Today, Henri Junttila shares his 21 day experience of blog marketing that resulted in the Pagerank increase from zero to four in only 21 days. Want to write for us too?
It’s amazing at what you can accomplish when you work hard. My blog is around 3 weeks old and it has gone from PageRank 0 to 4, from 0 subscribers to 155 and from no one commenting to being almost like a community.
I know 155 subscribers doesn’t sound like much, but if I kept this rate up for a year, I would have well over 2,000 subscribers and that’s not bad now is it? You also have to consider that after a while you reach a breaking point where your blog starts to grow on its own, which means that you most likely will have close to 3,000 subscribers or a lot more in a year if you do things right.
I’ve never have a problem with working extremely hard, especially when I am passionate about something. I’ve been making a living online for a long time and I’ve discovered that working for yourself is a lot tougher than working for someone else.
Nobody tells you what to do. You have to figure everything out yourself. On top of it all, you have to manage your time and use the right tactics. In my opinion, I have come a long way in just three weeks and it is largely because I chose to focus on a few main points in building my audience and getting my name out there.
1. Blog Commenting
When I had my launch content ready – which consisted of 4-5 good posts and 5-day e-mail series – I started looking for blogs with good content that were somewhat related to what I was talking about. I currently have almost 100 blogs in my feedreader that I enjoy reading and try to comment on regularly.
Yes, commenting will take up a lot of your time (learn how to become a more productive commentator). It may not bring you huge amounts of traffic or link juice, but that isn’t the purpose. Getting traffic from commenting is a side-benefit. The main benefit is putting your face out there. Oh, before I forget, definitely make sure you have a good and friendly gravatar 
.
In just three weeks I’ve gotten people telling me that they’ve seen me everywhere. I didn’t even realize that it had such an impact. It seems to work like advertising. When you see 100 Kellogg’s commercials and you go to the store and see 5 unknown brands and Kellogg’s there’s a very high chance that you’ll pick Kellogg’s because it’s familiar. Commenting works the same way. That is, if you provide value in your comments.
2. Guest Posting
Guest posting is the number one tactic if you want to grow your readership and increase your authority in Google’s eyes. Take Blogussion for example – in two posts they earned 200 extra subscribers . I know you might be shy about asking bloggers about guest posting, but it isn’t that hard. Three weeks ago I didn’t know anyone in the blogosphere, and I mean by anyone I mean anyone, I didn’t even know the resident dust rat at Blogussion.
I’ve made a lot of good friends in a short amount of time because I started commenting, connecting and letting people know I appreciate what they are doing. It’s the law of reciprocity at work, which basically means that if you provide value for others, they will be more likely to provide value for you. Leave a mark on the other persons blog, and you will see some benefits.
This doesn’t mean that you should go into the whole thing with the mindset of getting something. On the contrary, I was so happy to be blogging about the subject I love that I enjoyed connecting with people and when I asked for a guest post pretty much everyone said yes.
If you really want to grow your blog, you have to guest post. I know that it can be scary. It is scary for me each time I submit a guest post, but fear is a part of life, it will always be there. The circumstances for guest posting will never be perfect, so start now.
The worst thing that can happen is that nothing changes. If you get rejected, ask them why, politely, so you can learn from the interaction and improve. Start with smaller blogs first and work your way up as you gain more and more momentum.
I have written around 10-15 guest posts during these 21 days and that is all it takes to really gain traction and go from PageRank 0 to 4. Aim for as authoritative blogs as possible, but don’t be afraid of connecting with the smaller ones.
3. Connecting and Helping
You have to care. If you don’t care about people and aren’t passionate about the subject you’re blogging about, chances are that people will notice and not want to stick around. Passion is contagious, because passion exudes positive, addictive energy and being around someone who is passionate feels awesome, even if it is in text.
So how do you connect with a blogging community?
