I’ve been busy the last 10 days – no sorries. This pause helped me realize a lot of previous blogging mistakes and delusions. The base of the most of those delusions and mistakes was the misunderstanding of my blog’s traffic.

You see.. one thing is to treat your web traffic as clicks.. or a number of reads or pageviews, but treating it as people is completely another. And this is where begins web traffic demographics and the next level of your online success.

Now let’s get to the details.

4 Most Common Reasons of Delusions and Mistakes

Find yourself here. You still can fix your blogging mistakes. Just avoid the following delusions.

1. Comments: Lately I have faced one interesting fact. After I publish a new post.. I wait for comments. I look for people’ opinions. I want to be praised for my work.

   Isn’t that funny and stupid at the same time?

   In most cases we get comments from other bloggers, who simply visit your blog to get another backlink. They have to praise you (or to thank you), because otherwise you won’t accept that comment.

   Sometimes blog owners even mention, that they won’t accept negative or offensive comments.

   You see.. this whole system of commenting on blogs is built wrongly. So, why do we think, that these are our readers’ sincere opinions?

   Even when we get some beautiful, nice and big comment.. don’t rush to treat it seriously.

   Why?

   Because it might be some bloated comment in attempt to get more attention. Just check that author’s other comments and decide whether you’re right or wrong.

   Be careful. Sometimes people improve their comments with good motives.

2. Negative Feedback: I used to treat negative comments or e-mails too seriously. It distracts.. I know that.

   But one little thing I have learned so far is that you will keep getting negative feedback as long as you become more popular. People now even do not regret their time to judge you or to humiliate you. And this is a good sign.

   Again.. in most cases those people simply are losers. But.. sometimes it’s not that easy.

   Sometimes you get negative feedback, because you, actually, deserve it. But, you know, it’s about your experience, when it comes to treating the feedback seriously or not.

   Anyways, your blog development shouldn’t depend on single feedbacks… even if you’re about to lose your mind.

3. Reading Irrelevant Blogs: Of course we are not automatic machines nor robots. Sometimes we let ourselves read blogs we like even if those particular blogs do not relate to our blog’s niche.

   And there comes one problem.

   As we all are humans, we have to share our thoughts – we just need to, because they stick in our heads. And what do we do? We begin to write a post on our blog on that topic sharing our thoughts and opinions. But this is not what your readers are looking for! At least not most of them.

   If you blog about «blogging mistakes», then follow the plan. You have it done, right? If you haven’t, then your chances to get new subscribers decrease.

   The solution of this case is to try to belong to the targeted social media sphere of your blog’s niche.

4. Temptation to Be Like…: This is in our blood. We, bloggers, all were tought by A-list bloggers.. like.. whatever :)

   Today most of them are our idols and good examples.

   The biggest problem here is that we intuitively copy some part of their design or writing style or topic or else, which decreases the amount of signs of your own unique style… and that makes you look like an average blogger.

   How to avoid being like others?

   There is no certain solution, because this is about fixing your intuition and sticking to the plan of your business. This is why you need a plan or the list of the rules, which should help you not to lose your own unique way of your online journey.

How to Treat Web Traffic?

The answer is very simple.

Just treat your traffic as people, visitors, readers, commenters, students, pupils, children, pals, freinds. Treat it like that despite the traffic demographics.

Be aware of thinking that your web traffic is simply traffic or customers. They all have their families, friends and pets. They fall in love, they eat and sleep and they are just like you.

This simple method just looks so easy. But following it demands a lot of inner qualities, which can help you remember – it’s about Internet, that separates you and your site visitors.

Find out even more about Web Traffic Demographics. This article is written in 2008, but it is still actual.

Analysis of Web Traffic Demographics: 2 Web Tools

There are only 2 basic web tools to help you analyze your site traffic demographics.

• Quantcast.com – This tool gives you a lot of details about your traffic demographics, but it also needs a lot of time to analyze your site: 5-6 days to display basic info about your traffic and at least 1000 US visitors. Plus – Business and Geographic data will populate after 30 days of being quantified.

  But the data is great, so you better wait until it’s ready.

• Alexa.com – I, personally, like this one because of the simplicity. The more traffic you get, the more accurate data will be available.

Who Are My Visitors?

In the very beginning I thought, that my potential visitors are young webmasters and bloggers. I mostly imagined them as young men (male, 20-25 years old). But I was so wrong…

Here’s what Alexa says about my traffic demographics:

This means, that my readers are mostly 35+ years old.

Can you now imagine my shock? I’m only 22 years old and I’m, actually, teaching those, who are twice older, than me. This information has crucially changed my blogging way and standpoints.

This is why I have been thinking of my blog improvements for so long! This is why I have done the following changes…

5 Blog Improvements After Reading the Information About My Traffic Demographics

Blog Structure

1. I have replaced «10 Facts about iWoodpecker» with «Featured Post», because most of the bloggers are mostly used to «About» pages, rather than creativity like that :)

   Besides, «Featured Post» on the home page can give some general sense of the blog’s niche for newcomers and can help to promote that particular post.

2. I have changed the general look of the home page and the blog itself to make it look like a blog. Because I’m, actually, speaking in my posts with other bloggers. And they are used to sites that look like blogs. Otherwise, I can lose those potential visitors.

