This is a guest post by Jane Sheeba.
Traffic. It is the key to every blog. Bloggers need traffic, no matter for whatever reason they are blogging. Every blog needs just more and more eyeballs.
Traffic means sales, popularity, promotion and everything else a blogger needs. And gaining traffic is not so easy. You have to “earn” every single visitor out of hard work.
You could have read a lot about what to do to earn visitors for your blog. But there are certain things that you need to stop doing if you are serious about getting traffic.
The funny thing is, you get a feeling that doing the things mentioned below will give you traffic, but you are wrong. Let me explain.
Traffic Mistake #1 – Trying to Make Every Post Link Bait
Yes, it is true that link baits generate a lot of traffic. If you are not familiar about what a link bait is here is a little definition in my own words.
A link bait is a post which is usually a killer post (need not be a long post, but has some killer idea, tip or trick or is an indepth analysis of something that leaves you with loads of resources). Such a post doesn’t want you to beg people to ask to link to you. They get linked naturally.
Having lots of link bait posts is a great thing for every blog because your build links naturally without putting much effort (apart from writing such a killer post, of course). Isn’t that a blessing? Sure it is. But the point is, you shouldn’t push yourself too hard or kind of “be too hard on yourself”. Not every post you write can become a link bait. That is a fact, just accept it and let go.
Now I am not discouraging you here from trying to create link bait. You should indeed write a killer post always and give your best in every blog post. That shows your commitment and expertise as a blogger.
But sometimes not all posts turn out to be killers. You know, some posts happen to be even fillers and spoilers. But should you sit up and worry about that? I wouldn’t. You have to accept the fact with that post and let go and move on. There is no point in trying to make every post perfect. You know what? You cannot make a blog post perfect. There is a simple reason behind it.
“Perfect” is a relative word. When you make something perfect, it is just being perfect to you. It need not be so for me.
I know that it is tempting to write a killer post every day, but sometimes you can and sometimes you cannot. Sadly when you cannot do that and at the same time when you push yourself to do it, that turns out to be an awkward outcome. The result? You drive away your traffic.
Traffic Mistake #2 – Writing for Search Engines
OK search engine traffic is what everyone wants, coz that’s organic and natural. In order to get a lot of search engine traffic you have to optimize your blog (in general) and every blog post.
Search engine optimization is a separate niche on its own which is evergreen. There is so much going on around in that area and there are so many people and companies earning some good bucks with SEOing blogs. So yes, I completely understand that you will not be found by eyeballs if you ignore this SEO thing. But you cannot be obsessed with it. And, people won’t like you if you are obsessed with it.
What happens when you are obsessed with it? You over optimize your posts. You stuff your metadata with keywords. You stuff your posts and image alt descriptions with keywords. The net result? Your post looks like they were written by an alien for some other alien. And then, you know what happens…
Traffic Mistake #3 – Getting Dirty
Oh who doesn’t want to get noticed? And what is the easiest way to get noticed without putting in much effort? Getting dirty by writing controversial posts just for the sake of attention. I don’t mean controversial posts which really have a point, but the posts that are criticizing popular bloggers or services for no real good reason.
You can do these if you really have a point, but if you are doing it just for the sake of getting attention and traffic, you will get both, but perhaps for the last time at that post.
Traffic Mistake #4 – Obsessing about Stats
This one is funny. Many bloggers think that when they check stats often, they are very responsible about their blog traffic and hence they will get more traffic. Well I can see that funny smile on your face. But you may also be one of those bloggers.
Analyzing your traffic is very important. You must know which keywords get you traffic, analyze the sites that bring your traffic (it could be your comment or a killer guest post) and so on. So you must be aware of every entity that counts to bring you traffic. It is only when you know it, you will be able to optimize that technique to get even more traffic.
But should you be checking your stats every 30 mins for that? A BIG NO. I know about the passionate newbies out there. All they do is to reload their stats page every 10 minutes and either get excited about that 1 NEW visit or get demotivated to see no new visits in the past 24 hours. In general, you will be demotivated by poor stats, so staying away from them and not getting to much into stats is a great thing for your productivity. Checking stats won’t bring you traffic. Doing things will.
Checking stats once in a week or a fortnight is generally OK though.
The Conclusion
I know, some of you won’t be happy. But if you are serious about traffic, just check with the above points and avoid them. Be realistic. Blogging is neither magic nor luck. It is mere smart work (hard work+expertise) that pays off.
