minimum number of posts before applying for Google AdSense? There is no confirmed answer.
Not even one.
Because I have seen very established Blogs with 400+ posts and their owner telling me that Google AdSense is rejecting them while somewhere bloggers with 40,50 posts are enjoying making money.
Exactly, what I said that there is no actual answer. However, we can always predict things. According to my experience, you should only apply after you have more than 50 posts. Posts length must be 500+ words too with quality content.

7. Design:

As mentioned earlier, you blog design matters a lot. It should be professional and not like a messy photo gallery. Clean, professional and smart design is appreciated by Google.
Your blog design is the biggest thing after Content. This represents your expertise, experience and professionalism. So be careful because anything can kill your chances of getting approved by AdSense. I recommend Elegant Themes because you get access to 87 WordPress themes in just $69.

8. Content Type:

Be careful with what type of content you are publishing. Because it is something that truly matters.
Google AdSense is not for pornographic, pirated content, illegal items, drugs or other blogs /sSites like that. AdSense team won’t be willing to allow you to step in if you own a Non English Blog. Having posts shorter than 200 words in length is also Red Signal.

9. Providing Value:

Google loves the blog who are providing value in their content and their visitors and customers are enjoying that value. Be sincere with your visitors don’t ever try to scam them instead provide value.
Don’t complain about not making money and don’t clearly state that you’re blogging for money only and have no other interest in it. Because this will show them that you will not be providing values to your readers any day. Hence another Red Light glows up.

10. Top Level Domain:

Those days are gone far away when AdSense used to approve “Blogspot” and “WordPress.com” Blogs. As for today, you must have your own unique domain that specifies your Blog. If you don’t have one yet, stop dreaming about getting approved with Sub domains and go buy a Top Level Domain.
When it comes to domain, your domain should be of top level. For this purpose the best domain is .com domain. Choose a short, unique and easy to remember domain related to your blog niche.
Another important thing about domain is it’s age. Because most of Asian Countries, AdSense has placed an age restriction. They don’t accept any sites which are not 6 months old.
So keep it in mind before applying for Google AdSense program.

11. Other Ad Networks:

If you have any other Ads placed like Chitika, Clicksor or anything, it’s time to drop them off.
Even Google AdSense allows you to use other Ad Networks along with them, it’s better to remove the ads before Applying and don’t put them back until you get a reply from AdSense Team.
So, before submitting your application for Google AdSense make sure to remove all the ads on your blog from any other network.

12. Paid Traffic:

Google hates the sites that are getting paid traffic and mostly penalizes them so there is not a damn chance of getting approved by AdSense for a site that is getting paid traffic. You can bring traffic from Search Engines or any other way you want but if you want to earn via Google AdSense the right way, paid traffic is not a solution.
Also note, that Google do not accept site which gets traffic from illegal sources. So focus on getting traffic from legal sources like social media, SEO and related blogs.

What to do if AdSense is not getting approved?

After all this what if Google AdSense does not approved you?
It’s not the end of the world! 😉
There are many other trusted and high paying ads network you can use and trust me they are not hard as Google AdSense is in terms of getting approval. One door of opportunity is closed so the other one will open.
You can use these ad networks to earn money without AdSense. They are easy to get approved.
Infolinks:
Infolinks is the leader in in-text advertising which offers 70% revenue share even if you’re a newbie blogger. It is different from other advertising networks. It takes less space because it shows in text ads or pop up ads. You can use it with Adsense safely.

Signup now (it’s free and quick!)

It is a pay per click. They offer advertising options like: insearch ads, intext ads, inframe ads, intag ads.

Alexa Rank: 2571
Min payout: $50
Payment method: PayPal, Wire Transfer, eCheck, Western Union, Payoneer

Media.net
Media.net is probably the best alternative to AdSense as it’s powered by Yahoo Bing Network. I’ve tried Media.net year ago and the average CPM was much better than any other AdSense alternatives.Media.net ads are quite similar to Google AdSense and it’s very easy to get approved if you’ve a quality blog.

Alexa Rank: 5132
Min payout: $100
Payment Method: PayPal, Bankwire

BidVertiser:

BidVertiser is another top alternative to Google AdSense which pays you for valid clicks on ads placed on your website. It is great Adsense alternative if you didn’t get Adsense approval or got banned. Bidvertiser offers Banner ads, Text ads, Mobile Ads, Slider ads etc. You can also make money by promoting your customized toolbar.

Alexa Rank: 892
Min payout: $10 only
Payment Method: PayPal, Checks

Chitika:

Chitika is a CPC program. Chitika is very similar to Adsense. It shows relevant ads based on your content. You can easily customize ad color, URL color, border color to match your theme tone. You can also choose for their referral /affiliate program, to earn extra income.
It offers 3 types of ads – Search Targeted Ads, Local Ads and Mobile Ads.

Alexa Rank: 5520
Min payout: $10
Payment Method: PayPal, Check

My Final Words After Your Apply for AdSense:

This will take your few time and you have to do these things Before Applying for Google AdSense. I guess these are not too hard. Don’t be sad if Google AdSense not approve your blog. There are many other ways to make money online without AdSense.
Hope for the best. If approved enjoy and if not enjoy other networks. One more thing, Try to make money through blog from other business model. Ads network will not give you much as other business models will like affiliate marketing and selling your own product..

Tuesday, 8 September 2015

Making Your Website Mobile

Today’s customer is always busy and when they need to shop or gather information, chances are they will do that online. What’s even faster is when that customer can do all these online tasks from their smartphone or tablet device. Businesses have to be ready to configure their websites so that mobile access is not an issue. If your business does not have this feature, it may be time to build a mobile website.

Know Your Audience

The first task for any business to see if they need a mobile site is to know their customers. Where do your customers typically log in from? Does your website offer needed information and services for people on the go? When you answer these questions, you will get a better understanding of whether a mobile website is right for your business.
Knowing Your Blog Audience

It Keeps it Simple

A mobile website is a great way to get the necessary information and services to your customers without a lot of fancy design elements. Your website can handle these additional elements, but with a mobile site, you can strip it down to what the customers need while they are browsing their phone on lunch or researching on their tablet in an airport. Without a lot of graphics and difficult navigation menus, the customer can get right to the heart of what they need from you.
When you give your audience what they are looking for in a simple and easy to navigate form, they will simply love you for that. Just think about how simple sites like eBay, Twitter and Craigslist are!

