More Traffic

There are tons of sites out there designed to increase your blog traffic. Most are basically the same, and two of the most popular are, BlogExplosion, and BlogClicker. They work on the concept of you earn views to your blog, by viewing other people's blogs.

It is easy to sign up and there is not software to download. Give them the url for the Café Discussion blog and start viewing other people's blogs to earn credit.

The systems are pretty straight forward. You pull up some other random blog, and have to keep it up for 30 seconds. A little timer counts down your time and then you have to click on an assigned number to view the next blog. Click too early, or click the wrong number and you earn no credits. Do it right and you earn good credits.

Credits are then cashed in for your blog. Each credit puts your blog in the random selection for someone else to view, and thereby earn their own credits.

I am more familiar with BlogExplosion, but the others seem to be about the same. BE has what they call mystery credits as well, which they will give you periodically while doing your viewing. These have to be manually assigned to your blog, which can be done by clicking on the link on your main account page.

They also have a battle of the blogs game, and something called blog rocket.

My suggestion, if you so choose, would be to get it set for you to earn credits by viewing other blogs, minimize the page and continue with your regular work. Periodically pop it back up and click on the appropriate number. This way you can earn credits all day, but waste very little of your work time. The blog rocket is also a quick way to earn a few hits.

I figure most people earn their credits in this manner, so most of the hits we'll earn will be from people who actually look at our blog for about 2 seconds. However, I do get comments from some of these folks, and I'm sure with our propensity for hot topics we'll get more than our share.

About the privacy issues. Don't give out important information like SS#, credit card numbers of course. I wouldn't release where you live, give a phone number, or even your e-mail either. Vagueness is the key when you are talking about specific means to actually find your real person.

However, feel free to continue blogging like it’s a personal journal. This information isn't going to harm you in anyway, and may make you a few friends. Of course you may get made fun of too!

If you sign up to BlogExplosion, please do it from my blog, for I will referral credits.