Whether you are a new blogger looking to build traffic or a seasoned pro looking for more ideas, this blogging roundup post is for you!
I asked 34 blogging experts the following question:
“What is one piece of advice that you have for new bloggers who want to build a consistent flow of traffic to their blogs?”
As someone that is fairly new to blogging, learning the best practices for building consistent traffic can be overwhelming to say the least. The tips listed below reflect the hard work and experience of various blogging entrepreneurs and I cannot wait for you to check them out! Please leave us a comment with your favorite piece of advice below.
Andréa Jones – OnlineDrea
“When building a consistent flow of traffic to your blog, you’ll want to make sure you’re posting regularly on social media. To ensure that you have a balance of posts, make sure that your posts are telling a story.
For instance, when the blog post first comes out, why not share a bit of why you felt inspired to write this post. Then a few days later, highlight something interesting from the blog and encourage your followers to check out the full blog for more detail. And a few days later, you can bring up the topic again by asking a question on the blog’s topic. You can simply add a P.S. to this post linking to the blog again.
With the strategy outlined above, you’re allowing yourself to talk about the new blog in three different ways that all point back to that one blog post.”
Renae Christine – Cupcake Trainings
“My one piece of advice for new bloggers wanting to increase traffic is to do videos. Videos. Videos. Videos. All the stats are showing that everything is moving in that direction and that Generation Z won’t even know they are alive in 10 years without it. Even if you hate your face being on video, find a way to communicate the same message through video. Period. Then you can dominate almost any platform and 10Up other bloggers.”
Inu Etc – Inu Idea
“I think blogging is hard and too competitive now unless you choose the right niche and write really high-quality blog posts. So if you’re a beginner blogger, I suggest you choose a niche you love or choose a niche in which you’re an expert.
Also, learn SEO, marketing, and copywriting. If you want to build a consistent flow of traffic to your blog, these skills will help you a lot.
If you want to get consistent organic traffic from Google, you should learn SEO to optimize your blog posts to rank higher on Google.
But the sad part is, SEO takes time!
So, I recommend many bloggers use Pinterest to drive consistent traffic to their blogs.
I’m doing the exact same thing with my blog, I optimize my blog posts to rank higher on Google and I’m using Pinterest to drive traffic to my blog.
Check out my complete Pinterest guide, and start working on Pinterest to get massive traffic from Pinterest.
So, that’s it!
Choose the right niche, learn SEO to optimize your blog posts to rank higher on Google, and use Pinterest to drive traffic to your blog.
This is my advice for new bloggers who want to build a consistent flow of traffic to their blogs.
If you have any questions feel free to contact me @InuEtc on Instagram.”
Kristin Larsen – Believe in a Budget
“Utilizing Pinterest is a great way to build and create a steady stream of traffic, especially as a new blogger. Create a couple pins per blog post, join group boards and participate in Tailwind Tribes. Consistency is key when it comes to Pinterest, so plan a weekly pinning schedule and stick with it. The results will pay off!”
Mike Beatty – Make Time Online
“I would recommend figuring out where your audience hangs out.
There are 3 main long term traffic sources you can focus on (but there are always new viral and short term platforms, such as Tik Tok or Snapchat):
- SEO
- YouTube
All 3 have a “search” function, meaning that you can rank for certain keywords and get sustainable traffic for months or years if you produce good content.
Focus on really learning one of those 3 thoroughly and think about where your audience hangs out mainly. SEO is important for any blog but it often takes longer to see results with a new website. Pinterest and YouTube can give your blog a much-needed boost in the early stages and provide a consistent flow of traffic in the future.”
Nadia – Speaking of Cents
“The best advice that I can give to the new bloggers is to make sure they know which is the right social media when it comes to their target audience. Not knowing where your target audience hangs out can be the biggest mistake in your entrepreneurial journey. While you are working day and night to create awesome content and just because it is not seen by the right people, all that effort is useless. Spend more time in figuring out the right way to reach your target market because once you have the right people looking at your content, it will be easier for you to offer them your services and products and the conversion rate will be awesome if you are planning to offer them a product/service.”
Daniella – I Like To Dabble
“Never be afraid to promote “too much”. You can never promote yourself too much. Continue to post your stuff and what you’re doing on social media, constantly optimize your site for SEO so google likes you and you rank, talk with other bloggers and collaborate, and always keep learning and integrating. I heard someone once say “you should try to be everywhere until everyone knows who you are” and that stuck with me. The more you put yourself out there, the more people will find you, see you, and resonate with you.”
