Blog Traffic From Reddit, Blogcatalog and Twitter

Looking at stats for my newest blog 67 Not Out it's interesting to see where the blog's referrals originate.

Times have changed since I first started blogging and now it seems that the likes of Reddit, blogcatalog, Twitter and similar sites can't be ignored.

The argument against them is usually that the traffic isn't necessarily good traffic - but it's definitely better than not having it!

With Reddit, for example, if you do it properly, you should get between 40 and 150 referrals in a day for blog posts submitted (you need a good, catchy title - it doesn't have to be the same as the one on your blog for the same post). If you are lucky you could get more traffic than this but the figures I have suggested are what I've been getting on average without too much effort.

And that's the draw back with such sites - it can take effort and/or time. You need to network.

I haven't been overdoing it - time wise - with 67 Not Out. I just go to Reddit, blogcatalog and Twitter once a day. I've never used these previously to generate traffic but, as you can see by the chart on the right, they are now important referral sources for the blog.

Reddit is a strange site for two reasons. Firstly, sometimes my post submissions don't get listed properly and therefore draw a blank with referrals. It seems they have some sort of spam catcher that catches even genuine posts.

So when I submit a post to Reddit I immediately go to the 'What's New' section to ensure the post has been accepted properly. It should show up within minutes. If it's not listed, something has gone wrong, probably it's been caught up in the spam catcher's net. If it has I leave things for a while and then delete the entry and later I try again.

The other strange thing about Reddit is that posts can be voted up and down by other members. Well this isn't strange, but the fact that lots of people delight in downvoting perfectly good posts, is. But you have to accept this - they probably have some agenda in downvoting.

With blogcatalog it's necessary to get noticed and the best way seems to be by joining in with their forum. Mind you, all forums can generate traffic.

As for Twitter it's not my cup of tea really - too much spam and pointless tweets. But, as you can see, it creeps into my top 10 referrers for 67 Not Out.

I'm also now trying Stumbleupon but I haven't fully mastered this as yet. I did get 80+ referrals for one post but most of the others only had one or two. Time willing I'll work on this.

The Setting Up And Promoting A New Blog

I have been spending quite a bit of my blogging time trying to set up a new blog 67 Not Out. As its about coincidences and synchronicity it's not one of the 'easy' niches to promote.

I've set up blogs previously on things like celebrities and money making and have got them moving pretty quickly using the right SEO and also picking popular subjects that people actually want to read. I usually set myself a target of 1500 visits for the first month of a new blog.

I must admit though that I'm not on target as yet for 67 Not Out. It's something I want to persist with though as coincidences, and there meaning, is something that interests me.

With this new blog I've found a few things that work traffic wise and some that don't.

One good source of traffic has been blogcatalog whereas a similar site FuelMyBlog has been a waste of time as far as I'm concerned.

Blogcatalog is bursting with activity whereas FuelMyBlog has a directory of many defunct blogs and very little action on their forum. Blogcatalog's forum is almost too good as, if you start a discussion, it can quickly get knocked off the front page unless you give it some attention yourself.

I would add though that to be successful on blogcatalog you have to be pro active. It's not good just listing your blog, going away and forgetting it. It's necessary to make friends, leave comments, join in the forum and so on. Unfortunately that means allowing time for such activities.

It's a good place to find other blogs to visit and leave comments. I usually say in the comments I leave that I 'arrived via blogcatalog'. This way most bloggers return the visit.

She Told Me has also produced a few visits for me and with the site you can also make a little money - if you are lucky! You simply list your blogs/posts and get any AdSense clicks from the page credited to your own AdSense account. It won't make a fortune but, as they say, every little helps.

As for blog directories most are a waste of space as regard referring visits. You might just get a handful if you are lucky. I've submitted 67 Not Out to most of the main directories but have had no referrals at all. What they are useful for is links to your blog, which helps with the search engine rankings. Most directories have PR's in excess of 4.

