by Keng Hui Tan, 7/1/2006
The ability to drive traffic to your blog without using search engines is the best safety net you can have. Search engines' algorithm changes every now and then, it is not easy to follow them. While on-page and off-page optimization is always important, you should also be equipped with skills to drive traffic without waiting for search engines. We will harness 5 underestimated powers to drive traffic to your blog. All can be done immediately and will bring you good amount of traffic.
1. Bookmark your pages using various Social Bookmarking Services.
This is the first thing you have to do if you have not done so already. Signup with Social Bookmarking Services and bookmark every of your page. Do them slowly; do not attempt to submit all your pages in one day as you will annoy other users. Submit two to three of your pages everyday and track the traffic. Making your pages visible in Social Bookmarking Services usually brings immediate traffic within a few minutes after submitting. Do not forget to tag your keywords appropriately. Tagging allows other users to locate your page after your submission. Some of the popular Social Bookmarking Services are:
- Del.icio.us
- Technorati
- Digg.com
- Furl.net
- Spurl.net
- Ma.gnolia.com
You may also consider using OnlyWire.com which allows you to add pages into many Bookmarking Services at once.
2. Write articles and submit them to article directories.
This is the most popular technique used by bloggers to get their blog noticed widely. If you have been looking for inbound links, submitting articles to article directories will quickly build your inbound links. Organize your blog content, group some similar topics together and you have a good article to submit. Always submit only useful and helpful article. Some of the popular article directories are:
- Ezine Articles
- Article City
- Valuable Content
- Isnare
Write only articles that will benefit readers. Give them some action points that they can start doing immediately. Your objective is to solve the readers' problem. Inspire them to take action rather than just read. Establish a boundary on how much you feel comfortable to share if you have only limited resources or your resources are guarded secrets. Remember to always add value to your readers and respect their time spent on reading your article. Make sure to include a link to your blog so that readers can follow for more information.