Hi everyone,
If you’ve been here before then you’ve probably noticed that I’ve mentioned something that’s often called “Blog hopping“. If you don’t know what this is, it’s basically just a method of driving traffic by hopping from one blog to another, leaving your comments and your website link. In fact, I actually made a blog post about this subject here. This is kind of a follow-up to that post.
Now, an important thing to bear in mind is, when I say that you leave your website link, there is usually a field that you can fill in that’s specifically designed for your website link. Absolutely do NOT spam your blog link, or anything link for that matter, on someone else’s blog. If you are going to leave a comment then make sure that it is relevant and is a genuine contribution, not just an excuse to drop a link. Of course we’re doing this, just like anything else, with the ultimate aim of it helping our business, but like everything else that I teach or endorse, you absolutely must engage in this ethically and give something of value. Even if it’s just a note of thanks for the person’s post, pointing out a part of the post that you especially found helpful or enjoyable, then that’s fine.
Blog Hopping Tips
Okay, so how can you go about this? Well I’ve made a tutorial video that explains how I approach this method. Take a look below and I hope that you find the content helpful.
Consistency is Key
Whilst this approach is effective, it does require some work and an investment of time. But you absolutely must stick at it, just the same as with any of the free methods that you may employ to drive traffic. As soon as you slacken off with these traffic-driving methods your traffic will drop off too.
Set yourself a period of time each day for blog hopping, likewise doing the same for forum contributing. Again, notice that I used the word “contributing” and not “spamming”. Spamming will get you nowhere fast so please do not be tempted to do it. Just concentrate on getting involved, contributing and providing value and you will naturally gain exposure, trust and traffic.
I hope you enjoyed the video. Please leave a comment below 🙂
Hi Glenn,
This is v useful! I just came across it in the Internet Profits partners training, so I’m going to try it as my one source of free traffic now I have my affiliate blog up and running 🙂
Your training videos are v great by the way!
Ruthie
Hi Glenn,
I wanted to thank you for offering your help with my gravatar issues. That was so sweet of you. The problem was with my Email address and it has since been fixed.
Now on to the social buttons,……………….
I admire you because you are a great teacher. You are very precise and write in plain language(easy to understand).
I am grateful to be one of your subscribers.
Best Regards
Linda
Linda Schrier recently posted…Quality not Quantity in Internet Marketing Comments
You’re so very welcome, Linda, And thanks so much for the kind comments, it’s comments like those that help to motivate me and give me confidence. I might have to approach you for a testimonial that I can use for when I launch my own coaching program, hehe! 😉
I have to be honest and say that I’m surprised just how many iPro members have subscribed to my list. Not only before they joined iPro, but I’ve had ones such as yourself who have joined afterwards! I wouldn’t have expected that anyone would want to subscribe to me once they had all Dean’s training and support, but I guess it goes to show how you show never assume anything! At any rate, I’m glad and I’m happy to be of help. 🙂
Have yourself a great weekend!
»Glenn«
Glenn Shepherd recently posted…WARNING! You Are Being Tricked!
Hi Glenn,
Terrific explanation on blog hopping method, the best I’ve seen! I’m always looking for ways to build relationships with others.
I learned about blog hopping from Dean’s teachings and how he built relationships with others using the Warrior Forum. I still mention them when I write about blog hopping. As you already know from your previous post on blog hopping, I got kicked out of the Warrior Forum for breaking the rules. I hold no grudges. That’s not what I’m about.
No matter what, I will never give up as failure is not an option.
Great job!
You have a wonderful weekend,
Linda
Linda Schrier recently posted…Quality not Quantity in Internet Marketing Comments
Hi Linda,
I’m so glad it helped. I think it’s fantastic that you, Chris and Anne have all been able to get value from this post almost a year later. It goes to show how powerful blogging can be.
I’m finding I’m spending less and less time over at the Warrior Forum these days. Credit where it’s due, though, I first learned of Alex and Dean through the Warrior Forum, so I have a lot to be thankful to it for!
I’m glad to see your determination. You’ll get there, I’m sure! 🙂
»Glenn«
Glenn Shepherd recently posted…Check Out This Big Orange!
All your communications encouraging blog-hopping are being heard here. Right now I do that for an affiliate site, and two client sites. I hope to take in all your tips found here and elsewhere to be used on my IM site soon. I promise. Thank you for all that you do to help and educate those who drop by.