I've managed to get a few blogs linking to 67 Not Out so that also helps with visitors. What I'm waiting for is to crack Google and get some good positions for a few keywords / phrases. This will come in it's own good time.

As I said in the previous post it's persistence that will win the day.

Good luck,
Mike.

10 Coincidence or Synchronicity Examples: Message from the dead, dreaming winners, questions answered, unexpected meetings etc. etc.

Four Secrets Of Making Money With Blogs

Okay, what are the secrets to making money with blogs? There's a lot of rubbish written on this but here the 4 essentials.

(1) Persistence
So many get enthused at the start of a New Year and decide to make their fortune by blogging. "It's easy," they think, having read a lot of the hype. The reality is, however, that most new bloggers soon give up when the cash doesn't appear as it is supposed to.

Yes, there will always be exceptions but generally it takes a lot of persistence to make good full time money from a blog. Think perhaps years rather than overnight.

Even big six figure bloggers such as Darren Rowse didn't crack the big time straight away.
He made a lot of money in November 2009 but after he had stated this fact he went on to say:

This might sound like another scammy ‘make money fast online’ story - but it’s not. While the money did come in fast in November, it was on the back of over 3 years hard work and gradual growth on that blog.

Not only that - I’d been blogging for 4 years previously on other blogs - learning the medium and experimenting with how blogs could make money.

Take another example. Rhys Wynne for example, for whom I have a lot of respect.

He recently wrote:

Maintaining a blog is hard work, promoting a blog is hard work. However it can be rewarding. Blogging hasn’t bought me – after 7 years – a full time sustainable income yet. However, in the past 7 years I have gained the following from blogging:-

• A full time job as a web marketer.
• A part time job traveling the country working with a British Wrestling company.
• Beer money.
• Weekends away being wined & dined in London.
• A girlfriend for six months.
• Mentioned in the Guardian, Twice
• Two Interviews on BBC Radio Wales.
• A column in The North Wales Weekly News.
• Video Games.
• Professional connections.
• People in strange cities to go with for pints.
• And – dare I say it – Friends.

So, unless you are a 'special one', it may well take a while to build up your blog to reach a good income level. You have to keep on going.

(2) Flexibility
I maintain that you have to be flexible in blogging and with any money making venture. If something isn't working it's no good flogging a dead horse. You have to make some changes. If you keep on doing the same things, you'll get the same results.

So be prepared to try different styles or make improvements if things aren't performing as you would wish - but keep in mind that blogging is long term.

(3) Promotion
You can write the most interesting and perfect copy but, if no one visits or reads your blog, you won't make any money. Full stop.

People won't just arrive at a blog post, you have to learn the business. Read about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and do something every day to promote your blog. You'll find lots of ways to do this if you start looking.

When I started blogging I set myself a target of getting my blog's URL listed somewhere different every day. At the time I didn't fully realise all of the benefits of doing this. It simply made sense to me that if I had the blog listed in lots of places, hopefully I might just get lots of visitors in return.

It didn't actually work out exactly like this but the blog traffic increased gradually week by week. The benefit I eventually saw was that all of the links often got my posts in good positions on Google. Now this does bring visitors.

(4) Traffic
The biggest secret of blogging is traffic. If you have lots of traffic you'll make money.

"Yes, but isn't Content King?," people ask. I think it's more of a Lord or a Duke personally. Good content will keep people re-visiting the blog and they may well become subscribers.

But I feel that all visitors are of equal value. Some visitors will make you some money but lots of visitors will make you lots of visitors. This is regardless of where they came from. Blogging is partly a numbers game.

Summary
For me therefore the Four Secrets Of Making Money With Blogs are: Persistence, Flexibility, Promotion and Traffic.

There are lots of other things that will help achieve success and that's why I previously mentioned how it is necessary to learn the business. The answers are out there.

