Many bloggers often ask how to increase blog traffic, which is essential to online success. But just as you may be wondering, how can this be done? It’s simple. There are only three key steps you must work on: content production, networking, and promotion. Once you learn the main three, you can remember to integrate them into your daily blogging routine. So let’s delve in a little further and discover how you can reach your true online potential.

1. Content Production:

a) Write how-to’s, lists, guides, tutorials, and resource compilations
b) Set out to publish one linkbait/pillar article per week
c) Quality over quantity: don’t post every single day
d) Guest post for other bloggers

2. Networking:

a) Respond to all your emails and questions received
b) Comment on other blogs
c) Link to other bloggers in your niche
d) Use social networking: Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, etc.

3. Promotion:

a) Submit your content to social media sites
b) Tell others in your network about articles you’ve published
c) Post in online forums and groups and reference your content
d) Link to your guest posts and get your name out there

Increasing blog traffic certainly isn’t difficult, and generally tends to just require a push in the right direction. After you’ve begun promoting your blog and gotten it off the ground or overcome your recent traffic plateau, much of the work begins to happen for you. Good luck!

Choosing a domain name can be a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be if you know the right secrets. The first thing to realize before beginning your search for Mr. Right Domain Name, however, is the importance of this decision. Your domain name is like the address and name tag of your website all in one. It is how your visitors will locate you, get to know you, remember you, and tell others about you. Therefore, your domain name must be one that will allow all of those things to be done easily, so don’t rush into a decision. The choice for your domain name can easily make or break your potential success.

1. Register the “.com” extension.
2. Think up a list of vital keywords that describe your site.
3. Brainstorm, use trial and error, and mix and match these keywords.
4. Don’t use hyphens in your domain name.
5. Don’t use numbers either.
6. Make your business name and your domain name the same thing.
7. Keep the URL as short as possible.
8. Make sure that your domain name is easy to type and spell.
9. Consider if your keywords could have multiple or differing meanings.
10. Say your domain name aloud and see how it looks written down.
11. Use a thesaurus to come up with creative keywords.
12. Avoid overly-generic and too-complicated descriptive terms.
13. Make sure your future domain name stands apart from the crowd.
14. Come up with something memorable, catchy, and unique.
15. Tie your domain name choice into helping you build your brand.
16. Make sure there aren’t other businesses using the same/similar name.
17. Do plenty of research.
18. Choose a registrar that offers renewal warnings and protections.
19. Don’t be afraid to register other extensions and misspellings of your URL.
20. Play around with keywords until you have the perfect domain name, then snatch it!

Once you’ve selected that perfect domain name, you will be able to step into the online world with ease and poise. After you decide upon your domain name and register it, the next step will be building your brand and getting visitors to take notice. For more blogging tips, please keep tabs on BloggingBoom.com and the future guest posts that will be seen here at SuperBloggingTips.com. Good luck in your online ventures!

If you’re looking for traffic for your site or blog, one great way to increase site traffic is to build a link wheel. Link wheels are designed to create new backlinks to your site’s main page, which give your site a higher search engine ranking and more visitors. This in turn will increase blog traffic.

Link wheels are yet another SEO method, but instead of being underhanded or risky for penalization from Google, it is fair and it actually works. Implementing the link wheel involves writing articles and using other social networking and web 2.0 sites to link to each other as well as back to your main page (the page whose rankings you are looking to improve). Using the link wheel actually provides valuable content based on your topic, and helps to generate and build site traffic.

This is an example of how the link wheel works:

As you can see, you create several different accounts on various social blogging sites and write an article on each. Link one to the other, and on each one, link back to your own actual site. This is PROVEN to work to increase your rankings in the search engines and to build site traffic.

You can build multiple link wheels to link to your blog’s homepage and different pages of your blog, each wheel working on improving your rankings for various keywords. And after creating your link wheels you can drive traffic to those as well, which will create a snowball effect back to your main site.

Good luck, and check out some other great posts on how to increase your traffic:

1. 10 Simple Steps to Increase Your Blog’s Traffic
2. 10 Ways to Create Exposure For Your Blog
3. 75 Ways to Increase Your Site’s Traffic
4. #1 Key Secret to Boosting Site Traffic: Word of Mouth

Good luck increasing blog traffic!

