With millions upon millions of websites on the Internet, and with potentially hundreds of thousands focused on the same subject or niche that you are – developing an audience can feel even more overwhelming than trying to start a blog from scratch in the first place.

I’ve been working on the Internet long before it became wildly popular in the 1990s, and in the process of watching the evolution of the Internet I’ve come to realize and appreciate something amazing about the current incarnation of the Internet, known as Web 2.0. That something is this; If you know the rules of the game, then it is possible to start a blog that gets instant traffic from day one – and maintains that traffic into the future. Today I’d like to share 3 powerful techniques you can use to accomplish this.

Tip #1 – Write Optimized Content The First Day You Start A Blog

Many people who start a blog do so because they love writing. That’s one of the reasons I started several blogs (horribly neglected) of my own. The problem is that most writers enjoy writing for the love of the process – not for the purpose of “optimizing” the content for search engines. The process of optimizing makes writers feel stifled, non-creative and cheap. Sort of like not wanting to go to Wal-Mart to save money even though you know that things are a heck of a lot cheaper there.

Writers know that optimizing is important to gather search engine traffic, but they either really understand the rules – or they simply don’t care. Optimizing can take years to learn how to do effectively. Many bloggers suffer low blog traffic because they believe if they simply write amazing content – people will love it so much they’ll keep coming back for more. This may be true – but it’ll take you years to accomplish, versus months if you use SEO effectively.

Abhijeet offered a fantastic list of SEO tools that you can use to come up with high-value keywords for your posts. One of those tools that I would highly recommend to all bloggers is the Google Adwords tool. Using this tool the right way, you’ll be able to start writing your very first blog posts that target exactly what people are searching for online.

What’s the “right way” to use Google Adwords? It’s very simple, just brainstorm general topics that you want to write about and enter those, one at a time, into the “Descriptive words or phrases field.” When you click “Get keyword ideas,” you’ll see a very long list of keywords and statistics appear at the bottom. Next, click on the blue column header “Global Monthly Search Volume” to sort the results by how many searches occur for each term every month.

If you find your keyword doesn’t have a lot of traffic, scroll down to the section titled, “Additional Keywords to Consider.”

Here’s the basic SEO rule #1 that I’m going to share with MUO readers. Most bloggers see a keyword with very high search traffic and think, “oooh, a goldmine!” They then proceed to expend tremendous effort writing up a brilliant post using that phrase, only to end up on page 25 or 30 of Google results for that search term. Why? Because the secret of success when choosing keywords where your new blog (or even professional blog) can compete is choosing keywords with very low competition (that cool-looking blue bar graph on the left). Choosing keywords with very high search traffic each month and very low competition will bring traffic to your site the moment Google next crawls your blog. Speaking of which, did you take Karl’s advice and submit your site to Bing and Google yet?

Tip #2 – Engage The Blogosphere Every Single Day

If you want to get a lot of traffic to your new blog from day one, you’ve got to give people who are interested in the topics you write about a good reason to visit your blog. One of the first things that I noticed when I started using Facebook is that it’s human nature for people to check out your wall if you take the time to post on theirs. The same is very true about the world of blogging, but on a much larger scale.

When you post a thoughtful comment on someone else’s blog, not only will the blogger probably check you out, but so will readers who like your comment. To do this effectively, you should use a tool like Ratingburner or Technorati to find the most popular blogs on the net within the niche that you write about.

Using Technorati to find similar blogs to my own blog FreeWritingCenter, I discovered one high-authority blog, AListApart, with fresh content just waiting to receive a good comment. You may need to sift down the list for blogs that are relevant to yours (I did).

Visit the other blogs, and if you aren’t already a subscriber then become one. Your new blog will not take off unless you’re ready and willing to engage the blogging community and contribute to other blogs as much as you want other people to contribute to yours. When you post a comment – don’t do it without reading the post you’re commenting on. Don’t be one of those annoying spammers – you’re trying to engage a community, not get free marketing for yourself.

The general rule of thumb here is to only post on blogs that allow you to include your URL, be positive and always compliment the blogger, and finally always reference one or two important points in the blogger’s post – this proves that you actually read the article and found it interesting. A well written comment can go a very long way toward immediately attracting interested readers (and fellow bloggers) to your own blog.

