Alright DP Community, I'm looking for a little help here. I've been working on my blog (www.nullamatix.com) since June of 2007. In that time, I've: Posted (what I believe to be) high quality, helpful, and unique content Written guest posts Left comments on some a-list blogs Linked to a-list blogs (I've shared some love!) Submitted my site to at least 100 directories Used stumble upon, digg, delicious, bloggingzoom, reddit, among others Responded to nearly all of my visitor's comments Signed up and used Entrecard & Blogrush (nobody will even advertise on my blog in Entrecard. It's showing MY entrecard!! WTF??) I'm just really confused and not sure what to do anymore. Several of the blogs I subscribe to are younger than my blog, yet they have 1,000+ RSS subscribers. My family won't even take the time to submit a comment, even when I revamped the site's theme. What the hell's wrong with my blog? Please, someone give me some hard core feedback. What am I doing wrong here? Looking For The DP Touch, -j0ned ***edit*** Forgot to mention, it's been months since I've added my feed URL to my DP profile. Even DP won't put up a link to my blog, what the hell?
I cannot really give you any advice, because I just started blogging two weeks ago. But what might help is the link to your blog in your sig. It is not pointing to your homepage but a static post or page. I see you have a lot of post made here on DP, if you change that sig link to homepage, your homepage will gain a lot more backlinks. Btw you dont have to change it, just add one ponting to your blog's frontpage. Hope it helps, good luck, don't give up.
I'd recommend submitting to a lot more than 100 directories. Never stop directory submissions. Try submitting some of your work to article repositories for others to use. Above all else, keep on writing informative posts.
I don't have much time right now, but I'll give you a few quick tips. If I have the time later I will come back and take a closer look at your blog and offer some more ideas. First of all I think you should change to a lighter theme. It has been proven that themes with light backgrounds like light blue or white do much better than dark colored themes. Part of the reason for this is because dark themes are harder to read. I did a quick site check on Google ( http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...q=site:http://www.nullamatix.com/&btnG=Search) and your descriptions aren't good from a searchers point of view. Also, your titles can use work. For this I recommend you download and install all-in-one-seo pack which lets you change the title, keywords, and description for each post. Here is a link: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/ Another thing is I see that your archive pages are being indexed. You do not want this because you will get hit with duplicate content penalties. For more comments you should install the dofollow plugin and then add your blog to some dofollow directories. This will attract commenters, especially with your niche. From personal experience the do follow list at Courtneytuttle.com brought me atleast a few visitors daily back when I had a blogging blog. Ok, well I think that's enough to get you started. I will try to post back later with more tips. By the way I have a wordpress services thread, where I can help you with any installations or anything you may need: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=699491
Content, in a way, is worth nothing without some sort of traffic or audience. While there are ways to bring users to your site with interesting content, I would definitely recommend some sort of advertising in some form or other. I'd recommend trying Google Adwords or buy some banner ads in the marketplace here. Good luck with your blog!
It could be that you've entered a market that is too broad and saturated, and the blog is just a needle in a haystack or isnt of interest compared to what else is out there.
Thanks for the suggestion regarding the theme, I'll work on lightening up the colors. Surprisingly, Google is sending a lot of highly targeted traffic with an average visit duration of 2:50. Unfortunately, this type of traffic doesn't stick. They're usually just people looking for quick answers. Most don't take the time to leave a comment, but based on their search queries, the information on my blog is usually (75%+/-) what they're looking for. Since the site's launch in June, 88% of my traffic is considered "new visitors." This is all according to analytics. I'll also take a look at the all in one seo pack. I've added my archives to the dis-allow list in the site's robots.txt, and I'll work on implementing the necessary changes to enable do-follow comment links. Thanks again for sharing your suggestions, they're very helpful. Eh, I'll keep Adwords for CPA and other affiliate projects, not sure if Adwords would bring the type of long term traffic I'd like to obtain. Buying some banner advertising sounds like a pretty good idea though, thanks. Your words may be true, but I sure hope this isn't the case. I try to write about issues I've had to deal with. One my most popular articles is how to correct a sendmail issue in MediaWiki. Despite the loads of traffic the article receives from Google, I believe there's only 1 comment. I know the information in the article will resolve their issue based on their search queries. It's identical to the error message given by Mediawiki. Thanks again to everyone for sharing your helpful suggestions. Looks like I've got some work to do now To new comers looking at the thread, please, feel free to add your thoughts. I promise, I won't leave any negative rep -j0ned
I am far from someone to give you technical advice. However, I just glanced at your blog and I would personally probably not stay there for long. That neon green kind of color on the blue is just a pain for me. I would suggest a color make-over.
Yea, that seems to be the consensus. Several people are reporting all kind of strange issues. One guy said the text input boxes in the comment area are filling with yellow letters. Eh, ya live and learn. Thanks for the advice; everything helps in one way or another.