One of the Build A Better Blog duo and Blogsquad founder, Patsi Krakoff has written about how she doubled the traffic to her ezine blog in one week and speculates some reasons why it occurred.

She concluded that her traffic increased because she did the following things:

• Wrote to her blog everyday - This one makes so much sense but it’s something most bloggers don’t do. I tend to go through spurts of motivation where I write regularly and well, it’s pretty obvious, the more good stuff you put out there, the more good stuff you get back in terms of blog traffic. Patsi’s blogging experience is testament to this concept.
• She wrote a provocative title - Have I mentioned how important titles are in blog posts? If I haven’t yet here in this blog I really should have, it’s littered throughout every blog traffic teaching resource I have ever written, spoken about and read or listened to from other successful bloggers. Your blog article titles are THE most important element.
• She finishes with a recommendation to keep at it for the long term - Again some reasonably obvious advice you might hear over and over again - but do you implement it over and over again? Patsi’s been blogging for over two years now at her ezine coaching blog and she says it takes time to earn rewards.

I care enough about the topic to write to an audience of 1. Many bloggers give up too soon.

- Patsi Krakoff

Can you say the same about your blog topic?

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It’s still hot - blogging that is - at the rate of 100,000 new blogs per day the Blogosphere is still booming according to popular blog tracking and search engine tool Technorati.

Here’s some summary data from David Sifry post, State of the Blogosphere, October, 2006

• Technorati is now tracking more than 57 Million blogs.
• Today, the blogosphere is doubling in size approximately every 230 days.
• About 100,000 new weblogs were created each day, again down slightly quarter-over-quarter but probably due in part to spam fighting efforts.
• The globalization of the blogosphere continues. Our data appears to show both English and Spanish languages are a more universal blog language than the other two most dominant language, Japanese and Chinese, which seem to be more regionally localized.

Personally I’m happy to hear that blogging is booming but of course as I have written about previously, with increased competition it is difficult to attract attention and stand out from the crowd.

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If you are currently a student who blogs you can enter for a $5000 scholarship thanks to Scholarships Around The USA.

We’re giving away $5,000 this year to a college student who blogs. Our scholarship is awarded annually.

You have to write a 300 word maximum application essay about blogging to be considered.

Yet another good reason to be a blogger

Update: Voting ends tonight to decide the scholarship recipient.

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Although this feature won’t properly launch until the first students enroll in Blog Traffic School there is no reason why any blogger can’t join me immediately and start recording field reports in their very own blog traffic diary in the official Blog Traffic School Forums.

What Is A Field Report?

A blog traffic field report is a documentation of how a technique you implemented to grow your blog went. By creating a field report other bloggers can offer advice and feedback to improve your results and perhaps point out where you may have gone wrong if your results were not so great. If your results are fantastic a field report will help other bloggers to learn from you and to replicate the technique you implemented. This form of community feedback and collaboration is a great way to help all of us reach our blogging goals.

All students who take the Blog Traffic School Course are encouraged to complete an ongoing blog traffic diary full of regular field reports and details about their blog.

The field report space is ready to go in the forums, so there is no reason why you can’t start a diary immediately.

You can see the first field report I made in my diary for my blog here - Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak, Blog Traffic School Diary.

To begin your own report diary head over to the forums and read the instructions.

Competition

I’m going to watch the field reports carefully and I will reward the bloggers who maintain the best active diaries with free entry into Blog Traffic School.

I look forward to reading about your blog.

Click here to start writing your blog intro and first field report now…

Yaro Starak

Technorati Tags: blog forums, blog traffic, blogging field reports
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Read the first part of this series: Competing For Attention In An Attention Deficit Blogosphere

There is only one way to be an exceptional blogger - find what it is about you that makes you exceptional and funnel that through your blog. You must leverage your unique special talents in every blog post you make and be certain that your blogging goals are derived from your talents.

If you don’t know anything about cars don’t try and be a market leading car blogger. If you only just started learning about programming in PHP, or training for a triathlon, or how to build furniture, don’t blog in these areas expecting to be the best. If you are only “good” at making money online, don’t try and become a top blogger expecting to replicate the success of Darren Rowse, or Shoemoney, or any of the other Internet business owners who are also successful bloggers.

