Written on September 23rd, 2004 at 07:09 pm by Darren Rowse
Adsense Tips for Bloggers 4 - Increasing Traffic
This is part 4 in a series of posts on maximizing adsense revenue for bloggers. The full series is Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7 and Part 8.
I have argued the case for our equation for increasing Adsense Revenue
Adsense Revenue = Traffic Levels + High Paying Ads + Relevant Ads + Optimally Positioned and Designed Ads
I now will turn my attention to each of the four elements of good Adsense revenue in turn and give some practical easy to implement tips to improve each from my experience.
Increasing Traffic Levels is a key component to increasing Adsense revenue. As I wrote previously, ‘The more people that see you Adsense Ads, the more likelihood there is that someone will click on them.’
Increasing the readership of your blog is not as simple as it sounds, it takes time, patience and hard work (and sometimes a bit of luck) Having said that there are many things you can do to get your blog in front of a wider audience and there exposing the adsense messages on your site to more potential ‘clickers’. Here are a few tips…
- Quality, Interesting, Useful and Original Content - What are the blogs that you read the most? If you’re anything like me they are blogs that have quality content that ’scratches me where I itch’. This is essential to increasing your readership unless you have a pretty amazing ‘gimmick’ to bring readers in.
- Good Blog Design is really important if you want your blog to create a good first impression. With millions of other blogs and sites out there its worth some effort to make yours stand out. Also worth a read is Good Weblog Design and Layout.
- Link to others - be generous with your links to other bloggers big and small. You’ll be surprised how many links come back your way. This not only brings traffic from their sites but doesn’t hurt your ranking in Google.
- Comment on others blogs - Some of my most loyal readers came to my blog because I genuinely interacted with them on their blogs through comments. Hear me now, I say genuinely because its easy to spam in comments, but this will have the opposite effect of generating readers to your blog.
- Update Frequently - There is nothing that turns me off a blog faster than seeing that it hasn’t been updated for a month or more. Keep it rolling over with interesting content.
- Interact with Readers - Having an interActive blog that invites the involvement of readers is one way of generating repeat visitors. I’ve written a tip on InterActive Blogging including a number of interActive tools that you can use on your blog. Also check out this tip on using comments effectively to increase interactivity on your blog.
- Optimise for Search Engines - I can’t stress enough how important Search Engines are to increasing traffic, especially traffic that will click on your ads. I find that 95% of my traffic comes from Google and have found that anecdotal evidence suggests this traffic clicks through on Adsense ads at a higher rate than traffic from links on other blogs and sites. So work hard at getting listed and highly ranked on Search Engines.
- Add a signature to your outgoing email - Learn a lesson from Hotmail who have used signatures on the bottom of their users emails for years to promote their home page and generate interest in their product. Be careful though if you don’t want your worlds to collide!
- Web Rings - There are literally thousands of webrings that you can sign up for. I’m not sure how effective they are these days, but some people still swear by them.
- Add an RSS feed to your blog - more and more people are reading blogs without ever visiting them through News Aggregators that pick up information using RSS. Whilst this does not guarantee those reading through aggregators will visit your blog (and therefore see your Adsense Ads) it certainly increases the chances of them dropping by, especially if you invite comments and have internal links on your posts.
- List your site on Portals - There are a growing number of sites which exclusively list blogs. If you want people to find you its worth submitting your blog to be listed on them. Some focus on specific topics while others list blogs on a wide variety of topics (like Eaton Web and Globe of Blogs). Other portals like BlogShares and Blog Street also list a lot of blogs in different ways which might increase your blogs profile.
- Blog Search Engines and Indexes - Get yourself registered on sites like Blogdex, Technorati, Popdex and Daypop (they require RSS I think). These sites have features that allow people to search for blog entries via topic and keywords. They also list the most popular recent topics and each have other interesting features which can enhance your blogging experience.
