Building Site Traffic

So, I have been trying to figure out a number of ways that I can build site traffic.

I mentioned last week that I have doubled my traffic in a couple of months. Here are some of the things that I have done that have made a huge difference.

1. I write on a more regular and consistent basis. If I want people to visit, I have to continue to write. Not only do I write for my blog a lot, I maintain OfficeProductNews.net, I write for HP and I write for other publications. Every little bit helps.
2. FriendFeed - I just started, but I have seen some traffic already. You can subscribe to my FriendFeed if you like. Of course... I would prefer you just subscribe to the right. But, I can't deny that I have gotten some traffic this way.
3. StumbleUpon - I have had thousands of hits from StumbleUpon. I must admit that I am not as good as I should be about recommending sites, but the toolbar they have is pretty good. If you want to add me as a friend, my StumbleUpon Page is at http://coreyasmith.stumbleupon.com/. If you would like me to Stumble a page for you to get more traffic, let me know and I'll tag it and write a note for you.
4. FuelMyBlog - I just signed up the other day for this service. I have already seen a few hits. You can see the widget on the right. You can help me out by Fueling My Blog there. You can get an account at FuelMyBlog.com. Now... to be honest, I am not really sure how it works. I get a little message that says that I haven't added any friends yet, but it isn't really clear on how to add friends... so I don't know how effective it really is going to be. Help me out here and I'll add your blog as a friend if you ask... even if you don't ask very nicely. I don't even know how to link to my profile... but I have seen hits.
5. ShareThis - I like to make it easy for people to Share a post. You may notice at the bottom of this post (and every post) is a Share this icon. Sign up for your account at ShareThis.com. They have an easy WordPress plugin. You can send this post to other people via email or various social networking sites. If you have an account, you can see what was shared. Share this post with someone... it will make me happy and will make me notice you :)
6. Technorati - I have seen a lot of hits from my account at Technorati. I like the authority component. If you link back to my blog from yours, my authority goes up. So, why not a little link love... you want me to review something on your site and give you a link back... just let me know. Of course, a little link love my way doesn't hurt.
7. Directories and link exchanges- A great link building activity. In bound links have helped my site go from a Page Rank of 2 to 4. I am not exactly sure when Google made the update... but it was in the last day or so. One catalog that I am submitting to... if you are interested it is at 4 Your Information. Their Page Rank went from zero to two during this page rank update. The advantage of these types of services is they want a link back... so, as their rank goes up, the better the link back to you. I would expect my blog to show up there in a day or so. I'll let you know. The reason they are doing this is to get a link back to their gift site where they sell incentive gifts to help improve performance. The likelihood is that you will only see the benefit in the search engines and not likely to get direct traffic... but it is still worth it for the inbound link.
8. Feedburner - I really like this service. Sign up at Feedburner.com. I like that people can signup via email or RSS Reader. Of course, I would love for you to subscribe to this blog. I think it is pretty cool. You'll see the signup at the right sidebar at the top.
9. Email signatures - I have my blog in my email signature. I am surprised at how many click-throughs I get from people through an email client. If you simply add your site or your blog to your email signature, you'll get traffic that you didn't expect.
10. Blogrush - You may have noticed Blogrush on the right. Everyone in the network has this on their site. Now, I have been syndicated at least 5000 times and have had 3 clicks.... so, I don't know if it is any good or not. I am leaning to no. But, it is real estate that is easy to give up... especially since I pulled off advertising. I would be interested to hear your perspective. Add your blog using this link and let me know your results. They wouldn't let me add my copier and printer news service to the system... so you'll need to add a site with original content.
11. Commenting - I get clicks from comments I have left in the past. I know that professional link builders use this approach, but I don't want to hire them. I only want my comments to be very relevant to the conversation as that reflects on my brand.

Well.. that is the short list of what I do... it may seem long. But, if you want results quickly, you have to be willing to put in the time to make it happen.

Let me know your approach to building traffic. I want to find new approaches and with the evolution of the web, it can be daunting to stay on top of it. So, any advice you can give will be very helpful.

Corey Smith is the Chief Web Architect for Dealer Marketing Systems.