How Photos and Videos Help in Generating More Traffic to your Blog

Blogs are a definitely a great tool in promoting your business, especially when you have products and services that you want to promote to your audiences. In blogs, you can discuss about the ads you promote by giving reviews, personal opinions, factual information, as well as tips and tricks. But blogging is not just about the written stuff; you have the opportunity to be creative and increase your incoming traffic via photos and videos. But how can these media exactly help you?

Let’s first talk about the photos.

Photos or images are graphic representations of the things you talk about in your articles. There are times when words cannot fully send the message which you want to tell to your readers, and giving them a visual aid helps a lot in doing so. More than that however, photos have other equally important functions.

First, photos add the appeal of your blog. With photos, your blog becomes more enticing to visit since readers won’t get bored with just the articles. Photos show them how the world looks like under your niche, and by featuring images of people, things, places and events related to your subject, your viewers would have a bigger picture of what your blog is all about.

Photos are also highly important when you are promoting a product or business on your blog. Through images you show them your business, basically what you offer. Your blog can serve as your catalog for products or services, and as well feature people satisfied with your service and events that had sprung from your business. For example, you have a blog about weddings gowns, you can post the latest designer gowns that you have on your store. The same goes with other niche topics as well.

Also, photos increase the incoming traffic to your site, especially when you post images of famous people, things, places, etc. you can embed links and tags on your photos so they can be found by search engines and appear on the results list after a related image search.

Now we go to videos

Videos are like photos-they bring life to your site. Unlike images however, you get to see more of the action in videos since they pictures are, of course, moving. Videos take you to the realities of your ads, since they show where and how exactly can the products and services (which you feature) can be applied.

Moreover, videos help strengthen the social network of your blog. You can create a fan base out of the videos you have posted on your blog, and these people are those truly interested in your chosen niche. You can get and embed streaming videos from sites such as MySpace and YouTube, and by linking to those sites you can find people who can be of great support on your blog.

Videos are also a nice way in promoting your business. Aside from photos you can actually give your target audience a tour of your site or actual business activities so they know what to expect from you. Virtual tours are getting more and more popular nowadays, since users want the real thing, more than just still images.

Photos and videos are tools used in viral marketing. You can actually boost your blog’s performance through these media especially when you use them properly. A lot of bloggers tag the appropriate keywords to these media in order to gain more traffic, even if the actual site content is less relevant. In a way, your blog gets included in the list of related links on a video or image search, and is a good step towards becoming popular online.

Embedding photos and videos to your blog is easy, just follow the codes and you’re all set. However, it is equally important that you follow certain guidelines in order for your blog to not look spammy or irrelevant. A lot of bloggers feature celebrity photos and videos on their site, as well as images of famous things or places, not only because they want to talk about these issues, but because these media can drive more traffic to their blog. This is a good technique especially when you are just starting out in the blogging industry; you can talk about these things and come up with discussions that your target audience may easily get interested at, while at the same time introducing them to your ads.

While this is a good strategy, you should not forget that real traffic lies on quality content; you may flood your blog with photos and videos as long as you like, but strengthen their powers with quality entries. This way, your audiences will find your blog truly credible both as a marketplace and a place for information. By using these media wisely, your blog is assured to follow the path to success.

59 Ways to Get More Traffic to Your Blog

1. Be topical… write posts that need to be read right now.
2. Bookmark your site – To social bookmarking websites, i.e. digg, del.icio.us, reddit
3. Be among the first with a great blog on your topic, then encourage others to blog on the same topic.
4. Break news.
5. Post regularly.
6. Make groups like Google and Yahoo groups, and then include your URL in it (but don’t look spammy)
7. Share your expertise generously so people recognize it and depend on you.
8. Write short, pithy posts.
9. Encourage your readers to help you manipulate the technorati top blog list.
10. Include polls, meters and other eye candy.
11. Have an e-mail siggy, Put your URL in your siggy when contacting someone through e-mail.
12. Join mybloglog, it’s a good way of socializing.
13. Make your RSS subscribe button very noticeable.
14. Use a top commentators plugin to improve comments.
15. Be controversial.
16. Be original.
17. Become top commentator on big traffic blogs.
18. Write about Google, Digg and other hugely popular sites.
19. Use images in your posts.
20. Make a fresh design.
21. Answer your email.
22. Digest the good ideas of other people, all day, every day.
23. Be patient.
24. Give credit to those that inspired, it makes your writing more useful.
25. Create a lens, Highlight your best posts on your Squidoo lens.
26. Make a content that is worth buying, Then you give it free, Sounds crazy but it attracts loads of people.
27. Place alt tags, Placing an alt tag on your pictures will surely help you get a higher Search Engine ranking.
28. Write about making money.
29. Share your knowledge.
30. Use the sociable plugin, It ads all the known bookmarking websites and puts it in your posts. This makes bookmarking easier for your readers.
31. Try and become a guest poster on a popular blog. Be persistent
32. Submit your best and longest posts to article directories.
33. Use Blogrush.
34. Use Technorati.
35. Encourage your readers to digg your posts.
36. Make your blog as different as possible.
37. Never copy posts.
38. Make your SEO as good as possible.
39. Submit Themes, With your link on it!
40. Don’t use flash as much as possible, This may irritate your readers.
41. Add a sitemap, This helps search engines recognize you more.
42. Redirect your 404 page, Redirecting it to your homepage would help lost visitors.
43. Ping your blog every after you write an article, Try Pingoat.com
44. Write posts that each include dozens of trackbacks to dozens of blog posts so that people will notice you.
45. Post your photos on flickr.
46. Write eye catching blog post titles.
47. Use correct grammar.
48. Use YouTube and other video sites to market your blog.
49. Use social networking buttons, on all posts.
50. Admit your faults.
51. Be honest.
52. Spend entire days focusing on nothing but getting more traffic.
53. Write long, definitive posts.
54. Write about blogging.
55. Don’t interrupt your writing with a lot of links.
56. Write stuff that people want to read and share.
57. Pull off some jokes from time to time
58. Add translations
59. Never give up.