Anne Uemura recently posted…Join Me on My Journey to Online Success
Hi Anne,
Many thanks for the great comment. 🙂
I look forward to seeing how you take your business forward in the coming months. By the way, I’ve just written you an e-mail. Sorry for the delay!
»Glenn«
Glenn Shepherd recently posted…Do You Need Knowledge to Be an Authority?
Hi Glenn.
I learned something new today. I just installed Commentluv on my blog thanks to this video. I’m just getting started with the blog-hopping aspect of generating traffic and I found this very helpful. I have a question. Without having a free item to give away in exchange for an email address, how can someone build their email list from visitors to their blog? I have a simple opt-in form but nothing being offered to anyone to join my list.
Have a good one and talk to you soon……Chris
Chris DeeWaard recently posted…A Year In Transition Comes To An End
Hi Chris,
Well done, bud. CommentLuv is a useful plugin, I’m sure you’ll love it.
With regards to your question, if you really don’t have anything at all of your own that you can offer I would recommend getting hold of a good quality PLR or RR product. Maybe get a few of them and package them together (check the rights of each product first, though, to make sure you’re allowed to do it). If it’s something like an e-book, for example, it would be good to go through it to make sure that it contains good quality, valuable info. Likewise, if it’s something such as software make sure you try it yourself. That way you can vouch for the quality.
You really will need SOMETHING, because until you build a reputation for yourself people aren’t going to sign up to your list simply because you ask them to. You’ll need an ethical bribe.
Give me a shout if you need any more pointers regarding this.
»Glenn«
Glenn Shepherd recently posted…3 Approaches to Online Success
Hi Glenn.
After I replies to this post, I went back and read you 7 part email series and in the 7th part I saw where you talked about using PLR or RR products as ethical bribes to get email address for my list. I have a few of them, which I will go through and see which ones are of good value to give away for free. Thanks for the help. Useful as always!!
Talk to you soon…..Chris
Chris DeeWaard recently posted…A Year In Transition Comes To An End
Good stuff, Chris. Rather than just stick something out there that people may have seen before, try to put your own spin on it, if possible. Maybe package a few together, for example. Obviously, if you take PLR and rework/rebrand it then make sure that it’s a subject you have some experience with, otherwise it won’t be believable. Other than that, just use your imagination and think of what could be attractive. Ask yourself: “Would this motivate and convince ME to sign up?”
Glenn Shepherd recently posted…Churn and Burn Blogging – Should You Do It?
Good stuff Glenn! I appreciate you informing people who may not already know what spamming is and mentioning not to do it on blogs or forums. I think even more so in forums, spamming is a good way to have a bad reputation real quick like. That is obviously no one’s intention if they are posting on forums…I hope!
Hey Matt,
Thanks for stopping by, buddy 🙂 Yes, I think it’s absolutely vital to have a good set of ethics in business and non-spam is right up there! Unfortunately all too often I’ve seen even some of the good guys get caught up in bad practices and I think that, even with the best of intentions to start out with, it can be so tempting at times to fall into the trap of following the wrong crowd and being tempted by the ‘fast results carrot’ that you see dangling before you. Yep, you saw that right, I just said ‘fast results carrot’ – feel free to use that! lol :-p
I have an absolute no-nonsense set of ethics and I will not compromise. Sure, there are short cuts that may yield short-term results, but if you want a long-standing, good reputation and a loyal customer base then the honest, ethical approach is the only way to go.
Glenn Shepherd recently posted…Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Basket!
Hi Glenn,
Great advice. I also think the most important thing is CONSISTENCY.
And that’s the hardest too as a lot of people will give when they don’t see much traffics coming to their websites.
I think we need to define “FREE”. If in terms of Money, yes this kind of traffic is free but what if we put a dollar value to our time?
How much is your time per hour?
I think blog hopping is great to build your brand and making friends too instead of just getting traffic.
Keep hopping!
Chetz
Chetz Togom recently posted…Introducing Office Rock Star – Get Free Job Seekers Rock Sheet
Hi Chetz,
Thanks so much for stopping by, buddy 🙂
You’re absolutely correct, my friend, consistency is essential, especially at the beginning level. When people don’t see fast, super-duper results then they can easily become discouraged or dismiss the free methods as not working. But they absolutely do work, however they require that essential consistency and hard work.
This is why it’s important to bear in mind that the word “free” still carries with it some cost in this instance. Sure, we can drive free traffic in a monetary sense of the word, but there is still a time element involved so it’s never truly ‘free’ in the absolute sense of the word.
