Unfortunately, all you heard were crickets. Of course your mom visited the site and said it was AMAZING. She’s your #1 fan :)
But she’s also the ONLY fan…
Because you’re missing a critical piece of the blogging puzzle.
It doesn’t matter how great your content is. Without actively promoting your content, your blog is STILL going to be a ghost town.
* Content is not king if nobody can see it. *
So you’ve got to flip the formula on it’s head…
Spend 20% of your time creating epic content. And spend 80% of your
time promoting that content.
I can hear the whiners now…. “But Kim, it took me an entire day to
create that blog post. I don’t have time to now go out and spend hours promoting it.”
If that’s the case – you probably don’t have time to build a successful online business and this article probably isn’t for you.
But… if you want to get 5,000 visitors to your next blog post… (WITHOUT Google) – then grab some coffee and let’s get ROCKIN :)
1. Twitter Tribes.
One of the first things I like to do after I publish my content is to ‘seed’ it inside a variety of Twitter Tribes.One of my favorite Twitter Tribes is called JustRetweet.com.
JustRetweet is a social sharing community that works together
to promote each others content.
Kind of like a ‘you scratch my back I’ll scratch yours.’
But… the cool part is that they have a ton of content that you’ll be proud to share with your tribe.
Plus, they’ve also added support for Facebook likes and Google
Plus One votes.
The site works on a credit based system. As you share other people’s content within the community you earn ‘credits’ that allow you to get shares and retweets on your own content.
You can also buy credits – which are extremely affordable as well.
This is a super simple strategy for getting your first 20-30 retweets
and Facebook likes. Which will immediately kick off your first bit
of momentum.
Two other great Twitter Tribes you can join are Triberr.com and ViralContentBuzz.com.
Additional Resources:
17 Twitter Marketing Tips from the Pros
The Ultimate Twitter Guide
List Building with Social Media
How I Got 50,000+ Twitter Followers
16 Ways to Get People to Read and Retweet Your Content
2. Google Plus Communities
Google Plus is here to stay. After many attempts at building a social network to compete with the likes of Facebook and Twitter – it looks like Google has finally hit upon a winner.And… it’s a great tool for driving hundreds of visitors to your
latest blog post. Regardless of how many followers you have.
That’s the beauty of this particular strategy. All you need to do is setup a good profile on Google Plus. You can then leverage existing audiences on Google Plus via Communities.
Communities are the ‘secret sauce’ inside Google Plus.
These are basically large groups of people based around common interests. They’re kind of like mini-forums.
Plus, it’s one of my favorite ways to find cool and interesting conversations on Google Plus.
You can search for related communities here:
https://plus.google.com/communities
Once you join some related groups – you’ll find out there are
actually a LOT of interesting conversations going on within Google Plus.
In fact, it’s becoming one of my favorite social networks. Plus, it’s a LOT less crowded.
And it should DEFINITELY be part of your content promotion checklist.
First, start engaging with 5-10 related communities. By this I mean
joining in on the conversation. Adding value. Voting up OTHER people’s content.
Like any social media platform – you need to provide VALUE first.
Engage first.
Then, whenever you have a really good blog post that you’d like to
share – simply post a link to your favorite 5-10 related communities.
Then sit back and watch the traffic roll in :)
Additional Resources:
The Ultimate Google+ Marketing Guide
Google+ Communities: What Marketers Need to Know
How to Market Your Content on Google Plus
3 Ways to Boost Your Traffic with Google Plus
3. Email Trumps All.
Sites like Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus can be very powerful tools for promoting your content – but your biggest media channel will ALWAYS be your email subscriber list.We personally use our subscriber list to generate 2,000+ visitors
PER email.
Imagine the power of being able to send that much traffic simply
by pushing the ‘SEND’ button.
Your business should be BUILT on email. Building a community of
raving fans who look forward to your next email.
This is THE #1 asset in your business.
And it allows you to build instant momentum for EVERY blog post.
Additional Resources:
Pat Flynn’s Guide to Email Marketing (Part 1)
Pat Flynn’s Guide to Email Marketing (Part 2)
DropDeadCopy.com – The BEST podcast online about email marketing.
4. Facebook Sponsored Stories (In the News Feed).
Here’s one of my secret sources… If you want to promote your content quickly WITHOUT all the elbow grease, then Facebook Sponsored Stories are going to be your new love affair :)
This is one of the best ways to ‘seed’ your content and start gaining virality.
Promote your content using Facebook Sponsored stories in the News Feed.
This has become one of my favorite ways to generate highly targeted traffic on demand.
You simply post a new story on your fan page. (a.k.a your latest blog post)
And then you setup an ad to promote that post.
Using Facebook you can laser-target your audience by choosing exactly which Fan pages you want to target. So you simply choose 3-5 highly related fan pages that your post will be promoted to.
This is the ‘audience’ that will see your post.
But there’s one small tweak you need to make to get the best results. This is the ‘secret sauce’…
What I do is I first create my ad in the traditional Facebook Ad Manager. Then from there I go into what’s called the ‘Power Editor’ and customize the audience so that my story is ONLY shown in the News Feed.