Ana – The She Approach
“The number 1 mistake I see new bloggers make (and I’ve learned this the hard way because I used to be that blogger) is that they write content ABOUT themselves, instead of writing FOR their readers.
Here’s the harsh reality – unless you’re already famous in some way, and people have taken an active interest in your life (think of influencers, TV celebrities, authors etc), then most people don’t care about you. They care about what you can do for them.
That doesn’t mean you can’t infuse your personality and personal experiences into your blog posts. You do, and you should, because that’s what’s going to make you stand out! But you need to formulate your content in a way that’s helpful, informative or even entertaining to your audience – based on your niche and blog topic.
One way to do that is by creating “how to” content, or “best…” type blog posts. To break it down even further, if you want a stream of constant traffic, address the questions and problems your target audience is facing – and don’t just assume – do your research.
Keyword research tools such as Keysearch for example, offer a “Brainstorm” function, and with just one click, I found a dozen topics that people type into Google every single day. (See photo attached). That’s enough blog post ideas for an entire year right there – blog posts that are going to get people clicking over to your blog.”
Daaku & Mrs. Daaku – Mrs Daaku Studio
“If you are a new blogger, you should focus on one platform first and master it before you move onto anything else. For me, it was Pinterest. It is a quick way to get traffic and reach advertising thresholds for any new blogger.
Once you do that, I highly recommend you to learn SEO and shift your focus on organic traffic. It is more stable, consistent and requires lesser amount of “constant work” as compared to Pinterest. Learn more here.”
Julienne DesJardins – Julienne DesJardins Digital Marketing
“YouTube is a great way to build consistent traffic to your blog. Depending on your content, you could do anything from vlogging to screencast video tutorials. In the last 4 weeks, I’ve booked 2 paying clients from a YouTube video I made 2 years ago! The video is targeted to my ideal client, gives them an ah-ha moment, is optimized with keywords, and points back to my blog in the description. In my experience, by the time someone lands on your site from a YouTube video, they already feel like they know and trust you. They’re very easy leads to convert.”
Nadalie – It’s All You Boo
“As bloggers we’re always consumed with finding ways to get more traffic so we can hit important milestones. That doesn’t change no matter how long you’ve been blogging. I’ll share a truth and a tip. The truth is that your traffic has natural ebbs and flows throughout the week, over the months and based on the seasons. You can’t compare November that is traditionally high traffic to July that is in the middle of the summer slump. Know your traffic, and understand how it behaves over time. That can help you set better expectations for growth over time. Personally, I am all about increasing my traffic in comparison to last year this date, as opposed to yesterday.
Now, for my traffic tip. As a new blogger the best move you can make to get traffic fast, is to learn how to use Pinterest. Get on the platform, create images for your content, pin consistently and reap the benefits. Pinterest is the best choice because as a new blogger you don’t have domain authority as yet, you’re not ranking in Google search, but with stunning images you can raise your traffic relevantly quickly. I encourage you to read blog posts, watch youtube videos or even take a course like Pinterest Popular. If you’re looking for tips to pin better, you can sign up for my free masterclass on the top 3 mistakes you’re making on Pinterest.”
Marianna – The Collective Mill
“I’m going to warn you, this might seem like a lot of work but it’s important (if not critical) for new bloggers.
My one piece of advice is to create content upgrades. If you’re not familiar with this term, a content upgrade is a free resource that you offer your audience inside your blog posts. For example, a free worksheet, checklist, to-do list, calendar, etc.
A content upgrade is not your traditional lead magnet. So an eBook that you create and offer across your entire website wouldn’t be considered a content upgrade. What makes content upgrades unique is that each one is designed for only one specific blog post. ✨
Right now, you might be thinking, “why the heck do I have to create a new content upgrade for every single post…” and there’s an important reason.
Content upgrades make your blog posts SO MUCH more appealing. When you promote a new blog post on Instagram or Pinterest (and highlight the freebie that’s included inside) you will get a lot more traffic. Plus, they have way higher conversion rates compared to your traditional lead magnet.
If this seems like a lot of work, trust me it’s worth it.
Content upgrades are also the BEST and EASIEST way to grow your email list. Especially if you want to turn your blog into a businesses.
