Hey everyone! Struggling to get traffic to your blog/site? SEO not working for you? Backlinking not bringing you any visitors? Forum posting unsuccessful? Well, "oil rig hopping" (a term from Alex Jeffreys) may be for you, and may also be the best method for bringing in HIGHLY targeted traffic AND building relationships with your fellow internet marketers (or other people in your niche), which is really important to your success online.
As Alex Jeffreys describes it, this is the metaphor. Around the world, oil rigs (real oil rigs, not blogs) have arguably the best fishing out of anywhere else you can go. Some of the biggest fish in the world love feeding and staying near these oil rigs. In the internet marketing world, this still holds true. The "oil rig" is a blog. The big fish are readers from the other blog that this other blog readily attracts. This technique essentially allows you to boat over to this oil rig and "catch" these big fish that the oil rig has been attracting (for you).
To start, this other blog, in your niche, has to have a lot of activity surrounding it. You don't want to fish somewhere where there are no fish, right?
Well, how do I know if there are fish?
All you have to do is be observant. You could go over to alexa.com, look up the site, and look at its traffic information. You could also look to see if other people are consistently commenting on the blogger's posts. Finally, make sure that this blogger consistently posts new content. If you notice these three things in another blog in your niche, you have struck gold. That site will be a perfect "oil rig" for you to fish at.
Now, go to the three most recent posts, and read them all ENTIRELY. Make sure you read all of it, as this will help you later.
After you have read them, you have to comment on them. This is the step at which MANY marketers fail miserably at. You have to make sure your comments are relevant and intelligent.
Irrelevant comments are comments that do not really connect back to what the blogger said in his/her post. I see many, many comments that just say something like, "Great post, my site is here...". This will simply not work! You have to respond to at least one thing that the blogger said. I personally try to respond to every single major point that the blogger made in his/her post. This makes my comments very relevant. And, this also goes along with the metaphor. Relevant comments are like using the right bait that is relevant to the fish you are trying to catch. Using the right bait = better fishing.
Although you can get by making relevant comments that are not very deep and insightful, the more intelligent your comments are, the more traffic you will drive. Intelligent comments are comments that not only respond to the original author's points, but also add your own thoughts as well. You should not just say, "Good point here, I agree with you." You need to add at least one more sentence per point adding your own thoughts and comments.
Also, peacefully disagreeing with the blogger works too! (As long as you are NOT aggressive). You can say something like, "Good point; I see where you are coming from. However, I think this...". This will create a dialogue between you and the blogger which will not only help you create a friendship with this blogger, but will also show blog readers (remember, these are the fish you are trying to catch!) that you are passionate about your niche and you actually know what you are talking about.
Disagreeing with an authority blogger is a perfect sign that someone is also a potential authority (as long as the disagreement is intelligent).
Finally, before posting your comments, make sure to add your full name to the name field, your email, and your website to the website field.
DO NOT PUT A LINK TO YOUR WEBSITE IN THE COMMENT SECTION! This is a surefire way to be thought of as a marketer, and not an authority. By the way, that is the goal of bloggers: to be thought of as an authority, not a marketer (if you are a marketer; many bloggers are not marketers).
If you follow these steps, the fish at your target oil rig will literally jump out of the water and into your boat (which is your blog). This is probably the best way I know of to network and to build traffic. However, it takes a lot of work. But, it is great to go to other successful blogs, see what they are doing, network with them, learn about what they are blogging about, and build traffic all at the same time.
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this, and stick around for my next post!
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