Can you really use an analytics tool to increase blog traffic? How is it responsible for getting traffic to your blog? Well it’s not directly responsible for traffic generation. However if used properly it could indirectly be responsible for a large amount of targeted traffic.

There is a very powerful analytics tool available for anyone to use on their blog. It’s free, incredibly accurate and has become the standard across the web. Of course I’m talking about Google Analytics.

The Google Analytics tools plays a vital traffic generation role for several reasons

Most notably it tells you what type of traffic you are getting to your website. It can tell you if the traffic is direct, referred or from search engines.

It gives you a wealth of information about your visitors. Such as; Are they here for the 1st time? How long are they on the site? What is the bounce rate? What type of web browser are they using? Even what country are the visitors coming from. It will even tell what keywords they typed in the search engines to find your blog.

How does this play a role in blog traffic generation?

Without a blog analytics tool you really have no idea how many people are showing up to your blog. You don’t know where they come from or even how they got there in the first place. You will have no idea what keywords are being used to find your blog.

All of this information is lost without Google Analytics. You are effectively flying in the dark. Forcing you into a guessing game trying to improve your blog and attract traffic.

The most exciting part is Google Analytics is easy to setup and install. It’s provides simple information for the newest blog owner. But has advanced features for power users. It’s really is a one size fits all solution.

I first started my Internet business while working full-time for a large corporate company. I wanted a “safety net” in case the company started to downsize and make people redundant. By starting my business part-time, I knew I was building something that I could rely on, if that were to happen.

I worked long hours as I was in a senior position in the company. But that didn’t stop me putting in many hours each week to make my Internet business take off.

I would listen to or read about Internet strategies while travelling to and from work.

I would work in the evenings.

I would work at weekends.

My wife gave me 100% support.

I started to look at Affiliate Marketing and blogging. Everyone was blogging!

Affiliate Marketing is where you don’t even have to have your own product. You make a percentage of the sale price by selling someone else’s product or service. The percentage ranges from 5% to 100%. However I recommend only going for products that give you over 50% commission.

You might be thinking that you have to sell a lot of other peoples products to make it worth your while. This might be true. It was for me. I was working all the hours I possibly could and still making no income - well hardly anything to write about. I dare not work out what my hourly rate was. I bet it was less than $1.

Would you work for less than a $1 an hour?

But I was determined and I thought like any new venture, sometimes things start slowly and then pick up speed when you have a little experience and confidence with what you’re doing.

It was a slow progress but remember I was only doing this part-time, in the evenings and weekends.

Then I reminded myself I had the comfort of a full-time job and I was learning about Affiliate Marketing and blogging, making a little income (on the side) and actually enjoying it.

You could do exactly the same.

Just find a few hours each week and get started. You could start earning a little extra while learning a new skill. It could be the start of your ‘get out of the 9-5′ plan.

And, think, no travelling. You can do this within the comfort of your own home.

I am not saying you will become super-rich. I am not saying it’s easy.

Unlike some of those adverts you see.

For example, “Follow my steps, earn $100k a month for 2 hours work a day all for just $97″.

If someone could guarantee and show me how to do that, I would gladly give them a $500k bonus. We all would wouldn’t we?

So as I say, you are not going to become super-rich, overnight, via Affiliate Marketing or blogging but you could earn a little extra to pay a bill or two.

How do you start? Set yourself some goals. How many hours could you work each week? How much extra, realistically, would you like to earn?

Set up one website, one blog and market one affiliate product per month.

Add valid and interesting content to your blog, promote your blog, get your blog ranked well in the search engines and that one blog / product may make you affiliate marketing commissions that might just surprise you.

Then the following month set up another blog and start another Affiliate Marketing campaign.

You can either add another similar affiliated product to your blog or start a totally new affiliate campaign in a different niche with a new blog and new product.

Just imagine, within six months, you could be promoting and selling 6 different products, on 6 different blogs and all providing you with a nice blog income.

Now, let me be honest and straight…your first or second product may not sell very well, but you have to keep on going.

Don’t be like many other individuals and give up.

It’s not uncommon for hard working Internet Marketers to start out with one blog and expand to several more very quickly, with some people actually owning dozens of blogs, each focused on a specific niche and type of product. This approach can earn you a nice big blog income.

And, of course, the more you earn, the more you can invest back into growing your Affiliate Marketing commissions to make an even bigger blog income. That may generate more visitors to your sites, more commissions and it can become a nice extra income.

So where do you go to find products to promote and sell?

I started off at ClickBank.

You sign-up, you choose your product to promote, you write a review of the product and add the link to your site. ClickBank does the rest. Two weeks later you get a check with your sales commissions. ClickBank do take a small commission but it’s worth it. Everything is automatic and completed for you.

Another great thing with ClickBank is that you can track statistics like how many people purchased, who has purchased and your commissions.

That way you can see if a product is selling or not. If not, simply move on and start a new campaign with a different product and blog.

You may not become rich via your new blog income but if you simply want a little extra cash each month, try working from home with Affiliate Marketing and blogging.

Would you like to leverage the power of community and your WordPress blog? Who wouldn’t? Read on to find out how.

This strategy has 3 components

1. Your WordPress Blog

2. EzineArticles

3. Twitter

If you have 1 article on Ezine Articles and 1000 followers on Twitter, you can leverage the power of community to increase the visibility of you, your business and your blog or web-site.

The purpose of the community is to help you leverage the power of that community to increase the visibility of your blog. You have links to your blog, your twitter profile and a page with a feed of all your EzineArticles entries. You also have the ability to post on the blog - to talk about you, your business, your successes and failures and to get feedback from other community members. And if your blog is a WordPress blog, you have even more leverage. WordPress helps you get know faster, better and with less effort than any other blogging platform or static site.

The community participates in the WordPress blog but more importantly retweets your tweets to their followers. This increases the power of your tweeting efforts by many times.

EzineArticles is a powerful community. Twitter is a powerful community. Combine them and the whole is greater than the sum of its parts! Add a community of like-minded individuals to the mix and the opportunities are unlimited.

The power of a community is well-known. People working together always get better results than one person working alone!