Loren is right, and I knew it, and now the “dirty little secret” is out? Look, it wasn’t a secret to me. This tiny little bubble we all live in in this tiny tech world is unnoticed by the rest of the real world. Somehow there was this idea that we marketing/tech bloggers drove massive numbers.
But big deal, now everyone knows, we’re insignificant in the grand scheme of porn and Britney searches, not to mention the millions of non-tech blogs and websites that don’t know who Scoble or Winer or Godin are. They just don’t. It’s just us.
Here’s some advice. Stop worrying about traffic and start becoming a brand in your own circle/niche.
This is where the real success comes from. The ability to be one of THE guys/gals in your little bubble. You do this by participating in the bubble circle-jerk of choice. If you’re a tech blogger, you work to get your content and insights shared on Techmeme. If you’re a foodie blogger, you do the same thing on whatever foodie forum/site/blog thing you have.
Traffic is a waste of time, unless you want to sell ads. And let me tell you, you’re going to need to get to at least 1 million page views a month to even begin to start seeing any decent income from ads.
You want to be a successful blogger? Compel your readers in your little bubble with amazing and engaging insights and information. Participate and give away your knowledge to anyone who will take it, it will come back two-fold.
The real dirty little secret is that 1 out of 1000 bloggers will end up making a living from “more traffic.” Build products. Write good content. That’s how you will be successful.
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I blog and post comments on other people’s blogs to draw traffic to my website. I get some traffic, but no actual patients, as yet.
Now what do I do?
( I don’t have money, even a little bit, to spend on adwords and SEOs either ).
This is indeed wisdom. Do what you are best at and the traffic will flow. It may take time, but flow it will.
Jim, You are 100% correct.
Your best and most helpful post to date.
Joel Libava
The Franchise King Blog
I think creating a brand in your niche and getting traffic to your blog are very related. You can’t do one or the other very well without both strategies in place.
If you can create a compelling and unique brand in your niche you will attract traffic to your blog. If you know how to drive massive traffic to your blog, it definitely helps with your branding. So I don’t think thinking about attracting traffic is a waste of time at all.
In fact, without knowing how to drive traffic to your blog, it’s very likely no one will know about it. How long will a blog with no readers lasts? Will the writer persevere on his/her lonely journey? It just makes it so much harder to do.
I guess it really depends on the purpose of the blog in the first place.
Good quality content means nothing without readers. A swarm of readers isn’t much good if you can’t give them a reason to come back. The way I am handling things (roughly a couple weeks into it) is to write some, market some, write some more, market some more. At some point I’ll hit the sweet spot and things should begin to take on a life of their own.
At the moment I am redesigning my web site so that traffic that flows from the blog will find a unified presence that makes it easy to buy. Then I will do the same thing with my gallery and shopping cart.
The big point you hinted at is that the online merchant must identify a ‘deliverable’, pitch it to the right people (pre-qualified potential customers) and then deliver that content in a way that impresses the customer.
But if every batter got a hit every time, the inning would never end. And innings DO end.