- Start a Newsletter - Offer your readers a newsletter service to keep them up to date with your latest posts. I’ve found since adding a free weekly newsletter to my digicam blog that hundreds of readers have signed up for regular updates of my latest posts. Think about this - hundreds of people have given me permission to invite them to come back to my blog - every week!
- Get Involved in Blog Projects and Memes - From time to time other bloggers will invite your participation in a blog project of theirs. Get involved, support their project and you might find it pays off. On the flip side start your own blogging project or meme. Do something that is of service to other bloggers. I tried something like this with Underblogs and Blogger Idol.
- Get involved in other web forums - Genuinely participate in web forums and discussion pages on topics related to your blog. Many of these allow you to add a signature to your posts which raise your blogs profile.
- Promote your Posts - If you think you’ve written something worthwhile spend a few minutes letting others know about it. I regularly shoot other bloggers to notify them of what I’ve written if I think it will interest them. Think about it before you send the email and don’t bombard the same people constantly with every topic you write on - be selective, concise, polite and helpful with your emails but don’t be afraid to promote yourself.
- Add a ‘Email a Friend’ Option to your posts - make it easy for your readers to tell others about what you’ve written. I know this function gets used regularly on my blog and brings in new readers that I would never otherwise have been able to reach.
These are just some of the ideas that I’ve used and seen others use to increase the readership of a blog and thereby increase the exposure of Adsense ads to a wider audience.Many of the above tips were taken from my Blog Tips Series including the ‘Finding Readers’ Series.
What methods have your found to be effective at increasing the readership of your blog? What works for your and what doesn’t? What tips would you add to this collection?
Of course increasing traffic alone won’t greatly increase your Adsense revenue, but it can help! In our next Adsense Tip for Bloggers we will explore ways to generate High Paying Ads - the second component in our Adsense Revenue Equation.
The full series is at Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7 and Part 8.
48 Responses to “Adsense Tips for Bloggers 4 - Increasing Traffic”
dingdong
December 11th, 2004 2:00 am
PRETTY GOOD INFO I GOT LIKE 1000000 HITS WITH THIS GUIDE.
LivingRoom >> A space for Life
January 1st, 2005 11:51 pm
Adsense Tips for Bloggers 4 - Increasing Traffic
I have argued the case for our equation for increasing Adsense Revenue Adsense Revenue = Traffic Levels + High Paying Ads + Relevant Ads + Optimally Positioned and Designed Ads I now will turn my attention to each of the…
Leonivek
March 17th, 2005 12:23 pm
Amazing information! I will definitely use many of your tips on my blog. Although my blog is extremely new, I plan on devoted a lot of my time to it, but not getting a lot of traffic is discouraging. You’ve given me incentive to improve my site and to stick with it.
Thanks!
Carmine
April 18th, 2005 1:13 pm
Thanks for the great info! I will try all these things out.
Thanks
Ravi
April 24th, 2005 7:25 pm
Gr8, iam trying your instructions at mt tech blog
http://www.big2all.com/wordpress/
Alex Brown
April 28th, 2005 3:52 am
Awesome info, Darren, Thank You! I think to link it to my website, hope you do not mind.
Brian
May 6th, 2005 4:44 pm
I disagree with the linking comment..by my observation, a ton of outgoing links hurts your website’s PR..incoming are always welcome gravy, but outgoing dilute your strength, and page views (your pushing visitors off of your site)
Brian
Have a nice day!
Paintless Dent Repair Training
Mike
June 6th, 2005 12:44 am
Thanks for the insight here about increasing traffice to a blog. I’ve just started mine, and have found your advice to be extremely useful. I’m off to register my blog with as many directory sites as possible. :-)
kenneth
June 10th, 2005 7:36 pm
yes I think traffic is the most critical factor for success
But it is sooo hard to climb to a high ranking in google
kevin
June 10th, 2005 10:06 pm
how much traffic?
http://www.singapore-insurance.com
MacIke
July 25th, 2005 1:11 am
Thanks for the good information
http://www.planetisaac.com
michael quinn
July 25th, 2005 3:28 pm
these articles are great. very helpful in putting all the information together in one place
Alex Prkushkin
August 2nd, 2005 12:40 am
Well as always, great info. Thank you
Lora- www.all-she-wants.blogspot.com
August 13th, 2005 2:59 pm
Your tips are very well written.
