Sometimes I ask myself if there’s more to this blogging thing than being addicted to traffic.
You start a blog, or a YouTube channel, create a podcast, whatever your passion may be. You put some content out there, and a few people stop by and compliment your work.
That’s when the madness starts.
You start to go online for traffic strategies, going to webinars instead of movies, and even studying blogs like the Art of Blogging. Hehehe.
But you know what?
I feel you. And because I went through this myself, I am going to share a few strategies with you.
9. Buy ads
This is not the best strategy, but it dies work. Some folks even make money from buying ads.
But it’s pricey. These days, most keywords cost more than one dollar per click, which makes doing this for long unsustainable.
8. The Social Network
Here’s how people screw social media up: by thinking that having a presence on every single platform ever invented is smart.
Well… problem is, you’ll spread yourself too thin. The only folks who ca maintain such presence have entire teams dedicated to this.
But for you and I, the smarter strategy is picking just one social network and putting in the time and energy to really do it right. You can focus on others later.
7. Take advantage of other mediums
In a similar vein, a lot of content creators think they need to have a blog, podcast, YouTube channel, book, everything.
In the beginning, it’s a mistake, because once again, you’re spreading yourself too thin. However, once your audience is established in one medium, expanding into others becomes a much smarter strategy. Here’s why:
Audiences don’t overlap as much as you’d think: folks who read blogs about marketing and those who listen to podcasts about marketing are two relatively distinct audiences. So, by expanding into other media, you can instantly increase your reach.
6. Get linked to
Most bloggers get it wrong when it comes to SEO.
The most important factor when it comes to pleasing Google is getting linked by trusted sources, by other blogs and websites that have a lot more traffic than you do.
How do you do that?
Simple: create amazing content.
Not just amazing, but so amazing that influential people can’t help talking about it.
Get that part right and the rest of SEO is much easier.
5. Guest blogging
Granted, guest blogging isn’t easy. Yeah, the long-term results of are great, but the bitter truth is that most bloggers don’t have the skills required to land a spot on the biggest blogs in the world. They can with practice, but some of the other strategies here are easier to implement.
Such as …
4. Interviewing others from your niche
What? How does interviewing a bunch of other bloggers get you traffic?
Well, here’s a little secret: even though interviews aren’t the greatest content, they are brilliant for connecting with influential people. Be respectful of their time, and ask insightful questions, and you might be surprised about how long they remember you.
Give it a try. This is one of the easiest traffic strategies to implement, and it’s amazing how many connections it can create for your time.
3. Building a newsletter
What’s the easiest way to get more traffic?
Let your current subscribers know that you posted some new content. Building an e-mail list is crucial and should be more of a priority than just getting traffic. So, put up an email subscription box your site ASAP, preferably with a nice incentive to make joining your list irresistible.
2. Writing a list post
List posts are everywhere, and here’s why:
They get jaw-dropping amounts of traffic.
I mean, my most popular blog posts, on all my blogs, are list posts of some sorts.
You’d think the Internet would get sick and tired of list posts, but it’s just not so.
Don’t believe me?
Write a post about 10 (or even 50) ways to do something your audience might like. I’m betting it’ll be the most popular post in the history of your blog.
1. Spending time to craft the perfect headline
If you could multiply your traffic tenfold in five minutes, would you do it?
No-brainer, right? Well, then don’t make the mistake of thinking your headlines don’t matter. Getting better at writing headlines is the fastest and easiest way to take your blog to the damn stratosphere.
Nothing else even comes close.
And yes, it applies to every type of content. I don’t care if you’re running a YouTube channel, a podcast, or publishing comic books; your headline is more important than the rest of the content, combined.
Now it’s the time that you pick whichever strategy best suits your needs, and do it. And do it. And do it some more.
Because all of the time I spent writing this post will be for nothing if you never use the strategies. Doing something, anything is a must.
Of course, nobody wants to hear that.
But you know it’s true.
Useful tips, thanks.
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Thank you for reading, Julie.
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Great advice – thanks. I like the idea of focusing on one social media platform. Would you recommend one above the others or is it totally dependent on what you do?
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It depends on you, and what you use more often. The social network you’re most comfortable with, that’s usually the one you are going to have most success with.
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That makes sense. Thanks for the tip, Cristian!
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My pleasure!
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You nailed it, amazing tips, will follow!
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Very useful, thanks.
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Useful man, thanks!
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When I first started blogging I used funny headlines that I thought were clever. In case you were wondering, they don’t work for bringing in traffic, lol. It’s amazing how important a good headline is!
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Amazing tips
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Thank you so much for these tips, Cristian. Greatly appreciated!
Best wishes,
Holly
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I like the idea of a list post. Will work on that for a future post. Thanks, Cristian!
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Great tips !
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Reblogged this on Stardust.
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The list post does, in fact, work. People love to write comments adding to whatever list the post is about.
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Glad I found this. When I started my blog, I was so crazy for getting more visitors and that made me forgot that I should write a better content in the first place. Thanks!
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Content is king.
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Indeed😥
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Thanks for your posts. I find them to be interesting and informative. I started reading you a couple weeks ago and now read every post you write. You got me hooked!
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Thank you, Steven.
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Great tips! Regarding social networking…..apparently you can set up an Instagram account that also posts your other social media platforms. With one Instagram post I simultaneously post to Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook. It is the best, free way I found use more than one social media platform.
