Jason Unger

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I'm of the camp that there is absolutely nothing wrong with trying to mooch traffic to your blog. However — and this is a BIG however — if you don't learn the mooching techniques properly and instead treat every traffic opportunity as an open marketing platform, you will very easily be shunned, black-listed and every other bad thing that can happen.

So what are the best ways to mooch some traffic to your blog?

DO trackback other blogs, especially if those sites display trackbacks. Best example here: the Official Google Blog.

DON'T trackback with posts that are unrelated.

DO comment on other blogs. The vast majority of blogs allow for site links in the author's name, so if you have something interesting to say, you've got a chance for a click-through.

DON'T leave comments solely advertising your blog's take on the subject. When wanting to share what you have written, it has to be slightly repackaged for comments on other blogs.

DO digg, del.icio.us, newsvine, reddit, etc. your post.

DON'T disrespect the sites and view them solely as places of promotion. Follow the standards set in place there.

DO link to articles on WashingtonPost.com. Why? This site displays Technorati links to particular articles, so if you blog about a news story on their site and ping Technorati, chances are you've got a free link from one of the Net's top sites.

DON'T go to message boards, blogs, etc. and tell the community how great this blog post you just wrote is. Unless you are entrenched in the conversation, you'll just be considered another spammer.

DO sign up for sites that automatically link to your blog when you make a new post. Even if you have to display a button or the like, the promotion is worth it.

DO trade links on someone's blogroll.

DON'T assume that any of these particular mooches will automatically work. Sometimes, like in the WashingtonPost.com case, everything is automated and you will nearly always mooch some. But in plenty of others, the human factor has to be considered.

Not every piece of content will win, even if it's something interesting, original and provocative. But keeping up with that kind of work can only help your cause. Remember, content is king.

It can be difficult to stay with it when at first you don't succeed, but when your breakthrough happens, you'll be happy you did.