The other day I started reading a blog post on Think Traffic. Within 5 minutes of reading the blog post; I knew I had to share some of its content.
So here are 7 Undeniably powerful traffic building tips from influential bloggers and my take on them.
1.??Find people wherever they hang out and bring them back home. If your audience likes to use YouTube then create videos, if they are businesses then check out LinkedIn, and if they are mostly consumers then put effort into engaging them in Facebook and attract them to your blog from there.?
Chris Garrett,?Chris Garrett on New Media
Chris Garret is a bad ass who knows his stuff. This is really one of the most powerful pieces of advice I?ve ever read. Why? Well because 90% of bloggers are focused on SEO or social media because that?s what other people are doing. When all they should really be focusing on is where their ideal audience hang out and on bringing them ?back home?.
For example, you could look up the top 10 blogs & forums where your audience like to hang out. Find the blogs and start guest posting on all of them. If your audience are hanging out in a Facebook group, start participating in it. Find the most popular forums, create a user and participate.
2.??Video is all of the rage these days, not only with people, but with search engines too. If you?d like to drive both direct and search engine traffic to your website, I?d recommend using video as part of your traffic generation arsenal. If you have a blog post, or a certain page on your website that you?d like to drive traffic to, create a short video that compliments the written content on your site. Upload it to YouTube, and make sure the name of the video and all of the tags are related to the keywords of the specific page on your blog, and be sure to insert the URL into the description of the video as well. Embed the video on your webpage, and make sure all backend meta, video description data all contain the keywords as well. Your blog post or webpage will now climb the ranks of the search engines, and you?ll also have direct/search traffic coming from the YouTube site of things as well. Additionally, you may end up on the first page of the SERPs for the video results related to those keywords as well.?
Pat Flynn,?The Smart Passive Income Blog
Pat has been one of the most popular bloggers in the online marketing space for some time. Since incorporating videos into his blog posts; his Youtube channel has gone on to receive more visitors than his entire blog! Always, use video in blog posts when possible.
3.?Be everywhere, all at once.?It?s a strategy used to launch new Hollywood stars or models or movies, in fact. When something or someone gets plastered all over the media, people pay attention. Their brains think, ?This person has to be pretty important to be all over like this.? Then they think, What?s this all about, anyways? I don?t want to be the guy who doesn?t know what?s going on.? They?ll want to learn more to stay informed ? and it doesn?t take long before they do that, either. Instant traffic!?
James Chartrand,?Men With Pens
If you want to really establish yourself within your community; you need to be everywhere all at once. It?s pretty obvious why. Think about this?
?if you had a budget of $1000 to spend on advertising on Facebook, Google, Adcenter & guest blogging; would it be better to spread the budget across 3 months or spend it all in one week?
Most likely you?d make a lot more money by spreading the entire promotion across a single week. Why? Simply because the people in your niche will see you everywhere for one week, multiple times daily. If your target audience are seeing you every day for a week, the chances are they?ll check you out.
On the other hand, with a 3 month spread your audience might see you once every 10 days for 3 months. Being everywhere all at once gets attention, being seen on rare occasion will result in you being ignored.
4?Focus on one topic, write great content, interview great people who are also in your niche = overnight success!?
Everett Bogue,?Far Beyond the Stars
Blogs with cult followings all focus on one subject. Blogs like mashable and forbes may be gigantic, but they don?t have loyal readers because they?re too broad. The only reason people read them is because they?re known as trusted sources for information.
If you?re building a blog to monetize via advertising, the broader the focus the better. Think WebMD and Ehow, they write about every subject known to man and are well known trusted sources; however they don?t have real followings.
To build a loyal following you need to focus on one topic, write amazing content, interview great people and build a community.
5.??Reply to every comment from day one.?When someone comes by your blog and takes the time to leave a comment ? it demands recognition. Think about it ? there are millions of blogs out there ? we?re inundated with information ? so for someone to come to yours and take the time to respond, whether they agree or disagree ? that means something. Make an effort to respond to every single comment that comes through, and when you respond to each comment, work to continue the conversation ? follow up with another question. It may fall flat, they may never come back and read your response ? but in order for a blog to be successful, the conversation needs to go beyond the post itself. Budget time in your blogging schedule to make every effort to encourage an ongoing dialogue ? give people a reason to come back again and again.?
Matt Cheuvront,?Life Without Pants
Number five is very straight forward. Reply to every comment from day one. I try my best to reply to all comments, but sometimes I struggle to keep up with them. Whenever you receive a comment; try your best to reply to it and continue the conversation. When you reply to a comment; the initial commenter is going to come back to read your reply.
Most commenters enjoy getting a response from blog owners; they think you?re a god like creature who?s an absolute expert in your niche. A comment reply instantly starts a connection between you and a reader. Usually resulting in another subscriber.
6.?Don?t always focus on your own niche to find readers.?Chances are whatever you blog about, there are people who enjoy that topic too, even if they don?t blog about it. For example, I write about travel. I connect with a lot of travel bloggers but they aren?t the only people who enjoy reading about travel. The entire planet does. To expand my readership, I have guest blogged on finance websites talking about how to save money when you travel and blogged on life style design sites about living independently. Just don?t focus on your own niche! Branch out and get people who might not have ever come across your website!?
Matt Kepnes,?Nomadic Matt?s Travel Site
Focusing on one niche is important; but it doesn?t mean you can only reruit new readers in that niche. Most niches are too small for continual growth. The best way to recruit readers is to guest post on other blogs. The chances are ALL blog readers in your niche read at least two of the top 10 most popular blogs.
Which means by guest posting on the top 10 most popular blogs; you?ll tap out your niche. You?ll put yourself in front of the entire niche?s audience. Once you?ve posted at least 5 times on the top 10-20 most popular blogs; it?s time to expand. Start by looking for blogs in niches similar to your own.
If you?re in the online marketing niche; you could guest post on personal finance blogs. While the readers of personal finance blogs might not be currently?interested?in online marketing; the chances are they just don?t know about it. Don?t always focus on your own niche to find readers; a VERY important lesson from Matt Kepnes.
7.??My approach is simply to try to provide as much value as I can.?I don?t view blogging as a job?I?ll go weeks without posting sometimes?I only do it when it?s something I find interesting or useful, and when I do post I?ll often spend 5 hours researching and crafting a good post. That doesn?t work for everyone, but it?s my approach.
Another thing that is integral to your success is to build relationships with other, established bloggers who inspire you. From there, you can start to guest post on the most popular blogs related to your niche?frequently the biggest source of new traffic?and enlist others? help on your projects.?Cody McKibben,?Thrilling Heroics
Cody makes an important point. Provide as much value as you can. Posting on regular intervals is crucial to a blog?s success. Most bloggers take the approach of having a strict publishing schedule so readers know when to check for new updates. On the other end of the spectrum; you can post only when you have something interesting to talk about.
It depends on what you?re trying to accomplish. Generally the more active you are with your posting, the more ?residual traffic? you?ll build up from the search engines. But if you want really loyal followers who read your every word; only post when you have something truly valuable to share with your readers.
In Prosperity,
David Wood
P.S. Leave me your thoughts, comments and questions below. Also opt-in to the email list on the right for more blogging tips, tricks and?secrets.
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