I agree what you say, too, about building your brand and making friends. Sure, you can do the same on forums, but usually it’s the forum itself you’re drawn to and then you just pick whichever thread you wish to comment on. Rather, with blogs, you visit the blog because you like the blog itself and, naturally, the person behind the blog, so this becomes a much more personal exchange.
All the best with your business, Chetz, and feel free to pop back here any time, you’ll always be welcome 🙂
Glenn Shepherd recently posted…Challenge Updates, Day 9 to 11
Hi Glenn,
Great video but I thought it was too long. Many people don’t have the time or the concentration to watch videos of that length. I prefer information in short sharp chunks.
Perhaps you could break it down into several short ones and make a course of it. Just a thought.
About CommentLuv – a lot of marketers are uninstalling it or at least disabling the do follow attribute until Andy Bailey can do something about broken links that arise with it.. If people have left comments on your blog and their links change for some reason you are left with a broken link which can damage your SEO.
Sandy
Sandy Halliday recently posted…How To Make Money By Sharing
Hi Sandy,
Thanks so much for your comment and suggestion. Video length and whether to have something in video format or not is something that is open to a lot of conjecture so there are lots of factors we need to consider. For example, it seems that most people prefer video whereas I, for most things, like to read. It’s a difficult thing to please everybody of course, as everyone’s different.
I think that, for a video of this type, the length is pretty much spot-on as the average person’s attention span is around 20 minutes. For this subject, I think to break it down it would lose the flow somewhat, especially given that it’s just a basic, beginners concept. Also, for anyone who doesn’t know how to approach this method I think that most would find it an acceptable length in order to learn a skill. But for someone who already knows this approach then yes, they might find it a bit long for something they’re going to get little out of. But then they probably wouldn’t need to watch it 😉
Having said all of that, I’m certainly not dismissing your input, I value it very much. It’s certainly something I will take on board and bear in mind for anything I do in the future. At the end of the day, it’s all a learning curve and it’s valuable to have in mind different ways of looking at things and maybe testing a few different approaches. It’s all about tweaking after all!
That’s some interesting info about CommentLuv, thanks for the heads up. I’d certainly not heard about any problems, I’ll take a look into that myself. It’s good to keep on top of that sort of stuff, we definitely don’t want to be to be doing anything to put our SEO efforts in jeopardy!
Glenn Shepherd recently posted…Don’t Stop Buying WSOs!
Hi Glenn,
I take your point but some interesting statistics from Wistia, a video hosting service that also provides video tracking, is that 30-second video clips were viewed by 85% people all the way through while the completion rate was only 50% for videos that were between 2 to 10 minutes in length.
The average length of time a YouTube video is watched is apparently 2.7 minutes.
It depends on what you are trying to do with your video.
Sandy
Sandy Halliday recently posted…Discover Pinterest Tips With Pinterest Videos
Hey Sandy,
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head with your last sentence: “It depends on what you are trying to do with your video.” Stats like the ones you mentioned can certainly be useful but you need to apply that knowledge while bearing in mind what your specific aim is, they definitely can’t be applied across the board.
For example, how many of us have seen those looooooooong-winded sales pitch videos that we can’t pause or skip through whilst wondering just how long they’re going to go on for, wishing that they’d just get to the point quickly? Probably all of us! And I think that we all just wish that the person either wouldn’t bother with a video full stop or they’d make one short and to the point instead of one that lasts 10, 15, 20, 30, 45 or even 60 minutes.
Conversely, I know that if I purchased a course and wanted to learn a skill or set of skills, then I’d be very disappointed if the video for each section was only around 30 seconds long. I have actually purchased things like that in the past and I haven’t learned a thing from them, they’ve clearly just been thrown together by someone who has no real skills in the subject that they’re supposedly teaching.
The other aspect, too, is that if someone just stumbles across a video and starts to watch it out of curiosity, such as on YouTube, then unless they find the video engaging and compelling, they’re much more likely to click away after a minute or even less, whereas if someone is looking for something specific, such as a tutorial video, then they are there for a reason and they’re going to have an entirely different mindset and are thus considerably more likely to pay attention for longer. As you say, though, it absolutely depends on what you’re trying to do with your video. I’d say that as general rule of thumb, information and sales videos should be short and to the point, whereas tuition videos will usually be expected to be longer. But even then, you’re not going to be able to please each person equally because everyone is different.
