This guest post is by Ranchy Stephan

There’s a famous cartoon where a dog explains that he gave up blogging to go back to pointless, incessant barking. It’s a blow below the belt for bloggers struggling to gain a following, but there’s a lesson in there somewhere.

There are currently 122.6 million blog readers in the United States, predicted to go up to 150.4 million by 2014.

Even so, 60 to 80 percent of new blogs are still being abandoned by their owners inside of the first month.

More than 50% of the internet users is USA are people who read blogs

By the time three months go by, a full 95 percent of new blogs end up as just so much more junk cluttering up the internet.

There’s a good and simple reason why readers gravitate to a few popular blogs while the majority remain shunned. It is called expertise, which means that people will only listen when they feel the blogger understands the subject. They expect the blogger to share expertise and provide information which they didn’t know previously.

This is why subject-oriented blogs tend to do better than blogs where the subject of each post is vastly different. This topical style is just one of five major points which have a major impact on whether the blog has a loyal following.

The second issue is about having the blog plug-ins needed to allow readers to post comments easily. Some blogs require people to register and login first, while others may have a simple one-time moderation requirement. Then there is plug-ins like do-follow which allows bloggers to reciprocate to comments on each other’s blogs as part of an SEO strategy.

Reciprocation to comments posted by blog readers is just as important. When readers find that the blogger is responding to posted comments, it motivates them to come back and talk some more. This is how loyalty gets built, and readers start turning up every day just to see what’s going on and which new post has the most comments where they can add their own 2 cents.

Getting readers and visitors to subscribe to feeds is probably the single most important factor that fosters loyalty. Subscribers are essentially letting you know that they want to read every new post. It doesn’t get any more loyal than this.

To gain this loyalty, Bill has posted one video – 5 most important SEO tips for blog posts, just for the subscribers of  TheTrafficProfessor.

For viewing that video, one has to be a subscriber of TheTrafficProfessor. However, that’s easy enough by clicking through and jumping through the hoops.

Then there’s the incredible impact of social media, which is currently the second highest traffic source for blogs after search engines. Whenever a new post is published, a link has to be instantly posted to all the major social networks.

Social media is not replacing blogs, but the same 122.6 million blog readers are also on the networks. So ask blog readers to follow the blog’s social accounts on Twitter, Facebook and Youtube. Letting readers know about new blog posts is essential to maintain a loyal following, whether it is done via subscriber feeds and/or social network updates.

Wilby testing search engine tool Soovle

Sitting in a session at Blog World Expo presented by my friend, Stephan Spencer and Jennifer Miner on SEO for beginners.

Stephan just pointed out a cool search engine tool that I had never heard of – Soovle.

It works like Google’s suggested search terms except it goes one, um, 7 steps farther.

Soovle will give you suggestions from Youtube, Bing, Yahoo, Wikipedia, Amazon and Answers, too!

That’s kind of neat.

Writing something? Need ideas for what words or key phrases to use? Soovle seems to be a good place to start.

Now, I am wondering what other kinds of nuggets I will pick up while here.

I didn’t know this.

Wilby looking for a FREE WordPress Theme

Sitting here in a session at Blog World Expo I learned that 8 of the top 10 search results in Google for a free WordPress theme will give you (FREE) a theme that has malware that is installed or some sort of spam code.

Thanks, Google for making sure results are relevant!

There is, however, a place where the cheapskates (that’s me) can get a free WordPress theme that does NOT have malware or spam code.

1,448 FREE WordPress themes – remember, you get what you pay for.

These 1400+ themes have been downloaded more than 39 million (count ‘em) times. That’s a lot.

The themes are clean, and approved by Automattic…creators of WordPress.

Need a free WordPress theme?

Start here.

Getting a good theme is absolutely fundamental to getting good traffic.

Repeat after me…Wordpress.

Lots of people ask me, “Bill, what’s your Google Page rank?”

“I dunno.”

“You don’t know your Google Page Rank?”

“Um, no.”

Checking your Google Page Rank

“Why not? Doesn’t everyone want to know their Google Page rank?”

“Beats me. What I care about is how much traffic I get. And is it relevant or not.”

“What do you mean?”

“Who cares what Google thinks of me. I am sure they don’t want to know what I think of them. I care what my readers think.”

“Don’t you care if you can be found or not? And doesn’t Google control that?”

“Yes, I care whether I can be  found or not. But Google is not the only search engine. And there is something that is better than Google search engine traffic.”

“There is! What?”

“I answer that question in TheTrafficProfessor.”

But for those who want to know their Google Page Rank….you can start here.

But, in the time it takes you to check it…you’d have been better off writing another post, adding another image, reaching out toe a fellow blogger or doing more research on another blog post.