There are many ways. The tools I use almost exclusively are Twitter and e-mail. I try to use as few tools as possible so I don’t overwhelm myself. Talk with people on twitter. Don’t tell them to visit your blog and sign-up, just talk and have fun.
People will naturally visit your blog and link to you if you are interesting and fun. Haven’t you noticed this yourself? If someone is making you laugh and in general helping you, aren’t you compelled to learn more about them?
The way I use e-mail is to let people know that I appreciate what they are doing. If I sincerely like something they are doing I want to tell them that. I’m not going to sell them anything or try to get them to link to me. How would you react if someone did that to you? You would probably delete the e-mail and make a note that the guy or girl sucks.
Be friendly, always provide value and help people. Give before you take. If someone e-mails you, make sure you reply as soon as possible. You want to engage your audience. One person may not seem to matter, but think about it. If you make one person happy and they tell five people, you then make those five happy, they tell five people. Do you see the potential?
What you put out there will come back to you many times over.
What works for you?
With all that said, I challenge you to share at least one blogging tip that worked for growing traffic and readership to your blog!
The Discussion
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Henri,
Congratulations on your success so fast! That’s awesome. I think it’s every blog post you do (be it guest post or not) you really have to look at a few key factors in order to bring the most value to your reader and unless you have passion for what you’re talking about it’s only going to make things much harder in the long run.
.-= Eric´s last blog ..Pop Posts =-.
Yup! You have to be passionate about what you’re doing otherwise it’s going to be an uphill climb.
Henri,
My first thought was – WOW, this guy rocks, he must be using some super-mega blog design or else.. From that point I thought your niche is “another blogging tipper”
Now I can see the real reason.. You help people to believe and to find the answers. Your niche fits everyone.. From now and on – I’m also your subscriber.
Awesome, thanks!
these tactics are so wise.I may try some of them.
.-= SceneDown.org´s last blog ..Amelia DVDRip XviD-NeDiVx =-.
From PR 0 to PR 4. So if one of the reasons for the increase in pagerank is commenting on blogs, this only proves that backlinks from blog commenting are valuable unlike what others says of commenting, that they have poor value.
.-= Best Office Chairs´s last blog ..The Best Office Chair =-.
Henri, what a post to inspire us all to work harder.
This is a huge success and I really admire your persistency, perhaps I need to get on with more guest posting as well. Blog commenting is a wonderful way for traffic and exposures if one is manage to provide quality insights, I’m very much agree on this one too.
You just inspired me a project to be done, maybe. ^^ Thing is, we need to push up our limit sometimes too. Thanks so much for this wonderful post.
@wchingya
Social/Blogging Tracker
.-= Ching Ya´s last blog ..How Blog Review Can Help to Improve Blog Traffic =-.
It’s easy to work hard when you love what you do
You definitely have to keep pushing yourself if you want to grow. The uncomfortable parts are what make you grow.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Ching Ya
.-= Henri´s last blog ..A Guide to Asking Questions That Change Your Life =-.
Well.. These Tips are very common. I dont think that these methods can make a great change (like 0-4) in PageRank. Anyway.. Thanks for sharing.
They don’t work if you don’t use them and work hard. They did work for me, however, so who knows what happened
.-= Henri´s last blog ..The News, Fear and Addiction =-.
Your story is a inspirtional one for me as im a newbie for blogging…
Great article.
I have written 2 guest posts for a blog in my niche and am looking for more people to guest post for. Hopefully this will help raise my pagerank and get my blog seen by more people, which would be awesome.
Like it has been said earlier. If you love what you are doing then you don’t mind putting in the effort. I love helping people and the more people who see my blog the more I can help, so I am willing to put in the hard work.
Thanks for the post
.-= David Black´s last blog ..How To Get A Girl Interested In You =-.
I must say that I still find it hard to believe the five listings above got you from PR 0 to PR 4 in 21 days. I still believe there ought to be some other catalyst that catapulted you to PR 4 in such a short time. I know a few bloggers who are great @ guest posting, commenting etc but are still having a PR 2.
