(My StatCounter Stats For Wednesday)
At the time of writing this post, my blog is still pretty young (just about 1 month old) so I was pretty content when I discovered this tactic for getting crazy traffic to a blog. I suggest that you don’t overuse this feature but rather that you use it when you really should. The tactic is simple and the results are great.
How I Came Across This Tactic
I had just written a post (Message to the 6.8 Billion People Of The World) which includes a powerful message written in three sentences.
The post itself isn’t very lengthy but nonetheless is very meaningful.
Once I finished writing the post, I contacted a few of my blog buddies and told them about the message. They were glad to help me out by retweeting it on twitter and stumbling it on StumbleUpon.
StumbleUpon was the traffic generating key. Following the submission from my friend, I immediately began to see large amounts of visitors to my blog. In about the first fifteen minutes thereafter I had already received about 40 hits.
It was truly exciting to watch the spike in traffic and the referring URLs on StatCounter all showed the StumbleUpon referring url.
From StumbleUpon alone I received about 90% of the total traffic to my post that day. The other 10% came from from twitter and emails to friends.
StumbleUpon is truly an amazing traffic generator for the right type of post. It may result in a high bounce rate but it is a great tool to use for a post that is sharing a short, meaningful message.
How can you have similar results?
Steps to Getting 91 Visitors in 3 Hours
1. Write an intriguing headline for your post- as I always recommend, write something that is just too interesting to miss. You’ll be surprised at the results from implementing just this tactic alone.
2. Write a shareable post- make your post something that people will want to tell others about. Keep in mind it helps to be original.
3. Make it meaningful- don’t forget to actually include some good content in there.
4. Tell some friends who are on StumbleUpon – if you do not have friends who are on StumbleUpon, try reaching out to other bloggers and communicating with them. Maybe some day it will turn into a friendship. Following other blogger’s stories will also provide you with some motivation to continue in your blogging efforts.
5. Tell some friends who are onTwitter- tweet your post and tell some blog buddies on Twitter.
6. Don’t make it spammy- avoid posts that could be viewed as spam or purely promotional. These will not be effective in achieving large amounts of traffic and generally will just annoy viewers.
In Conclusion
With that one post alone I received about 900% of my normal number of daily visitors. I was able to spread my message to a large audience in a short period of time. It was truly amazing for such a young blog. If you follow these steps, you just might have even better results than I did.
Goodluck and feel free to get creative with your own spin-off of my strategy.
Comments? Please share.
Who Is This For?
Let me first start by pointing out the fact that making money from a blog is not for everyone. You have to be in it for the long haul and decide to make certain commitments. In addition, obviously it is up for you to decide how you would like to use your blog and whether you want to monetize it. However, since you are reading this post I will assume making money from your blog is something you are interested in.
In a completely theoretical situation, let’s say your ultimate monetary goal for your blog is to profit One Million Dollars.
You are participating in a One Million Dollar blogging experiment because you feel you have nothing to lose and that you would like to try it out.
How would you go about actually making One Million Dollars?
What streams of income would you use to make money?
Planning It Out
First off, let’s say you came up with the idea of valuing each and every post you wrote at $10 because you are spending 1 hr on your post and you figure that is your hourly rate.
Each of these posts was 1,000 words long, so conceivably (if each post really was worth $10) you would have to write 100,000 posts and over 100,000,000 words total!
However, this thinking is not very logical. Think about how you made your calculations.
Is each post actually worth $10? What determines the value of each post? Can you really put a dollar amount on each post?
Perhaps you cannot. Every time you write a valuable post for your blog we can agree that you have potentially gained some more traffic, visitors, readers etc. and increased the value of your blog. However, since the value of the blog will be increasing at a “compound rate”, so to speak, it becomes difficult to determine the value of each individual post. Ten posts individually may be worth $100 but collectively they may be worth $200 (you get the idea).
In addition, of course you will have many streams of income to your blog (or at least you should).
We will see soon how subscriber stats are the more important statistic because ultimately you are trying to gain a readership with your posts.
Your Income Strategy
Let’s say your income strategy is to sell eBooks,be an affiliate for products, and also use adsense, text link ads etc.
You can start to see how having multiple income streams contributes to your ability to achieve your goal of making One Million Dollars from your blog.
So what’s a reasonable amount of money to make selling eBooks?
