Generate Traffic and Increase Website Traffic

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I guess before you can build and use a Feeder Blog, you first need to understand the concept. As you might expect, there are different theories and different strategies for developing and utilizing such blogs, and here are my thoughts on the subject. The video above is mostly for entertainment (not an endorsement for auto-blogging software), as building spam sites will get you nowhere in the search engines. However, the video does effectively portray the problems and frustrations of always having to update content.

I have been successful in using so-called feeder blogs to build on the 3 things I know are important for gaining extra traffic, and therefore ranking in the SERPs. You can actually even flip that around, since you also can view this from the perspective that you have to be noticed around the web to get traffic. It’s kind of the chicken and the egg thing again. Some say you have to rank in the search engines to get traffic, and others will swear you can’t rank unless you have the traffic first. It does make sense that If you rank well for certain keywords, then you will automatically get more organic traffic. This works particularly well to boost traffic to a static website that is seldom updated with new information.

I consistently find that this always boils down to having the best and most of three things: Keywords, Content, and Links. So, you can say that a feeder blog is a way to get more keywords, more content, and more links. Another aspect of this feeder blog thing is that I like to have these three things build in a semi-automated fashion. This assures that I can spend more time writing more in-depth articles and content pages (like this), but allows for my sites to be updated with fresh content in a consistent way and on a regular basis.

So, the idea is simple and it’s just a matter of putting it into best practice. Some people will define feeder blogs as a series of min-sites, usually built on micro-blogging platforms and somehow connected together to create a network, as a way to get your sites more links and noticed on the search engines. I guess that technically this is true as well, but I call that approach a blog network, or a “link wheel” that uses Web 2.0 type properties to build and distribute links. And yes, my version of a feeder blog does the same thing, as the purpose of both is to help create inbound links to your websites, blogs, or network of sites.

You probably have noted that many A-list bloggers often have secondary blogs, where they do little more than post links to things they find of interest related to their niche, but somehow not suitable for an individual post. These types of postings can also be considered a feeder blog system, and also are referred to as speed links. The main purpose being to “feed”, or “point” links somewhere else. Others have called this technique “blog and ping” or “post and ping”.

I use the above technique as well, but in a more specific way to alert the search engines of links I want to get noticed and make sure that these links get indexed. I use a blogger blogspot blog to do this and will be writing a separate post on blog and ping.

You won’t have to go far to see my version of a feeder blog in action. In fact, I have a feeder blog attached to this site. The Evan Beck Blog is also actually part of this website, Evan Beck Online. It is a second instance of WordPress installed as a sub-domain (a separate folder and database). Mouse over the link and you will see the url is: http://blog.evanbeckonline.com. In this case this is, in effect, a blog on top of a blog. It is a blog attached to another blog.

I am using the power and flexibility of the WordPress platform to have my main domain look and feel more like a website, and then drip feeding, keywords, content, and links in a steady fashion to the second attached blog using plugins that semi-automate much of the process. I also use RSS feeds to bring in fresh content through widgets for the same reason.

As keywords build and content builds, over time so do the tags, the tag cloud and categories, giving a more powerful link structure related to the overall website. This helps the search engines to understand that this site is about traffic generation, SEO, and list building.

Additionally, the question and answer format of most of the content on the feeder blog not only brings extra traffic, but it is useful information for readers as well. This is the same idea behind pages like the one on the navigation bar titled “Alex Jeffreys videos”. Do a search on that keyword phrase without the quotation marks, and my feeder blog is usually listed about the middle of the first page of Google out of 3.8 million indexed pages.

This just shows that search engines (Google in particular) like lists, and content that is organized and presented in a certain way. After all, that is what search engines are built to do…search and index information online. So, provide them good information, and more of it in a way that is easy to navigate, and they will send you the traffic.

The use of feeder blogs is a great way to get your e-commerce sites positioned well in the SERPs. These are simple special purpose blogs that feed relevant content to another website using the power of a blog platform and other tools like RSS feeds, plugins, and widgets. This new website is a good example of how a feeder blog should work conceptually. It has been designed using a highly optimized theme, taking advantage of a heat map, and certain free and paid plugins to maximize traffic.

Feeder blogs can be developed prior to launching a new website. A linking strategy should be planned out with the majority of links pointing to the target site. However, links should not be exclusive to the target site. Inbound and outbound links should be built to and from the feeder blog. Internal linking and navigation are necessary to the overall linking strategy.

Always keep in mind that a feeder blog needs to be a credible source of information. Blogs naturally get indexed often by search engines, and this is the power of this strategy. Feeder blogs should grow steadily and naturally, because search engines like consistency and feeder blogs are consistent because of the semi-automated tools that can be used.

Feeder blogs are only part of an overall traffic strategy. Your sites should be structured and optimized. That’s why I like tools that create things like sitemaps, and plugins like All-In-One SEO to properly format your content and permalinks to aid search for both humans and search engines alike.

You do want to have other strategies for building relevant keywords, content, and links, but feeder blogs should be on the forefront of your planning when launching a new site. This way you can then feed your sites with these 3 big traffic pulling ingredients on a regular basis right from the very beginning. An extra bonus is that these sites are very low-maintenance.

So, use feeder blogs to support and augment you blogging efforts and promote your other website properties. You will find that it is beneficial to build a constant stream of traffic and links from other sites, and building feeder blogs is one of the best ways to accomplish this.

In closing, please let me know if think these ideas are useful, or if you have more information or experience about feeder blogs by leaving your comments below.

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