It’s Easy To Be Good

You may argue that, yes, you can still be successful blogging about topics you are only currently good at or learning about, and I won’t argue with that, but being “good” means you might get a few hundred readers a day and will languish with all the other “good” bloggers doing the same thing. If you want “great” you need to be great, you need to offer great information that helps others become great too. Exceptional is not equal to good.

People enjoy reading blogs by other people who are beginners, who “tell their story” as they grow and learn, and in fact that is the exact premise I used when I started my blog, Entrepreneurs-Journey. But that’s not going to be enough if you don’t possess other exceptional talents that you can leverage as you tell your story. A talent may be something unique you are building or creating, your writing style, or your method of doing things.

In my case I had over 7 years of Internet marketing experience behind me that I could talk about on my blog. Other bloggers might be successful because they always get the latest news first, or provide the best practical advice on a certain topic, or are going through a unique experience and can relate stories in a compelling manner (for example a parent blogging about raising their first child, or a business owner attempting to create a new industry with their start-up company). It all comes from areas in your life where you have leveraged your talents to develop skills, which you can then use to provide unique, exceptional value to others via your blog.

Be Aware Of Your Present Reality, Get Excited About Your Future

Don’t feel bad if what I am saying is making you have doubts about your current blogging. Remember it’s okay not to be the best at something and you can derive a lot of pleasure and rewards from just being good. You may not have the most popular blog or be considered a leader in your field or be making the most money, but that’s not the end of the world. It’s okay to be average if you are content to be there. Remember happiness is not necessarily derived from being at the top of the heap and in fact if you only derive happiness from being the best of the best you are probably unhappy most of the time. It’s almost impossible to be the best forever, even Tiger Woods has to retire one day.

If you want more, if you strive to be a top contender, then treat your current situation as a stepping stone towards greatness. What you are learning from me is part of the equation. Treat this article as a lesson to start thinking about what makes you special and how you can leverage your unique talents in your blogging.

If you don’t know what your unique talents are just yet don’t worry. You may be surprised to learn that I’m not one hundred percent sure of mine either. I know what I am good at but I’m not quite sure how it translates to success and gratification for me. Perhaps you can help me discover my talents - how I can help others in an exceptional way. Why do you read my content? How do I help you, and why do you choose Yaro Starak over the other bloggers out there?

You can see by the questions I ask you that the way to find your unique talents is to ask what it is that people like about you and your blog.

• How do others derive value from you?
• What value do they derive?
• What type of person are you attracting?
• What are their problems and how is it that what you blog about helps them?

If you start to answer these questions you start to dig a little deeper into what it is about you that is exceptional. Once you tap into this you have the basis for every success in your life - and this goes way beyond blogging too. Knowing your talents means you can excel in every aspect of life because you can stop wasting time on what you are not good at, what you are not meant to do.

Look For Flow States

When you sit down to blog or do anything in your life look for times when you are in a “Flow State”. A flow state is when you forget everything else going on and you attack your current activity with a passion. The world seems to melt away as you perform the activity. You are surprised at how quickly time seems to pass when this happens and you forget where you are completely, indulging one hundred percent in the activity. You look forward to these activities, enjoy the process of completing them and your output is your best work.

This is your flow state and this is where your talents are expressed. Watch for these times and attempt to find out what is is you enjoy about them and then try and translate that into content for your blog. This may mean starting a new blog completely on a different topic and you may not be certain where it will go, but by expressing your talents via your blog your content will be exceptional, and this is the key to rise to the top.

Do You Have To Be An Exceptional Writer To Be An Exceptional Blogger?

Yes and no. I definitely believe being a great writer is a huge advantage in the blogosphere and I know my writing style has been instrumental in helping me attain what success I have enjoyed. Although I consider writing one of my talents, by no means is it a talent for every exceptional blogger out there.

What makes a blogger exceptional might be her ability to always break news first in a certain industry, and in this case her talent may translate into exceptional research or networking skills. The result of this is a drive and motivation to keep up to date about a certain industry and thus maintain connections with all the right people. No other blogger cares enough to do this, nor are they connected enough in the industry. In this case it’s not the quality of the writing that counts, it’s how current the news is.