Easy to Setup and Maintain

A mobile website is a lot easier to work with than a highly developed website. That means you can have it setup quickly without hassle. With all of the company’s basic information available on this site, you may not even need to change the design as often as your change your website’s main design. However, if you do want to change the design, this can be as simple as a few clicks away.
With an easy to recognize domain name, easy setup and quick navigation for all of your visitors, a mobile website version of your main website can be a great investment. Not only will you give your current customers that option to access your site from anywhere, but you may also be able to attract plenty of new customers that are mobile-only.

Mobile is definitely the future, and this can clearly be seen by how fast companies like Apple are trying to change the way we buy products with our iPhones. It’s not just about mobile devices changing their technology, but also how much people are now using their phones during the course of an average day. How many times have you checked your phone today?
In addition to the amount of people using their mobile devices on a daily basis for casual browsing and checking email, then when you throw in another 1.3 billion users on Facebook and another few hundred million on other social networks… that’s a lot of people who could end up on your site through a mobile device. The internet is quickly changing and it’s no longer just for people who are browsing from their home computer. The future is clearly mobile and if you’re site or blog isn’t mobile optimized, you could be missing out big time.

The 4 Clues Your Website Design is Out-of-Date

Website and blog design trends are constantly evolving, as is the technology that the latest websites offer users. Without realizing it, your website could be extremely out-of-date due to the constantly evolving nature of the technology sector. When your website is outdated, it can hurt your brand perception and turn off potential customers. See if your website is due for a refresh by searching your website for these four clues that your website is out of date.

Clue #1: The Design Quality is Low

One of the best ways to tell if your design quality is low is to visit similar website and see how their website looks. A clean, simple & relevant aesthetic is what online users are attracted to. Anything else comes off as outdated or inferior to competitors. The colors need to blend well with your branding and be used appropriately. The navigation needs to be simple and easy to use. Your website is often your first impression and should reflect a sense of quality and reliability.

Clue #2: Your Analytics Show No Growth

Most like you have already set up Google Analytics on your website and you are monitoring your statistics frequently. Analytics helps direct you on what changes need to be made to your online strategy. Look through your reports and see areas where you have room to improve on page views, bounce and conversion rates, especially compared to previous months. This will help you figure out what updates need to be made to your website and where.

Clue #3: Your Website Content Isn’t Quite Right.

There are two ways to check your website’s content. The first is to look at the content amount and spacing. If you have large blocks of text or have content that does not say much, it is time to update. The text needs to be broken up into short and digestible chunks. Break it up with bullet points, lists, headings, etc. The text should be there for a reason – filler content is detected by users immediately and causes them to gloss over or leave your website.

Clue #4: You’re Website’s Technology is outdated.

Your website needs to have a mobile-friendly version that is easy to use and access from mobile devices and tablets. You also need to have other mobile features, such as click to call. Second is to look at social media integration and cloud backup services. If these aren’t presence on your website, it is time to update.
If your website was built a few years ago, the technology it stands on is most likely outdated. Unlike other purchases for your business, your website ideally needs to be updated every 3-4 years. Your website will have slow load times and limited editing functionality as browsers update and technology evolves. Sticking it out with outdated technology also makes your website more vulnerable to security breaches. Updating your website’s software will provide you with the latest in web design best practices, functionality as well as the latest infrastructure and security releases. Using Open Source software will provide your website with software that is more easily updated and scalable to changes.
Making changes to your website to update the design is extremely important. First impressions count for a lot and visitors who see these clues that your website is out-of-date will leave immediately. Keeping your website design updated will help you attract the attention of new customers as well as retain and cater more adequately to your existing client base.
This article was contributed by Magicdust, Australian digital agency providing professional website design and online marketing solutions for small business.

Wednesday, 2 September 2015

How My Coupon Website Generated $1500+ in 3 Days

Someone said, “Coupon websites are dead.”
Google is rolling its updates so fast that it is killing all low quality websites.
There are so many same niche products in the market which are superior than each other, that every product claiming as best as compared to its competitors.
So providing coupons/discounts on products has become one of the good methods to bring more customers to make your product more accessible.
With the intention to join the race, I started one coupon niche website around 4-5 months back where I was about to write all reviews of some great products and provide exclusive coupons.
I shared one status on my wall about this new website and suddenly my good friend Zac suggest me this article to read.
After going through the article, I was clear on the path to make my coupon website popular.
Generating this much money in 3 days was all about a mindset.
When I started iCouponsOnline, I had the idea what I am going to do with this website.
Many of my friends were thinking that this is going to become another coupon website where I’ll share many coupons for a single products, where few coupons will work and few not.
Like all coupon websites do.
They simply make a page for the product and keep on adding many coupons.
But my coupon website was different than all those players.
Here I decided to write review about the products and provide coupons along with it.
In short – This is a Review + Coupon website.

How the Idea to make this website came?

As I am into affiliate marketing so I was running affiliate websites for hosting niche.
I had all the domains like HostGator, DreamHost, BlueHost, KnownHost, DigitalOcean and InMotion.
I created one page websites for all those hosting providers and started working on them to rank higher in the Google SERP.
After 2 months of hard work my website InMotionDiscount.com (not active now) ranked on #1 in Google and I started generating good money with it.
With time I ranked all my sites and generated good money with them.
But one day I got an email from InMotion that I have violated some affiliate rules by using trademark “InMotion” in the domain name so their lawyer will come to me.
So I had to make that website down.
In the mail they said:

First off, you are violating our Terms of Service having the domain name/site www.inmotiondiscount.com. Secondly, you are bidding on trademarked keywords such as motion coupon, inmotion hosting coupons, inmotion review, inmotion reviews, inmotion hosting coupon, inmotion hosting discount, inmotion hosting promo, inmotion hosting promotion, inmotion hosting coupon code.

So removing the website from Google result was the only option.
Ultimately I removed that site and deindexed all the hosting sites having trademark in the domain name.
One of my websites is still ranking on the top. I have talked personally with them and they are ok with the domain name.
knownhost

So the idea with iCouponsOnline was to write all reviews, coupons, discount articles on one place.
A place which would be easier to manage.
So on this website I am going to write review about all product without worrying about trademark violation.

So how did I generate $1500?