Anyway, congratulations on the feat. I’ll get back on the guest posting bandwagon and see what I can achieve
.-= Udegbunam Chukwudi´s last blog ..Wp-Spam Free Works Just Fine @ StrictlyOnlineBiz =-.
Oops! I meant three listings
.-= Udegbunam Chukwudi´s last blog ..StrictlyOnlineBiz’s Top Blog Posts Of The Week 6 =-.
I am always impressed by people with good writing skills just like you Henri. Subscribed to your Blog :-}
.-= imran´s last blog ..Where is Google heading to ? ! =-.
wow i really like your nice site and i appreciate it.
.-= driveway estate gates´s last blog ..Privacy Screen Nice Addition to Thistledown Racetrack =-.
That is a huge pagerank leap…congrats. Here is one way to get a lot of visitors quickly. Identify and write about a computer problem that everybody is having and then create a solid keyword page about it. I did this recently and discovered thousands of visitors simply by writing about and Amazon API. Take a look at the Error Traffic Control article below!
.-= Richard Cummings´s last blog ..SEO: Error Traffic Control =-.
Thanks for the motivation this post has given me. I think most of your success comes from your 10-15 guest posts. It must have taken a lot of willpower to write this many guest posts along with enough content for your own site in just 3 weeks. By the way, about how much blog comments did you do do show up “everywhere”?
.-= Karan Singhal´s last blog ..What Is Truly Organic SEO? =-.
I was just going through the site checking whats new and the title of this post stuck out to me. That’s great Henri, Congrats!
What I enjoyed the most is that you have put in the hard work and have achieved the results.
.-= Cemil´s last blog ..Google’s SEO Report Card – An Insight from Matt Cutts =-.
I’m reading very many posts about blogging daily and i must say that this is one of the best i’ve read in weeks. Well said there, i totally agree that guest posting is the number 1 technique for new bloggers to spead the word for their blog. Hope i can get the chance to guest blog in this blog soon
.-= Spyros´s last blog ..5 Reasons Why Guest Blogging is a Great Marketing Tool =-.
That is very impressive and it clearly shows you have worked hard to get your blog to where it is now, reading through your tips I am going to try and put some of them to use with the websites I currently own.
.-= Andy´s last blog ..Directory Submission =-.
Hmm that was weird, my comment got eaten. Anyway I wanted to say that it’s nice to know that someone else also mentioned this as I had trouble finding the exact same info elsewhere. This was the very first location that told me the answer. Thanks.
Very good info Henri.
Especially the connecting and helping part,the primary purpose of content put up on a blog/website I feel should be value addition so that it helps everyone who is interested in that particular topic.
Great going.
Best,
AVP
.-= AVP´s last blog ..Getting a free domain plus unlimited web hosting at 10$/year =-.
Need to get better at #3. Your limit to the number of avenues makes sense. I tend to get bogged down trying to do EVERYTHING!
Firstly I Congratulate on your success. From PR 0 to PR 4 is not easy task to any blog/site but after read your post its inspiring me a lot.
Thanks so much for this wonderful post.
After reading your post, a new confidence has instilled in me. Thanks
Just analize your site, how often you spent your time for build the blog in 21 days. is it 15 hours/day?
but, congrat. good example to follow.
Pagerank 0 to 4 in 21?? how it is possible?? I think Google doesn’t update PR in 21 days, i think PR is updated in more than 40 to 60 days.
You are still a 4 (at the time of this comment) and there have been a few updates since your post, did you roller coaster or stay the same?
Louis, he got lucky and started in the last 1/2 to 1/3 of the update cycle. Still an impressive feat.
i think you inspire me, to become great blogger
keep update it and i’ll come again
i stumbled into your blog while searching about this topic. My blog still has a bad pagerank but i am working on it now. Thanks for sharing this one. It gave answers to some of my questions.
