Social media really is changing the landscape of opportunities for blog marketers.
I say blog marketers because if you aren’t maintaining a blog to attract and move people to your other site(s) from places you can’t get traffic from without one, you are missing out on massive amounts of traffic.
Marketing with a simple static site you produced in FrontPage is a lost cause.
There are hundreds of former “static site marketers” who are fully engaged in real blogging and reaping rewards their competitors can only dream of.
I say hundreds and not thousands because, though there are a lot of blogs out there, real blogging is not simply posting RSS feeds and articles from 3rd parties.
Real blogging is done by people like Michel Fortin, Darren Rowse, Brian Clark, Alice Seba, Michelle MacPhearson, Lee Odden, and others who give links to gain popularity. They give great information away for free to gain loyal readerships.
Study these blogs and you will find a quality in them that is not found in the vast majority of the blogosphere. Amateurs use blogs improperly. They fill them with 3rd party content and RSS feeds and wonder why no one reads or comes back after their first visit. They wonder why they don’t get authoritative links or great search engine rankings.
The key to link building on a big scale is great content. It is by becoming part of the larger conversation going on in your niche by the other top bloggers and newsmakers.
They all do some form of reviews, scooping news and stories their niches are interested in, and they write great original posts that provoke discussion, learning, and respect.
It is very clear that the blogs that drive the most traffic all share these traits. You can see a machine-driven blog a mile away. The people who clearly care about their presence on the web win the day because their content is solid, relevant, and original.
There is no exception to this rule whatsoever. It is an absolute in the blogging world. If you are interested in link building, start by building great content and becoming a part of the conversation and buzz going on in your niche.
Follow this advice, and you will succeed. Ignore it, and you will likely think this “blogging for traffic and links” thing is a scam.
I assure you, it’s not!
This post is part of a series on link building. Grab the other two pieces below…
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