The #1 strategy to garnering more traffic to your blog is:

“Write good quality, in-demand content“. (Remember you are writing too people, not at them).

And of course some of the activities I successfully use are:

• Use social networking tools such as: StumbleUpon. Run an advertising campaign via StumbleUpon. Use twitter. Ensure you provide tweets of value and customize your twitter page to match the branding of your blog. Never complain needlessly on twitter (do you want to spend your day with a whining sour-puss?) Invite people to follow you on twitter.  You may find my earlier post “Common Blog Traffic Sources?” to be of interest – Hint… Google is NOT my biggest traffic source .
• Include information about your blog in the signature of every email you send (including the URL).
• Use subscription systems on your blog. Plugins such as Comment Approved Notifier and Subscribe2 can help you accomplish this. More useful plugins can be found in the post “25 Most Beneficial WordPress Plugins“.
• Enhance your update services. When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the site update services you configured. Here is a robust list of 145 Update Services for Blogs.
• Use your blog information and URL in forum signatures.
• Comment on other blogs. However, don’t comment just for the sake of obtaining a link, doing so is often very obvious, instead, provide valuable feedback, thoughts and ideas.
• eMail readers and thank them for visiting.
• Post new, quality content regularly. Doing so keeps readers interested and momentum going. Additionally, ensure you provide valuable links to external resources as well as those within your blog.
• Trust your readers. Often it is very annoying (and a bit of a turn off) to wait for comment approval every single time, when they participate (comment) on your blog. Instead, it may be better to “lift the embargo” for those who have provided valuable comments before. If a comment from those individuals is inappropriate, you can always edit or remove it later.
• Use lists on your blog. Lists are attractive as they are scannable,  easy to use and link to; and easy to add to later.

I’ve been following a fair bit of the happenings in the blogsphere (and for me some of them are new). Of note is the changing landscape where word of mouth seems to be successful whereas viral marketing appears to be waning.

Most importantly, we’d like to know what some of the new strategies are, that you use or recommend. How do you approach them? What do you do or recommend? What’s your perspective in new blog promotion strategies? Comment below. Also, for a bit of link love, comments added to this post will have the no-follow tag removed as I move them into the post with your credit. So… don’t be shy.

While I visit Seth Godin’s blog regularly (it’s a valuable resource!) and value the information and resources (he’s been blogging longer than I have), unless I’ve misunderstood, I just can’t agree that word of mouth is decaying, instead I think it’s a matter that less people are realizing, or learning how to use it effectively (my opinion of that blog post is that Mr. Godin appears to favour viral marketing over word of mouth; in this case). On the other hand Erica DeWolf’s post continues to quote Dave Balter, where he surmises that:

“Viral marketing is typically reserved for programs where the advertising is talked about as opposed to the product itself. A good example are viral videos, where the humor trumps the brand, ala Cadbury Schweppes drumming gorilla video—humorous partly due to the Phil Collins soundtrack, of course—and the parodies which followed.

Word of mouth is the actual sharing of an opinion about a product or service between consumers. Your viral marketing only works if it gets people talking about the product itself. If it doesn’t, you might create some laughter and awareness, but there won’t be a change in sales.”

Again, while these individuals have been blogging longer than I and certainly have had longer career’s within these arenas, I think a key point he makes in a very subtle way is that word of mouth is a real person-to-person sharing of an opinion – and the mere nature of that sharing is understandably powerful. He also points out that viral marketing has an Achilles heel, in that awareness does not change sales. Personally I’ve often seen viral videos of a product, service or public statement that are very funny, so much so that I pass them on. However, if asked what the product, service, etc was – I’d not have a clue! I’ve also often seen this on television advertising, the adverting is so funny and amusing that it captures 100% of my interest but 0% of knowledge retention. And here’s the funny thing, if someone specifically tells me about a good product or service – I remember it! Is word of mouth here to stay? I think it is!

This leads me to the opinion that both tools (viral and word of mouth) have their uses. The old saying “Find the golden middle-way” comes to mind. In my opinion, viral advertising is better used for short term traffic volume to garner awareness. Word of mouth, in my opinion, is a tool best used for long term steady traffic growth.

Dave Balter (founder of BzzAgent) authored an incredible,  readable, useful book, (which you can download a free copy, as a special treat to my readers):  The Word of Mouth Manual: Volume II. While the book is available for download through various blogs, I wanted to include it here for your ease and because I think all my readers should at the very least take a peek.

I’ve found the book to be valuable as it’s not written from a simple, knowledgeable perspective. It’s different! Instead, it’s written by an individual who lives and breathes “Word of Mouth”. I’m learning from his book, how “managed” word of mouth can help me reach my goals. In my case, I’ve learned that the products and services I provide do not promote (or speak) for themselves, rather the use of managed, guided word of mouth will better enhance my exposure and awareness (by other people of my products and services).

To be honest, I initially did not think the book would be worthwhile, but downloaded it anyway. It was only after I scanned a few pages that I thought it was good, and began reading. I also found it particularly useful in that it presented me with good ideas and interesting arguments. whether you’re aware of it or not, you’ll want to download a copy as well. I’m not suggesting that 100% of the content is for you (as there were some parts I did not focus to much on while reading as I was familiar with them), I’m sure that there’s at least one gem that will help you!

Overall, I found it also helped me to broaden my own perceptions and ideas while giving me some useful tips. And I don’t mind saying that it was also a good read.

But don’t take my word for it (or dare I say pandering?); to make my point, what’s unusual about the photo below and why?

Download: The Word of Mouth Manual: Volume II and read the book to find out!  Please don’t forget to share the link on twitter!

What’s your take on the book? Do you agree with my opinions? Feel free to add your thoughts and opinions below.