7 Comments

Comment by Mark S. Luckie on July 4, 2008 at 1:31pm

There are a couple of things you can do like make sure blog is optimized for search engines, submit to social bookmarking sites and most of all have good, original content. I am, however, against raising numbers just for the sake of raising numbers. You or your editor should evaluate why you want the 3000 hits and what impact it will have on the blog.

Comment by Will Sommer on July 5, 2008 at 5:40pm

I agree, Mark, that original content is the most important thing. One of my challenges this year will be encouraging everyone to produce that instead of relying only on links to other sites.

I don't think there's anything wrong with just raising numbers, though. I go to a school with 6,000 undergrads, so I think there's an untapped market that the blog isn't reaching but easily can.

Comment by Patrick Thornton on July 6, 2008 at 8:42am

@Will,

What kind of content do these blogs have?

My advice echoes some of what has already been said. Make sure your SEO is high. Gte that done immediately. It takes months to pay off.

Next, make sure you have good content. Good content drives traffic. There is no way around that. Random musings about navels will not drive traffic.

Next, you need to socially market this blog around the Web to interested people. Making a blog popular is a lot about awareness. How many students know that your blog even exists? Make sure as many as possible do.

Next, you need to post on similar blogs, using your real name, while linking back to your blog. This drives serious traffic. I routinely leave comments on other industry blogs using my real name, and I always link back to my blog (http://www.patthorntonfiles.com/blog).

That link right there will be worth some traffic. Now do the same on other student blogs in the area. Remember blogging is a community. Don't be afraid to be apart of it. Other bloggers are not your competition.

Comment by Zac Echola on July 8, 2008 at 2:06pm

"Next, you need to post on similar blogs, using your real name, while linking back to your blog. This drives serious traffic. I routinely leave comments on other industry blogs using my real name, and I always link back to my blog (http://www.patthorntonfiles.com/blog)."

Pat is spot on here. This is the single most important thing you can do. Do NOT be an island on the Internet.

Get out there and interact with others on the Web. The buzzword "conversation" is thrown around a lot by bloggers, but for the most part we mean it. Have a conversation, interact with people.

Always remember that you're not building a Web site, you're building or joining a community. Don't worry about traffic. Worry about in what ways you can connect with others.

The traffic numbers are just a record of the number of computers coming to your site, but the people behind those screens actually come to your site because you may have something they're seeking. Don't forget that human element.

It's networks of people, sharing ideas, where ideas turn into action. Wired Journalists would never have happened if those of us never tapped our networks to grow the site. It would have just been random ideas some of us rambled about on our sites. It just took that extra human connection to flip the light bulb for us.

Comment by Matt Neznanski on July 8, 2008 at 3:23pm

All of these are great points. I'm writing them down to ask myself if I'm doing this. Ask for some ads announcing the blog in the print edition and work hard to deliver for your readers.
Good luck and post here to let us know how you're doing.
P.S. Add Patrick, Mark, Zac and others to your reader for inspiration and best practices.

Comment by Will Sommer on July 17, 2008 at 2:46pm

@Patrick
You made a good checklist for me to run down. I think our SEO is pretty good (we rank first for 'georgetown blog', and come up high on commonly-searched terms like area restaurants), but it can always be higher. Ditto on student awareness--I plan on doing some old-school, offline marketing with flyers once the semester begins.

Finally, thanks for reminding me that bloggers aren't my rivals. Even though, like many of you I expect, I read internet evangelists like Jeff Jarvis, it's easy to forget that the internet has changed the nature of competition. Especially in the cut-throat college paper community.

@Zac
Thanks for the encouragement. I agree with you that community and having conversations with readers and other bloggers are critical--a blog can get a lot of hits one day from a well-Digged story, but successful websites require human links with readers.

@Matt
Thanks for the link! I already read Mark's, and I've come by Patrick Thornton's before but hadn't subscribed. I added Patrick and Zac to my RSS feeds.

Comment by Paul Balcerak on July 17, 2008 at 2:59pm

Will,

Glad you found that Facebook link helpful. Here's one on blogs that I just-so-happened to come across today. I haven't checked out the blog yet, but I'm shooting over there next.

Good luck!

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