Good luck,
Mike

67 Not Out: A new blog of coincidence, synchronicity and other stuff.

Make Money With Blogs By Finding A Hunger

I was talking to a successful entrepreneur the other day about making money. He said it was easy to be successful. All you have to do is find a hunger and feed it. That's all there is to it.

Now when we start setting up blogs to make money, and read many of the blogging experts, they tell us to write about what we love, the things that really inspire and motivate us. But this is far from the whole picture.

If your passion is for some obscure subject, no matter how beautifully you express your subject you probably won't end up making much money, at least from blogging. Why? Simply because there isn't a hunger for something obscure. So not many people are going to feed upon your words.

Deciding on a blogging niche that will make you money is about, as I've previously said, giving people what they want - what they really want. Not what you think they should want or might want. It has to be something that readers are hungry for.

This is where the value of following trends comes into it's own. But better still if you can get into something before the mainstream has caught on to it's potential and hasn't realised that there will soon be a hunger for this particular trend.

The only problem with lots of trends is that they don't always last very long. So perhaps you need a niche where you can incorporate many trends as and when they are on the way up - technology, music, politics, celebrities and so on spring to mind.

As the man said find the hunger and feed it.

Good luck,
Mike

My latest Squidoo lens: Cornwall Walks

Making Money While On Holiday

Away a little longer than expected and had a great time. For the final week of our break we stayed in a 14th century cottage - very creepy and creaky.

Back to reality. I've been checking my blog stats and the break doesn't seem to have done any harm to my blogs. I think once you have a lot of posts, on a blog, they will virtually tick over by themselves - with the help of the search engines that is.

A couple of things I did notice was that Zimbio sent one of my celeb blogs 600+ referrals over the last seven days. I think it's worth joining Zimbio as you can put your blog on 'automatic' and they will add posts to relevant sections of their website.

I've been doing this for ages and an extra 600 or so hits a week is a worthwhile boost for most blogs. I must add though that Zimbio works better for some niches than others. It doesn't do as well for Mike's Money Making Mission for example, but all extra traffic is welcome.

Showing Zimbio Referrals For One Of My Celeb Blogs
One thing I do when checking blog stats is to see what posts are getting the most hits. I then check the posts to make sure they carry some relevant up to date advertising - mostly in a text format. If not I add something. If a post is attracting visitors it makes sense to try and make some money out of it.

Must press on, lots to do.

Good luck,
Mike.

Heading East

My wife and I have decided to take a break so we are off on a road trip for about 15 days. Leaving our town and heading east.

Will 'see' you when we get back.

As per usual, when we take a holiday, there will be no computers or phones etc. It's tough!

Good luck,
Mike

Shoes Make Money!

I've been experimenting with various Amazon adverts to see which ones perform the best. I've never really done that well with this affiliate program. I get a few sales and make a bit a commission, but nothing too exciting.

One of the ads I tried was for their Endless.com store. Without much enthusiasm I plonked a header advert for this on one of my celebrity blogs.

Much too my surprise it's done exceedingly well.

The products are shoes and handbags, so they may not be suitable for all blogs, but they seem to appeal to celebrity fans.

Endless.com was set up by Amazon as (to quote them), "...an exciting shoe and handbag shopping experience. Endless.com is dedicated to providing the best prices, selection, and overall experience. With free overnight shipping, free return shipping, 100% price guarantee."

Now what I didn't realise, even when I put the ad on my celeb blog, was that the commission for sales is 15%, as opposed to Amazon's normal 4%. This obviously makes a big difference. Looking at my stats today I've just had $328.15 worth of orders which has given me $49.22 commission. If that continued I could make a decent amount every month.

The sales I've had, throughout August, have all been for shoes and not handbags.

I thought I'd just pass on the information as it might be useful to Amazon affiliates and earn you a few dollars. If you think, that is, your blog readers might be into shoes - but, come to think of it, isn't everyone into shoes?

Good luck,
Mike

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