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I’ve considered doing this, with any of the plethora of apps that seem to make it so easy, but I think you have to be a little careful mixing Facebook in with some of those hashtag friendly platforms like Twitter and Instagram. Hashtags are a great way to get noticed on those platforms, but for Facebook it becomes too noticeble that you’re just copying and pasting from one platform to another (when Hashtags start popping up in your Facebook posts). Instead of copying each post to each platform, I like to schedule mine out in advance. I can spend a a bit of time scheduling social media posts across all platforms and be set for the week (or longer). I’ve used Buffer, which is a free app you can use (to an extent) and I’ve been really interested in Sprout, but haven’t gotten the chance to try that one out.
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I’ve never heard of Buffer or Sprout…will need to add them to the list of platforms to explore this year. Thank you for the info. I know what you mean about the hashtag use on Facebook. When I am writing a post just for Facebook I barely use any hashtags for that exact reason – the hashtags take away from my picture and my message. Thanks again for sharing what you know; it’s quite helpful.
How much time in advance do you spend setting up your social media posts? I constantly feel like I am both spending too much and too little time on social media posts. Ha.
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I know exactly what you mean! ha. I was on and off using Buffer – make a couple posts, then go down to only sending out one posts because I wouldn’t stick to it (shame on me). I would suggest setting up 3-5 days worth of posts the first day you do this (maybe spend 30-60 min doing this depending on your posts length, content, ect.), then each day (or every other day) spend 10-15 minutes to add another day’s worth of posts. That way you are always ahead of the game. If you miss a day, its not a big deal because you already built a couple days out.
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Great advice. Thanks Nicholas! Work smarter not harder right?
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That’s right!
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Always enjoying the style of your writing. It’s so lovely to read because it’s pact with emotions. Go forward! Great hacks, thanks for sharing. Interviews are powerful. I did some and people love that, especially if you ask questions which are not 08/15
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Wow. You are the king of all bloggers ❤
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Thank you, but I am sure I am not. There are far better bloggers out there.
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im gonna make a top 10 list! i’ll try it 🙂 thanks for the tips, i agree with social media. best to focus on one platform.
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I had recently started my blog. I found less traffic. When I post something which is trending at present, what I found is traffic increase to 20%.
What you want to say about this?
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Well, of course trending topics get more traffic. But the thing is that in the long run, it’s better to write about what you want and feel strongly about.
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I agree
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As always, very practical tips. Thanks for sharing. Question though: do you have any tips on how to come up with the best headlines. I think that;s the area where i struggle most and thanks in advance.
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I have a few blog posts on this topic on this blog.
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Fun post to read! I actually felt excited as I was reading it! To add onto your point about the headline, I have found a lot of keywords and blog headings that would be fairly easy to rank for, and that I want to write about by using keyword research tools. Google’s free Keyword planner is an alright tool (but it’s free!), but if you’re looking to really find some useful keyword analytics, ahrefs is an awesome tool! It’s a little pricey, but offers a 7-day $7 trial so you can play around in it. I would highly recommend that tool to you or anyone else looking to really drill into keywords or headlines that could be easier to rank for in Google.
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Currently, more of my traffic comes from Pinterest than all other sources combined. I highly recommend it to all bloggers. It’s awesome.
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I’m going to try some of this stuff. I’ve been blogging for a little over a year with only a small handful of followers. Hopefully this helps, thanks for the advice!
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Thanks for the informative tips!
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Thankyou for this! Very helpful 👍
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Christian, I could come to your blog every day and always find something that drives me in a way.
You remind me things I tend to forget and create a sense of connectivity.
Your advice is awesome.
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Thank you so much for your compliments.
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Very useful tips and loved your post. Thank you so.😊
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Thank you for reading!
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Thank you so much for the list Christian. New bloggers like can definitely gain more knowledge from these posts.
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My pleasure!
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This is such an amazing and helpful site!!!!!! Thank you so much for all your info!!!!
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Thank you so much! And it’s my pleasure.
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Thanks again good advise, still a newbie but growing
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My pleasure!
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Great post! You’ve given all your readers including me amazing tips!! 😃
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Thank you so much, Ruby!
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No problem
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Thank you about this tips, I’ll surely try them soon
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Thank you!
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Great tips! Thank you.
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Thank you!
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This was so helpful! I love how you’ve explained the consequence of each action in detail. I especially liked the part about spreading ourselves too thin with many social media platforms and that it’s better to choose one and expand later. I’ll definitely follow these tips 🙂
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Thank you, Shana. I am glad you enjoyed reading this post.
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Great advice. Awesome how passionate you always are about what you’re saying.
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Thank you so much, Tiana!
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Thanks for the tips!
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Thank you for reading.
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Very useful. Thanks for sharing 🙂
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Thank you!
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The 6th makes me think. They say nowadays everything is on the web, so there’s no room for your content on YouTube, WordPress or any other platform. However, I think that there is always room for good stories, amazing content like you said. People always like honest opinions, hearing new facts or just read a good story. So if you have some idea, go for it and people will notice sooner or later.
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There’s always room for more content. Competition means more that there’s a lot of mediocre content, but great one? That’s still incredibly rare.
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I followed you, so I’ve got 6 down 😂
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Yup.
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Now i understand why you called it “The Art of Blogging”. lol
You’ve got great tips for blogging.
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Thank you so much, Joy!
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Thats excellent thanks so much for your input Cristian and yes i really enjoyed your book learnt a lot from it thanks buddy
paul
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Thank you so much, Paul!
I am glad you liked the book.
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Excellent insight Christian. Thanks. 🙂
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My pleasure!
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