5 Simple Steps to Make a Bigger Splash
Commanding Influence: Build A Strong Online Presence
A few nights ago, I was chatting with a friend on Skype when he asked me this incredibly important question about his blog:
“Why don’t I get any traffic or back links? Are my posts really that bad?”
Most bloggers wonder this at some point. You dig through your Google Analytics reports and you stare at day after day of 30 or 50 visitors and you can’t seem to get above those numbers.
You sit with a blog that seems great and yet you only see a fraction of the audience that you really want.
What in the world can we do to change that? How can we get some more people to stop by our site and interact with us? How can we get our articles in front of the masses? How do we make a bigger splash in the blogosphere? How do we do it?
5 Steps to Reach More People with Your Message
Here’s one exercise to get you going. It’s a simple practical exercise that I do nearly every day that results in about 20 or more unique visitors per day…sometimes even more.
- Look Around: Locate five blogs with a good community of at least 500 RSS subscribers.
- Get Involved: Leave a good, solid comment on each of their most recent articles.
- Provide Value: Ensure that the comment is at least three sentences long…and proof read it.
- Engage Others: In your comment, ask a question related to the article and check back later for a response.
- Be Genuine: Use a real name. Brand yourself as a credible authority and then branding your site will be easy.
Put all of those tips into one comment on a site that has 500+ readers and you will probably get 4 or 5 visitors from it. Do that 20 times on blogs that size and you will probably get between 50 – 100 visitors.
Also take note that these are the types of visitors you want at your blog. They will likely become repeat visitors to your site because they are obviously already interested in blogs and in engaging with the authors if they are perusing the comments section of an already large blog.
Let me Mentor You to Greater Success
When your done with these five steps, stop back by here and let us know what five blogs you visited. Let me view your comments and mentor you into creating the greatest possible impact for your website and for your brand.
I can almost guarantee that this 10 minute exercise will bring in at least four or five visitors per site that you interact with. This practice works wonders.
Success Demands Hard Work and Dedication
The principle is that you’ve got to be engaging with others if you want others to engage with you. You’ve got to get out and about and start exposing as many people as you can to who you are by leaving well-written and engaging comments at popular blogs. This is one of the absolute easiest ways to build blog relationships and to drive traffic to your site.
And remember that if you want success that your going to have to work for it. It’s not going to come overnight. Let me leave you all with a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson:
“The heights by great men reached and kept Were not attained by sudden flight, But they, while their companions slept, Were toiling upward in the night.”
Group Discussion:
Yup. You guessed it. I want to know where you left your comments. In fact, this article can be the first on your list. Let me help you grow.
Nicholas Cardot
Nick uses his blog Site Sketch 101 to express his passion for helping bloggers and webmasters connect with real people through brilliant designs, unique content, and genuine creativity. Nicholas Cardot has 199 post(s) at Site Sketch 101
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41 Vibrant Comments
I would love to hear yours!
Ron Boracay said:
Well said Nick!. And for me,greater success means a lot of sacrifices.
Nice post Nick!
My Latest Blog Post: Boracay Map – Boracay Island Map
Nicholas Cardot said:
Ron Boracay –> It does take a lot of sacrifices. That is absolutely the truth. It’s hard work to make it to the top.
Eric Bannatyne said:
These are some excellent tips. I’m pretty sure that it’s from doing this that I first went up quickly from 20 to 200-300 visitors per day.
So, I know that this works, and everyone should do this.
My Latest Blog Post: Creating an Awesome Website Design With Gimp
Nicholas Cardot said:
Eric Bannatyne –> I agree. The key is to find new large blogs and bring value to their community.
Sernan said:
Yup! The tips above are very helpful, in fact site sketch is one of the sites that has a good community. I got some referrals coming from this site. A good start indeed for newbies.
My Latest Blog Post: Failed I do’s
Nicholas Cardot said:
Sernan –> The fun part is that these five tips can be applied to a lot more than just commenting. Comments are just the first start to working these principles.
