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Tips for Increasing the Views of Your Travel Blog

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How addicted to the stats are you? Do you want more numbers! if so - this post is for you.
16 years ago, January 23rd 2008 No: 1 Msg: #25889  
B Posts: 5,200
In my blog with something like 180 entries - I have some entries that get 500 views a month and some that get 5 - what is the difference between the entries where do these views come from? ... tips in no particular order for maximising the number of views of your blog.


Tip 1 - follow the tips in the style guide - write for the web

It's much easier to read a blog entry that has plenty of white-space, is well formatted and punctuated. This will encourage visitors to click "Next Entry" or check out your profile. Writing for the web forum post.


Tip 2 - get involved in the forum and other peoples blogs

We all love comments right? well most of them - if you are reading a great blog - or love a photograph that you just stumbled on - let the blogger know - leave a comment! It will also create a link back to your blog that will be followed by search engines and readers.

If you enjoy the whole blog - recommend them - doing these things will encourage other bloggers to check out your blog and leave comments or recommend your blog in return.


Tip 3 - your best photos first

If you have great photos - put them to the top of your blog - with the most stunning being the first - on travelblog - many visitors scan through the listings with the photos catching the eye and leading to someone viewing your blog. More on this in the Photography Forum


Tip 4 - write catchy titles for your blogs and photos

The tabloid journalists have long realised the value of a sensationalist headline - it works on the web too. Which is better All Cockerels Must Die! or Day 156 - Palawan - (LobsterCheeks has some great titles!) - these titles stand out in the crowd - pull in the visitor and will help build up a fan base.

One of the most viewed photos on travelblog for several years was the "nice ass!" photo on the right. Why? Search engines picked it up and returned it for search queries of that text - it's no longer returned - and you know what you're going to get with that search today!


Tip 6 - put your blog address in your profile on other sites or signature in emails

If you write on photography, travel or adventure forums - make sure your blog address is included - it's on your Control Panel - use either the mytb.org or travelblog.org - address as you see fit.

Set up a signature in your email - and include a link to your blog as part of it. If you use other forums that allow signatures then put the link there as well. If you use facebook - add the travelblog application.

If you're reading a post on a forum and a blog of yours is relevant - post a link - but include some information - a one liner with a link is likely to be removed.


Tip 7 - make a travel card and write down your blog address with your email address

Like a business card but is for you personally - people will keep it and lookup the details later. It's good for staying in touch with people you meet on the road - and good for a few - "how flash are you!" jokes as well 😊

Make sure that you don't change your nickname when you've made a card! - your address is based on your nickname here.


Tip 8 - shorter more numerous entries

The more entries you have the more visitors you will get. The more places that you blog the more chance that people will stumble onto your blog entry. The further down and more specifc the place that you blog the better. A blog entry for South America -> Brazil will appear only there - an entry for Ipanema will be listed in Brazil, Rio de Janeiro state, Rio de Janeiro city and Ipanema - so there is more chance of it appearing.


Tip 9 - subscribe your friends

Let them know that you have subscribed them and that you expect them to follow your adventure and that you'll be giving a prize to the friend that leaves the most comments when you get back - buy them a ridiculous souvenir!


Tip 10 - the holy grail? the front page?

How do those lucky few get on the front page? It's based on the number of followers, currently 5 followers are needed. Contribute in the forums, follow blogs and leave comments on other people's blogs and you'll get noticed and probably gain a follower or two.


Feed back, discussions and additional tips as ever are welcome - hope this helps!
[edited: 21:09 - Ali - link to Mikes topic on picking the photo order.] Reply to this

16 years ago, January 23rd 2008 No: 2 Msg: #25891  
Super advice Ali, thanks.

As a blog stats tragic it drives me crazy that my diary with "sex" in the title has been read more than twice as often as ones that I'm much more proud of:

Much Ado About Russian.

The country I'm in at the moment has a website for "Expats", and my blog has its own page there with the best paragraph from each entry and a link to my page here. I'm sure that many Expat sites would welcome travellers doing the same if they are in one country for a while, as so many of the stories and pictures which I have found on TravelBlog really define a country.

It would also guarantee that your new readers already have an interest in your experiences and will read until the end.

p.s. - Ali, I looked at the link that you sent me in Russian and couldn't find anything particularly related to TravelBlog - just general impressions of Americans in Russia, of which there are many on this site anyway. Sorry for not getting back to you.