Now comes the real story.
So we planned everything in advance.
I decided to rank it high for many keywords on Black Friday 2014.
This is the day when people come on your website with the mindset to buy.
This is a big shopping day so if you search discount for anything on this day, you have already made your mind to buy the products.
I played with the same psychology.
I picked some good keywords like BuzzBundle Black Friday, Long Tail Pro Black Friday, MaxCDN Black Friday, OptinMonster Black Friday and few others.
The plan was to rank all of them on Black Friday to make good money.

How I ranked them?

Ranking for these keywords was not very hard for me as they are having negligible completion, as they are the keywords for one day only so no one pays attention to them.
We started by doing some quality comments on good blogs.
Note: In the blog URL section of the comment we used links on our articles which we wanted to rank.
Created few web 2.0 profiles, slideshare documents and done.
As I said, those keywords had almost zero competition so ranking them was not a difficult game.
I ranked them prior to Black Friday and kept on checking my rank everyday using Rank Tracker.

What was the traffic on that day?

We got only few hundred visits on our blog as the traffic on keywords was very less.
But the good thing was – All the keywords were buyer keywords.
With just 1000+ visitors (total in 3 days) we made $1500+
Here is the traffic graph.
traffic

Final words.
At last I would like to say that internet marketing is all about finding the market and proceeding towards it with positive mindset.
Buyer are everywhere, all you have to do is, find them and sell your products.
I found the market and pitched them in my own way.
If you have any question, feel free to ask in the comment section.

Tuesday, 1 September 2015

4 Free Website Graders You Should Use

It is no mystery that a perfectly optimized blog adds tremendous value to its search engine ranking. Unless you’re an expert who knows all the technical aspects of a website, you will need a checklist to compare a blog’s online positioning. Keeping this in mind, I share a quick list of 3 free website graders that will analyse the URL and generate a quick checklist informing how the URL is performing and its value.

4 Free Website Graders for Your Blog

Here they are:
Free Website Graders

1) Quick Sprout Website Analyzer (Link)
A cool nifty tool, the Quick Sprout Website Analyzer, analyses your website and compares it with three other competitors (optional) too. It grades the website, content and social media presence. The tool generates a score for traffic, speed, SEO and social share.
Visit the website, add the URL/s, sign in with a chosen Google account, and run the test. You can get the test results emailed as a PDF file.
You get drilled down reports on each SEO factor and recommends things to fix.
2) WooRank (Link)
WooRank is known among free website graders as one of the most comprehensive website analyzers. It analyses seven aspects of a website, which are usability, social, technology, mobile, SEO, local and traffic. The report is generated on a scale of 0 to 100, and the report can be downloaded as a PDF file.
The tool analyses keywords and states whether the keywords appear on strategic places or not, such as the site title, site description and heading tag.
3) Nibbler (Link)
On a scale of 0 to 100, the Nibbler tool analyses the URL on more than 24 characteristics and creates a checklist of areas needing improvement. The tool creates a word cloud to show which words are often used in titles and heading.
4) HubSpot Marketing Grader (Link)
HubSpot is an amazing marketing agency and among free website graders comes their Marketing Grader tool. Just enter the site URL and the email address to receive an overall score of the site, based on five categories – social media, SEO, blogging, lead generation and mobile. Each section will suggest recommendations to make changes on the site.
Try out these free website graders and improve your site performance.
Personally, I highly recommend the Quick Sprout tool because you can analyse the competition too and see what they are doing right and you are not.

Monday, 31 August 2015

How To Run Effective Webinars Even If You’re a Newbie

Content is king – I know you’ve heard this a million times.

But who said your content only needs to be a blog post, an eBook or an email course?

How about running a live webinar with your audience?

It’s great for your brand image, connects you with your audience at a more personal level and helps you build dozens of new connections and relationships. Niche leaders and industry gurus like Neil Patel leverage webinars regularly for lead generation. In fact, Neil generated 74,381 visitors, 16,394 leads and $1,638,000 in revenue from webinars in 1 year. These are serious numbers and, of course, beyond the reach of most bloggers early in their careers.

But even if you’re a newbie blogger, webinars might just be the shortcut you need to skyrocket your growth. You can use webinars to connect with influencers and establish yourself as an authority.

So if you’re thinking of conducting a webinar, here are a few tips to help you get going.

1. Develop a Webinar Plan

Conducting webinars is similar to holding real life presentations. Both can make you panic and both can make you look awkward if things go wrong. So you need to be well-prepared before you actually kick off your first webinar. I recommend attending a few webinars yourself first. See how the top guys in the industry are using webinars to engage their audience, what’s their tone, how much content they are presenting, what’s the duration of their webinar etc. Based on your learnings, develop an outline for your webinar and list the main points that you plan to cover.

2. Focus on One Problem Only

Focusing on one burning issue of your target audience and then addressing it comprehensively is the key to successful webinars. It’s similar to how you create an eBook. You choose one issue and then dissect it for your audience. As a newbie, it’s easy to get overawed by the occasion and divert from the core topic. Don’t make that mistake. But since webinars are interactive platforms, you might get questions or requests that are not directly related to the core content of your webinar. Share your email address with the participants and respond to such queries after the webinar. You can also share links to reliable resources that can help your audience (here’s a good example) or free tools that can give them immediate value (like this business tool)

3. Choose a Flexible Webinar Platform

I’ve seen many potentially great webinars go wrong just because of the webinar platform. Choose your webinar wisely because the wrong selection can ruin all your hard work. Here are the key things to consider.

It should have a simple registration process
Your audience can be anywhere, using any devices. So your platform should support both mobile and desktop users.
It should integrate well with social media so that you can get the word out.
It should integrate with your mailing list and blog.
You should be able to record the webinar for later use
You should get detailed stats of your webinar participants so that you can draw further actions from them.

Google+ Hangouts On Air is a free platform that can be used for webinars. It does have some limitations but it’s a great place to start if you’re a newbie. But if you’re looking to provide a more professional webinar experience to your audience, with customized branding and many other webinar specific features, ClickWebinar is also a great option that is used by some of the top bloggers and corporations. Whichever solution you choose, make sure it provides a smooth and error free webinar experience to your audience and puts you in their good books.