About Jane Sheeba
Kikolani covers blog marketing and blogging tips for personal, professional, and business bloggers to succeed in search and social media marketing. Kristi Hines is a 
Yes you are right a blog is nothing without traffic and a blogger is not a blogger if he fails to promote his product. The best way is to enlist the site in organic searches and for this purpose natural links and quality contents are required.
Maja@fantastic sams recently posted Good Features of Fantastic Sams
Quality content + right promotion usually gives the good amount of sticky traffic. Thanks for your comment, Maja.
Jane @ aweber review recently posted SEO: 3 Easy Ways To Optimize Your Blog For Search Engines
This is absolutely true. As a blogger, everyday we need to find alternative solutions to bring in traffics and also to promote the product otherwise it’ll defeat the purpose to start a blog or being a blogger in the first place.
Ricardus @WordPress Hosting recently posted WPWebHost – WordPress Crazy Limited Offer (Free 6 Months VPS !!!)
There’s a whole lot you can do wrong. There are so many blogs about blogging right now and so many ideas bouncing around that you sometimes get lost and have no idea who to trust. Blogging with passion and writing for humans are the ebst way to get authority and traffic in a particular niche.
Marty recently posted How to Create a Google Plus Page for Business
Marty it is really pathetic to see how the blogosphere is littered with blogs that are run by people who think SEO is keyword stuffing. They simply write for bots and totally forget about people. All they can get is bot traffic and that’s of no use!
Jane @ blogging success recently posted Google Plus Pages: How To Create A Page On Google+
It’s so key to avoid #3 Jane, super point. Call it karma, or whatever. What you dish out comes back to you multiplied so be careful what your serving. Attacking posts signal a lack of confidence on the part of the author, who lacks the creativity to pen something beneficial for his or her readers. Thanks!
RB
Ryan Biddulph recently posted How to Make Facebook Friends at a Dizzying Pace
Ryan thats 200% true that it comes back multiplied. I’ve seen lots of such posts that get comments with ugly words – it gets too dirty in the reverse!
Jane @ content promotion recently posted Google Plus Pages: How To Create A Page On Google+
You’re right about writing controversial posts that would criticize popular bloggers. I have seen many bloggers using that strategy. Writing high quality content and doing right promotion are the best way to get traffic & authority.
Thanks for sharing this great post, Jane.
Devesh @ Blogging Mistakes recently posted How to Create A Brand Page on Google+
Yes Dev, unless we really have a point to deliver its total waste of time/resources and precious space on the internet to get dirty!
Jane @ content promotion recently posted Google Plus Pages: How To Create A Page On Google+
Jane!
I was smiling about obsessed with stats haha, that’s me, I admit
I know I should decrease how often I checked my stat, however, I am kinda addicted, hard to stop, so to speak
Lesson I learnt from this is, having a lot of visitors can’t really mean they are targetted visitors that I want..
It’s absolutely best to have less visitors but targetted, than a lot but non-quality visitors..
Kind regards
Kimi.
Kimi@theme review recently posted Acer Aspire TimelineX AS4830TG-6450 Review 14-Inch Aluminum Laptop (Cobalt Blue)
Kimi, that’s totally “normal” to be obsessed with stats. It is nice that you realized it and got out. Yes you’re right about the traffic – amount doesn’t show how targeted it is. You need to look for conversion traffic!
Jane @ blog promotion recently posted Facebook Fan Page Customization: How To Add A Twitter Tab
Hi Jane, great write up. Sometimes we worry so much about trying to get traffic we forget to avoid things that don’t bring us traffic in the midst of it all. Regarding stats I used to be obsessed but not anymore. I rarely log in and see what they are at. I’ll tell you what I will be spending a lot of time on is Adwords haha! I’ve been working hard on providing quality content lately and it’s exciting to see people start visiting daily and engaging. I hope I can continue on this path and see seen more growth with the community. Thanks for the tips Jane.
bbrian017 recently posted #engaged @blogengage is our new trend for #blogengage
Makes you think of the phrase “too much strategy is a bad strategy!” I hear ya on the linkbait thing, and the attention seeking behavior. That’ll turn people off for sure.
Ryan Critchett@Bethlehem PA Computer Repair recently posted Happy Monday, Hope Your Power Is On, Enjoy The Week
In regards to “Writing for Search Engines”, only bad SEOs do the things you mentioned. Keyword stuffing your posts, meta tags, alt tags, etc is bad SEO practice. Good SEOs focus on writing posts that are targeted to users and have the relevant keywords worked in naturally.
