One of the seriously positive benefits of blogging is the credibility you can build in your chosen field. If you blog well and blog often and the topics you write about inform people, you will quickly become associated with those topics as someone who knows something of value. This is called credibility.

Credibility is a powerful force and can have many positive impacts on your life. It can make it easier for you to sell something since your credibility is a stamp of approval on any products you offer. It can make it easier for you to open doors for partnerships since people want to work with you. It can get you clients because it’s a form of reputation that stimulates word of mouth. Of course, it can also get you blog traffic, which is nice because as I mentioned, a blog builds your credibility - that a good combination and symbiotic relationship.

When I first started blogging I wrote quite a few articles about search engine optimization (SEO) - techniques you can use on your website to get better rankings in search engines. I had some experience and knowledge in this area because I researched a lot about website marketing during the late nineties as part of running hobby websites. You can find many of my SEO Articles on my blog.

After I had blogged for a while it became apparent that I was developing a reputation for being an SEO expert, which at the time quite surprised me because I didn’t start blogging with the intention of promoting myself as an SEO expert. It was an excellent benefit I never saw coming and really opened my eyes up to the potential of blogging for credibility building - all I had to do was write about what I already knew and suddenly I was an expert!

A Nice Surprise

Just this week one of my friends, Jamsi, sent me an instant message pointing out that I was featured on the front page of a very prominent online advertising company’s website - Text-Link-Ads.com.

Here is a screenshot -

Text-Link-Ads is a very popular service, which thousands of website owners use everyday, so the traffic and exposure from this link is fantastic. I don’t know how long it will stay up on the front page, but right now as I type this it is still there and has been for a few days. It’s in the prime real estate on the site and I was quite chuffed to see it there - It was a total surprise - but a good one!

I’ll put my SEO hat on for a second and point out that Text-Link-Ads has a PageRank 6 and certainly many thousands of backlinks - I’ve linked to it myself on numerous times because I use and recommend the site to other people. Having a backlink from a site like this does good things for my blog’s PageRank and PageAuthority. Now these concepts might be new to you and totally confusing at the moment - I can’t explain them in this blog post but if you are interested try my blog article - PageRank Explained.

To be honest the PageRank and the direct traffic are nice benefits but the real result from this link is the enhancement to my own credibility and awareness. My name is exposed to a lot of people and simply by featuring as a testimonial on a popular site I will further be perceived as an expert.

But how exactly does credibility get you blog traffic?

This story is a perfect example of how credibility alone can bring you traffic to your blog. The only reason I got this feature link was because the owners of Text-Link-Ads believe that having a testimonial from me on their site enhances their credibility. Having “Yaro Starak” recommend their service means they get more customers. For me, having Text-Link-Ads refer to my name with a quote and link to my site, means I get all the benefits I mentioned above.

Now you might think this is just a case of two websites/organizations patting each other on the back for mutual benefit, which it certainly is, but in no way did I seek to create this relationship overtly. As I said it was a complete surprise to me, I did not ask for it.

Why did it happen? - Because I blogged. Because I kept blogging and built up a reputation. As you can see, success builds on success.

Can You Build A Reputation?

There is no reason why you can’t have similar stories to tell about your blog if you establish yourself as an expert in your niche. If you blog about something you know a lot about it’s only a matter of pumping out pillar-level quality articles on a consistent basis. If you really do know about something your experience will shine through.

Not everyone has enough experience and knowledge to do it of course - if you have only just started out in life you may need to do some living and some learning before you get enough built up experience to be an expert at something. If you are young or just starting out in your field you should focus on study and trying things, eventually you will learn skills that other people will want to learn from you giving you the potential to become an expert in your field.

Oh and of course, if you enjoyed this topic on credibility building, there are more materials in Blog Traffic School about building your expert status and personal brand. Stay tuned, it’s coming soon!

Yaro Starak
Blog Traffic King

Comments(67)

One of the most popular podcasts I ever did was with Darren Rowse from ProBlogger.net, where we sat down and had a half hour chat about a few things, mostly related to blogging and plenty of discussion on how to get traffic. It’s a few months old now and some of you may have already heard it but I know many people on my blog traffic tips newsletter won’t have, so here is a chance to check it out and have a listen for yourself.

You can download the podcast from this post -

Building Blog Traffic Discussion With Darren Rowse

If you like this podcast let me know and I may just have a few more related to blog traffic for you

Yaro Starak
Blog Traffic King

Comments(0)

As I was writing Blog Traffic School I noticed that over and over again I would refer back to my training and experience in business. Growing a business and growing a blog share some core similarities. I don’t use terms like “Communication Channels“, “Critical Mass” and “Tipping Points” just to convince people I’m clever - it’s because these terms are very relevant to growing your blog traffic.

While Blog Traffic School is focused on blogs and blogging, the course would fit nicely into a curriculum for a business course at university. If you have never studied business before taking part in Blog Traffic School will expose you to some of the theories that form the foundations of successful business and marketing. Needless to say I’d be very proud if one day the course was part of some formal Internet business training - it certainly would be more relevant than a lot of the materials I learnt at business school.

