Blog Traffic: How to Get Traffic to Your Blog

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Many times, people have written to me, stating: "Okay, I've set up a blog . . . but how do I get people to actually read it? How do I to get traffic?"

For newer bloggers starting out, the process seems complicated. For example, many scratch their heads when they hear terms such as trackbacks, pinging, Feeds, etc.

I wrote a recent article: Blogging Basics: 15 Steps to Get Your Blog Noticed designed to demystify the process of building a blog.

In the article, I provided links to relevant sites so that a newer blogger can get started as painlessly as possible.

Setting up and building a blog takes time. Simply creating a blog and posting to it, in most cases, will not be enough to attract Internet spiders or draw a significant reader base. A blog should look attractive, be laid out well to optimize ad potential, should have items appearing "above the fold" and should include items that are updated, such as Feeds.

Occasionally, I help people to set up their Blogger blogs. This scenario is especially applicable for those whose time is at a premium and who want to get a blog off the ground so that they just have to post to it, without worrying about installing widgets, Feeds or settting up Adsense.

With the revamp of Write and Earn a Living, I've received a number of requests for assistance. While, in the past, I've done this for free, my present circumstances and time constraints do not make this possible.

• The "15 Steps" article will help you to get your blog off the ground.

• Check out my blogging links in the right-hand sidebar. Sites such as Blogger Tricks or The Blogger Guide are very helpful. You can watch free movies and check out multiple-column templates.
• The Blogger Training Videos offered by Bob Sommers at Recognized Expert are incredibly good, walking you through absolutely everything you need to know.
  

• If you desire further assistance, please contact me or check my rates. Contact and rate information can be found at the top of this blog.

Insights into the Income Potential of HubPages

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Many are aware of the HubPages challenge: write 100 hubs in 100 days. Today I swung over to HubPages to keep apprised of the latest and stumbled on a page by Lissie that I just had to share with readers.

In her hub: HubChallenge FAILURE and Making Money With Hubpages Lissie discusses the real income potential of HubPages and how those who don't slacken in their efforts will see wallet-friendly results.

Lissie said something that I have long believed: if you are trying to build an income via the Internet, it is possible--but it takes time. Far-sighted individuals who are willing to put the work in will benefit years down the road. Many start off with a bang, then, when they fail to see hoped-for results, they slacken in their efforts. Basically, they write a couple of articles and then give up in disgust.

My insights: if you want to be a writer, than BE ONE. How? By writing constantly, by writing much material. Treat your writing as you would a real job and you will achieve the results you are looking for.

Getting back to Lissie's Hub: it is a wealth of helpful information and links. I plan to revisit it and check out all the goodies touched on--and hopefully learn even more about making money online!

What I found most fascinating of all is mention that some are making thousands with HubPages. Unbelievable! I knew there were a couple of people who were making approximately $200.00 per month with HubPages and I've heard of one woman who makes around $1000.00 each month but . . . however, when I came across Lissie's insights, I'll admit I was encouraged.

I've seen my own AdSense earnings grow over time through consistent and sustained effort.

Anyway, three thumbs up Lissie. What an encouragement for the rest of us!

Further Reading

• Hal's 40 Best Google-Topping Keywords & Adsense Earnings

• How to Make Money Writing on HubPages

• How To Build A Website That Makes $100+ Per Month

• Adsense Placement

How to Drive Traffic to Your Triond Articles

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Triond article traffic: it is one of the main considerations for online writers. The formula is simple: articles x traffic = dollars.

While the formula is fairly straight forward, actually getting article traffic is somewhat trickier. To net significant, ongoing article traffic, you need to build a foundation for the future.

Isn't writing articles enough? Do I have to actually drive traffic to my Triond articles?

Your Triond articles will earn for you because Triond places them across different sites; however, if you want to earn more, you can also do your part to send traffic to your Triond articles.

In a recent article, I discussed creating quick and easy articles for Triond. If you've followed the pointers, you've probably started writing your first articles. If so, you are doing well.

The next thing you'll want to look at is how to drive traffic to your Triond articles. Traffic is the glue that makes your articles "sticky," giving them traction online. You want your articles to become "sticky," which basically means they are bookmarked, linked to, and they spread out across the Internet. In other words, they have staying power.

