Why I’m Striving to Increase My Referral Traffic in 2010

I have a problem. I’m addicted to search engine traffic. You probably wouldn’t be too surprised since my day job is an SEO specialist. I’m just doing what I’m skilled at for generating traffic. However, in 2010, I want to focus more on generating referral traffic, or traffic that comes from sites other than search engines.

I have a couple reasons for doing this.

Search Engines Change

The search engines will change their algorithms, which could cause me to lose my rankings. This has happened to many people including Darren Rowse, the ProBlogger himself. A couple years ago, Google did an update to their algorithm and Darren lost a lot of traffic. Fortunately, the traffic returned but it did teach him a lesson not to rely too much on search engines for traffic.

I want to diversify my traffic to make my site more defensible. The first step is increasing referral traffic.

Competitors Can Improve Their SEO

Many of my competitors have higher PageRank and more backlinks. I have better rankings because I optimized my site whereas the other sites have not done much SEO. If they ever learned SEO or hired an SEO specialist, they could easily overtake my rankings.

To Improve My Credibility

I think you get more credibility from a link on a quality site than a top search engine ranking. Plus, the link helps you improve your rankings, so you kill two birds with one stone.

There are a couple blogs with less traffic than me but they have more authority and influence. They get more comments, links, and mentions on Twitter and the blogosphere. If I focus on getting referral traffic, Iwill improve my reputation within the niche.

Also, referral traffic is usually higher quality than search engine traffic. For example, my visitors from referring sites visit more pages, spend more time on my site, and have a lower bounce rate than my visitors from search engines.

Goal For 2010

Currently, over 85% of my traffic comes from the search engines. For 2010, I want to lower that percentage and increase the referral traffic percentage from 6.5% to around 12%-15%.

I spend most of my time doing keyword research and publishing posts. But to reach my goal, I’ll have to do more networking. Here are 3 ideas I have in mind.

1. Become More Active Again in a Popular Forum

The first thing I did in coming up with a plan was to check the sources of my existing referral traffic. In 2009, I found that much of my referral traffic came from a popular forum. This was a little bit surprising because I was only active on the forum for three months. But then I remembered that the forum has a lot of traffic and they allow you to place links back to your site in the main content instead of just the signature.

I stopped being active on the forum because I felt like I was leaving too many links to my own site. I didn’t want to get penalized or banned. However, I should’ve just slowed down and taken a less spammy approach.

My plan in 2010 is to become a useful forum member by answering questions and participating in forum threads. I’ll still link back to my site but I’ll make sure to only have a couple links per month. I think four is a good number.

I’ll place my links in different sections of the forum to expose my site to different audiences. This will also reduce the perception of spam.

Finally, I’ll only link to my best content.

If I’m active in this way, I shouldn’t have any problems.

2. Start a Guest Posting Campaign

It’s sad but I’ve done much more guest posts for my clients than my own blog. I’ve been satisfied with my overall traffic, so I haven’t felt the need to do many guest posts. But with my new focus on getting referral traffic, guest posting is a great strategy.

It helps me reach new audiences and it builds authority since I would be associated with the online influencers in my niche.

3. Create a Facebook Page

I’ve gotten some traffic from Facebook. This was unexpected because I haven’t promoted my blog on Facebook at all. I did some quick research and found that my niche is pretty active on Facebook.Therefore, I’ll setup a Facebook page for my blog and add friends that are interested in my niche.

The Facebook page should also motivate me to keep my Twitter account updated since I’ll put my tweets on the page.

Over to You

What strategies have worked for you to increase your referral traffic?

Performancing offers blog management services to improve your blog for 2010.

Productivity Tips For Bloggers From a Bestselling Author

Steven Pressfield is great example of perseverance for anyone in the creative field including bloggers. His first couple novels never saw print. But he kept at it and 17 years after his college graduation, he finally got a book published and received a paycheck. His later books became bestsellers.

In this podcast interview, he gives a couple productivity tips that have really helped me in my blogging.

The Writer Life is a Battle

At 1:41 of the podcast, Pressfield talks about the writing process as a war. To succeed, you have to have similar qualities of a good warrior; qualities like courage, patience, and long-suffering. He brings up the image of an infantryman that’s gaining ground on the enemy slowly but surely. In the day to day struggle, writing is like that.

