How to Aim For Targeted Traffic
14 Comments by Nate Whitehill / April 18, 2007 / Posted in Blog Development
In my last post I talked about the disadvantages of attracting traffic from social media sites like Digg and how visitors from these types of sites never stick around to become loyal readers. In summary, with the exception of improving your Technorati and Alexa rank, there is not much benefit to being Dugg and it often leaves one with a slow server and little to no sustaining traffic.
I have fallen out of my childish love affair of hitting the front page of Digg and now only care to build targeted and natural traffic, even if it takes significantly longer.
In this next article, I am going to highlight some of the best methods to build targeted traffic and increase the amount of loyal readers your blog receives.
Identifying Your Niche
The first step to building targeted traffic is to clearly identify your blog’s niche. Whether it be entertainment or technology, you must have a clear understanding of the purpose of your blog. If you are concentrating on writing about too many topics, a majority of visitors will be disinterested with your content.
I used to write a lot about exotic sports cars, but I realized there is little relevance to writing about sports cars on a business development blog.
Aiming For Your Target
Once you clearly define what niche your blog best belongs in, it is time to seek out already popular similar-interest blogs and either become a “known” member of their community, advertise, or both.
For example, readers who visit Zoomstart, a blog about business-related topics, may also enjoy reading my blog, and vice-versa. Community interaction is best done by leaving insightful and thought-provoking comments on a blog. It also doesn’t hurt to link to other articles that you think your readers may find useful. What goes around, comes around, and eventually you may see your readers linking to your powerful posts also.
Personally getting to know the authors of similar blogs is also a good idea. That way, you can pick their brain and find out what has and hasn’t worked for them. I talk to a number of my readers on a daily basis via MSN, AIM, Skype, etc. I very much enjoy answering my reader’s questions and also learning from them as well. Anyone can teach us.
Advertising To Your Target
The goal of any advertising campaign is to achieve the highest number of conversions possible. That being said, it is best to advertise to a selective audience. I recently started advertising my web development business, infinFX, at Meridian Crest, because my business offers services some of Scot’s readers may be interested in.
Most PPC advertising networks, such as Google Adwords, also allow you to very selectively target a specific demographic or particular audience you are trying to reach.
ReviewMe is also an excellent way to attract super-targeted traffic. Mitchell Harper recently paid ShoeMoney to write a review of his site. Despite being quite expensive, ShoeMoney’s review sent Mitch 1,500 targeted visitors, among dozens of newsletters and RSS subscribers.
If You Must Target Social Media
If you absolutely insist on targeting gobs of traffic from social media sites like Digg, be aware that even they cater to particular demographics. It is no secret the majority of Digg’s users are technically savvy males between the ages of 18-35, while Reddit’s users are more interested in political issues and Netscape serves more general news towards a less technically savvy audience.
Conclusion
In closing, I hope to have outlined the importance of aiming for targeted traffic and the best methods to go about doing so. When working to build traffic for your blog, always try to position yourself next to similar and credible sources. Clearly identify your blog’s purpose, target similar blogs or communities, and work to become a known entity within those communities through interacting, advertising, or some combination thereof.
Matt Blancarte
Josh Mullineaux
I think one of the best things you can do is establish a relationship with your readers. It may be through your writing style, interactions in the comments section or via IM’s online. I’ve gotten to know some authors through IM’s and it helps to make that connection that these are real people with similar interests behind these blogs.
In regards to Digg, Reddit, and Netscape…Netscape is also politically oriented which is too bad for most niches. But there are ways around that.
Jane, hook me up with your IM handle! Mine’s meridiancrest.
This is insightful to say the least. At the end of the day I get greater satisfaction out of knowing I have more interaction and less unique hits than more unique hits and less interaction.
A lot of this is done easily by showing the community surrounding your blog that you truly care about what you’re doing and you’re not a mindless money-hungry blogging bot.
Nice touch with the “share-a-link” addition at the bottom of your posts!
– Scot
aim…g2media JM
Off-topic, but I wanted to say I think your blog is very well-written and professional.
The graphic headers add that ’something extra’ to make the posts seem more worthwhile to read, legitimate and solid.
Mitch was right!
It’s one thing to have the niche and all, but the hard part is getting the niche to you, and making it stick. Then you have to have other places in the niche to look for ideas. A lot of work to do.
That’s a great way to see it Scot!
There’s a common rule in leadership … people have to buy in to you before they’ll buy into your ideas. Taking the time to get to know others and add to the community achieves that.
Couldn’t agree more Nate!
I haven’t been too concerned with getting Dugg. I’ve thought about throwing a whack of cash into advertising but I’m not too concerned about ramping up that quickly. I like steady progress. It lets me learn more of the technical stuff now rather than later.
And it allows me more time to get out and network which is one of the best parts of blogging!
Great post.
I received your email and am so pleased with it. Thank you very much for your wonderful thoughts. Like you, I am looking forward to seeing more of your posts. Mabuhay!
Nate nice post.. and your right about your thoughts on how to increase your traffic. Niche is one you should be considering when starting to blog. Most bloggers just go with the band wagon and just blog with out having a niche of their choice (that includes me). Will Adwords be helpful in blogs?
Keep it up Nate.. Looking forward for your next post.
Great post—I hope you don’t think I’m a comment spammer–because I’m not, I’ve just been very engaged by your site. I have to be honest with you, there are a lot of site out there that claim to know a lot about internet business and business in general but turn out to be a waste of time.
You have some great content here. One of the things I’ve been trying to deal with lately is finding an efficient and effective way to select a good (and profitable) niche. There’s a dearth of good advice out there on how to achieve this seemingly impossible feat. Well, I’m still on the hunt for some niche sites–and a flagship site for that matter–and your site has been helpful.
Sometimes it is difficult to target a specific niche, but other times it just makes it that much easier and more effective. Traffic to your site is key when marketing online!!
Thanks for the heads up with this post.
In some niche people just used to surf with only one phrase and two phrase keywords, i dont know how to get the higher rankings bit early for those keywords, i m very much confused, can you help me out?
As i am not able to target the market with 3 phrase keywords very well.