In light of some of the concerned emails I’ve been receiving, I thought it worth stating that all is very well with me. I’m not sick, or disenchanted, or uninspired — just a full-time final year university student with three big papers due in as many weeks.

I’m almost over the hill and will do my best to make it up to you with some extra goodies when I can sit down and blog again — probably over the next few days, after I finish my last paper. Wish me luck :).

(Trust me, I’d rather be blogging!)

Photo by Iydurg.

It’s easy to get caught up discussing high-level Digg strategies and complicated metaphors, but it’s important not to lose sight of the things that make the advanced stuff worthwhile.

Without the ability to gather links, subscribers and comments, your blog can’t grow. These three basic things are the lifeblood of your blog. It’s essential to be reminded (every once and a while) of how you can keep that lifeblood flowing.

Let’s get back to basics!

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Photo by Thiru Murugan.

On the 12th of March I proposed that one way to create a remarkable blog post is to write like you’re never going to be able to write again, and, in doing so, produce a trump card post. After reading the post, ten Skelliewag readers decided to give it a go. The results were quite spectacular, and covered a broad range of niches, from personal finance, to self-improvement, divination, online writing, work and the PC hardware industry!

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Photo by Andrew Eglington.

Effective use of time is the main ingredient in creating a thriving blog or website. In this post, I want to explain some high-impact traffic generating techniques you can use that minimize time and effort without minimizing results.

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Photo by Brett L.

1. The social media runaway train. Perhaps the most sought after (and least frequently attained) route to a popular blog is rapid ‘growth from above’ resulting from huge traffic spikes, most frequently originating from Digg. This route was traveled by blogs like Zen Habits (did you know Zen Habits has been on the Digg front page more than 80 times?) and The Art of Manliness.

Getting started on this path:
Why You’ve Got to Digg Digg to Get Dugg
The One True Cause of Rapid-fire Growth

2. Grassroots growth. The most common form of blog growth occurs at the grassroots, where blogs and bloggers at similar levels of development collaborate from the ground up. The central idea here is that a lot of little links are just as powerful as one big, top-down growth event. This is one of the most community-based approaches, though growth yielded through this route tends to be consistent and slow-burn.

Getting started on this path:
Hansel and Gretel Link-building

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