I know Glen Allsopp over at ViperChill has sold an eBook for over $30,000. Of course he had a large subscriber base for his blog in order to have the ability to successfully launch his product to a very large audience.
Maybe your goal is to make 10% all of your blog profit from eBook sales (you would like to sell $100,000 worth of eBooks). Let’s say you determine that your eBook will be sold for $97. You would like to sell your eBook on your own and also set-up an affiliate program in which each affiliate would make 60% of your eBook sale price. You also expect to make 60% of your total eBook profits from direct sales and an additional 40% through your affiliate program.
The breakdown would be as follows
Direct eBook sales 619 copies @ $97 ea. = $60,043
Affiliate eBook sales 1,031 copies @ $38.80 ea. = $40,002.80
Total e-Book Gross Sales= $100,045.80
This breakdown puts things in perspective because now you have to think about the number of actual subscribers to your blog who will purchase your eBook. To have an optimistic approach, assume 1 in 12 (roughly 8%) of your loyal readers will purchase your eBook.
You would then need a subscriber base of over 7,430 subscribers. Okay let’s say you attain your base of 7,430 subscribers. You now will sell an additional 1,031 copies through your affiliate program. You will use services such as Clickbank and E-Junkie and you hope to reach areas of your niche that you couldn’t cover on your own.
However, you also have to think about the price of your eBook. Is $97 too high of a price for your eBook? Will people be willing to pay that much for it?
You will need to prove the value of the eBook by establishing your credibility on the subject and creating information that your readers will not want to pass up.
You now will want to make an additional $900,000 over “X number of years”. If eBook sales are going good maybe you will think of writing another eBook or a Book in order to supplement your income. Maybe you have a long term strategy for making $100,000 a year for ten years.
Creative Income Ideas
Perhaps you will add a membership section to your blog and charge $5 a month to join. At $5 a month that’s $60 a year per each member. If you are able to get over 1,000 members that is an additional $60,000 a year.
You also have another source of income from your blog: other affiliate programs in which you sell products for a piece of the profit. You also can sell products via large and trusted companies like Amazon by becoming an Amazon Associate. With a blog your size, you can expect to make a reasonable amount of supplemental income from affiliate sales let’s say a minimum of $40,000 a year.
If you add up just eBook sales, affiliate sales and your membership site you are already making $200,000 a year.
Also with a blog your size, you can sell ad space to individual companies or use services such as Buy/Sell Ads in order to find a publisher.
Don’t forget, with the amount of traffic your blog is receiving it is becoming very valuable in and of itself and it is continuously becoming more and more valuable as it continues to grow.
Basically, this post has proven the importance of obtaining a large subscriber base.
Keep in mind this post is only covering the monetary side of things and not getting into the traffic and reader building side of things. You can look on Vunty for more posts on these topics.
I would also like to point out that it is helpful to truly be passionate about what you are blogging about. If you are solely in it for the money it will be harder to stick with it for the long term and you may get lost looking for results instead of enjoying the day by day journey of you and your blog.
My Blogger Beware: Blogging Solely for Profit Can Prevent You From Enjoying It.
Comments? Please Share.
I did not use any affiliate links in this post.
I will be honest with my subscribers, I will have an eBook for sale using this site for the launch and I don’t think that’s anything to be ashamed of 
Remember to subscribe to stay informed with this blog.
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After reading blog after blog online (I am a bit of an avid blog reader these days), I discovered a secret that most successful bloggers either use and aren’t aware of or they are aware and they don’t tell you about it. I think the reason they don’t share it is because they are afraid people will begin to notice it and feel cheated. Perhaps they feel bad and think that they are stretching the truth but really it’s nothing to worry about (worrying is a waste of time and energy). I’m sure there are also other bloggers who don’t use this technique but really should if they want to increase their blog traffic. This secret was a monumental finding for me and I hope it is for you too.
The Blogging Secret
The blog secret I discovered may seem simple but you’ll understand soon enough why that’s okay. Anyways, here is the blogging secret: the most effective title of a post is a hook that readers can not pass up at all costs. These can be amazing opportunities, secrets, hidden value, messages, inside information, your experience with a subject etc. Most blog posts that get large amounts of traffic, new subscribers and please your readers will be these types of posts. This tactic is psychological in nature, people do not want to pass up an opportunity on something that will help them. Even if it sounds too good to be true they will probably check it out.
