One of the first methods of driving traffic I have learned is commenting on other peoples blogs.  I had always thought of blog commenting as a way to build backlinks to your website, which is a benefit, however if done right it can really help drive more visitors to your blog.

Here is the theory Alex Jeffreys teaches behind it.

Oil Rig Hopping

The internet is like the ocean.

If you were go tuna fishing where would you go? Would you go straight for the shallow waters or the deep part of the sea? Where would you get the most fish?

Some of the best tuna fishing in the world is located around man made oil rigs. An oil rig turns into a man made reef.

Algae grows beneath these man made oil structures. Because of the algae, clams start to build up all around it.  Little fish are then attracted because they eat clams. Then larger fish come to eat on the little fish. Then even larger fish come to eat on the bigger fish and then eventually you have sharks coming to eat on the even bigger fish.

By leaving comments on other blogs you are attracting all of those fish back to your blog.

If you are in the internet marketing niche, a great resource to finding great blogs is http://www.winningtheweb.com. You can get a list of the top internet marketing blogs from this website. These are sites that have LOADS of fish just waiting to swim over to your blog. You can also just do a simple google search for blogs in your niche.

Please remember that the key is not necessarily to post on as many blogs as you can, but to leave thought out, quality comments. The better your comments are the more likely it will attract visitors.

I struggled with this at first, just because I have hard time figuring out what to say. The more blog comments I have left though, the easier it gets.

Be sure to read the bloggers post. Don’t just leave a canned comment that you would leave on a hundred different blogs. Many people do this. I know this because most of them go straight to my spam filter. Some of these comments amaze me too, especially the ones that have absolutely nothing to do with what my blog is about.

If you find it difficult, take a couple quick notes while you are reading the blogger’s post. Find something that you can relate to. Maybe they mentioned something you have had experience with. Maybe you agree or disagree with something they have said. It’s ok if you disagree, just be sure you leave your opinion in a respectful manner.

The more blog comments you leave the faster you will get at it. Then yes, you do want to leave as many comments as you can to get more and more traffic. Just make sure they are always quality.

I know this works! I have left comments on some of the blogs I found in Winning the Web. My Google Analytics shows that I have had some visitors from these blogs, so they would have had to have found me through my blog comment.

I just wanted to do a quick post about what I plan on doing in the next couple of weeks and where I am at as of right now.

Although list building is my key focus, I am learning about different traffic generating methods in Alex’s course.

Some of the traffic methods we have learned about so far include blog commenting, social media and video marketing.

I will be posting about each method as I work through them.

Just to show where I am at right now, here is a snapshot of my Google Analytics page for this blog for the month of February.

This is my traffic for February 1 – 10, 2010.

My lifetime blog stats are as follows:

950 Visits
1929 Pageviews
2.03 page/visit
64.43 % bounce rate
3.10 average time on site
70.63% new visits

Yes, I know, not too impressive. LOL

I originally started my blog back in July, 2009 and have done a little here and there, but now I am actually taking action on everything I am learning through Alex Jeffrey’s training.  Right now I’m getting about 5-15 visitors a day, but I plan to see that increase over the coming weeks. I’ll let you know everything that I am doing to build the traffic I generate.

Through out the first couple modules of Alex Jeffrey’s training he emphasizes over and over again that your main focus and effort should be on building your list.

Did you know that they say that each person on your email list equals about $1 a month?

Imagine that, just a list of 3000 to 4000 email subscribers and I can kick the day job to the curb.

Of course, it starts slow.

You won’t have 2000 subscribers overnight.

They will join, 1 by 1 by 1.

Alex says that you will start small, but need to THINK BIG.

Not only do you want a list, but you want a warm list. Not a cold list. As you build your list you should first focus on building relationships with your readers. The more value you provide them the more likely they will read your emails and buy something from you in the future.

You can send them tips, helpful links, videos, free ebooks. There are all kinds of things you can do. Just make sure what your are sending them is of value.

Show them that you are there to help them and that you want to see them succeed.

The more you build relationships and the more value you provide them the more they will trust you. Your readers will start to look forward to your next emails.

There are 4 Steps to Your Readers:

Suspects

Prospects

Customers

Clients

You turn your suspects into prospects by giving them free, valuable information.

Then you start to build you relationships with them. Let them get to know you. Let them start to like you and then they will start trusting you.

Then you can start turning them into customers.

Alex overlooked list building for years. Now he has a list well over 23,000 subscribers. It is probably even loads higher than that now.

There is no time than the present to start. Don’t wait 2 years down the road thinking I’ll get to it later. Now is the time to start.

I actually starting learning about internet marketing about 1-2 years ago. I told myself I wasn’t advanced enough to learn how to build a list. Now I know that was complete nonsense.

I highly recommend you download “List Building With Alex”. He leads you through how he built his list into the thousands. It also includes a 12 step guide to starting your own list. You’ll get some great tips and resources to get you going in no time. Oh ya, and it’s totally free. Check out my right side bar to download it.