4. Use Outreach To Maximize Webinar Attendance

There are thousands of blogs on the web with millions of combined readers. But very few blog owners get the time to offer free products or trainings to their readers. You can take advantage from this. Shortlist the most relevant blogs in your niche and reach out with your webinar offer. In my experience, targeting the mid-range bloggers (those with a higher social media and blog following than yours) gets you the most responses. Don’t go for the top influencers. They’re already short on time and receive such offers every day.

Send an outline of your webinar to your target bloggers and ask them to share it with their followers. Highlight how your webinar will give value to their readers. If you also plan to sell a product at the end of your webinar, offer affiliate commissions to your target bloggers on every referral sale.

5. Add a Bit of Humor to the Mix

Nobody likes listening to boring lectures. Your webinar needs to engage your audience in a fun way. So maintain a light tone from the start. It’s natural to be nervous in your first webinar. Just share your feelings with the audience. There’s nothing wrong in telling them that it’s a big occasion for you. As long as you deliver the content that you promised, your participants won’t care if you’re a bit nervous.

6. Summarize the Key Points and Encourage Discussion

Webinars can drag easily and it’s important to stick to your agenda. Ideally, it should not exceed the original time limit. But still you can’t always guarantee that everything will go according to plan. So it’s important that you clearly summarize the key points and takeaways of your webinar at the end. Tell your audience in bullet points what their next actions should be. Tell them how they can use this information to achieve their business objectives. At the same time, encourage discussion and answer as many questions as you can. This is a great opportunity to interact with your audience in real time and understand their key issues.

7. Use the Webinar for Future Content

Conducting webinars is a two way learning process. It’s not just your audience who’re there to learn. You’d also get to learn a lot of new things about your target audience, their needs, their actual problems and how you can resolve them. After you’re done with the webinar, structure this information and use it to extract future content ideas for more webinars and blog posts. You can share your learnings in a series of blog posts, or create an eBook or a case study for your audience. In short, use every webinar to create more useful content.

Conclusion

Content marketing has been evolving rapidly over the last few years. Many leading bloggers are now shifting from just written content to visual media. By integrating webinars in your content strategy, you can brand yourself as a niche leader, build a much closer relationship with your audience and develop a dedicated blog following much more quickly than simple text based blogging. Even if you’re a newbie, this can open new opportunities for you – try it!

3 Ways to Better Understand & Learn From Your Site Visitors [Infographic]

One of the biggest reasons why so many web sites, blogs and online brands fail to make money with their audience and convert them into sales, is simply that they don’t have the necessary tools or tracking in place. As a site owner or online business, understanding what visitors do once they get to you web site is key. Tracking conversions and revenue dollars simply isn’t enough.

In this article we are going to cover three powerful tools that every site owner and brand should be using to not only better understand their site visitors, but also their intentions, frustrations and how to better cater to their needs. Such tools allow you to actually record visitors while they are on your site, create heatmaps of where users are clicking and some tools will even allows you to communicate with your audience while they are on your site.

Three Powerful Tools to Help You Better Understand Your Site Audience

As mentioned, we are going to focus on three tools and tracking methods to improve and monitor the performance of traffic while they are on your site. In most cases it would be advised to implement all of these methods at the same time, however they will also work individually. Compare each of the methods below and see how they could be applied to your existing web site, blog or online business.
Heatmaps
– Heatmaps allows site owners to track where their audience is clicking while they are on your site. As more users visit and click through your site, a heat map screenshot will be created based on where people are clicking (known as hot zones) and where they aren’t. Site owners can quickly understand what people are clicking on and looking for while at your site. This also allows site owners to see what areas your audience isn’t clicking on, which can then be removed for further engagement.
Feedback Forms
– Many sites will allow you to visit their site and leave at your leisure. One effective way to grab the attention of your site visitors and keep them there a bit longer is to offer them a short question or survey to answer — in many cases this is a one line feedback form. For instance, if you were running a conference or event, you could have a small feedback form popup in the bottom right hand corner of the screen and ask “Will you be coming to our event?”. Not only will this provide the site owner will valuable information, but it will start a two-way conversation with your audience as well.
Visitor Recordings
– Imagine being able to actually watch visitors click and scroll through your site? It’s an amazing concept and also one that you could start implementing in your web site as well. While heatmaps allow for you to see where site owners are clicking, visitor recordings will allow you to see in real time where people are reading, clicking, scrolling with their mouse and why they are doing it. This is simply one of the best ways to improve your site performance and navigation based on real viewer results, while also helping you reduce your bounce rates in the process.
Each of these site tracking methods are unique and effective in their own way. Be sure to explore your options with each and see which would work best with your web site.
Infographic Credit: Hotjar

Sunday, 30 August 2015

How to Improve Your Website Traffic After Every Google Algorithm Update

Google rolled out a lot of animal updates including Penguin, Pigeon, Panda, Hummingbird etc. Out of all of its updates 3 algorithms had significant impact on Google search results. They are: Hummingbird, Panda and Penguin.

In this post, we’ll discuss about how you can get rewarded whenever Google rolls out these 3 updates. Before diving into the details, let’s talk about what these updates are actually all about.
Google Algorithm Update

What is Google Panda all about?
Panda update is all about content. Thin content gets punished and websites with quality content gets rewarded.
What is Google Penguin?
Google Penguin is all about the links. It penalizes the sites with bad links. It rewards the sites with high DA (Domain Authority) and quality links pointing to a site.
What’s Hummingbird update?
Hummingbird update is about improving search results by using semantic search. It means this algorithm was launched mainly to give top results to the web pages that use semantics or meaning to the relevant keywords rather than stuffing their pages with the same keywords.
Let’s now talk about what you can do to improve your search rankings after getting hit by these 3 Google updates.

Improve your rankings with semantic keyword research

Whenever you are researching keywords for your blog posts, make sure to focus on finding “buyer keywords” that are relevant to your audience instead of finding most popular keywords.
Find out a list of semantic keywords if you want to drive relevant visitors to your blogs or websites. Semantic keyword research is determining what users mean when they type in a certain keyword on Google search results.
Semantic keywords are usually the synonyms of keywords. For instance, if a visitor typed in “car” do they mean:

Do they want to buy a car?
Upgrade their cars?
Repair?
Or do they want to sell their cars?

