Where New Blogs Get Their Traffic From (Part III)
If I am understanding what I read from many of the other bloggers I talk too and read with on a daily basis there are two things we would all like to either improve upon or eliminate.
One: Not having to use traffic programs like the three I brought up in this post.
Two : To have their blogs fairly clean of tons of widgets and advertising media up and down our side bars.
If you look at my blog for instance I am a very good example of what not to do. Not only are my sidebars full of widgets and avdertisers, they also make my blog take longer to load, another bad thing for a blog. Today we like things fast, from our meals to our commercials.
You see, now a days people no longer read, or should I say read long articles. If they see a post like this one, most likely will become a scanner. Most people now scan and look for things that interest them and get to the point they wanted originally.
With the advent of Amazon and their Kindle and all the other Kindle “wannabees”, how much longer to you think Borders, or Barnes and Noble will continue to dominate their market?. Lets face it, most of these stores stay in business from their hard core readers that buy book upon book. I call them: The Book Junkies.
The average Joe like myself might buy two maybe three books a year, if that. I use the internet and I bet most of you do too. It’s only a matter of time before those hard core book buyers simply download the book they want to their beloved Kindle device. Yes, a few thousands of more service jobs gone and a lot more trees saved. Imagine what the future outlook of retail will look like?
This years Christmas sales figures came out today and internet sales were up 13.6% this year over last, Walmart alone had a 46% increase.
Now while the Brick and Mortar stores aren’t yet ready to shutter their doors, you can only imagine what the future will bring us. Well, let me tell you what the future will be: more and more sales via the net.
The reason I bring this up, is to let you all realize that if you have regular, loyal readers that come to your blog to get know and trust you and your thoughts, then in reality you are building a trust. People will buy from a trusted source first, before a person they have never dealt with before. This includes the big box stores. The reason I believe this point also, is if your thoughtful in what you write and believe in, then your customer service will be the same. Therefore no need to deal with the disinterested teenager who cares less about you and your purchase.
There are two main reasons people come on the internet.
As bloggers we have to realize we have an audience with a very short attention span and we need to tailor our blogs to do one or both of the above reasons. We have to wean ourselves slowly but surely away from the “droppers” who do it because they have to. And turn them into our friends and readers. Now they want to come to our blogs, not merely being obligated too to reach a specific number. Most of us have regular readers already, but the majority of people unfortunately are here to drop and go.
So by making our blogs:
-
Less cluttered
-
Quicker to load
-
Solve a problem and/or entertain them
You will have more traffic then you can handle. Not all of us who blog are looking for this and for those of you who aren’t, I bet have already scanned this post and are off to the next blog. It is very important that we need to keep our posts short and to the point. Thus meaning to keep it under 1000 words, 500 is even better. I am sure there are studies on what the ideal length should be. But I wouldn’t worry about that as much as making sure you stay on point. without unnecessary theories or ramblings. I sometimes come back and rewrite an older post after I reread it. I am not fanatical over it, but try to do the most professional job I can, or that time allows.
I appreciate all the wonderful and informative comments that the first part of this now four series brought to the discussion. The points that were brought up were awesome and will give you my own opinion on each.
I also have three major FREE points to bring up tomorrow also that will help greatly with your new blogs, three that have helped my blog greatly in it’s short infancy.
And finally I am not promising this might not become a 5 part series. As new comments come in, more thoughts pour out. Regardless if one blog is helped, or one new trick is learned, it is all worth it. And I, my friends have learned quite a few by you already and for that, THANK YOU!!
Related articles by Zemanta
- Kindle Book Sales Stronger Than Physical Book Sales Over Holiday Shopping Season (inquisitr.com)
- Kindle is the most gifted item ever says Amazon (robbiz1978.blogspot.com)
- Borders, Barnes & Noble Experience Major Losses (huffingtonpost.com)
- Where New Blogs Get Their Traffic From (man-over-board.com)
Related articles by Zemanta
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_b.png?x-id=1e347858-80a9-44c2-a168-9edce4b1fa6c)
Short URL: http://man-over-board.com/?p=3584
Posted by 
Glenn,
you’re one of the few blogger in EntreCard/Adgitize blogosphere who take the readers exactly to the point of the story by showing it on a real-time example and not like many others just in theoretical metaphors.
Congratulation to another great post about blog traffic!