This principle has helped me realize that blogging is hard work. Sure, there are days when the words come easily and I knock out a quality post in a couple of minutes. But those days are few and far between. Usually, it takes me awhile to get going. My first few sentences are pretty bad and I have to struggle to stay focused on finishing the post. By the time the post is done, I’m satisfied but I’m mentally tired.

Resistance is the Enemy

At 14:25, the interviewer quotes Pressfield’s book The War of Art:

There’s a secret that real writers know that wannabe writers don’t and the secret is this: it’s not the writing part that’s hard. What’s hard is sitting down to write. What keeps us from sitting down is Resistance.

Pressfield goes on to talk about Resistance as the negative force that rises up whenever we want to start a creative task. Resistance shows up in many forms: procrastination, self-sabotage, excuses we make up, reasons we give ourselves that we’re not good enough, self doubt, etc. The most important thing for a writer to do is overcome Resistance.

Pressfield says that Resistance comes to us in negative voices. Our task is to ignore the voices and realize that they are bulls**t. They are keeping us from making progress.

I found this principle very helpful because it showed me that I’m not alone in the creative struggle. If a bestselling author has to deal with Resistance, then I will have to deal with it too.

Also, by identifying the enemy, Pressfield helped me not to be surprised by Resistance. I am prepared to deal with it because I know it’s there.

Turn Pro and Stop Being an Amateur

At 25:00, Pressfield gives a great metaphor for overcoming Resistance. He says we have to “turn pro.” When we see ourselves as amateurs, we will yield to Resistance when our circumstances become tough or distractions come up.

But if we think of ourselves as pros, we’ll have the mindset to carve out daily time to pursue our creative endeavors. As pros, we won’t give in to external influences.

Pressfield brings up Kobe Bryant. During the season, his knees may hurt and his back may be sore, but he still suits up and plays in the game. Pros like him don’t make excuses. They see their task as a job instead of a hobby.

Pressfield says a mysterious thing begins to happen when we turn pro. Inspiration starts to flow regularly as we persevere and make it a habit to work on our craft daily.

Further Information

Make sure to listen to the whole interview where Pressfield has more advice for writers. Check out his book The War of Art for an in-depth treatment about productivity and overcoming procrastination in the creative process. Also, he started a new blog, which includes writing tips.

Performancing offers blog management services.

How to Sustain Inspiration in Blogging

Jason Fried from 37signals talks about sustaining inspiration in this speech at around the 19:40 mark.

He suggests that inspiration is perishable. He contrasts the lifespan between the actual idea and the inspiration for the idea. The idea lasts forever but the inspiration can go away.

He likens inspiration to a perishable good like milk or fruit. Like these goods, inspiration has an expiration date and it doesn’t stay fresh very long.

He advises that if you’re inspired about something, if you motivated to do something, you need to take action as soon as possible. If you wait to do it later, you won’t be as motivated. Every day you don’t take action, your inspiration starts to rot and go away.

Also, you’ll have the most creative energy during that initial spark of inspiration.

Blogging and Inspiration

In blogging, I’ve found Jason’s theory to be true. I have many ideas for blog posts that I came up with in the past. At the time of idea conception, I was excited about the ideas. However, a couple weeks went by and I still hadn’t turned those ideas into blog posts. Now when I think of the ideas, I’m not excited about them and I wonder what ever happened to my inspiration.

On the other hand, if I come up with a good idea and then work on the post right away, writing is much easier and I have a good amount of creative energy and motivation to complete the post. This is why it’s a good idea to read only when you have time to act on it.

You’ll be more productive and your content will be better quality if you’re inspired and motivated rather than trying to “force out” a post after the inspiration has gone away.

Over to You

How do you sustain inspiration? Have you ever experienced “rotting inspiration”?

Performancing offers blog management services.

Improve Your Blog’s Brand by Creating New Jargon

Yaro Starak has some great advice for bloggers in one of his recent posts. He advises us to create new jargon for our niche. This strategy builds the perception that we are experts who know what we’re talking about. Also, a new term or buzzword can function like other branding elements such as a logo, blog design, or writing style since the term will remind people of our blog.

Borrow Terms From Other Niches

You don’t necessarily have to create something completely new. You can take jargon from other niches and apply them to your niche.

For example, Bill Simmons is a sports writer that’s famous for an NFL playoffs gambling guide. I think one of the reasons his guide became popular is because he gave it a unique name. Instead of just using a generic name like “A Guide to the NFL Playoffs”, he called it “NFL Playoff Manifesto”.

