I got this e-mail today and thought I would post it here along with my answer. However, I will remove the name and the website address.

Hello,

I’ve been reading your “95 % of blogs abandoned thread”, you are very knowledgeable about SEO strategies so I would like your advice. I employ SEO stretegies for my site including:
1. reciprocal link exchange with sites in my niche
2. commenting on blogs and websites in my niche
3. commenting on internet magazines such as yahoo shine
4. joining social bookmarking sites
5. joining blog directories
6. using twitter

I always leave a live link on all of the above. When I began this internet business I actually used a website but the company turned out to be of ill repute and I was able to get a refund and re-launched in blog format. My domain name and site name are two years old (I created them myself). In those early days I had to approach established websites for link exchange, now I receive link exchange requests. I also receive offers from advertisers (although at the present time it is for sample products not monetary payment but this is still proof that I will receive offers for payment soon). My page rank is now at 3 which is good. I don’t rely on PR that much, though as site quality is more important.

I know that advertisers look at the most popular sites ie the ones with high traffic. My traffic is not as good as I know it should be. I have a quality website and it is well respected, I receive compliments from readers and I welcome this. But I want to know what more I can do to get traffic. I receive less than 100 visitors per day and this is far FAR below what a general health site should receive.

My site url is

At your convenience could you take a look at my site and offers suggestions as to how I may improve it to get more traffic? I will say that I will not change my format because I do not want to lose my core audience. I do know that some readers are telling others about the site (not only have they told me so, I have seen it in recent traffic). I have approximately 70-80 subscribers/followers across feedburner, MyBlogLog, Blogged, BlogCatalog, and twitter (all of which has been since late 2008/to present). This is good, however I need more. So any advice would be helpful.

Thank you.

I want to post my response because some people might have these same type of question and maybe it will help someone else as well.

My Response;

Looks like you are doing everything right, although I would link my social media sites to one another.

In other words, if I had a MySpace page that was linked to my site, I might create two blogs talking about the same topic and link to my MySpace page. So it would have a little more weight when it linked to my site.
From there I would try and increase the number of keywords I was using. There are lots of free tools online like;
WordTracker.com

Free Keyword Suggestion Tool from Wordtracker

Free Search Term Suggestion Tool by KeywordDiscovery.com

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

https://www.PayPal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_shop-ext

eBay

Shopping.com – Find, Compare, and Buy Anything in Seconds

Search-based keyword tool

Google Trends
The idea is to get a good list of keywords that you want to target and then add keywords in with those keywords that you feel someone would search for.

If I was trying to sell website designs, I might use a list of keywords like these;
Buy
Buys
Buyer
Buyers
Buying
Bought
Order
Ordering
Orders
Ordered
Purchasing
Purchased
Purchase
Purchases
Cheapest
Cheap
Cheaper
Discounted
Discount
Discounting
Discounts
Special Offer
Special Offers
Sale
Sales
Sold
Selling
Value
Values
Valued
Coupon
Coupons
Cost
Costs
Costing
Shipping
Ship
Ships
Shipped
Sale Price
Sales Prices
Sales Pricing
Online
On Line
Promotion
Promotions
Promo
Promos
Promoting
Promote
Promotes
Merchandise
Merchandises
Merchandising
Merchandises
Merchant
Merchants
Refurbished
Free Shipping
Reasonable Price
Pre Owned
Used Using
Using
Pre Own
Old
Vintage
Pre Owns
Pre Owns
Pre Owning
Store
Stores
Vintage
How Much
Model Number
Quality
New
Newer
Newest
Special
Best
Most
Highest
Greatest
Top
Wholesale
Retail
Shop
Shopping
Shopper
Shops
Get
Gets
Getting
Got
Acquire
Acquiring
Acquired
Custom
Customer
Customers
Customize
Customized
Good Buy
Best Buy
Good Buys
Best Buys
Pay
Payment
Paying
Paid
Deal
Deals
Dealing
Bargain
Bargaining
Bargains
Bargained
Find
Found
Finding
Search
Searching
Searched
Negotiate
Negotiates
Negotiating
Low Price
Low Prices
Low Pricing
Low Priced
Lowest Price
Lowest Prices
Lowest Pricing
Lowest Priced
Economy
Economic
Economical
On Sale
Low Cost
Low Costs
Low Costing
Lowest Cost
Lowest Costs
Lowest Costing
Cut Rate
Cut Rates
Reduce
Reduced
Reducing
Bargain Basement
Bargain Basements
Best Cost
Best Costs
Best Price
Best Prices
Bonus
Bonuses
Free Bonus
Free Bonuses
Promo Bonus
Promo Bonuses
Gift
Gift
Free Gift
Free Gifts
Competitive Price
Competitive Pricing
Competitive Prices
Inexpensive
Easy on the Pocket
Easy on the Pockets
Review
Cost Effective
Reviews
Moneymaking
Useful

And then add my keywords to each of them.

For example, order a website design, I’d then write an article about ordering a website design.

I have noticed that with each blog post I make there is an increase in traffic. I have one site that is getting around 2,000 unique visitors per day and I try to make around 20 blog post on that site every day.

It has worked well for us so far.

Website Designs & Affiliate Marketing

For those of you that don’t know I started playing a little in affiliate marketing last year. I didn’t do anything record breaking however I did make a little over $40,000.00 for the year and really didn’t get started until around the middle of the year.

This year I’m hoping to double what we did last year, however I’ve had to do some reading and studying in order to improve my chances of doing that.
I’ve come to the conclusion most people claiming to make tons of money with affiliate marketing are full of crap. They build blogs about nothing and place ads all over them. Then from time to time will make a post about this product or that.

The blog you are currently on gets about 1,000 unique visitors per day and I could double that if I put a little effort into it.

Here’s the thing.

If I make a post about silicone wristbands, on this blog, it will not make me as much money as a post on my silicone wristband blog, about silicone wristbands. I don’t care how many readers a blog has got, most readers are just that, readers, and will never purchase anything.

You can brag about the number of readers that come to your blog everyday to read what it is that you have to say but you and I both know those people are not making purchases.

The people that are buying go to the search engines, do a search for a product and then go to the website to check out that product. If you happen to rank for that product then I agree, you stand a good chance of making the sale.

But Joe Blow that hangs out on your blog is not buying the product that you’re talking about today, nor is he clicking the banner ads on your site. Hell, he’s been seeing those same banner ads for the last couple months and has become blind to them.

And most likely he ignores the post about this product or that and is more interested in the money you claim to be making. I’d be willing to bet the only money you make is from people buying banner ads on your site and from the people paying you to post about their products. Not only are you not making money in affiliate marketing but you are misleading the people that want to make a living online.

If people would stop trying to bull shit everyone and be honest about what they are doing it might make it easier for everyone involved to figure out how to make money online.

Including the bull shiters.