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[ # ] How to Maximize Traffic from a MNSpeak Link
January 21st, 2008 under MNSpeak


My previous post covered how to get a story you wrote linked to from MNSpeak. This post looks at how to maximize the amount of traffic you’ll receive from that link through a combination of timing and engagement.

As I mentioned before, getting linked early in the day is key to getting a lot of traffic. Here’s my theory on how to pull that off.

1. Follow the 10 steps listed in the previous post.

2. Post between 7-10pm. Why? Because Max will probably see your post that night when he’s looking for Local Blogging links for the next day. Some blogging platforms like Wordpress allow you to schedule posts so that could help you hit the sweet spot for post times.

3. Post them between Sunday and Wednesday - For timeless posts (non-news breaking stuff) this is when you’ll get the biggest bang for your buck.

4. Post news fast. It’s news, right? For timely posts such as news, get them up as fast as you can.

5. Join the conversation on MNSpeak. No matter what you’re written about, some people will love it, some will hate it, and some will hate you personally. Joining the conversation on MNSpeak helps keep the conversation going, which leads to more comments, which leads to more people taking an interest in the thread and clicking on your linked story. 85% of the traffic The Deets receives from MNSpeak comes from the homepage rather than links from individual post pages. People click on stories that appear to be interesting then return to MNSpeak to discuss the topic.


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    Read the Comments

    [ # 4289 ] Comment from Max “Bunny” Sparber [January 21, 2008, 9:54 am]

    I should mention, if a blog author has a story they thinks would be good for MnSpeak, it’s not a bad idea to just shoot me an email at editors@mnspeak.com. I look at a lot of news and blog entries everyday, and my eyes get a little glassy after a while.

    [ # 4292 ] Comment from Bill Roehl [January 21, 2008, 11:22 am]

    For the way I choose to run my website, I actually prefer not to be linked from any larger site, especially MNSpeak because of they differ significantly from the type of traffic I want to have end up reading a post of mine.

    Because I’m looking to make ad revenue, and lots of it, I do several things to ensure that the people that land on my page (~89% from Google searches) will click advertisements and generate enough money to keep me happy.

    MNSpeakers, along with Slashdotters and various other sites that generally direct traffic my way, generate $0 in ad revenue. While I’m not 100% sure why MNSpeakers don’t generally click ads, I’m quite positive that Slashdotters don’t because the are savvy and use ad blocking software, and/or proxies to keep from even viewing them.

    So, because of this tendency for ad revenue to drop during heavy viewing from those not likely to click, I sometimes disable ads for that page all together to avoid driving my revenue down even further.

    [ # 4297 ] Comment from kohler [January 21, 2008, 1:16 pm]

    Interesting tactics, Bill. One side effect of the links is the follow-on links from other sites that may link to your site. That, long term, can lead to higher search rankings and more Google search referrals.

    [ # 4300 ] Comment from Bill Roehl [January 21, 2008, 5:29 pm]

    It’s really only worthwhile if you are getting linked by sites that are ranked higher than your’s happens to be. With the reordering of the pagerank system and my subsequent lower rank (3/10 instead of the high of 7/10 I once had) I have seen a serious drop in traffic. Thankfully, most of my posts still gain a #1 or #2 ranking for the search terms that people most commonly arrive at my site from.

    When I wrote the above post I was driving through rural Iowa and was in and out of data service area so I forgot to mention one of my most important “tactics”… I run my posts through reading scale checkers (Flesch Kincaid Reading Ease Scale mostly) to verify that it is easily readable by a wider audience I suppose it is quite unfair to assume that those that are comfortable reading at a 9th grade reading level or below are more likely to click ads but based on my revenue I would guess it’s true in the case of my site.

    However, there is a downside to tailoring your text to a readership of that caliber… You end up inundated with comments and e-mails that reflect those you may have inadvertently? attracted to the site. The fallout could consume an enormous amount of your time wading through trash comments which are mostly threats, hate mail or other garbage and the signal to noise ratio can, at times, be maddening.

    Good luck and keep up the good work Ed :)

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