Creating great content alone will NOT bring traffic to your blog.
In fact, creating world-class content is just the first step.
Content is just the entry fee.
The next step is content promotion!
Without it, even world-class content will sit around like a lonely red-headed step-child.
If you want traffic – you’ve got to get in the trenches!!
Get a little dirty :)
Fortunately, I have a step-by-step strategy that we use here at BuzzBlogger.com for getting 1,000+ views on EVERY blog post…
Step 1: Submit your article to Twitter and Facebook.
This should be a no-brainer by now.
Social media is making it easier to share and spread your content than ever before. EVERYONE online now has a circle of influence that you can tap into IF you’re providing massive value.
By submitting your blog post within your own social networks you’ll be able to spark that initial momentum to get your first hundred visitors.
And if you dedicate yourself to creating truly epic content, sites like Facebook and Twitter can quickly become a traffic powerhouse for you.
Step 2: Share Your Content on Popular Blogging Community Sites.
There are a number of communities online where you can submit your content for instant exposure.
Some of my favorites include BlogEngage.com, Blokube.com, BizSugar.com, ImNewsWatch.com, Inbound.org, Serpd.com, FamousBloggers.net (Community News Section), and MySEOCommunity.com.
Of course these sites will be different for each market.
But like any online community – the key is to provide VALUE to others FIRST.
So before you start blasting your own articles to the site – ENGAGE with the
community. Share OTHER people’s articles first. Comment and start building relationships.
Once you’ve done that, then you can start sharing some of your own stuff.
But get in the trenches first!
Provide value FIRST and you will reap MUCH greater rewards for your efforts
and from the community.
Step 3: Submit your article to blogs with a ‘Community News’ Section.
There are hundreds of blogs online that will allow you to share your latest blog post in their “Community News Section”.
Here’s a more complete list of popular sites where you can submit your tutorials for tons of extra exposure, traffic, and backlinks.
This will get you AT LEAST an additional 100+ visitors.
Step 4: Submit Your Post to JustRetweet.com.
JustRetweet is a social sharing community. It’s kind of like a huge blogging alliance that works together to promote each others content.
You get credits for retweeting other people’s blog posts – which allows you to do the same.
It’s a great little service where you can get at least 20 retweets to get some additional momentum.
Step 5: Automate your social media posting via SocialOomph.com.
Once you have published some new content on your blog – put your social media marketing on autopilot with something like SocialOomph.com.
This allows you to automate tweets to go out throughout the day.
Now obviously, you’ll want to engage and interact on Twitter yourself.
But there’s nothing wrong with pre-loading 30 tweets to be released throughout the day. This way you can continue to promote your latest blog post along with other articles, older posts, quotes, golden nuggets, and interesting tid bits.
You can also automate your tweets inside WordPress with something like Dashter.com.
Step 6: Contact related Scoop.it & Paper.li pages.
These are content aggregators that pull together the very best content on thousands of different topics. As a content creator, you can search for your specific topic and submit your latest article to the creator of that particular Scoop.it or Paper.li page.
But remember – it must be really good content. These pages are collecting the best of the best from around the web.
Step 7: Kickstart your promotion with a Facebook ad, StumbleUpon ad, or an affordable solo ad.
If you want to kickstart the momentum of your post you can purchase a small ad buy on Facebook or StumbleUpon. With StumbleUpon you can get clicks for just 10 cents per visitor. With Facebook you’re going to spend a little more but you also get a much more targeted visitor.
My last ad on Facebook cost 56 cents per click.
You could also just purchase a small solo ad of 100-200 clicks to start things off.
This gives you that initial momentum to get your blog post going viral. Once your blog post hits a tipping point – it spreads quickly via social media.
Step 8: Submit your blog post to popular Link Roundups.
Here’s a cool traffic trick for you…
This one is super simple and can bring you hundreds of extra visitors. What we’re going to be doing is getting your blog post published in Weekly Link Roundups.
Link roundups are basically where blogger’s post their favorite links and articles
each week in what’s called a Link Roundup. These are generally a collection of their favorite blog posts from around the blogosphere.
One of my favorite Link Roundups can be found at Kikolani.com.
I was actually listed in her most recent issue of Fetching Friday..
Here’s how it works…
You start by finding Link roundups within your market.
Simply type in the following search queries on Google:
“Daily Link Roundup”
“Weekly Link Roundup”
“Monday Link Roundup”
“Friday Link Roundup”
“Link Roundup”
If you want to find blogs that are specifically related to your market, then you
can add a modifier. Something like:
“Weekly Link Roundup” + marketing
“Weekly Link Roundup” + moms
“Weekly Link Roundup” + parenting
You can also use these same queries on sites like Google Plus or Twitter Search.
This will give you a list of related blogs that do weekly link roundups.
Best of all, there are thousands of blogs that do these link roundups on every imaginable topic.
Now here’s where you come in…
Once you’ve found a related blog that does link roundups you can then contact the blog owner and send them a link to your latest blog post.
If you’ve published truly great content, then there’s a very good chance that they
will link to you in their weekly link roundup.
This is an extremely powerful technique that I see VERY few people using online.
But it’s super simple and can send you lots of highly-targeted traffic.
Step 9: Email Your Blogging Alliance.
This is probably THE most important step for promoting your blog post.
Blogger Outreach.
Connecting with others is one of the fastest ways to grow your business.
Plus, it’s just a lot more fun!
A blogging alliance works is a group of related bloggers that work together to grow their blogs faster. Plus, it’s a great group to talk to about all the geeky stuff that your family doesn’t understand :)
You’ll want to continuously look for ways to GIVE value to other’s FIRST.
Retweet their content. Share on Facebook. Comment on their blog.
Engage in their world and give value at every opportunity so that they start noticing your name.
Then once you have a top-notch blog post that you’d like to promote – simply
reach out to them with a short, personalized email.
Also… don’t just chase after the BIG fish. The smaller bloggers can also be VERY influential and they’re easier to contact.
When you have a REALLY good post that you’d like to go viral – I would encourage
you to email at least 100 other bloggers with a short, personalized email.
Don’t ask for a retweet. That’s not cool. Instead – focus on them first and a particular blog post that you like of THEIRS. And then mention your own and why it might be of interest to them.
We used this exact strategy on our last blog post to generate 100+ Retweets and 100+ Facebook likes.
By this point you should be well over 1,000+ views :)
Step 10: Retargeting via AdRoll.com
Now that you have all of this traffic – you want to make sure you maximize EVERY visitor that you’ve worked so hard to get.
On our blog we convert an average of 13% of our traffic into subscribers.
But that means that 87% of our traffic is lost.
However, we can recapture that traffic through a form of advertising called retargeting (also known as remarketing).
If you’ve ever had a banner ad to ‘follow’ you around the web – then you’ve experience retargeting in action.
Retargeting allows you to capture those who don’t purchase or subscribe on your website.
Your banner will then point them back to your squeeze page where you can convert them into a subscriber and start establishing a deeper relationship.
Use this 10-step plan correctly and you will generate AT LEAST 1,000+ Visitors to EVERY blog post.
