Keith Goodrum

Pay close attention to what Chamillionaire says in this video. He repeats over and over again that he found out where his fans were going… and he went there. He didn’t try to force fans to him… he followed his fans, and made sure his content was in front of them.

He gets it! Chamillionaire understands the power of social media. He has started using the many social sites to feed the demand for his fans. They are demanding more content, and he realizes if he is not there to feed the demand they will go elsewhere.

Here is the video I watched today.

Chamillionaire also JV’d with Weird Al Yankovic to explode his sales. He knew this would give his video new life, gave Weird Al permission to make a spoof video. He knew that Weird Al could reach an audience he couldn’t reach.

The video that Weird Al made has to date over 27 Million views… how’s that for viral. It’s titled White & Nerdy a spoof on Ridn’ Dirty. Here is the video

Oops, I bet you mashed on the play button and nothing happened. Why won’t Weird Al video play? It’s because big dumb corporations still don’t get it. This video’s embed feature has been disabled.

The big dumb corporation still clings to the belief that they must force people to the content. They don’t understand that the new way is to put the content where your fans gather. Watch and learn from Chamillionarie… find out where your fans are and add your content there. Get in front of them… Make it easy for them to find you.

In case you would like to see the video here is the link… White & Nerdy It is classic Weird Al… Hilarious.

You see if they like the content they will come to your website and check out what else you have. Now they are arriving because they trust you, and like what your are providing. This will make it easier to make sales… they are coming pre-sold.

Christmas morning, used to be very exciting in my household. My brothers, my sister and I would get up at the crack of dawn… actually I’m pretty sure I never fell asleep. We were eager to attack the pile of presents under the tree. Everybody was excited to see what he or she would get. The funny thing was, sometimes we didn’t always like what we got. Some of us were very excited about our gifts Christmas, and some of us were less than excited.

The last few days, most people have been blogging about the Google page rank updates. Judging from what I’ve read the Google page rank updates have been a lot like Christmas. There are some people that are blogging about the increase that they receive from Google. There are some that are bemoaning the fact to they’ve lost page rank. Just like Christmas, some are happy and some aren’t.

Many Blogs rely on Google Page Rank for revenue

I can see how some people are upset about their Google page rank, because of how they base their business model. A blog and that relies on page rank and or Alexa score to determine the value of their revenue hangs on the results. Personally I find it unsettling to allow a third-party to determine how much money I’m going to make.

So after reading several blogs I decided to go ahead and check my page rank. My page rank has been zero for the past four months, but today when I checked, I saw that I’ve been given a page ranking of three. Imagine my surprise.

Seeing such a big jump in my page rank this kind of cool. But since I don’t rely on these numbers to determine revenue it’s more for fun.

So, how did I manage to get a Page Rank of 3?

The big secret is… I don’t really know. I haven’t given it much thought. There are no secret SEO tactics being deployed here. At least not consciously. No keyword optimization, no secret linking strategies and no black hat tactics.

I’ve just tried to write content that I think people would like to read. Used some basic traffic generation techniques. Then got involved with the blogging community and networked with other online businesses. That’s it…

Darren Rowse over at Problogger in his video post Google Page Rank Updating… BUT… summed it up perfectly. Don’t build your blog for the page rank… just build a quality blog.

Congratulations to those who got a wonderful Christmas present from Google. And to those who got a lump of coal my condolences.

One of the big questions asked is… How do I get traffic? I’ve even found myself asking this question. In fact I found myself asking someone this very question just the other day. As soon as I asked… I realized I knew the answer, and got a little angry with myself.

My hard drive is full of traffic generation ’secrets’ in one form or another. Some were paid; others were included as bonuses and the rest were free. So, I started reading them. A pattern started to emerge; the same tactics, strategies and techniques kept popping up. Of course many would have a different twist, but the principles remain the same.

Then the light bulb went off (or on) in my head……and got me thinking. So I sat down and wrote out all the things I do to get traffic to this blog.

Here are top 10 things you can do, right now, to get traffic…

1.Put up a blog post - Yep original content will get traffic to your blog. Search engines are looking for new, original content. They do this because their customers (people looking for information) demand it.

2.Submit a post to a blog carnival - This is a powerful way to pull traffic from the blogosphere. Submit one of your best posts to blogcarnival.com.

3.Leave a relevant comment on another blog - Leave a strong comment and people reading will click on your link to see what else you have to say. Leave a lame comment and you will be ignored. Avoid comments such as “I agree.” “Good Info.” –these are lame-o! If you have a relevant comment to post, then write it out.

4.Write and submit an article - Articles still work… Articles still work… Articles still work. Hope I made the point clear. I still get traffic from articles I wrote months and months ago. Don’t know what to write about? Why not rewrite one of your blog posts?

5.Record a video - There are people who don’t have time to read, and get their information by watching videos. A video is a great way to find another source of traffic that would normally miss your blog. Hey, look at how popular You Tube is!!

6. Add some friends at Twitter - Go to Twitter, and start looking for people who have the same interest you have. Add them as a friend. They will usually check out your profile, and visit your blog. Make sure your profile is good, and gives them a reason to visit your blog.

7.Sign up for MyBlogLog & add some friends - For the same reasons you add friends at Twitter you add friends at MyBlogLog.

8.Drop some Entrecards - There has been a lot of talk about Entrecard driving junk traffic… but I can tell you that many people who comment here are coming from Entrecard… nuff said.

9.respond to a forum post - It in vogue to bash forums, but it still gets you traffic. Make sure your are adding valuable comments. This will get people curious to see what you are doing on your blog. One quick tip… make sure your signature file only has one or at most 2 links.

10.Make sure you are using trackbacks - Trackbacks kill two birds with one stone… you get to write a blog post responding to the other bloggers post, and you get to add a relevant comment.

These are 10 things you can do to start getting traffic to your site today.

Here are a few other posts I found about driving traffic to your blog:

http://www.problogger.net/archives/2008/01/04/7-types-of-blog-posts-which-always-seem-to-get-links-and-traffic/

http://www.blogtrepreneur.com/2008/03/03/increase-blog-traffic/

http://blog.2createawebsite.com/2008/02/18/how-i-doubled-my-blog-traffic-in-2-months/

http://newsletter.theebookcavern.co.uk/6-creative-ways-to-generate-traffic-for-your-blog.html

http://www.searchengineguide.com/mack-collier/10-easy-ways-to-grow-your-blog-traffic.php

But, once again it is only as good as the action you take on these tips…