Evergreen Articles

One method of driving traffic to your Triond articles is to create articles that stay popular. These are called evergreen articles and they earn for you for years to come. Ask yourself: what's important to the masses? What topics will continue to attract readers? Health, science and tech articles are usually always a good bet. Why? Health is something that concerns most people; science fires many imaginations; tech always has a following. These are the types of articles that readers tend to bookmark and share with others.

Linking

I can't stress enough the value of linking. Use each article to link to your other related Triond articles. This is another method for directing traffic to your Triond articles. Links work away in the background sending article traffic over and over again. If you have a blog, try to remember to link to your Triond articles when creating your blog posts. Even if your blog post isn't related to your Triond article, you could try including a regular footer section entitled: Hot Off the Grill or My Latest Articles so that readers come to expect new material.

Facebook

Consider adding your Triond articles to Facebook. Facebook allows you to share your articles with friends, family, and Facebook contacts, sending a flood of traffic to your Triond articles.

Article Directories

• Submit free articles to article directories, conveniently linking to your Triond articles. Many savvy writers create articles at free article directories to send a flood of visitors to their websites or blogs. Why not use this same proven method to send traffic to your Triond articles or to your Triond profile, which features your Triond articles?

• Article directories, such as Ezinearticles or Articlesbase, allow for your work to be distributed/syndicated across the Internet. Site owners seeking free content turn to article directories to fill this need. If someone uses your article, they are also sending traffic to your Triond articles via readers who browse through the content.

• Additionally, article directory readers often sign up for article alerts or they subscribe to Feeds. This means that they receive the latest published articles in their Inboxes or in their Feed readers. Your article directory articles may be sending you readers for your Triond articles via subscriptions and alerts. What a great way to have links to your Triond articles being sent to someone's e-mail address!

Triond Article Widget

Use the Triond article widget near the top of your blog to direct traffic to your Triond articles. Also include one of your Triond article Feeds in your blog's sidebar. This directs blog readers to your Triond articles.

Subscribing to Article Directory Feeds

• A good strategy is to subscribe to the feed for article writing over at Ezinearticles. Writers share a wealth of tips and tricks. Subscribing to the feed means you receive these tips via e-mail. I'm a great believer in having information come to me, over having to take time out of a busy day to hunt for it.

• Subscribe to the feed for copywriting. Applying copywriting methods to your articles can make for more compelling articles.

Alerts

• Ezinearticles allows you to sign up for alerts for different categories. This is an invaluable information source. Imagine receiving free pointers on subjects you plan to write about. Whatever your interest, whether business or travel, news or relationships, finance or automotive, self-improvement or sports, you can subscribe to an applicable alert to stay apprised of up-to-date information and craft your articles accordingly.

• You can also sign up for Google alerts. If you enjoy writing news-type articles, these alerts can keep you abreast of breaking news and you can create your news articles with relevant and timely information at your fingertips.

There are no real secrets for driving traffic to your Triond articles, just common sense methods that take conscientious and consistent effort. If you are willing to invest the time, you will see increased reader views and drive traffic to your Triond articles.

Further Reading

• Five Article Method: A Hands-On Tutorial

• How to Jump-Start your Triond Article Earnings

• Older Articles: Dead in the Water or Traffic Magnets?

• How You Can Make $100.00 Each Month Writing for Triond
  

Naming Your Characters

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This morning, I came across a good article about how to name characters for a story or novel. The writer, C.L. Eckles, gives some excellent insights into how to choose appropriate character names, depending on what you are writing.

The author relates:
There are several do's and don’ts when naming a character for a fiction book. It’s a tricky thing, but if you follow all of the do's and steer clear of the don’ts, you will have given your characters awesomely memorable names.

Her article, The Do's and Don'ts of Naming Characters walks writers through the process of choosing memorable names for their characters. This is a helpful read.

A Foresaken Garden

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The following poem by Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909) is one of my favorites. It is so powerful and haunting. Is it a comment on the passage of time or of lost love?

A Forsaken Garden
In a coign of a cliff between lowland and highland,
At the sea-down's edge between windward and lee,
Walled round with rocks as an inland island,
The ghost of a garden fronts the sea.
A girdle of brushwood and thorn encloses
The steep square slope of the blossomless bed
Where the weeds that grew green from the graves of its roses
Now lie dead.