The word “manifesto” is typically used in politics, arts, and technology, but Simmons creatively used it for American football. The unique name of his guide differentiates it from other guides, which gives him an edge in perception and branding. Plus, “manifesto” sounds more authoritative than “guide”.

Help Your Readers Understand Abstract Concepts

Not only does new jargon brand your blog, but it can help your readers understand abstract concepts. For instance, consider Seth Godin’s term purple cow. He invented that term to help online businesses understand the classic marketing concept, unique selling proposition, or USP. USP can be a difficult concept to understand but the metaphor of a purple cow standing out in a field of regular cows makes the concept easier to understand. Also, the concept sticks better since it’s hard to forget a mental image of a purple cow.

Keep Important Ideas Fresh in Your Readers’ Minds

Sometimes a term gets overused and becomes cliche. You can give it a fresh, new name to keep your audience’s attention. For example, some of the basic advice for bloggers is to “write quality content”. We get told over and over that “content is king”. Yaro created a new buzzword, pillar article, to remind us the importance of quality content. Also, his term helps us think about quality content in a more concrete way. Chris Garrett and Brian Clark have similar words, flagship content and cornerstone content, respectively.

Make Your New Concept More Memorable

If you come up with a totally new philosophy or idea, you’ll definitely want a short, catchy buzzword to quickly describe it. A short phrase is much more likely to spread virally than a long-winded explanation. Consider Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek. He uses the term lifestyle design to refer to his philosophy of escaping the 9-5 job and living your dream life. And he calls the people who are successfully implementing the philosophy the new rich.

Give an Unnamed Concept a Name

Finally, you don’t even have to actually develop the concept. You can take an existing but nameless concept and give it a memorable name. (Of course, give credit to the original source.) For instance, Malcolm Gladwell popularized the term 10,000 hours rule, which states that it takes about 10,000 hours of practice to achieve expertise in a skill. But he got the concept from chess. Studies have shown that it takes at least 10,000 hours of chess practice before you can become a grandmaster. Gladwell took this concept and applied it to many different fields in his best-selling book, Outliers.

Over to You

Have you ever created a new buzzword?

What are some ideas for new jargon that could work in your niche?

Performancing offers blog management services.

Why Being Self-Centered Can Actually Help Your Blog

Brian Clark from Copyblogger recently released a free report entitled The Lateral Action Guide to Becoming a Creative Entrepreneur. I just finished reading it and like most of Brian’s stuff, it was very good.

I was surprised though at one of his recommendations. He advised aspiring entrepreneurs to be self-centered.

He pointed to 37signals, a popular software company that’s become very successful by only creating products that they themselves would find useful. On page 14, he quoted the CEO, Jason Fried:

We just build stuff we want to use. If we need it, they need it.

It was surprising to see this principle from Brian because one of his main tenets is focusing on the needs of your audience. I was a little confused but as I read on, Brian demonstrated that self-centeredness and focusing on your audience doesn’t necessarily contradict each other.

If you’re like many bloggers, you’re in a niche that you’re passionate about. Therefore, you are part of the audience you aim to serve. If you can create something that will help you, it will probably help your audience too.

Consider one of Brian’s products, the popular Thesis theme for Wordpress. As a writer that’s not skilled in tech or design, he could sympathize with the barriers writers face when publishing online. Therefore, he partnered with a designer to create an easy-to-use, attractive theme.

Here’s another example. Pat Flynn setup a blog as a reference tool to record his notes for an upcoming architecture test. He was not looking to make money. But because of his notes, his blog attracted traffic and multiple readers told him he should write an ebook. He wrote an ebook based on his notes, did some research about online marketing, and then started selling his book. Soon, his blog was earning him a full-time income. You can listen to his story here.

I read somewhere in an interview that Perez Hilton, the popular celeb gossip blogger, blogs for himself and doesn’t really focus on traffic. He said he would blog even if no one was reading his site. That’s how much he enjoys writing and following celebrities. And there must be many other celeb gossip fans since his blog is one of the most trafficked sites on the planet.

I looked back at my best posts on various blogs and found that I wrote many of them as warnings to myself. For example, I reread this post when I’m tempted to overextend myself and manage too many blogs. And I wrote this post to increase my patience and to remind myself that successful blogging is a long-term project.

It can often be hard to figure out what your audience wants. But if you consider your own needs, you might just find that they are similar to your audience’s needs.

What do you think about the self-centered principle?

Performancing offers blog management services.