And Break!

Now a days a lot of people are writing about signing up for blog directories as a method of building up traffic. Blog directories definitely offer some advantages for promoting your blog but are they really as good as everyone says?

Advantages of Blog Directories
Blog directories …

• provide inbound links
• can generate traffic to your blog
• make your blog more visible to others
• list other blogs that are in the same niche (i.e. it lets you see who your competitors are and what they are doing)

This now looks like a great way to promote your blog but usually things look different.

My Experience with Blog Directories
Blog directories do provide you with inbound links, there is no doubt about that but when you are starting out this does not help you a lot. In my experience these inbound links do not produce a whole lot of traffic, they make up less than one percent of my traffic. As with Technorati only the more established blogs receive a lot of traffic from blog directories. The inbound links also do not increase your ranking in search engines, at least not notably.This does not mean blog directories are not worth trouble.

As mentioned above blog directories are a great way to see what other blogs in your niche are like. That way you can find advertisers and potential link exchange partners.

Blog Directories Worth Signing Up For
Blog directories like Blog Catalog are really worth signing up because of their blogging community. You can start discussions, join groups, rate other blogs or send personal messages to other bloggers. This makes it more valuable than just a pure blog listing. It is more social and that is what blogging is all about.