We all want to increase blog traffic.
And we all would like to make more money.
That’s why it’s important to take a strategic approach for growing our blogs.
Starting last month (September) I made the commitment to focus on increasing readership for the Steve Scott Site.
My goal is simple: Get more blog traffic and convert readers into ‘action takers.’
In addition, I’m also implementing the same strategic approach with my niche affiliate sites.
The end result is a series called Traffic and Conversion.
Each month, I’ll test something new with my sites.
Then I’ll report back the results.
The idea here is to provide YOU with specific actions for expanding your Internet business.
I’m pretty excited about this series. I think you’ll learn a lot from it!
To get things going, I’d like to talk about something that’s important to any blogger…
Increasing blog traffic starts with a solid foundation. You want to establish a routine that slowly grows the reach of your site.
As an example, in late August I create an aggressive content-marketing strategy. The result? I increased my blog traffic by 25.3% in one month.
Here are my stats for the month of August:
There are three important metrics here:
- 14,219 Visits
- 80.60% Bounce Rate
- 1:21 Time on Site
Moving forward, my goal is it to improve upon these three numbers.
Now let’s take a look at the stats for the month of September:
Did my site grow? Here are the results:
- 17,827 Visits (+25.3% increase)
- 77.95% Bounce Rate (-2.6% decrease) <— A lower bounce rate is good.
- 1:43 Time on Site (+27.1% increase)
I’ll admit it… These numbers aren’t earth-shattering. But I’m really happy with them. Why? Because I’ve been at a plateau for the last year. These show that blog traffic has significantly grown in the last month.
The best part? I increased traffic to my blog because of 7 specific actions that rely on a fairly aggressive content marketing strategy:
#1 – Focused on Creating Great Content
We all know that “Content is king.” Truth is, increasing blog traffic starts with exceptional content. In September, I wrote four “Massive Valuable Posts” (MVPs) that go beyond a standard blog article:
The idea here is to create a great impression with blog readers. These posts are designed to attract new traffic and maintain the interest of past readers.
Any “blog traffic strategy” should revolve around providing excellent content. In other words, give people a reason why they should come back.
#2 – Improved Reader Experience
Some of my posts are 3,000+ words in length. That’s a lot of text to read!
That’s why I’ve made two tweaks to improve reader experience for my blog posts.
First, I now use images that act as section breaks. (You can see an example at the start of this section.)
Has this helped increase blog traffic? I don’t think it makes a difference in the short term. But these section breaks make it easier to read my posts. Ultimately this will keep people coming back for more!
Sidebar: I’m thinking about creating a post showing how to create these section breaks. But I’m not sure if it’s something people want. So please let me know (in the comment section) if you’d like to learn more about this technique.
Next, I’ve made the posts easier to scan.
Most people don’t read everything word-for-word. Instead they look at the “attention-grabbers” (headlines, bullet points, bolded text, etc.)
I now write my posts for the people who like to scan. I use short text, lots of bolding and indent some areas.
Again, I feel this is a way to make posts easier to read. In the long term, this should increase repeat blog traffic
#3 – Commented on Other Blogs
Blog commenting is a traffic tactic we all use. The trick to making it work is to have a system.
First off I comment on every site that leaves one on mine. Usually I’ll add to the discussion and point out stuff that’s been personally helpful to me. The idea here is to increase value to what’s been written.
Next I visit 10 to 20 new sites a week. Usually I’ll go to sites I’ve discovered in the Make Money Online / Lifestyle Design niche. My goal is to start conversations and network with new people.
Finally I recently installed the Comment Luv premium plugin. {Not an affiliate link}
This provides a great one-two punch if you have a Do-Follow blog. (Like mine.) Not only does this tool encourage people to leave comments; it provides an incentive to share my posts through social media.
Blog commenting has gotten a lot of flak lately. Many feel it’s not a viable way to increase blog traffic. My opinion is it still works. Just be consistent and you’ll get results!
#4 – Improved Twitter Activities
Twitter has always scared me a little. Why? I’ve always had the fear that it kills my productivity.
This changed when I figured out how to blend automation with being a real person.
