Doesn’t matter whether you sell products or pitch a service – you probably want more clients, customers, buyers, patrons, consumers, subscribers, users, etc. Doesn’t matter what you call them – you’d like more.

After all, doesn’t more subscribers equal more people to market too? More patrons mean increasing sales? And increased sales equals more revenue. Isn’t that how it works?

Most of us know that. Yet many business owners set their focus too strongly on increasing revenue. They spend their time, their energy and their resources focused on making more money. And so they become like a hamster running around the wheel of trying to increase their profits – often, getting nowhere.

But what if you took some of that time to build relationships with your clients and customers? What if you took some time to build relationships with some of your leads? Better yet, what if you spent some time and resources to build relationships with other business owners? Businesses that compliment yours in one way or another. Or grew relationships with other business owners you have other interests in common with? What could happen?

What could happen is that you find yourself with more work than you can imagine.

As I’ve said now for years – people do business with people, not businesses. So business, ultimately, is about relationships. So when you focus on the relationships in and around your business, you’re paying into the greatest resource you have at your disposal – people.

It’s people who…

• …are your clients, customers and patrons
• …are your leads and prospects
• …are paying for your products and services
• …you’re in business to serve
• …tell their friends about you
• …become return customers
• …refer you business
• …use and evaluate your products and services
• …write reviews of your products and services
• …want to partner with you on future projects
• …whose problems your business can solve
• …read and comment on your blog
• …recommend your site on Digg, Mixx, StumbleUpon and other social link sites
• …who want to connect with you on Facebook, MyBlogLog and LinkedIn
• …who become your affiliates
• …your business needs
• and finally, it’s people who need what you offer.

So your business is about people. You need people to run your business. And you need people to increase your revenue. So why not focus on creating relationships with people?

How are you focusing on relationships in your business? How has it changed your business?

And what’s one thing you’ve wanted to create to build relationships in your business that you haven’t gotten too yet?

(note: image from edyperesfoto on Flickr)

Then came talk radio. Now people could call in and add their two cents to the topic discussed by the host. I often think of social media as being like talk radio.

For instance, now people can interact with the ‘hosts’ of blogs; engaging in interesting, lively and informative conversations. Or they can meet each other in Facebook or on StumbleUpon. Yet it goes further than that. Now, rather than just commenting on topics, social sharing and networking sites allow users to have control over what content gets seen – which stories get pushed to the top. It’s really an amazing time.

Yet, whether we’re talking about blogs, Facebook or new social sharing sites like Mixx, one thing remains constant – the relationship. Social media has made the internet about relationships.

Knowing I see the internet now almost solely through the eyes of social media, Liz Strauss asked me:

What do you find is the key to great relationships with social media friends?

I can answer in one word - connect!

The key is to make contact. When anyone comes your way, send them a thank you by email. Or give them a phone call. Bloggers love to meet each other. Find out what you have in common…and share.

For instance, I don’t go into the relationship looking for anything. Sure, I may see some potential for business or business partnerships or so on. But I don’t let that be the motivating factor. Rather, I just want to connect with the person on the other end of the keyboard. Then, I let the relationship evolve organically.

What holds the key for me has been to be real, authentic and honest. I’m simply who I am and I try to make space for people to just be who they are. So I think you have to make room for the relationship to develop in its own, organic way. Some people I’ve met have remained acquaintances. Some have become friends. While others have become clients or business partners. Yet each developed in its own way, without any manipulation or prodding. And I’ve loved it.

Of course I say this knowing that the past few months haven’t afforded me the time I had previously to make those connections. I’ve been a bit busy with a major house remodel and the birth of our third child. So I have less time these days. Yet I still reach out. And if you haven’t heard from you me yet, don’t think you’re not on my list. Just give me a little time and we’ll meet.

So in a phrase, the key to great social media relationships is to connect. Reach out and make a new acquaintance, a new friend or a new business opportunity. You never know where the relationship is going to go.

Which is why I’m chomping at the bit to continue our one2one conversation by asking Liz:

How do you find the time to be so engaged with your readers in the comment box, keep up your thousands of connections, write on yours and a number of other blogs, while taking care of your clients? Where do you find the time?

I’d love to know how you keep it all going. Not just Liz, but you too. How do find the time, with family, work and personal time to keep up with your social media relationships?

Being a Mac user I hardly ever think about Internet Explorer except when I’m coding and testing websites. Primarily I use Camino (love it) and Safari (now available for Windows). Sometimes I open Firefox, though most for StumbleUpon. And I really love OmniWeb’s thumbnail tabs. And, of course, I didn’t mention probably the best browser I don’t use much – Opera. Okay, maybe I have a bit of an obsession, but each of these have some great features that the others don’t.

