30 Days to Pumped Up Blog Traffic

It’s pretty much universally accepted these days that having a blog is a smart move for any business.  And because just about everyone understands that, just about everyone (and their uncle) has a blog.  What that means is that the competition for traffic to your blog is strong and growing on a daily basis.  After all, people can only read so much every day, so they’ll naturally gravitate to the blog content that is most relevant and meaningful to them.  But even the best-written, most content-packed blogs are useless if no one sees them in the first place.  So building traffic flow to your blog is at least as important as making it stick (getting people to follow you).

Especially if you’re just getting started with blogging, building traffic can be a bewildering, and often frustrating proposition.  With all the advice out there on what to do and how to do it, how can you know what works best for you?  The truth is, you can’t know.  Mostly, you have to research and see what makes the most sense to you, then try it and adjust as you go.  And once you have the formula down… well, actually, there is no formula.  If you think you’ve found the perfect formula, don’t get too comfortable.  It will change soon enough.  All that said, below are just four simple steps you can take immediately that will begin to increase your blog traffic.  It will take time to see significant results, and you’ll have to pick and choose where to spend most of your time, but these methods (as of today) will put you on the path to more traffic within 30 days.

1. Participate in forums. Forums, like the one at YoungEntrepreneur.com, are a great way to connect with fellow business people in your field as well as blog readers.  If you target your efforts at forums within your target audience, you’ll often find hundreds or even thousands of people interested in exactly what you’re talking about in your blog.  Get involved in the forums, offer real, useful advice, and when appropriate (and not too obviously), direct people to relevant blog articles on your site.  Also include your blog URL in your signature when allowed.

2. Use social media. We’ve written extensively on this site about the benefits of using social media sites like Twitter & Facebook and others.  So without going into great detail, let’s just say once more that social media is like no other medium in its ability to reach a targeted audience in a meaningful way, at little or no expense.  If you’re not using these tools, you’re missing out on traffic that you could be gaining right now.

3. Comment on other blogs. You probably read other blogs right?  So make it a point, whenever you’re on another person’s blog page, to comment on their posts.  This will often help to build a relationship with the blog writer, which can be beneficial in many ways, and it will allow you to post a link back to your blog.  As these are pretty much always no-follow links, you won’t benefit in that way, but you will benefit from the traffic generated by people clicking on your name.  Of course that won’t happen if your comments aren’t thoughtful or interesting, so, “Nice post” won’t help much.  For more on the topic of comment marketing, read this.

4. Make sharing easy. It’s amazing how many smaller blogs don’t offer an easy way for readers to share posts with others.  Even if you don’t like Twitter, for example, or if you don’t think having a Twitter account will help your business, you have to recognize that millions of people, including most of your readers, do use Twitter.  So at the very least, install TweetMeme or Topsy buttons on your posts.  If you want to really optimize the possibilities and you’re using WordPress, SexyBookmarks is a great plugin that makes it easy for readers to share on over 80 bookmarking sites.  Whatever you use, make sure people who love your stuff can easily tell others about it.  Word of mouth is still king when it comes to getting people to look at what you have to offer.

Is there more to driving traffic to your blog? Of course there is.  We didn’t even touch on SEO, SEM, backlinks, or a thousand other tools and methods you can use.  But these four steps are some that anyone can take without having to do much research or decipher complex methodology.  And if you start using them today, you just might see pumped up traffic in 30 days or less.

Review: Blog Writing Service - Water My Blog?

This is a Sponsored Post written by me. All opinions are 100% mine.

So you have a business, your website is going strong, and you’re working on your SEO and other marketing to get more traffic to your site and take your business to the next level.  You’ve heard that everyone needs to have a blog.  You’ve heard about all the benefits of blogging, from delivering valuable content to your users, customers, subscribers, etc. to improving your search engine rankings.  You’re sold on the benefits, but where are you going to find the time to crank out regular blog posts?  After all, one of the things you’ve learned is that the key to blogging successfully is providing quality content on a consistent basis.

This is the dilemma for a lot of people.  Blogging is a tremendous tool for your business, but it takes a focused effort and a lot of time that many of us just don’t have.  Add to that the fact that many people just aren’t writers and have a hard time coming up with interesting topics much less presenting them in an effective way, and it can all seem very overwhelming.  Well, fear not!  There is a solution to all these challenges, and it’s an easy, affordable solution that you can implement immediately.

