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Getting more Traffic is Like Hitting the Bullseye!

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How can you get more traffic by doing simple tasks? How can you get more traffic by using your existing traffic? In this post, we will try to answer these questions. We will compare long term traffic building with short term traffic building.

Before we begin our post, we will have to look at the differences between Long term and short term traffic.

Long Term Traffic Vs. Short Term Traffic

What is long term traffic?

Long term traffic is the number of people who visit your blog on a regular basis (or read your content via a reader). It doesn’t have to be on a daily basis. Your subscribers, unanimous readers, and all others who read your blog on a daily, weekly or some other basis are included on the long term traffic list.

What is short term traffic?

Short term traffic includes the number of people who just come by and visit your blog. They may read one or two articles and comment/share (on) it. Short term traffic is basically everything else that is not included in the long term traffic.

So, What is your goal? As a blogger, what are you supposed to do ?

As a blogger, you are supposed to convert the Short Term Traffic into Long Term Traffic. Let’s take a deeper dive into Long term and Short term Traffic. Let’s take a look at the Short Term Traffic, first.

Short Term Traffic

To be more precise, Short term traffic is those traffic spikes you get. If you look at my stats, you will notice a lot of spikes. You will see a whole range of Himalayas if you look at my stats. This is because of my behavior. This is mainly because of my blogging activity. My stats will fluctuate based on content creation, promotion, and networking. And it is great. I think that these traffic spikes are great. But creating traffic spikes is just one part of my overall goal (in blogging). The second part comes in when you consider the fact that you have to convert those short term visitors into long term readers.

Goal Part 1 : How can we get more Short Term traffic ?

Do you get traffic spikes ? I am sure that 90% of active bloggers get these traffic spikes, so most likely, you are one among them. If you get traffic spikes, then think about the things you do before you get the spike. What blogging related activities do you usually do before getting a traffic spike? Look at your stats to figure it out. Think about what you did. Note them.

Get paper and pencil and write down the things that come to your mind. Ask yourself : What activities earn me traffic spikes? After you have done that, move on to the next section.

Now that you have got a list, let’s look at the things that can possibly earn you more traffic spikes.

Short Term Promotion

By short term promotion, I mean promoting your content to a usual set of 6 or 7 sites (doesn’t matter if its social media, blog marketing or forums). To me, Short term promotion includes “Submitting my content to Twitter, Facebook, Blogengage, Stumbleupon and Digg”. It is kind of like your immediate family. Short term promotion can be really useful.

Note : When it comes to Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites, Short Term traffic is when you retweet/update your status just one time. You should really practice short term promoting if you don’t have much time. If you really have good time to spend or if you want to get more traffic, you might want to consider long term promotion.

Anyway, that puts an end to our discussion about short term promotion. The next thing I would like to talk about is Short Term Commenting.

Short Term Commenting

No, Short term commenting is not about the “drive by commenting” technique. Rather, it is when you comment occasionally – like 6-10 blogs per week. Most of us are short term commentators (granted, there are many long term commentators out there). We comment on about 6 blogs per week. We do it due to several reasons. Mainly because of content and because of the immediate benefits we get through commenting. To me, commenting is just fun. I only comment on articles that I personally find useful (which means that I don’t comment on articles that I find old or that havw been posted many times. An exception would be a post that has new information on it).

Short Term Networking

The third most important source that will bring you traffic spikes is Short term Networking. Short term networking is basically what it sounds like. You network for a limited time. A perfect example would be when you say “thank you” to others for re-tweeting your content. Short term networking can bring you a decent amount of traffic if it is done effectively.

The three things mentioned above (ST Promoting, Commenting and Networking) will bring you a lot of traffic spikes. And these three are the most prevalent sources – in terms of short term traffic. If used wisely, these three can bring you a lot of new visitors to your blog.

Our discussion about short term traffic generation ends there. Now we need to look at the second step of getting more traffic.

Goal Part 2 : How to get more Long Term Traffic

The second part of the goal is to get long term traffic for your blog. Long term traffic means regular readers, followers, comments etc. for your blog. They will be your faithful subscribers who will help you to get more readers. Long term traffic is also the reason why you can make money out of blogging-related activities. For example : Advertisers look at your long term traffic stats before they decide to advertise on your site. We include tips through which we can get more Long Term Traffic.

Long Term Traffic : Subscribing Options

Do you have appropriate subscribing options in your blog? Do you provide easy, user friendly newsletters for your visitors ? Subscribing options play a very important role in getting you more long term traffic. What are subscribing options? Subscribing options include subscribe to newsletter feature, reader options (google reader etc.) and so on. These will help your readers to keep track with your content. For example : the newsletter option can help your readers to decide whether they should visit your blog to read the latest post.

Long Term Traffic : E-books and other free things

Another thing that would really help you to get more long term traffic is e-books and other free things. These things are really powerful because they act as an extrinsic motivator. In this case, the reader is motivated (by the e-book or some other thing) to join your long term traffic list. Use e-books and others things to motivate others to join your list.