Sidebar

1. The phrase «Subscribe» changed to «Free Updates». There is one certain reason – it sounds more friendly.

2. Now I run a poll, which should give me a sense of my audience’s likes and dislikes. It’s not working now as good as I wish, but I believe this is a matter of time and the amount of traffic.

3. I have uninstalled several widgets from my sidebar, which were taking too much room. I have left only those ones, that relate to the content. Well.. it’s not 100% like that, but the general view of the sidebar is now much more better. Cleaner and more useful.

4. I’m still thinking of adding a list of my blog’s categories… But there are still some doubts whether it’s needed or not.

Post Page

1. I have removed a lot of social media buttons from my posts. And I still can’t get enough. I think it’s some kind of a rocket-science… I mean the playing with the number of social media buttons. At least.. the less the best.

2. Completely changed the design of «related posts», «categories» and «tags» parts, that come after the main content on the post pages. There is only one purpose – to make it look cleaner and more attractive.

3. I have moved «trackbacks» to the right side of the comments section. The reason is to encourage bloggers to link to my posts, which gives them in return some decent amount of web traffic and the guarantee, that their trackbacks will be visible enough.

4. I have also added gravatars and improved the comment form to encourage bloggers to leave comments. Not sure if it’s working, but I like the way it looks now :)

5. I have also changed some instructional phrases for commenters. Deleted the phrase: comments are moderated.

   Who, actually, thinks today, that comments on blogs are not moderated? So on and so forth.

Page Load Time

1. Removed SexyBookmarks.

2. Removed a lot of Ads by Google. Though I’m still playing with them. The only thing I have figured out for sure is that I don’t get clicks on image ads at all.

3. Removed a lot of tracking scripts including «MyBlogLog».

4. I have made my main CSS file cleaner. Though I should also think about plugins’ CSS files, which also should be improved.

5. I have also removed ~14 plugins (9 were inactive). I have deleted even my «contact form» plugin, because it was not needed at all, though its CSS and Script files loaded on each page.

Video Desserts

There are several reasons.

I know only one blogger, that also includes video desserts, though this is a great idea to improve visitors’ time one site and bounce rate.

And according to my traffic demographics I choose which videos to add.

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Video Dessert: «Chat Roulette: Funny Piano Improv #1»

This site was a real discovery for me yesterday. And here’s Ben – the pianist freestyling in real-time with random strangers.

NB! My current social buttons are different now. But the post itself is an example how you can analyze your set of buttons.

We love social media buttons. It gives us a feeling, that we belong to social media. The more – the closer, right?

Wrong.

There is some certain limit for a number of social media buttons. And each and every blog should consider its own limit. Because.. in the end it is your page load time.

Social Media Buttons vs Markets

Why do we make our blogs look like those annoying markets and super-markets? Or you did not think about that?

Do you remember how annoying are sellers in the markets? “Buy it, buy it, buy it..” Well, blogs with tons of social media buttons look just like that – “Submit it, share, submit, please, share it, share it!”

Give Explanation for Each of Your Button

There is a way to identify your own appropriate number of buttons.

Just try to explain why you have this or that button. Consider social buttons’ efficiency on other blogs and see if there were any benefits for your blog.

If you see, that people only retweet and digg your stories, then leave only these two social media buttons and uninstall all 59 others :) You will improve your page load time and bounce rate – it’s 100% guaranteed.

Explanation for My Social Media Buttons

4 Social Buttons Above the Content:

First of all, I should mention that I have these buttons above the content, because they are the most effective for my blog and they should be on the first place.

1. «Retweet» button – there is no doubt, that this is a must-have button. Plus, since I offer updates via Twitter, I know, that I have a lot of people, who use Twitter;
2. «Share on Facebook» button – Though this button doesn’t work for me, I think it is my fault, because I still did not promote my blog on Facebook enough. But I know for sure, that there are billions of people, who use Facebook. I also can see, that those big Social Media guru sites like Mashable have this button and it works for them. That is why I think it will take some time for my blog to make «Share on Facebook» button effective;
3. «BlogEngage» button – this button works for me, because I know how to hit the front page of BlogEngage. I have done that several dozens of times and having this button on my blog is one of the little secrets for that;
4. «Google Buzz» button – I have installed this button just today, because there was an update of Digg Digg WordPress plugin. They have added it and I have decided to test it. If this will not show any result, I will remove it. Besides, gurus have this Google Buzz button and it seems that it works for them;

7 Social Media Buttons Below the Content

These buttons still don’t work for me. They just don’t bring me any worthy amount of web traffic. But I use them myself sometimes. Plus, SexyBookmarks look great, which adds its value to the general design of my blog. So.. That’s why I have just 7 of them, though the whole number of available SexyBookmarks is 87.

