I recently read an article by one of my favorite mentors Jason Fladlien. He talked about the dilemna of creating content or creating traffic.
The reason is most people, like Jason says, bypass the content creation and try for traffic by using the newest and bluest whiz bang system. If you have done this, as most of us have, you know that lack of success is inevitable.
I started out writing articles and submitting them to directories. My favorite was articlesbase. I got the most action from that. I was on the right track. My articles may not have been the best, but I was taking action and getting better.
Then I got distracted. I started the twitter adding, Facebook friending and all the systems and gadgets that help you get 'friends'. I mistakenly believed I was taking a shortcut.
Boy was I wrong. All I did was frustrate myself and become disillusioned. I had to take a step back and take inventory of what I had doe right and wrong since I started.
What I realized was the whiz bang tools and systems seldom work for those who do not have a base, or following. Additionally, those tools for adding followers and friends don't produce a responsive following.
I was recently asked by a collegue, "If you started all over, what would you do differently?"
I said that I would take the time to first learn how to optimize my blog. Second, I would reach out to other bloggers in my niche and develop relationships through commenting and trackbacks.
That strategy would lead me to creating joint ventures with our audiences.
I wouldn't even bother purchasing any shiny objects other than a few plugins, or information products that have answers I need. NO SHORTCUTS, because there are no shortcuts when you begin.
Before you know it, when you have made real relationships with other bloggers, you will have hundreds of links back to your blog (which Google loves) and tons of targeted traffic coming in.
Yes, this will take work, and some time, and as Jason so eloquently stated, that's why it's the best way to go because NOBODY is doing it! What better way to separate yourself!
By the way, it is also my feeling that social platforms are useless until you have this foundation set. Why? Because the people who know you from the circle of influence you have created, will be a more responsive following, and also refer more responsive people.
Who is more valuable, the Facebook friend who added you because you added him, or the one who clicked on the LIKE tab in your blog because they like your content?
In the final analysis, i think it is obvious which works better. The question is how bad do you want it? Bad enough to do the work?
If you aren't sure what I mean by that watch this video example
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