Long Term Promotion, Networking, Commenting

Long Term Promotion includes submitting your content to many sites – more than a usual set. This is much better than short term promotion, because in long term promotion, you get more exposure. More exposure = More traffic = More Traffic because of the Multiplier Effect. Long term promotion also includes using certain techniques like rewording and re-tweeting to maximize your traffic. In long term promotion, you will re tweet your article based on the rewording technique (you may use audience – targeted rewording, in which you re-tweet for a specific audience). Long Term Networking is when you really engage with others.

To make the maximum out of this, you need to share links with others (while engaging with them). This technique will work most of the time because most bloggers will be willing to help others who engage with them. Long Term Commenting is when you comment on 15+ blogs per week. There are many bloggers like this out there. The main advantage with this is that in the long run, you will get more comments. But it will consume a lot of your time.

Guest Blogging : Long Term or Short Term ?

Guest blogging has benefits. But, I am really confused about guest blogging. Is it short term or long term ? When outlining this post, I had guest blogging for both of these because it is really hard to classify guest posting.

But, there is one thing that will play an important role : The quality of the guest post. If you have a good guest post, then you will surely get some ST/LT traffic out of it.

Conclusion

web traffic spikesBefore we conclude the post, I would like to remind you about what you should do to get more traffic. You should :-

  1. Get more Short Term Traffic – Aim for it!
  2. Convert those short term visitors into Long Term ones – Convert your Aim into your Goal!

You should try your best to get these done. Use the tips that I have mentioned earlier for your success. I wish you all the best with your blogging career. I hope that my post helped, thank you!

Don’t forget to leave your opinion about Long term and short term traffic !

This article is part of the Traffic Generation Blogging Contest, please add a comment and tweet it to support the author.

About

Heya there! My name is Jeevan Jacob John. I am a blogger, marketer, learner and a lot more things. You can learn more about me by visiting my blog - Daring Blogger.