One thing very surprising thing that I have just discovered, though, is through a thread I started on the Warrior Forum. I made a poll asking people if they preferred text-based information or video-based and asked for reasons why. I’ve found that so many marketers, tutors, media specialists and so on say that we live in a very visual age and people prefer to watch video-based information. As I said above, personally I usually prefer to read. Well it turns out that I’m not unusual in this. Although it can’t be said that the results from my thread are conclusive, it turns out that the vast majority of those who answered either don’t like video at all or they prefer text-based info that perhaps contains a supplemental video component. I found this very surprising and informative!
What I’ve learned from that thread is the value of simply asking people. Sure, this course and that course or this expert and that expert can assure us of such-and-such, but at the end of the day, what is the market telling us? This is something that Alex Jeffreys advised to do – ASK your audience what they want! I’ve certainly had a change of thought now. I was considering making a video-based tutorial product at some point, but now I think I’ll turn that around and make it text-based with some supplemental video material as needed. Or perhaps offer both in one? We’ll have to see. Watch this space….. 😉
Glenn Shepherd recently posted…60 Days, 60 Minutes, Day 6 and SEO
Wow Glen, great tutorial my friend. You actually brought something back to memory for me that I used to do a long time ago, bookmark my favorite blogs, except I had no clue about “blog hopping” back then. I guess it’s time to go through those and clear out the outdated ones and add some fresh new ones(yours included) to visit on a regular basis.
Thanks and keep up the great work 🙂
Regards,
Terry
Terry Henry recently posted…Blogging Basics For Internet Marketers On The Rise!
Hi Terry,
Thanks for stopping by again buddy, you’re welcome any time 🙂
Thanks also for your kind words, I’m glad you enjoyed the reminder 🙂
I find that I bookmark everything these days, otherwise I’ll just forget. I use a Firefox plugin call Roomy Bookmarks which allows me to put a load of bookmarks as icons right under my toolbar. Not only that, I’ve started putting folder there now, each with its own icon and then I group all my bookmarks of a particular type in each folder. For example, I have a folder for social sites, one for e-mail accounts, another that contains all my IM courses, one that contains useful IM tools, one that contains all my bookmarked blogs and so on. It certainly lessens the confusion and disorganisation somewhat! 😉
Glenn Shepherd recently posted…Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Basket!
Glenn, you did an awesome job with the video. You broke down the basics of blog hopping in a very simplistic fashion. I too prefer blog hopping over forum posting because of the relationship aspect of blogs. They are more personal.
I think the recommendation of comment luv is spot on as earlier I didn’t realize the power of it until I installed it. I opted for the premium version as it allows you to choose from a number of post you’ve previously made rather than your last one. It also allows you to track where your visits are coming from with your links. It’s a really neat plug in. Just hover over my link here and you’ll see what I’m talking about.
It’s good to see you stepping out with the videos. I am leaning towards doing a lot more with video myself as I prefer watching than reading most of the time.
Jerry Handy recently posted…60 Day Challenge-Day 16
Hey Jerry,
You’re exactly right my friend. It’s that personal aspect that I particularly like. Sure, you can get that in forums but as you know, sometimes forum threads can become somewhat of a free-for-all at times, whereas blogs are usually more direct and attract people who want to comment because they specifically like the blog.
I didn’t realise you could hover over the CommentLuv icon and see further details, that’s pretty cool. Thanks for pointing that out.
Yeah, I’m thinking of getting into video a bit more. I know that some people recoil at the idea of having their face and/or voice on show but it doesn’t bother me. I’m used to being in front of an audience, I’ve been doing it for years, plus I’m also used to recording so I just sort of get on with it!
I always find it interesting just how many people prefer watching over reading, as oftentimes I’m the other way around, I’m not sure why. If it turns out that video is something that a lot of people prefer I may start doing more and more vlogs 😉
Glenn Shepherd recently posted…(Blog) Hopping Mad! Blog Hopping Tips
Hi Glen
Blog hopping is a great way to announce your blog website or squeeze page to the world and the best thing its totally 100% free.
And its easy to implement by giving honest opinion whether you agree or disagree it doesn’t matter as you are just getting involved in the discussion.
Regards
John
Hi John,
You’re absolutely right. Although in terms of exposure it may not be quite as effective a way of driving traffic as, say, forum posting, I think that I actually find blog-hopping much more enjoyable.
It’s an excellent way to build relationships and also, when you have people leaving comments on your site it not only shows that your blog is currently active but it also serves as an archive that people can look back through to see how you progressed, especially if you started from zero.
Thanks so much for dropping by and leaving a comment 🙂
Glenn Shepherd recently posted…Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Basket!