Content upgrades have helped me grow my email list to over 20,000 subscribers and email is the #1 place I sell my products / services.
Okay, that was a lot but I hope you find this advice helpful! I also created free content upgrade templates to help you get started. You can grab them here. ?”
Sam – Samanthability
“For new bloggers building traffic, it’s important to produce a lot of high-quality content. Learn the questions your target audiences has and answer them accurately and simply. From there, network with other experts in your niche to get your name out there.”
Divine – Ladies Make Money
“I have multiple blogs and with some of my much newer blogs, I found better success by participating in guest posts with bloggers in my niche.
I was able to get my DA from 0 to 21 in less than 7 months.
This tactic alone allowed me to start ranking higher and much faster in search results as most of my articles were written with great keywords in mind.
I also focus on creating epic and evergreen content that I can update frequently to keep it relevant.
Sprinkling in a bit of seasonal content doesn’t hurt either.”
Mariah – Mariah Magazine
“In the online space, there are SO many ways to increase your website traffic. What’s the best solution for you? That depends on your goals and how you want to show up for your people. But the one piece of the puzzle that you don’t want to miss is setting up Google Analytics. Google Analytics is a free tool created by Google to help YOU understand the traffic on your website. Understanding your current traffic (even when it’s smaller numbers) is an awesome way to help you get strategic about increasing those numbers. It will give you the rundown of where people are finding you online, which pages and posts are doing the best, which social media platform is driving the most traffic, and so much more. I’d suggest setting this up ASAP so that you cant start tracking your traffic before implementing traffic growth strategies.
Here’s a step by step tutorial for setting up Google Analytics on your website.
Another thing to keep in mind when blogging is that you should be spending 2x as much time promoting your content, as it took you to create it.
So many people, including my clients, sometimes overlook the fact that content needs to be marketed. If you’re hitting publish and then forgetting about it, you’re missing a huge opportunity to increase your website traffic and visibility. How can you promote it? A good place to start is social media! The social media platform that works best for you would totally depending on your content and your target audience. But if you have Google Analytics set up, you’ll be able to find out which social media platform people are already finding you on and start there!”
Katie Jenison – The Quiet Type
“My advice to new bloggers that want to build a consistent flow of traffic is two-fold. First, be willing to seek out new opportunities and make connections with other bloggers. Some of the easiest ways to create back links to your own blog is to write guest posts and comment on other blogger’s posts with a link to your site. While building back links is super helpful, actively guest posting and interacting with other bloggers is a great way to build a network of fellow bloggers who can offer advice and insights. They’ll also be the ones who offer support by sharing your blog or content with their audience. Second, be patient. Building consistent blog traffic doesn’t happen overnight. It can take awhile for different channels and strategies to really pay off, so don’t get discouraged if your traffic isn’t meeting your expectations after a few months or even within the first year. Every niche is different and finding the right strategies can take some trial and error. Stick with it and eventually your hard work will pay off!”
Lisa – The Money Minded Mom
“The best advice I can give to a new blogger who wants to build a
consistent flow of traffic is to implement SEO early on to attract a
targeted audience who’s searching for what you have to offer.
Of course, SEO does take time for your site to rank in Google and build
authority, so adding Pinterest as traffic source will definitely help get
the ball rolling.”
Raelyn Tan – Raelyn Tan
“Often, entrepreneurs are not able to grow their traffic because they haven’t been able to master their chosen traffic source… due to all the different steps and tactics that are needed. Some jump around from strategy to strategy, but nothing works for them. Either that, or they have been consistent and focusing on one particular strategy, but they are consistently employing the wrong tactics.
As someone who specializes in helping online entrepreneurs grow their audiences, I would advise new bloggers to adopt the divide and conquer strategy: Focus on 1 – 2 sources of traffic first, do them well, then move on to the next tactic and build as many as possible to diversify your risk.
Think about your traffic sources like income sources. There are many income sources in the world, but each one requires certain amounts of research and hard work in order to “make it work”. It will also not be wise to only rely heavily on just 1 – 2 sources of income.
The same applies for traffic sources. You want as many of them as possible, but not before you are able to master 1 – 2 of them first before moving on to conquer the rest and diversity.”