I am working on increasing the traffic level. From upadating my blog design to researching new itneresting consumer information, it takes effort and times to make your blog perfect.
In short, I agree with you that we need to understand what our consumers want to see in our blog.
brad
August 21st, 2005 1:21 pm
Do you have any tips for the aftermath of July 22. The Google shake up has ad sense traffic and of course revenue to the advertiser down to 1/5 the amount prior to 7-22. Has a new course of action been discovered to regain the adsense positioning?
Adsense Tips for Bloggers 1: Blog Tips - enternetusers
August 28th, 2005 11:54 pm
[…] introductory comments - lets get stuck into the Adsense Tips for Bloggers! The full series is Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7 and Part 8. Filed under Adsense | Get theFree enternetusers Newsletter […]
Marsha Mellows
September 6th, 2005 12:38 pm
A very informative and helpful article.
Hot Gadgets Guy
September 19th, 2005 8:19 am
Good job. These tips are very informative.
clancy hughes
October 9th, 2005 6:03 am
I need help. This seems to be a start, thanks.
Ella
October 10th, 2005 5:52 am
The “using comments link” doesn’t work (the one on the OTHER blog that links back HERE).
That system is pretty annoying. Why redirect us?
Andy
October 28th, 2005 7:52 pm
Seems like a lot of these suggestions would work for ‘normal’ small business websites too as well as blogs.
Eliran
November 19th, 2005 8:26 pm
Good ideas for any business wishing to get new customers. Blogs let anyone be his own journalist, PR manager and marketing agency. Starting your own blog and implementing these remarkable suggestions does most of the job. The rest is up to your talent…
Darcie
April 10th, surf zone.9:46 pm
I think this might help me alot *crosses fingers*
thank you
adwin
May 7th, surf zone.5:23 pm
well said, well written articles. I never know until I read your blog. Thank you.
I am think how people here can start sharing traffic.;p
Mystikka
May 28th, surf zone.9:49 am
I thoroughly enjoy everything you have to say. There are so many ideas here to implement, I find that overall I need to be extremely patient with myself in the process and pace myself. Otherwise it’s discouraging when things take so long to take off…. and there’s that ‘crash and burn’ factor I’ve gotta look out for. Of course this is true for any project. Thank you for what you do here!
Many blessings.
http://earn-money-tips-for-all.blogspot.com
June 21st, surf zone.12:45 am
the article is really great ,but i think interActive comments dont work much ,first there are very few people who look in comments and by the time u answer them it takes a minute atleast
1 min = 1 user
probably seems to be a slow process
many blessings to you for the post
charlie
July 7th, surf zone.4:48 am
Thx for the great info…. gonna try the newsletter thing……
Malayshop.com
July 20th, surf zone.3:44 pm
Hi darren, I got my first income today. Although it just $0.43 cent. Really appreciate your tips. Wish me luck OK!
LinaA
Malaysia Store: http://www.malayshop.com/store/
My Blog: http://www.archik-photobooth.blogspot.com/
Dean
July 26th, surf zone.9:14 am
Fantastic tips. Sometimes I wonder if my blog is too specific as I cover a certain cellphone that recently came out, but the traffic keeps increasing everyday, so I guess I’ll stick with it and see what happens with Adsense. Thanks for the great blog!
Joseph
August 24th, surf zone.3:18 pm
Your site is wonderful. Im new to blogging and adsense. Definitely your site will help me a lot.
thanks.
Sudhir
September 24th, surf zone.6:44 am
traffic is the most important.others can still be done easily.
traffic is the name of the game.
miriguy
October 7th, surf zone.12:26 pm
oh my goodness. this is definitely one of the best post here. I need traffic..
My new mantra: Traffic + good content=more money!
hehehehehe, thanks Darren.