I previously published a popular article titled 33 Must-Have Firefox Extensions. Since that generated such a positive response and helped many people discover useful tools, I figured that a continuation of said article would be a good idea and prove to be very helpful for you… Not to mention that plenty of new Firefox add-ons and extensions have been released since the last article.

Firefox is fast and secure, and the browser of choice of 52% of Super Blogging’s readers, as well as myself. Since so many of you are Firefox users, I feel that it’s important to share useful tips and must-have extensions with you. If you’re not using Firefox, you can download it here.

So here are 10 more wonderful Firefox add-ons:

1. DownThemAll!: If you’re a download junkie, then this is the add-on for you. DownThemAll! is a highly customizable download manager. It lets you pause, resume, and accelerate all of your web downloads by command. It also offers an incredibly helpful feature that allows you to download all of the images or links on a page, which can save you from a potentially very tedious job.

2. Adblock Plus: Getting rid of all those pesty ads — is this really possible?! Of course it is. Say hello to Adblock Plus, the Firefox add-on that recodes pages you visit, omitting all of the annoying advertisements. Browse faster and much more happily after the installation of this wonderful extension.

3. Session Manager: What’s the difference between bookmarking a page and saving it with Session Manager? With the latter, any tab can be loaded exactly as it was when you saved it, with all of your preferences remembered and any forms still filled out. Save yourself plenty of valuable time and a lot of trouble with this add-on.

4. FastestFox: This is one of those plugins that can almost do it all. FastestFox allows you to save videos to your hard drive, even if there isn’t a download link. It also allows you to highlight any text on a page and FastestFox will offer a Wikipedia definition and links to various search engines with a query of your selection. All Wikipedia articles are preloaded into a left-column list, and if you choose the search engine, you’ll never have to continually click “next page” — FastestFox autoloads the results so you can scroll forever. It’s seamless and terribly handy. Whether you’re doing research or merely browsing, this add-on makes your life simple.

5. Copy Plain Text: It’s happened to all of us… We’ve tried to copy and paste text from the internet, and the font/size/bold/italics/underline comes with it. If you’re interested in just the text itself and not copying the formatting, this plugin is a huge help. Whether you’re quoting source materials or sharing something with friends, Copy Plain Text keeps it clean, plain and simple.

6. IE Tab: Some websites are stubborn and remain coded only for Internet Explorer, especially when it concerns sites such as Microsoft and its products. Switching browers would be such a hassle, but that’s where this add-on helps. IE Tab creates a new tab in Firefox that simulates the Internet Explorer browser.

7. ChromaTabs Plus: If you’re interesting in adding a little more color and life to your everyday browsing, then this little plugin can make a big difference. Instead of the usual gray, it gives each browser tab its own color. The color is assigned automatically depending on the color of the site’s favicon, but tabs can also be customized by you and given site-specific colors.

8. Personas Plus: Here’s another add-on to spice up the look of your favorite browser. After installation, you can choose from over 100,000 browser themes. Selecting a new theme is quick and easy, and provides a refreshing new look and personalization to your online experience.

9. AutoCopy: For anyone who has to copy and paste any amount of text on a regular basis, this add-on will suit you well. It copys text as soon as you highlight it, without having to right click and select “copy” or doing a Ctrl+C keystroke. It also corrects long, wrap-broken URLs automatically. Three cheers for making a daily task easier!

10. Tab Mix Plus: This add-on is incredible for anyone who loves being organized or can be slightly OCD at times, such as myself. It controls which pages open in a new tab, new window, or same window. It also has cool features such as italicizing the text on tabs you have yet to view, and has a feature to undo closed tabs. There are a lot more helpful features and details, but those are the basics. End of story, it’s worth the download.

If you’re interesting in improving your Firefox add-on arsenal even more, check out our post about must-have Firefox extensions. It contains 33 more great ones. If you know of an add-on that has changed your life, please feel free to share it in the comments section or an email — I’d love to include it in the next continuation of this series and share it with my readers, as well as download it myself! Thank you and happy browsing!

I was asked a question by Andi S on an article I recently published about how to increase traffic. Andi said:

If I am a newbie my question is “Should I make controversy?”

Controversy is definitely a great way if you’re wondering how to increase traffic, and I believe this is true with the seasoned blogger, but especially true for a beginner. However, anyone looking to start some controversy has to take into consideration what their goal is, and then make sure their outcome will match that.

