The MOST ASKED question so far has been: How can I increase the traffic on my blog? The easiest way for me to write about this topic is to share my experiences with freshvintage. I'm a very visual person (and my day job includes creating reports), so I am going to show you a chart from Google Analytics. This is very personal stuff, and you won't find many bloggers sharing information like this. It is my way of proving my love for you. I can't do it with flowers or a cuddly kitten. Nope. I demonstrate my love with a line chart.
If you don't have Google Analytics or Sitemeter or some other web statistics code installed on your blog, do it RIGHT NOW. No - I'm serious. Go install it. There is no reason that you shouldn't have it. (I have links to Google instructions at the bottom of this post.) And then come back and read the rest of this post. Because you won't be able to truly track your traffic until you have something like Google Analytics. You can't depend on Blogger or Typepad stats because they don't provide enough information.
I started blogging in November 2006, but I didn't install the Google Analytics code until January 17, 2007. This chart shows the pageviews from February 1, 2007 to August 31, 2008, along with annotations that I added in Photoshop. The spikes circled in red show a decrease in hits and the green circles show an increase. The events in black are beyond my control while the orange events were things I did to drive people to my blog. All of the orange events just happen to be giveaways.
1. My first giveaway was the Market Tote. This was my first (relatively) big spike in traffic.
2. freshvintage was the decor8 blog of the week.
3. freshvintage was mentioned in Donna Downey's online newsletter (thanks, Donna!).
4. My second giveaway: Vintage Finds.
5. I didn't blog regularly due to a trip for work, vacation and the Christmas holidays.
6. Valentine's Day: I guess everyone was busy getting laid.
7. The biggest traffic day ever: The Lisa Leonard Jewelry Giveaway (thanks, Lisa!)
This chart spans 18 months, and it is obvious that one event didn't cause a monumental and sustained increase in traffic. It was (and still is) a combination of a few different things that I did in order to drive people to my blog. And some things happened that were beyond my control. I didn't ask to be the decor8 blog of the week. I didn't even know that Holly read my blog. But, damn, was I happy.
If you are trying to drive traffic to your blog, the most important thing you can do is create content that is unique and entertaining. That is a given. If you write boring stuff, no one will visit your blog, no matter how hard you try. I didn't even want to mention this because it is so obvious. But then I visit some blogs, and I realize that maybe it isn't so obvious. This topic is worth an entire post, so I'll save it for another time.
Here are some things that I have done to increase traffic to my blog:
1. Comment on other people's blogs
There isn't an easier way to get traffic when you are a nobody like me. I didn't have a book or a shop, so no one had any reason to be excited that I was starting a blog (except for my mother - but she didn't even know what a blog was, so she wasn't sure why she was excited). For the first six months that I had my blog, I set aside one night a week to visit my favorite blogs. My goal was to leave a meaningful comment on at least five blogs. Meaningful is the key word. Not just, "Love it!". It has to have a little more substance than that.
I don't leave comments for the sole purpose of building traffic to my blog. I leave comments because I actually have something to say to that blogger, and I want to build a relationship. If you are spammy, people can see right through you. For example, don't put your blog address directly in the body of the comment - it gives off a spammy vibe, since you already entered it on the form.
2. Offer free & unique information
How about creating tutorials, patterns or other information that can't be found anywhere else? Most of my google traffic comes from people searching for specific tutorials, like "fabric-covered corkboard" (that leads them here) or "handmade chenille" (that one is here). I didn't necessarily create the tutorials to drive traffic to my blog - I created them because I couldn't find any good tutorials on the internet for those crafts. I assumed that I couldn't possibly be the only person looking for them, and I was right.
3. Link to other blogs
If you check your own stats, you can see the people who link to you. And then you probably visit them, right? Well, that's what people do when you link to their blog, too. It is called Link Love. One way I've done this is to write a simple post that lists all of the new-to-me blogs that I love. I've also written posts that list all of the bloggers who had recently left comments on my blog, as a way of thanking them for de-lurking. In return, a few people added me to their blogrolls or mentioned me on their blogs.
For some more ideas on linking to other blogs (and possibly getting links in return), read my post on Awards and Tagging.
4. Have a giveaway
The chart doesn't lie - giveaways have consistently been the biggest traffic-builder for my blog. I had 41 comments on my first giveaway, 129 comments on the next one, and 331 on my most recent giveaway. For the second giveaway, I gave two chances to anyone who posted about the giveaway on their blog. I think this is a great idea, especially for new bloggers. I only had five bloggers write about the giveaway on their blogs, but it brought in a considerable amount of extra traffic. I will definitely do this on my next giveaway.
My most recent giveaway of the Lisa Leonard jewelry brought an enormous amount of traffic because it was posted on a couple of blogs that were specifically created to list contests & giveaways. I don't consider that to be quality traffic, though, since they are only visiting to win the contest. Most aren't repeat readers. And that's fine - it is just something to keep in mind.
5. Ask for what you want
When I heard that Alltop had just been launched by Guy Kawasaki, all-around internet guru, I decided that I wanted to be listed on it. So I emailed Guy (no, I don't know him) and told him why my totally awesome blog should be listed in the Design section of Alltop. He replied back and said, "Okay". Hmmm. That was way too easy.
On the other hand, I've twice submitted freshvintage to be a Typepad Featured Blog. No luck so far. I've also submitted freshvintage to Blogs.com. They must be really busy, too.
I'll keep trying, though.
6. Pay for a directory listing
Last year, I paid $30 to be a featured blog on delightfulblogs.com for three months. I was very pleased with the amount of traffic that it brought, so I renewed for another three months. I'm not featured now, but I would consider buying the featured listing again in the future.
7. Keep existing traffic
Encourage readers to subscribe to your RSS feed and/or sign up for email updates. Keep reminding them by putting a message at the bottom of your posts. I don't do this often enough.
8. Use keywords in your titles
Your blog will show up higher in Google results if you have the search terms in the title of your posts. I have to admit that I don't do this very often. My titles are usually an afterthought - I try to make them funny or strange, just to catch the reader's attention. But I'd get more search engine traffic if I titled a post "Antique Rhinestone Jewelry", instead of "The stuff I found in Granny's panty drawer". (Not to mention that the latter would also drive some unwanted traffic to my blog.) Sue from Vintage Rescue Squad just wrote about this topic because she heard about it on NPR (here's the link to the recording).
For my tutorials and freshfind posts, I do make an effort to include keywords in the title because I know it will help people find those topics in search engines faster.
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Those are the things that I do to drive traffic to freshvintage. There are so many other things that I don't do right now, but might in the future:
- Be more active on twitter
- Create a facebook account specifically for my blog
- Join a blog ring
- Participate in a blog carnival
- Write a post for another blog ("guest posting")
- Have a guest blogger on my blog
So, what have you done to successfully drive traffic to your site? Giveaways are obviously my big driver - what about you? Do you have any ideas that I haven't listed here?
