One of the most effective ways to generate targeted traffic to your blog is to leave comments on other blogs in your niche.  Unfortunately it’s also one of the most overlooked tools in a bloggers arsenal.

After all, it’s easy to forget to drop by other blogs in your niche and even if you do, the pressure of getting your own posts published can detract from the courtesy of leaving a comment when you’ve found another post that you find interesting.  This is something that should never be forgotten. In fact, it should be a regular part of your daily routine.

I’ll lay bets that if your blog is receiving regular comments, there is a group of core people that are doing so.  Most of these will be other bloggers in your niche that have not underestimated the potential of community driven traffic.  Check out their blogs for yourself and you’ll see what I mean.

Get Out There And Comment!

Make commenting on other blogs a part of your daily routine. Comments build community  They also allow you to form relationships with other blog owners, which can lead to a wondrous variety of opportunities for your blog and the bloggers you’ve built relationships with.

Remember that comments should be more than “hey that’s great” or “love the blog, keep up the good work.”  Comments such as these leave the blog owner or spam filter ready to simply delete them when seen. (I know I do.)

Instead, be sure to comment specifically on the post topic at hand.  If you’ve written a post that answers another commentators question, feel free to leave a link, but only if it is relevant. Comments should not be used directly to drive traffic to your blog, but rather to entice the readers of another blog to come check your work out for themselves.

Leaving comments on a subject you are familiar with not only lets potential readers know that your blog exists, but it gives you a chance to help out other bloggers in your own niche.  Most bloggers find that as their blogs become more popular, time becomes a very limited commodity.  If you can answer a question for a reader on their blog, you’ve done them a favor. If you’re dropping a link in every comment, you’re being spammy and will most likely be blacklisted.

Know When NOT To Comment

From the advice given above you might think that you should make a point of being the first to comment on very popular blogs each and every day. While this will drive traffic, the result will probably not bring you the results you’re looking for.

Comments are only a tool to get visitors to your own writing.  If that writing is substandard or infrequently updated, you are going to end up losing most of the visitors attracted by comments the minute they arrive at your blog.

Also; focusing on comments may lead you to leaving comments that are not entirely relevant to what the writer intended.  This simply makes you look a fool and does little to attract traffic.  Do leave comments, but always ensure that they are relevant to the post, well written and have something to offer the blog owner and the readers of his or her blog.  Failing to follow these simple guidelines may do more to harm your traffic than to help it.

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What Is A Niche?

The buzzword of the blogging world is “niche”.  Every blogger is supposed to find his or her niche and then move on to hold a substantial amount of the readers in that niche.  But what exactly is a niche?

The simplest definition is as follows:

a position particularly well suited to the person who occupies it; “he found his niche in the academic world”

As applied to internet marketing, Wikipedia defines Niche blogging as:

Niche blogging is the act of creating a blog with the intent of using it to market to a particular niche market. While it could be argued that all blogs are, in some form, a niche blog, the term as it applies to marketing refers to a particular kind of blog.

While Wikipedia is correct as far as a blog designed to make money is concerned, I find that the first definition is more accurate for most blogs. Making money is not the primary goal for most bloggers, but sticking within a niche is imperative if you want to attract regular readers.

To state it plainly, your blog should cover one topic and one topic only.  The topic itself may be broad and cover a range of subtopics but your writing should always stay centered on the subject matter that you began writing about in the first place. That’s your niche and you should always stay true to it.

If you really must write about more than one subject, it makes sense to write more than one blog.  That way all of the content on each blog will interest the people that decide to see the other posts you’ve written on that topic without being forced to filter out the other subjects that don’t interest them.

What’s My Niche?

A lot of people struggle with the concept of finding their niche, but the reality is that it’s probably staring you in the face right at this very moment. you already have everything it takes to jump right in to your niche, you just might not know it.

To find your niche you simply have to define your interests and experiences.  Whether you love to quilt or have been working in the food service industry for years, there are people out there that are interested in the same things that you are.  If you know it and you love it, then you’ve already got  your niche, you need look no farther than the things that interest you.

Find A Niche Within Your Niche

Although it is completely acceptable to create a blog that covers all aspects of a topic, you’ll find that if you narrow down your focus you’ll be more likely to drive more targeted traffic to your blog than you would if your writing is more generalized. writing in a sub niche will guarantee that the people reading your blog are looking for exactly the kind of information that you are writing, rather than trying to find that one gem of information in the proverbial haystack.

