Whoa. I just had quite an inspiration. Here I am on a trip to Colorado. I am sitting on my brother's balcony drinking a cup of coffee, gazing upon beautiful snow capped mountains in the distance. Instead of enjoying their beauty and anticipating my trek up those mountains for one last opportunity to ride their fluffy white powder before it all melts away, my mind is somewhere else. Instead of relishing this moment of serenity, I am too busy worrying that it is now April 4th and I have yet to post my blog's monthly progress report for March. What the heck is wrong with me?! Does anyone really care? This moment of reflection has helped me to realize why I started blogging in the first place. It was not to do Monthly Progress Reports or Weekly Buzzes. It was because I felt passionate about something. Passionate enough to take the time and energy to expresses my thoughts, feelings, and emotions for the world to read. This is why I started blogging.

Don't worry, I will still get around to my Monthly Progress Report (just as soon as I come up with another ridiculous title...he he). After all, March was a very exciting month for me and I am eager to share some of the things I learned. Likewise, the Weekly Buzz response has been tremendous. I take great joy in helping out other bloggers and I think they have really appreciated the extra "buzz". But it is posts like this that have gotten the best reaction on my blog. I can actually spot the good posts sticking up out of my Google Analytics like the Rocky Mountains that are before my very eyes. They were the ones that I was passionate about. The posts where I took the time to carefully craft every word to describe my thoughts and feelings are the ones that saw the most visitors, got the most comments, and earned the most compliments.

So why do you blog? Is it just to make money? Is it because you are bored at work? Or is it because you get exhilarated when something you are passionate about connects with other people? You can spend week after week surfing blog after blog for tips on how to grow your traffic. But I will tell you right now that nothing you do will have a greater impact on your success than writing with your heart. Stop worrying about the latest gimmick to generate traffic and focus on what you are offering your visitors. Give them a reason to come back. Sure, it might take a little while longer for your blog to be discovered. But I would much rather have a slow and steady increase of faithful followers over hoards of visitors who quickly leave and never come back. Write about something that is important to you. There are millions of people out there who probably feel the same way. If you stick with it long enough, they will find you. I promise.

Ah....that was refreshing. Thank you Rocky Mountains for your inspiration. Now its time to grab my snowboard. See you guys next week.

Jeff

* Image Courtesy of StevenM_61

My last blog post boldly questioned the future of EntreCard. My intention was to encourage us to take a look at the amazing growth EntreCard has experience thus far, and question if such growth can be sustained (economically, not technologically). It has sparked some excellent discussion and I thank you all for your comments and emails. I was especially delighted to receive an amazing and brilliantly articulated response from non other than EntreCard's founder, Graham Langdon. Instead of leaving it as a comment on the previous post, I felt it deserved its own post so I could share it with all of you.

Below is Graham Langdon's response to my post entitled "Warning! This Information Could Destroy EntreCard!"

To fully understand this debate, it must be understood that the EntreCard economy is based on an age old concept of backing your currency in something that has value.

A long time ago, the US backed every dollar in its economy with gold. It was called the gold standard, and as you can see, the second this backing was removed, and the Fed was granted the ability to print dollars out of thin air, the us dollar tanked in value:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d7/Value_of_US_dollar.gif

Now, right now, every credit in the Entrecard economy is backed in something that has value: a visit (or a click). Credits can not be earned without people visiting each others sites. And that simple action of visiting someone's site will ALWAYS have value, because in the grand internet economy, traffic and visits translate into money. Traffic is the reason why TechCrunch makes $200k per month. Traffic is the reason John Chow makes $30k per month etc. And the unit of traffic is the visit which, to come full circle, is what Entrecard Credits are backed in.

Now, considering that our chief domestic product is advertising (on over 5000 blogs), most of the credits in the economy get spend here. Well, this advertising is "taxed" at a rate of 75%. So 75% of all the credits that are spent on advertising simply get cleared out of the system, leaving the publisher with 25%, which he or she will then take, and spend on advertising yet again.

Now we throw into the mix our growing shop. A year down the road, there will be many times more items available in the shop than you see today. Most likely, there will be thousands as we are going to focus on this area of the site to grow moving forward.