1. «Google Reader» button – Testing this one. Not sure, if someone has used it by now.
2. «Google Bookmarks» button – This one is great even for your own usage. When you type in your tags there, they are then displayed in Google search results right under your submitted item. Not sure if it has any SEO value, but my intuition says – it has;
3. «Digg» button – I used to Digg my stories.. But I’m tired of seeing them above my original stories in Google real-time search results. I leave this button for now, because there are still people, who are addicted with Digg. Plus, I might be wrong about Digg.. that’s why I’m still keeping it and testing its efficiency;
4. «Del.icio.us» button – This button is great. And it works for me. But the number of submissions to Del.icio.us is still too low. Let it be here for now;
5. «StumbleUpon» button – This one also works for me.. just like the previous one. People stumble my stories, but I have not seen any traffic spikes yet, because I don’t have a lot of time to spend on StumbleUpon meeting new stumblers and getting subscribers there;
6. «LinkedIn» button – The only reason for having this button is that I have heard a lot of it. I am planning to promote my LinkedIn account sometime;
7. «Mixx» button – Mixx is dofollow social bookmarking site. And it has a great SEO value for your blog. I’m using this button to submit my best articles. Not sure if someone else is using it;

That’s it! And, to tell the truth, while writing this post I have removed Sphinn and Facebook social buttons from SexyBookmarks, because I have not found any explanation for them.

***

What about you? Can you give explanation for each and every social media button on your blog? If not, why don’t you remove some of them?

***

Video Dessert: «Evolution of Dance»

The fantastic success! 137,5 millions of views on YouTube means something! I especially like what starts on the 3rd minute of the video :) You simply can’t stay indifferent to this guy and his video!

This time let me show you several dozens of saved bookmarks on my Google Chrome browser’s bookmarking panel.

I have been saving them during several months so far. And I thought this would be a great idea to put all of them here, in order to empty my bookmarking panel and to share with you this wealth from all over the Internet.

These websites, services and web tools will be extremely useful for beginning webmasters and those, who want to find something new to track visitors, to make some money online, to improve your website or blog, to grow the number of backlinks and simply to get more web traffic.

I’ve devided the collection into two parts, because there are, let’s say, too many of saved bookmarks for one post.

All of the them are logically categorized.

9 Tools and Services for Beginning Webmasters and Bloggers

1. Page Rank Checker is a free tool to check Google page ranking of any web site pages. You also can display your site or blog’s PageRank value on your web pages using its special html code.

2. Web Site Popularity Checker is also a free tool, but this one has more features. It checks Google PageRank, Alexa Rank, Technorati and more. It also allows you to see how many times your site was bookmarked at del.icio.us. And a bunch of features more!

   I used to use only this one, because of its speed and accuracy. And you can also find useful its html badget for your website or blog to show your stats to the world.

3. Free Webmaster Tools is a multi-service full of amazing tools to improve your SEO ranking and website optimization. The first page of this site displays 8, I’d say, best tools, such as Backlink Checker, IP Address Number Converter, Meta Tags Extractor, Position Checker, Fonts Collection, Keyword Density Checker, PageRank Checker and Spider View.

   Though I’ve never used it, I’d say, that I should get back to it sometime.

4. Blog Tracker is an invisible tracker that will count your blog visits and other blog statistics. It is also free and I should say, that it works better, than Google Analytics, from the standpoint of data display. It means, that you will be able to see your last visits and hits earlier, than Google Analytics would show.

   In general, this counter has less built-in features, but faster, than Google one’s. It depends on your needs what to choose.

5. Bookmarking and Sharing Service is a free way to boost traffic back to your site by making it easier for visitors to share your content. That’s how this service describes itself. If I’m right, then AddThis really was one of the first ones of such kind. So, it’s tested by time.

6. Social Bookmarking Service, which is called SocialMarker. This service recommended itself as a free tool for spreading your links on 48 of the best social bookmarking sites like Digg.com, Del.icio.us, Propeller.com, Slashdot.org, Technorati.com, Reddit.com and many many more. They promise you, that you’ll be able to manage with it in 15 minutes. Not sure about this one, but it definitely reduces submission time.

   And you can also use their social button, which in my opinion looks not that pretty, like AddThis button :)

7. Social Networks Updater or Ping.fm is a free and simple service that makes updating your social networks a snap.

   If you don’t mind URL shortening, then Ping.fm is, probably, the best one for you. But, I’m not the one and I still don’t use it. Why? I’ve explained it in my recent post about SEO risks involved with URL shortening.

8. HelloTxt is one big social network, because it allows you to read, update and organize all known social networks like Twitter, FaceBook, MySpace, Flickr, LinkedIn and tons more. Its Alexa Rank is worse, than Ping.fm’s, but it’s just a matter of time. I think HelloTxt’s future is much more better.

9. NXY.IN – URL Shortener is too awesome to be a simple URL shortening service. It has built-in analytics, popular/upcoming articles feature and a feature to make money using your AdSense ID.

   It has ~38k Alexa Rank, which is not bad for a new service, but it’s PageRank is 1, which means, that Google somewhy doesn’t trust it. So, for this moment it would be better to refrain from using this URL shortening service, if you use them at all.

12 Google Resources: Visitors Tracking, Keywords and Money

1. Google Translate – this is my number 1 service. If your English isn’t your native language, then this service is indispensable. It is fast, accurate and easy-to-use. Plus – you can listen to pronunciation of some of them.

2. “Define” trick by Google – this is a simple command to search any word’s meaning. It may help you to find more keywords to the one you already have. You can also get the idea of what you should mention, when you have some exact keyword/s.