Roschelle said:
Excellent tips. And yes, they will create a splash. I’ve seen it first hand. I think I can safely say that I visit at least 50-60 blogs daily. I don’t comment on all of them. The 5-10 really popular blogs I do comment on always send traffic my way. That’s why it’s so important to take the time to leave a thoughtful, insightful and grammatically correct comment.
My Latest Blog Post: I’m A Geek and Proud of It!
Nicholas Cardot said:
Roschelle –> That’s exactly right. I receive a lot of notes letting me know that people are receiving visitors from their comments on Site Sketch 101. I know that this works. It works for me and it works for the readers here. It’s a great way to launch out into promoting yourself online.
Dana@Online Knowledge said:
We can get many traffic from new blog commenting. It is because new blog admin usually tend to visit commentator link.
My Latest Blog Post: ShoutMix as Guest Book
Nicholas Cardot said:
Dana@Online Knowledge –> Not just the author or admin but many other members in those communities might see us and visit us and engage with us.
Arisu said:
Not only blogs, but blogger forums and forums related to your main subjects are great to meet people, introduce your blog and gain a few readers.
Other internet communities are very supportive to its members, like deviantart -for illustration and art-.
So everyone can make an even bigger splash if they try to!
Stefan said:
Personally I have had a bit mixed experiences when it comes to forums. In forums about TV series the visitors never tend to click through to your site. Maybe because it’s more difficult to share great information when you are sharing your thoughts on TV.
When it comes to MMO and blogging on the other hand, you can get a lot of visitors by just sharing good content.
My Latest Blog Post: Get Free Content From Geocities
Nicholas Cardot said:
Stefan –> I really don’t make much use of forums myself either but I’ve heard a lot of good responses from some others who have.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Arisu –> That’s exactly right. Plus these five principles don’t have to be applied to just commenting. They can be used for guest posting and other things.
Matthew Simmons said:
This is great info. Seemingly simple, but it’s still something a lot of people miss.
When I’m using Google reader for all of the blogs I follow, it’s not convenient to comment. But, there is a new extension for chrome that opens up all new articles from your Google reader account in a new tab. This makes commenting convenient.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Matthew Simmons –> There is a bookmark that you can put in your bookmark list that opens your next Google Reader page. It’s under the goodies section. It’s great for going to the next article and right on their page instead of going to it in your digger and only getting the article.
vasiauvi said:
Now I don’t know what to say to have at least “three sentences long”.
I just want to say Thanks!
Nicholas Cardot said:
vasiauvi –> Sometimes a thanks is all that is necessary, but when you can engage more thoroughly you can really connect with a lot more people.
Gabe | freebloghelp.com said:
I’ve recently worked adding comments to other blogs as a part of my routine. It actually takes me longer to visit all these sites than it does for me to write my own posts.
Aside from the blogs that regularly exchange comments with me, I’m commenting on 20-30 other sites right now and am monitoring regularly. The blogs that give me the best returns will stay on my to-do list. Hoping to cut this number down to 10 in a few weeks.
My Latest Blog Post: Have a new project in mind? Start today!
Nicholas Cardot said:
Gabe | freebloghelp.com –> It’s a good practice to be in. I think it’s terrific that you currently comment on 20-30 other sites. That probably takes a lot of work.
Teen Blogger said:
Nice Post Nicholas.
I actually get all of my traffic just by leaving comments on related blogs.
It definatly does help bring in around 40 to 50 visiters a day. Just leave nice comments that add value.
My Latest Blog Post: Blogger vs Wordpress- Who’s The Boss?
Nicholas Cardot said:
Teen Blogger –> That’s great. I think that too often people are overlooking this important aspect of blogging. People need to look outside of their own blogs and connect with people.
David Shaw said:
Great Post!
I spend a good 30 mins a day reading blog post and leaving comments!
My Latest Blog Post: Weekly Roundup 19th Oct
Nicholas Cardot said:
David Shaw –> That’s good. That should definitely help out with connecting and engaging other bloggers.