PS: Now I should get rid of some widget in my sidebar as a New Year resolution
I used to have so much clutter on my sidebars that my blog took forever to load. I finally cleaned house and my blog loads much better. Lots of pictures make it take longer too.
Blogs I’ve refused to visit (talking about Entrecard here) are those annoying pop-up ads, or the folks that have code in their blog to make them go full screen. I just pass them by in my drops. Annoying as all get out.
Another thing that makes me crazy is the folks that leave you a message saying that they clicked on my ads and wanting me to click on their ads. I don’t have ads. I’ve never had ads. I avoid these folks too.
I think I’ve ranted enough. Have a terrific evening Glenn. Big hug.
It’s beginning to look like I should just give up blogging. You’ve taken over my niche with this series of blogging articles. Oh well, maybe I could write about men’s clothing or something, eh? ;o)
I think I am a wordpress plugins addict…
@ahardrain I'm on your site! http://man-over-board.com/2009/12/29/where-new-blogs-get-their-traffic-from-part-three/ via TwitterRemote
Glenn, another fine response to your first post on the topic. I said it last time, and I’ll say it again-go devour everything that you can over at CopyBlogger.com. I was just reading post there from earlier this year about how he has completely removed all advertising. With the exception, of course, from his own projects.
Also, I was reading a post about ebooks. It talked about the different types of readers. There are those that will always read books. The average person that reads on the ‘net, or using the Kindle, are typically going to be those that are reading shorter stories. Really, how many of us would read a 200 page book on your laptop or kindle? 50 pages, maybe. That would be my cutoff. Brick and mortar stores aren’t going anywhere.
I’m with you on reading. I always seem to get books for Christmas and I never seem to crack them open. I think I rather read blog posts than sit down and read a 300 page novel. Ugh, too much work! lol
People one the internet just have so much more interesting things to say.
I’ve never read a book online and would rather not. I have e-books which have been sent to me, some from friends and about topics I really want to read about. But, I only like a book I can take with me, to read in bed at night, to read at the bus stop. the coffee shop and to smush into my purse while I am in between reading it. I am not interested in carrying a laptop around like a little yappy dog.
I think blog clutter and video files are the bane of reading any blog. My own blog I have stripped down as much as I can. I do add widgets but I end up taking them off too when they seem to be sucking up too much load time. I don’t like a blog with a lot of ads. I always think those will be content light as they put a lot into ads and won’t have much time or energy left for real, original content. Usually, that is exactly the case too.
Laura I agree if it was a large size like a laptop then no way, but the size of the Kindle ‘s are about the size of a medium book and about two inches thin. So you can put it in your pocket book and take it anywhere with you.
Great stuff, I’m a nubie, so I need all the help I can get. Thank you. Happy New Year, to you, and yours
Thank you. Great stuff, I’m a nubie, so I need all the help I can get. Happy New Decade to you, and yours.
It’s unfortunate to me how little people like reading nowadays. While I prefer physical books myself and e-books are just a pain, I can read a long post without doing cartwheels of frustration. Often I’ll read some gaming forums for kicks and giggles and one of the most common comments are “this post is too long, I didn’t read it” or “giant wall of text”. It’s a turn off because these flyswatters who can’t take 5 minutes to read out an entire post, would rather spend that time writing out how impossible it was to read so much text on a page. The horror.
I’ll see people use “TLDR”, or some jibberish, often for the monkeys whose eyes can’t concentrate on a digital page for more than two seconds. Sigh, can you feel the rage? lol…anyway, good info as always, I’ll be too stubborn to avoid writing epic posts though. I think I’ll figure out how to create some eye-snatcher text, so that whenever a person does read something of mine, imaginary forces keep their eyes in place till done.
Alright that was a bit silly ha. Going to take my meds, cheers all =]
Well, the fact that I am leaving a comment means your post was interesting enough for me to not jump to other blogs.
Good content and catchy title could compensate for the length of the post, I guess. Keep it up.
Oh, but I can't get rid of the widgets in my blog just as yet!
My recent post Gordon – Bayani : Autobots or Decepticons?
I know exactly how you feel. I wouldn't just indiscriminately start taking them down. But as I see organic traffic taking over and more paid advertising coming. I won't feel all that bad. I have meet some great people through these widgets and no matter what, will continue to stay in touch. I appreciate you taking the time to stop by and leave a comment. You have a wonderful blog by the way also.