Usually people use long tail keywords while typing on Google instead of single keywords like “cars”. This is where semantic keywords come into place, if you type “second hand cars” on Google, it will show up the results related to “second hand cars + [your city]”
So how can find semantic keywords?
You can usually use Google advance search. Just type in a keyword like “car painting rates” and click “show search tools”
Always write for your readers first not search engines. Remember, people will buy stuff from you and share what you create, not search engines. And then click “related searches”, you will now be able to see all the semantic keywords related to the query you typed on Google.
You can also use “Google Instant” for finding more relevant semantic keywords.

Give readers what they want

Define your target audience and readers first. Ask yourself what questions they might type on Google to solve their problems. And create content around that.
It’s not easy as it sounds, but it can give the most effective results as you go. It not only sends you the most qualified buyers to your sites but you can build a loyal readership around your blogs.
Did you know one of the simplest ways to find what your readers want?
Ask. Ask your readers what type of content they want to read on your blogs. You can make use of your own blogs, email newsletters, social media, surveys etc., to do this.
It’s not about what you think is great, it’s about what your readers really want. So give your readers what they want and you will be able to create the most useful content that naturally attracts incoming links, social shares and lots of traffic search engines.

Don’t build links, earn them

Whether you know it or not, backlinks are the key stones for any successful website that drives massive traffic from search engines. If you want to grow your organic traffic, make sure to focus on building backlinks. Unfortunately most bloggers focus their time and energy on quantity but not quality when building backlinks.
It’s not about the number but it’s mostly about the quality of backlinks that help you boost your search engine rankings. 1 link from an authority site is equal to 100’s of backlinks from ordinary blogs. I hope now you get the point, here how to attract quality links from the web.

Create a blogger outreach strategy. When you write a piece of great content on your blog, don’t sit back and relax. Go and reach out to other bloggers and tell them to tweet or link to your articles. While doing this, make sure to link to their articles first. This way you’ll increase the chances of getting links from other blogs.
Frequently write for other top blogs in your niche. Guest posting is the surefire way to acquire quality backlinks. Whenever you have a great article, think about posting on other blogs instead of yours to get more subscribers, traffic and links.
Create infographics on the latest trends. They usually attract more eyeballs than any other form of content creation. Spend time to learn how to design infographics if you don’t have enough budget to outsource.

Final thoughts about increasing your search traffic after every Google update

Don’t worry if you lost a lot of search traffic when a new update from Google is rolled out. Just make sure to follow the tips mentioned in this guide and you’ll get the best rewards when new updates are rolled in.
Find what your readers are craving for and create useful content around it. Give top priority to your audience rather than Google. Search engines are giving more value to the sites that are user-focused than keyword-focused!
Also create a natural link building strategy where you can attract incoming links. And use blogger outreach strategy to your advantage to explode your link building strategy. The only way to convince others to link to your blog posts is to first feature them. Then, use social media sites to build solid relationships.
So what are your thoughts about Google updates? Do you love when Google rolls out new updates or do you hate? Express your views in the comments.

Why Google Webmaster Tools Is a Crucial Resource For Business Owners

Google’s Webmaster Tools is a valuable, FREE and one of the most under-utilized tool by business owners, on the internet. If your business is investing resources into SEO or paying an SEO Agency to expose your brand to consumers, you need to take full advantage of this tool.

Typically site owner’s rave about the power of Google Analytics – but tend to ignore its kissing cousin. I can’t tell you why that is, though, because Google Webmaster Tools (GWT) provides valuable (even crucial) insight about the performance of your website.

But first let’s take a look at this video from Google about this tool…

In this article, we’re going to take a look at some of the most important features of GWT and why you should get hooked up, tuned up, or read up on a free service that can help your rankings and save you from real trouble.

What’s the difference between Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools?

Google Analytics (GA) is like a butler. It checks on every visitor, collects personal information from them (For instance: where are you from and what do you want here?), then announces the visitor’s arrival to the homeowner.

It also keeps a log of every visitor’s time of entry, time of departure, and notes where they went and what they did while a guest.

Google Webmaster Tools, on the other hand, is the maintenance staff. It keeps a watch on the structure of the home and ensures it is ready to receive visitors.

Not only that, but Webmaster Tools helps with security. All told, it is the perfect companion to Google Analytics – you need both.

So why do site owners often fail to take advantage of Google Webmaster Tools?

Good question.

My guess is many people just don’t know about it.

How to access Google Webmaster Tools

The first thing you need is a Google account. If you don’t have one yet, you may be the last person in line.

You’re just a few steps away from better insight.

Go to the Webmaster Tools: Log in HERE
Click the red button on the upper right to ADD A SITE
Enter the URL of the site you wish to add
Verify the site

NOW… I’m not going to walk you through the 4 verification choices. Not only could that information change at the drop of a hat, but there’s a really cool thing about Webmaster Tools:

Help is never further away than the top right corner of the page.

And GWT Help isn’t sketchy either. It’s good stuff, and it will walk you through any stuck-point you find in the platform.

At GWT, HELP is your friend.

Once your site is verified, you’re good to go. Now, let’s get to the meat of the story.

What can I do in Google Webmaster Tools? How can GWT help my business?

I’m glad you asked.

GWT is a powerhouse of information – especially for the business trying to figure out how to do a better job of marketing online.

NOTE: I’m going to go over the basics of your options in GWT TODAY. Google could add or subtract a feature tomorrow (or later today). If you see something on your GWT dashboard I don’t mention, you already know what to do: Ask for HELP!

By the way, your GWT account – as long as it is assigned to the same gmail account – will allow you to add all of the websites you own. You don’t need a separate GWT account for each site.

You can also manage other people’s GWT or GA presences (with permission), and those will show up on your dashboard.

To work with a website, just select it by clicking on the URL from the Webmaster Tools Home page. The Manage site dropdown to the right is where you add or remove users.

Should you ever want to remove the site from GWT, you can also do that under Manage site.

The basics of the Google Webmaster Tools Dashboard

In the left column are the primary selections. Right now, they include:

Messages
Search Appearance
Search Traffic
Google Index
Crawl
Security Issues
Other Resources

The pulldowns in the top right header allow you to switch quickly between your authorized sites, get Help, and (the gear icon) access some important preferences and settings.

First, let’s look at a basic overview of each feature. Then I’ll let you in on a secret about the ones most beneficial to a small business.

After reading this post, go to GWT to check your setup (or get setup) and explore on your own. It would take a book – maybe several books — to explain everything about GWT.

