The Thirsty Blogger’s Guide To Blog Traffic without SEO

I would like to thank everyone who listened to my iBlog 7 talk on Blog Trafffic without SEO. I’m sharing below my slides and the important points I mentioned during the presentation for those who would like to review it.

But before we go to that, I’m sending props to Janette Toral and the rest of her team for organizing another successful blogging summit. Looking forward to iBlog 8 next year!

How to View this Presentation:
Use the arrows at the header to move from one slide to the next. For each slide, read first the notes below before going to the next slide.

SLIDE 1: COVER
Blog Traffic without SEO: What would you do if search engines did not exist? A presentation on alternative sources of traffic for your blog.

SLIDE 2: IBLOG 5
A photo of me during iBlog 5, first posted here. I was also a speaker that day and I talked about the Top 5 Tips That Probloggers Will Usually NOT Tell You About Making Money Online

SLIDE 3: A NEW BLOG IS BORN
The night after iBlog 5, I formally launched The Thirsty Blogger.

SLIDE 4: BLOG TRAFFIC
Weighted average of blog traffic sources of this blog from 2009 – 2010 according to Google Analytics. It shows high traffic coming from search engines, and very little from other sources.

The first two years of The Thirsty Blogger was significant for me because IT WON the Top 10 Emerging Influential Blog Award 2010 and became a FINALIST for the Best Food & Beverage Blog at the Philippine Blog Awards 2009 and 2010.

SLIDE 5: PERSONAL CHALLENGE
The achievements of this blog from its first two years made me realize the potential value of this blog and I wanted to make it grow.

However, as a real life entrepreneur, I’m already engaged in many other endeavors and I don’t have time for SEO. So I tried to look for a solution…

SLIDE 6: DIGITAL FILIPNO TALKS
The answer came in January 2011, from Yahoo! Philippines Country Editor Erwin Oliva who did a video with Digital Filipino entitled Build an Online Presence with 3Cs – Content, Community, Conversation

SLIDE 7: THREE C’S
I defined the 3C’s with respect to The Thirsty Blogger:

• Content: More than beverages, this blog contains health articles, features on Filipino owned restaurants and coffee shops around the country, and human interest articles such as Why Yakult Comes Only in Small Bottles.
• Community: I studied my content and asked myself, who would be interested to read them? Who is my target market? Which communities do they belong?
• Conversation: Once I know where my market is, the task now is to join them in their communities, to become an active member of their community and leverage the conversations to bring traffic to my blog. But I have to do this without hard-selling my blog because it could turn off their interest.

SLIDE 8: OFFLINE MARKETING
I started promoting The Thirsty Blogger to family and friends, then moved on to the local blogging community. I became an active member and made sure I distribute business cards during events to promote my blogs.

BONUS TIP: How To Design Your Own Business Cards

SLIDE 9: OTHER BLOGS
I searched for blogs within my niche and became part of their community by leaving comments on their posts, offering guest posts and asking to be signed up as a member of group blogs.

SLIDE 10: FORUMS
I created forum accounts and became a regular commenter in niche related threads. I carried conversations without hard selling my blog, I simply used my avatar and forum signature to drive traffic to my blog.

SLIDE 11: FOURSQUARE
I changed my Foursquare name to my blog URL and left helpful and interesting tips in restaurants, bars and coffee shop venues – thereby tapping into the mobile community of smartphone users.

SLIDE 12: FACEBOOK
I created an official Facebook Page and offered an incentive for clicking the “LIKE” button. I made daily status updates on my wall and engaged the fan base with a variety of content, not just blog post promotions.

SLIDE 13: SOCIAL MEDIA OPTIMIZATION RESULTS
After a little over two months, spending only around 1 hour each day to do SMO, the Thirsty Blogger experienced an increase in referral and direct traffic. Moreover, page views increased by 20%, while new visitors went up by 15%.

SLIDE 14: UNEXPLORED STRATEGIES
Other mediums and communities that I can tap to get more visitors. Currently unexplored but is already part of the plan for future endeavors.

SLIDE 15: SUMMARY
Write quality content. Find your target market. Join their communities. Influence them to also become part of your own community.

FINAL NOTES:
Search Engine Optimization is important, but one should not limit oneself to SEO. Social Media Optimization or SMO is a blog traffic strategy that is as effective and sometimes more powerful than SEO.

Now let’s all drink and be merry… CHEERS!