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Blogging And The Long Tail Of Search

by Darren

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If you plan on making a living from blogging, there are two skills you need to learn, and you need to bone up quick. You will have a tough time making money online if you don’t get any search engine love, and when I say search engine, I more specifically mean Google. Google is the source of fresh blog visitors in the same way that Nature is the bounteous provider of the sunshine and seeds mortals thrive on. You must attract Google traffic to survive.

The good news is, it’s relatively easy for an intrepid blogger to get Google traffic, and Google has really made it easy for you to cash in. I’ve always been wary of Google, but I have to admit, in the end that I drank their Kool-Aid, and it tasted smooth and has nourished me well. I use Google to bring traffic, Google Analytics to study it, and Google Adsense to monetize it. I don’t use Google exclusively, but they are at least 50% of my revenues and most of my traffic.

So what have I learned that has allowed me to gain more valuable traffic each year? Simple. Pay attention to the traffic that comes to your website, and then extend the number of landing pages you have in a mostly natural way. Just pay attention to whatever stats program you install, and look for the search queries by which people find your blog. Then extend the phrases.

Done consistently, you can always expect more traffic and more revenue. If you stay systematic about your content generation, you can even see your revenues rising like Google’s stock chart. And I never worry about Google, either. I take them at their word when they say to just build your site for visitors and to stay relevant on topics. Your relevancy will always end up bringing your more long tail searchers.

Long tail might not be glamorous, but it’s where the money is being made for lots of people. If you concentrate on extending your long tail traffic, you will get in the very good habit of increasing your revenue.

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