10 Proven Ways To Get Free Traffic To Your Blog
Post under eternal construction!
Getting traffic is probably the hardest thing to do on the Internet and at the same time the most important. BUT it doesn’t have to be hard. You only need a little patience and a few tips.
You shouldn’t use them all. Chose a few you believe will work for you and use your energy on those. They won’t all be optimal for your site.
Some of them are relatively easy. Some of them demands patience.
Useful and original content always wins! Help people with a problem and establish expert status!
This Article is about Driving Traffic To Your Blog.
Traffic is like the blood in your veins. It keeps your body alive and you can’t live without it!
The good old days of free traffic doesn’t really exist anymore. We can still find free traffic but it has become increasingly harder over the past 10 years.
The reason why is that search engines – primarily Google and Social Media has positioned them selves to be able to charge money for traffic. It is called Ads.
This means you wont get much organic traffic from Social Media. Except if you are able to create a Facebook group that is big enough to support you. Huge blogs who started 10-15 years ago and have millions of visitors today will also find a way to charge you if you want a part of their traffic.
2012 was the last good year on Facebook. Up until 2012 it was easy to create groups and pages, get 75.000 followers and everytime you posted something you got 500 likes and 500 comments during the first hours! We could get all the traffic we wanted!
But Facebook decided to limit our post reach. First to 7%, later to 2%!
And then they introduced ads so we could buy back those 98% we lost.
There are still many traffic sources on the Internet, you just have to find them and put some wour into it. This is a list of some of them, but you will find more yourself when you start working on driving traffic to your blog.
You will run into situations where new opportunities will arise.
Just an example: I have a blog where a guy tried to get a backlink to his .edu blog so I sent him a mail that if he would post a backlink to my page I would in return accept his post with a backlink.
You will get the opportunity to be creative when you are researching ways to get traffic and backlinks.
You need to be trusted!
The basic thing in most of this work is TRUST!
When you start your blog or sign up for a forum or start a group on Facebook or LinkedIn, you need to build trust first. This means you are not going to post affiliate links as the first thing.
This is particularly true if you sign up for an account on Quora, Hubpages or another platform where people are sharing content.
In other words: You need to be an authority and an expert that is respected!
And it takes time!
1. Forum posting
Forum posting can give some traffic. But you don’t want to start posting affiliate links or links to your blog as the first thing! Mingle first! Post 10 or 20 comments and questions and create a signature with a very emotional and strong header! Try to HELP people!
- Relevant traditional forums like Total WordPress Optimization
- Reddit – is not commercial so don’t post affiliate links over and over. The main focus is to contribute!
- Facebook groups
- Google My Business
- YouTube
- TikTok
You should create a company profile on Google My Business and post an excerpt and a link back to your articles on your blog. You can get nice traffic from GMB. But keep an wye on Google. They tend to change things in their own favor!
YouTube and Facebook groups of your own will take a long time to build, but it is vital at least to start a Facebook group ASAP! You will enjoy this in a year or two.
On Twitter you post six ordinary posts giving away your knowledge. Then you post one that makes you money. You can post these seven during one day.
Pinterest means you have to use the right keywords. These are shown to you in the search field when you start entering letters. This is VITAL. If you don’t use (long-tail) Pinterest keywords in your pins, you will never be found. You can post 10 – 15 times every day. Find a number that works for you. It is a little time consuming but Pinterest is a great place to get traffic.
Instagram has introduced a 7.500 limit follower. This means there is NO WAY you can follow more than 7.500 people! Accounts that have more followers are before this restriction.
The official reason is Instagram is trying to limit spam! Yeah right! And Limit our connections at the same time. Meaning we need to use Instagram Ads to reach more people! Which makes it harder to make money. These companies are in it for the money.
The rules are:
- Don’t be spammy!
- Only post links when it contributes to the thread!
- Create remarkable headers based on search keywords directly related to your post/article.
- Write posts that are memorable. Thorough.