Introducing WaterMyBlog.com
WaterMyBlog is a blog writing service like no other.  While it’s popular to hire virtual assistants, freelancers and ghost writers to fill blogging needs, all of those are missing a key element.  They’ll provide regular content, and it might even be written very well, but what are the chances these sources are SEO experts?  Pretty slim.  That’s what makes WaterMyBlog.com different.  This service provides quality blog posts based around your chosen key words, written in a way that serves to greatly enhance your SEO efforts.

How it works
Getting started with WaterMyBlog.com is easy.  First, you’ll provide them with the key words (5-10) you want to optimize for.  This is of course very important, because these words (topics) will end up being the focus of the blog posts they write.  If you need help determining the best key words to rank for, they have SEO experts on staff to help you out.  Next, they connect their software to your blog.  It works with all the popular blogging platforms, so no worries there.  This gives them the ability to directly upload your blog posts once they’re approved.  Once their software is integrated, their researchers get busy using their news aggregators to create a plan that will ensure your blog is relevant to readers and to the search engines.  After the research is done, all that’s left is writing your posts.  The writers at WaterMyBlog.com are called Gardeners, and they will use the information they’ve learned from the news aggregators to create quality, SEO-relevant posts, which will be submitted to you for approval.  If you want changes, you can edit the post yourself or ask for the changes you want.  Once it’s done to your satisfaction, your post will automatically be posted to your site.  It’s that easy!  You’ve saved tons of time while reaping all the benefits of adding outstanding blog content to your site.  And the pricing for all this is outstanding.  You’ll pay no more than $13 per post!  They also have some great promotions running right now, like a one-month free trial!

While they aren’t the solution I’d recommend for pro bloggers who make their living off their blog, WaterMyBlog.com is a great solution for anyone with a primary product or service looking to add a blogging component.  So if you understand all the benefits of adding a blog to your site but haven’t had the time to do it, or if you’re already blogging but are looking for an inexpensive way to free up all the time it’s taking you, OR if you just want to make sure your blogging efforts are paying off with proper SEO, take a look at WaterMyBlog.com.

8 Really Cool Web-Based Tools for Bloggers

Looking for cool applications to help you make your blog or site all it can be?  We’ve found some good ones!  From ways to make sure your site looks good no matter who’s looking at it, to protecting your privacy and your content, these tools are all easy to use and either free or very low-priced.  And they’re all web-based, so no downloading to your computer necessary.

tynt insight - tynt.com is a tool you can use to keep track of what’s being copied from your site, ensuring proper credit is given while capitalizing on the copying you want.  This tool not only helps you track down content thieves, it helps to improve your SEO and traffic by generating more links back to your site and providing automatic attribution links.  You’ll download this software to your server, but not to your computer. Cost: Free

TestSize - As you probably know, your screen resolution is not the same as that of all your visitors.  So even if your site looks spectacular on your computer, it might look funky on someone else’s.  Want to see exactly what it looks like in various resolutions? That’s what TestSize.com is for.  Just enter your URL and choose which size you want to see, and you’ll get a view of your site from that resolution.  It’s a great way to put yourself in your site visitors’ shoes.  Cost: Free

Stribe - This is a great way to take your blog or site to the next level.  You have followers, readers, and subscribers now, but have your really created a community?  Stribe lets you do that.  It’s an easy way to instantly create a social network on any website.  Stribe is an easy plug-and-play solution that allows you to customize its features and build your blog into a community of users, all connected with each other - and with you.  Cost: Free (while in beta)

ShrinkTheWeb - This simple tool does exactly what the name says.  It takes any web page (home page only, unless you upgrade to pro) and creates screenshots that can be used in blog posts or other content areas on your site.  With one click, you get six different sizes of screenshots, from 320×240 down to a 75×56 thumbnail.  Cost: Basic = Free; Pro = $34.95/mo

iPadPeek - With over a million iPads sold so far and growing, you can bet some of your readers are looking at your site on one.  So how do you make sure your site looks good on the iPad if you don’t own one yourself?  Easy - just click over to iPadPeek.  You enter any web address at the top of the virtual iPad, and the site appears below just as it looks on the real thing.  Pretty slick! Cost: Free