Communication channels are probably the most important variable when it comes to growing your blog traffic. The term is basically self explanatory - you want to increase the incoming communication channels coming into your blog. Essentially the entire course teaches many different ways to open up communications channels, from the simple ways like leaving comments, to more complex methods like search engine optimization and publicity.

Critical mass is a term you often hear applied to some of the most successful web businesses. Examples include eBay, Linked-In and Plenty of Fish, all sites that enjoy near-monopoly standing because they have the largest user base. Competitors find it difficult to compete because they don’t have enough people using their service. You need users to bring in more users when it comes to industries like online auctions (buyers want the largest supply of sellers because it provides more options to buy from, sellers want more buyers because they can get a higher price), online dating (more people to choose from for dating) and social networking (more people to connect with, greater exposure through the network). Once a company reaches critical mass it’s hard to beat them and provided the business model is sound, they will continue to grow via word of mouth.

A tipping point describes a point in time where a dramatic change occurs because of the combined influence of seemingly insignificant variables. From a blogging standpoint, often the efforts you put in to open many communication channels combine to create a tipping point for your blog traffic.

If these theories and concepts make you excited and you are curious how they apply to your blog, I have no doubt you will enjoy Blog Traffic School. If you are completely confused that’s okay too - the course will be the perfect introduction for you. I’ve been extra careful to explain the concepts in simple terms and within the context of blogging.

Yaro Starak
Blog Traffic King

Comments(2)

Have you heard this blog traffic tip before?

Leave comments on other blogs

Yep, it’s a fairly common tip that most people know about. If you leave comments on other blogs then other people can click through from your comment to your blog. That’s a simple formula for blog traffic. Nice.

But did you know the real secret power of blog commenting?

Blog comments are great for bringing in direct referrals - that means people who click the link in your comment to come visit your blog. But that’s only one benefit. A very powerful benefit that is often not discussed is that leaving a comment gets the attention of the blogger who owns that blog.

Are you super excited when someone leaves a comment on your blog? Yeah, I bet you are, and guess what, you are not alone - most bloggers love it when people leave comments on their blog.

What this means is by leaving a comment, for a brief second, you have 100% of the attention of the blogger when they first receive email notification of your new comment. It’s during that time you have an opportunity to make something happen.

You need to use that brief moment of captured attention to slap the blogger in the face and show them how interesting you are. You can do this by leaving an amazing comment - something thought provoking, or challenging, or powerful - a tip or answer to a question. It needs to be so much more than “I think your blog is great”.

The immediate results of doing this may not seem significant but what you are doing is creating awareness for you. The other blogger now knows you exist. If you impressed him or her with a great comment you will no longer be “just another commenter” you will now be that smart guy who left that profound comment or helped to solve a problem.

So how can this lead to more traffic for you?

What happens, and this occurs over time so have patience, is other bloggers will start to take notice of you because of all your amazing comments. Then one day they may write an article that trackbacks your blog or even directly references one of your blog posts. This one link often results in a lot of traffic, much more then the trickle of direct referrals you get from the comments.

As you can see it’s not specifically the comments themselves that generate the traffic directly. The secret is that comments generate attention - they show other people that you exist and you provide value when you say something. This is the real key to powerful commenting for blog traffic.

Be Prepared To Comment

You can be certain as part of the Blog Traffic School course you will be making comments on other blogs. It’s a fundamental concept for blog traffic.

Yaro Starak
Blog Traffic King

Comments(14)

One of the very easiest ways to get blog traffic, albeit not lots of it, is through blog carnivals. If you take part in Blog Traffic School you should definitely be prepared to submit your articles to blog carnivals, this task is on your activities list for Class Three.

What Is A Blog Carnival?

Way back in October 2005 I posted my very first carnival submissions. I was published in two carnivals. My traffic results weren’t amazing but they were good enough for me to keep doing it and I have submitted my articles to numerous blog carnivals since then. Back then I wrote an introduction to what a blog carnival is since I had only just figured it out myself, and I think I did a pretty good job of describing how a carnival works. Here once again I provide for you my explanation of what a blog carnival is -

For the bloggers out there you may have stumbled across what is called a Blog Carnival. A blog carnival is a network tool that aims to create awareness of all the great content created by bloggers. Each week the carnival moves to another blog and it is that blog owner’s job to write the carnival post, which links to all the best content created by other bloggers that week. Bloggers may submit their original content to the carnival to help increase the exposure of their blog. Each carnival is focused on a particular niche and with the carnival concept well developed there is generally a carnival for every topic you might be blogging about.

This is a great networking tool for bloggers. The host of the carnival each week enjoys a nice jump in traffic and backlinks in exchange for their work reviewing and recommending the best articles in the blogosphere for their industry in that week. The article writers (bloggers) gain some additional exposure as the carnival is showcased all around the blogosphere.