To find some good forums you can do Google searches like these:
inurl: women’s health forum intext: “powered by smf”
inurl: women’s health boards intext: “powered by smf”
inurl: create a blog forum intext: “powered by vbulletin”
Explained:
inurl: “search string” – This is the topic/niche you are searching for.
intext: “powered by [forum]” – where forum is: vbulletin, phpbb, MyBB, IP Board, BBPress, Xenforo etc. These are names of popular forum software.
intext: “powered by [board]” – where board is vbulletin, phpbb, MyBB, IP Board, BBPress, Xenforo etc.
Using these searches is a common practice to find relevant forums to get traffic.
Not all forums allow a signature and not all forums allows links in the signature so when you have a list of possible forums go check them ans see if they are relevant for your niche.
The thing that is crucial here is:
1. Your post HAS to be relevant and helpful!
2. Your signature HAS to be convincing (emotional)!
I strongly recomend your signature leads to a signup page so you can build a mail list! Or you can do as Jeff does in this video:
2. Comment Posting – comments on other blogs
On many WordPress blogs, it is possible to comment on articles written by others. Make sure it has a box for posting your URL. The backlink you can get from a blog similar to yours is usually OK, but if your blog has a Domain Rank of 30-35 it demands a ton of backlinks to get more Domain Authority. 30 great relevant backlinks from high ranking pages can get you to DR 30.
I won’t recommend posting ONLY to get a backlink or trying to get traffic from that blog. Be nice to the Internet and don’t spam or pollute. Be genuine!
Blog posting usually doesn’t give much traffic because most people don’t care what you are writing – unless it is exceptionally good! But it can give you the first vital backlinks that will raise your Domain Authority and make it easier to rank on Google.
Some rules apply to comment posting:
- Don’t be spammy!
- Contribute or ask relevant questions.
- Write a post that is memorable.
You won’t get much traffic unless you post a really brilliant comment that makes people want to learn more. But you will get a backlink and this means higher rankings in Google and thus more organic traffic. But it takes time so be patient.
3. Guest Posting – Your Blog
Guest posting means writing and publishing articles on someone else’s blog or website.
Every blogger needs great content. But you need to start by writing a lot of content first. Otherwise no one will be interested in writing for you. You should have a section some where on your web site explaining the terms for guest bloggers to post on your site. You should also explain the benefits. Some pay for it. Some gives the blogger a backlink, but the most important thing you can offer is exposure. This means you need traffic in order to be interesting.
Inviting other experts to write an article on your blog can be tedious. Most people would rather write articles on their own blog. But if you can find similar blogs you can contact them with an idea you have and ask if they want to write an article on xxx words on yyy topic and get it posted on your blog with a link to their blog and their social media accounts.
This is often a discipline that costs money because many of those who are writing articles are paid to write. But there are a lot of new copy writers and authors out there who need help. Besides you might find a blogger on a small blog who potentially could be interested in writing on your blog.
You can also pick a hot topic – a simple question related to your niche, contact other blog owners and ask them for a few hundred words and then combine 10 of these comments on your own blog. The ‘payment’ for the 100-word sections would be a backlink to their website and maybe their primary social media account.
Like this on Ryan’s Blog.
Remember this one important thing. The blogger MUST post a link to the article on his own blog. Mote bloggers will do it anyway, but make sure it happens, because it can give you traffic and it gives you a backlink which ranks your article higher in Google.
This is a discipline that when you repeat it many times, can give you a lot of traffic! This way it is other bloggers who write your articles and they each only write maybe 200 words.
Another advantage of guest posting is you expand your network. This is important because you need new contacts all the time. New subscribers and new guest bloggers.
Guest posting on your blog is more worth than your own articles because of the network i creates and because of the backlink you get. You extend your reach! And this is important.
4. Guest Posting – Your Posts on other blogs
Guest Posting on other blogs is tough business and demands real patience. You need to do 500-600 articles in a period of two years to get noticed. Are you prepared for that?
This kind of guest posting will get you some backlinks and maybe some traffic. Personally I prefer to write on my own blog. I have a small number of articles on other blogs but the effect is overseeable. It gives a little traffic but I never wanted to invest two years of my life writing for others. But maybe you feel different about it. In the long run it is likely it will benefit you, but then again – I want my writings on my blog and only rarely make exceptions.