So, my response to Andi was simple:

It depends on how you view it. If you attack others and turn them against you, then no — that is something no one should do, newbies or otherwise. However, as a beginner, starting controversy is a great idea. Make people think or question something they might not have. It’ll always make them remember you and spread your name or brand.

The thing beginners really need to do to up their blog’s traffic and readership is to catch the public’s eye and make them remember your name. You can’t do this by writing about and rehashing the same old things everyone else writes about. You have to do something different. And what is a better way to do that than with controversy?

However, there are different forms of controversy. You might want to think twice before you write about something that could really anger your viewers and cause them to not want to visit your site ever again — after all, that’s not the goal. So don’t be TOO controversial if you’re looking for a massive audience. Don’t insult people or attack personal beliefs. Instead, question the norm. Make people think about something. Dig deep and find out some facts or information that could be underhanded and make it aware to the public.

Don’t push people away with your controversy, but make them want to return. Controversy can be a good thing, and can be one of the best ways to increase traffic. This applies to all bloggers, amateurs and veterans alike.

photo credit: Laenulfean

I have written about why you can’t make money blogging, but if that is still your goal, then increasing blog traffic is key and one of the main things you will have to focus on. There are hundreds of little, nearly insignificant things you can do to up your blog’s traffic one visitor at a time. However, this list covers 10 simple yet broad steps to increase blog traffic. Implement even just a couple of these points and you will surely see the results.

1. Get involved in social media.

No one can deny that one huge aspect of maintaining a blog is being social and building relationships with other bloggers. That’s how social media has helped to mold the internet. Create a Twitter and Facebook and invite your readers to add you so that you are able to easily network with them. Also participate in sites like StumbleUpon, Digg, and others. Not only will this aid in your traffic growth, but it will also help to build long-term results with repeat and loyal visitors. See: using Twitter, using StumbleUpon, using blogging forums.

2. Work on your blog’s SEO.

Visitors coming from search engines may not turn out to be repeat visitors, but they are the ones that are most easily monetized when it comes to implementing Adsense and other types of advertising. To do this, you’ll need to gain high spots in Google and other search engines. To make this possible, you should rework some of the coding in your blog to improve its SEO. Rework HTML title tags, and when you write a post, make sure to include the keyword you’re targeting at least a couple of times. Then use link clusters within your blog — this means to edit a dozen or so of your other posts and link to the page you want to promote with its keyword. Doing all this doesn’t take much effort and really pays off in the long run. See: successful blog posting.

3. Get noticed by other bloggers in your niche.

If other bloggers in your niche notice and respect you, then they are sure to point you out to their own readers at one point or another. Draw their attention by linking to their posts within yours. This is a win-win situation: you provide your readers with valuable information, the other blogger gains a link and some traffic, and in return you are likely to grab their attention. Usually, the other blogger would be more than happy to link back to you in return and send some of their visitors your way. Another great way to keep your brand in sight is to leave valuable comments on the blogs of others. See: using link round-up posts.

4. Try your hand at guest posting.

One of the best things you can do for yourself and your blog is to write a really incredible, informative post that really packs a punch — and then don’t post it. Instead, offer it to a prominent blog in your niche. This will help build a relationship between yourself and this blogger, as well as instantly expose you to all of their readers. And this is another win-win: They get great content that will bring in traffic, and you get exposure and promotion for your name and brand. Often times, this could work out more in your favor than it would if you had kept the post for your own blog. See: guest posting is valuable.

5. Pay attention to and treat your visitors well.

Your visitors and loyal readers are what keep your blog alive, and you should be indebted to them. Take some time out of your day to answer their comments and emails. Show them that you truly care and that you’re not in this solely for your own benefit. This one doesn’t take much time to do, but it makes a world of difference. See: successful long-term blogging.

6. Improve your blog’s content.

This is one point that shouldn’t need to be said, but many bloggers don’t fully realize its importance. Your content needs to catch a visitor’s eye and draw them in. It needs to be clean, yet friendly. It needs to offer information or something of value — essentially, solve a problem or provide entertainment. But another big one is the way your post itself is written. Are your grammar and spelling proper and correct? Does the post flow smoothly and is it easy to follow? Does your post’s title pop? Working on all of these little aspects could have a huge impact. See: writing a high quality blog post, spectacular post titles, writing a pillar post.