Sat Chen said:
Great article. I have tried this on a couple of site and it has helped me by bringing in quite a few visitors
Nicholas Cardot said:
Sat Chen –> Great. Don’t underestimate the simple tools like this to find and connect with new readers.
Andrew said:
Great article Nick and I love the concept. I’d like to ask though, lets say for instance that you’ve been doing all the things you say to do but the traffic still doesn’t come. Then what do you suggest people do? Start paying to promote, throw in the towel, something else?
My Latest Blog Post: What’s the Secret to Make Money Online?
Nicholas Cardot said:
Andrew –> There are actually tons of things that can be done. Commenting is only one small example of it. Commenting, Guest Posting, Paid Advertising, Banner Exchanges. These are the first few ideas that come to my mind.
jan geronimo said:
I comment on all my friends blogs. They’ve been with me since they one. And I love keeping them. It’s been proving to be such a challenge though because over the months more and more are added to that list of buddies.
Of course, I balance this by going to big blogs like Problogger, Daniel Scocco’s, Copyblogger and lots more.
My Latest Blog Post: New Twitter Social Proof: Are You on Everyone’s List Yet?
Nicholas Cardot said:
jan geronimo –> It certainly does become a challenge. I know exactly what that feels like. It’s great though to begin developing a large list of buddies that you can work with.
John Samuel said:
I like the quote by Ralph Waldo and one more thing which I would like to add is not to give up at any point of time
My Latest Blog Post: How to search Tagged Messages in Thunderbird?
Nicholas Cardot said:
John Samuel –> Often times people give up way too soon. Studies show that the majority of blogs that are now successful are blogs that have been around for a while. Overnight success is all about working through the night…not building an empire in one night. Many people have it backwards.
jan geronimo said:
Ah, where do I left my comments? Big blogs – problogger, copyblogger, men with pens, daniel scocco’s blog. But here’s the thing – if only my comment won’t be buried way down the page. I’d get back and hope for a better placement.
But my favorites are blog whose authors take the time to reply to comments. Like you. I feel more compelled to make return visits. The Do Follow benefit is just aperitif. Even without it, I’d return if the content is great and the author is accessible to his readers.
My Latest Blog Post: You’re the World’s Coolest Blogger If Only…
Nicholas Cardot said:
jan geronimo –> I love responding to the readers here. I’m convinced that many of the readers here have a wealth of information to share and are in need of information to grown themselves. I can only learn from them if I encourage them to share and I can only meet their needs if I can get them to let me know what they are.
ZXT said:
Excellent tips Nick. Next week I will apply your tips and see how it goes.
At the moment, I leave my comments at ExtremeJohn.com, Blogengage.com, here at SiteSketch101 and some other blogs.
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sudan said:
I’m not that old user of blog but during this short period of time my interest towards it has increased and i too wanna make my blog to be visited by as many people as possible.Yeah!these were surely helpful ideas.I will try to make optimum utilization of what you said and let you know how does it work?
Keep posting such information on your blog i really enjoy it.
Chad said:
Another great post Nick. I read this a few days ago and have since made it a point to get more active in commenting on other sites.
To my surprise I really have seen an increase in traffic to my site as a result.
Thanks again for the help!
My Latest Blog Post: The Importance of Music
Nicholas Cardot said:
Chad –> That’s great. I love to hear that and I’m glad that it’s working out for you.
Chris said:
I always comment daily on blogs like Problogger, Daily Blog Tips, and this blog and I get anywhere from 2-10 visitors just from those three. I’m thinking of making a list of blogs with large feed subscriptions (at least 1000 subscribers) and then leaving one comment a day on each. I think that should bring at least 50 visitors each day to my blog. Great post.
My Latest Blog Post: The Top 10 Gang Movies Of The 90’s
Self Improvement said:
Hey Nick,
This post reminds me that in order to get new results, you have to try new things. If we sit around just waiting for visitors and don’t get any, then we need to do something different. Thanks for the tips.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Self Improvement » That’s exactly right. We’ve got to break outside of our comfort zone and mix things up a little bit.