As with any concept like this there is a critical mass point before a carnival really takes off. You need to have enough bloggers linking to the carnival host each week, enough bloggers submitting articles and enough blogs signing up to host the carnival in the future (throw a credibility standard and quality benchmark in there too for good measure). The more blogs that support the carnival the greater the traffic to the blogs in the carnival and the more desirable it is to become part of the carnival.

How To Submit Your Articles To Blog Carnivals

Nowadays I only submit my articles to carnivals using the very handy Carnival Submit Form provided by the Conservative Cat. It takes literally 5 minutes to submit my blog articles to all the relevant carnivals. I only have to fill out the details once, then select each carnival one-by-one that I believe my article is appropriate for.

If you have never made use of a blog carnival you should check out a few first to see how they work. Take a look at 40th edition of The Carnival of the Recipes, which as it sounds, is a blog carnival that travels around food related blogs and highlights recipes. Once you have done that go to the Carnival Submit Form and see if you can find some carnivals related to the topics you blog about and consider submitting the next pillar article you produce.

Good luck!

Yaro Starak
Blog Traffic King

Comments(0)

Blog Traffic School is a course on building, promoting and marketing your blog and 99% of the lessons are related to doing just that, however I couldn’t finish the course without at least briefly teaching you about how to make money from your blog.

I leave the topic of monetizing a blog (earning money from your blog) until the last class, but I do go into some detail to teach you the techniques I have used to make money. Afterall, if you have followed the previous classes diligently, then you should have some good traffic coming and you just may want to generate a little income, perhaps even a lot of income, from that traffic. One of the techniques I cover is affiliate marketing.

Affiliate Marketing

As you will see in the course, my favorite method of earning from a blog is via affiliate programs. If you have never tried affiliate marketing it basically means to sell other people’s products and services in return for a commission percentage of the sale price. In the past I have earned from $4 all the way up to $800 from one sale of an affiliate product, so as you can see the potential is quite impressive. It’s by no means easy though and I definitely wouldn’t attempt affiliate marketing until you have created a solid and popular blog, which is why it is one of the last lessons.

To make money from affiliate marketing I believe there are three key ingredients, these are -

1. Targeted traffic
2. Credibility
3. Pre-selling

I discuss these concepts along with a general introduction to affiliate marketing, including how you can find products to sell from your blog, in Blog Traffic School. It’s by no means a comprehensive lesson because you could do a full course just on affiliate marketing, but I do cover enough to get you started earning from your blog. I also reveal quite a lot about how much I make from some of the different programs I use to make money from my blogs, so hopefully you will find those sort of details interesting and inspiring (I always do).

When Is The Course Going To Be Released?

I know everyone is dieing to know when the course will finally launch and no doubt posts like these just make you even more curious, and I wish I could give you a definite date, but I’m not quite ready to do that yet. The last thing I would want to do is provide a release date and then be late, or worse, release the course when it’s not ready just because of a deadline.

I can tell you that I am putting the final few lessons together now and then I have to go through and do a re-read of the entire course, which shouldn’t take too long. I expect I’ll have the BETA testers coming on board by August at the latest.

Yaro Starak
Blog Traffic King

Comments(1)

When I think back over the things I did that brought in the most traffic to my blogs it’s almost always triggered by some form of publicity. The power of publicity is hard to beat in terms of raw numbers in a short period of time. While other techniques might bring in more traffic, perhaps a better quality of traffic, but over a longer period of time, it’s hard to find a technique that can garner so much attention in a short time frame as doing something newsworthy.

I wouldn’t necessarily label what I have done to generate publicity in the past for my blogs as “stunts”, but certainly it’s always because of an event or something I did, which was dramatic enough to compel others to write about me and link to my blog. While I am no public relations expert nor have I studied publicity, as someone who has been the beneficiary of publicity and also watched closely as other bloggers have been the target, I think I have a good grasp of the subject, at least when it comes to blog promotion.

There are two key ingredients -

1. You must do or say something unique, even outlandish, and definitely special
2. It really helps if you are a celebrity

Generally those two points are very interrelated. If you are basically a nobody and not many people know you or your blog, your publicity stunt has to be huge. If you are already somewhat well known your stunt doesn’t necessarily have to be as significant because people are already watching you and talking about your blog. For super-celebrities they barely have to do anything to be the subject of publicity.

As bloggers we are members of the blogosphere, which is a fantastic place for publicity to thrive. Bloggers love to talk about other bloggers, to weigh in with their opinion on a subject started by another blogger and be part of the conversation. Consequently once you establish yourself in the blogosphere, while you may not be a celebrity elsewhere, having some exposure as a blogger in your industry can be enough to ripe some significant rewards from publicity.

Blog Traffic School Lesson On Publicity

In Blog Traffic School I’ve put together a 5000 word lesson on publicity, including some case studies where publicity has had a huge impact, and also some practical steps you can take to generate traffic for your blog using publicity. I don’t discuss publicity until late in the course because it’s important to establish some status (fame, exposure) for your blog so you can maximize the results from whatever publicity actions you take.

Yaro Starak
Blog Traffic King

Comments(0)