57 Ways to Increase Your Blog/Website Traffic by Oladipo Adebiyi - HTML preview

Those objectives could include, selling products and services, building brand awareness, position yourself as a thought leader or to connect and network. Whatever the goals are, traffic provides the visibility to engage and sell.

Website visitors is where it all starts. No traffic…nothing happens. In the past bloggers only had one big tactic.

Building an email list.

This is still important despite the allure of social media with all its hype and bluster, real and imagined. Social media since arriving on the scene has offered bloggers two core and very important capabilities that were not part of the web landscape until social media turned up.

1. Multiple platforms and networks to re-publish and share their content on. You can now discover a blogger and their content because it is published to Facebook or their video is on YouTube
2. Crowd sourced marketing as people share bloggers articles with a couple of clicks on Facebook and Twitter. No longer is the post hidden in the email silo where sharing is restricted to passing an email on.

So if you have just launched a blog or you’re struggling to grow your traffic, what are some of the tactics that the top bloggers use to get attention, bring readers back and become part of your loyal tribe of readers?

Some of these tactics are more effective and direct than others but collectively implemented can create long lasting and organic growth path for your blog.

1. Build a large following on Twitter
2. Automate the sharing of content on Twitter. (you cannot scale if you don’t do this)
3. Link to your blog on Twitter in your profile
4. Increase your likes on Facebook
5. Link to your blog on Facebook
6. Share your post (including links to it) on Facebook
7. Build an email subscriber list from day one
8. Host a webinar (you can capture many emails when you run a webinar)
9. Create and publish great content
10. Make it easy for people to share your content with a Twitter retweet button
11. Ensure you have a LinkedIn sharing button (there are over 230 million users there)
12. Include a Google+ sharing button even if you don’t use it very much (over half a billion people there!)
13. Facebook sharing button is a must
14. Make it easy for people to share your content with a Pinterest sharing button
15. Provide an incentive for people to subscribe to your blog by offering a free ebook in exchange for their email address and name
16. Place the email subscriber box in a prominent position (top right or even in the top banner)
17. Include multiple locations for people to subscribe
18. Include an RSS feed option
19. Link to your blog from your YouTube videos and channel
20. Make your blog easy to read (this will keep them loyal and bring them back)
21. Write the best headlines you possibly can
22. Guest blog on larger blogs in your industry
23. Comment on other bloggers articles
24. Reply to comments on your blog posts
25. Interview the influential bloggers in your niche and category
26. Obtain testimonials from influencers in your industry who have a strong social media presence
27.  Ensure your blog can be easily read on mobile devices
28. Optimise for search engines by using an SEO plugin such as WordPress SEO (Also known as Yoast) or activate in your blogger dashboard settings.
29. Write sub-titles with keywords in posts to help your SEO
30. Improve your blogs search engine friendly content by including key words in images
31. Publish new articles regularly (at least once a week)
32. Write long form content that will be a resource for readers (they will link and bookmark it for future reference)
33. Place a Facebook ad that drives traffic to your blog (could be an offer of free premium content)
34. Advertise on Twitter with “Promoted Accounts”
35. Provide links to archives on your blog
36. List your most popular posts (this is a default WordPress feature)
37. Use an SEO friendly online publishing platform like…”WordPress”
38. Use a simple design that profiles your content and highlights your focus
39. Include “prominent” social media sharing buttons placed at the top of your articles (floating buttons are good too)
40. Have your top social media channels displayed in a prominent position so people can easily follow you
41. Share other top bloggers content on Twitter and let them know you have shared with an @topblogger mention
42. Copy and emulate the strategies of top bloggers
43. Write a great introduction that is compelling and draws readers in
44. Engage with your readers so that they want to come back and become loyal fans
45. Write a blog post that highlights the best bloggers in your industry
46. As you build credibility display your awards, wins and social proof in a prominent position
47. Link to your blog in your email signature
48. Join Facebook groups and participate
49. Create a Google+ hangout for a hot topic in your industry and promote it
50. Participate in LinkedIn groups
51. Create some controversy that attracts attention
52. Submit your top posts to Reddit
53. Publish articles on Stumbleupon
54. Make yourself available to speak
55. Have a business card for your blog
56. Take photos with Instagram (over 130 million registered users there) and share them on Facebook and Twitter
57. Include multimedia in your articles to broaden your blogs reach. Videos, infographics, podcasts and Slideshare presentations are sometimes preferred over learning in a text format.

Overwhelmed?

So you are now overwhelmed and fifty seven items to add to your blogging “to do” list may seem like a tad too much to implement. It has most probably crossed your mind that this is a big mountain to climb. You may even be considering forgetting blogging and taking up drinking.

How can you have enough time to have a life and blog without losing your mind?

Here are the top tips that will make the biggest difference that you should not ignore to get you started.

There are many tactics that you can pursue but some have more value than others. If there were six that should be on your “must do” do list then here they are.

Do this from day one by offering a free ebook or premium content that readers can only get by entering their name and email.

Email is sometimes seen as the dreary cousin of Facebook who never gets invited to the marketing party.

It has this image of mundaneness because it has been  around for decades and is all about work. Often it is perceived as that necessary evil that that can’t compete on marketing terms with the rather fun Twitter chap. YouTube or Pinterest is like a super model compared to the dowdy and buttoned up email dingleberry.

But if you talk to any serious marketer, blogger or online store owner who has been around a while, then building an email list from day one is a number one priority.

You own it and it is known to deliver!

It may not be the life of the party but it is that efficient PA that just gets the job done. It is like your accountant that understands the meaning of numbers.

Some of us have been too distracted by the shiny new marketing tool called “social media”

Email marketing

Email marketing is one of the basic principles of an internet marketing strategy. Often it was the only marketing tool available to bloggers when blogging was in its infancy. It becomes essential whenever you are pursuing numerous leads for marketing your brands and products. With so many tasks to manage, such as:

• Handling an auto-responder
• Managing subscriptions of your clients
• Sending of emails to your potential customers
• Sending out follow up emails

This can be a very daunting task. That is why an email marketing software becomes a very valuable marketing tool for bloggers and companies that help them manage their email lists and is designed for ease of use and convenience.

Aweber has some competition

AWeber is an internet email marketing software that is very popular among digital marketers who are engaged in serious marketing. This software has evolved to become a very useful tool that helps both the newbies and the pros alike in email marketing. It comes with convenient features that assist everyone who want to earn money from email marketing and AWeber is often the email marketing platform of choice.

Whenever email marketing software is concerned, AWeber has been a dominant tool for quite a long time. But for the benefit of others who want to have other choices, here are 5 email marketing options that provide some email marketing competition for AWeber.

1. MailChimp

MailChimp is an easy to use tool and also a powerful option for those who want to focus on business and eCommerce rather than just affiliate marketing for earning money in their business.

MailChimp’s email service allows you to

• Integrate your emails with shopping carts and CRM’s
• Allows a free email service for your first 500 subscribers.
• It also creates a personalized sign up form that matches your brand, giving you the opportunity to post them on your social media account on Facebook.
• Its custom forms allow you to send emails and display sign up posts that carry your brand.
• You can also crea