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{ 40 Responses }

  1. Sreejesh says:
    Yes, many of those short term traffic can be converted into longterm traffic if we act smartly. You have a very good sill of presenting points in the right manner. Good work :D
  2. Cosmin Stefan says:
    Jeevan, Your posts are always great. Keep it up! As to converting short term traffic into long term traffic, I think the most important thing is figuring from the beginning who your target audience is and focus on them. If people find your site and like your content, they will want to keep in touch.
    • Jeevan Jacob John says:
      Thank you ! Yes, that is an important task (I should have mentioned that here). I agree. Anyway, thank you for your comment !
  3. Shiva says:
    Hi Jeevan, A great post dude. You have rightly categorized traffic as short term and long term. Like you said it is quite important for converting the short term traffic to long term. It can be done so by providing subscription options, Facebook like box widget, friend feeds, newsletter and so on. I think it is really important for all webmasters to try to turn short term visitors to long term readers
    • Jeevan Jacob John says:
      Thanks ! Glad that you agree with me ! Thank you for your feedback !
  4. Tinh says:
    You are right in terms of long term traffic. However, sometimes short terms traffic works better at least with affiliate marketing when using Google Adwords campaign :-)
    • Jeevan Jacob John says:
      I don't really have a "good" opinion about that (since I am not much of an expert in the case of Adwords) :D Anyway, thank you for the comment, Tinh !
      • Tinh says:
        You are always welcome mate :-)
    • Nasif says:
      Never tried google adword in driving traffic to my blog
      • Tinh says:
        The is the best tool to generate targeted traffic ---> sales/leads and most of ebooks mentions this formula too :-)
        • Nasif says:
          Thanks. I will use it. How effective is it ? I mean after the adword campaign ends does the traffic remain as it is or rises ?
          • Tinh says:
            If your concern is traffic, my advice is no need Adwords, try guest posting, just mentioning about sales, affiliate revenue :-)
            • Nasif says:
              Thanks for clearing it to me :)
  5. Jitendra Singh says:
    fantastic ideas....... i really liked them all. Do whatever you would like to do for short term but never forget your main goal.
    • Jeevan Jacob John says:
      Glad that you like it ! Thank you for the comment !
      • Jitendra Singh says:
        Your welcome :)
  6. Dennis Edell says:
    Jeevan, my friend, I don't have much to say now except this is a fantastic article. I will save it, take some time to reread it a couple times and really get the most from it that I can.....there is a lot here to digest for only one read through. :-)
    • Jeevan Jacob John says:
      Thank you, Dennis ! I am happy that I could write this article. Thank you for the compliment :D
  7. Maria Pavel says:
    Hi Jeevan, I believe the hardest thing to do it actually get that short term traffic flowing. Once you do that, long term traffic is easy to convert as long as you have targeted and quality content. Also, you can't have the second without the first. Maria
    • Jeevan Jacob John says:
      Hey Maria, I agree with your statement. Both of these are important. You can't have one without the other (expect for, if you only want short term traffic). Thank you for taking time reading and commenting !
  8. Henway says:
    It depends on what your goals are. if you want to blog for the rest of your life, obviously long term income is more important. If you're blogging to save up for a vacation, or to pursue a business, then short term is where it's at
    • Jeevan Jacob John says:
      That is a good way to consider it, but I think both of these are important to a blogger (time period of blogging doesn't matter, that much).
  9. Peter Lawlor says:
    I loved this post. It's a very smart way to discuss blog promotion. Indeed different strategies are required for both short term and long term blog promotion. I never thought of it this way, but it makes perfect sense.Obviously, as you state, the goal is to convert short term traffic into your long term audience by way of subscribing to your blog and/or to your enewsletter. This is the way to truly build a blogging business.Thanks for the thought you put into the post. Most "traffic-generation" posts are the same old message. You presented it in a way that I can actually use as part of my blogging strategy.
    • Jeevan Jacob John says:
      Great to hear that ! Thanks ! Yup. Dividing it up makes it lots more easier (haven't you heard of the Old British imperialistic policy, "Divide and Conquer" ?). Welcome and Thank you for all your compliments ! I hope that my post will be useful to you, Thank you for stopping by !
  10. Murray says:
    Networking has always been the big thing for me nowadays because I've found that it's connecting with influential people in related markets that truly helps me keep up my momentum and, in a lot of ways, they hold me too it to make sure I'm always moving forward.
    • Jeevan Jacob John says:
      Yes, I do agree with you. Networking plays a very important role in [both] blogging and business. Thank you for the comment, Murlu !
  11. Alex says:
    Hello Jeevan, I think everybody likes to get traffic spikes, but usually for a blogger I think constant traffic is better. Having 200 visitors a day, everyday beats having 10 visitors a day and 2 spikes of 200 visitors. But, in blogging, having constant traffic, it's kind of hard and it all depends on the posts you have and your posting schedule so, spikes are the norm and you have some cool techniques to get them. Also, I think that short term traffic might have a better conversion then the long term visitors which will most likely be your friends and will come to your blog, just like a friend comes to visit.
    • Jeevan Jacob John says:
      I agree with your argument, Jocuri. Yes, to get constant traffic, you need to have a good (regular) posting schedule. You also need to have quality content. I am not really sure about your last argument. Anyway, thank you for your time !
  12. Ryan Biddulph says:
    Hi Jeevan, Great post, well thought out. I like a combination of short and long-term traffic. Make an impact now by promoting through social media and others channels, and create long term relationships by building a list and repurposing content. Thanks for sharing! RB
    • Jeevan Jacob John says:
      Hey Ryan, Thanks ! Yup, that's exactly what I was saying. Glad that you find my post useful ! Thank you for stopping by !
  13. Mani Viswanathan says:
    Well commenting on 15+ blogs/week and being consistent is certainly a tough job. One needs to be a full time guy to do that. Guest Posting in my view is a long term traffic source because a link back will always remain in that post, whether you get traffic from it or not is a different question.
    • Jeevan Jacob John says:
      Yes, I do agree with you. Hmm. That is an interesting thought, but that applies only for the links, isn't that right ? What about the others ? (Immediate exposure to new visitors).
  14. semmy says:
    Hi Jeevan this is really nice case study. Not only a theory, but what you're writing base on your study. Nice post. Looking forward another article, Jeevan.
    • Jeevan Jacob John says:
      Thank you for your compliments, Semmy ! Glad that you like it !
  15. Harrison Li says:
    Agree with Dave for the nice planned post, this will be great for beginner bloggers (I know this stuff already :P). But that's a good question, is guest posting long term or short term? If I had to answer that I would say Short Term in the first few days and Long Term gradually as it ages on the blog. It's not hard to turn Short Term Readers into Long Term ones because if one is interested in reading, they will surely keep on reading, just make sure you keep them on your site by doing things like: getting them to comment, providing an ebook, sign up, subscribe...etc Stuff like that will make them come back to your site! :D Harrison
    • Jeevan Jacob John says:
      Thanks ! Hmm. That's a good answer. Thank you for your feedback, Harrison ! And, I am glad that you get what I am talking about.
  16. Dave Grimes II says:
    This is an interesting study. I really like the way you've split up different promotion methods by the type of traffic they bring (short term vs. long term.) This is a great reference point for entrepreneurs. What are your thoughts on balancing the short-term with the long-term? Because both have their pros and cons... and both are needed for build a successful business.
    • Jeevan Jacob John says:
      Thank you, Dave ! Glad that you like it ! Yeah, that is really a great way to drive traffic (but, what we should focus on is converting those short term traffic - which means "driving" short term to your content - into long term traffic - subscribers, regular visitors. Anyway, thank you for your feedback !