10 (Proven) Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Blog
Everyone wants blog traffic.
A blog without traffic is like a highway without cars.
But how do you ensure that you get a steady stream of traffic to your blog?
The bad news: there’s no magic cure.
The good news: there are some proven ways to drive traffic to your blog. But they will require some effort on your part.
If you’re serious about getting eyes on your content, then these methods are for you.
10 Guaranteed Ways to Boost Blog Traffic
Create 10x Content
10x Content is a phrase coined by Rand Fishkin from Moz:
“It refers to content that is 10 times better than the best result that can currently be found in the search results for a given keyword phrase or topic.”
When you create 10x Content, you’ll find that it will rank higher in Google and drive more organic traffic to your blog.
Sure, it’s not easy to create 10x content – if it were, then everyone would be doing it. But when you go the extra mile to create valuable content, then you’ll reap the long-term rewards.
When Adam from Blogging Wizard completely re-wrote one of his older posts to make it ten times better than the competition, then unique page views increased by 174%.
Related: [9 Tips for Writing Long-Form Content That Will Make You a Better Blogger]
Contact People Mentioned in Your Content
When you create your epic content, you should include links to credible resources. Visitors like to know that you have researched your topic thoroughly. But don’t leave it there.
Reach out to those people and companies that you referenced in your content. Thank them for their inspiration and ask them if they could read and share your blog post with their audience.
Most of the people you contact will be honored to be mentioned and will be pleased to spread the word.
Rand from Moz was happy to tweet about one of my posts:
Write an Expert Roundup Post
Why do expert roundup posts work? There are two main reasons.
#1 – You have experts sharing their opinion:
This makes a change from you sharing your opinion on your blog.
The experts could be answering a question that you couldn’t answer on your own.
Their combined solutions provide more in-depth content.
#2 – You have experts sharing the post:
An expert will want to share a post they are featured in with their audience.
And their audience is likely to be much larger than yours.
Therefore you have just had some free marketing to attract new visitors to your blog.
[Related: How to Make an Expert Round Up Post Even if You Don’t Know Any Experts]
Interview Influencers in Your Industry
This is similar to writing an Expert Roundup post.
Only this time you should interview one or two influencers and include their replies in your post.
So rather than making a massive roundup post, you create a more exclusive post.
There will always be more experienced people in your industry whose opinion is respected. For example, I’ve already mentioned Rand Fishkin and Adam Connell in this post.
So, tap into their knowledge and influence, and ask them if they would mind conducting an interview with you.
You could do the interview by audio or video and then repurpose to a blog post.
Or you could just ask some questions via email and compile their answers into a blog post.
You get the idea.
[Related: 5 Creative Ways of Promoting Your New Blog Now]
Guest Post on Relevant Sites
Guest blogging has the potential to drive hordes of traffic back to your blog.
The key is to write your best content on relevant blogs in your niche that have plenty of engagement.
For example, if you were a blogger, it would make sense to write a guest post on a relevant blog like Problogger or Smart Blogger, where there is an established audience who engage in commenting and sharing.
Here are some tips to help you find guest posting opportunities:
#1 – Use Google search operators to find guest blogging opportunities.
For example, when you enter:
<blogging + “write for us”>
You get these results:
#2 – Look for the top blogs in your niche.
For example, try entering:
<top time management blogs>
#3 – If you are struggling to find the guest posting contact details for a particular website, then you could try these search operators.
Here’s an example for Lifehacker contribution details:
<site:lifehacker.com inurl:contribute>
You get these results:
#4 – Here are two resource lists of guest blogging opportunities:
327+ Places to Get Traffic To Your Blog by Kim Roach
The Giant Guest Blogging Index by Mary Fernandez
Guest blogging can have a terrific impact. It took Buffer from 0 to 100,000 customers (Hint: This article is an example of an Influencer Interview.)
But it’s not a guarantee of overnight traffic. It can take time for the effects to drip through.
The main thing is to get your strategy sorted before you start so that you get the best possible results.
[Related: How to Be a Successful Blogger in a World of Competition [Guest Blogging]]
Grow Your Email List
If you want a guaranteed way of driving traffic to your blog, then start growing your email list.
The people who have subscribed to your list already engaged with you and your content. They are your fans. Your number one traffic source.
When you publish a new blog post, you can ping your list and ask them to comment, like, and share your post with their community to get extra traffic.
Start building your list by offering your visitors a simple lead magnet. If you’re struggling for ideas, then check out this post: 69 Highly Effective Lead Magnet Ideas to Grow Your Email List.