Tip #3 – Becoming an Active Member of the Forum Community

The third most effective way to get instant traffic to your blog is to engage forum communities filled with folks who share an interest in the topic that your blog covers. Either generate a new thread, or comment on an existing thread that covers something you wrote about.

Finding a forum based on the topic of your blog is usually as simple as typing it into Google as something like, “writing forums.” Although, I would highly recommend taking Darko’s advice and use forum search engines which are often far more effective since they specifically target forums. Using BoardReader, I found a great webmaster forum post about writing at the V7 Network.  When you register, don’t forget to include your URL in your forum profile (most forums have a field for this).

Forum etiquette is to avoid posting your own URL in the very first few posts. Simply engage in a conversation with forum members. Once you prove to the forum administrators that your goal in engaging the forum community is to have a conversation and not just advertise yourself, they’ll be far more willing to let you quote (and link) from your own blog every now and then. But the first step at any forum is just to get engaged in a quality conversation with other folks.

Forums can help in a lot of ways. Readers who find your comment interesting may click on your profile to check out who you are – and there, they’ll find the URL to your blog. Additionally, many forums (such as the one above), allow you to post a link in your signature after you’ve made a certain number of forum posts. This assures the forum administrators that you’re not only there to market yourself, and it eventually allows you to have a link back to your blog on every single post you make – which is a very powerful way to get a lot of traffic to your blog.

Forget about all of the silly instant marketing gimmicks that you find online from “SEO experts” that claim they can get you thousands of visitors a day. The unfortunate fact is that these are typically scams that use spamming techniques that’ll get you penalized by Google in the end. The most effective way to “grow” your blog in a very organic and long-lasting way is to make sure all of your content is optimized, and then start spending an hour or so a day just engaging the online community that shares your interests.

Do you have your own unique techniques to draw instant traffic to a new blog? Share them with other MUO readers in the comments section below.

Image Credit : Mike Licht

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OneLook calls itself – the search engine for words. According to the web service, it indexes more than 5 million words in more than 900 online dictionaries along with encyclopedias and other reference sites. Although, OneLook offers the entire range of a dictionary service, it is the Reverse Dictionary we are interested in.

The Look…

Strictly utilitarian. OneLook Beta Version (1.1) looks like it has been put together by a newbie web designer, but as in the case of Google itself – looks are deceptive. The minimalistic interface with just a search box and how-to-do explanations are all about simplicity with speed.

The Concept…

Straightforwardly easy. You don’t remember the word but just what the word stands for. OneLook calls it the ‘concept’. Enter the concept in the search box in a few words, a sentence, a question, or even as a related single word. Hit Find Words to get a list of results with the best matches usually at the forefront of the results.

The site says it works by ‘using a motley assortment of statistical language processing hacks’. (D-uh, I just might reverse look it up.)

The Uses

The site explains it best as shown in the screenshot below.

How to Use it

OneLook’s Reverse Lookup takes me from the ‘word is on the tip of my tongue’ to a revelatory ‘eureka’ moment. But to get the best results in the shortest time…

• Keep the word or phrase short.
• The accurate matches will be usually at the beginning of the results list.
• Click on the word to verify its dictionary definition.
• The dictionary definitions are arranged according to categories of – General, Art, Business, Computing, Medicine, Miscellaneous, Religion, Science, Slang, Sports, Tech and Phrases. Phrases and slangs sometimes give interesting variations for use in writing.
• Use wildcard patterns if the meaning or word is fuzzy. And also to filter the mass of results.
• The asterisk (*) equals any number of characters. For instance, type love* to get all words and phrases like love-bird that begin with ‘love’.
• The question mark (?) equals exactly one character. For instance, type l?v? to get all words and many acronyms too.
• The number-sign (#) is a single placeholder for any English consonant.
• Similarly, the asterisk (@) is a single placeholder for any English vowel.
• Do a relatedness search by combining two wildcards. For instance, typing t*:salesman will give words and phrases starting with ‘t’ and related to salesman.
• Some searches will also let you limit the results by Common words and phrases only or Common words only.
• Get the full complement of acronyms by using the expand shorthand. For instance, expand:USA.

  

Look into these wildcard tips in the Help section of the website.

Access it as an add-on from the browser search box.

OneLook can be added to the Firefox and IE search toolbar as an add-on. In other browsers it can be added to the Links folder. Thus, giving easy access.