It’s like driving a car: You need to know the basics – then, you get to decide where to go.

Sections of the Google Webmaster Tools Dashboard summarized

Messages – Keep a watch on this section. Should Google ever see a problem with your site, or should you ever be singled out (God forbid) for a penalty, Google will let you know. This is a direct line of communication between you and the Big G. Those telemarketers who call you PRETENDING to be Google – they aren’t. But this is. Pay attention to your Messages.

Search Appearance – The tools here affect how your website appears in the SERP (search engine results page). Getting included in a search is one thing – getting the searcher to choose YOUR site is another. From Search Appearance, you can take action that supports both.

Structured Data: The more Google can determine about your website, the better Google likes it – and the better Google treats you. Structured data (microdata) enables enhanced presentation on the SERP and inclusion in the Knowledge Graph. In other words, it’s really valuable stuff. It may sound highly technical (and it is), but it is entirely possible for you or someone on your team to activate. Check this page for a look at basic markup properties. Or – if you want to take the easier way, keep reading.

Data Highlighter: A pretty impressive tool, the Data Highlighter allows you to auto-tag your site’s structured data. Check it out by watching this video. In essence, Data Highlighter is a “point and click” means of implementing microdata. How cool is that?

HTML Improvements: This is a webmaster’s dream. HTML Improvements is Google’s way of giving you a gentle nudge when your site may have issues hindering their crawl and index activity. Whether your meta descriptions need work, you have duplicate title tags, or are in danger of another potential choke-point – this is tune-up information you don’t want to ignore. The results may not be earth-shaking (or they may), but every little bit helps.

Sitelinks: These are the links you sometimes see below search results. If you want your business to stand out, use microdata to let Google know you have something important to say… and you may get rewarded with sitelinks. This is a super-valuable exercise for your SEO efforts. It’s a bit like winning the lottery. This feature allows you to let Google know how you think your sitelinks should appear (assuming they ARE appearing).

Search Traffic – This may be the biggest GWT bone of contention among SEO’s. Because some of what you find here overlaps information from Google Analytics and because the data often presents differently, some say you shouldn’t trust this data. Always remember that Google gives you clues, but seldom does Google give you the full picture. Use GWT like a detective, in conjunction with GA and any other tools you have access to, for the best results.

Search Queries: When you know the search terms visitors use to find your website, you can adjust content accordingly. Are you selling beach balls, but ranking higher for “umbrellas”? You need to tweak your content emphasis or add umbrellas to your lineup. Columns include the query used, the number of impressions, number of clicks, and the average SERP position.QUICK NOTE – In the last week Google was really awesome and changed “Search Queries” to “Search Analytics”, essentially providing you with more valuable data about what keywords your website is ranking for (or queries), pages that are associated with those keywords, how many clicks you got, impressions, click through rates (CTR) and much more.
Links to Your Site: Which other sites link to you and what are the words (anchor text) they use in the link? Some may say otherwise, but inbound links are still crucial to your ability to rank organically in the SERP. You may find some links you don’t want here and you may see some gaps you want to fill. Either way, Links to Your Site empowers you to take SEO action or check on what your SEO company has been doing for you.

Internal Links: These are links you make to yourself. Why would you do that? Internal links tell Google “This page is significant.” The more links to a particular page, the more important Google thinks it is. This information can help you adjust the emphasis.

Manual Actions: What you want to see here is “No manual webspam actions found.” If you see anything else, take immediate action. You might need to engage an experienced SEO Agency to help you resolve these issues.

International Targeting: Allows you to target languages and countries.

Mobile Usability: Pay attention here. Mobile traffic is huge, and Google will push you down in the SERP if your website doesn’t play well with mobile devices.

Google Index – Just as the index of a book tells you about the contents, Google collects information about pages on the World Wide Web – and that is where search result information comes from. If you want your site to be included in the SERP, it must be found in the Index.

Index Status: This tells you how many of the pages on your site Google was able to index. This is version-specific. It will give you data on the www or non www version, but not for both (more about that soon).

Content Keywords: These are the words Google says are most significant on your site. Remember, if you are selling beach balls, but Google thinks you specialize in umbrellas, then you need to make significant changes to your content.

Blocked Resources: You can ask Google not to crawl specific areas of your site via a robots.txt disallow file. That is something that should seldom be done, and is often used incorrectly. If you see ANY blocked resources for your site, get in touch with qualified individual to find out why. Blocked sites won’t be included in the index – and that’s normally not good.

Remove URLs: Similar to Blocked Resources, this is a place where you should not mess around, unless you know what you are doing. This is a tool to help direct Google crawls.

Crawl – The index is gathered by “bots” or “spiders” that crawl the web constantly. This is where you can get a look at exactly how Google sees your site.

Crawl Errors: This is where you will see any issues (past 90 days) with crawls – whether affecting the entire site or a specific page. What you’re looking for is a little green circle with a white checkmark and the words, “No errors detected in the last 90 days. Nice!” Anything else needs attention.

Crawl Stats: By monitoring the stats, you can see how many pages are being crawled daily, how much content is being retrieved, and how long it takes for the crawl.

Fetch as Google: This feature simulates a crawl for the URL you indicate. The Fetch box shows you what Google sees. Fetch and render displays your page as a browser would see it. This feature can be useful for tracking down issues with the crawl, security, or rendering.

txt Tester: Allows you to edit and test the robots.text file mentioned earlier. This is not a place to play around.

Sitemaps: This is where you can add and test your sitemap. Bots use the sitemap to make the crawl easier and more effective – so you DEFINITELY want to have one. Use the Help pulldown to get more information about how to build and add a sitemap for your site.

URL Parameters: If you don’t know what it is and how to use it, don’t mess with it.

Security Issues: Google will alert you if they think your site is being affected by malware or has been hijacked. For more information, GO HERE.

Other Resources: Helpful links to related pages. You will especially want to take a look at the Structured Data Testing Tool. There is also an Email Markup Tester you may find valuable. And every small business should be listed in Google Places (via Google My Business).

Wow! Does it seem like we’ve covered a lot?

We have.

I told you Google Webmaster Tools contains valuable (even essential) information. What’s more, GWT is free. All you need is a Google account to get started.

Before we stop, though, let’s take a look at one more thing: The GEAR ICON.

