Some blogging techniques are downright unfair.
And that’s a great thing.
Everyone wants to get huge amounts of traffic to their blog, but some people work way too hard to do it. Getting traffic can be easy. In fact, it can be unfairly easy.
If your blog isn’t getting lots of traffic, let me tell you that you don’t have to fight to get the kind of traffic that you want.
When it comes to blogging, traffic is like money. If you don’t have a constant flow, your business will die.
And yet, so many blogs fail because they think it’s nearly impossible to get high amounts of traffic. Well, I’m here to tell you the exact opposite.
In my years of blogging, I’ve learned some techniques to get traffic that just work. And, what’s more, they’re able to generate so much traffic that it’ll feel like you paid for it.
Today, I’m going to share some of those techniques with you.
If you’ve been struggling to get visitors, then this blog post is for you. These tactics are simple and don’t take a lot of money to implement.
Here are 8 of my favorite traffic-boosting methods that you can use today.
Learn how I used these 8 tactics to generate 195,013 visitors a month.
1. Hold a contest
Who doesn’t love contests?
Everyone loves the rush of feeling that they might win big. If there’s a desirable prize at stake, people will want it.
That’s why contests are massive traffic generators. It’s almost like magic. But, you have to do it right.
First, decide what kind of contest you want to run. The type of contest you choose can determine how much traffic you get.
Do you want people to simply sign up via email or do you want them to write a 100-word story about something?
Keep in mind that the more work people have to do, the less traffic you’ll get. So, if you ask people to make a 10-minute video for a chance to win a book, you probably won’t get any entries.
I recommend using a contest platform that allows users to share the contest on social media for extra entries.
Rafflecopter does this well:
Opening up an account on Rafflecopter is easy. Within a few minutes, you can be running a traffic-boosting contest.
2. Click the big blue button — ”Try Rafflecopter today.”
3. If you want to try the free version, click “Sign Up for Free.”
4. Fill out the form.
5. Click “New Giveaway” on the left.
6. Click “Add a Prize.”
7. Select your prize and add a photo.
8. Choose the entry options and the start and end dates.
9. Scroll down, find the big blue button, and “Preview & Install.”
10. You are given an embed code to add the giveaway to your blog. You can also share it on your Facebook fan page to generate even more buzz.
Second, decide what you’ll be giving away. You need to choose a prize that is valuable to your audience.
Don’t choose something generic like an iPad (which is actually a terrible contest prize). Choose something that’s relevant to your niche.
For example, Intel is currently giving away gaming rigs and VR headsets:
This is perfect for Intel’s target audience of tech lovers and gamers. If they were to give away a plain old cash prize or something like an iPad, they wouldn’t get as many entries.
They chose something that their audience would find valuable. That’s exactly what you should do. Don’t pick something generic––go the extra mile and find something with your audience in mind.
This will also help you retain most of the traffic you get. If you have a generic prize, you’re more likely to get freebie seekers. Choosing a specific prize helps to weed out these contest vampires.
Third, ask people to share the contest! Like I mentioned earlier, there’s software, like Rafflecopter, that gives people extra entries for sharing the contest on social media.
That’s a crucial ingredient to contest success. The more shares you get, the wider your reach will be. It creates a multiplier effect, with more and more people constantly signing up.
2. Get an interview with an expert
People love to be interviewed. If they have the time, they’ll be happy to help you out.
This doesn’t mean that you can easily land an interview with Tim Ferriss. However, you can get a lot of interviews from influencers in your niche.
The simplest method is also probably the best: Just ask.
If you follow a blog or podcast that regularly interviews people in your niche, drop them a line and ask if they have an open spot.
Smart Blogger has an excellent template for requesting interviews:
This works because it’s specific, genuine and personal. There’s no fluff or jargon, just the good stuff.
Landing interviews is much more successful if you actually follow the people you want to interview.
Subscribe to their newsletter, follow them on social networks and interact with them as much as possible.
You won’t get everyone to say yes. But, if you persevere, you’ll be talking with some of the best experts in your field.
I’ve interviewed and been interviewed many times and the results are always amazing for traffic and brand recognition.
3. Get featured
When Kevin Lavelle put down a lot of money to buy a podcast ad for his company Mizzen+Main, he wasn’t sure if he would make a profit from it.
But, it wasn’t just any podcast––it was the Tim Ferriss Show. And, when the ads went live, Mizzen+Main absolutely blew up. (Kevin calls it “the Tim Ferriss effect.”)
Now, I know that not everyone can pony up the cash required to get an ad on Tim’s podcast, but you can get expert attention, no matter how popular your blog is.
If you want to get featured in a publication, you can try HARO (Help A Reporter Out).
HARO provides interesting leads from journalists looking for help with articles. If you’ve got something worth sharing, it could get picked up.
Here’s a great guide on getting started with HARO.
It also pays to check out different podcasts in your niche. Most podcasts are looking for interviewees.
I’ve been interviewed in podcasts, like Nathan Latka’s “The Top,” and it boosted my visibility to his audience.
Some podcast websites will have an area where you can nominate someone (including yourself) for an interview.
Built To Sell is one podcast with a nomination page:
If a podcast site doesn’t have a dedicated nomination page, use the regular contact form.
Don’t get discouraged at this point in the game. If you hear no, try again. (I’ve heard “no” about a million times in my career.) Sooner or later, you’ll get in the spotlight.
4. Guest post on expert blogs
In addition to getting experts to feature on your site, you can also get featured on expert sites.
Guest blogging is an excellent strategy to use, if you’re newer to your niche and want some exposure. Your content will get in front of a brand new audience and, more importantly, you’ll get a link back to your site.
First, you need to find relevant blogs. One of the best ways is to use your niche as a keyword and then add some Google tricks to find blogs.