Reply to this

16 years ago, January 24th 2008 No: 3 Msg: #25973  
Thanks Ali. That was a good bunch of tips. With the current changes you made to the website(updates in the control panel), I can already find more hits :-) I am hitting more blogs too! Reply to this

16 years ago, January 27th 2008 No: 4 Msg: #26176  
B Posts: 460
From personal experience, as well as inspecting the "Most Viewed" stats for the site as a whole, I would say that the most important of the above tips by far is to be on the front page. Second is to ensure you have eye-catching photos, especially your first one and preferably the first four. Note that eye-catching does not necessarily have to mean technically brilliant - a mass of bright colours should generally do it.

Unfortunately the quality of the text has a comparatively minuscule impact on hits, which isn't that surprising as it actually takes a bit of effort to read a few paragraphs and decide whether you like someone's writing style whereas you judge a photo instantaneously. Good text may well garner you some recommendations which may then mean you appear on the front page, but in itself it won't boost your hits much.

However I think the absolute number 1 guaranteed method of generating hits, which is only alluded to above though has been mentioned in other threads, is to include in your blog (in particular the title) plenty of words that people are likely to be searching for on the major search engines. As you might expect, if you include countries and place names in your blog then people that are searching on Google for info on that particular country/place will find your entry (and may even read it). But also if you include topical issues (e.g. Madeleine McCann) then that will see your hits increase too - not that people who find your entry as a result of searching for such a topical issue will necessarily read it, as it probably wasn't what they were looking for in the first place. And of course including anything with even a vaguely sexual connection will attract hits from the chunk of society that really should get out more.

It's a little disappointing that this approach has such a large effect, as it doesn't encourage good blog writing or photo taking, but it's worth mentioning if your goal is to simply increase your hits (maybe it could be introduced as the mysteriously absent tip number 5?) And if your blogs actually ARE good (whatever that means) then taking advantage of the search engine traffic is arguably the equivalent of having an effective advertising campaign. As with any creative endeavour, there's always going to be a difference between what's good (since that is entirely subjective) and what's popular - however I don't think JK Rowling's losing much sleep over that. Reply to this

16 years ago, February 7th 2008 No: 5 Msg: #26956  
B Posts: 5,200
Tip 5 - Search Engines - previously mysteriously absent.

As mentioned by John above - the largest source of long term hits to your blogs will be the search engine traffic. So - with that in mind; what are good titles and text to bring in traffic from search engines.

Well - I tried an experiment with my last few blogs - on the Rio Carnival - and the results have surprised me a huge amount.

1. I picked a popular topic, and had great timing - while the event was still happening.

2. I guessed people would be looking for photos of the event.

3. I titled it: "Rio Carnival 2008 Photos" - the search engines (well Google) picked up this title - and text which basically said here are some photos - and listed it in less than a day.

The results

1000's of hits over the last few days 😊 - 2,200 at the point of posting this in 4 days. I usually get about 500 hits when I publish a blog entry - so this is extraordinary - my most visited blog entry prior to this (after 5 years!) has just under 8,000 hits - which really puts it in perspective.

So - if you can title your blog with a currently popular search term - try "Event Name Year Photos" - it could lead to many many hits.

The downside - I don't think anyone likes my photos as I only have about 2 comments 😉 - oh well!

List of the most popular blogs on travelblog Reply to this

14 years ago, March 29th 2010 No: 6 Msg: #107524  
B Posts: 9
Ohhh, for ages I've wondered how my Tokyo blog entitled "Lesbian Nurse Manga Porn - What more could you want from a city" has about 200 times more hits a month than any of my others.... the mystery is solved!
I wonder how many of the googlers actually stayed around to read it...
.
Thanks guys, this is really interesting Reply to this

14 years ago, March 30th 2010 No: 7 Msg: #107553  
Liz, it's all those people searching for manga :-)

J. Reply to this

14 years ago, March 30th 2010 No: 8 Msg: #107554  
B Posts: 9
Apparently so! Filthy deviants... Reply to this

13 years ago, April 4th 2010 No: 9 Msg: #107933  
Interesting details on getting stuff onto the front page - I've written 76 odd blog entries over the past 13 months and never had it on there!

I'll be sure to sex-up my titles, move-up my best pictures and add topical text (threesomes, Tory MPs, Jenson Button etc.)

This is a very useful post so thanks!

Sep Reply to this

13 years ago, April 4th 2010 No: 10 Msg: #107937  
Hello Sep 😊

Currently, to get a blog on the Front Page you would need to have at least 3 recommends. After you get 3 recommends, then all your blogs which fulfill the minimum word count and have at least one photo would go on the Front Page.