   Examples: web service, webmaster etc.

3. Introduction to Google Adsense by Lisa Irby. Simple and clear. I guess I have started iWoodpecker, because of this article. Who doesn’t want to make money online?

   Though now I have a different opinion on Google AdSense topic..

4. 7 Ways to Make Money with Google Adsense Using Only Free Tools is an article by Christopher Kyalo. These ways are, indeed, powerful. You will find this explanation useful only if you already know something about Google AdSense. I’ve bookmarked it 7-8 months ago and I still keep it. Use it for your sake!

5. Google AdSense – Display targeted Google ads on your website’s content pages and earn from valid clicks or impressions.

   Well, it’s not hard to guess why I kept it in my bookmarks. This link leads to Google AdSense account. You can register one for yourself, if you still don’t have it.

6. Google AdManager – You can manage your online ad sales and inventory. Google Ad Manager is a hosted ad management solution that can help you sell, schedule, deliver, and measure all of your directly-sold and network-based inventory.

   In other words – for advertisers. Keeping it for future.

7. Blog of Google Analytics – have not heard about this one? Then go ahead and subscribe. You will be provided with latest trends and news on Google Analytics. You can also try to ping one of their posts, in order to recieve a trackback. I bet you will be surprised with your result.

8. Google Tools for Webmasters – saved as a bookmark, because of too frequent use of it. Yeap, I’m still addicted to statistics.

   This service of webmaster tools is a straight way to high rankings. Absorb everything that Google suggests and fix anything he doesn’t like. You can also see your website or blog’s strong positions in Google real-time search. This is great, when you want to improve your best results!

   People somewhy used to ignore those errors and site defects, that Google shows.. Don’t do that. Be smart and dominate your niche.

9. Google Analytics – is another famous Google must-have-tool. Track your visitors and set goals. Discover site referrers and keyword phrases, that people were using to get to your website or blog. You’re the king here, so rule it.

   The only thing, that I’m still not used to is the amount of time you should wait until Google shows up your latest stats. It usually happens only on the next day.. but sometimes even on the 2nd day.

10. Keyword Tool by Google AdWords is a tool, which helps you to discover keywords and its competition strength. You can also see PPC prices set by AdWords. It gives you the idea of how important is a keyword, which usually lets you decide – to compete or not.

11. A Web Page Full of Google Tools – it was saved on my bookmarking panel very long time ago. This site was useful once. May be it is now for somebody..

12. Install Google Toolbar for Google Chrome If you have Mozilla Firefox, then, probably, you have heard of Google Toolbar. Well.. this is pretty much the same, but for Google Chrome. To be exact, this is an alternative way of having Google Toolbar on Chrome, because the real toolbar is not available yet. Well.. I use it this way and I must say, that there were no problems yet. Try it.

10 Twitter Tools, Services and Other – for Twitter Fans

1. TweetDeck is the leading browser for the real-time and social web, allowing users to connect with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace. It is also available as a tool on your desktop.

2. HootSuite is another Twitter client. I prefer it rather than TweetDeck, because of its simplicity… I guess. It has less features and it looks not that cool, but it is still my choice. It manages with 4 networks: Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn and Ping.fm.

3. TwittGeek is a marketing tool, which helps you to follow a limited number of people per day (it’s 150). Though you can purchase a PRO access, which is pretty much the same, as the free version – PRO lets you follow 300 users per day. I used to like it, but now I prefer buzzom (it’s a secret!) for this kind of following users.

4. Buzzom lets you follow, unfollow and reciprocate. Great tool for boosting your Twitter list of followers. It also has such features like cross-following and following targeted Twitter users using search by keywords.

   I like this service, because of seeing its growth and development. I remember the time, when it was incredibly slow and buggy. Now it looks much more promising.

5. FriendOrFollow.com works faster, than Buzzom, but has less features. Though.. I should say that sometimes it finds who does not follow you and who you are not following back more accurately. I use it, when I have several users not following me back (..another secret!).

6. TwitterCounter is the very known service, that offers widgets for your blog or website like Twitter Counter (which looks just like Feedburner’s Subscribers Counter), Twitter Widget (shows Twitter users, when they visit your site) and more.

   The TwitterCounter.com site itself has a lot of things to promote your Twitter account, like tops and lists. But don’t even think about getting there, those tops and lists are already dominated by web gurus like Pete (from Mashable!), Britney Spears and Twitter itself.

7. Oneforty – lets you find, collect, rate and share Twitter apps from all over the Internet. Visit them, when you’ll have some extra minute. You may find there a lo-o-ot of interesting freebies for your future tweets.

8. Revtwt is the advertising network, to help you to earn money on Twitter.

   I’ve tried it and it didn’t work for me. But if you have more than 1,000-2,000 Twitter followers (targeted, not internet marketing bots and scams), then don’t listen to me. Go ahead and test it. They have really large network of advertisers and offers. You can even make them send daily advertisments directly to your email box, which you can use or not.

9. 5 Twitter Directories – a post by Geoffrey Gordon, who introduces us to 5 best Twitter directories in his opinion.

   You should try them. Don’t leave it for tomorrow, like I do :) I still haven’t tried these directories.