There are some areas where good writing is more important than others, but as always, content quality is the critical factor and it’s producing the content where you can put your talents to use. Your writing will improve as you blog. If you find your lack of basic writing skills a major hindrance to blogging, then you may benefit from some training before diving into serious blogging. You know yourself best and if you believe your content is good and you can express it in reasonably comprehensible English you will get results - the quality of the writing is not the deal breaker - the content is.

Strategic Blogging

Everything I have discussed in this article ties back into your blog strategy. Once you know your talents you can form a strategic plan for what you want to achieve from your blog. Once you realize that your core skill is helping a certain type of person with a certain type of problem you can focus on maximizing your output quality by sticking to what you do best.

Strategic blogging is about extrapolating your purpose and your goals from your talents, and then using that data to create a blueprint to get to your destination. This is not an easy process and you may spend many months of “test” blogging until you finally hit what it is you want to get from your blog and how your talents can help you get there.

Most blogs that fail to gain any traction fail because the owner isn’t congruent. If you aren’t clear in your head regarding what you can offer to people, then people won’t find what you do compelling. How can you offer value to others without understanding what that value is to begin with?

If you are not sure of your blogging purpose yet don’t be afraid to experiment. The process of aligning your blogging goals with your talents it not simple and requires a lot of “feeling out” on your part. Signals will start to flash once you start down the right path. Your traffic will increase, people will openly thank you in comments and emails, and you will be constantly inspired by what you blog about. The flow of quality content will come easily and you will never be stuck for an idea for an article topic.

Once you have defined your purpose and you are clear about the value you provide to your target reader, it is time to formulate a strategy on how best to leverage your abilities. You must decide and plan for what you want from your blog in terms of rewards (money, fame, recognition, work, contracts, gigs, etc) and how you will get these rewards. Formulating a strategy is a lot easier once you know what your talent is because everything else is derived from it.

I’ll leave the topic of strategic blogging there. The process of formulating a blogging strategy is a lengthy topic, certainly too long for this already long article. If you are interested in contacting me for private coaching to determine and refine your blogging strategy please contact me via ReplytoYaro.com

Explore Your Talents

Determining your unique talents provides you with the key for becoming an exceptional blogger. It’s a creative process and worth exploring. Take some time to think about it and you just might be surprised where you end up. The answer isn’t always what you expect it to be.

Good luck!

Yaro Starak
Strategic Blogger

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Blogging has changed since I first started back in 2004. For me, 2005 were the glory days. Blogging was booming but it wasn’t super-popular like it is today. Back then you could start blogging and in a matter of weeks or a few short months establish a solid foundation of traffic and a regular readership.

It is still possible to have quick success in today’s blogosphere but it is a lot harder.

Why was it easier back then? Because blogging was younger, the blogosphere was smaller and competition wasn’t nearly as fierce. As in any marketplace, blogging is maturing and as a result people expect more from a blog and from you as a blogger.

The Blogging Boom

When the blogosphere was young each niche only had a handful of blogs servicing it. Readers were starved for information and blogs were hot.

The combination of a new technology - a cool and effective way to disseminate information and interact online - and the pop-culture-esque status that blogs enjoyed in the mainstream media, meant that supply (blog content) couldn’t meet demand (blog readers). The public were hungry and consumed as much blog content as they could. Even blogs with few pillar articles were rewarded with traffic and loyalty.

That situation has changed and I’ve noticed the signs of a maturing market in the blogosphere. With so many thousands of new blogs launching each week by people eager to start their own little publishing empire, the amount of content produced has exploded. Where previously there were hungry readers and scarce options, we now have too many options and a over-stimulated, attention-poor blog audience.

The market has flipped, supply is abundant and blog readers enjoy a plethora of blogs on every topic imaginable, all at no cost. The long tail is in full effect.

Too Much Information

Blogs are not difficult to set-up. Anyone can do it and as a result it was only a matter of time before the Blogosphere became cluttered. The web is notorious for situations of over-supply of information. That’s essentially why Google is so successful, you need a mechanism to search through the clutter that finds the good stuff for you.

