Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

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January 30, 2006

Quick Traffic from Newsweek

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 6:44 am

This tip from SOB Cheryl at Mad Baggage, who suggests we take advantage of the partnering of Technorati and Newsweek to get your blog noticed by a whole new audience of Newsweek readers. Cheryl has used it with stunning success. Within a short time of posting against a Newsweek article in the morning, she had traffic beating down her doors. Here’s what she says to do.

Go to MSNBC Newsweek, read the top story, read a couple of the related front page stories, and do a post linking to them all. Newsweek has a Technorati link page showing what bloggers are saying on the subject and as long as you are among the earliest or most recent to post on the matter, people click through in tens and hundreds. They don’t stay, they don’t come back, but they click through.

I tried Cheryl’s techniques on yesterday as a test. Check out the two Newsweek posts I ran–one about Martha Stewart and one about their column Blog Watch. Both were worth posting in their own right, but I was also testing whether the new Technorati-Newsweek partnering would work on my broken Technorati account. It did not.

However, if you click through to either of the stories and look down the right sidebar you’ll see how it works. A small section will tell you how many blogs have posted on this story so far. Then you can click through to see what the posts are and where they came from.

It seems to work for any, not just the top stories–though the top stories are surely where the most traffic would be. Still, I think I would go for the sections with stories and traffic that fit my niche–less traffic, but more qualified leads.

As for post not working, well, I’m just lucky I guess.

–ME “Liz” Strauss





Filed under Community, Marketing, Successful Blog, Tips | 5 Comments »




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5 Comments to “Quick Traffic from Newsweek”

  1. January 30th, 2006 at 8:00 am
    Cas said

    I’d be chary of doing this too often and, as you said Liz, pick stories that relate to your niche – doing it just for traffic does smack of linkbaiting (i.e., bad form), and I’ve seen more than one instance where it went spectacularly wrong for the blogger involved.

    One very recent case that springs to mind involved a blogger who wasn’t linkbaiting, and who wrote an article that highlighted a genuine concern, albeit in a slightly opnionated/confrontational manner, but nothing excused the barrage of vitriolic personal attacks that followed in her comments field. That one post had 85 comments (she averages between 2 and 5 on normal posts). It was very nasty to watch.

    That being said, I’ve had some very good results when I’ve linked back to bigger sites and I’ve shown up in their trackback – the GoogleBlog is always a trusty generator of traffic. As is, I must say, Successful-Blog! (And don’t rely on patchy Technorati support to work).

  2. January 30th, 2006 at 8:29 am
    chartreuse said

    Interesting.

    I think it’s interesting that a lot of people in the blogsophere think that big media doesn’t get it. I think this is a great idea on Newsweeks part. And if people are not careful they (big media) will own the internet as well.

  3. January 30th, 2006 at 9:11 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Cas,
    What a great point you make that you have to be careful of how you approach your commentary on the media piece that you blog. It’s easy to forget that the folks who come in from the mainstream media often have a anti-blog mindset, despite their having come from a mainstream media “blog.”

    You’re sure right about the Google blog being a nice source of traffic. Just yesterday, I still got a hit on the tracking Santa story. :)
    Liz

  4. January 30th, 2006 at 9:15 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hey Chartreuse,
    Yeah, we out here in the Wild, Wild West think those city folks don’t know what it takes to live out in the wildnerness. You’re right Chartreuse. We ain’t been thinkin’ ’bout those railroad folks who aren’t worried about living in the wilderness. They’re just going to come in here and turn us all into city folks like them, if we don’t watch out.
    Liz

  5. January 30th, 2006 at 10:57 am
    chartreuse (BETA) » Blog Archive » What’s Been Happening As You Move Around Your Adsense Templates said

    [...] Newsweek and Technorati have partnered up. [...]

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