Tags
Blogging, Community, Facebook, Online Reach, Share, Social Media, Triberr, Twitter
Bloggers are constantly trying to increase their reach online, whether it be through social media, guest blogging, SEO, etc.
Let’s just say, it sucks not to get a lot of traffic to your blog. Here are a few ways that I’ve found increased my blog traffic:
Extend your blogging network
There are plenty of niche blogs out there that are dying to have their content shared on the web. Joining a blogging network can help that content get delivered.
- Join Triberr. It’s a social networking site for bloggers. You can start a ‘tribe’ and invite other similar bloggers to join your group. When you write a new post, your tribemates get notified, and then have the option to share and comment on your post. I’ve noticed significant increase in my blog traffic ever since I joined Triberr (which was only a few weeks ago).
- Join a Facebook or LinkedIn group. There are plenty of groups on both social networks that are dedicated to the blogging community. They work a lot like Triberr, and people in these groups tend to be very active.
Build relationships with influential people
I blog mostly about social media marketing, so I made an effort to introduce myself to people that are influential about social media.
- Follow your industry’s influential people and share their content. The more you share their content, the more likely they’ll be to share yours in return.
- Introduce yourself to people that have a lot of followers. Try to have conversations with them, both online and offline.
- Strengthen your offline relationship. If they know you personally, they’ll be more likely to help you out.
Get your message on other blogs
I recently wrote a post for Leaders West (@leaderswest) that received over 150 retweets. Not only that, but it got picked up by Social Media Today (@socialmedia2day), which received over 600 social shares.
- Take every opportunity to guest post on other blogs. They usually have a different audience than your own blog following, so you might be able to pick up a few new followers.
- Try to become a regular author on a blog that gets a lot of exposure. Remember, your author bio links back to your own website, so the more you post on someone else’s blog, the more links you create to your own blog.
- Have people guest post on your blog. This can also attract new followers to your site.
Post on social networks at optimal time
Timing of your content can be as important as the actual content sometimes. If none of your followers are online to digest your content, how do you expect them to share it as well?
- Optimize your twitter schedule. I use a combination of Tweriod (@tweriod) and Social Bro (@socialbro) to get an analysis of when my followers are most active on twitter.
- Schedule your content to go out at optimal times. You can sync your Tweriod and Social Bro reports with BufferApp (@bufferapp). This makes sure that your content is always scheduled to go out at optimal times.
- Post on Facebook between 1PM and 4PM EST. bit.ly conducted a study, and they concluded that these were the optimal times to post on Facebook.
Focus on content, not SEO
Google is not the one that’s reading your content, people are. There’s nothing more frustrating and boring than reading a blog post that was designed to be consumed by a robot.
- Focus on writing style. Write what you have to say, in your own words. This makes it a lot more enjoyable for people to read. Enjoyable content = “share-able” content.
- There’s nothing wrong with having a couple keywords spread out throughout your post, but make sure your content is still readable after you conduct your SEO.
Keep “call-to-action” in mind
What do you want people to do with your post? Do you want them to share it on twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+? Do you want people to comment on the post, write a rebuttal, a video response? Make sure you tell people exactly what you expect from them after they read your post!
- At the end of your post, write down some discussion questions, and then ask people to leave their answers in the comments.
- At the end of your post, ask people to share!
- When you tweet out your post, or share it on Facebook, ask people to retweet, share, like, comment, etc.
Which best practices have you used to extend your online reach? Which ones worked the best? Please leave your comments bellow, and don’t hesitate to share with your friends on Twitter and Facebook! 🙂
Hilton Hamann said:
Great and informative post, Daniel!
Daniel Hebert said:
Thanks Hilton! Glad you enjoyed it! 🙂
I appreciate the comment.
tsudolcan said:
Great work!
GeniusStartup (GeniusStartup.com) said:
I can attest to the power of Triberr. Since I joined my traffic has increased three fold.
That’s not entirely down to Triberr directly, but there’s defintely a follow on effect from being more visible than before.