If you write a blog post for SEO and do it RIGHT, then the post will also be great for users (part of what a good SEO does is focus on users).
Adam@Gift Idea Lists recently posted The Star Wars Trilogies: Comparing The DVD & Blu-ray Releases
Hi Kristi,
#1 is huge. There’s a lot of pressure to write epic posts but we have to also write some that aren’t so popular but need to be read along. Then there are those experiments that need to be made. Some fill flop while others fly but we never know until we try!
Yes, to killing perfectionism and writing more posts:)
Annabel Candy, Successful Blogging recently posted CASH GIVEAWAY! Who Else Wants Cash for Blogging?
Funny though, that some people will group together 1 and number 3. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen an ‘expert’ tell people in a guide for link bait that ‘attacking’ someone can help your link bait succeed! There’s a big difference between an attack and starting a debate, but I guess sometimes it’s a fine line to walk. ~David Walker
David Walker recently posted Why I Thought About You All Weekend
David, I see your point! The line is too thin sometimes. It doesn’t mean that we always have to agree with everyone. It is OK to disagree, but the disagreement should convey a point. If it is for the mere purpose of getting attention, its a major fail.
Jane @ Problogging Success recently posted Google Plus Pages: How To Create A Page On Google+
I obsess BAD over traffic. If i don’t check analytics 4 or 5 times a day… i start to get the shakes. Ok, maybe not that bad… But it’s not normal. These are all some very good points. One i will definitely take is to chill out on the keywords. I have a habit of doing that and sometimes it makes the posts look unnatural. Thanks for these tips!
Chris @ Austin Homes recently posted Avoid Bank Loans By Seeking Out Owner Financed Homes In Austin
All of this is so, so true.
Having a reputable brand and writing to solve problems builds better links and generates far more useful traffic (the kind that converts) than any quick fixes.
I do not consider merely a traffic as a sign of success in blogging. The true factor of success in blogging is returning traffic. A blogger who is just concentrating on the traffic will repeatedly make these mistakes until you don’t explain the advantages of increasing traffic and how to make a reader comeback. If you focus on this this factor this is will alone eliminate all the traffic mistakes
Umair @ Internet Marketing Blog recently posted Facebook Comments Are Now Being Indexed By Google! All Good?
Hi Jane,
Great article to read on. I agreed many blog owners or site owners are obsessed with statistics. Checking regularly your stats often consume your lot of time and you must avoid it.
Google likes user friendly articles, means people can understand your article and ultimately like it. So it’s our duty to produce good articles which interest your audiences.
Aanchal recently posted Web Design India
Nice Info!!!!
From my point of view every blogger wants traffic on his/her each and every blog post and it is true this is neither magic or nor luck only good things are play good role in that like quality in content.
So i think this post will prove very useful for all newbie bloggers.
sam @ goa carnival recently posted Goa Carnival 2012
Sam you’re totally right. There’s no such thing as luck and magic. Only hard work pays always.
Jane @ commentluv features recently posted Reputation: Why Managing Your Online Reputation Is Important
Jane I loved your post. This is honestly helped out today. I was just thought of this issue yesterday, and I might was little disappointed. I totally agree, and also want to believe, your conclusion about luck and work, on the other hand. I will recall the famous saying, “Let’s make things happen, and do not just let them happen”. Many thanks to Jane for this fabulous post. All the tips, advices and information were very helpful.
Nick@Outdoor Gear Reviews recently posted Osprey Atmos Backpack Review and Coupons
Great post Jane as always. The content it is very important this days to have a successful blog. Writhing from hart will sure do the trick and give you an extra edge. For me (as for others) it was quite hard at beginning because of the low writhing skills. Now I have more experience and I like to think that I write more good and engaging. If you want to be good try to write as much as you can, this is my advice.
Bit Doze recently posted Best WordPress eCommerce Themes And Why Use WordPress As A eCommerce Platform
Jane,
Of course, as usual, you make some great points here. Some of these steps may help to get you traffic but not to keep them. (such as writing for search engines)
Personally I make the attempt to do the “link bait” type posts frequently. But I am aware that you can’t push this to the extreme. Good enough is good enough. And I don’t try to do this daily.
Really a lot of this is about moderation. Stats, articles, SEO, trying to write quality. They are all good things. At least good when taken in moderation. If you push any pf these to the extreme they lead to wasted time and going astray. Not the way to get the best results you may desire.
