Traffic is what you need to create a successful website that will help you to make thousands of dollars every month.
However, the process of building traffic to a new site is not easy; it needs consistent effort to get a good amount of traffic.
Whether it is hundred or millions, everyone needs the traffic to fuel their blog. Every activity undertaken to run a blog is solely dependent on attracting more traffic.
Traffic translates to blog monetization.
No matter whether your monetization strategy is AdSense or selling your products, if no one visits your blog, how will you monetize it?
Common Traffic Sources
Ask any blogger, and they will cite common traffic sources: Social media sharing like publishing new blog posts on Facebook or Pinterest groups, sharing the link on LinkedIn, or sending out mass tweets DO work, but it does not have much longevity.
I mean if you promote on these social media sites constantly, you generate a steady stream of traffic, but when you do not share, the traffic flow starts reducing. Doesn’t it?
Similarly, FeedBurner visits or dropping the blog link on some content aggregation sites bring traffic, but it isn’t permanent.
Let me clear something here. No traffic source is permanent. You have to work on the traffic sources to keep the momentum going.
You are no ProBlogger who is counted among blogging stalwarts like Darren Rowse or Zac Johnson. They are at a stage where their brand value gets them eyeballs automatically.
You need to work doubly hard.
It is not as if every blog post ranks high on Google to bring constant organic traffic. Is it so? Most of you are shaking your head in denial. Right?
Spend 30 percent of the time creating content and 70 percent of the time promoting blog content.
Let’s put the common traffic sources aside for some time and explore some untapped traffic sources.
Untapped Traffic Sources
These traffic sources are not new per se, but they are underused.
No 1. Guest Blogging
Do not write-off guest blogging yet.
I know, neither it is a new method nor is it exclusive but do a quick assessment – how many bloggers are using this method to gain traffic?
Guest blogging can be immensely successful for promoting your blog or brand if you do it for the right reasons.
If you do it for just a do-follow backlink and nothing else, you better don’t do it at all.
Guest blogging is tough. Imagine the time one needs to spend to get published on exemplary sites like SitePoint or ProBlogger. These kinds of sites bring real reader engagement.
Isn’t that better than just a dofollow backlink?
Target high profile sites with targeted traffic sources, readers and heavy engagement to get published.
No 2. Submit Published Posts On Content Syndication
If you can write awesome content, content syndication sites should not be missed. According to me, content syndication sites are an advanced and evolved version of article marketing.
The last decade focused heavily on submitting articles, sometimes same and sometimes different, to article directories, a popular one being Ezine Articles.
But, their brand value has deteriorated over time.
Article marketing doesn’t work much anymore.
Instead, start using content syndication. It is a method by which you republish or re-share content published on your domain to the associated partners.
You partner with these sites to republish (either in full or just a snippet) and give your content more exposure.
Content syndication is available in almost all popular and trending niches. I am leaving you with some recommendations. Pick them up according to your niche.
Some recommended ones are Ning.com, Outbrain.com, Zemanta.com, SimpleReach.com, Taboola.com, Nrelate.com, LinkWithin.com, It plugin, Nster.com, ZergNet.com, SocialMediaToday.com, Business2Community.com, TheSocialCustomer.com, TheCustomerCollective.com, Ning.com Community and Better Networker.com.
Note that you have to pay for some content syndication memberships.
No 3. Repurpose Your Content
Publishing a blog post is not the end. It does not mean you cannot use it again, in another format.
While content syndication helps to double up traffic, repurposing blog content is a wonderful idea. It multiplies blog traffic sources almost instantly, and the whole process is easily replicated.
- Repurpose Content with Videos
Video marketing can make content go viral. Create a video for the published content.
For instance, if you have a WordPress tutorial to share, write a post on it and create a video implementing all the steps mentioned in the tutorial.
You can either DIY or hire a professional video maker. Of course, you need to spend a bit here but – if you have clear traffic building and conversion goals –the investment is easily recovered.
You can share the video on many sites. You do not need to create different videos for different sites. Moreover, you can link the video back to the main blog post, therefore, increasing the number of valuable backlinks.
Apart from hosting the repurposed content video on YouTube.com, you have other sites like DailyMotion.com, Flixya.com, Spike.com, MyVidster.com, Tagged.com, NowPublic.com, MeFeedia.com, VodPod.com, WonderHowTo.com, MySpace.com, Instructables.com, and uVouch.com.
- Repurpose Content with Slides
Similar to videos, you can use PPT slides to build long-lasting traffic sources.
You do not need any specialized software. Microsoft PowerPoint suite can serve the purpose perfectly.
After publishing the post, make a PPT. The PPT should be a summarization of the main points, and most PPT sharing sites are liberal with linking. You can link back to the original post and the blog homepage easily.
Be creative with PPT presentations because attraction and content presentation plays an important role here.
Some recommended sites to host PPT files are SlideShare.net, Scribd.com, AuthorStream.com, SlideWorld.com, Issuu.com, MediaFire.com, SlideRocket.com, SlideBoom.com, SlideLive.com, SlideBurner.com, WePapers.com and DocStoc.com.
No 4. eBay & Amazon
Sites like eBay & Amazon can be a goldmine of traffic. You can create your profile on those sites and sell eBooks for very less price so that you can attract more users to your site.
So, your goal here is not only to sell the eBook and make money but also get traffic back to your site.
You can create your profile on those sites and have a link back to your website on the profile page. If you are active on that site, it will help you to get a good amount of traffic to your site.
Now, as far as creating the eBook is concerned; you can hire someone who will help you to write the eBook for you or you can convert some of your top quality posts that are very useful for the users to an eBook and set it up for sale there.
No 5. Blog Commenting
Blog commenting is not a very actively used practice these days because there is a lot of discussion around the topic and the spam factor related to it.
Now, many users think that if you actively comment on blogs your blog might be considered as soam or low quality. But, that’s not the fact.
It is only true for those users who use automated bots to blast comments across hundreds of sites. This practice was never an authentic method and it will never be.
Be a human and write a detailed comment by understanding the content on the page and try to offer some value through your content in the comment. Every blog likes high-quality meaningful comment and in return, you get some targeted traffic.
Spend More Time Creating Traffic Sources
If you use all these untapped traffic sources, your blog will start getting more traffic.
Distributing content is not easy. Rather than publishing blog posts daily or too frequently, spend time on perfecting one piece of content to draw maximum benefits.
Repurposing content seems a bit hard, but with time, you will get a grip on things. Try to get published on 2 or 3 big blogs that offer high engagement every month.
Lastly, building alternate and long-lasting traffic sources will reduce your dependence on search engine organic traffic.
After all, one should never put all eggs in one basket!