There is also the idea that the post could be something they always thought was true and always wanted to learn about. For example, the title of this post “The Blogging Secret Most Bloggers Won’t Tell You” could’ve been about many different things but I focused on one of them.
Do not think that I am proposing dishonesty. I am not saying to make false promises to your readers and not provide them with good content. What I am saying is do not to be afraid to take a leap with your titles every now and then.
At the very least I suggest you perform a case study with hook titles. Check your stats and respond to the feedback that you receive. Was it positive or negative for your blog? Are your readers surprised by your new style?
Tips for Implementation
Make the title something that the readers will not want to miss out on.
Free, Easy, Smart, Secret, Hidden are just a few suggested words that you should use in your hook.
It really comes down to the concept of providing an opportunity that is too great to pass up.
In fact, this post itself is an example of that strategy. This post and a few other posts I will be making will comprise my own case study (I love experiments) and they are intended to attract people based solely on the title.
I suggest that you implement this strategy as well because I believe it will help you achieve your goal of a building a high traffic blog.
So far this strategy has only proved great for me. I have received positive benefits such as more readers, more unique visitors and more pleased readers on my blog.
At the time of writing this post I have another popular post (17 Tips For Better Blog Post Titles), this post is arguably more informative than this one and required more research but I expect this post to surpass it in popularity solely because of its title.
If you don’t believe me, maybe you should consider how you came to find this very post. Were you attracted by its title?
A hook title that is supported by great content is the ultimate bloggers goal for each post.
I have revealed this powerful secret to you, now go do something with it!
Maybe you even can think of ways to apply this secret to more than just your blog post titles.
Comments? Please share.
The first part of this post describes how to get additional traffic to an established blog. If you are just starting out with your blog be sure to also read Google Trends For New Blogs
Yes, it is completely possible to generate a reasonable stream of traffic for your blog using Google Trends. I have done this in the past and was receiving traffic for targeted search terms. At the moment I am very focused on writing timeless content for my blog so I only employ this strategy on rare occasions. Below I will walk you step-by-step through making money and generating traffic with Google Trends.
But first and foremost…
Google Trends is a free tool provided by Google that lists the current hottest search terms on the Internet. At the time I am writing this post it provides a list of the top 20 hottest searches.
Hotness – search term popularity
Related Searches
Peak Time for Search Term
Location of Search Term Hotness
Line Graph Displaying Time vs. Search Volume Index
Related News Articles
Blog Posts
Web Results
Top Regions, Cities and Languages For Search Term
Top 20 Hottest Search Terms Updated Frequently
Line Graph of Time vs. Search Engine Index
Top 10 Regions and Sub Regions Where Most Searched
List of Also Visited Websites
List of Also Searched for Terms
1. Navigate to the Google Trends homepage and look over the top 20 terms.
2. Find a term that is related to your blog and research it by clicking on a blog or web result.
3. Draft your post. Once you have gathered a considerable amount of information for your post begin drafting it out. While writing your post try to include keywords from the Google hot list. Do not abuse the keyword but include it in a reasonable manner.
4. Aim for a 300-500 word article, it does not need to be the length of a pillar article because it is serving a different purpose for your blog.
5. Get Your Blog Listed in Google Trends
**Important- Once you have completed your post, use the Google Trends keyword or keyphrase in your title, tags, and make a link to your post from your blog.
Post your article to social media sites such as Reddit, del.icio.us., digg, StumbleUpon, etc. Do not over use this feature. I suggest a moderate employment strategy such as every 10th post.
Most of the time within a few days you will notice results from the employment of this strategy. An additional traffic flow for your blog will be created and your post will be listed in Google. The strategy works by targeting the same keywords as listed in Google Trends and on your blog. Of course there are other factors that play a role in your ranking such as PageRank and Backlinks.
Blog Set-Up – create a blog on Wordpress, Blogger, or TypePad. I personally love using WordPress and highly recommend it (Why WordPress is Better) Once you have created your blog, navigate back to Google Trends and look at the hottest search terms. Use the hottest search terms to think of a niche for your blog. Make sure you will be able to provide valuable content on the subject and you are interested in it.
One idea is to start a news blog but you want to think about the size of a niche like that.
Creating content: With your niche selected, create a good blog post of 300 to 500 words. Eventually you want to be sure to use internal links in your blog posts.