The the eventual scenario in which the credit is used to purchase advertising on thousands of blogs, and buy thousands of products and services needed for bloggers, the credit will increase in value as it can be spent in more and more ways.

So, dropping 300 cards per day isn't any more detrimental to the system than working a full time job in any economy, and thus maximizing your earning potential. After all, you're still providing the core unit of value - the visit - to our members. Their posts still can catch your attention, draw you in, and turn you into a reader.

Now, on our end we have to create clever credit sinks to keep removing as many credits from the economy as possible. We're releasing two features that will serve us well. The first is a paid rank, where members simply bid for the top spots of the "paid rank" category. Another one is a classified board where members can post links and promotions by paying a flat credit fee.

In the end, if blogs become to expensive to advertise on, that actually is an indication of scarcity instead of weakness, and scarcity means your currency is valuable. Looking over all the priciest blogs, it seems there are long lines of members just waiting to pay their price. When people actually can't afford them, then we'll have something to worry about.

On a final note, think of everything like this. A coca cola used to cost a nickel back in yesteryear. Now it costs a dollar, but people make hundreds of dollars per week, instead of just 20. So maybe the prices of blogs will go up, but more people will be dropping cards on you in the meantime, increasing your passive income on the site.

EntreCard truly is a gift to us all. I want to thank Graham the time he spent crafting such an amazing response. He has definitely restored my faith in the future of EntreCard. How about yours?

Jeff

I can drop hundreds of cards in only a few minutes. I can drop my card on all blogs that dropped on me before Lost returns from a commercial break. I don't use a special program or customized browser - just my normal Firefox. How do I do it? Well, I could tell you but I am afraid it will destroy EntreCard completely. I can only tell you if you promise to use this information for good instead of evil.

By the way...if you have no idea what I'm talking about, then sign up for EntreCard because your missing out on a very valuable source of traffic. Sign up before its too late, that is.

Are you sure you really want to know? Ok, you asked for it. Just don't blame me when EntreCard credits are completely worthless. Here is how I return my card on all blogs that have dropped on me. This process works with the latest versions of both Firefox and Internet Explorer.

1. I go to my EntreCard dashboard and type "inbox" at the end of the URL in my browser. Note - this screen can now be accessed by clicking on "Drop Inbox" from your dashboard. There I see ads from all people who have dropped their card on my blog.
2. I hold down the Ctrl key and click on each card. This opens their blog in a new tab in my browser. In order to keep too many tabs from opening, I usually Ctrl-click two rows of ads at a time.
3. I switch to the tab of the first blog I clicked on.
4. With my right hand on my mouse (or touch pad) and my left hand on my keyboard, I click to drop my card then hit Ctrl-W to close the tab window. The next blog then appears as the current tab.
5. I "click Ctrl-W" until all tabs are closed and only my Inbox remains.
6. I repeat until I drop my card on all ads in my Inbox - usually less than 5 minutes later.

Big Deal, This Is Nothing New

Ok, I don't know if I am the first person to discover this. Hopefully a few newbies will still find it useful. However, let me now tell you why it will destroy EntreCard. You see, EntreCard is not a Zero Sum game. Contrary to the laws of matter, EntreCard credits don't get rearranged - they are constantly being created all the time. How does this make them of any value? Since I have been using the process described above, the cost to advertise on my blog has constantly risen. The more I click on other's ads, the more they click on mine. The more people that join EntreCard, the more ads there are to click on. Pretty soon everyone will have thousands and thousand of EntreCard credits and won't have anything to do with them. I am sure many of you are starting to see this happen already.

So What Are We To Do?

Well unfortunately there is little we can do. I think a major change is necessary in EntreCard's "accounting system". I am sure Graham Langdon, EntreCard's founder, is well aware of this. However, there is still some time to take advantage of this wonderful service. The only thing that I would suggest is that we all make an effort to use the service as it was originally envisioned. Yes, you can use the process described above to make navigation easier. But don't just drop and leave. Take a second and check out the blog you are actually visiting! If you like it, leave a comment or Stumble something! This is what the service was designed for. Discover some new blogs, make some new friends. You will find these much more valuable than EntreCard credits in the long run.