10. Twitter Search is a search for Twitter, where you can find out what is happening right now. It works the same way as the search you see above your lists in your common Twitter account.

    I’m not sure why I’ve bookmarked it… :)

3 More Great Bookmarked SEO Articles for Dessert

1. Keyword Research – big article on keyword researching methods. The site itself looks ugly and I remember the time when it was full of ads by Google, but the article is a real treasure.

   I hope you will enjoy it just like I did a year ago or so. It’s good and simple for beginning webmasters or those, who don’t even know how to find out what keywords you need and how to look for them.

2. Sebastian’s Opinion on URI Shortening – find out why you kill your traffic, search engine rankings, and revenues on the long haul using URI Shortening. And note, that he doesn’t like when you say “URL” instead of “URI” :)

3. Attract Links and Increase Web Traffic by CopyBlogger. This post itself consists of various tops on backlinks and web traffic topics. If you haven’t read that one, you will, probably, keep getting your usual amounts of web traffic instead of more.

   I still come back to this article, when I have some extra time, to discover something new. And guess what, everytime there is some kind of another case study..

PS: I have a new record. This post was indexed by Google in less, than 37 minutes without any submissions. I should find out later what were the reasons.. :)

***

Video Dessert: «Bride Can’t Stop Laughing During Vows;

Her husband accidentally pronounces ‘lawfully’ as ‘wawfully,’ and she cracks up so much that they had to take a break in the ceremony.

Today I’d like to introduce you to the great blogger (or if to say better – the bloggeress), Ileane Smith, who is also known as Ms. Ileane Speaks.

She won the «Most Influential Commenter» competition in January, so it’s time to make a review of her outstanding blogging way and her ways of getting web traffic.

Before I begin, I’d like to add also, that what I’m going to speak about next, is written with all my respect and sincerity. It’s not just because of the prize for the competition, it’s not just because I promised to write a review for the winner. It’s about the reason to write about her. And I’m glad, that the winner is Ileane Smith. So, let’s look at the way Ms. Ileane is blogging and getting visitors to her blogs.

First of all, Ileane Smith is an extraordinary multi-tasker. I hope it doesn’t sound bad, because I think of it, as of a really positive factor.

Where you can find her?

I know 5 main blogs, that she has.

1. msileanesblog.blogspot.com – The one I like the most. The atmosphere of this blog makes you relax.. somehow.. and find the way.

   Oh.. and how she describes it:

   Need help choosing between wordpress.com and blogger for your free blog? I’m MS. Ileane the blog queen with the pros and cons of blogger and wordpress to help solve the mystery.

2. ileane.wordpress.com – This is probably her #1 blog. Ileane shares there everything she learns about blogging and social media, creating interesting podcasts.

   You can find out a little bit more about this blog on her about page.

3. bloggingwire.com/msileanespeaks – Speaking about this blog, I can say, that it was created as symbol of engaging with BlogEngage blogging community, where Ileane takes very important role.

4. bloggingwire.com/podcast – This one’s her latest blog. It’s about Ileane’s favorite topic – podcasts.

5. msileanespeaks.posterous.com – If you want to know about Ms. Ileane a little bit more, you should check this blog. It’s about her achievements and places, where she was mentioned.

Well, not bad, huh? I cannot imagine, where she finds the time for them all, but she definitely does, and all of these blogs bring her very nice amount of traffic!

Why Ms. Ileane differs from other bloggers?

She, actually, absorbs social media trends. What’s so special? Well, you can do that as well for some time. But it will take a huge peace of your energy. Not everyone can handle it. She’s the one, who can. And I really admire her from this point.

By this moment we know, that Ileane is the podcaster and the social media follower. Did I mention, that she comments a lot and engages with other bloggers.. very successfully? It must be like this because of her passion for blogging and for being a part of blogosphere, which is crucial for achieving success. Within the last month she deserved (yes!) several banner spots on various blogs. And it’s not about being lucky. I think people simply love her, because of her openness to everybody.

Did I explain her way of getting web traffic?

***

Video Dessert: «Funniest kid ever!»

This kid gets the worst case of stage fright ever. You gotta love him!

It’s 2010 now! It’s time to get real website traffic to your website or blog, or even better, if you have a blog as a “plus” to your website.

I’m going to speak about the most important factors, that generate website traffic today. If you’ve been looking for the most compact article about the modern ways of getting website traffic in 2010, then you’re at the right place. Be sure, that after the information from this post, the only left thing for you would be to start the action.

Let me ask you… what means “website traffic”? How do you imagine that? It’s important, because you can’t start getting website traffic, if you don’t know, what you are trying to get. Take 1 minute to think about it. Really. When you’re done, just go on reading.

So, What Means Website Traffic?

I hope, that you have the answer. Let’s compare. My answer is “you”. What was yours?

Anyways, “website traffic” really means “you”, because there’s nobody else, who can turn on the PC or laptop. It’s you, who looks for the information on the Internet; who votes for someone or something; who buys journals or some food, using PayPal; who sells products; who comments on blogs or on Facebook; who asks somebody to help at “Yahoo! Answers”; who recommends to watch the movie and so on.

Getting Website Traffic Means Attracting Other People.