Steve@Earn Money Online recently posted Build My Rank Review – THE Best Way to Get Backlinks?
Hi Jane,
I used to be like Kimi, looking at stats all the time. I still do but I look at the goals I have set for conversion. You can go overboard with SEO but changing the img tags is not noticeable for the reader so not doing it is questionable. If you write around a topic people want to read about SEO will be a lot easier anyway so that’s my starting point.
I got a great question from one of my readers today. That in its own is a few posts and I am sure he will share it so win win. Your customers should always be the inspiration for your content.
Nik
Nik@Career Coaching recently posted How to find the right career coach
Nik, well said – Customers should be the inspiration. Not the bots! And things should happen naturally. If they don’t happen we can try, but we should not push ourselves. Setting expectations too high can lead to easier withering.
Jane @ Google plus pages recently posted StumbleUpon: Use It Right For Your Blogging Success
Boy am I so the opposite of guilty on mistake number 2. If anything, I throw SEO out the window in favor of “stream of thought”. That’s not going to get me ANYWHERE, but I just.. I choke up when I try to direct my topics based on keywords I want to get ranked for. not quite sure how to get over that hump actually.
I enjoyed this post a lot, and featured it in todays Friday Follow post on my blog – the link is in the CommentLuv below if you wanna check it out
Nice post Jane, and Love the blog Karen!
Jenny Barron @internet marketing recently posted Follow Friday and Blogs To Adore!
Using keywords to drive blog posts is something that would choke you
But yes keywords can be a good inspiration to blog post ideas. So focussing on people with a little bit of SEO in mind will work, not the other way!
Thanks for the feature
Jane @ Blogging Success recently posted Alexa Links: 2 Ways To Easily Increase Yours
I feel…bad for people who are running sites with “traffic” (or, really, “profits”) as their *bottom line*, #1 concern. Unless of course that person is swimming in pools of golden coins, then I don’t feel “bad” for them of course! But I mean the little guy or gal who is desperately trying to raise traffic without having a higher purpose/goal/interest. It’s my belief that traffic as *the most important thing* (“the bottom line”) is the wrong view, and it doesn’t create anything useful for other humans or society at large.
freddy k @ finally fast recently posted Tips for Win/Win Negotiations
Thanks Jane. I stopped worrying about traffic and optimizing to the point of “alien-looking” posts a long time ago. I think in the end, you should always imagine your reader when you write. Make it helpful, entertaining, truthful, and/or insightful. If you write with the reader in mind, they will come. Traffic will follow.
And please stop obsessing! 
Julie @Writing Tips recently posted Secret to Gaining Everything but Weight as a Mom Working from Home
Hi Jane,
Great post as always. You are so spot on about this issue.
For a long time I was trying to make every single post a link bait or get it to rank for something, until I realized, I was spending way too much time and getting much less result than If I were putting more effort towards creating a few really good link baits.
Most of your blog posts are going to be fillers, you just have to come to terms with it. Of course, you dont have to sacrifice quality here, but you cant make every post the best post. Thanks Jane.
Satrap@ Fast Money recently posted 10 Ways to Make Money on the Side
You got it right Satrap. The more we try harder, the chances are high that our post will look like a filler. In my opinion killer posts should happen, we shouldn’t force it!
Jane @ Blogging Success recently posted Google Personalized Search: Who Decides Your Site Visibility?
Of course traffic is very important for the sites and I agree with you about the points that it is unbearable when a post appears to be a link bait. I know that many bloggers write only for search engines and they gt what they want, but at the same time their blogs don’t develop at all. you are right that traffic is a smart work that should be done regularly and should ahve exact plan
Anna, recently SEO has become a term to be obsessed with. Some bloggers take it too seriously and they ultimately forget people
Good advice! And I would add to the list “Caring too much about SEO without writing quality content”. Even though content is no longer king for most blogs, a good quality post will always be better (or at least will go great hand in hand with) some solid, smart promotion/SEO.
Calin@Blogging Tips recently posted How to Get Your Blog Indexed By Google Faster (in a Few Hours!)
#4 was so me Jane
I’d spent too much time refreshing and checking my stats previously. After a while only I realized that this is useless. I should spend time on writing quality contents instead. Can’t help it, need to laugh at myself again 
Peter Lee @ Computer How To Guide recently posted How To Sell or Buy on Fiverr.com
I agree and disagree about making every post link-bait. I agree in that your posts should for the most part be geared toward helping the reader.
