Relationship Networking For Blog Traffic

Posted to Building Blog Traffic

As many of you will be aware since you came from the link in the last few days, Darren Rowse from Problogger.net published a blog post - How to Find Traffic for a New Blog - which linked to my last article - How To Launch A Brand New Blog.

Darren and I are good friends and we met through blogging a few months ago (close to a year now I’d say). Darren features in a few sections of the Blog Traffic School course and in one particular area, the relationship building section, I’ve recounted the story of how Darren and I first met. It’s an important story because it really demonstrates the power of relationship networking - when bloggers work together to increase exposure for their blogs. I can’t republish the whole class here because that would be giving away too much - plus it’s over 3000 words for just that class!

The last few days since Darren’s post have once again illustrated the power of relationship building for blog traffic. Darren sent through over 700 unique visitors in two days and this would not have happened if Darren and I did not have some form of relationship.

Besides the raw traffic influx from Problogger, the following additional beneficial events occurred:

I had over 60 new sign-ups to my Blog Traffic Tips Newsletter in 48 hours and they are still continuing to come in.

A bunch of other bloggers joined in on the conversation, including -

How I got 120 Visitors to a Brand New Blog on Day One - Jamdo provided an argument against my claim that blogs start day one with no traffic and offered some tips to generate an audience on your blog’s day of birth.
Yaro Starak’s Blogging Mantras - Asian Business published a flattering article (thanks!) with possibly the most links to my previous articles I’ve ever seen - it’s like a mini-review of my online life!
Building Traffic, Building Clients, Building Income - Be Your Own Boss wrote quite an extensive article in response to points Darren made in his article and my points but with a slant towards starting a new business (not just a blog).

Plus there were sixteen (…and counting) comments that came through on my post plus quite a few were made on some of the older posts in this blog.

Unpredictable Traffic Techniques

It’s important to note that my article sat online for quite a few days before Darren found it and it sparked enough interest in him to produce an article of his own and link to this blog. It may never have happened at all and I was surprised when it did (I love waking up to all those emails from comments, newsletter sign-ups and people saying hello - and yes I’m still getting through them all now - I will get back to you I promise!). The run off effect is completely unpredictable. That’s the beauty of blogging and why building your blog traffic is so up and down. You never know what’s going to happen next.

That being said, there are certainly some proactive things you can do to enhance your chance of triggering an event like this and keep it growing. I’ve covered some techniques in more detail in the course, but just for example posting an article like this after the fact encourages further discussion and helps keep the traffic flowing. I send some traffic to the blogs who took the time to contribute to the conversation as a way to return the favor, expand communication channels and build relationships.

Remember you have to be in the conversation to benefit from the traffic reading the conversation.

Yaro Starak
Blog Traffic King