Free Web Traffic

This is a copy of the article I posted in the Web Traffic 101 Google Group. I am hopping this group will work well as a support group for the Traffic Blog Net Community

Your most important and one of the first decisions you must make when
starting a blog is your "niche" or what your blog will be about.

Once this is done, everything else will fall into place.

There are many ways taught on this subject, but I believe people will
do it their own way so here is just a few guidelines that should help
you get great results.

First write down what you like to talk about (what interests you the
most? can be more than one thing)
Yes write it down…..
Next, write down what you know how to do (put down everything and
don’t sell yourself short)
Write these in separate columns.
Now see if any are the same  or close in subject.
Whittle them down till you have a niche or subject selected.
Don’t throw this paper away!

Make a list of key words or search phrases that will most closely
describe your niche or subject.
Now you need a Google account or access to some webmaster or keyword
tools.
Search your selected key phrases to see if people are actually
searching for that phrase. Only a few hundred searches a week will ad
up with 10 or more phrases so don’t rule them out! Try to match the
subject you will be talking about on your blog or article, people
won’t read it if its not what they searched for. Now with your key
word tool, search to see how much competition each search term has.
The lower the better here.

Write down all results and Don’t throw out!
If there seems to be way to much competition, try different search
terms, ask a friend what they would use to search for what you are
doing. Still to much? Start over again. This is where the saved
research comes in, you don’t have to duplicate that.

Here is a more detailed version on SEOmoz Blog

I know ….. this sounds like a lot of work but let me tell you, it
will save you much more in the end plus start you out on a track
toward your success.
I can guarantee you traffic fast if you start out in this manner.  It
will make everything easier for you from this point on.