Blog brings 80% of site traffic

Posted on August 14th, 2008 in Advantages of blogs, Aim of your blog by Karen Bryan

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Twenty months after staring the Europe a la Carte travel blog to promote my European travel website, Europe a la Carte, the blog now brings in over 80% of the traffic to the site. My site has virtually become the blog.

One of the major advantages of the blog over a conventional site is that it’s structure is much more search engine friendly and with my limited knowledge or search engine optimisation this is a major factor.

However I have to consider the amount of time and effort that I’ve spent creating, maintaining and marketing the blog, I’m not suggesting that having a business blog is a quick, easy marketing ploy. However with sustained input it has achieved my aim of increasing visitor traffic and revenue.

One of the most important tasks before you start a business blog is to decide on the aims of your blog
and ensure that your blog fits in with your marketing strategy

At the same time you have to flexible in your thinking. It began to dawn on me, while some readers may subscribe and read the majority of posts which is great, the majority of traffic comes to the blog through searches on terms such as car hire or cheap travel offers so I’m not too obsessed with subscriber numbers. The original Europe a la Carte site mainly contains destination guides and it seems in this short attention span society, I’m more likely to get hits from a specific search about a destination e.g. a hotel review than someone who will read through a whole destination guide.

In June 2008 the Europe a la Carte blog became a multi author blog which at the time was a hard decision to make but my decision has been vindicated with more traffic and revenue from the blog.

So yes I’m a testament to the benefits of blogging for your business but you’ve got to be in it for the long haul to reap the benefits.

The transition to a multi author blog

Posted on August 13th, 2008 in Advantages of blogs, Aim of your blog, Hazards, Marketing your blog, Writing posts by Karen Bryan

In June 2008 I decided that in order to take the Europe a la Carte blog to the next level, it would need to become a multi author blog with more variety and volume of content than I could personally write. It was hard to let go off my baby and lose control of the content and the personality of the blog that I’d built up over 20 months. I’d looked at several multi author travel blogs and to be quite honest some of were seriously lacking in coherence.

It was crucial that the relationship between me and the blogging team would be mutually beneficial. I knew that from my own perspective writing for Wandalust, which I do to increase my personal exposure as well as that of Europe a la Carte and to gain experience writing about travel outside Europe. not primarily for the $140 a month. As Europe a la Carte is an established travel blog with a Google Page Rank of 4, it is an ideal showcase for travel bloggers/writers.

I advertised on Perfomancing.com for bloggers and was overwhelmed by the response. I initially wanted to recruit 5 bloggers, so each could write one post a week. I did spend a bit of time in the recruitment process to find bloggers whose style would fit with Europe a la Carte. I don’t mean that they had to write in a uniform manner but that there would still be coherence in the blog. I don’t consider myself a travel writer as such and was well aware that some of the new content could be of a superior standard to my own writing.

I thought that I’d better moderate posts from the new bloggers before they were uploaded, so gave the bloggers contributor status on the blog, however that meant that they couldn’t upload their photos so after a week, I changed this to author status. where the bloggers can publish their own posts.

There were one or two teething problems but it all seems to be going really well now with a big increase in page views.   Each of the 5 bloggers has their own style but their posts still fit well within the remit of “authentic travel in Europe on a modest budget”, whether that be reviews of travel sites, information about travel deals, events or destinations. Just as well I was prepared to be outshone as a writer, as it is happening but I’m all too aware of my own limitations.

In conclusion if you’re thinking of changing your blog to multi author:

1 Your blog will need to have a good reputation and established in its field to attract good writers who are looking for exposure.

2 Recruit carefully to find bloggers who’ll be a good fit for your blog and give them ground rules without being dictatorial. Be approachable and willing to take on board bloggers concerns and/or suggestions. Remember this relationship has to be win/win for you and the blogger.

3 You have to be prepared to let go and trust your blogging team and feel secure enough to recognise and praise good writing from your team.