BUT I do recomend some guestposts to get the backlinks! And maybe a little more traffic.
Listen carefully to Neil Patel:
First you need to write an article – or preferrably a lot! When you look for interesting blogs to pitch you should start with Google and search for blogs that aren’t too big. Find some relevant blogs in your niche. Read them, contact them and write an article they might find useful. The bigger the blog is the greater the chance are for being rejected!
Contact the blog owner in your niche and ask him if you can write an article on topic yyy with a link back to your blog as the only payment. Many small blog owners are happy to do this. You would be wise to contact blog owners in a niche similar to yours and has some of traffic. Reach out to as many as you can and offer a well-written article. This can bring in some of traffic, but it takes time. A lot of time!
There are blog owners who invite people to write articles. TheScreamSheet.com is one but they primarily want long in-depth articles.
Don’t expect to get your article posted on Forbes or other Huffington Post right away!
There are a lot of blogs out there you can contact:
But do a Google search to find some who fits your niche.
5. Ads
- Google Ads
- Pinterest Ads
- Facebook Ads
- Twitter Ads
- Instagram Ads
Creating traffic using paid ads is very common. Unfortunately, most of those ads are so expensive that your products have to bring a high profit to make this work. It is not uncommon that you need to sell for $100 just to finance the ads – depending on your niche though! Google takes to most and you get peanuts. But niches are different and the only way to tell if it works is to try! And that will cost you some money because ads aren’t fully efficient from day one. They need optimizing.
I would certainly NEVER recommend using paid ads unless you are an expert! Mistakes and tests are very expensive and making sales from free traffic first is the way to go. I know people who wasted fortunes on Google Ads because it is so complicated and because it take a lot of time to trim the ads.
If you find a blog in your niche using AdSense, you should contact the owner and buy an ad slot from him. He probably only makes a very few dollars on his ads and if you offer him a few hundred dollars for one of his ad slots running for a month you both are way better off. It is one way to keep Google out of the loop and many clever marketers do this.
6. SEO
Search Engine Optimization will bring in more targetted customers, but if your page rank is low 0-30 You need to target low competition keywords. Narrow niches will be easier to rank in. From DR 20 you can begin to use keywords with bigger volume and medium competition, but don’t go for large volume keywords until you hit Domain Rank 40-50.
You can use Google Ads Keyword Analyzer to find relevant keywords, but you need to take your chosen keywords, put them into Google and do a search and see what happens.
1. If Google presents you with “People Also Ask” as the first search result you are on the right track. The questions here are vital to copy-paste to your article as H2 headers and then rewrite the answer under the header.
2. Likewise, at the bottom of the search result, Google sometimes says “Related Searches”. These are valuable long-tail keywords you should mix into your article.
SEO means a lot of things. You need keyword research – as always. You need to write your articles centered around keywords that works. Find relevant keywords in Google and do go for low or medium competition keywords. The smaller your blog are the lower competition you need to go for.
You also need a speed optimization. This means a fast server, compressed images, cache plugins like W3TC or Fast Velocity Minify. The faster your site loads the happier are Google. They will rank your site higher.
7. Analyze your competitor’s traffic sources
You should keep an eye on your competitors. Analyze where they get their traffic from and try to tap into that source using guest posting as a means to get traffic to your site. You can use SimilarWeb to analyze websites and get an idea of how much traffic they have.
Use Guest Posting – Your Blog above to siphon some of their traffic.
You can check the backlinks of other sites with this free tool from AHREFS. You won’t get them all with the free tool but you will get some. Go for them. Besides there are other backlink tools who will find another bunch of twenty backlinks so you can find more. With this you can try to go for backlinks your competitors have. More backlinks – especially quality baclinnks, will make your site rank better in Google and ultimately give you more traffic and a bigger bank account.
You can make a free account at AHREFS and connect your own sites. They will give you a lot of interesting and free data on your site. I have all my sites connected to AHREFS and I use it almost daily.
8. Setup your free Google Business Profile.
You need a Google Business Profile and you need to make sure it is properly optimized. This will put your business on Google Maps and you can actually get some traffic from Google this way.