The Google Webmaster Tools GEAR – THIS IS IMPORTANT

From GWT individual website Dashboard, pull down the arrow by the Gear and you will see:

Webmaster Tools Preferences
Site Settings
Change of Address
Google Analytics Property
Users and Site Owners
Verification Details
Associates

These are management functions you will want to visit in order to set your preferences and verify that Google has up-to-date information for your site.

Take a few minutes to open up each and familiarize yourself with what can be done there.

One of them is of prime importance – but many, many websites MISS this point: You must make sure your website is identified by Google as a SINGLE site. Google sees the www and non-www versions of your domain as two different sites. That causes your SEO impact to be split in two , rather than compiled by one.

Under the Gear icon, go to Site Settings. That is where you can set your preferred domain. You may also need to make an adjustment in the code for your website. Read the help documents provided by Google to see how to get this done.

Here’s how to test: Enter your domain in a browser address bar – once with “www” in front and once without. If both entries resolve to the EXACT SAME address (either is fine), all you need to do is check to be sure that is the address chosen for your preferred domain in GWT.

If www resolves to the www address and non-www resolves to the non www address, you need to fix that issue. Pronto.

That little glitch is sucking SEO power from your domain.

Pro Tip: The www and the non-www versions of your domain might have different authority ratings. You want to pick the one with the highest authority and stick to it. To check which one has the highest authority use Moz’s Open Site Explorer tool (its free), enter your domain name with a www and then click on “Compare Link Metrics” in the left sidebar. Here you can enter the non-www version of your site, OSE will then return comparison results, you want to pick the version with highest Domain Authority and stick with it.

What are the most important things to know about Google Webmaster Tools?

Business owners sometimes look at the range of data provided by GWT and want to know which they should take time to monitor.

The answer: All of it.

I’ve seen posts claiming to identify the “3 or 4 Most Important Things You Need to Know about Google Webmaster Tools,” but the bottom line is this: The most valuable information for YOU is the information you need most to see.

If your site has been hacked, that would be Security Issues
If your site is being blocked from bots and isn’t being indexed, that might be Index Status
If you aren’t sure if your sitemap is in place or working, that would be Sitemaps
And finally, THE MOST IMPORTANT is “Search Analytics”, this is where the you will see exactly which keywords your website is ranking for, this is the most important part!

You get the picture.

My outline of a post identifying the “3 Most Important Things” would look like this:

Make sure your website is Verified with Google Webmaster Tools
Be sure to build and confirm your sitemap
Make sure you or someone you trust monitors GWT on a regular (at least weekly) basis

That’s it.

Simple, right?

For questions or further information, we’re here to help… leave a comment

40 Explosive Tactics to Increase Website Traffic – Infographic

What is the main barrier to speed in our roads? Traffic, of course. What is the main barrier to traffic to our websites? Lack of knowledge, some would say. What if we show you 40 awesome traffic generation tips for your website from 4 awesome website traffic generators? Sweet…

Here is an Infographic which lists 40 Explosive Tactics to Increase Website Traffic.

40 Explosive Tactics to Increase Website Traffic - Infographic

Rand Fishkin

Rand stands for ‘R’esearch ‘AN’d ‘D’evelopment in SEO at Moz.

Focus on Viewers who may Share your Content

Some people like videos, some like Infographics and some like simple images. Find out what your target market likes and provide them what they after. If what you provide is of good quality then the viewers will share it.

Communicate with your Viewers via Social Media, Forums and Blogs

When you communicate with your viewers, you can help answer their questions and solve their problems. You can also create content around the ideas you get by communicating. Find out where the majority of your viewers hang out and spend time there. If they like to hangout in Facebook for example then that’s where you should be spending time. The viewers may hangout in other blogs or forums and you just need to follow them, read and respond.

Produce SEO Friendly Content

SEO done correctly never gets in the way of quality content. So produce great content but also make sure your content adheres to SEO principles.

Look Closely at your Traffic Sources

Use Google Analytics to find out what your major traffic sources are. Put more effort into your top 3 to 5 sources of traffic. Surprisingly, StumbleUpon was a major traffic source for me and I now submit all my blog posts to StumbleUpon. I also added a StumbleUpon share button to my blog after this discovery.

Use Custom Images to get links back to you

We are not talking about expensive graphics here but rather look at creating simple custom images that stand out. Infographics are another option to get backlinks to your site.

Use Keyword Research Wisely

Start with keyword research to make sure you are not targeting highly competitive keywords. You can also start with a topic you want to write about then combine it with a targeted keyword.

Use Internal Links to Cross Promote Your Posts

When viewers land on a blog post from the various sources like search engines or social media; they are only aware of that post they landed on. When you internally link relevant posts you are subtly asking them to check out your other posts.

Use Social Sharing Communities like StumbleUpon, Pinterest and Reddit

Most bloggers focus their attention on the big social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. They tend to forget the social sharing sites but these can also bring in new traffic and buzz.

Ensure Great Website Design

The first thing people subconsciously look for or connect with is the website design. Something elegant and simple will do. The worst thing to have is a 90’s theme that is so far outdated like Windows 95 and is a massive mood killer.
Web_design_image

Get Competitor Links

Check out where your competitors are getting their links from and try to replicate it. The more links, the better rankings and more traffic.

Neil Patel

SEO expert, Infographic genius and traffic magnet.

Content Quantity Does Matter

Neil Patel experimented the correlation between the number of posts per week and traffic at KissMetrics. He initially started with 2 posts a week then slowly increased it to 5 posts a week and saw a spike in traffic. More posts means more marketing, more keywords and more traffic.

Traffic Generation with Infographics

At KissMetrics, “within 2 years, we were able to generate 2,512,596 visitors and 41,142 backlinks from 3,741 unique domains from 47 infographics” – Neil Patel. Do I need to say any more about the power of Infographics.
traffic-with-Infographic-image

Write Headlines for People and Search Engines

You don’t get any traffic if people do not click on the headline. Similarly, you won’t rank well if there are no keywords in your headline. So incorporate the two to make both humans and search engines happy. This is not always practical so you may need to make trade-offs.

Focus on Trending Topics

Trends like new Google Updates always brings attention and traffic. Make sure to target trends in your niche otherwise you will lose the new traffic as soon as the trend has moved on.

Use Conversational Tone

Be casual and connect with the audience. If your viewers have to search an online dictionary or similar to understand what you are talking about then they are not going to come back to your site.