Ingvay
October 16th, surf zone.1:01 pm
Nice one. Written simple and to the point.
tony
November 17th, surf zone.8:06 am
Thanx so much for your help, man! I havent been making much from adsense at all, but still more than i ever thought. And to hear how much you’ve made excites me! I better get my but in gear and make my site groovier. Great tips!
jerome
November 25th, surf zone.2:08 pm
Great info, I am new in Blogs. I’ve never knew that blogging is so cool. Thanks Darren
EC
December 30th, surf zone.12:54 am
Thanks Darren. I will try those tips on my blog. :D
Resource Box
December 31st, surf zone.11:24 am
Darren, you forgot an easy one…to add “bookmark this” links on your posts. Another strategy that has worked for me is writing good profiles in sites like Amazon, Yahoo! Answers, etc. People click on those profiles and on the link back to my site.
Clyde Fernandes
February 1st, 2007 7:58 pm
Blog Search Engines and Indexes - Get yourself registered on sites like Blogdex, Popdex and Daypop
Blogdex — is re thinking check the link
Popdex — The links not valid
Daypop is on thanks for that im applying there, this post is not offend you but just to bring to your notice that its nto working,
Cheers I come by here now and then!
Garfeld
February 7th, 2007 2:32 am
Great information. I am fairly new to the blogging world and your site has consistently provided me with a wealth of information.
Berkay Dinçer
February 25th, 2007 10:32 am
Love your work!
You have some broken links in the post:
Eaton
Daypop
Aaron
April 9th, 2007 3:36 pm
Great list! Though some points were too broad to be points. I found that within the realm of web design images sell, images, good looking images demand that your eyes pay them attention. Watch your image placement on your pages. Use images for ads but do mix it up, use them also to bring your readers eye to the text that you want them to read. After all the ads are what we want our readers to click on after reading first our content. We need to be content and reader centric as writers. So, images, watch your image placement. Now you’ll probably go to my site and notice there aren’t many images…dang…I’m such a hypocrite.
A
kweenkong
May 31st, 2007 2:48 pm
I, too, have found adding my posts at social bookmark sites such as Delicious, Netscape and Newsvine bring a nice bit of traffic to both of my blogs.
While my South Side Star blogspot (for news and pop culture) already have reached a Google Page Rank 5, I’m still working to get my new one, Blog Band-Aids, up in traffic.
I’ll be implementing your tips with more vigor, Darren. Thanks so much for sharing!
‘kweenkong’
http://blogbandaids.blogspot.com
Jim G
August 2nd, 2007 9:29 am
I agree with yours tips. I’ve experimented with adsense position a lot on my blogs and you really do want to make it fit in with your website. Newsletter is kind of a cool idea. What you should do is go even further and mention affiliate sites in the newsletter if your blog fits a product category. But then again it really depends on the type of blog you have. Good tips though, thanks.
Jiovanni
August 24th, 2007 1:19 pm
I just wanted to say thanks Darren for this website in general. More specifically, these tips are very useful. I’ve been writing notes like crazy. I’m extremely new to this. I don’t even have ads yet on my site. I’m trying to absorb as much information as possible to make my blog the best it can be before even putting an ad on it. If anyone wants to look at it and give me some ideas on how to generate more traffic that would be great. Thanks!
http://rppf.blogspot.com
Jiovanni
August 27th, 2007 5:45 am
Oh scratch the part about me not even having ads on my site. I just got approve for some google ads! :)
myglitch
September 18th, 2007 5:43 pm
I’m not new to this blogging thing but mobile blogging is totally different. The party that’s earning is our network provider. Now that I’m here, your site is a big help to us. Keep it up.
Tom
September 23rd, 2007 11:58 am
Thanks everyone I appreciated the comments. There were a lot of people here that have very useful information. I will have to bookmark this blog for future reference.
Darwyn4
October 10th, 2007 1:52 am
Great tips, man! especially on this page, for me, because i just started a blog and i need to attract some readers :D
thanks!
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