Tagging and pinging is nothing new – at least not Internet new. If something has been around on the Internet for a matter of months, it’s no longer new. Now, while you certainly have heard about “tagging and pinging,” there’s a good chance you’ve never tried it yourself. But before you dive in headlong, purchase a $70 guide with all of the “explosive secrets” that “none of the ‘gurus’ want you know,” you should first consider a commonsense, no-frills approach to tagging and pinging. I’ll provide you with that exact approach in this article.

So what is tagging and pinging? In short, it’s a way to drive traffic to your blog. Rather than (or in addition to) using normal search engine optimization techniques, you can drive traffic to your blog by creating a post on a specific subject, “tagging” it with a related keyword (by placing it in a category with that keyword as the header), and then pinging it to social bookmarking sites, such as Technorati. As soon as those sites receive your ping, your blog post will appear at the top of the search results for that particular tag – at least until someone else makes a post on the same tag.

So how does this benefit you? Think about it like this: what if you could get your blog posts to appear as the first search result on Google for any keyword you selected – but only for a brief period of time? Would you use this technique if all you had to do was simply put a tag on your blog and then ping it to Google? Of course you would. And the same idea applies here: as soon as you tag your post and then ping it, you will appear on the top of the search results at a number of social bookmarking sites that receive a considerable amount of traffic.

This creates two important questions, which you must ask and answer about your respective blog. The first question you have to ask is which popular tags are most relevant to your material. Remember, all you have to do is find the right keyword, apply it to your post, and ping; and you’ll receive traffic for that keyword, so you don’t have to worry about how hard it will be to get in that position. It is  guaranteed. So go to sites such as http://www.technorati.com and look at the various “word clouds” they display. Look for words that are bold, in large font, and are relevant to your topic. These are the ones you will want to target in your blogging and pinging activities.

The next question you will have to ask is how you can harness that traffic to make sales. Generating traffic is only half of the game. You must also create truly intelligent, high-quality, creative blog posts that have the potential to convert visitors into list members or buyers. Additionally, you want visitors to vote for your posts on social bookmarking sites, so that your posts remain high on the list; and continue to generate traffic into the future.

And there you have it: a basic, step-by-step system for generating traffic with the “tag and ping” method. Don’t buy into all of the hype. Instead, simply follow the points I have listed above; and use them to make your blog the next Internet hotspot.