Dre & Andy – The Solopreneur Society
“For us, choosing just one piece of advice for a new blogger is like asking a mom which one kid is her favorite… but, if you insist here’s where we’d double down.
Get social and master that platform.
Social media is hands down the quickest and cheapest way to start generating traffic (and more importantly business). The problem is, most bloggers bite off more than they can chew (usually because they’re following some stale gospel the guru-pipeline is pushing). If you want consistent traffic you have to consistently publish and it’s virtually impossible to do that when you’re trying to maintain multiple platforms – especially without sacrificing quality and sanity.
Don’t fall into the hustle mentality thinking you need to be on every platform, posting multiple times a day. That’s the worse approach you can take, especially when you’re just getting started! All you need is one social watering hole to start creating buzz and generating traffic.
What you want to do is choose ONE social watering hole (based on where you and your buyers like to hang out) and become the master of that “domain”. Learn the features offered. Research the tools that exist. Watch and reverse engineer what other brands are doing. Execute, test, and adjust.
Choosing one social platform to plant your flag is the difference between burn out and brand equity – and the latter is a whole lot more fruitful. Start socialing-out on your favorite watering hole and traffic is just a matter of time.
We double dog dare you to try it for yourself. We’ll be over here rooting you on like a couple of drunk fan girls. ?”
Lorraine – Marketing Digi Book
“Be patient and persevering. Blogging is a marathon not a sprint, so take your time and do the hard work. Most new bloggers renounce even before they really start as they expect quick results. Before seeing results you have to work a lot and work hard, be aware of that. Do not compare your results with already established bloggers or those that are starting the 2nd, 5rd or 10th blog, experience matters. Do not pay too much attention to titles like “How I made X thousand dollars my 2nd month blogging” or “How I got X thousand views on my one month blog” they will only discourage you. Remember these cases are exceptions, not the rule and your journey is unique to you, so comparisons are most often not appropriate.”
Arfa Nazeer – She Means Blogging
“Keep showing up, and WRITE. Most new bloggers feel overwhelmed with endless advices, and lessons to grow their blogs but the most important thing is to prepare solid content. That means, focusing and polishing your blog posts is the number one thing any new blogger must focus on. And, then, it’s all about your efforts to show up, and promote your content.
No strategy would work if you have NO quality content. No one would come back to your site. No one is going to share your content again. Thus, no visibility.
So, start creating best type of content that lasts forever. With that, keep showing up in online communities to share what you do.
I even wrote an ebook on creating high quality content with deep understanding on monetisation and marketing. You can check it out here.”
Gina Horkey – Horkey HandBook
“Treat your blog like a business, even if you aren’t making any money from it. Create a content calendar and keep to it. Know who you’re writing to, but be prepared for that to shift as your traffic grows. Learn the basics of SEO (search engine optimization). Lastly, spread the word – just because you build it, they will not come.”
Shell – Kitty & Buck
“To build consistent traffic to your blog, you need one formula! It’s not one thing, but a magical combination of things that will make you stand out from the crowd and raise your content above the noise. The secret formula is this:
Valuable Content + Strong Marketing [SEO + Social] = Quality consistent traffic
Let’s break it down!
Valuable content is simply content that is helpful, informative or interesting for your audience. Most people blog around 500 words per post, but for valuable in-depth content, you’re looking at 2000-3000 words per post, or even more! Writing long-form content on your topic will help to establish you as an authority in your field, as well as providing value for your readers with quality, well-researched, and interesting content. This kind of content can be called “evergreen” – it’s useful for years to come, and doesn’t expire because it’s not tied to current events, or a certain timeframe. Evergreen content can be easily repurposed for your marketing (see part 2 of our magic formula). People are more likely to share this kind of valuable content, too! As an added bonus, long-form content is perceived as being more valuable by Google, Pinterest and other search engines.
Strong Marketing is the second part of the equation. You’ve done the hard work with creating some kick-ass, detailed, useful content, and now you have to get it out into the world. To optimise your content for SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), you need to make sure that you have a killer headline with a natural flow of words that includes keywords for your topic. Don’t stuff keywords into your headline, but make sure it includes some! You can scatter keywords throughout your post too, using variations on the keywords in your headline, using the H1, H2 and H3 tags in your code to give them importance in your article. Your first paragraph should clearly include some keywords from your topic as well. All of your keywords should be used in a conversational, natural way.