There are many different ways of capturing leads. One of the most effective is the Content Upgrade as used by Brian Dean of Backlinko.
Offering a simple checklist or cheat sheet related to your blog post is proven to increase subscribers by 785%.
[Related: Why Building Your Email List is More Important Than Ever][Related: 7 Ways to Take Charge of Your Readership Problem [Incentives]]
Comment on Relevant Blogs
Blog commenting has had a topsy-turvy ride over the past few years.
Once upon a time, it was an absolute goldmine for getting links back to your blog. Then in stepped Matt Cutts and told people it was spammy and that they risked a penalty for being excessive.
At that stage, some folks stopped commenting altogether. And some blogs switched off commenting.
But in truth, those are two opposite sides of the spectrum.
When you take the time to leave useful comments on relevant blogs in your niche, then you can get positive results.
Content marketing guru Sujan Patel tells the story of how he managed to generate 2,494 visitors and 513 new trials of his new marketing tool off the back of leaving comments.
He had a structured marketing campaign where he carefully identified relevant blogs to leave comments and engage with those communities.
[Related: How to Increase Traffic by Writing Better Comments]
Repurpose Your Content
As bloggers, we are guilty of publishing a blog post and then moving quickly onto the next one. We forget that we have a ton of content that we can repurpose.
All those hours we spent researching and writing one post has the potential for something new. Here are a few examples:
#1 – Turn your blog post into an infographic
Here’s how Adam turned his blog post:
32 Smart Ways To Drive More Traffic To Your Blog
Into an Infographic:
A Step-By-Step Guide To Increasing Your Blog’s Traffic
#2 – Turn your blog post into a SlideShare
Here’s how Ana turned her blog post:
How to Manage Twitter Like a Pro [Your Daily Twitter Routine]
Into a SlideShare presentation:
How To Manage Twitter – 7 Experts Reveal Their Daily Twitter Routine
#3 – Turn your blog post into a Video
Here’s how Ana turned her blog post:
How to Turn a Blog Post into a Video in 5 Minutes
- Into a YouTube Video:
YouTube Tip: How to Turn a Blog Post into a Video in 5 Minutes
Further Reading: Ana is an expert in repurposing her blog content for Slideshare and YouTube. Check out her Slideshare Traffic Case Study when she generated 243,000 views in 30 days.
When you repurpose your content, you can often reach a new audience and get more traffic back to your blog.
[Related: 12 Best Tricks to Get More Eyeballs on Your Old Posts]
People are always searching for answers to their burning questions. If they can’t find an answer in Google, then the next step is to post a question in an online community.One of the most popular places to do that is Quora:
Take the time to setup your profile.
Monitor for questions in your niche.
Then start answering them.When people start to see you answering questions with valuable and reliable answers, then their interest will be piqued. They’ll take a look at your profile and click on the link back to your blog.Bingo! More relevant traffic. You’ve already gained the visitors trust with your answers on Quora, so they’ll be more receptive to reading your blog content.Imran Esmail shared a load of useful tips and tricks on how to use Quora to drive traffic to your blog in his guest post on Smart Blogger.[Related Post: How to Be a Better Blogger with Quora]
This final method is all about contributing to online communities, web forums, and social media groups.It’s similar to the Quora method.The key is to find active channels with good moderation that are in your industry and niche.You start to build relationships with members and establish yourself as an authority by making solid contributions to the online discussions.But if you just go dropping links, that won’t work.You have to provide more value by getting involved in discussions.
And when you add value, people will start to take notice.
Conclusion
Ok, there you have it. Ten proven ways to drive traffic to your blog.
Which of these methods are you going to use to boost your blog traffic?
Author bio: Danny Donchev is a marketing manager of AdaptRM, a revolutionary time-tracking tool. Danny writes more posts about productivity and efficiency on the AdaptRM blog. Hit him up on Twitter anytime @dannydonchev.
Admin Blogger’s Commentary:
Readers, please share so other bloggers can reap the benefits of Danny’s tips and increase their blog traffic.
Related Posts:
79 of the Most Effective Ways to Get Free Blog Traffic
8 Smart Ways to Promote Your Latest Post And Get Traffic
6 Simple Tips You Need to Increase Your Blog Traffic
How to Use YouTube to Be a Better Blogger
1 Popular Way to Be a Better Blogger with Slideshare
How to Make Infographics That Will Repeatedly Boost Your Traffic
