Increasing Web Traffic! The HOW-TO that worked!

The plan came together, I am very happy! I decided to dedicate myself to increasing traffic to my website. I formulated the idea as a piece of advice I gave you last month. What was the advice? Well I told you that you should always leave your URL address when you write online...comments, emails, forums, social networks...to increase website traffic. I was tired of trying to find people and their blogs. If I was looking for them I assumed that others were looking as well. So I wrote the hub called You didn't leave a business card? Why Not? Online the URL is the same as a paper business card. I tried to point out how important the habit was for those of us that want to increase web traffic and get noticed.

Then I set out to take my own advice. Everything I wrote ended like this:

b

http://www.retireinstyleblog.com

http://hubpages.com/hub/Did-you-leave-a-business-card (or whatever hub I was promoting)

There are several BIG blogs that I follow regularly because they are about subjects I find interesting or are written in such a way that I am entertained. I am not shy about joining the blogs or commenting on the big hubs that get the most web traffic. Those are the ones that are always at the top of the google page or hubs that score 100. The only person I have never gotten a reply from is Sweetney of blogher fame. Fab Over Fifty is written about women in my age group. Apartment Therapy is written about very small houses/apartments...I live in one of those for 6 month of the year. I always sign in when I visit. As I go through the material, I generally leave a comment or two ending with my b signature and my URL. When I check my traffic patterns, I find that I get visitors as a result of those comments almost everyday.

Then last month something very cool happened. A blog called Advanced Style mentioned my blog in a list of blogs written by older people. In case you don't know, Advanced Style is written by a blogger in NYC and must have huge web traffic. Seth Cohen, and his blog have been mentioned in The New Yorker, Vogue and several other publications. Why did Advanced Age mention my blog? Because I always left a link to my blog when I commented. I even accepted the blog's invitation to submit photos of older men or women. In fact I just commented on one of their forums and followed my URL routine. Following the mention, my traffic went through the roof! Not all of the traffic stuck but, as I build my audience, the traffic goes up just a little every month.

When I go to Face Book and Twitter I do the same thing. It has made such a difference in my traffic and my income. While I don't make much yet I am making lots more than I did previously.

So here is the routine I follow that has worked for me:

• every blog post is followed up with comments on other blogs containing related material, even here on hub pages. Sometimes the Google Adwords: Keyword Tool will lead me to websites I can comment on. In return people from those websites come to visit as do the people that read the comments. Each comment leads people back to my blog because I leave the URL in the content part of the comment. The easier I make it for people to find me the more traffic I get.
  
• every blog is shared on Twitter, Facebook, Googlebuzz, Linkedin and RedGage...again containing my blog address. On Twitter I use the bit.ly function to shorten the URL so it will fit.
  
• all email, comments, social network posts and forum comments are followed by a link to my blog and hub pages.

I think that this routine is almost as important as writing quality material in a timely manner. So yes, I do walk the talk...and it has worked! What a deal! I just thought you would want to know!

b

http://www.retireinstyleblog.com

http://hubpages.com/hub/Did-you-leave-a-business-card