Great tips on getting a higher page rank. I have been stuck at page rank 3 forever.
I think I need to more guest posting which I have thought about but have been keeping on the back burner thanks for sharing great article.
Hi Henri,
Your article is pretty good. I want to start a Moving blog to my moving site could you guide how to start to improve page rank
It’s funny I keep searching google for SEO ideas and you’re name comes up some how some where 4/5 times. You must be doing something right! Great blog and great content and it’s always a plus to have a little humor injected in there as well.
Best wishes and thanks for doing all you do with the blogging community!
thanks to share it’s very help me as a newbie
Congrats Henri on your quick success! You really make it sound pretty simple. I’d be interested to know where you are now with it and how you’ve tweaked your focus as you’ve grown.
Congrats Henri on raising your page rank so quickly, I found your post because I’m trying to raise my blog’s page rank from 0 to something higher. I’m going to put your ideas into practice, especially the guest-blogging.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge about Pagerank. Congratulation with your blog – its nice to have succes, when putting much effort into it. I dont think PR has that much impact to search-results – I think the generated traffic are building the pagerank – and therefore the guest-blogging you talk about, should indeed pay off. Remember pagerank is just a number – with useless information its useless..
Interesting. I never know that guest posting would help when it comes to increasing a page rank. Thanks for this information.
I dont think that these methods can make a great change in PageRank
First of all congrats on having page rank 4 from 0 and even in 21 days!
I learned a lot from your experience about commenting and guest post and about being honest.
Today, we can easily see that people are not honest and they are not beneficial for society as well providing wrong information and they don’t try to give even a minute but they want in return! So it is not good!
Anyway, very nice post about blogging effectively!
Keep up the nice work please!
Thanks
I don’t usually reply to content but I will in this case. Seriously a big thumbs up for this one. I’m going with what some folks already mentioned. I’m so bad at this. I have no idea but had to read what everyone else thought it was.
Thanks for the tips. I just started up and it is very encouraging to find so much helpful information.
I love this blog post, it’s very informative and well written! Bravo on our writing skills. I’m going to subscribe to your blog simply because I want to know what you know:)
I have cleared many exams to be expert in website designing such as comptia a+ and ccent course also the test king as well as the ccie but at first we design a Web page and start with a blank page and also place elements on that page. Placement of the elements can be critical to whether the design works or is a dismal failure.
Dude, your’re an inspiration. So true, about working for your self. One of my biggest issues is staying motivated. And staying possitive and tenacious. You just gave me a second wind to get some work done.
Still don’t get it, we’ve launched our site a couple of months ago, have been doing pretty decent coverage, and have some good back links. Google still shows 0. Don’t think we are doing anything wrong at all though. Is their any process to actually get the reason Google has us black-listed?
@JTtheGeek
Just keep doing what you’re doing. The last Google Page Rank update was mid September so if your site only went live a couple of months ago it may not have had enough backlinks at that point in time. The next page rank update will be at the end of the year and by that point your Page Rank will most likely increase assuming you’ve got enough quality backlinks
Interesting comment Phil. How do you know that something will happen in the end of the year. Do you know updates will happen every 3rd month ?
I try to post at least 25 comments on related blogs each day. A new blog is already a PR3 wth just a few days of leaving comments. I expect it to reach PR4 very soon and steadily continue the climb.
I’ve got CommentLuv KeywordLuv and other link love goodies there. : )
Hey! Your story really inspired me.
Thanks a lot!
My sites have always taken a long time to get higher pageranks but there is one thing I have not been doing; leaving comments on blogs. Thanks for the heads up, you have really inspired me to get more interactive with the blog community.
I Immediately follow your suggestion and put a comment here, although this is not about poker… do you think it can damage your ranking commenting to non related blogs???
Congrats man.
So the conclusion is we have to do link building on a regular basis, especially for new blogs, right?
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