That’s why it’s so important to understand, that website traffic means you and the other people like you. It’s not a click, nor a number of “views”, nor “5 stars” for the video, nor 1534 “unique visitors”. You’re dealing with real people like you. Remember to ask yourself “Would I like it?” before you show or offer something on the Internet.

I hope that was clear enough for the compact introduction. Let’s get on further.

Design of Your Website or Blog

Do not overdo with design of your website. There are 5 must-be-done things with your website design, that will help you to get more website traffic.

1. Try to make your website or blog navigation as easy, as possible. The deepest page should be 3-4 clicks from your home page;
2. Try to make the look of your website as friendly, as Google’s home page;
3. Use Photoshop (or similar software) to make sizes of your website images as small, as possible, but don’t lose the quality. I’ve used to keep it around 8-30 KB and that’s OK. Mostly it’s 8-12 KB;
4. Don’t make your website or blog look like NASCAR. The fewer ads, the better.
5. Remember to keep your code clean, because it’s your website loading speed, which would crucially affect your search engine rankings in 2010;

Choosing Domain Name

Well.. The shorter, the better. It’s easy, right? No. As the Internet becomes more and more popular with each day, it’s getting harder to pick a domain name, that you like. So.. it takes a little bit of your thinking to find the appropriate name for your website.

Here are 3 tips how to choose :

• Think of your niche.
  Try to get the most important keywords from it. And invent your domain name. For example, you’re going to write about travelling. Your name is Paul. Very good! Make use of it. How about www.TravellingWithPaul.com ? Yes, that was the big one. Well.. what about www.PaulsTravel.com? Not bad.. work on it;
• Use numbers instead of words.
  Example – www.2createawebsite.com. Though it’s rather long, it’s simple at the same time;
• Don’t forget about dashes.
  If you’ve picked www.PaulTravel.com and it’s occupied, try this – www.Paul-Travel.com. Not too bad, isn’t it?

Remember also, that your domain name is the very important part of your Internet face. It’s not the only one part though. And note, that you have only 1 chance to choose the appropriate domain name.

Difference between .com, .org, .net, .edu etc.

There’s no big difference between them at all. Someone says, that search engines would better index .edu sites, or that backlinks from .edu sites pass more rankings to your website. Do you believe it? I don’t, because just think of it.. if that’s true, then what’s the point in .com or .net? There’s no logical explanation, nor physical evidence. The only difference between them is that they’re supposed to help in grouping the growing number of website names:

• .com stands for – commercial;
• .org – organisation;
• .net – network;
• .mil – military;
• .gov – government;
• .edu – education.

Building Backlinks – Get More Website Traffic

Sounds good. Let’s take a look at ways of getting traffic from other sites by building backlinks. Let’s classify these ways.

Submit Your Website or Blog to Search Engines… or Not?

This is in past, when you had to submit your website to search engines. Now it’s different. Search engines will find you by themeselves or through some of your backlinks from other sites. You, actually, can submit the URL of your website or blog to search engines like Google, Yahoo! or MSN (Bing). This would, probably, get your site indexed a little bit faster, but not much.

Note, that there are no more different search engines, as many websites scream, offering you to submit to 1000s of search engines only for 5,95$. There was a time, when the number of search engines was huge, but most of them now are parts of Yahoo!, MSN or Google, others are simply dead.

Submitting to Directories

There are 2 general types of web directories:

• Website directories, that still accept sites;
• Website directories, that are dead or not updated.

There are also 4 secondary types of them:

• Paid directories;
• Free directories;
• Directories, that want you to put a reciprocal link to your site;
• Combined directories, that relate to one of the above type only, or two of them, or all of them.

And, finally, there are 3 sorts of web directories:

• Website directory – check out this list of top website directories;
• Blog directory (for blogs only) – begin from these 50+ blog directories;
• RSS directory (for blogs only) – start submitting your blog from these 30+ RSS directories;

The most important are only 2 of all of them by today – DMOZ directory and Yahoo! directory. At the very moment, I’ve submitted my site to both of them a month ago or so. Still no answer. But… I didn’t put any reciprocal link from them, nor pay for submission. May be that’s the reason, may be not. Anyway, I’ll try to resubmit in 2-3 months. I guess, that it’s hard, but it’s worth it. Will speak about it later.

Submitting Articles to Article Directories

I’d recommend to use only 1-3 article directories, because all of them want you to submit the unique content. How do you suppose to do that with 50 article directories?

Anyways, you’ll get very nice amount of traffic from article directories. They rank higher, than your site, when you begin or in the process of growing. So, it’s easier to reach the top of search engines to drive visitors to your own website or blog.

Submit Your Posts to Social Bookmarking Sites

Begin from this list of 70+ do follow and nofollow social bookmarking sites.

There are 2 crucial rules, submitting to social bookmarkers:

• Submit posts, stories, articles with the unique titles and descriptions. Otherwise, you’ll be penalised by search engines;
• Choose the right category for your submission, because this affects on your visitors, that you get.

Getting Website Traffic Commenting on Blogs

I’d recommend to comment on “do follow” Blogs with CommentLuv enabled, if you’re hunting for a big number of backlinks. This way you’ll get a constant and continual website traffic, but not too targeted, because if you comment a lot, then, probably, your comments are short and barely visible.