But most people, however, don’t use multiple browsers. They choose one browser and stay with it. And it appears more and more people are choosing Firefox.

And that’s exactly what my stats in Google Analytics showed me this morning. Two-thirds of all my site visitors this year are using Firefox. And less than one-third are using Internet Explorer.

Now I do have a bit higher rate of Mac users – around 12%, but that certainly doesn’t account for the huge percentage of Firefox users.

What I’m thinking is that a large number of bloggers use Firefox. Why? And why are so few using Internet Explorer? And what does this say about browser trends?

An article from Popular Science that I saw predicts that by 2009Â Firefox’s market share could be as high as 50%. When I read it I thought, “no way.” But looking at my stats makes me think otherwise.

Then I found a post from PC World reporting that Firefox’s market share in Europe is nearing 30% – almost double the U.S. market share.

Does it matter?

I’m not sure. But maybe you know. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

What browser is most used in visiting your site?Â

We dream of the day that we get that massive wave from Digg or StumbleUpon. And when we do, it’s a rush, right? We watch our stats climb by the minute – 500….1,000….5,000….10,000 visitors – “oh God, don’t let it end!”

But it does end. It ends as an ocean wave ends: breaking on the shore, splashing its wake up the sands and retreating once more to whence it came. Such it is with our blog traffic.

These social content sites are great, don’t get me wrong. And I’m not suggesting not to use them. I use them and will continue too. But the deluge of traffic they bring can often give us a false sense of our blog’s health.

Essential Keystrokes’ Char wrote about this recently in her Web Traffic – I’ll Take Quality Over Quantity. In her post, she explained how the traffic she got from Digg in a recent post was matched, and in quality perhaps surpassed, by a link in a post from a prominent blogger like Darren Rowse.

Now, don’t run out and link to Darren or Brian Clark thinking that’s the way to get traffic. Though it could be if you’re doing what Char does – write great content. Which is why Darren picked up her link.

But how did Darren find Char to link too? The relationship, of course. Darren had to know Char exists in order to find a link to her. That begins with the relationship.

Same is true of another good friend, Adam Kayce at Monk at Work. Recently, he had a post picked up by lifehack.org. Adam’s blog is fairly new, yet growing at a nice rate. However, when he got picked up by lifehacker, he got a nice, large traffic blip with a number of first-time commenters. His traffic has increased by a nice rate since. But most interesting is that his feed subscribers almost doubled in the few days after.

So even though social content sites are certainly useful, it seems that writing great content and building relationships is the key to building traffic.

What’s been your experiences? Am I right….wrong….short-sighted….somewhere in between?

Now this ISN’T the Technorati Top 100 Blogs – which is a list of the 100 most linked to blogs. This meme was about breaking into the Top 100 Favorited blogs on Technorati. Very different.

Well, with a lot of work and a whole bunch of links from other bloggers (thank you, by the way), I got into the top 100 last Tuesday. “Pretty neat,” I thought, “Now let’s see how it increases my traffic.”

So giving it a week or so, I checked my traffic this morning and found no change in the past week for referrers coming from Technorati. I did have a massive spike that began on Friday and went through the weekend. But that came from StumbleUpon.

My conclusion – all the time I spent exchanging favorite links and commenting on blogs so they would favorite my blog was a complete waste of time. It was certainly a waste of time for me. And I know it was a wasted post for you. So I want to say I’m sorry for wasting your time with that post as well.

I’ve decided that I’m done with memes that are just about trying to generate more traffic. I don’t just want more traffic. What I’d like are more people who want to read and create conversation on my blog. So I’ll leave the traffic-building memes to the roadrunners. I’m tired of jumping off cliffs.

Now, I will continue to participate in memes that I find useful to you – such as Ben Yoskovitz’s Ultimate Guide to Productivity, Wendy Piersall’s What Does It Take to Write a Great Post (which I’ll get to tomorrow, Wendy) or Liz Strauss’ Why On Earth Do I Blog (which I’ll get to soon as well). These memes are about a lot more than just building traffic. And I know they add value to your life and blogging as well.

So what’s your opinion on traffic-generating memes? Have you found any success with them?

My first assignee…graphics artist, David Airey. David and I regularly comment on each other’s blogs, so I’m familiar with his blog alread. David’s request is for tips related to traffic, design and search engine rankings. Let’s see how we do…

Visual Design

The first thing I notice is that I don’t see David’s picture on his site – anywhere. It’s not on any of the blog pages. I don’t even see it on his contact page. This would be the first thing I would add to your design – a photo. Especially since your photo seems to be available through MyBlogLog.

