How I Accidentally Created a Top-Ranking Blog in under 4 Months
Accidental entrepreneurs… People who didn’t just wake up one morning and decided “hey, I am staring myself a blog today and make a million or two while at it”.
Rather, they started with a simple idea, a passion in most cases, and let it run loose.
Just take a look at the list: Darren Rowse, Jason Kottke, Steve Shoemaker, TechCrunch, just to name a few.
Oh, yes, and Ana Hoffman.
Admittedly, I am no Darren Rowse… yet. Or is it a good thing?
I started my Traffic Generation Cafe in July of 2010 with a sole purpose of telling my readers how to generate tons of quality traffic to their sites the right way.
The idea behind the blog stemmed from my passion, and even necessity at that time, to succeed in my online business. As we all know, business is dead without a customer. I knew that of course as well, but finding information on how to do it was truly like pulling teeth. Lots of hype, no real results.
I had no idea how to blog, how to design, how to write. Like that ever stopped me before…
That was back then.
Now, I get close to a thousand visits per day, my Alexa ranking just went below 18K, I am swimming in comments, and best of all, I LOVE writing.
Yes, it all happened by accident since in my wildest dreams I couldn’t imagine that my blog will basically take on a life of its own.
On the other hand, we all know there is no such thing as a silver bullet, so I am ready to spill the beans on how I REALLY went from no readers to a flood of traffic.
1. Become One of a Kind
The Idea:
There are no rules. There’s no box to think outside of. You are only limited by your imagination and creativity.
What I did about it:
I started looking for opportunities where other didn’t see anything. I started looking for content ideas while reading myriads of blogs – not to copy theirs, but see if I could come up with something more original than they did.
My very first post on TGC was a humongous list of 202 Bite-Sized Tips To Insanely Increase Your Blog Traffic. Why 202? No reason. I just wanted to create the biggest list of its kind and I did. Needless to say, that brought me a lot of traffic right off the bat and the post was mentioned on several prestigious blogs after that.
2. Take Advantage of Social Media
The Idea:
Social networks are still the best way to draw in traffic when you have none. Talking about yourself simply won’t work, so you’d better be prepared to engage, be thoughtful, provide value, and gently direct them back to your blog.
What I did about it:
Since I knew nothing about Twitter, somehow I thought that was a good place to start. I learned everything I could about how to use Twitter the right away.
Soon enough, I had 6 Twitter accounts with over 50K followers combined. Talk about an audience! Very quickly, Twitter became my largest source of traffic for a while, and still remains the largest source of my referral traffic.
See exactly what I did to take full advantage of Twitter traffic generation:
3. Take Social Engagement Proof into Your Own Hands
The Idea:
There’s no worse thing than a dead blog: a blog with no comments, no shares, no evidence of readership of any kind. Those readers who do end up coming to your blog, might quickly hit the “Back” button since they see no proof that your blog is worthy of their time
But what’s a new blogger to do?
What I did about it:
I created a group of like-minded bloggers who were interested in helping each other grow. We committed to commenting on each other’s blogs, sharing the content on social networks, brainstorming post ideas, etc.
Find out exactly how I did it step by step:
4. Network with Popular Bloggers
The Idea:
You need someone well-established to notice you, like you, and share your content with their readers and followers.
What I did about it:
Pick 10 blogs that great reputation in the community and strong readership and start to consistently comment on them. Engage with the blog owners. Provide alternate views, add to discussions, sparing drop a link or two back to your blog, when the situation allows. Getting noticed by them and bringing them back to your blog are your ultimate goals.
Soon after, my links were getting passed between some great internet marketing blogs.
More tips on commenting – make sure you do it the right way:
5. High-jack Other Bloggers’ Audience
The Idea:
Guest posting is still the best way to draw in readership, hands down.
A lot has been said on the topic in other great MaxBlogPress stories, by some awesome bloggers like Onibalusi Bamidele and Devesh.
What I did about it:
My take on it is simple – JUST DO IT.
But do it smartly.
Find great blogs to post for + Write Awesome Content = Floods of Targeted Website Traffic
Here’s how to find such great blogs and how to track your results:
Marketing Takeaway
Whether you have an incredible need to share something you know or simply want to make a buck or two, remember this: the playing field is even for all of us.
Those of us who figure out how to write the best article, bring in the most traffic, build the bigger list, will eventually make it.
HOW you do it is entirely up to you.
Love it or hate it? Comment to show me that you’re alive!
You’ve mentioned in a few places you have multiple Twitter accounts.
Why?
Networking is by far the best to engage in readers on other blogs..once you get going..then the work will travel..
BTW..Can you can contact me on my contact page..Its very important..I need your help.
“Black Seo Guy “Signing Off”
Had no idea that 202 post was actually the first one. I come back to it all the time.
I learned from Ana so much lately and I am using the tips all the time. I even have a to-do list that I keep for the tips I can’t use straight away.
Love Ana’s blog!
dont have any idea
Ana:
I just love hearing your story and running into your brilliance everywhere.
Fabulous you blog diva!
Lisa
Ana,
Very cool account of how you’ve made it big! You give value and a personality to everything you do, so it’s no wonder you do so well.
Keep rocking it! Cheers!
I know what you mean Ana. I personally like point #1 and I practice it whatever. And yes guest posting rocks.
Keep rocking.
Jane.
Your tips are very helpful. Networking is key to becoming successful.
But I’m also puzzled why you have multiple Twitter accounts.
Who the heck is Steve Shoemaker?
thanks ana, great valuable post! really helpful and yes, right message – actually DO it
you just got a new subscriber
@electron plumber – shoemaker is a successful online marketer – just add his name to google
There’s a 404 error on #3.
Please check your text links. There are a few “404 errors” with them.
Love your blog glad I found you. I will set aside time to read all of it very soon.
Thanks
Marc
How I made 1,000 Dollars in one month.
Every day more and more people are looking for alternative ways to make money, or to earn a living, both in the online and offline worlds people are starting realize that having a “job” and working 40 hours a week for 40 years is not the ideal way to live.
Interesting and congratulations on your success! May want to check your site tho, it’s not laying out right in Firefox and the social media box on the right is interfering with the test. Great info tho… signed up for your Traffic Code. intend to investigate your site further. =}
Congratulations on your success Ana.
I love your writing style.
Looking forward to reading the rest of your blog.
Hey Anna,
Congrats, and great insights,
one note though… there are four links to your website that get a 404 (maybe more, only checked these)
+ How Twitter Traffic Generation Became My Largest Source of Referral Traffic
+ How to Drive Traffic To a New Blog Through a Commenting Tribe
+ 7 Ways to Keep Your Blog Comments Out of Spam
and
+ 7 Tips to Make Your Comment Stick Out Like a Sore Thumb
The content can still be found on Google, but just thought someone should point that out.
Thanks for the tips again, never heard of you until today.
Cheers,
Dan.
You mentioned that “you had 6 Twitter accounts with over 50K followers combined”, but my question is does anyone really read a post from a twitter link?
I think people use twitter for backlinks only, there’s no more engagement there like it used to, unless if you promote a brand name product. Or, if people know you as a Top Marketer in your community you might have a chance!
Thanks for the tips,
Regards,
Dev
I think that another common theme among successful bloggers is being genuine and sharing success/failures. Even if you’re not making $1 million dollars, share what you are making and how you made it.
Awesome guidelines, thanks for sharing
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