Mel Reply to this

13 years ago, April 4th 2010 No: 11 Msg: #107950  
Thanks Mel - ain't gonna happen I'm afraid. 😉 Reply to this

13 years ago, November 25th 2010 No: 12 Msg: #123688  
"Tips for Increasing the Views of Your Travel Blog" by Ali

Hi, I am a newbie... your post helped me a lot - thank you.
Yet I have more questions: If a post is bit older, does it make sense to respond to it- does the author follow the track?
In generally, If I get the respond from any of new posts, how will I find it - does it come to my account?

The hierarchy of posts? I see that replier to main author (to you, who opened this post) relate and answer to each other as well as to you. How to explain this?
Probably those answers are on some other post!?.. sorry for taking your time. Reply to this

13 years ago, November 25th 2010 No: 13 Msg: #123690  
Hello Luki 😊

Yet I have more questions: If a post is bit older, does it make sense to respond to it- does the author follow the track?
In generally, If I get the respond from any of new posts, how will I find it - does it come to my account?



Do you mean comments on blogs or forum posts? For both, it does not matter how old the posts are. If you have something to say, go ahead. The more the better. And people usually love to get comments on their blogs. 😊

does the author follow the track?


You can check the last log in date on their Profile Page, to see if they are still logging into their account.

To find new comments posted on your blogs: Control Panel, Comments.

You will get an email notification if new replies come on forum thread you contributed to.

The hierarchy of posts? I see that replier to main author (to you, who opened this post) relate and answer to each other as well as to you. How to explain this?


I am not sure what you are asking here. Would you explain it a bit more.

Mel


Reply to this

13 years ago, November 28th 2010 No: 14 Msg: #123852  
I'm with Ali on having your four best photos first and this would certainly increase your views, but would also like to add that photo composure is also important for catching the eye i.e creating a theme with a pattern of colour on your top four or even having the same photo but from four different angles. This makes it easy on the eye and more attractive to the reader to want to know more.

I dont believe our writing was strong enough on its own to be spotted but having some well composed photos made up for this and created a strong following. Reply to this

13 years ago, December 4th 2010 No: 15 Msg: #124202  
Well put Ali.

Along similar lines, although I'm not sure if its good etiquette to post links to external blogs . . .

Trail Of Ants has a few good tips on how to get it out there.

He seems to be using his blogs as a commercial platform but the philosophy remains the same.

Needless to say, I have no connection with above mentioned blogger but All Knowledge Is Power.

:-) Reply to this

13 years ago, December 5th 2010 No: 16 Msg: #124222  
Thanks to all of you,
I am repeatedly reading your posts- maybe because of my not best English.
In any case it is a post that should matter to all blogger- to me, it is remodeling my approach to blog.
I am curious if I am doing well so far in my blog
I would appreciate very much if some of you have a look in my blog :
<snip>, and especially if you give some advice.

The first steps I made in going online was to promote my accommodation, but than I got bit of taste to blog and to contribute, I just didn't know how.
Blog for the blogging sake ? No !
Advertise only own site ? Neither !
It should be all well balanced.
I had in past, here and there a look at some blog, and thought to my self- what a nonsense,
all kid of messy information- who could be interested about?
Bat now, reading your article- I see it is possible to give sense to it.


Reply to this

13 years ago, February 5th 2011 No: 17 Msg: #128286  
Only noticed the Facebook Share link button on each blog page about a week ago but that seems to be a pretty good tool to reach a larger audience it seems to have doubled my weekly count instantly.


:-) Reply to this

13 years ago, March 3rd 2011 No: 18 Msg: #130295  
This forum is awesome and full of sense. I'm new here gotta learn a lot from this forum. Reply to this

13 years ago, March 10th 2011 No: 19 Msg: #130813  
I always post my latest blogs on Facebook now as most of my friends on there do not subscribe to my Travelblog updates or are not members of Travelblog. My count on recent blogs has not doubled (that is impressive) but it has increased. Because I meet people when I travel I have made a business card, which is a personal one - it has my name, my hobbies of "photographer", "writer", my email address and the website address of my Travelblog profile.
Reply to this

12 years ago, September 3rd 2011 No: 20 Msg: #142737  
I was not sure that posting my blog on facebook would make much of a difference because many of my friends on facebook already receive the blog. I gave it a try because it has been mentioned a few times and I've seen a bit of an increase.

It was a good suggestion. Reply to this

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