Every now and then on one of my blogs I get an idea that would be awesome link bait and I run with it, but mostly I write for my reader. I know that if I write something that is truly unique (not like most blog posts out there – yawn), helpful and well-written, chances are that it will draw some links or at least some tweets and likes.
And so we come full circle – link bait really means, for the most part, a really awesome and useful post. In that send, every post you write should be link-bait. Do you write one post a day? Or two? How many are truly unique, useful and awesome? One or two a week? Then why are you writing the other truly useless and repetitive posts that have already been written a dozen times by others? From that perspective, why not just write the ones that are truly worthwhile …which makes every post you write link bait.
David @ Zoomit Canada recently posted Joe Pye Weed: The Man Behind The Plant
Hi Jane,
Excellent post. I think # 4 is a big killer for many people. I know I still struggle with it from time to time. It’s so easy to want to keep checking all of your stats…your sales stats, your traffic stats, your signup and autoresponder stats, etc.
Yes, it’s exciting when you see a sale come in, a new signup, or a surge of traffic, but it’s a huge time waster. If I could go back now and substitute all the time I’ve spent checking stats with writing blog posts, I’d probably have hundreds more articles and blog posts out on the internet.
So I definitely agree. Stats are important, but don’t obsess or you’re simply taking time away from the things that really matter.
DJ Briggs@How To Make A Guy Want You recently posted How To Keep A Guy Interested – Simple Tips On How To Attract A Man And Make Him Want You
I check my stats usually just once per day, and when I do I spend about 5-10 minutes looking at them. I find it kind of boring analyzing all the keywords, where traffic comes from, where they exit, and all that. I just look at the daily visitors and page views and that is about it. I could see how it would be easy to spend a lot of time with them though. Try spending 30 mins or an hour per day looking at stats and how much does that add up to in a full month? Quite a bit that I could be doing other things with.
Ray@dolphin tutorials recently posted Content is sometimes king
If you summarize all those points I think it is about finding the right balance and I guess that comes only with experience. I must admit I’m a bit obsessive about stats and tend to spend a bit too much time on GA.
Nishadha@Make Money Blogging recently posted What is Affiliate Marketing and How Does it Work
I think many people start out blogging because they read about the success of other bloggers. The problem is that they try to mimic the successful bloggers and don’t create a blog that is unique to them. That is one of the problems that I have seen, and a good reason why a blog doesn’t receive much traffic.
I am a stats junky so I am obsessed with the stats for my blog. Then again, I haven’t met too many bloggers that aren’t guilty of doing point #4.
Paul Salmon@Technically Easy recently posted Best 5 Twitter Marketing Tips For Blog Promotion
You nailed it in number one. I find that if I try to write the perfect post often times it just prevents me from writing at all. Many a time have I set out to write a post and then get frustrated because I can’t come up with a great idea. If you just write what is interesting to you, you can always go back and optimize it later.
Rusty @ Black Friday Watch Deals recently posted Diamond Invicta Watch: Men’s and Women’s Diamond Invicta
Very informative and helpful. Personally, much of my blogging has dealt with smaller niche circles. The traffic that I get isnt astronomical, but I gain dedicated followers from it. What do you think about/recommend for the area of niche marketing on the web?
Pete Goumas recently posted Touch Of Europe Coupons & Review
Everytime you check your Analytics, you could have built a new link to your domain… such a waste.
The ironic part about this post? Very few blogs will succeed *without* a few good pieces of linkbait, insomuch as linkbait = awesome content with catchy titles.
Kane@Seattle Website Design recently posted Why Links Are Important for Small Businesses
Jane, #1 speak is too close for comfort for me. Always putting pressure on yourself to create amazing content can take its toll. I also find that sometimes it’s better for me to be on the other side of the conversation. Reading other people’s great content helps with ideation of great content ideas. Thanks for providing a great post!
- Brian
Brian Flores@web hosting recently posted InMotion Hosting
Wonderful post Jane! Many bloggers fail to realize that they have to play it fairly if they want to get high amount of traffic for their blogs.
Noel Addison@Web Development Ventura recently posted 5 Things to Look for in a Web Dev Company
As they say slow and steady wins the race, and this sentiment is so true in the blogging world. Patience, persistence and hard work all go into making a good blog – there’s just no easy way around it.
Holly Hanna recently posted Year in Review: Smartest Things to Do Before 2012