7. Give your blog a makeover.

Even though content is king, as the ancient saying goes, people DO read a book by its cover. Your blog needs to always give a good first impression, and the best way you can do that is with its layout. Consider the color scheme, page arrangement, where advertisements are placed, and how your posts are viewed. Give it a little twist so that it’s different and draws a visitor’s attention. A blog that is pleasant to look at is that much more likely to have its chance in a reader’s personal spotlight. See: blog organization, minimalistic blog design.

8. Do something different that will make you stand out.

Whether it be offering a new product or service, going all out with your blog’s design, or even criticizing a prominent blogger, there are plenty of things you can do to grab people’s attention. You want readers telling their friends about you, and you want other bloggers linking to you. This isn’t that hard of a task if you can pull it off just right. Sit down and brainstorm, and come up with something that will make out stand out from the vast sea of internet bloggers. See: make money with your talents, start a little controversy, being a unique blogger.

9. Stop focusing on yourself and start solving problems.

People visit your blog for a few primary reasons: they want to be entertained, or they want to solve a problem. If you can do both at once, then you’re golden. But you must know that your blog will never last if you make it your main priority — put your readers first! It isn’t always easy, but they will appreciate it, and it will pay off for you in the long-run. Be informative, do something different, solve a problem. Give your visitors what they need. See: blog and be successful, traffic through word-of-mouth, creating blog exposure.

10. Take the next step and read further.

If you’re still interested in more ways to increase site traffic, then stick around at SuperBloggingTips.com and subscribe to the RSS feed. There will be plenty of in-depth articles added in the very near future to give you tips and advice on increasing your blog traffic, as well as expanding your income and how to make money blogging online. In the meantime, you can also explore some of the links included in the article for extra information, as well as check out the great sites featured below:

* 10 Ways to Improve Blog Traffic in 30 Minutes or Less
* 6 Steps to Building Diversity in Traffic
* 21 Tactics to Increase Blog Traffic
* How to Increase Your Blog Traffic with Article Marketing
* How to Boost Blog and Website Traffic with Article Marketing
* HOW TO: Boost Your Blog Traffic
* Massive Traffic 101
* 7 Ways to Improve Your Old Social Media Posts

photo credit: Daniele Pesaresi

This is probably an article you’re not expecting to see on a site that is dedicated to instructing people on how to make money blogging. However, it’s about time for all of us who are seeking this goal to take a step forward and get our facts straight. We have been living in this unrealistic mindset for quite some time. In the past it has been considered very possible to easily cash in online, but this is no longer completely true for many reasons. While some people have been able to make it big through blogging, the average Joe usually cannot. The internet is always rapidly advancing, and we cannot focus on the same thing forever. It is high time to move on to bigger and better things.

So why can’t we make money blogging?

1. The internet is no longer a new idea. In the past, some people easily managed to cash in on the internet — sometimes, pretty greatly. However, now this isn’t a game being played by only savvy entrepreneurs. Everyone and their cousin knows about the internet, and everyone wants in on their chance to make money online. This whole business is growing to be pretty saturated, and it’s already in the past at this point.

2. You need to entertain people or provide a solution to their problems. People use the internet for a couple of primary reasons, two of which are to have a good time and take a break from the world, or to figure something out or solve a problem. If your blog provides neither of those things, then there won’t be too much interest or value placed in it. And if it DOES provide those things, then great, you have a chance at getting visitors. But then there is still the issue of monetizing those visitors. You need something to offer, and you need to be able to market and monetize it. You can’t just set out one day to become an “online entrepreneur” — you need a business model.

3. In that way, blogging is much like the real world. If you have a shop in the middle of a city, and your main goal is to make money and benefit yourself, how many customers do you think you would attract — even if thousands of them walked outside your store everyday? The answer: not many. You need to provide real value to your viewers or customers, or at least make them believe you are. You need to make them believe you are offering them something truly great, new, and different — and that is all in their benefit. You need to solve a problem or provide entertainment, and if you do that right, then chances are that most likely you will have happy and satisfied visitors. Once you’ve got that down, you can focus on monetizing them.