This will give you MANY more visitors for a MUCH lower price.
Facebook is quickly becoming one of the best places to build and grow your business.
Additional Resources:
My Go-To Girl for ALL things Facebook: Amy Porterfield
5. Content Syndication.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention my secret spots for a quick injection of traffic. These are social communities (kind of like Digg in the old days) where you can share your content and vote / comment on other people’s content as well.
Here are my Top Picks:
BlogEngage.com
BizSugar.com
Blokube.com
Inbound.org
Kingged.com
DoSplash.com
Other Niche Social Networks where you can Share Your Content…
Care2.com
PFBuzz.com (Personal Finance)
Yakezie
Dogster
Catster
Gentlemint.com – Pinterest for men
But keep in mind the key to getting the most benefit out of any community is getting involved. (a.k.a not being a douche who just comes and drops your link.)
These are amazing communities with awesome people that you can meet. Plus, it’s great for sourcing content that you can share within your social media profiles as well.
Provide massive value to the community – and it will deliver massive value back :)
Additional Resources:
The Ultimate Guide to Content Marketing
6. Content Aggregators.
If you’re publishing great content on a weekly basis – you can get hundreds of extra visitors from sites like AllTop.com, Affposts.com, AffBuzz.com, and AffDaily.com. These are content aggregators that pull in the best content from around the web.AllTop.com is perfect for ANY blogger because they have sections for almost every topic under the sun.
So whether you blog about pets or parenting – this is a great passive
traffic pipeline you can tap into.
And the cool thing is they’re always looking for new blogs to publish.
Simply find a relevant category and submit your blog at:
http://alltop.com/submission/
Or – if you have a site related to affiliate marketing, SEO, or blogging then you can get hundreds of new weekly visitors from sites like BloggerScope.com, Affposts.com, AffBuzz.com, and AffDaily.com.
7. Scoop.it
Scoop.it is my one-stop shop for getting fresh new traffic to EVERY blog post.
Scoop.it is content curation at it’s best. With thousands of different topics and curators who collect their favorite content from around the web.
And the best part is – you can ‘suggest’ your latest blog post with just a few clicks.
You’ll see a link at the top of each Scoop.it pages that allows you to submit a suggested link. It takes all of 10 seconds to suggest your link.
If the creator of that page decides to share your link, it gets published and any followers of that page also get notified (instant backlink and high-quality traffic).
I recommend submitting your content to at least 20 Scoop.it pages for each new blog post you publish.
Additional Resources:
How To Curate Content and Build Authority With Scoop.it
8. Forum Marketing. The unsung hero.
There are currently millions of conversations taking place around the web about parenting, photography, fitness, pet care, personal finance, traveling, and every other topic under the sun.Forums are hot spots of conversation where like-minded people get
together to talk about their shared passions.
Making it also one of the best hot spots for generating laser-targeted traffic.
Create some good content, post it on a popular forum in your market and you can start generating traffic within 5 minutes of posting.
There is simply no other strategy out there that works this quickly,
this effectively, and completely for free.
Forum marketing is an unsung hero that can drive thousands of visitors per month in ANY market.
When I first got started online, this was the main strategy I used to start building my subscriber list.
When my dad started his first website I recommended that he do the same.
But he took it to an entirely new level.
Generating 14,000+ visitors per month in a tiny, weird little niche…
‘Tennessee Walking Horses’
He found what I like to call his ‘Big Kahuna’. One big forum with rapidly passionate members who LOVED his videos.
This was his main traffic source when he first got started.
Of course I encouraged him to also build a subscriber list so now
he OWNS the traffic and can funnel it at will whenever he sends out
an email. Forum traffic is like a honeypot. But you want to collect
as much as that honey as possible and store it up for the winter.
(a.k.a getting them on your subscriber list :)
So go to Google – find the most active forums within YOUR market, and start engaging with the community. Provide over-the-top value and link to your squeeze page or blog in your signature file.
I think you’ll be surprised at what a ‘traffic powerhouse’ this can be.
Plus, what’s nice about forum traffic is that it’s generally VERY high converting. The traffic is laser-targeted and converts quickly into subscribers AND sales.
We’ve seen a 10% conversion rate into sales from our forum traffic. (tracked using Adtrackz Gold)
Average conversion rate for a sales letter is 2%. Forums got us 10% because this is some of the most targeted traffic you can get.
It just doesn’t get any better than that.
Old-School is still ROCKIN!
9. Blogger Outreach.
I’ve saved the best for last :)If you have a valuable piece of content that you want shared around
the blogosphere, the very best thing you can do is to contact 100-200
related bloggers.
You can find related bloggers using sites like:
Technorati.com
WeFollow.com
Twellow.com
FindPeopleOnPlus.com
CircleCount.com
AllTop.com
Topsy.com
FanPageList.com
Create a list of 100 influencers within your market.
You can do this within Excel or using a more sophisticated program
like BuzzStream or GroupHigh.
After you’ve built your list you’ll need to send a personalized
message to each blogger.
This works out even better if you’ve included a link to their website
in the article itself.