To get targeted website traffic commenting on blogs, think of your comments. Leave comments, if you really feel, that you’re able to add something valuable or to refute some fact from the commented post.

Decide for yourself what traffic you need.

Backlinks from Social Media Profiles

For example, you’ve registered on Twitter. Put a link to your website in your profile! It should be like this – http://www.example.com . The more, the better. You, actually, could just run through all social media websites you know just to register, in order to put a free backlink. Believe me, all of them will be indexed as an external links to your website.

My result of getting backlinks from social media profiles at Google.

Use Trackbacks

Yes, trackbacking is another way to get backlinks to your website.

How to get a good trackback?

Trackback is a blog feature. In most cases if your blog is powered by WordPress, then you can enable this feature in the admin panel.

If you link to another blog, then that blog can accept your trackback, which means, that you get a backlink to your post. This way of getting traffic is even better, than commenting. Though the trackback link usually appears near comments, visitors understand, that the author trusts this link. This affects readers opinion about your blog, which increases a chance, that they would follow the link and, moreover, would subscribe to your blog or come back later.

Learn SEO to Get More Traffic from Search Engines

SEO is the abbreviation of the phrase “Search Engine Optimization”. Today it’s so popular, that there’s no problems at all, if you wish to improve your SEO skills, because there are thousands or even millions of blogs, that could explain how and why to do this or that.

Why the traffic from search engines is so valuable?

Try to track what you’re doing, when you’re looking for some answers or showcases. Of course, you’re going to Google and type several words, that you think are associated with your problem. Then you follow some of the results, and if that was relevant to your question, you feel satisfied and, probably, you bookmark this site or put it to your favorites. This is the power of SEO, because those sites, that are in the top of search queries, would be most likely followed by you and the others.

Make your aim #1 to get to the top of Google with your keyphrases. In order to do that, learn SEO.

Ways to Make Your Traffic Come Back

This is the most interesting part :) OK, you’re already getting traffic. But if you analyze it, you, probably, can see, that there is a huge bounce rate around 70-90%. This is no good. You must make it different. Make another aim for you to decrease your website’s bounce rate, which would help you to grow your audience.

15 tips to make your traffic come back:

• Make your RSS feed buttons visible;
• Publish a new post as often, as possible;
• Create contests and think of good rewards;
• Don’t make posts or articles too big;
• Use images;
• Use CommentLuv for your comments;
• Make your blog do follow;
• Track your most popular posts and use it for your future posts;
• Make “Tops” of your posts, articles or podcasts;
• Refresh your old posts and mention that in your latest posts;
• Make your pages full of things to click. People love it;
• Make your website or blog look alive;
• Differ from others to make your traffic love you*;
• Try to express your thoughts simple;
• Be the first in everything**;

*What means to be different from others?

That’s your key to success. If everyone screams, that they could help – scream, that you can show. If everyone speaks about how cool is using Feedburner – write a post about Feedburner minuses etc.

**How to be the first, if there are so many competitors?

It’s not that hard, as it may seem, because it’s about understanding the meaning of being the first. You can be the first with your own way of expression. If you’re late with some news, look at the news from the original side and bomb it out. You’ll be the first.

For example, Robert Pattinson is being awarded for something. Ok.. you’re not the first one, who announced it. Not a problem. Write about his top 10 latest awards, including this one. People would, probably, be interested in this kind of info, because he’s currently being discussed in news. See? That’s way simple.

Paid Ways to Get Website Traffic – Worth It or Not?

Though it’s still popular today to buy traffic, I won’t ever recommend you to do that, unless you’re working online just in order to sell big stuff.

This is about your reputation. So, if you’re niche is about travelling or blogging, then don’t use this method. Would you like it, if you’d knew, that you were bought…? Disgusting, isn’t it?

There are tons of free ways. The only thing you have to do is to think a little about your own way through all of the known ways.

What Web Traffic Do You Need?

This is as important, as knowing the meaning of website traffic. So, let’s look at the main types of web traffic:

Social Media Traffic – Those are people, who surf through sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, Propeller etc. They submit your stuff, if they like it. They comment, they ask. Mostly, these people are curious about all latest trends in social media.

Silent Readers – This group of people are those, who just read something, that they are interested in. Don’t expect them to comment on your blog. “Silent readers” come from search engines. Most of them won’t subscribe to your website or blog, but they would bookmark it or put to favorites if your post or article is what they want.

Traffic from Banners – Or in other words, paid traffic. This type of website traffic is risky. From one hand, you’re the guy with money for them. From the other hand, you have some default respect, which could become a wall against your personality. So, think twice before buying places for your ads (banners).

Real World Traffic – The precious one. They come to your site directly. They’ve heard about you from their friends or from the news. You have a high default respect from them.

Bad Traffic – They’ve heard some bad things about you. Their opinion about you is below the normal level. But still.. they are your website traffic. So, when they come, be ready to change their mind. That’s not easy though.

Return Traffic – You can easily call this type of traffic – your readers. There is a big chance, that they will subscribe to your blog, because they’re on the way to get used to visit your blog.

