Social bookmarking has worked for me but I do not have all not my eggs in one basket. I submit articles post on blogs and submit to a few directories and more..

I definitely second that. It’s the people who trust me enough through my blog that hire me to help them, pay me, and then allow me to keep blogging.

(But then again, my customers – website visitors – are the ones who pay my wages, in the end )

Karin H.

That’s a great conversion rate. I use stats in a similar way. Traffic is nice to see. But I’m much more interested, truthfully, in the conversations and relationships I’m building through my blog.

Dee,

Right on!

John,

I agree with you. I know that when I use Stumble or Digg, I get a huge traffic wave and then a few people stick around. That’s why I won’t write just for Digg. I write for content, for you, and let everything else fall whare it may.

Agree with you. That’s the reason I check the stats every week (statcounter) not just on amount of visitors, but also how long and how many pages and of course if they return.

Plus we have a ‘policy’ in place to ask any customer coming to our showroom (or on the phone) to ask where they have heard from us the first time. 70% say: website

Karin H.

Yes, I certainly want increased traffic as well. What I find happening sometimes with my clients is that they confuse massive traffic with increased interest in their business. I’ve found this to not always be true. Sometimes, yes.

I try to help my clients understand that what they ultimately want are visitors that are specifically interested in their business. Otherwise, their web stats (traffic) are not going to accurately represent the success of their site/business.

I agree with Joanna. On one of my blogs (extension of our static websites) I want as many visitors as possible – hopefully clicking further to our static websites to see all our products etc (and from next week on, buying on-line).
On my other blogs I want readers, conversationalist etc. Those two blogs have ‘conversational’ tools in them (MyBlogLog, TheGoodBlogs etc) to ‘encourage’ relationships.
(and I like both ways )

Karin H. (Keep It Simple Sweetheart, specially in business)

Yes, yes, and yes. The sizzle, I love it!

And I agree…different techniques for different purposes. For my purposes, I’m interested in the conversation – in relationships. So while it’s important for me to expand my reach, I try to focus more on the readers and commenters I have. Balance…

I think it depends on what your blogging purpose is. Lots of visitors is nice – but what feels great (for me) is when you start to make connections that sizzle somehow, when you find other people who share ideas, values, words, dreams, outlook, when you find each other’s work, when people help you out, when your stories start to intertwine.

I love feeling part of a network of bloggers who are open to ideas, intriguing and intrigued, curious, open, generous…

Quality offers something different to quantity.

Joanna

I’m with you…I want readers too. Not only readers but I’m interested in the conversation and ultimately the relationships.

I know that we all need/want traffic – the more the better, right? Yet successful bloggers want more than just big traffic spikes.