Traffic is the currency of the internet. It’s the blood that flows through a website’s veins and keeps it alive. In fact, there’s probably no point of having a website if it does not attract any traffic. So naturally every webmaster adopts various strategies to develop secure and reliable sources of traffic inflow to his website.
As a blogger & writer, I believe that its absolutely critical that you write the sort of content that can attract relevant traffic to your blog. That, of course, does not mean that you start writing for search engines instead of your readers. But you do need to strike a balance between the two. After all, without traffic, you are quite unlikely to get any potential clients through your blog.
I’ve seen a lot of posts on different blogs that have lists of various traffic generation techniques. But as a blogger, I would be more interested in knowing 6 or 7 methods that work for sure rather than 50 methods that have no guaranteed results.
So I thought it would be useful for everyone if I list down the top 10 methods that I found very effective in attracting traffic to my website and some of my clients.
I would love to know your thoughts about them.1. Deliver Real Value through Your Content
Yes, there’s no running away from this one. You have to give value in your content to make any of the other traffic generation tricks work for you. Every time you write something, ask yourself 3 questions a- What benefit will the reader get from this b- What problem does this resolve c- Why would anyone share this You need to have solid answers to each of these questions before you press the Publish button. No matter how effectively you market your blog but if it’s not delivering solid actionable points to your readers then you won’t go much far. Read more: http://www.writingmydestiny.com/10-most-effective-ways-to-attract-instant-traffic-to-your-website/#ixzz3QbydA9fP
2. Encourage Content Sharing
Assuming that your content is worth sharing, you need to make it easier for your readers to share your content in their social circles. Traffic from social networks is now as important as search engine traffic. In fact, a lot of your search engine rankings now depend on how frequently your content is shared on social networks. So you just can’t ignore it.
The best way to do that of course is by using any of the famous social media integration plugins that are available for free. I personally use AddThis widget for my website along with the floating social sharing bar plugin DiggDigg.
Another plugin that I would recommend is Tom Ewer’s “Easy Tweet Embed“. This is a very useful plugin that enables in text tweeting. You can encourage your users to Tweet about a certain statement or line in your post using this plugin.
Apart from making your website sharing friendly, you also need to be active on the major social networking websites. Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and Pinterest are some of the websites that you should be active on. But more on this topic in some other detailed post.
3. Interact with Leading Bloggers
Every niche or industry has a few leading names that everybody looks up to. Make sure you keep in touch with such people in your particular niche. You can do that by regularly commenting on their blog posts and mentioning them on your blog. But you should also occasionally send them direct emails just to build a relationship. Every once in a while write an industry round up post listing all the top writers in your niche. Most writers would be happy to share such articles with their social followers. This would give you a very good opportunity to use their social strength to drive traffic to your website.4. Add Value through Your Comments
This is one of the most effective ways of attracting relevant traffic to your website. But, if done incorrectly, this can also be the worst advertisement for your brand. Too many people comment on leading blogs just for the sake of it. My suggestion is simple. Use this method to achieve multiple objectives. If your comments are adding value to a particular discussion, you guarantee yourself a- High traffic inflow because people will check your blog to learn more about you. b- A good reputation among your peers. c- A very good opportunity to build your network. I usually dedicate a couple of hours every second day to comment on the leading blogs in my niche. I would suggest you to do that as well. Make sure you say something valuable that adds to the discussion. Also, while commenting I always feel that you should add your blog name in the name field like this “Jawad Khan @ WritingMyDesitny” This will get the attention of most readers and they are likely to have a look at your website.5. Join Content Writing Groups
There are a number of writing groups and forums that you can join to attract more traffic to your website. A lot of people under estimate the impact of LinkedIn groups in this regard.
I’ve had a very positive experience from LinkedIn groups in terms of traffic generation and networking. The same goes for different writing groups on Google Groups.
These are highly effective, but usually neglected, traffic sources. Join these groups and participate in the discussions over there. Don’t just start spamming your blog links. It will have a negative impact. Instead, be an active member of these groups and become the go-to guy.
Another such website is Yahoo Answers. There are literally thousands of people who visit these websites everyday looking for guidance in different areas. You will be surprised by the traffic numbers you can attract from these websites.
6. Guest Blogging!
There’s nothing more effective in generating long term streams of traffic than intelligent guest blogging. I say intelligent because you need to approach websites wisely for guest blogging. A single guest post on a leading blog can get you more traffic than 10 guest posts on small, insignificant blogs. So keep that in mind while you go about writing guest posts. My process for writing guest posts is simple. a- I list down the leading blogs in my niche that accept guest posts. b- I study the type of posts on that blog and the topics that are usually covered. c- I also keep an eye on the comments at the end of each post to understand the audience of that blog. d- Once my homework is done, I write a detailed post on something that has either not been covered by that blog before, or I present an alternate view on an already discussed topic. e- I then send the post as an email attachment to the blog owner with a short introduction of my blog and my guest post. Here’s one such email ————————————————————————————————————————- Hi XYZ, Hope you’re doing well. I’ve been reading your blog regularly over the last few months and felt that a post on “XYZ Topic” would really benefit your readers. With that in mind, I’ve written this guest post for your blog. I’ve attached the post with this email and it also contains my brief author bio. I believe this post would give your readers a new perspective on this topic since this has not been covered before on your blog. Do let me know if you identify any improvement areas. Regards Jawad Khan WritingMyDestiny ————————————————————————————————————————— There’s hardly any blog out there that does not like quality guest posts for free. So chances are that, if your post has any value for the readers, you will get a positive response. However, since your objective by guest blogging is primarily traffic generation. Therefore, you should include backlinks to your blog where needed. But make sure they are relevant to the post. My dear friend Bamidele Onibalusi of WritersinCharge.com is an absolute guru when it comes to guest blogging, so I would recommend having a look at his website if you want to learn more about this topic.7. Use Email Lists of Established Bloggers
Now who would let you do that? No one, if you simply want to promote your own blog. But there is a way if you play intelligently. There are many bloggers who have huge mailing lists but just do not get the time to approach their subscribers through regular emails. If you can solve this problem for them, you can get a lot of traffic to your website as well. The process goes like this. Approach the blogger and tell him that you would like to offer content for a highly valuable weekly email that this blogger can send to his subscribers. All you ask for in return, is a link to one of your recent posts in that email. Get that? I know that not every blogger will respond positively to this offer. But even if you manage to convince one person with a decent email following, you can get a lot of traffic to your website.8. Don’t Ignore Social Bookmarking Websites
Stumbleupon and Reddit are two of my favorite websites when it comes to traffic generation. They can literally take your servers down with traffic if you use them wisely. Submit all your posts to these websites. But since these are social bookmarking forums, therefore, you should not ignore the social aspect of these websites. Follow other people and share any useful links that you find. A little effort on these websites can really surprise you by the traffic they can send back.9. Focus on Building Your Email List
Email subscribers are literally the most valuable asset of an online business. Therefore, you should take every step to encourage your visitors to subscribe to your list. I’ll write a much more detailed post on this very important point but for now, here are three very effective ways of getting more subscribers: a - Use a a plugin like Optin Revolution to display a pop up screen with a subscription box every time a visitor comes to your website. b – Use the Viperbar plugin by Glen of Viperchill.com to get more email subscribers. It’s an awesome tool c – Offer an ebook or a freebie in return for email subscription.10. Market Your Blog through Attractive Slides & Presentations
Another traffic source, that is not used very often, is online presentation websites. Create short presentations and slides about different topics related to your niche and upload them on Slideshare and other such websites. Put regular back links to your blog, of course. You’ll be amazed by the traffic they can bring back.
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