My Biggest Blogging Mistake
In the 30 days I've been blogging I've really only made one mistake. With that said, some may not even call it a mistake as much as inexperience. The mistake was trying to promote my NotSoBoring Challenge without enough traffic to make it successful. I knew I would have to advertise the Challenge, but it turned out those people who I asked to participate were the only ones that did. I expected several other people to jump on board which simply didn't happen.
There has to be a big draw or benefit to blog readers/authors to get reasonable participation. Whether you give away a cool prize like a Wii or substantial sum of cash, or even a donation to charity for participation, there just has to be something to hook your readers into participating. For people like John Chow its easy since he's got such a large reader base. Think about this for a second. John gets ~4000 uniques a day and has only gotten ~400 links back to his blog via his link back promotion. Sure that's a ton of links but not compared to his overall traffic.
For me it's been easier to take up offers of other high traffic sites on their review offers. I get a couple links and a little bit of traffic. When you're just starting out that's definitely the way to go unless you're Mitch over at Harpzon. He's got a load of cash to dump into his blog and the content to back it up.
Hi Nathan,
I am sorry I missed your offer, but don’t be too hard on yourself. Blogging takes a lot of work, time, and contacting of other people to make it a success.
I officially got started blogging in December 2005 and have been spending several hours per day on it ever since (I manage 8 blogs). Still, it is the contact with other bloggers that helps to build your site, so keep at it and you’ll do very well.
I’ll be back to read some more stuff too.
Regards,
MattK
I guess my point was that a new site like mine shouldn’t try to run a contest / challenge until there is reasonable traffic coming. Most people, including myself, don’t have the time to devote to promoting a contest/challenge to make it successful.
Join the club. My stupid contest was pretty much a failure do to the lack. I have to rethink my strategy and maybe I can shoot for the 10,000 hits in a few hours that Bob got. Anyways. We are in it together to try and get higher views. Good Luck
Adam
TheAdamBox.com
As a newbie blogger, I’m amking quite a few mistakes myself. But maybe one of the big guys will vote us “Most Screwed Up Bloggers” and get us a lot of attention.
In the meantime, hang in there.
I thought about running a contest but with few regular visitors it would be pointless. There’s no harm in trying though. Good luck with your blog.
I’m kicking off a week of thanks on Sunday, but not for traffic or money. Just to get people thinking. Check it out.
I just wanted to start some positivity out there….sounds like I belong ing the 60’s just typing that. LOL
” …take up offers of other high traffic sites on their review offers… ”
Hi there,
If I’m interpreting your words above, does this mean that some blogging communities will review a person’s blog?
I’ve just started and am trying to get traffic to my site, but it doesn’t seem to be happening.
Thank you very much for your time and comments.
annieo
Annieo, There are several sites that will either link or review your site if you review their site first. Check out my post ( http://www.notsoboringlife.com/reviews/selling-my-soul-for-links-batch-3/ ) for several type sites.
Hope this helps.
My blog relatively new as well and trying to get the word out about is definitely challenging business to someone that is new to blogging. I’ve thought about a contest in the future, but for now I’m sticking with content/design/link building. Hopefully that’s the right approach for now.
I enjoyed your site and have added your RSS.
I’m still trying to get the hang of this blog thing. I don’t get many visitors but keep reading up on how to increase traffic. Thanks for the hints.
I think the hardest thing is to generate initial momemtum.
How long before you start seeing results?
1 week, 1 month, 6 months?
Hello i have recently started a blog
, How can i promote it to get more traffic?