As an example, let’s say you have decided to blog about Internet marketing.  Internet marketing itself is a very broad topic, so you decide to narrow your focus to only affiliate marketing strategies.  You are now writing in a niche within a niche on a very focused topic, this will keep readers coming on a more regular basis and keep your writing on topic because the focus of the blog helps to keep you from drifting off-topic.

Becoming An Expert In Your Niche

Now that you’ve got your niche, you have to try to position yourself as an expert on your chosen topic.  How exactly do you accomplish this?

First of all, do your research!  Even if you know the subject matter, make sure to brush up on the specifics from time-to-time.  There’s nothing that will hurt your credibility more than posting incorrect information.  It will probably happen, but if it does, quickly correct it and post a retraction.  Let people know you’re honest.

Write with authority.  Never make it look like you “might” know what you are talking about.  Always write as if you’re absolutely positive in your ability to cover the topic. This is not to say that you should be arrogant.  you should always be sure to remember that the people reading your blog are just that, people. You definitely don’t want to be insulting.

Post often and stay on topic.  Visit forums and comment. Visit other blogs in your niche and leave relevant comments.  don’t ask to be validated, simply do what you do and make sure that other people know that you are doing it… Politely.

If possible, set up an opt-in newsletter and maybe even write a few short ebooks on your chosen topic.  You can either sell these or give them away, but in either case it goes a long way to show that you actually know what you’re doing.

Of course there are many top-notch bloggers who have neither an opt-in list or have ever written an ebook.  If you’d rather focus your time on content, feel free to do so!  Even if you initially get little traffic, keep writing.  It takes time to get readers, especially returning readers.  If you keep writing it will happen.

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If you want your readers to buy something you are promoting or to visit a site you’re affiliated with, you have to tell them that is what you expect them to do. They aren’t going to take action on their own with any kind of consistency, but if you give them a good, polite nudge in the right direction you’ll be surprised at the number of people who actually follow through with the action you’ve suggested.

Asking your visitors to go do something specific is known as a call to action. This is especially important if you are pre-selling a product or service that you are affiliated with through your blog.  Your post will get them interested, the call to action will get them to go take a look at the actual sales page and hopefully, a good number of your readers will buy the product or subscribe to the service, thus making you a few dollars along the way.

A call to action should always point the reader to the page that you want them to get to.  If you’re asking them to buy a book you’ve written, send them to the sales page, not your site’s home page. Likewise, don’t try to oversell a product or service that has an aggressive squeeze (sales) page. Recommend the product and let the sales page do the selling.

Each and every post that you write about a product or service that you are promoting should include a call to action. Let them know why you stand behind this product, show them the benefits of the product and then tell them where to find it for themselves.

Show, Don’t Tell

Instead of focusing on the features of some product or the bullet points of a service, focus on the benefits of that product or service to your readers. Let them know how it can help them achieve their goals or increase their sales.  Make the focus of the article about what the thing does in practice, not just as a list of facts on a page.

By showing your readers what a product can do for them, you make that product more desirable.  If they see that it can help them accomplish what they need to get done or save them time in doing it, it’s a good bet that they’ll go out and get it, or at least come back to your blog when they do decide to purchase. this lends you both credibility and income.

Map Out A Plan of Action

If your post focuses on a product or service that you’re hoping your readers will buy or subscribe to, show them how they can use this product or service in their every day lives.  If they know the benefits and you map out how some or all of the product can work for them, they are more likely to run out and grab their copy.  you’ve already told them how to use it to make their lives easier.

Make sure that they understand how they can leverage what you’re selling in their business or personal lives right now.  Just expounding on how great something is will not necessarily translate into sales.  Showing your readers both the benefits and a concrete example of how they can implement this product in what they are doing gives you a much better chance of success.

This concept applies to posts that are not geared at selling something as well.  If you are writing a post about how you used a spreadsheet to create a better method of tracking your ever-growing widget collection, give your readers an example or a free download. For every idea you give the reader, they should be able to go and implement it in a positive way immediately.

Many people have written ebooks or articles hat are very informative but do not implement a call to action or plan of action in their writing.  This lack of pre-selling ensures that their sales, if any, are low. Giving people a plan they can follow straight away after reading what you wrote would give them that incentive to buy that recommended product from you instead of another affiliate.

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