You’ll see from the next image that David recently changed his banner. I like this better. It actually makes the transition from his homepage design to his blog design less jarring. Good choice, David.

Speaking of his homepage, I’d like to see a few minor changes. First, the navigation at the top left of the page should be larger – easier to read. The ‘About’ and ‘Portfolio’ links run together on the same line, also. A slight recoding and a bit of CSS would make your nav group easier to control and update. (David, I don’t want to bore readers with code, so I’ll email you my coding suggestion).

Also on the homepage, try styling your most recent post titles so they stand out from the rest of your content.

Design wise, not much I would change with your blog. My only feedback is one of usability. You have two RSS feed links on the far right of your top navigation. They are a bit confusing. I find myself asking, “Don’t I want to subscribe to his feed? Which one do I choose?” And for those who want to get your feed by email, there’s nothing there that tells me that they ‘Subscribe’ is for them.

What I would do is combine both links to read: ‘Subscribe to my RSS Feed.’ The link would take me to our current subscribe page where you would give the option of the FeedBurner link for my reader or the link to subscribe by email. Ideally, you’d have your email subscribe form embedded on the content of that page as well as a clear link for FeedBurner, with a short explanation of the difference. Currently, it’s a little confusing. Changing this, you may see a slight increase in your subscriptions.

Okay, one more blog thing…on the sidebar under Subscribe…I suggest putting text next to the feed icon to fill the white space and then moving the Technorati Favorites link down beneath the FeedBlitz form. It’s a bit confusing the way you’ve got it now.

As you can see from my comments, I’m as concerned about your visual design as I am about your user’s experience. It’s very important to marry design with usability. Otherwise, I love your design. Three columns work fine. Nav columns easy to follow. Lots of white space. And your use of graphics is top-notch (as I’d expect). And, I love the placement of your comments on the individual post pages.

Increasing Traffic

Boy, I have to say, I feel at a bit of loss here. From what you shared with me by email, your daily traffic is 3 times that of mine. Mine is growing each week, so that’s good. But I’m not sure what I have to offer you other than to write great content for your readers. I’ve noticed that the posts I write that are about my reader’s needs, get high comments and get linkbacks from other posts. So I would say, keep refining your understanding about who your readers are and what they want. I say this guessing that you want targeted readers not just increased visits, right? Have you thought about interviews???

You already have links on your posts to StumbleUpon, Digg and del.icio.us. You could add others, but are they going to generate the readership. My thoughts are not in large waves. Though I do know of people who have gotten a post Stumbled and watched the ripples of that with hundreds of hits over days. So if you don’t already, I would actually submit your own posts to StumbleUpon.

You might want to try submitting your posts to Netscape. I’ve gotten a little traffic there – and they don’t have a web or business category. They do have an art & design category, however.

Sorry I’m not more help. I’m trying to really grasp the viral nature of the blogosphere these days. I’ve had great success myself – doubling my site traffic each of the past two months. Now, my blog continues to increase in reach, but at a bit slower pace. So, personally, I’m looking to break through on traffic myself. I can say, however, that my readership appears stronger than ever – thank you to everyone.

I can remind you of Tony Hung’s post on ProBlogger back in January – How to Market Your Blog in 2007. You might want to got through it for idea. There’s lots of great ideas there. Some highlights for ‘getting the word out’

• Participate in Forums
• Join a Blog Network
• Join a Blog Carnival
• Join BlogBurst
• Use Google Sitemaps
• Submit to Blog Directories
• Get Interviewed
• Create Free Stuff and Give It Away

These are all great suggestions – some of which I have yet to do myself. Maybe that’s how I’ll break through my current traffic pace.

And, of course, Darren always has some great content on his site about growing your traffic…

• 34 tips to find readers for your blog
• 19 (more) strategies to find readers
• Effective strategies for driving traffic to your website
• 23 ides for finding new readers for your blog

And there are other good suggestions from Ben Yoskovitz, Copyblogger, Alister Cameron, Daniel from Daily Blog Tips, and, of course, you could always take the Buzz Marketing Challenge.

Okay, so the truth is I do know a bunch of ways to grow your traffic. I just haven’t had time to implement them each myself yet so I could report to you my success.

This seems like a good place to wrap up. I’d love to hear back from you, David, or anyone else regarding my suggestions.

Moreover, I put out a call for any good tips, resources, posts or links on how to increase David’s (and mine and my readers) blog traffic. Share your best tips and I’ll highlight you in a post.