If you have a blog in 2014, then you probably understand the necessity of traffic. No traffic means no leads. No leads means less sales. (And we like sales.) 
So, to help with your traffic generation efforts, I have compiled a list a 9 techniques Flight Media used to grow it’s blog traffic more than 1,200% in the first 14 days of 2014.
1. Write 1 Article Per Day
Yes, I know this is the ‘oldest trick in the book,’ but it is for a good reason– it works.
It sounds easy at first, but by day 7, writers block tends to creep in and takeover your mind. (Here’s how to break it)
Our New Years Resolution (like every other blogger,) was to begin blogging daily. January 2nd, we started and were able to grow our traffic 1,200% in the first 14 days.
And that’s just our story.
Neil Patel created 3 blogs that each receive more than 100,000 visitors per month, Jeff Bullas blogged 5 times per week and grew his traffic to more than 300,000 monthly visitors, and Michael Dunlop created 6 blogs that each get more than 100,000 visitors per by blogging.
2. Tweet For Your Life
Of course, sharing your content on social media is a given, but Twitter, in particularly, will usually generate the most traffic.
Why? Because you can post up to 50 times per day on Twitter and still gain followers. Any other social network site will lose you followers with such high-frequency posting.
In fact, nearly 40% of Flight Media’s traffic comes from Twitter because we currently grow every team member’s Twitter followers and we tweet 6-11 times per day. Posting that many times per day, along with growing your following will generate massive traffic.
Click here to learn how we do it..
Remember: For Twitter, you want to keep a good ratio of what you post. We recommend 20% of your own content, 30% inspirational quotes, 40% of other people’s content, and 10% promotional (i.e Free Offers, Discounts, Services, etc.) Nobody likes to listen to people talk about themselves, so share other people’s content and inspirational quotes to spark interaction and get noticed by the owners of the content you share.
3. Write About People In Your Industry
Along with writing daily, a good way to generate a glorious amount of traffic is by writing a list about people in your industry.
We do this because we like to associate ourselves with the names of these industry leaders, so when people are searching for them in Google, our posts have the chance of coming up.
On top of that, if the ‘listed people’ notice, they often times are flattered and share your post. We actually did this on Flight Drummer’s Magazine several times and received more than 1.9k shares on some of the articles. (Like this one)
We also recently did it with “11 Business Bloggers You Should Be Following.”
So, to get you started, you could write posts like:
- 11 Young Entrepreneurs You Should Be Following
- 11 Business Bloggers You Should Be Following
- 20 Women Entrepreneurs That Rock
- 20 Blogs You Should Be Reading
- you get my drift..
Typically, after we write an article like this, we will email each person we blogged about and let them know how inspiring they are to us. Most of the people have several hundred thousand followers, so if you get just one to share the post, you’ll get hundreds of social shares.
Cakework.
4. Make Your Blog Sexy
The problem I see with a lot of blogs is bad web design. This is vital because, although it doesn’t necessarily generate new traffic, blog layout and design does have an effect on returning traffic.
You don’t even have to be a Web Developer to find some great plugins to make your blog look better, so the more effort you put into creating an attractive website, the more people will want to return.
In fact, Flight Media Blog is built on this WordPress template and uses tons of free plugins.
5. Write Funny Content
While it’s important to provide factual, results-driven content on a blog to position yourself as an expert, it’s also good to provide valuable entertainment.
Your readers are not robots, so they do like to laugh every now and again–especially if it’s industry relevant and they can relate.
This could include “__ Signs You’re a _____” or “Confessions of a _____” kinds of posts. (ex:”40 Signs You’re a Marketing Nerd” or “Confessions of a Content Marketer.”)
These types of posts display your expertise on the subject, as well as give readers a good ole’ laugh out loud. (Very shareable, too.)
6. Comment on Other Blogs
“Yeah, yeah, I know. I need to build back-links.“
No, this isn’t for back-links.
Blog commenting is a huge interaction generator. Typically, when you comment on somebody’s blog, they will visit yours and comment back.
If you’re looking to receive more comments on your blog, search for relevant articles and comment on them. We found that you will receive 40-50% of comments back from blogs you comment on.
This is important because nobody likes to be the first comment on your blog. If people see other people commenting, they are more prone to leave a comment. By commenting on someone else’s blog, it makes it easier for them to return the favor–regardless of how many comments you currently have.
(This creates an interactive community, which can turn into sales.)
7. Guest Blog
Another ‘old trick in the book.’
(If you aren’t familiar with guest blogging or how it can generate more than 60,000 visits, read this.)
Not only does guest blogging improve traffic, but it creates a reputation. The more guest blogs you have out there, the more credible you become in the blogosphere.
On top of that, it also makes it easier to get more guest blogging gigs. For example, if you’ve had guest blogs published on Jeff Bullas, The Huffington Post, and Life Hacker, then it will be easier to get your guest blog posted on other websites within that niche.
8. Participate In Forums
A while back, when I was involved heavily in the internet marketing business, I would participate in the Warrior Forum and receive 150-200 visits per dayfrom my signature that linked to my blog at the bottom of every post I made.
Although this is becoming more difficult to do because Forums like Yahoo Answers and Quora don’t allow footer signatures , it can still be done if approached correctly.
The goal of forum marketing is to position yourself as an expert.
You need to join a relevant forum, created an awesome bio, and then begin answering questions people have that are relevant to your industry. The more questions you answer, the more reputation you establish, and the more people will click into your bio and contact you for help.
Side-note: this takes some time, so I would recommend mastering the previous 7 tactics before diving head first into this. Blogging daily will even help you accomplish this better by expanding your knowledge base.
9. Email Your List
Finally, the the easiest and most obvious step!
After you post an article, it’s important to make sure it gets sent to your email subscribers in your next broadcast. It’s much easier to get subscribers to read and share your content, than new visitors who have never heard of you.
Seeing as subscribers are more likely to share your content, it will also create quick social proof that your content rocks, and more people will share it. (People like to jump on the bandwagon)
I agree that traffic is essential for success. Similarly, choosing the schools in Rajouri Garden, Delhi, can drive success in education. Just as increased blog traffic leads to more leads and sales, a great school ensures a strong educational foundation for students' future achievements.
ReplyDelete