After that’s out of the way, it’s time to share your content! Pinterest is a fantastic way to drive quality traffic to your blog, so make sure that you include a well-designed, informative Pinterest graphic with your post, and add a keyword rich, naturally written paragraph as your “alt text” in the image description on your site, as that will be picked up by Pinterest as your pin description when someone shares your content. I like to include 5-10 unique Pinterest graphics for every single blog post, using different images and text, so that my post can be shared many times with unique Pinterest posts (you can hide these images in the code of your post!).
Finally, you need to share to your audience on social media. If you’re a beginner, I recommend starting with just one social platform that you enjoy hanging out on. Chances are, that’s where your audience spends their time too. Don’t feel like you have to do it all! Because you have some nice long-form content for your blog post, you can cherry-pick some key takeaways to share over multiple social posts, saving time, and giving value way more than a one-off post can. You can save time on creating this content by batching it and scheduling it all in advance, too!
While it might seem like a lot of work to create long-form content and share it in so many ways, the value for your audience, and the traffic you will receive means so much more than quick and dirty blog posts that have no substance. If you’d like to know more about how to manage batching, content creation, and more, check out my free 7-day productivity bootcamp, there’s an entire module on batching for content creation that will get you going in no time!
Noni May – Noni May
“Don’t try to do it all. For beginners, it doesn’t work like that. Pick one platform you’re good at (and personally love so you can keep track and stay consistent) and try to be the best at it. For me, Pinterest works really well and so does building my own tribe via email marketing. You don’t want to rely on someone else’s platform and (business) by gaining a lot of followers if they’re owned by that company (for instant Facebook) because they have creative power on what you publish (if it gets reported it gets deleted) and they have the power to close your account and you lose your ‘business’ or traffic flow.
With email marketing you build your audience by getting their personal information (email address), which is much better because you can still move platforms and keep the audience. Also, I like the combination of email marketing and Pinterest the most, I’m not a big fan of the other social media channels so I actually did something really scary but I deactivated my accounts because they gave me too much stress and not enough ROI. I only lost a bit of income, but the calmness is worth it to me. I only follow my own path of success: what works for me is shown in the analytics, so make sure you track them!”
Jasmine – Miss Millennia Magazine
“I would say to set a time to work on your blog each day and stick to it. Consistency will have the biggest effect on your blog hands down. Set a time to work and stick to it. And let your family and friends know that that time ifs your blog time too.”
Joey – Good People, Cool Things
“As your blog is getting started, it can be tough to stand out from an SEO perspective. Luckily, there’s an established spot that’s like having a ton of bloggers in one place: Medium. You can search for publications that are in your blog’s area of focus and contribute posts to them. Medium pays you based on reads, so it can be a nice little bonus.
Alternatively, look up some keywords or read the top stories in your target Medium publications. Follow the authors and anyone who’s left a comment, then leave a comment yourself! It doesn’t need to be an essay—a quick line or two that adds to the conversation works great. By including my blog or email address in my profile and within stories I’ve written, I’ve found a good chunk of people coming over to my blog from Medium!”
Lisa Mitchell – FluxingWell blog
“Improving website speed to increase blog traffic”
Karen Whitfield – Online Blog and Business Help
“Learn SEO from the very beginning and focus on getting organic traffic”
Valentina Batrac – The Female Business blog
“The number one advice I have for beginners is to start working on Pinterest from the beginning as Pinterest is an amazing way to drive traffic to your blog. The best part about it is the fact that you can start seeing results quite fast. Also, start learning about SEO and work on getting organic traffic. It takes time to start seeing organic traffic and that’s why it’s best to start working on it from day one.”
Jacqueline Gilchrist – Mom Money Map
“Work on getting dofollow backlinks from high domain authority sites immediately. Do it consistently. You can get backlinks from guest blogging or using sites like HARO. This has been the biggest contributor to my traffic.”
“Craft a SEO strategy that works for you. Don’t do everything at once. Try different things and evaluate what works best for you and stick with it.”
Chloe Stewart – It’s Not your 9 to 5
“Use Pinterest to bring early traffic while waiting for SEO to kick-in.”
Charlene Thomas – The Smart Coupon Lady
“Do the work! It won’t come to you overnight. Put the time in.”
Clyde Quiñonez – What Blogs Her Mind
“Learn SEO as early as possible and apply what you have learnt immediately.”
Morgan
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