With so many blogs out there chances are what you blog about or what you intend to blog about is covered by quite a few other blogs. Even if you believe your blog is unique there are no doubt hundreds of complimentary blogs out there competing for the attention of the same readers you seek.

The result of all this information being readily available and updated many times per day - even per minute - is a blog readership with next to no attention. They want the best content, they want it quickly and they have no patience for anything below standard. Search engines, RSS and other aggregators and filters do a reasonable job of delivering at least remotely accurate responses to user queries. We should be thankful for this - without the filters the Long Tail wouldn’t work because niche providers could not be found by their marketplace. If that were the case only the very popular blogs could survive and the blogosphere would be like the music industry before the web came along - a small handful hits and a million niche bands who are struggling to get by and garner attention.

You Have To Be Good

The problem for today’s blogger that arises from an attention-deficit readership spoilt for choice but with no patience, is that you don’t have a second chance to impress, nor can you afford many mistakes, if any. One poor quality article, an off topic ramble, a change of direction, will result in lost subscribers. The unsubscribe button has never been clicked like it is today, and if you don’t consistently deliver the goods you don’t grow.

The other major issue bloggers face is how to start up in the first place. Building a blog is challenging enough without having to deal with a readership with the attention span of a gnat. If you don’t inspire, if you don’t grab attention or cause a sensation or make a big bang, you may find yourself lulling at the bottom of the heap with the many thousands of other bloggers who have trouble getting past the 100 readers a day mark.

As a blogger in today’s blogosphere you have to be darn good to rise above the chafe. You need to be a visionary in your industry, a market leader, a revolutionary thinker, a brilliant writer or a controversial protester. You need to carefully refine your niche and be the best answer to the questions asked by your specific target reader. No longer is just “providing value” enough, now you need to provide “exceptional value” if you want to enjoy abnormal success.

In part two of this series - How To Be An Exceptional Blogger - I discuss ways you can become a blogger who builds a larger than average audience and keeps readers coming back for more despite short attention spans and an ever increasingly competitive world wide web.

Yaro Starak
Blog Traffic King

Technorati Tags: blog traffic 2.0, blogging strategy, long tail
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Andy Wibbels, affectionately known as the “Original Blogging Evangelist” and author of BlogWild! A Guide For Small Business Blogging, is about to start his latest course, Keyword Essentials (aff).

Andy has a fun style of teaching and uses teleconference audio to deliver his strategies. His courses are a great way to introduce yourself to the basics of blogging and his latest course covers an important topic - keywords.

Keyword Essentials is all about keywords and how you can study them and manipulate them to get more targeted traffic to your blog.

The course begins on October 18 and runs every Wednesday for four weeks. You can enroll immediately and listen to the free preview call by visiting -

www.KeywordEssentials.com

Once the course is complete I’ll do my best to get a full review out for you, but given that I have enjoyed everything else Andy has produced so far that I have studied, I suspect this course won’t disappoint, especially if you currently do not study your keywords.

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I figured it was about time to get some form of “coming soon” page on the BlogTrafficSchool.com index page.

You can take a look for yourself and yes, that is me in the graphics -

www.BlogTrafficSchool.com

The header will only be used for the sales pages and internally for members I am using the smaller Blog Traffic School logo because it doesn’t take as long to load. The footer is used throughout except on the blog that the course content is delivered through, which actually looks a lot like this blog you are reading now.

Let me know what you think!

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My friend Will Swayne on his blog asks whether blogging is the killer SEO tool for businesses?

As I’ve written about previously the number one goal if you are working on your blog’s search engine optimization, is to gather all those incoming links from authority sites. Will proposes that some of the old fashioned ways of link building - namely directory submission, link exchanges, article marketing, etc - are just not cutting it anymore, and that blogging potentially could be the best way to encourage incoming links from authority sites.

Why is this? Because blogs are natural conversation starters and if you particularly seek out communication with other bloggers, the incoming links can really start to flow.

What is one of the best ways to get the incoming links flowing? I’ve said it before - start sending out the links from your blog if you want them returned to you, but do it in a conversational manner so that it makes sense. This post you are almost finished reading is a fine example of sending out a link when it makes sense to.

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