4. But even so, how much profit could you really make? When you make money blogging, your profit usually caps out at a certain point. And generally, that peaking point isn’t ever as high as you would like it to be. You can only sell so many advertisements, after all — no matter how many viewers you are getting, there is a definite limit to how much you can make off of them with advertisements. That’s why it is so necessary to do or provide something different. Come up with something that will hold a lot of interest, and that won’t have any limits to how much you can earn through it. The more original the idea, the better.

So what do we do about it?

5. Do something that will really make you stand out. Whether you’re offering a service or product that is totally new and inventive, use shock value, stir things up, or whatever — you’ve got to do something that will make people recognize you. Your site has millions of competitors, and what are you doing right now to ensure that you’re different from all of the rest? This isn’t always easy. Mostly everything has been done before. Sit down, muster up every ounce of creativity you have in you, and brainstorm.

6. Provide something that is genuinely helpful to people. The internet is undoubtedly one of the biggest resources we have. People want answers, their problems solved, or something that is going to make their life easier. If your site cannot provide any of these things, it is usually going to turn out being rather pointless. As I said earlier, offer people something that they will want to thank you for. Or even if you can’t do that, at least give them something that they THINK they’re getting a great deal out of. Doing this, your site will be much more valuable and profitable.

7. Try something else; come up with a new money making strategy. For most people, blogging just won’t cut it when it comes to making money. This is the time for the online world to mature and delve in new tactics. Try your hand in keyword marketing, product promotion, or other such things. There are plenty of other opportunities out there that take a lot less effort and could potentially offer a lot more profit. If you’re interested in learning about a new variety of tips on making money online, subscribe to SuperBloggingTips.com. I’ll be writing about many other tactics in the near future, especially since we’ve all got to learn how to try something new.

Follow-up: Related Reading

If you’re interested in delving further into the quest for making money on the internet, then check out some of the related reading links below. Enjoy, and feel free to drop any questions, advice, or opinions in the comments section. Good luck!

* Why You Can’t Make Money Blogging
* Why Some Blogs Just Can’t Make Money
* Growing Rich by Blogging is a High-Tech Fairy Tale
* Keyword Marketing: How to Make Money Online
* How to Make Money Online by Picking Keywords
* 10 Tips for Making Ad Revenue From Blogging
* 23 Affiliate Networks for Monetizing Your Website
* Make Money Online With Your Talents
* Maintain a Site for a Month and Sell it For Thousands

photo credit: Jeff Belmonte

Upon receiving my results, I noticed they were based on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, which has a total of sixteen different personality combinations, based on things like introversion/extroversion, sensing, intuition, thinking, feeling, perceiving, judging, etc. The results for this blog were ISTJ - The Duty Fulfillers. I felt that that was very appropriate as this blog has a very professional and business-like purpose. The description given for the ISTJ personality type is as follows:

The responsible and hardworking type. They are especially attuned to the details of life and are careful about getting the facts right. Conservative by nature they are often reluctant to take any risks whatsoever.

The Duty Fulfillers are happy to be let alone and to be able to work int heir own pace. They know what they have to do and how to do it.

Typealyzer also showed an analysis of brain activity during writing that applies to the blogger at hand. It shows whether a blogger is more idealistic or practical during writing, and if they are a feeler or a thinker.

All-in-all, I found this very intriguing, especially because I am interested in the personality and inner aspects of people. If it’s something you are interested in too, I suggest you try out Typealyzer. It takes only a second for it to analyze the personality of your blog, but it offers an insight on who you are as a blogger. Typealyzer is also a step outside of business and offers a little bit of entertainment, and that’s something we all need in our busy schedules, so have fun with it!

LastFM is a music-oriented site, designed for any music fan. It creates a profile page for you, which shows off the tracks you’ve listened to, and recommends new music based on that. LastFM also keeps a full history of all of your music, so you can look back on it and view customized charts and information as well. LastFM is one of my absolute favorite sites and I highly recommend it to any music junkie, especially someone who has a big music library is always listening to their favorite tunes on the computer as they work or play.

Another great thing about LastFM is the fact that it so customizable for the user to have the best experience possible. A huge part of this is all of the cool programs and tools that anyone can download, based on your own needs. I’ve compiled a list below of several good ones, so if you’re into music and LastFM, check it out.