Jeff

EntreCard is great. So are BlogCatalog and MyBlogLog and (insert your favorite social networking service here). These services are extremely helpful for extending your viewership beyond your mom and your girlfriend. Social bookmarking sites, like Digg and StumbleUpon are great too. If you are able to come up with that "killer post" you just might get a nice wave of traffic. You just might. But what if there was a way that would guarantee you a huge whirlwind of traffic? There is....its called a Guest Post.

If you spot an opportunity to provide a guest post take advantage of it! It is a fantastic way to introduce yourself to a whole new community of users. If the blogger you are guest posting for has a large reader base, I guarantee you will see a blast of new readers to your blog. Impress them and you will earn regular followers of your blog as well.

Don't take the guest post lightly. This is your moment to shine. This is your chance to stand up on stage and show the world what you've got. Yes, they may will throw rotten tomatoes at you if you submit a lame post. A high profile blog won't give you a second thought if your post sucks. But if you make the effort and submit something that is truly exceptional, the blogosphere will give you a standing ovation. A quality guest post on a high profile blog is like a red carpet to instant exposure and a whirlwind of traffic.

Guest posts can be fun too. It gives you the freedom to veer off-topic from your blog and write with an alter ego. You can be funny, charming, irrational, or even controversial. For example, here a couple of guest posts I provided recently:

• What Would Simon Cowell Say About Your Blog? - jasonboom.com
• Hey Virginia, Move the F Over!!! - commuterchronicles.com (do me a favor - leave a comment at this post. I like iTunes!)
• Making Money Online - Reality or Just Another Scam? - johncow.com

So remember what I said about the Rotten Tomatoes? I learned that the hard way. I will be the first to admit that my post at JohnCow.com sucked. I got lucky though - they posted it anyway and I saw a HUGE increase in traffic. So to JohnCow I bow down and say "thank you. sorry. thank you."  Don't take the same chance I did. If you can provide a guest post at a well known blog, make sure it shines.

Here is your chance. Darren over at ProBlogger - the grand master of blogging for money - is going on vacation and looking for guest bloggers. I'm sure there will be tons of competition, but if you are one of the chosen few to provide a guest post it will be your lucky day. Just make sure your ISP can handle the traffic! Hurry up though, this opportunity won't last.

Oh...and if you ever want to guest post here at BuzzMyBlog.com you are always welcome. Just drop me a note in a comment or shoot me an email (jeffbuzz13 at gmail dot com).

Good luck!

Jeff

Contests are always a great way to build traffic to your site. They get readers interested and give them incentive to not only visit your site, but link to it as well. Phillip over at Affiliate Lounge has taken this concept to a whole new level. He's not even bothering with a contest, he's just giving away 500 EntreCard credits to anyone who posts an article about his blog! Utterly brilliant. His goal is to get into the to 60,000 at Technorati. I bet this contest, er...give-away, helps him do it.

So let this post be a valuable lesson on using contests to build traffic. Oh who am I kidding, I'm just desperate for EntreCard credits! Here you go Phillip, here is your post. I'll be waiting for those credits!  

Jeff

In an effort to drive more traffic to my blog, I recently added both the BlogRush and EntreCard widgets. I mentioned that I would provide a follow up post to let you know how well each one worked. So here goes..... EntreCard beats the hell out of BlogRush. I think this picture will speak for itself.

As you can see above, there was definitely a huge spike in traffic the first day I started using EntreCard. I barely noticed a difference after adding BlogRush.

Perhaps my biggest criticism of BlogRush is that there really is no incentive for readers to click on your link. Your headline gets mixed in with a bunch of other meaningless headlines and its easy to understand why people just skip right over it. You only get points for showing the widget on your site so it makes no difference if other BlogRush users click on the headlines. The only way you'll get traffic from BlogRush is if you have an absolutely killer headline (how about "Tupac is in my kitchen and wants to give you a million dollars"). Even then, unless your headline is the first one in the widget, people will probably just ignore it.