Customize your experience

The Customize page of the site lets you tweak the way you view the results, background colors and banner display settings.

As the web service crosses over from the beta stage, we can expect even more value additions. Even now, as a reverse lookup dictionary its byword is results at a click of Find Words.  I guess, I will now be able to crack the Times Crossword in ‘a blink of an eye’. In a heartbeat, as OneLook Reverse Lookup says.

Try it and let us know with your worded comments.

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When you first go to the Monitter site you’ll see three columns that are constantly being updated in real-time with new occurrences of specified keywords. To get started you just simply type three words into the keyword text boxes. Withing seconds of entering your keywords, you’ll start seeing relevant tweets streaming live. If you don’t feel like keeping a tab open within the site, you can subscribe to the RSS feed for the keyword(s) that you’re monitoring.

As tweets continue to stream in real-time, you have the option to reply to a tweet or go to the tweeter’s profile. The only downside to the reply feature though is that when clicked, it takes you to the Twitter homepage where you can then reply. In future updates, it would be nice to see a reply box integrated right on the Monitter website.

A great feature that Monitter has implemented is the ability to change back and forth from a light to a dark theme. When you visit the site the default theme is dark which a lot of users don’t like, so it’s nice that they have this option.

As you can see above next to the light/dark link, there’s also the option to hide the informational panel that appears above the columns. As you can see below, the header takes up quite a bit of space so it’s nice to be able to open and close it whenever you need to.

Lastly there’s the Monitter widget that you can embed on any site that allows javascript. In order to use it, you will need to download the necessary files and insert Monitter widget tags (as many as you’d like) on your site. The instructions consist of four short steps and are very simple. Below you’ll see a demo widget.

So now you have yet another way to spy and monitor the Twitter world to see what they’re saying about you, your blog and your keywords.

What do you think? Do you think Monitter is something that you might use on a regular basis?

Charnita is a social media addict & Internet junkie. She blogs about internet & blog tools, website & blog promotion, web 2.0 & social media at her Social Web Tools blog.

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We decided to list the best of the free tools which can help you research different keywords specific to your site and optimize the site.

1: Google Adwords Research Tool

Although this tool is primarily meant for Adwords bidders, this is also widely used by webmasters and publishers to measure the popularity of different keywords based on their Google search volume.

2: Wordtracker’s Free Tool

When it comes to finding the right keywords, Wordtracker is definitely a name you can count on. They primarily provide paid keyword research tools but they have a free tool too, which, for a particular query, can generate up to 100 related keywords and an estimate of their daily search volume.

3: Google Suggest

Google Suggest also offers a nice way to research keywords. When you start typing a word in the Google suggest box, it starts showing the related most popular search queries in a drop down menu. Therefore you can immediately come to know about the related keywords / sentences for a particular search query. Even Google Toolbar has this feature but it doesn’t show the number of search results for the keywords.

4: SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool

Although different SEO related sites have developed their own keyword research tools, the one by SEObook.com is worth mentioning. It is powered by Wordtracker and provides results which are much more comprehensive than the free tool provided by Wordtracker. It’s worth a try.

5: Good Keywords

Good Keywords is another handy tool for researching keywords. It is a tiny 500kb program which offers several features when you start it. Mark has already described it in detail here.

6: Keyword Discovery

This free search term suggestion tool by Trellian is a nice one too. Although it only shows the first hundred related keywords in its free edition but it still could be useful.

Have I missed anything out that you use to get the best keywords for YOUR site? Let everyone know in the comments.

By- Abhijeet Mukherjee is addicted to the internet and loves blogging and freelance writing. He blogs about tech tweaks, blogging tips, productivity hacks at Jeet Blog

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Desktop Blogging Clients

Post to your blog straigth from the desktop.

Windows Live Writer – One of the best. Plugins can be added to increase its power. Check out our review here.
w.bloggar (Windows only) – Available as a full and portable version (can run from USB thumbdrive).
AIRPress (Windows, Mac) – Adobe AIR based blog editor for WordPress blogs. AIRPress requires Adobe AIR beta 2 to work. If it’s not installed already, it will be auto installed with AIRPress.
Thingamablog (Window, Mac, Linux)
Qumana (Windows, Mac)
BlogDesk (Windows) – Optimized for WordPress, MovableType, Drupal, Serendipity and ExpressionEngine.