Extra Stats: LastFM Extra Stats is a cool program for your Windows desktop that calculates many interesting statistics involving your music tastes and listening history. It requires Windows operating system, an internet connection, and doesn’t have to be downloaded!

Music Quilt Screensaver: This cool screensaver is from Motorola and can be downloaded for Windows or Mac, as well in several different languages. It is personalized according to your tastes in music and LastFM usage. All you have to do is download it and type in your LastFM username, or a related tag.

LastFM Desktop Generator: This program downloads your user data from LastFM and uses it to create a really cool desktop background for your computer. This is a great way to display and show off your favorite music.

LastCollage: LastCollage is another program that generates a desktop background, but it is a bit more creative. Instead of just compiling album artwork into a nice background, it has more artistic depth by generating them into a collage.

Chart Changes: Chart Changes is a script that modifies user pages on LastFM to add chart information. It requires Firefox and Grease Monkey, but it is a very cool and interesting program, especially if you’re really into your music.

Genre Finder: This is a very simple program that shows what percentage of a tag or genre a user is. It doesn’t provide much use apart from satisfying curiosity, but can come in handy.

LastFM for Skype (Windows): The name is pretty self-explanatory, but this is a program which shares your LastFM play information with your friends on Skype. Your contacts can see the track you are currently listening to, and you can also recommend a great song to a buddy via this program.

AIM Plug-in: This plug-in allows you display the track you are currently listening to or what you last scrobbled on LastFM. If you’re into chatting with your friends as well as sharing your tastes in music with them, then this is for you.

Live Messenger Plug-in: This plug-in is the same as the one for AIM, but works with Windows Live Messenger instead. Publishes your currently played or last scrobbled track to your chat buddies.

LastFM to iTunes (Windows): This program updates iTunes with information on your LastFM scrobbles. Basically, it merges the two together so that your iTunes play counts and dates also reflect what you’ve listened to on LastFM.

TagBar: TagBar is a simple program that allows you to love, ban, and tag certain songs right from your desktop. If you are into customizing your LastFM music experience, then TagBar is a good download for you.

It seems that more and more people are struggling due to the economy right now, and as the holidays roll around once again, this fact becomes more painfully apparent and stressful than at any other time of the year. You’ve got decorating, baking, traveling, and plenty of shopping and gift buying to do, and all that is simply added on top of your regular expenses. And with a tight budget, that can make the holidays even more difficult. But this time of the year should be about happiness, not filled with dread brought about by empty pockets. And that’s where making money online comes into play.

Most people spend a large portion of their time on the computer. And since you’re reading this right now, I’m going to safely bet that you’re one of them. But why not spend all that time doing something productive, and making some cash? And even still, considering you’re reading this, I’m sure that is something you are interested in doing and would like to learn more about. Making money online is something that virtually anyone can do with some determination to learn and a pinch of patience.

The simple thing about this is, you’re already on the internet, so why not put that time to a better use? Starting up your own online business does not take a costly budget, a lot of fees, hiring employees, or working all day long. It is the type of business that you invest a little time into, and it generally grows on its own after that, or with the help of others due to word of mouth. Another bonus is, there are so many opportunities out there for absolutely anyone with an online business. Put a little creative thought into it, and you can come up with something that will not only interest and entertain you, but could also potentially become something that generates a buzz for itself. On top of all that, it’ll be a money maker! There are thousands of undiscovered niches and ideas just waiting to be unfolded, and you have an enormous amount of chances right in front of you - more than you would have right away if you were to start a “real” business.

If you’d like to look into some of the ways you can make money online or start your online business, check out some of these related articles:

1.) Make Money Online With Your Talents
2.) Start Making More Money and Sell Your Own Ads
3.) Mantain a Site for a Month and Sell it For Thousands
4.) Make Money With Google Adsense
5.) 3 Ways to Make Money Online With Donations
6.) Gain Traffic and Make Money Online by Using Forums
7.) Advertising: Cut Out the Middle Man and Make More Money

You also might want to look into some articles about general blogging tips, promoting a blog, website traffic generation, and other make money online advice. If you’re interested in starting your own website, online business, or anything of that sort and you need some help, feel free to drop a comment or message and we’ll do our best to assist you.

Thanks, good luck, and happy holidays!

photo credit: *_filippo_*