Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge

This is going to sound like one of my automobile focused posts, but it’s really about web traffic.

Tim at asks what draws in subscribers to his feed.

In the few short months this blog has been open, I’ve tried to follow FreeMoneyFinance’s advice on generating web traffic. He’s got pretty good advice and a lot of it has worked for me.

1) Comments drive traffic. Be polite, funny and helpful, folks will naturally click-through to your blog.

2) Participate in Carnivals and Festivals. It really drives traffic to your site from all over the Internet.

3) Get linked on non-PF Blogs. I’m lucky to know some longtime bloggers (5+ yrs) as real life friends. They list me on their blogs, though I don’t return the favor since I’m trying to keep mine on-topic. (And also because I haven’t devoted time to changing this template to make a second sidebar to add non-PF links.) The broader base of readers you can attract, the more traffic you’ll have. My blog friends range from knitters, web designers, to political writers. I’m always grateful for the traffic from wherever it comes.

4) Be grateful for the traffic. If you have new readers, welcome them and acknowledge their presence and how much you appreciate it. Folks who get a lot of press like Jane Dough and Jonathan always thank readers that arrive from new referrals.

5) Have stimulating content. Write it or reference it, but make sure it’s something people want to read. I often hesitate when I’m writing. I ask myself a few questions. A) Is it on-topic? B) Is it useful for other people? C) Is it funny? One of my pet peeves about a lot of PF Blogs is the bombardment of advertisements. I hate ads so much, I don’t own a TV because of it. There are some PF Blogs that have an annoying amount of ads, but their content is too fantastic that I can’t ignore it. Those sites get my eyeballs because there’s always a gem in there.

6) Make a connection. Often I feel that I’m taking a risk posting some of the things I do. I’ve been on the interweb since 1992 when I got my first email account. I first discovered Yahoo! in 1994. But even with the fastest broadband speed innovations of the last 10 years, people really only want one thing, a connection to other people. I think part of the appeal of my blog is that I try to write about real things that have happened to me, that ellicit an empathetic reaction. Why are folks like Save Karyn so popular? It’s because they’ve got a compelling story to tell. Folks relate to it. I don’t think my story is very compelling, but I know I’m writing about stuff that draws people in.

7) Patience. Slow and steady wins the race. There are good days, there are bad days. There are days where I don’t want to post anything. There are days when I post a gazillion times. Give it time. Things don’t happen overnight. Sometimes it’s slow moving word of mouth that gets it done. Read The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell if you want some insight on it.

Run themes for topics. That’ll keep ‘em coming back. FreeMoneyFinance is really good at running a series. I’m not so great, but readers know I get stuck on a topic for about a week even if I don’t label things 1, 2, 3…

9) Read and link to other blogs. This goes back to #1, but making friends with other bloggers helps. Email folks privately. When I first started, I asked Caitlin at Clutter2Cash if I could steal her Save-O-Meter, and my first referral was born! I had a private email exchange last night with a very prominent PF Blogger and we shared a good laugh. I got a new referral link and #6, a new connection. Reach out. The premise of Google’s Page Rank system is essentially that if a site is linked to a lot, it must be a valuable site that is a popular destination, therefore, it is useful.

10) Time your posts. I write most of my content late at night. I publish them out during the next day during those peak coffee-break moments in the work day. I’ve noticed 10AM EST, Lunchtime, and 4pm EST are three of those moments when people are reading. This makes sure that readers of PFBlogs.Org see my posts in the first three pages at those times. I used publish at 8am before I left for the office, but I noticed if I waited 2 hours, there was a noticable bump in traffic.