Start Your Mailing List

Your mailing list is an independent asset so start it as early as possible. If you are serious about a blogging path don’t cut corners or cost on this one.

Market Your Content Consistently

Traffic = Good content creation + Good content marketing. Unfortunately, a lot of bloggers focus on content creation and hardly do anything for content marketing. Your personal friends and family network are not going to be a sufficient traffic source. Come up with a plan to market your content and create a checklist.

Create a Social Media Presence

Creating a Social Media Presence takes time but that’s exactly what you have to do to be successful. Learn how to get more followers by helping. Experiment what works when it comes to social media like what times are good to post or what days of the week get the most attention and sharing.

Work Together as a Team

Blogging is a team sport. Work with fellow bloggers in your niche to accomplish something bigger. This could be guest posting or cross promoting each other’s blogs. You could even work together on a project to achieve something large scale to put your name on the radar.

Tell a Story

I love writing intros and use some kind of story to engage and connect. There is plenty of good content online and you could use a story to create visibility and interest in your content.

Corbett Bar

Think Traffic, think Corbett Bar. Corbett’s personal blog tagline summarises generating traffic beautifully “We Make the Rules.”

Be Bold and Create Something Nobody Else is

This could be creating something unique and creative or covering topics that no one else is. Make sure there is enough interest in the uncharted territory as the last thing you want is a topic no one wants (uncharted territory in no man’s land).

Create Content in Various Formats Like Presentation Slides

Each format of content like slides, video and Infographic have their own platforms where you could promote them. For slides you would go to SlideShare.net and for videos you would go to YouTube similarly there are plenty of Infographic directories.

Find Someone Exciting to Interview

If you can’t get an interview with an expert then you could find someone exciting and with charisma. Upcoming bloggers love free PR and would love the opportunity. They would most likely link to your content if it is of top notch. They will also help promote your content as it is good for growing their brand. As an added bonus, you may learn something along the process.

Do Guest Blogging

This one is self-explanatory. Guest blogging gives you traffic from a different source, backlinks, relationship and endorsement. Did you know even Zac Johnson guest blogs?

Create Subscriber Only Content

People need an incentive to leave their email address. I didn’t want to be another soul on the internet providing a free eBook so I created subscriber only content. Curiosity is a human nature you can take advantage of.

Provide Social Proof

Guest blog and use that as social proof on your site. People don’t want to learn from a newbie no matter how good they are. If you can show some proof, it will go a long way in providing credibility and building trust.

Ensure Your Site Loads up Fast

Site speed is now a Google ranking factor. Gone are the days for reactive site performance tuning, it’s now a proactive measure. Each time your site takes 4 seconds or longer you are losing serious traffic and customers.

Take a Piece of Awesome Content that Works

You don’t always have to create something awesome or unique. In fact, borrowing something that works can give a better bank for buck. Is this an awesome Infographic, then why not use it on your site? If your viewers like it they will thank you not the creator. This is awesome to generating some serious comments and social media buzz.

Release a Product or Service

You don’t have to build traffic to release a product or service. If the product or service is attractive and marketed well, it can bring its own traffic and buzz.

Link to the Best Content Externally

Don’t be afraid to link out to additional in-depth content that compliments your topic. As a rule of thumb I only link to excellent content that is worthy of the readers time.

Ana Hoffman

You probably know which café serves the best latte in town, but do you know which café can get you a latte and some traffic – TrafficGenerationCafe of course. Oh and they do serve skinny.

Write on a Controversial Topic and Close Comments

Controversial topics have a buzz of its own but when you close comments your viewers have to find a way to say something to you. Controversial subjects bring a lot of conversation and viewers may try to reach you via social media and so on. This can create a buzz.

Use References to Sport in Your Blog Posts

People often find it easy to connect with sports, so why not use sport related references in your posts. Just make sure the sport you pick is a popular one and can connect with your audience.

Write Exclusively on One Topic for a Week

This creates curiosity among viewers and also gives you the chance to go in-depth on a topic. The more build up, drama and marketing for the last post the better.

Make a List of 101 People, Blogs, Topics in your Niche

List posts have great potential. The bigger the number the better. A good list will have very good marketability. More people or blogs mean more social sharing and more traffic to your site.

Write a Chain of Articles

This is similar to writing exclusively on one topic for a week but has no time limit or sequence. You can start by deciding which topic you can go deep on and announce it as a 3 or even 5 series post. Again, build up to the last post and kindle your viewer’s anticipation.

Produce a Widget or Plugin

Creating a useful tool is an amazing way of promoting a site and bringing traffic. Imagine giving away a free widget or plugin that is useful?

Tell a Story Through Images

Use images to tell a story. Eye catching images can be engaging and images also tend to be shared more often than text content in social media. Think about all the re-pins and re-tweets.

Target high Traffic Searches

You want more traffic, right? So why not target high traffic keywords? For this strategy you don’t have to think about the monetary value of the keyword too much.

Ask Readers to Write Something For Your Blog

This is the creative version of guest blogging. This can be a fun and engaging experience to you and your readers. Ask readers who are interested to submit a draft so you can review the quality of the content and if selected their post will be published with credit given to them.

Write Something About a Scam

People love reading about scams. Expose something and contribute to a better society. Add value by analysing all aspects and provide clear warnings. There are plenty of sites specialising on scam alerts that make a living out of this kind of service.

“Punctuality is not just limited to arriving at a place at right time, it is also about taking actions at right time” ― Amit Kalantri.

Go generate traffic pro-actively, don’t wait for it to come to you.

30 Sleek WordPress Themes for the Personal Blogger

Ironically, the power and versatility of WordPress as a CMS platform has taken a large portion of the attention it gets away from its core purpose – blogging. Not that WordPress itself has taken its attention off of blogging though, they continue to improve WordPress as a blogging platform and maintain an outrageous lead on their competitors. But when surfing for articles about WordPress you’ll notice that most of them are about how to make a blog into something else. Something more.

What if you don’t want something more? What if you simply want the best blog possible on the best blogging platform in the World because – get this – you just want to blog? Well, that’s where this post comes in. I’ve gathered together 30 of the best WordPress themes available in 2012 for the personal blogger. Check it out and let me know what you think!
1. Confidence
Regular License: $35
Confidence WordPress Theme