Traffic Generation: Promote your blog. Submit to social media websites such as reddit.com, digg.com, propeller, Delicious, StumbleUpon or Yahoo buzz. This will help to get your site indexed and bring an additional flow of traffic to your blog. It is also a good idea to ping Pingomatic and Technorati every time you add new content.
Google Adsense: It is a good idea to start your blog without running ads and then add them later on. Once you begin to see a reasonable amount of traffic on your blog, search for ways to monetize it. There are plenty of posts on Vunty to help you with this.
One source of income for bloggers is Google Adsense. Adsense is a pay per click (PPC) service offered by Google for website owners and bloggers where you get paid for every click made on an Adsense Ad on your blog or website. The amount of money you make will be dependent upon your traffic levels, ad placement, and your blog niche. Some blog niches are better for Adsense than others because related keywords produce higher paying ads. Be sure to play around with multiple banners and test different formats to find the best solution for your blog.
Affiliate options: Consider becoming an affiliate marketer. Search on amazon and eBay to find related products to your blog niche. Also try other affiliate services such as ClickBank, LinkShare, and AzoogleAds.com
First and foremost, I recommend that you take the time to understand why you would like to make money.
Do you need the money to buy a gift for your friend? Would you like to have some extra spending money?
There is nothing “wrong” with wanting to make money but it is always helpful to know your motivating cause.
Once you feel comfortable with your decision to make money and your reasoning, set a goal for how much money you would like to make. If you are trying to make a lot of money and have a long term strategy I recommend starting off with a reasonable, attainable goal. This way you will feel accomplished and gain self-confidence once it is attained. For example, perhaps you would like to make $100 in 6 months.
Now that you have outlined your goals, make a commitment to yourself that you will carry out the necessary steps to achieve them.
I have compiled a list below of twenty different ways that teens can make money online. Find a method that is practical, matches your interests, and would best help you to achieve your goal. Everyone will have different time frames and goals that they would like to achieve so the answer will differ accordingly.
1. Blog – check out this article on writing a pillar article for your blog to get you started. Vunty.com has plenty of posts on blogging.
2. Sell Web Designs – if you have some design skill and are familiar with CSS, Dreamweaver, and Photoshop you could set up a website to sell your work. Consider reading posts about blog promotion on Vunty to help you with the website promotion aspect.
3. Set-Up an eBay Store – you could sell old products from your house that you no longer need or try to find a niche market. I once was selling e-books on eBay before they changed their policy on digital delivered items.
4. Become a Social Media Expert – I see many ads on job boards such as Craigslist for web savvy individuals who can implement marketing strategies across social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, del.icio.us etc. Become well versed in Social Media sites and their functions and attempt to land a position.
5. Become an SEO Expert – the same goes for SEO (search engine optimization), try to become an expert and do some consultant work.
6. Write Freelance – consider Suite101.com which offers Freelance writing jobs.
7. Write an eBook – consider writing an eBook.
8. Write a Course or Report – write a course or report and submit it to Hubpages, Squidoo or eHow.
9. Twitter Ads – join Twittad and put relevant ads on your twitter profile.
10. Offer a Service – examples include web design, programming, and SEO. Be creative.
11. Product Reviews – reviewstream.com has a current review rate of $2.50 with an additional 10 cents per vote.
12. Find a Job on Craigslist – check the Craigslist job boards for online job opportunities.
13. Sell Digital Photos – sell your digital photography. Check out Shutterstock, 123RF.com, Dreamstime.com, Crestock.com, and Fotolia.com.
14. Create Myspace and Twitter Backgrounds – create custom Myspace and Twitter backgrounds.
15. Create Websites – offer a web site creation and installation service.
16.Design Website Logos – create custom design logos for businesses or blogs.
17. Sell Articles – Check out Helium.com, Articlesale.com, and Constant-Content.com
18. Take Surveys – surveyspot.com and surveysavvy.com are two of the more well trusted survey sites out there.
19. Play Games – earn money for winning multiplayer games at moola.com
20. E-commerce – sell e-books, software, etc.
Before you dive in to one of the listed ways I highly suggest that you do a little bit of your own research to find out more about the current news in the related field, how people are faring and find any necessary information for beginners.
My personal favorites are the options that allow you to work for yourself. I believe the best investment is always in yourself, plus I love the aspect of having ultimate freedom.