Statistics Tools

Monitor websites traffic and other stats.

Google Analytics (AIR) – Check detailed traffic stats from the desktop. Works both on Mac and Windows PCs. Google Analytics account required.
Snoop (Mac, Win) – Track website visitors in real time staight from the desktop. Stats provided by reinvigorate.net
SERPs Finder (Win) – Find where your page lists for a particular keyword on Google, Live and Yahoo! Search.

Screen Capturing Tools

Snippy (Windows) – System Tray Tool for screen capturing. Mark out the region of the screen that you want to copy — and Snipp it.
Clip2Net (Windows) – Take screenshots, add notes and arrows, and save them online.
WebShot (Windows) – One more screesnhot grabber, free version is quite limited, but still does the job.
Camstudio (Windows) – Capture screen activity (vide+audio) and save it in AVI or SWF format.
Windows Media Encoder – Capture audio and video content and encode video captures to WMV format.
SnagIt 7 (Windows) – Powerful screenshot capture and editing tool. Normally it costs $29 but version 7 is available for free. Unfortunately, the promotion period is over.

Image Editing Programs

GIMP (Win, Linux) – Free Photoshop alternative. Also see Gimpshop which even looks like Photopshop.
Paint.NET (Win) – Another open source software tool for your image editing needs.
IrfanView (Win) – Worth a mention here, it’s an image viewer with a few editing capabilities.

FTP Programs

Filezilla (Win, Mac, Linux) – Open Source FTP Client. Read MakeUseOf review here.
FireFTP (Win, Mac, Linux) – FTP extension for your Firefox browser.

Keyword Research

Good Keywords (Win) – Excellent too for finding suitable keywords for your article titles. MakeUseOf review: Get Your Keywords Right.

Microblogging Tools

Pwytter (Win, Mac, Linux) – Cross-platofrm Twitter client.
Twitbin – Firefox Extension for Twittering
OutTwit – Twitter client for Outlook. If you’re interested check out more Outlook addons here.
Pownce Client – Official Pownce clients for Mac and Windows. [What is Pownce ?]

Task Management

Rainlendar (Win) – One of the best desktop calendar apps for Windows.
Essential PIM (Win) – A free personal information manager.

Offline HTML editors

First Page (Win) – Two paned windows HTML editor.
KomPozer (Win, Mac, Linux) – Extremely easy to use and ideal for non-technical users.

Miscellaneous

WordPress Comment Moderation Notifier – Get notifications when there are comments that need to be moderated.

That’s about it. Do you have a must-see program that’s not on the above list? Let us know in comments.

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I used to find it extremely tiring researching keywords. I’d be sitting in front of Google or Yahoo for ages typing in random phrases and seeing what popped up. I’d be looking at places such as Technorati or Google Blog Search and I would still be clueless as to what keywords I should be using to make my blog more accessible to the discerning web surfer. But then I discovered a neat free little program called “Good Keywords” which takes all the stress out of the process. It’s such a great program that Search Engine Watch called it “a keeper”.

The website that offers “Good Keywords” also offers various other keyword-related programs such as Keyword Pad (for managing long lists of keywords) and Keyword Explorer which analyzes keyword phrases. But the real jewel in the crown is “Good Keywords”.

“Good Keywords” is a tiny 500kb program which gives you several options when you start it. The main feature – and the real goldmine in my opinion – is the “Keyword Suggestions” box. This links to Yahoo and Overture and when you enter a keyword in the box, it goes to Yahoo and Overture and instantly brings back LOTS of variations of the keyword along with the number of search engine queries for those keywords over the past month (the most popular keyword phrase being at the top).

By entering your keywords into this program, you can find out right away the search query habits of internet users so you can know which keywords to include and which ones to exclude. Not only it can make your titles more Google / Yahoo friendly, but also can make a financial difference for the better if you are running an Adwords campaign where the wrong keywords could end up costing you a lot of wasted money.

Other options that the program gives you includes possible misspelled variations of a keyword, a keyword phrase builder, a website analyzer (which tells you the site’s PageRank as well as the number of other sites that link to it) and a keyword organizer.

“Good Keywords” is freeware and it never nags you to register for anything and it never asks for an email address. It is simply just a great little tool which fills a big need. This is most definately a keeper on my PC.

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