Blogs need traffic first

traffic is the lifeline for any business.

i would agree with you!

You are totally right. Getting traffic is the first crucial step in order to succeed and also the most difficult one.
Everybody can tell you the theory about how to get traffic (basically a list of of traffic generators) but how to actually get that traffic from those traffic sources is the tricky part.
The only answer I have for it, it that master any traffic generation technique (from ranking well on Google to Twitter or blog commenting) requires time, practice, and patience.
For most of my sites, I rely on Google organic traffic (what I have been able to accomplish after years studying and practicing SEO), PPC and, recently also Facebook (something about what I was very skeptic some months ago).

I have to disagree, traffic is great but it isn't the end all be all. I much rather get leads then traffic any day. I know I can turn leads in to assets. Now I know you might be thinking, Mark you have to get traffic before they can turn into a lead, and to a certain point this is true, but getting traffic is the easy part, just as long as you are turning that traffic into leads.

It's kind of a catch 22, you can't have leads without traffic and you can't have traffic without leads.

Mark

Agree with you 100%. I'm actually doing some split testing on traffic retention with regards to making your blog worth bookmarking and come back to. In my opinion a blog will never bring in the type of income that is satisfactory to the work you put into it. This is a very slow, white hat process where your going to loose before you gain with regards to your time and income. Though if you can get over the humps of all the arduous work and keep bringing exciting content to your viewers, it will build into something that is very passive. Not to mention how much trust you will gain in your niche when suggesting tools, services, etc. where you will start to really profit.

I would add that traffic and quality content is king / queen. Think about this for a minute. Without quality content, your quality score with both search engines and readers goes down. Now, add to that a linking strategy that is built around complementary keywords, ala Google Wonder Wheel and the traffic will really accelerate.

Here's what's working for me, after market research, business development and product development necessities have been properly completed:

Step I. Build Diverse and Unique Onsite Content Beneficial For My Target Audience

What is diverse content and why does my site need it?

Diverse content is content developed and packaged in ways most suitable for the relevant needs, problems, attention spans, interests, viewing preferences and comprehension levels of the sub groups comprising my target audience...

What is unique content?

Unique content is content integrated with my own relevant observations, inferences, actual experience, test results, theories, opinions and perspectives, developed in a style and packaged in ways not found elsewhere...

What is beneficial content?

Beneficial content is content aimed at providing a specific audience with info, tips, strategies and techniques most suitable for solving their relevant problems and satisfying their relevant needs...

What is high quality content?

High quality content is content that can educate, inform, entertain and provide a specific audience with beneficial content -- see definition of "beneficial content" above...

Step II. Pinpoint Offline and Online Places Where Most of My Target Audience Hangs Out Regularly

They hang out in these offline and online places because they expect to get diverse, unique and beneficial high quality content relevant to their needs and problems...

They hang out in these online and offline places because they expect to find like-minded individuals with similar problems and needs...

They hang out in these offline and online places because they expect to find experts in relevant specialized areas about their relevant needs and problems who can be friendly resources of the content they need...

Step III. Participate in Relevant Discussions in Those Offline and Online Places to Build Your Reputation as a Friendly Expert Resource of the Content They Need

Main Objective: To establish mutually beneficial relationships between your business and your target audience as well as possible joint venture partners...

Step IV. Train Others to Do Steps I, II and III Above Correctly...

Blogging or what ever you do will take a lot longer to work for you if you do not purely enjoy it. Think about this for a minute. If really enjoy writing about and sharing your niche with 'like' minded people, you will do well. And your visitors will love you.

Some of the best bloggers like John Chow, Shoe Money and Even personal development guy - Steve Pavlina, claim that they right from 'inspiration'.

Yes you need traffic but if you spend more time on trying to please the search engines instead of pleasing your following, you may be spinning your wheels.

All 3 of the guys that I mentioned above first wrote for search engines and then gave up. When they learned that writing for just the fun and joy instead of the money, that the money ended up coming.

If you are doing blogging then you have to optimize some keywords for getting traffic so you have to learn SEO too..

And traffic from search engine is targeted traffic to your website.