What would more traffic mean for your blog?
My guess is that it would completely transform your business.
At the same time, you may be now using the notorious “publish and pray” approach. You publish content and pray that people notice it.
The problem with this approach… it’s like talking to an empty room – no one’s there to listen.
So, what do you get?
…Crickets!
You see, there are 3-4 million blog posts published every day.
Your blog needs to stand out…
…or it’ll die.
I don’t want that to happen to you.
Instead, I’ll share some of my best traffic tips that help you grow your blog traffic – fast.
Contents
1. Guest Posting – The Surefire Way to Get Traffic
To grow your blog traffic, you want to get in front of a large audience.
One of the best ways to do so is to get seen on blogs with larger audiences than yours.
Now, these bloggers are busy people. If you don’t offer something in return, they’re probably not going to want to promote your blog to the audience they’ve spent money, time and effort building.
Helping them by creating epic content that they can share on their site – guest posting – is one way you can add value.
Which blogs are worth guest posting on?
Before anything else, you’ll want to figure out which blogs you want to guest post on. Mind you, if your goal is to drive traffic, not all blogs are equal. To find those that are worth your time, use this step-by-step system:
How to find guest post opportunities in your niche.
The first step is to find guest posting sites in your niche. Here are some keywords you can use on Google to find the right opportunities:
- Keyword “guest post”
- Keyword “submit post”
- Keyword “writers wanted”
Add all the blogs you find to an Excel worksheet.
Another great tool is Alltop. It’s pretty simple. Just go to Alltop and search for your niche:
Add these blogs to your list.
Note that when you search for blogs on Alltop, you need to check if they feature guest post guidelines on their sites or if they’ve recently accepted guest posts. Otherwise, you risk pitching to blogs that don’t accept guest posts at all.
After you’ve compiled your pitch list, you need to filter it to find the best blogs to guest post on.
That leads us to step two:
Check if the blog has an engaged audience.
This step is pretty straightforward: Just make sure that the blog you target is getting a minimum of 50 social shares and an average of 15 comments. If the answer is yes, you know that the audience is engaged.
What should your guest post be about?
To maximize your chances of getting published on a site, you’ll want to check what content has already done well on that specific site. This way, you see what the audience is interested in.
Just head over to BuzzSumo and check the URL
Brainstorm a topic that fills a need on the blog and goes hand in hand with your own content. Create a post that’s actionable and valuable – after all, your goal is to get as many new “eyeballs” as possible on your blog.
How to pitch your guest post
Now it’s time to pitch your guest post.
Before you actually send your guest post pitch, you need to get on the bloggers’ radars.
In other words, you should engage and build relationships with them. Over the next few weeks, comment on their blogs and share their posts on social media.
A good rule of thumb is to:
- Comment on every post they publish over the next month and share the posts on your social media accounts.
- Sign up for their newsletters. When you receive their first email, reply and thank them for the fantastic content they create.
When you know you’re finally on the blogger’s radar, it’s time for your guest post pitch.
Make it short and sweet, and as easy as possible for the blogger to say yes. For specifics, check this post on how to perfect your guest post pitch.
Once your post has been published, you’ll want to maximize your visibility on the site. Reply to every comment you get and actively share the post. Your host will remember how active you are, which might land you even more guest posting opportunities in the future.
2. Expert Roundups That Get Shared
Another way to get bloggers to share your blog with their audiences is through expert roundups.
What’s an expert roundup?
It’s a curated post where you feature expert advice by various bloggers in your niche. You simply ask a number of bloggers to give their best tip on a particular topic.
Here’s an example from a post I recently published with over 100 participants:
What to do next?
- Use the same list of bloggers that you created for your guest blogging. Remember, first get on the bloggers’ radars by engaging with them.
- What you need to do next is to come up with the specific question you’ll ask the experts you feature in your post.
- In fact, the key to creating a roundup post that performs well is coming up with a good roundup question!
- Again, you can check BuzzSumo to see what has done well by searching for relevant keywords.
- Make it as easy as possible for the bloggers to reply to your question. As they’re busy people, they’ll probably ignore long questions that take too much of their time.
- You’ll also want to make the question interesting and thought-provoking. Major bloggers get asked to participate in roundups all the time. Your questions should really stand out for them to take the time to answer it.
For example, notice how I didn’t simply ask my roundup participants to share their best blogging tips (which would have been too generic); I asked them to share their most successful social media action. Much more actionable!
With a unique question and a professional design, your roundup is bound to get traffic.
3. How to Grow Your Blog with Ego-Bait Posts
What’s another excellent way to get other bloggers to share your content with their audiences?
By making the post ALL about them. Basically, by stroking their egos.
With ego-bait posts you do just that.
Ego-bait posts are curated lists where you highlight experts in your field in a list post. You might have noticed this type of post in major publications – which goes to show for their effectiveness.
Once again, use the Excel list of bloggers you’ve already put together. After you’ve built a relationship with the bloggers you want to feature, use the headshots and bios from their sites and add them to your ego-bait list.
Next, let them know that they’re featured in your post.
That’s it!
Because you’ve highlighted the bloggers’ expertise, they have a vested interest in sharing your content.
4. The Skyscraper Technique – Strategically Attract Visitors to Your Site
My friend, Brian Dean of Backlinko.com, teaches an awesome technique for growing your blog traffic:
The Skyscraper Technique
The Skyscraper Technique makes it easy for you to strategically create content you know other bloggers are interested in and like sharing.
Here’s how you do it to get social shares and through that, traffic:
Go to BuzzSumo and search for a relevant keyword. Check who’s shared a specific piece of content in your niche:
Pro tip: Checking who’s shared the content is a paid feature, but BuzzSumo has a 2-week free trial you can use.
Download all the sharers (you’ll need this list in a minute).
The next step is to write something that is exponentially better than the piece of content you just researched.
For example, if you found a piece of content that’s about the 20 best conversion optimization blogs, you might write a post about the 50 best conversion optimization blogs and include some interesting key insights from their blogs.
Your goal is to make your post the best resource out there on this particular topic.
When you’re done, share it with the people on the list you downloaded from BuzzSumo.
Your content is much better than the content they already shared, so chances are they’ll share again.
Simple and effective? You bet!
Final Thoughts
Use these four strategies and you’ll see your traffic increase exponentially.
Just remember:
Rome wasn’t built in a day.
Similarly, you need to be persistent and consistent with your blogging efforts to grow your traffic. Every time you publish a new post, rinse and repeat this method to attract thousands of new visitors to your blog.