Blogengage.com Goes Nanners – What NOT to Do to Increase Traffic

13 Apr 2010

Blogengage.com Goes Nanners – What NOT to Do to Increase Traffic

Author: Jim | Filed under: Rants & Raves

Normally, the tips we list here are examples of how you can improve your blog or marketing campaigns… new strategies, link optimization, business schemes and investment suggestions. However, every once and awhile we see people slip up, and it is important to point out mistakes.

How to Make Your Subscribers Mad, the BlogEngage Way

This afternoon, I got a virtual hazing email from my good buddy Brian, the owner of BlogEngage.com. Blog Engage is a semi-popular social media community that offers bloggers the ability to suggest their articles to a community of webmasters from around the world. It is an overdone idea that Brian so happen to execute very well, thus jumping Blog Engage to a decent position in the online market (though nowhere close to touching StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit, Mixx, etc.).

But enough background, let’s get back to that email:

“I wrote a post today that expresses my frustration with the recent lack of involvement from our members. I encourage you all to read it as it is very important this message gets across. We must stick together and vote for each other. http://www.blogengage.com/blogger/are-you-a-valuable-member-of-our-community/. Please read it with care in mind that we need to work together to make a difference in the blogosphere.

Thanks,
Brian”

Really!? If people aren’t actively involved on your website/blog/etc., should you really send out a massive email telling people how it is their fault? No. The proper way to handle any drop off of traffic… is to do a better job grabbing traffic and encouraging your readers to get more involved. Run a promotion, increase advertising, change your platform, do something productive! Writing a flame post about how your community is falling apart because people aren’t trying their hardest to make you money is rediculous.

I expected some kind of promotion or message of encouragement, and what I saw was an angry blog post. Brian is one of my blogging buddies, so I want to say that he typically does a great job, but it is unacceptible to end any message to your readers by saying: ”stop being a lamer” (no, I’m not making this up).

A Point of Confusion — The Site is Fine!

It is one thing to get frustrated because things aren’t going your way in terms of internet traffic, but at Blogengage.com, they have actually been doing a great job growing traffic. Take a look at this long-term traffic chart sponsored by Alexa.com:

As you can clearly see, traffic is on a big uptick from 2009 levels. Taking this, I would never have accepted a mass text from the owner telling me that the level of activity from his community ain’t good enough.

Maybe the Problem Ain’t So Obvious

Perhaps Brian was just talking about spammers, but even so… this is a problem with the model of his community, not the community! If I can log into Blogengage, submit my content, and walk away with exactly the same end result as if I was an active user, then why the heck would I waste my time being active? This is like if Twitter were to say “okay, everyone gets 2000 followers, and only 2000 followers, forever” — who would continue to care? After all, you are going to reach the same amount of people regardless of what you do. I suggest you think about what you are doing wrong rather than blaming people for taking advantage of the obvious hole in the system.

This kind of public service announcement is more likely to put a bigger hole in your traffic than improve it, so why bother making your readers mad?

Bottom Line: If you run a blog or a popular website of any kind, never ever ever ever send a mass email to your community belittling them for not trying harder. As a webmaster, it is your responsibility to make your community want to stay active. Brian is a great guy, and BlogEngage.com is a site you should check out and work with if you are looking for more traffic, but this kind of example is a great one to demonstrate an improper marketing tactic and how to avoid it.

-Jimvesting Dot Com