Daniel Hebert said:
I agree! The network that you build on Triberr proves to be very valuable for traffic 🙂
Thanks for the comment!
mydaphnefoddie said:
I save the link just to follow your writing. I got a new blog, its all about recipes and I want some tips and for me this is great. Thanks for sharing
Daniel Hebert said:
Thanks for the comment!
There is plenty of useful info for bloggers in here, no matter what they blog about! Hope you get some use out of the article! 🙂
Dino Dogan (@dino_dogan) said:
Hey Dan,
You mentioned connecting offline, I’d just like to add that it’s soooo important to do that.
Knowing someone on Twitter or Facebook (or even Triberr) is one thing…meeting that person in real life is a whole other level.
And -assuming you have a pleasing personality- it can lead to all sorts of amazing opportunities.
So for me…offline is huge. I highly recommend it. Take your Social Media connections offline…that should be the next big marketing move 🙂
Dino
Founder of Triberr
Daniel Hebert said:
Thanks for the comment Dino! I appreciate it! 🙂
I’ve taken some of my online relationships offline, and they’ve proved to be valuable so far! I think it’s very important!
Eva Williams said:
This is great information. Thanks
Daniel Hebert said:
Thank you Eva for the kind words! 🙂
socialmediaforsmartpeople said:
Yes and when you create a tribe on triberr that is engaging then it is more than just plain ole traffic 😉
Daniel Hebert said:
Thanks for the comment Michele!
I’ve created a lot more than reach with Triberr, you’re right. I created some great blogger relationships as well!
Annie Sisk said:
Great post, Daniel! You’re so right – every blogger complaining about lack of reach or traffic holds within themselves the power to change that. You just gotta reach OUT to increase your reach!
Daniel Hebert said:
Thanks Annie!
You’re right, bloggers have no excuse for not having reach. As long as you’re content is great, there are always ways to extend your online reach 🙂
josephruizjr said:
Good advice Daniel thanks for sharing.
Daniel Hebert said:
Thanks Joseph! 🙂
Jeff Belonger said:
Daniel…. A very good post and timely for so many. There is power in numbers, when those numbers aka people actually share and help engage. And excellent point on focusing on content and not SEO, especially since Google has changed this up in the last 10 months or so..
One thing I am baffled by, and I guess it’s proof that many studies can have flaws. You mentioned that bit.ly did a study saying 1 pm to 2 pm. Yet I have seen studies by Hub Spot and others, and even myself, to where the best times were 8 am to 11 am or lunch time… and even around 9 pm or 10 pm… some have said 10:30 pm. I for one do the least on FB from 1 pm to 4 pm.
In any case, good post with good info…
Daniel Hebert said:
Thanks for the comment Jeff!
I know, I am always weary of studies as well. I’ve heard a lot of mixed results for optimized Facebook posts, just because it’s hard to measure stuff on Facebook (because of privacy policies). I really think it depends on when your fans are online, it’s hard to generalize to everyone.
It’s a lot easier to figure it out on Twitter, with tools like Tweriod, where it measure when YOUR OWN fans are online. Not a generalized result.
Jeannette Baer (@MyAgenda) said:
You hit this on the nail Daniel! Joining an online community or group is so important. I look at it at the “online world” being this huge building having a conversation in every room, but if you just stand at the front door and start shouting, are you really connecting?
I can’t emphasize enough the importance of your other bullet points made here; linking to other blog post, posting at optimal times, etc — all superb!
Daniel Hebert said:
Thanks for the comment Jeannette!
Good analogy as well! 🙂
Nathalie said:
This is great and so relevant for me right now! Time at the computer is an incredible luxury so I’m looking for ways to streamline my engagement among different social networks. It sounds like I really need to get on Triberr though! Thanks, Daniel!
Daniel Hebert said:
Thanks for the comment Nathalie!
Yes, you should join Triberr! I’ve seen a few food related tribes that you might like 😛
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