Think of your own ways of converting one type of website traffic to another.

New Ways of Getting Traffic

Of course, most of the known ways can bring you some constant amount of visitors. But.. you know, the Internet and its social media is crazy today. Each and every day there’s a new way for anything. I look for 2010 and I’m so excited about what will happen with the usual ways of getting traffic. So.. follow the trends. Look for extraordinary ways of getting traffic. Because if you’re the discoverer, you’ll get the best award for it.

For example, I’ve recently discovered for myself, that a simple button “I like it” at Google Reader could bring some nice number of visitors, which means that the more subscriptions I have, the more traffic I can attract just by clicking the single button “I like it”. Check it out yourself and find out how it works.

The Conclusion

Well.. I hope you’ve loved this article. I’ve reviewed all of the most important aspects of getting website traffic for the beginning of 2010, and I hope, that you’ve found for yourself something useful here.

If you’d like to add something, make sure to leave a respond below.

***

PS. Here’s another amazing article to get more web traffic in 2010. You’ll find there some kick-ass methods, that are used today.

No, no, no… Don’t think, that this is another affiliate program. No.. This is another social bookmarking site, but not “another” at the same time. You can submit anything, that relates to blogging, and be sure – lots of people will see that.

This is strange, but I really would like to share some reasons why I think, that Blog Engage is fantastic for promoting your stuff.

Blog Engage community is rather young

Do you know what does it mean? Remember Digg.com, when it was just beginning? Those, who joined Digg at that stage, are now “Supreme Diggers“, and what they do sees almost everybody. That is, what you need, when you start your blogging or something else, that needs a lot of promotion.

Nice green-blue design

Don’t get me wrong, but I like it. Somehow.. it relaxes and makes you act. Two different things in one. Amazing, isn’t it? :)

Blog Engage community is sociable

I’ve never seen anything like this before. Ok.. my experience isn’t that big, but still.. I feel that, this is one of the best places to get some extra traffic to your website.

Your activity at BlogEngage.com equals your promotion

The more you vote, the more you add friends, the more you comment, the more you get those precious views of your own website. Though this system is almost everywhere, it has tremendous strength within the Blog Engage community. So be active, get more visitors. I’d say, that this is fair. Don’t you think that?

Adsense revenue sharing opportunity

I really hope, that this feature will be developed. Read about it.

By the way, sharing Adsense revenue is very clever promotional way to attract new visitors. You should note that and use some similar method for you.

My own proof as a reason

Don’t laugh. I’m just starting :) You can see from the archives how long I’ve been blogging. Did you have anything like this by the end of your 1st month of your blogging?

So.. from this screenshot you can see, that Blogengage.com is on the 3rd place. I should also tell you, that I’ve joined it a week ago. Not bad, huh? I believe, that it is.

So try it, if you still haven’t.

NB! Now Buzzom domain seems to be expired.

Guys, this is, actually, the greatest tool.. at least, for me. It was really hard for me to find out how I should look for new followers on Twitter – new targeted followers. Yeah, there is one common way, that will take all of your precious time. I mean the way, when you should search people and check each one’s profile one-by-one to follow, waiting till he/she follows you. But I’d like to show you the faster way – step by step.

1. Go to buzzom.com and type in your Twitter username (@username);
2. Wait till Buzzom connects with your Twitter account;
3. Don’t click those 3 big buttons in front of your eyes – choose “people search” from the right-menu instead;
4. * Have an idea what keywords to use? Think of it, really. That’s the most important thing you should think about. Just hit “go”, when you’re ready;
5. Check “all”. Follow them.

Why you shouldn’t choose?
Because it would be more effective and time-saving, if today you choose all of them to follow, but in 2-3 days you’ll unfollow those, who didn’t follow you.

Why it’s more effective, than the big button “Grow”?
When you hit “grow”, Buzzom will serach people, who 80-90% will follow you. But.. those are mostly spammers and stupid, annoying advertisers. I made this mistake. Just imagine it, when your Twitter chat is full of “the best ways to make money online”. That’s awful. And plus.. not all of those advertisers will follow you.

So, I hope it was useful, as it was for me. And I hope, that it will save your time.

* – My discovery was “RT blog”, “RT blogpost” and “RT new blogpost”. Why? Because it automatically excludes spammers and advertisers. The reason is, that they mostly don’t retweet. With these keywords I get targeted followers (for me) at the same time.

I’ve spent several days submitting my site to various web directories, bookmarking my web pages, twitting.. The result is really terrible. I’ve been waiting much more stats than these:

This screenshot shows how many visits I had for the last week. Is that normal? I don’t think so..

Anyways, let me show you what I’ve been doing.

First of all, I’ve submitted my website to almost half of this list of web directories. Most of those web directories haven’t accepted my site yet.

Secondly, I’ve submitted my posts to my list of social bookmarking sites. I used about 80% of the list, because the rest sites didn’t fit with their categories.

Lastly, I’ve started twitting! As you can see from the screenshot, it gave me 20 visits. Ok, not bad. But wait, look at my twitter profile! It has 300+ followers! And only 20 visits.. Come on! What’s wrong with social media? Is it overfulled or what?

I have to figure it all out. Who can tell me what to do now?