More Blog Traffic – of the People, by the People, and for the People
by Antone Roundy | Blog Riffers, SEO Content Factory
For the last 3 1/2 months, my White Hat Crew blog's traffic has been about 2.4 times what it was before. And I've got an idea for how we can all do even better.
There's no big secret to it -- all I did was:
- Post 5 times a week.
- Configure my mailing list to send out a message whenever I post.
- Tweet a link to each post on Twitter.
The hardest part was posting 5 times a week -- or at least that used to be hard. I used to average only 2 posts a month. But there's a way to come up with ideas to write about that makes it a whole lot easier.
It's really pretty simple -- all you have to do is grab a quote from somebody else's blog and "riff" on it on your own blog. If you're posting comments on other blogs, you're already half way there. Just post your comments on your own blog instead.
If you grab a quote from the blog that inspired the idea, you'll already have a little starter content for your post. And if you link back to the source blog, you'll probably get a "pingback" link from them to your post. Plus, it's a great way to build relationships with other bloggers as they see you responding to their posts on your blog.
But like I said above, we can do better than 2.4 times the traffic if we work together.
I just created a "system" for doing that (100% free -- and it's so simple it's almost not a "system" at all, but I think you'll agree it's a powerful ... well, "system").
It's called Blog Riffers.
The idea is that we blog the way I described above -- by grabbing quotes from each other's blogs and "riffing" on them. Then, when somebody riffs on something on your blog, you give them a "riffback" by grabbing a quote from their blog and using it to seed a post on yours.
When you find a blogger you really resonate with, you just keep riffing on each other.
It's all 100% voluntary (so if, for example, somebody with a junky blog writes a really lame riff on one of your posts, you're under no obligation to give them a riffback.)
Of the People, by the People, and for the People
You may have a noticed a few things I didn't mention above:
- You don't have to schmooze with A-list or B-list bloggers to try to get them to link to you.
- You don't have to pay some "guru" a monthly membership fee.
- You don't have to buy anything (Blog Riffer does make it quicker and easier, but it's by no means required).
- You don't even have to sign up to get involved.
So how do you recognize the blogs of other Blog Riffers? Simple -- I've created some badges that you can put on your blog to identify you as a Blog Riffer. I'm using the biggest badge one on my blogs, but there's a small one too, and a few in-between size. Here are my blogs that you'll find the Blog Riffers badge on:
- White Hat Crew (internet marketing)
- Alpha Gecko (all sorts of stuff -- this is my public personal blog, and used to be my business blog too)
- The Missing Link (link building and SEO)
- Click to See More Info (miscellaneous -- not much there yet)
So there it is -- no signup required, no purchase required. Just grab the HTML code for the badge from Blog Riffers.
December 29th, 2010 at 1:37 pm
[...] Roundy has a great post called “More Blog Traffic – of the People, by the People, and for the People” that goes into great detail on “riffing” and how his team has greatly increased [...]
December 29th, 2010 at 1:41 pm
Yep - this works VERY well! Proof is in my latest post riffing off this one.
Great work!
December 30th, 2010 at 10:08 am
Thanks for the Riff, Jack. I just posted a Riffback for you over at White Hat Crew.
December 30th, 2010 at 11:14 am
This is a great concept Antone! I'm just in the process of setting up SEO Content Factory now, and will implement this riffing strategy along with that.
December 30th, 2010 at 3:13 pm
Just finished up my first blog riff and scheduled it to go out first thing tomorrow morning. I've actually renamed this method the "blogsaver", heh.
This is new to me, and I like the idea already.
December 30th, 2010 at 6:01 pm
This is a fantastic idea and a great way to build links and content -- not to mention a wonderful way to never run out of ideas. Thanks for sharing!
December 31st, 2010 at 11:46 am
This is a great idea that not only saves time but builds a community i definetly becoming part of blog riffers, thanks.
December 31st, 2010 at 12:50 pm
This is a great idea. I have taken your badge and placed it one one of my blogs, to see how it works. I also use the ComLuv plugin that rewards folks for placing comments on my blog after I moderate them.
Thanks I will now riff this on my blog.
January 3rd, 2011 at 12:13 pm
[...] of the positive response to my recent post about getting more traffic to your blog with Blog Riffing, I decided to whip up a free WordPress plugin to make it a [...]
January 17th, 2011 at 7:33 pm
I don't know whether to comment here or Blog riff this article. Either way- thanks for the inspiration!
January 18th, 2011 at 3:24 pm
[...] part of what I was aiming for when I posted about “Blog Riffing” a few weeks [...]
February 17th, 2011 at 1:48 pm
Love it! I just feel all warm and fuzzy after reading this. My kids always tell me it's just my old "hippie" leanings but I just don't have the mindset to be as cutthroat and aggresive as what I have seen going on. This does make me feel that there is a community of, shall I venture to say "normal", people out there and it makes me feel better. I'm in!
February 24th, 2011 at 2:07 am
This is an awesome idea. I should have thought of it a long time ago.
March 10th, 2011 at 12:33 pm
[...] been doing it for years. But it didn’t have a name. So I dubbed it Blog Riffing and wrote up a post explaining the approach. That post attracted a fair number of enthusiastic [...]
May 2nd, 2011 at 1:35 pm
Riffing is new to me. I like the idea and am joining. Thanks.
May 16th, 2011 at 8:08 am
I've been writing about this idea (without a name for it, of course) for a while. It's a great way to keep a topical conversation going, and its far better than using entire articles from someone else with a link back to them.
Glad it finally has a name :)
May 16th, 2011 at 9:53 am
Hey Antone,
Thanks for this terrific idea, talk about paying it forward and receiving some great benefits at the same time.
It is a wonderful system and even though you say it too simple to be called that, I believe some of the best systems are so effective because they are so easily "doable".
Thanks again and continued success!
Yvonne
May 16th, 2011 at 1:22 pm
[...] Roundy explained it like this in his blog post called “More Blog Traffic – of the People, by the People, and for the People.” “It’s really pretty simple — all you have to do is grab a quote from somebody else’s [...]
May 16th, 2011 at 10:48 pm
Awsome blog infomation , BLOG RIFFING, the new phenomenon !!!!!!!!!
May 31st, 2011 at 2:56 am
Useful info Roundy thanks
June 5th, 2011 at 9:29 am
[...] Roundy explained it like this in his blog post called “More Blog Traffic – of the People, by the People, and for the People.†“It’s really pretty simple — all you have to do is grab a quote from somebody else’s blog [...]
July 12th, 2011 at 11:41 am
Just created a Blog Riffers group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/136172346464291
November 4th, 2011 at 8:07 pm
Hey, this is a great concept; one of haven't come across before. Thanks for the heads up. I'll definitely give it a try.
February 24th, 2012 at 10:59 pm
Recently started my own blog and it is not easy to build content or generate traffic. This idea rocks and definitely worth the try.