Your Google Business Profile will show up as a big block on the right side of a Google search and you just make sure it is impressive and has a link to your landing page. You should also post all your articles on Google Business with a link to your web site.
9. Interviews
Find interesting persons in your nice or in a related niche and ask him or her for an interview. It could be a video, an audio or a written interview. End the interview with a call to action to something both of you can benefit from. A digital product or sign up to a mail list.
I have only done a few but I am definitely going to do more. People love to listen to inspiring voices on a topic they are hungry for and you don’t need to interview them in the real world. You can easily do it online with Teams or Xoom (40 min limit on free version) or Google Meet. Some tools have time limits so be sure you know your tool before starting. If you need to edit your interview You can use DaVinci. It is free and fabulous.
I know there are a ton of online paid solutions too but I haven’t tried any of them..StreamYard is one of the and Nick Nimmin on YouTube uses this.
The free plan has only 2 hours recording each month, but you can buy 1 month for $25 and quit it when you are done with the interview. But there are plenty out there.
Personally I prefer to interview people in my home where I have a studio setup – cameras and light and a great red couch. But Interviewing people in other countries is a challenge if it is not online.
You can also do an audio interview/podcast and use Word to get it transcribed.
10. Build a fan base
You need to build a fan base. An email list as a minimum, but also consider Facebook groups, a Youtube channel, a Pinterest account, LinkedIn or whatever would be relevant for you. I wouldn’t go for all of them. It will probably be too much work. Pick what you think will work for you.
I have chosen to build a Facebook Group in which people can post questions and I have chosen to use Pinterest. I also recently tried to use YouTube.
Facebook is relatively simple. I have a small Facebook group for people who are interested in starting a blog. You can also create a facebook page. Many have both. The Page is more of a website on Facebook, where the group is a place where everybody can talk to each other. Posting in both regularily is important. Answering peoples questions is also important.
YouTube is kind of horrible. In short: You need subscribers to get views and you need views to get subscribers. It is a dead lock and it is real! It was much easier to start a YouTube channel 10-12 years ago. Competition is high today and it is hard to get your videos shown. You really need to research Keywords. VidiQ and TubeBuddy can help. You also need to write a comprehensive description containing your keywords and you need to use your keywords in the title on every video you create. And still it is ridiculesly hard to get views.
BUT YouTube shorts can actually help. Short are vertical videos under 1 minute and I have had somewhat OK success with them. They can break the barrier but it takes time. Shorts will often be put on display right away and have a huge burst in views the first hour. Sometimes though it can take days but peaking in the first hour is the most normal behaviour. These videos can give you subscribers! Other videos can also, But Shorts in particular is great at getting subs.
And remember the more subs the more views!
Pinterest is a fun place. It is great for getting traffic for a blog. Don’t focus that much on followers. Focus on traffic. You don’t get much more traffic by having a ton of subscribers. Keywords is key. In the Pinterest search bar you type in what you think would be a good search term and if it pops up in the suggestions it is a good keyword. But try a few before you decide.
You also need great images on Pinterest. You can design your pins by yourself or you can use Canva or Tailwind. You can post directly from them to Pinterest. Tailwind allows you to plan 20 pins a month in advance in the free version so you could set up Tailwind to post 20 and post the rest from Canva.
Consistency is key! Post EVERY day! It is hard to tell if you need to post 1 or 15 times each day but in the beginning try one or two. When you see progress you can try with more. Some gives it full speed from the beginning just to get things rolling and post five or ten every day. When you get good at it you can create a pin in five minutes.
You can post different pins with different images and different text to the same blogpost, but Pinterest prefers fresh content. Just like every one else.
Email list. You definetely need an email list. In time this will be your most valuable asset so make sure list is ALWAYS backed up! In the beginning I suggest you use the MailPoet plugin for WordPress. It is free up to 1000 subscribers. But there are a lot of mail responders out there who offers free subscribers. Not many but enough to get started.
Having an email list also demnands of you that you design a sales funnel. A proper sales funnel will make you subscribers as well as money. It is important to make sure you can have more than one email list. You need to distinguish who signs up for a news letter and who signs up for a product and who signs up for a free ebook etc. This is also called segmenting.
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