The fields fall southward, abrupt and broken,
To the low last edge of the long lone land.
If a step should sound or a word be spoken,
Would a ghost not rise at the strange guest's hand?
So long have the gray bare walks lain guestless,
Through branches and briers if a man make way,
He shall find no life but the sea-wind's restless
Night and day.

The dense hard passage is blind and stifled
That crawls by a track none turn to climb
To the strait waste place that the years have rifled
Of all but the thorns that are touched not of time.
The thorns he spares when the rose is taken;
The rocks are left when he wastes the plain;
The wind that wanders, the weeds wind-shaken,
These remain.

Not a flower to be pressed of the foot that falls not;
As the heart of a dead man the seed-plots are dry;
From the thicket of thorns whence the nightingale calls not,
Could she call, there were never a rose to reply.
Over the meadows that blossom and wither,
Rings but the note of a sea-bird's song.
Only the sun and the rain come hither
All year long.

The sun burns sear, and the rain dishevels
One gaunt bleak blossom of scentless breath,
Only the wind here hovers and revels,
In a round where life seems barren as death.
Here there was laughing of old, there was weeping,
Haply, of lovers one never will know,
Whose eyes went seaward a hundred sleeping
years ago.

Heart handfast in heart as they stood, 'Look thither,'
Did he whisper? 'Look forth from the flowers to the sea;
For the foam-flowers endure when the rose-blossoms wither,
And men that love lightly may die-- but we?'
And the same wind sang, and the same waves whitened,
And or ever the garden's last petals were shed,
In the lips that had whispered, the eyes that had lightened,
Love was dead.

Or they loved their life through, and then went whither?
And were one to the end-- but what end who knows?
Love deep as the sea as a rose must wither,
As the rose-red seaweed that mocks the rose.
Shall the dead take thought for the dead to love them?
What love was ever as deep as a grave?
They are loveless now as the grass above them
Or the wave.

All are at one now, roses and lovers,
Nor known of the cliffs and the fields and the sea.
Not a breath of the time that has been hovers
In the air now soft with a summer to be.
Not a breath shall there sweeten the seasons hereafter
Of the flowers or the lovers that laugh now or weep,
When as they that are free now of weeping and laughter
We shall sleep.

Here death may not deal again for ever;
Here change may not come till all change end.
From the graves they have made they shall rise up never
Who have left nought living to ravage and rend.
Earth, stones, and thorns of the wild ground growing,
While the sun and the rain live, these shall be;
Till a last wind's breath, upon all these blowing,
Roll the sea.

Till the slow sea rise, and the sheer cliff crumble,
Till terrace and meadow the deep gulfs drink,
Till the strength of the waves of the high tides humble
The fields that lessen, the rocks that shrink,
Here now in his triumph where all things falter,
Stretched out on the spoils that his own hand spread,
As a god self-slain on his own strange altar,
Death lies dead.

Further Reading

• Swinburne's A Foresaken Garden

Show Your Support for Susan Boyle

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Today, I came across a site that allows members to leave messages of support for Susan Boyle.

Please check it out and take the time to send a message to Susan.

Already, reports have come in that the wrong number was flashed for Susan so that people who voted were actually voting for two other acts, one of which was Diversity. This may have compromised Susan's chances of winning.

In the aftermath, let's all do our part to assure this gutsy lady that she has our admiration; let's support her so that she can go forward. Support Susan Boyle

Latest News on Susan Boyle: Susan Boyle's Recovery

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Susan is recovering nicely. Since this has been a global phenomenon, I'm including this video for those who are following Susan's journey.

Reports of Susan's supposed breakdown were highly exaggerated. She was exhausted and is taking a well-deserved rest.

Best wishes go out to Susan Boyle.

Proper Use of the Colon: Seven Rules for Using Colons

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Proper Use of the Colon: Seven Rules for Using Colons

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Tea Poem

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I came across this poem and wanted to share it with readers.

Tea Poem

I'll take my cup of tea
a memory as lovely as thee
and sit quietly
beneath this fading afternoon
my heart
like the teapot
holds so much
and I pour
one cup at a time.

(Author unknown)

photo credit: singhajaykr25

Piers Morgan Addresses Susan Boyle's Purported Breakdown and Gives the Real Story

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Piers Morgan Addresses Susan Boyle's Purported Breakdown and Gives the Real Story

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Automatic Writing--A Unique Writing Method

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Automatic Writing--A Unique Writing Method

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