Today I’d like to write about a blogger’s number one fear that is also a number one mistake.

As every illness, the best way to avoid this problem is by preventing it, but sometimes it just happens and you must be ready to get over it.

Yes, I’m talking about what to do when losing the main source of traffic.

I’d say that every blogger has gone through this headache at any point on his blogging journey –even Mr.Problogger Darren Rowse lost it when its blog suddenly fall on Google’s ranking, losing its main source of traffic and income- so you must be ready to either get over this problem or to avoid it- especially if you’re just starting and your traffic keeps coming on a regular basis, you must be ready to avoid it- so let’s see what we can do about it.

What to do when losing the main source of traffic

As stated before, there are two techniques to apply: prevention –which isn’t really prevention, we’ll see later- and fixing.

Prevention

The best way to avoid a problem is to prevent it, but how can you prevent a major drop on the main source of traffic?

- Having as many sources of traffic is a must here.

I’m always saying you must have as many income sources as possible, firstly because you will potentially maximize your income and secondly because you never know whether one of them may go bankrupt.

So, both for the money and traffic, have as many sources as possible.

You can use several sources: Stumbleupon, Reddit, Ezinearticles, Guestposting, Search Engines… Take your time to exploit them all.

- Always have a plan B. On this case I would focus on developing the word of mouth method, as it’s the kind of traffic that won’t fail –while, as an example, organic traffic will-.

It’s hard to get it, as you will need

Popularity                                                                   Good content

Social power                                                              Originality

So if you’re starting, start focusing on the word of mouth, if you’ve been blogging for some time now but you still didn’t care too much about it, start from today.

Fixing

Sometimes you just can’t avoid this problem, so what can you do once it happened?

- Don’t panic: This is the first step and the most important. Most of times this trouble fixes itself with time.

Take your time to think about why did it happen, whether you did something wrong –which is probably if you suddenly lost organic traffic –

You probably did something you shouldn’t, check it, fix it and problem solved.

- If you already know what you did wrong or what happened, then it may take some time before it gets fixed. But what are you going to do in the meantime? Of course, checking for new possible traffic sources.

You can’t just sit down until everything gets fixed. If you haven’t tried YouTube yet then it’s the perfect time to try it.

Create an account on Stumbleupon and submit your articles, the same goes to Ezinearticles, etc. There are literally hundreds –if not more- sources out there, go get ‘em!

- Another technique that is pretty useful –especially on the long term- is to check where your traffic comes from and try to maximize its potential.

Let’s say the 30% of your whole traffic comes from digitalpoint forums. Try to participate more on that forum and maximize the traffic coming from it.

The same can be applied to the lowest traffic source –which has to be taken care of even more- to take the most out of it. If you’re happy with the traffic you’re receiving now, imagine what could happen if you focus on those sources which gives you the lowest!

Apart from that, you should never be happy with what you have, there’s always room to do it better.

- Don’t be shy and ask. Even though your question may sound pretty simple it actually isn’t, as every blogger out there –except a minority- is still looking for traffic.

- And last, don’t panic. Yes, again. Really don’t stop blogging because of a bad moment.

As stated before, Darren Rowse also had a major drop on its traffic. Despite that he never gave up and look at him now. Imagine what would he had lost if he had left its blog.

I had this problem this month, where my visits went down. I kept working and now I’m receiving even more traffic than before.

What about you?

Have you ever had this problem? How did you get over it? We all want to read your thoughts.

Thanks for reading.

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