So, you write, hit publish and sit back, waiting for the traffic to pour in.
There’s no way it won’t, right?
Wrong.
Great content is the foundation and, while it’s one of the most important parts of building a blog that will rank high in the search engines and attract visitors, if you really want to make money by blogging, you need to learn the pro strategies of generating targeted traffic that will result in making money every month.
What you may not know is that it’s exceptionally easy to jumpstart your website so you are driving in quality traffic that converts. This post will show you proven, straightforward techniques that will help you get started quickly and easily.
Better yet, all the traffic generation strategies discussed are absolutely free.
It doesn’t get better than that!
Are you ready? Let’s get started.
It All Begins With Content
When you are just starting out as a blogger, it’s easy to just slap up a post and write the next post immediately.
If you focus first on writing posts that feature informative, relevant and targeted content, your blog will have stronger legs to stand on.
That killer content will empower your traffic building and guarantee that once you have sent a visitor to your website, they will connect with your content, respond to your content, and return to your website.
Makes sense, right?
You want your website visitor’s being so impressed by the content on your blog that they immediately bookmark your website so they can return to it, again and again. You’ve got to hook ‘em quick, and preferably on their very first visit.
So, what kind of content is most successful?
Content that solves a problem or entertains your readers.
Consider your target audience and what they are most interested in, concerned about, or passionate about.
Content that fulfills a need, answers a question, solves a problem or entertains your audience is always successful. And if you explore many established blogs in your niche, you’ll find that their content always falls within one (or both) of these two categories: educational or entertaining.
When you focus on creating this content, you’ll end up with posts that are “sticky”, meaning that your readers will respond to your content and return to your website because it speaks directly to them, is engaging and on target.
Bullseye!
While it’s smart to use current, buzz worthy news to drive in the traffic, continue to make most of your content evergreen.
Pro Tip: Search websites like Quora.com for commonly asked questions in your niche and create blog posts that answer those burning questions. This is also a great way to come up with headlines for your articles and blog posts.
Your content also needs to be shareable.
Your content needs to be meaty.
Pro Tip: Aim for 1,000 words or more when creating blog posts. The search engines prefer longer content. 2000-2500 words are even better. So write less often but more fulfilling content for your readers and for Google and Bing.
Now, I will mention a dirty word and I don’t want you to throw your hands up in the air frantically, okay?
The word is important for creating content that will pull in a ton of traffic from all the major search engines.
You know what word I’m talking about.
Keywords
Keywords are the fundamental component of an effective SEO (search engine optimization) strategy.
When keywords are used correctly they become super effective at helping your blog rank higher in the search engines, which means maximum exposure to more people.
The Dirty Little Word
Including relevant, targeted keywords within your content so it helps your page rank higher in search engines is very important. If you want more people to see your website and to tap into the massive number of people that use Google and other search engines, you absolutely need to integrate keywords into your blog content.
What keywords, you ask?
Long-tail keywords.
The reason for using long tail keywords is that those phrases will be more targeted and less competitive than “umbrella keywords” that encompass the entire market.
Imagine trying to rank for the word “low carb” or “weight loss”. You’d struggle to even show up in the first 100 pages of the search results!
But targeting long tail keyword phrases that drill down into your market (and are more likely what a visitor would type into the search engines) will enable you to maximize your exposure while minimizing the number of other websites and blogs you’re competing against.
An easy way to come up with long tail keyword ideas for your blog content is to visit Google.com and enter keywords relating to your market, such as “low carb”.
Pro Tip: Set up and customize an SEO plugin right away. Add in a site title, meta tags and description. Doing this will maximize your search engine visibility instantly. (I use All-in-one-SEO and Yoast is also good.)
Blogger Outreach
Blogger outreach involves working with established blogs within your niche market. When you do this, you’ll instantly siphon traffic and credibility from these blogs and redirect it to your own.
So, how do you do this?
You write incredible content on other relevant blogs!
They call this “guest blogging”…
and it’s one of the easiest ways to pump steady traffic onto your website without investing a single penny. Plus, this marketing strategy doesn’t just generate premium traffic to your website, but it puts you in an authoritative position by simply being connected to a reputable blog in your niche market.
Think about it: You could write content only for your website, but then you have to do all the footwork of generating traffic to those pages. That is very effective, sure, but it takes a lot of time. Not to mention, a lot more content.
OR, you could write killer content for established blogs with more traffic than yours and turn their visitors into your own!
If you are trying to increase traffic to your site, collaborating with other, more established bloggers is an excellent method to try. The simplest way to do this is to offer to contribute guest blogs to other sites.
When you post content on another person’s blog, you will reach an already established audience within your particular niche ready to find out what you can offer them.
Guest blogging is a win-win situation because you get to create great content for the blog owner and in return, you get to increase your traffic in less time.
Advantages of Guest Blogging
With time, they may even share your new content with their online community without you even having to ask. This can bring even more significant exposure for your business.
Thanks to the extra visibility that guest blogging gives you – your reputation and image will see a boost, along with the traffic to your website. The increased exposure will allow more readers to learn about your work, enabling you to become an authority on what you write about.
Another advantage of using guest blogging is that it diversifies the source of traffic you receive to your blog. Your articles as a guest will help you get more qualified traffic to your own blog.
Readers will be more likely to go and search for more information about your business when they enjoy the content you post.
So, how do you find guest blogging opportunities?
Use search terms like: “submit a guest post”; “guest blogging”; “accepting guest posts”; and “guest post by”.
You’ll be able to find countless opportunities just be using searches based on keywords relating to guest blogging. You can also find guest posting opportunities by investigating the backlinks from competing blogs to see where they have guest posted.
Be sure to focus only on blogs within your niche market and complimentary niches. You can run a quick search on Google by using the query: niche keyword+blogs.
Finding Blogs to Write For
As you look through the list of blogs, you want to not only look for blogs open to guest bloggers but also look for those who have relationships with your niche and target audience.
You can also visit other websites in your niche, to see if they accept guest bloggers. Look for phrases like, “upload your article,” “write for us,” “guest author,” “columnists,” or “join.”
Another way to start guest blogging is to reach out to other bloggers. You want to maintain contact with at least ten to twenty other bloggers in your niche. If you don’t already have these kinds of connections, reach out and start making them.
Some of the best chances to write guest posts is through the relationships you have with other bloggers. Establish contact with those who are leaders in your market, get to know them, and ask them if they would like you to write an article.
Selecting the Best Blogs
1) Traffic
3) Selection of Niches
So now you have a handful of powerful traffic generating techniques to jumpstart your blog’s traffic while setting you up for long-term success.
Begin by building high quality content that includes relevant long tail keyword phrases and then work towards setting up a strong foundation for your blog.
Then, partner with other blogs by offering to guest post, and post killer content!
Be patient and know that all the efforts you’ve put into this process will soon pay off as you notice a rising tide of increased viewership.
Building a traffic machine will take time and effort on your part, but it will be well worth it as you watch your audience and subscribers increase exponentially.