IMG4Me - Want to display your email address on your contact page without getting a ton of spam?  You could do something like “myname [at] mysite.com” which is pretty common, but not as cool as what IMG4Me lets you do.  With this txt to img service, you can put your email address in the text box, choose your parameters, like text color, font, and font size, and the app will generate an image of your text.  And they’ll even host the resulting image for you.  Cost: Free

fivesecondtest - Want to know what people see when they first look at your site?  That’s what Five Second Tests do for you.  You earn “karma” by looking at other people’s sites and giving feedback on them, which allows you to upgrade your own tests when you’re having your site looked at.  There are some pretty cool options for tests, and you get results fast.  Ad agencies charge thousands of dollars to conduct this kind of research, so this can be a very valuable tool!  Cost: Free (unless you want premium features)

Browsera - There are a lot of browser options these days, and you can’t assume that just because you prefer Firefox, Safari, or Chrome all your site’s visitors have the same preference.  Believe it or not, some people still use IE!  In any case, just as with screen resolutions, your site might look very different from one browser to the next, and while it might look really good in your browser, it might be completely messed up in another (not to mention the various versions of all the browsers).  Browsera not only allows you to see what your site looks like in various browsers and their many versions, but it points out potential problems, like layout issues, JavaScript errors, and more. Cost: Free (with limited options - $39-$99/mo for more options)

There you go!  Some cool tools to make your site the best it can be.  We’re always looking for new, innovative solutions to improve the look, feel and functionality of websites, so if you have other nifty solutions, don’t hesitate to share in the comments!

Top 50 “Mommy Blogs”

Our new Ebook The Definitive 5-Step Guide to Making Money Blogging (available for download now!) is not just for tech bloggers or CEO’s. Many a “mommy blogger” has found herself earning good money with her blog, writing about her family. In fact, any blog on any subject can become popular and earn you excellent revenues as long as its well-written.

We’d like to honor some of the best of the best here with our list of the Top 50 Mommy Blogs. These are blog that are written by women who have no real business agenda, except to write entertaining, informative and often humorous accounts of their adventures in motherhood. Enjoy!

1. The Mommy Blog (http://themommyblog.net/)

Don’t be fooled by the pastel color scheme. Melinda Roberts is a mom to be reckoned with. She recently published her book Mommy Confidential: Adventures from the Wonderbelly of Motherhood (available at Amazon.com).

From the site: Witty, sarcastic, and always engaging, Mindy chronicles her life, and that of her children. She tackles the good and the bad with a broad stroke and a sense of humor that give her writing depth and an emotional pull.

2. MommyBlog (http://www.mommyblog.com/)

Her husband set up a blog for her as a gift for her 32nd birthday and she’s taken the cyber ball and run with it!

3. Just Another Mommy Blog (http://tracey-justanothermommyblog.blogspot.com/)

A mommy blog about her daily flashes of brilliance (or, at least, highly glossed) regarding parenting.

4. Blonde Mom Blog (http://blondemomblog.com/)

A 39-year-old working mom to two girls trying to stay sane and away from the Barbie PopTarts. BlondeMomBlog is the No. 1 Google search result for “mom blog.”

5. Modern Mommy Blog (http://www.modernmommyblog.com/)

A 29-year-old mother to a lively 18 month old girl with a B.A. degree in Sociology. She works with at-risk families to teach them about child development and how to deal with the challenges of parenthood.

6. So Close (http://www.tertia.org/so_close/)

Forty-year-old South African mother to twins began blogging as a way to cope with infertility. Now that she’s been blessed with a set of boy/girl twins, she chronicles her daily adventures with them.

7. Kim Chi Mamas (http://kimchimamas.typepad.com/)

What better name for a blog written by a group of women mothering Korean American kids than Kimchi Mamas? They’re a little spicy, plenty fiery, and sometimes? They like to get pickled.

8. News From Hawkhill Acres (http://lillhawkins.com/)

Unschooling, Writing and Living in Maine - Mostly Humorously9. Hormone Colored Days (http://hormonecoloreddays.blogspot.com/)

Kim Moldofsky is a former dolphin trainer, corporate creativity trainer, and a potty trainer. Now she writes, blogs, consults on blog outreach, and does all matter of mom-things.