To start, I use Market Me to schedule a series of posts. So every day, my Twitter stream includes:
That’s it for the automation. What’s cool is my followers get six high-quality Tweets – No matter what I’m doing that day.
Next, I spend about 10 minutes each day going through my Twitter lists. Here are a few ways I add personality to my Twitter actions:
1) Thank anyone who re-Tweeted one of my posts
2) Respond to any questions or comments
3) Re-Tweet content from other bloggers that’s interesting and useful
4) Reach out to people who have taught me an important technique
5) Post an update that’s related to what I’m doing with my business
Frankly, I don’t consider myself a Twitter expert. However I typically pull 100-200 visitors a day using these steps. Not too bad if you ask me.
#5 – Implemented a Blog Post Promotion Plan
I follow a simple plan after every blog post. This helps me leverage existing assets and immediately let people know about content I’ve just created. (Plus I get a few extra backlinks to the article!)
Here what I do to promote most of my blog posts:
- Email my “Steve Scott Site” list subscribers
- Email my Affiliate Marketing without the Bulls**t customers (Only if the article is related to affiliate marketing.)
- Schedule 5 to 7 promotional Tweets for the upcoming week
- Add a link and description to my Google + account
- Ping the post using sites like Pingomatic and Pingler
- Post it on Blog Engage
- Post it on Stumble Upon
- Post it on Blokube
- Post it on Amplify
- Post it on 3 of the following sites (always mix it up): Blink, Social Adr, ShetoldME, Best-reviewer, InfoPirate, Faves, Jumptags, Delicious, URL.org, MysiteVote, Stumpedia, Mister Wong, Redgage, Social Marker
- Comment on a few Do-Follow blogs using the primary keyword as an anchor tag.
This is a pretty basic plan. The idea here is to create an immediate bump in traffic a few minutes after I hit the Publish button.
#6 – Networked with Other Bloggers
Networking with other bloggers is a technique that has a lot of long-term value. In addition, this action can also generate lots of daily blog traffic.
As an example, I included a number of bloggers on my 68 Free eBook Post. Some were people I knew. Others were bloggers I admired, but never spoke with before.
After publishing this post; I sent each person a Tweet like this:
I’ll admit it was a bit spammy. That’s why I didn’t ask for anything in return. Instead I simply said I included their report and told them where to find the link. That’s it!
The result?
I made a few connections with people who have a lot of reach. Plus I generated a lot of extra traffic because many promoted this post over Twitter:
What’s interesting about this metric is the average reader spent almost SIX minutes reading this article.
That’s a lot of time for a blog post!
#7– Created High-Value Pages
The one thing that bothers me about my traffic rates is my bounce rate. This is the percentage of people who come to my site and leave after reading one page. In other words, this figure shows how many don’t stick around to read more articles.
For August my bounce rate was 80.60%. Not good.
For September my bounce rate was 77.95%. Still not good.
I can make excuses for why this number is so high. (Like how I get a lot of “junk traffic” from people using Google Images.) But there are also a number of ways I can improve upon the bounce rate.
One thing I’m doing is creating what I call Most Wanted Result (MWR) Pages. These act like mini-wikis where I educate and focus on increasing list subscriber numbers.
My goal is to create dozens of these pages. Then I’ll link these on the blog posts that get lots of search engine traffic. Ultimately I think they’ll decrease bounce rates while creating repeat blog traffic.
That’s it for this month’s installment of Traffic & Conversion.
In the next thirty days (and beyond), I’ll test a LOT of things:
- How to turn “junk traffic” into loyal readers
- How to decrease my overall bounce rate
- How to increase search engine optimization
- How to increase on-page optimization
- How to quickly build profitable niche affiliate websites
- How to improve sales page conversions for my two information products
- How to increase opt-in rates on my squeeze pages
Right now, I can’t predict what I’ll talk about in next the part of this series. What I can guarantee is I’ll only talk about something that has proven to improve my traffic and conversion rates.
Questions? Comments? Please respond below…
What’s the secret to getting more web traffic?
It’s time for another update of 
I’m almost done with my travels for the summer (Just one more trip to Mississippi.) Once that’s done, I’m dedicating my time to a simple goal: Get more traffic to the Steve Scott Site.