That’s what I think about Google Page Rank.

Traffic Professor Teaching Blog as a Platform for Writers

Blogging is the platform of choice for writers/authors.

Even if I do say so myself, I made that point quite clear when I spoke to the High Desert Branch of the California Writers Club this past weekend (October 8th.)

How to Get Good Web Traffic in the High Desert

and a link to the audio part 1 and part 2.

The participation was great. There was quite a buzz after I was finished as the 70-some authors and writers learned what it would take to make a blog their platform of choice to get more readers, to get an agent, to get published, to get paid to write.

They learned why a blog is the social media of choice, why a blog trumps Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and Twitter.

We covered a LOT of ground in the 75 minute lecture and 25 minutes of Q&A.

All 20 books I carried with me disappeared in a matter of minutes. Thank goodness I got paid for them, too! That does NOT always happen. I mean, people do NOT always pay for them.

Here is the link again to the power point presentation for those who attended.

How to Get Good Web Traffic in the High Desert

and a link to the audio part 1 and part 2.

Need more information?

Go to TheTrafficProfessor and buy my online course. It’s a small investment with HUGE possible returns. Really. It works.

The Traffic Professor will be speaking at the High Desert Branch of the California Writers Club (scroll down) on October 8th, 2011.

If you live in/near the area, please come out to meet me, ask questions, learn more about blogging, platform building or to just chill.

Traffic Professor at High Desert Valley

My topic is

Blogging as a platform for writers, still the king of Social Media

In this one hour presentation, including 15 mins for Q&A I will cover the following topics:

1. Four reasons why a blog is the social media platform of choice for writers.

2. Four biggest obstacles to getting a blog started.

3. Four key ingredients to attracting significant traffic to a blog/web site.

4. Four next steps every writer must take to bring attention to their work.

I have taken 10 different and unrelated blog topics to more than 1 million unique visitors each, and well over 50 million views overall.  I have two published books, and have addressed Mexico’s largest Writers’ Conference, Asia’s Largest Publishing Convention, and have spoken in Thailand, New York City, as well as to many of the California Writers Club branches.

The event will be held at the Apple Valley Branch Library at 10 a.m. on Saturday, October 8, 2011.

Call Carol Warren at (760)242-3367) or email to califcarol@verizon.net

President Bob Isbill at  (760)242-4148) or email to risbill@aol.com

20258 Hwy 18 Ste 430-PMB 281

Apple Valley, CA 92307

I created this video – 5 most important SEO tips for blog posts for subscribers to TheTrafficProfessor.

Wilby applying 5 most important SEO tips for blog posts

After applying these 5 tips to the post I created, within 2 days and for 2 terms the post showed up on the first page of Google search…one was #8 and just below the fold (depending on the size of your screen) and the other was #3 above the fold (scroll down) no matter how you look at it.

To view this video – 5 most important SEO tips for blog posts, you will need to be a subscriber to TheTrafficProfessor.

That’s easy enough by clicking through and jumping through the hoops.

Then…you can apply the same 5 most important SEO tips for blog posts to your blogs and watch them appear on the front page of big G, Bing,  Yahoo as well.

Happy blogging.

Wilby getting web traffic and making money from his blog

I just finished two posts related to how to create a blog.

1. How to create a blog – a tutorial

and

2. 5 questions a problogger is not afraid of when creating a blog.

I promised in the second post I would pose two questions I’d rather  be asked of every blogger: wannabes, was, is, or hoping to make money at bloggers instead of just “how to create a blog.”

I wish everyone, anyone would come to me with a blog in hand, er, online, and ask

1. “Bill, can you teach me how to get traffic to my blog?”

2. “Bill, can you teach me how to make money blogging?”

Getting web traffic is what this problogger knows how to do best. Check out the traffic professor to get started on that. It’s a 45-minute free webinar-vide0 thingy (technical word).

Making money (not hand over fist, but enough to pay my Silicon Valley mortgage) is what I know how to do.

Check out this 50 post series on How to blog for money to get started.

These two things , getting web traffic and making money are the things I can teach as well.

Oh, and if you’re having trouble creating your blog even after watching the tutorial and the webinar and reading my blog for money series, please give me a call and I will gladly work with you.

You can contact me after/before checking out my blog consulting rates.

Wil.by increasing his blog traffic

I am offering a free WEBINAR on 5+ Timeless SEO strategies on how to increase traffic to your blog.

Lots of things have gone on in the blogosphere since the Panda updates – all 6 of them. Yeah, there has been more than one and another is on its way!

I will discuss things that have changed and things that have not and most likely never will.

I spent the day working on my power point slides for (more…)