EntreCard, on the other hand, not only builds great traffic - it is actually pretty fun! I have to admit, time slipped away from me yesterday while visiting countless blogs through EntreCard. I would click on a card that someone dropped on my site, check out their site, drop my card, then follow the EntreCard on their site to a new site. I followed this chain over and over and in no time I had collected hundreds of credits. I even left a few comments for people in my travels. I can now use the credits I collected to display my ad on someone's blog. The more cards (or credits) I collected, the more people dropped their card on my site. The more they dropped on my site, the more it costs for someone to advertise on my site, half of which comes back to me. It is a little confusing at first, but once you get the hang of it, EntreCard really is pretty fascinating.

Am I giving up on BlogRush? Not yet. I still think there is a chance for it to be useful as your network grows. So please still sign up for BlogRush. Its like chicken soup - might help, couldn't hurt. Also, BlogRush doesn't take any work on your part. Time will tell if the spike I saw from EntreCard will continue every day. It is fun to drop your card on dozens of blogs when you have the time, but your traffic might not be as great when you're in a hurry.

What are your thoughts on these and other traffic generating services? Let us know in a comment below.

Jeff

Just a quick post to let you know that I've added EntreCard to my site. EntreCard is a blog networking service. I have to admit, its a little confusing at first. The general gist is that you get credits for dropping your card (your ad) on other people's blog. Then with those credits, you can buy advertising space for your blog on other sites. Credits can be bought, sold, raffled, traded, or given away.

I am still getting the hang of using the service, so I will post an update soon to give you more details and let you know how much its helped traffic. I will say that I am amazed how quickly I am getting credits already. I'm not sure of the best use for them yet though. Any ideas? If you have some experience with EntreCard PLEASE share it with us in a comment. How well did it work for you? Do you have any tips or advice? As always, your comments are greatly appreciated.

By the way, I think this will be the last change to my ad panel for a while. My goal all along for this blog was to keep it real and down to earth. I don't want it to seem overwhelming with annoying ads all over the place.

Oh yeah....if you've already signed up for EntreCard, don't forget to drop your card here!

Jeff

Check it out...I've added the BlogRush widget to my "ad pane" on the far right. Yup, I was finally approved (I must finally have some quality content). I have been dying to see how well this improves traffic to my site. The whole idea is pretty ingenious if you ask me. It like a pyramid scheme for links. Each time I display the widget, I get one credit and a link to my blog is shown on someone else's site. Now here is where it gets really cool - if I get someone else to sign up for Blogrush, then each time they display the widget I also get a credit. This can happen for 10 generations. Theoretically, traffic can increase exponentially if I refer people to Blogrush, then they refer others, then they refer others, and so on.

So what are you waiting for! Sign up for Blogrush today!

I will post a follow-up in a few days to let you know how much my traffic has improved (if any). Has Blogrush worked for you? Leave a comment and let us know!

Jeff

Hopefully the title of this post got your attention (post headings are an entire topic for another post). Ok, so far we've come up with a domain name for our blog, we've opened a hosting account, selected a blogging platform, setup Google Analytics, and have started posting some decent content. Now comes the hard part - attracting visitors.

There are a number of good ways to attract visitors, but by far the most important thing is to get as many other people as possible to link to your blog. Links are what makes the Internet work. More importantly, they are a primary ingredient in the top secret search engine ranking algorithm. The more people that link to your site, the easier it will be for even more people to find it. You will be ranked higher on Google searches and will have greater chances of someone stumbling upon your online masterpiece.

One of the best people I have seen at building link backs is Carl Ocab. This kid is amazing. He is only 13 years old (actually 14 now I believe) and holds the #1 Google search spot for "Make Money Online". He has earned it though. He is always offering something that makes it worth linking to him. Whether its a contest, a free preview, or whatever, he provides an incentive for people to visit, link to him, and leave comments on his blog (fyi...leaving comments is a great way to get a link to your blog!). Carl has an interesting post that offers 69 suggestions to build traffic. Interestingly enough, almost all of them are ways of getting links to your site.

If you are curious to find out just how many people are linking to your site, Google has figured this one out too (shocker). Simply do a Google search like so: "link:buzzmyblog.com". It will show you all the sites that link to yours that Google has indexed. I am at a whopping 3 right now - Whoo Hooo! Carl has 3210. Looks like I still have a lot of work to do.

Leave me a comment if you've got any other ideas about building links and attracting visitors. Remember what I said about leaving comments to get more links to your blog!