Traffic Building for Beginning Bloggers

by Elizabeth

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Trafﬁc Building for Beginning Bloggers (How to Win Friends and Avoid Making Enemies) Saturday, September 14, 13

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Who Am I? Elizabeth Urello Happiness Engineer for Automattic @eurello [email protected] Saturday, September 14, 13

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Introductory Q’s • For you: Website or blog? • For me: Why trafﬁc building rather than SEO? Saturday, September 14, 13

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STEP ONE: FIND YOUR PEOPLE Saturday, September 14, 13

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Who Are You Looking For? • Readers who share your interests. • Readers who need the information that you have. • Readers who share your voice, perspective, sense of humor, lifestyle, etc. Saturday, September 14, 13

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How to Find Them? • Browse, browse, browse! Read, read, read! • Explore comment sections/blogrolls on sites that you love. • Search for the keywords that you think others will use to search for you. • The WordPress.com Reader, WordPress.com Topics, The Daily Post. Saturday, September 14, 13

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Saturday, September 14, 13

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Not Procrastinating Saturday, September 14, 13

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STEP TWO: INTRODUCE YOURSELF Saturday, September 14, 13

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Be a Good Guest • Comment with something substantial and on-topic. • Don’t link-beg: don’t be that kid. • Interact with the other commenters. • Reblog others’ work and respond to it at length (pingbacks and trackbacks). Saturday, September 14, 13

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Trackback module: Pingbacks in a comment section: Saturday, September 14, 13

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Eventually, you will intrigue someone . . . Saturday, September 14, 13

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STEP THREE: PREPARE FOR COMPANY Saturday, September 14, 13

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• Write! • Pay attention to what your readers like, and give them more. • Blog about what others are blogging about (or don’t). • Reply to your commenters with substantial comments -- keep the conversation going. • Capitalize on a trafﬁc spike. Be a Good Host Saturday, September 14, 13

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Now Everything Is Going Swimmingly. Saturday, September 14, 13

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STEP FOUR: SPREAD THE LOVE Saturday, September 14, 13

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Be Smart About Social Media • Know how your social networks differ -- family, friends, co-workers, etc. • Don't exhaust your followers with irrelevant information. • Write original material for each service as well. • Publicize, sharing buttons, and more! Saturday, September 14, 13

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Post shared on Facebook via Publicize: Sharing buttons: Saturday, September 14, 13

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By now, you should be very popular But should you still need some help . . . Saturday, September 14, 13

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Extras • Giveaways • Challenges • Polls • Series Saturday, September 14, 13

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Case Study: ModCloth.com Saturday, September 14, 13

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Forget all that, and just entertain yourself! And but also... Saturday, September 14, 13

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Resources • The WordPress.com Topics pages: http://en.wordpress.com/read/topics/ • The Daily Post: http://dailypost.wordpress.com/ • WordPress.com support (step-by-step guides for WordPress features): http://en.support.wordpress.com/ • All About SEO & WordPress: http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2013/03/22/seo-on- wordpress-com/ Saturday, September 14, 13