Let’s use architecture as an example. If you go to Google and type in this:
You’ll see a nice list of architecture blogs that accept guest posts.
There are other searching methods too. Here’s a great list from Brian Dean of Backlinko that has over 40 search terms that you can use.
Next, you need to land the guest post.
- As I mentioned in point #2, it helps if you actually read the blog. If you don’t, read through it a bit and get a sense of what the content is like and who the audience is.
- Next, you’ll need to write up an irresistible pitch. Be personable and honest. Don’t try to “impress” anyone with your knowledge of jargon.
- Then, rinse and repeat. If you pitch good ideas, you’ll be able to get the spotlight on expert blogs.
Guest blogging is a long-term strategy and you won’t necessarily get a lot of quick wins. But, it’s one of the most powerful techniques on this list. Use it wisely!
5. Re-share old content
I’m a big fan of repurposing content, but you can also reuse content without changing it.
If you post a lot of evergreen content (and you should), you can share that content on a regular basis.
Here’s a recent Tweet from HubSpot Academy:
That link goes to this blog post:
Even though the Tweet was from January 20, the blog post was from December 2. That means the article was almost two months old when the Tweet went out.
Since the article has evergreen content, the date doesn’t matter. In fact, you can re-share evergreen content that’s years old.
Think about it: If you share one piece of content on all of your social media platforms, several times over the course of the year, you’ll get a lot of traffic from it.
If you do this for multiple pieces of content…well, you see where this is going.
It’s an insanely easy way of getting more mileage out of your existing content. If your content is still relevant and up-to-date, share the heck out of it.
6. Create awesome infographics
Infographics have been consistently popular for the last several years and there are no signs of that changing.
At Kissmetrics, we were able to bring in over 2 million visitors and over 41,000 backlinks, all from 47 infographics. (They also performed amazingly on social media platforms.)
But, you can’t just throw some facts onto a nice-looking template. Here’s how to create an infographic that people will love.
First, find your sources. You want sources that are as credible as possible.
A good method is to look through blogs in your niche and see what facts they’re using. You can use the exact same sources that they use.
Second, design your infographic. You can do this yourself, with a service like Canva:
If you don’t feel confident in your design skills, you can hire a designer. Dribbble and Behance are two good places to look.
Third, promote your infographic. In addition to sharing your infographic on social media platforms, you can submit it to infographic directories, like SubmitInfographics.com:
Check out this Quick Sprout article for more techniques on creating a popular infographic.
7. Hold a webinar
The webinar is one of my all-time favorite types of content. Webinars are super helpful, easy to do and drive a ton of traffic.
I hold a regular webinar that is giving me enormous amounts of traffic right now.
People love to learn new stuff and they especially love to learn new stuff for free. That’s exactly what a good webinar promises and delivers.
There are a few important steps that you need to take to create an appealing webinar.
First, pick a topic you know inside and out. You need to be an expert on the topic and your viewers should know that.
If you’re not well-known in your niche, you might want to have a short bio featured that tells people who you are. Heck, even if you are well-known, a short bio is a good idea.
That’s what HubSpot and Dropbox did for a joint webinar:
Second, plan your content. Think short, but information-packed slides. Use bullet points, short sentences and some media (e.g., infographics, statistics charts/graphs, videos, etc.)
You can make the slides for free with Google Slides:
And, you can use Google Hangouts to broadcast the webinar for free.
Best of all, your Hangout will get saved as a YouTube video, so you can share it as much as you want.
When you’re planning your content, you need to think of a good hook to get people interested. Why should anyone watch your webinar?
For example, if your webinar is called “Landing Page Basics,” you might not get a lot of interest. But if you call it “5 Ways to Improve Your Landing Page Today,” I guarantee that people will be interested.
Make sure that people know that the content is going to be good.
Third, promote your webinar. Share it on all of your social platforms and ask everyone you know to share it on theirs.
Finally, take the webinar live! You’ll probably get some stage fright and that’s perfectly normal. (It took me a long time to get used to doing webinars.)
Webinars can bring in a lot of traffic. If you hold webinars regularly, you’ll have mastered a simple and efficient method for getting more visitors.
8. Publish a podcast
Podcasts are pretty hot right now. They’re like a series of bite-sized webinars and people can’t get enough of them.
I’ve been running a podcast for a while, and the results have surprised me! It’s a great source of traffic from people who might not otherwise be exposed to your brand or content.
You can leverage people’s love of podcasts by publishing your own. Here’s what you need.
First, you need a great podcast idea. There are podcasts for every subject imaginable, so what makes yours unique?
Consider the podcast No Such Thing As A Fish. It puts a fun twist on information-based podcasts, with episodes like “No Such Thing As Chariots In Space.”
You need your own unique angle to stand out from the crowd.
From there, you’ll need to find a way of recording your podcast. Check out this guide from AVADO for more detailed information.
After you’ve recorded your podcast, you can upload it to a ton of sites, like SoundCloud and Stitcher.
If your podcast has great content and an interesting angle, you can drive a lot of traffic with this method.
Conclusion
These 8 traffic-boosting tips aren’t a secret, but they accomplish more than you think.
I’ve personally used all 8 of these techniques at some point in my career. They’re some of my favorite traffic generation tips and I know they’ll help you get hundreds of visitors to your blog.
You don’t have to work really hard to get traffic. If you know what your audience likes and if you give that to them, you’ll get traffic.
But remember, your content has to be valuable. People can smell nonsense immediately. If you’re sharing subpar content, your users will know.
On the other hand, if you work to put out the best content possible, you’ll get visitors that will stay for the long term.
Here’s a challenge for you: I want you to try at least one of these techniques in the next month. I know you can do it!
Pick one of these techniques and try it this week. Report back with your results.
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