10. Writing Mamas Salon (http://writingmamassalon.blogspot.com/)

Each day on the Writing Mamas Daily Blog, a different member writes about mothering.

11. Joy Unexpected (http://www.joyunexpected.com/)

Written by a woman called “Y” who is addicted to Starbucks, reality TV and to getting really good deals through coupons and “club member” savings.

12. Soapbox Mom (http://soapboxmom.com/)

Soapbox Mom is filled with stories, cool tools, helpful articles, homework helpers, fun gadgets, home-keeping tips, party ideas, and whatever might help people enjoy parenting.

13. Sarcastic Mom (http://sarcasticmom.com/)

Anything’s game. Getting offended is a possibility. Laughing is required.

14. Mom101 (http://mom-101.blogspot.com/)

Liz is a writer and former ad-woman who is completely honest about her lack of experience in motherhood.

15. June Cleaver Nirvana (http://www.junecleavernirvana.com/)

Lives in Texas. Answers to Holly.. 3 lively off-spring of the male variety. One dog. One cat. Likes to write. Lives to play poker. Glamorous? Not often. More nirvana than June Cleaver. Perky. Suburban. Angst.

16. Absolutely Bananas (http://www.absolutelybananas.com/)

Mother. Coffee drinker. Information seeker. Skeptic. Creative. Dreamer. Schemer. Absolutely Bananas.

17. Crunchy Domestic Goddess (http://crunchydomesticgoddess.com/)

Amy Gates is a mama of two living in Colorado. She’s passionate about home birth, natural family living, urban homesteading and other “crunchy” things.

18. Committed Parent (http://committedparent.wordpress.com/)

A Mommy Blog written by a Daddy! Mark Brady, PhD is a father and social neuroscience educator. He’s also an award-winning author and the co-founder of the Children’s Grief Program in Palo Alto, California.

19. Play Groups Are No Place For Children (http://playgroupsarenoplaceforchildren.com/)

Jennifer is a thiry-ish mom, wife, former Speech-Pathologist, worry wart, bossaholic, control freak. Her claim to fame is that she’s the #1 search result on Google for “kids pooping in pools!!”

20. Mom To The Screaming Masses (http://momtothescreamingmasses.typepad.com/)

WANTED, Carmen, mom to the Masses, for dangerous undertakings inside and outside the home. Last seen with her partner The Hubster, and six accomplices. This fugitive is considered armed (with epi pens and inhalers) and dangerous, especially when she hasn’t had her morning coffee.

21. Mother Goose Mouse (http://mothergoosemouse.com/)

Julie Hudson is smart, funny, and has a first grader who’s destined for a career as a lawyer, a preschooler who can scream loud enough to shatter glass, a baby who’s already eating her out of house and home, and a husband who can drink his weight in Natty Light. She’s also inordinately concerned about the cleanliness of her kitchen floor.

22. Undomestic Diva (http://undomesticdiva.typepad.com/)

She does the best she can. When she feels like it.

23. Motherhood Uncensored (http://www.motherhooduncensored.net/)

She blogs to keep her head above water and her a$$ out of a psychiatric hospital! And because if she don’t tell her story, no one else will.

24. The Dalaimama (http://thedalaimama.net/)

The 14th Reincarnation of the Imperfect Woman. Dawn is a graduate student and adopted mommy to an Ethiopian born baby boy.

25. Crazy Bloggin Canuk (http://crazybloggincanuck.blogspot.com/)

Originally from Canada, relocated to Colorado via Salt Lake City where she gave up her wanderlust, travel-writin’ life to marry the love of her life. Shameless Mommy, Blogger, Devoted Wife, Frazzled Mother, Former Crazy Canuck Radio Personality, Prolific Publicist, Defender of Truth

26. Maniac Mommies (http://www.manicmommies.com/)

Working moms everywhere will hear themselves in the voices of Erin and Kristin, creators and hosts of Manic Mommies, the weekly podcast for moms trying to do it all!

27. Mother Bumper (http://www.motherbumper.com/)

Katie is a blogger who likes new things, loves old things, and admits to being slightly unstable.

28. Three Boys Under My Roof (http://3boysundermyroof.blogspot.com/)

Heather is a wife and mother of two boys. She has a second job as an engineer that isn’t as fun as the wife/mother gig, but it brings home the bacon.

