4 Easy Steps to Increase Your Blog Traffic

One of the most common complaints that I hear from bloggers is the fact
that no matter how hard they try, they can’t grow their blogs past 200
or so daily page views. Those early days are indeed the hardest, because
you need to put hard work in without the certainty of achieving results.

 

If you are in that same situation, here is a simple strategy that
will certainly increase your blog traffic and make you break the 1,000
daily page views mark. In fact, the strategy could be used even if your
are already over that number but have reached a traffic plateau lately.




Just make sure to execute the 4 steps as planned and to spend the two
hours and a half every day (obviously if you have more time available
you can expand the time spent on each of the four steps proportionally).

First Step: The Killer Articles (1 hour/day)

Spend one hour brainstorming, researching and writing killer articles (also called linkbaits, pillar articles and so on).


Notice that your goal is to release one killer article every week. If
that is not possible aim for one every 15 days. So the one hour that
you will spend every day will be dedicated to the same piece. In other words, expect killers articles to take from 5 up to 10 hours of work. 




If you are not familiar with the term, a killer article is nothing
more than a long and structured article that has the goal of delivering a
huge amount of value to potential visitors. If you have a web design
blog, for example, you could write an article with “100 Free Resources
for Designers”. Here are some ideas for killer articles:

• create a giant list of resources,


• write a detailed tutorial teaching people how to do something,


• find a solution for a common problem in your niche and write about it, or


• write a deep analysis on a topic where people have only talked superficially

When visitors come across your killer article, you want them to have the following reaction: “Holy
crap! This is awesome. I better bookmark it. Heck, I better even
mention this on my site and on my Twitter account, to let my readers and
friends know about it.”

Second Step: Promotion (40 minutes/day)

The first activity here is the promotion of your killer articles.
Whenever you publish one of them, you should push it in any way you can.
Examples include:

• letting the people in your network know about it (don’t beg for a link though),


• letting bloggers and webmasters in relevant niches know about it,


• getting some friends to submit the article to social bookmarking sites,


• getting some friends to Twitter the article, and


• posting about the article in online forums and/or newsgroups.

If there is time left, spend it with search engine optimization,
social media marketing and activities to promote your blog as whole.
Those can range from keyword research to promoting your blog on Facebook
and guest blogging.

Third Step: Networking (40 minutes/day)

Networking is essential, especially when you are just getting
started. The 30 minutes that you will dedicate to it every day could be
split among:

• commenting on other blogs in your niche,


• linking to the posts of bloggers in your niche, and


• interacting with the bloggers in your niche via email, IM or Twitter.

Remember that your goal is to build genuine relationships, so don’t
approach people just because you think they can help to promote your
blog. Approach them because you respect their work and because you think
the two of you could grow together.

Fourth Step: Normal Posts (40 minutes/day)

Just like a man does not live by bread alone, a blog does not live by
killer articles alone. Normal posts are the ones that you will publish
routinely in your blog, between the killer articles. For example, you
could publish a killer article every Monday and normal posts from
Tuesday through Friday. Here are some ideas for normal posts:

• a post linking to an article on another blog and containing your opinion about it


• a post informing your readers about a news in your niche


• a post asking a question to your readers and aiming to initiate a discussion


• a post highlighting a new resource or trick that you discovered and that would be useful to your readers

While killers articles are essential to promote your blog and bring
new readers aboard, normal posts are the ones that will create diversity
in your content and keep your readers engaged.