29. Imaginary Binky (http://www.imaginarybinky.com/)

Sarah Porter writes a blog that she describes as an “imaginary binky.” That is, it soothes her as she furiously types out some diatribe about her life and family.

30. Girls Gone Child (http://www.girlsgonechild.net/)

Written by freelance writer and author Rebecca Woolf, she blogs about motherhood from Los Angeles, California.

31. Notes From the Trenches (http://www.notesfromthetrenches.com/)

Chris Jodran began blogging at Notes From the Trenches in 2004, never expecting more than a handful of people to ever read it. And half expecting that she would have to bribe even those few souls. Slowly her blog developed a following and has been nominated for several blog awards over the years.

32. This Full House (http://www.thisfullhouse.com/)

This Full House is a full-frontal encounter into Liz’s life as a SAHM, lover of multi-functional gadgets, slayer of ALL appliances proved slow and/or inefficient, with 4 children, 2 cats, 1 super hyper sock-eating chocolate lab and 2 damned much laundry.

33. And Baby Makes 6 (http://andbabymakes6.com/)

In August of 2007 Jody and her husband uprooted their family from the little town they loved and moved to the beach. They bought a 31 foot sailboat and now spend most of their free time torturing the kids by forcing them to cruise in what basically amounts to paradise.

34. Antique Mommy (http://antiquemommy.com/)

Sometimes Sweet. Sometimes Tart. But Always Real.

35. Gwendomama (http://gwendomama.blogspot.com/)

Failing at keeping expletives to a minimum while raising two live children, and trying to come to terms with the death of The Other One. She has an itty bitty obsession with food. In a good way.

36. Secret Agent Mama (http://secretagentmama.com/blog/)

Mother and extraordinarily talented photographer Mishelle Lane.

37. Whiskey In My Sippy Cup (http://www.whiskeyinmysippycup.com/)

She writes about how her momma didn’t love her, plays Food Network, and hilariously recounts her daily adventures as a mom in Colorado.

38. Temporarily Me (http://www.temporarilyme.com/)

A sister, a daughter, a wife, a mother, an employee, a computer addict, a freelance designer, a nag, a bitch, and yet oh! so! humorous.

39. Single SuperMama (http://www.flinger.us/supermama/)

She doesn’t really have a passion for writing, in and of itself. But she does have a passion for people. And for community, for families, for relationships, for all of us supporting each other.

40. Crunchy Carpets (http://crunchycarpets.com/)

Who is Crunchy Carpets is a Vancouver, B.C. mom with two insane children, and a Crunchy Husband she’s been married to for nine years.

41. Who’s the Boss Blog (http://www.whosthebossblog.com/my_weblog/)

During the day she bosses around men that are old enough to be her father. At home, she gets bossed around by a four year old boy who refuses to wear pants. It’s all in a day’s work. Who’s the Boss? Momma is, that’s who.

42. Beyond Mom (http://beyondmom.com/)

Jen is a mom and a freelance corporate writer who talks about everything a work-at-home-mom can relate to.

43. Mommy Cracked (http://www.mommycracked.net/)

Mandy started writing Mommy Cracked in October 2007 as a creative outlet while being a stay at home mom. She quickly learned that blogging is a great way to connect with like-minded others, offered heran opportunity to write and served as an online diary of sorts about her ife, memories, and experiences.

44. Walking With Scissors (http://www.walkingwithscissorsblog.com/)

Lynn is a thirtysomething, overprotective stay-at-home mom with a burning desire for attention. She loves her camera, summer, Butter Chicken, Cabbage Patch Kids, reading, throwing passive-aggressive tantrums when she’s upset, hanging out with my girlfriends, ice cream, thunder storms and sunglasses.

45. Melia Lore (http://melialore.com/)

Student, feminist, mother to four, and founder of Hippymom.com; Melia Lore chronicles her adventures as she attempts to juggle her family and several online businesses.

46. Six Browns (http://www.6browns.com/)

Despite her struggles with infertility, Sandi and her husband have grown their family through both medical treatments and adoption. They have three princesses and a new little boy recently adopted from Ethiopia. The action never ends at the Brown House.

47. Blog That Mommy! (http://www.blogthatmommy.blogspot.com/)

Neila left Corporate America four years ago to be a stay-at-home mom. It is the most rewarding, fulfilling, and frustrating job she’s ever had. She started a blog because she has a serious lack of adult interaction.

48. Pundit Mom (http://punditmom1.blogspot.com/)

Joanne Bamberger is also known as PunditMom, a politically progressive mom AND political analyst living in the shadow of the nation’s capital. PunditMom blog is a mother’s guide to politics and a place for women to get their political fix and discuss their political ideas.

49. The Redneck Mommy (http://theredneckmommy.com/)

“Where Dirt Meets the Skirt.” Tanis Miller dreams of world domination while blogging in Canada. She and her family are also supporters of several charities.

50. CityMama (http://citymama.typepad.com/citymama/)

Stefania Pomponi Butler, founder and owner of the CityMama™ blog, is proud mother; and a professional writer and blog editor/producer who covers style, food, pop culture, and (of course) parenting with a cheeky twist. She often speaks on blog-related topics.

Do you have a favorite “mommy blog” that wasn’t mentioned on our list? Leave us a comment and let us know who we’re missing out on reading!

Ten Corporate Blogs Worth Reading

Corporate blogs can be dry and lack the personality of some of the independent blogs.  They tend to be far more censored because of legal and public relations concerns, too.  But they can be a great source of information on the market and other topics of entrepreneurial interest.  Here are ten “big blogs” that are worth reading regularly, even if they are written by large corporations:

1.     Official Google Blog (http://googleblog.blogspot.com/)

It’s ranked #1 on Technorati’s top Corporate Blogs, and whether you approve of Google as a company or not, if you do any kind of business on the internet, you must acknowledge this company’s influence on all things web-related.

2.    LinkedIn Blog (http://blog.linkedin.com/)

Stay on top of changes in the job market, learn how to use the LinkedIn application, read about how to use social media to make the most of your professional contacts.

3.    Whole Story:  The Whole Foods Blog (http://blog.wholefoodsmarket.com/)

As a pioneer in conscious consumerism and one of the most successful retailers in the country, Whole Foods’ blog combines business news infused with the unique Whole Foods philosophy, along with delicious topics on all kinds of food, wine, and environmental issues.

4.    The Chatter:  The Official Ebay Blog (http://www.ebaychatter.com/)

Keep your finger on the pulse of the most successful and popular online auction website.  The Chatter covers Ebay as both a company and a community, and regularly features some of the coolest auctions posted on the site.

5.    Check Out Blog:  The Official Wal-Mart Blog (http://www.checkoutblog.com/)

Whether you like Wal-Mart or not, this retail giant is a huge force in the retail marketplace, and regularly reading their blog can help you stay abreast of trends that inevitably occur when they make announcements.  Despite Wal-Mart being a big, faceless corporation the bloggers on this site are surprisingly personable in their writing.

6.    The Fast Lane:  GM’s Blog  (http://fastlane.gmblogs.com/)

As one of the largest manufacturers in the U.S., and in light of the major economic impact this company has had on American taxpayers in the past year, keeping up with this blog is a great way to stay up on the forces that are shaping the future of the economy right now.

7.    Future Banking Blog (http://futurebanking.bankofamerica.com)

This blog is a collaborative effort between Bank of American and MIT which addresses the future of the banking industry, and the steps that are being taken to evolve banking as a business.  If you are interested in money at all you should read this blog.

8.     Values in Practice:  The McDonald’s Corporate Blog  (http://www.crmcdonalds.com/publish/csr/home/_blog.html)

McDonald’s remains one of the most successful corporations in America, and continues to show profits even during the current recession.  But what makes this blog so unique is that it is an official corporate blog that is primarily focused on corporate responsibility and sustainability.

9.    Amazon Daily (http://www.amazon.com/gp/daily)

Amazon is the premier internet marketplace, and the official blog gives information about the company as well as product information from editors in every product category.  Customers can give private feedback to the writers or leave a public comment.

10.    The Platform:  Opinions and Insights from Cisco  (http://blogs.cisco.com)

One of the world’s largest manufacturers of networking and security technologies, Cisco’s official blog will give you a glimpse into the inner workings of a tech giant, and help you stay aware of product and financial news that will have an impact on the market.

Do you read any corporate blogs that you think are interesting and insightful?  Leave a comment and let us know which sites you like to read.

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