You’ve started your blog - woo hoo, and you have a list, a premium theme, a great give away for those that opt in and now you are waiting for Google to send a whole heap of traffic to your blog.
And you’re still waiting a few months later and you’re not quite sure whether blogging is for you, you must have done something wrong, right?
Let’s take a step back for a moment. Did you know there are all kinds of traffic? In this post I am going to focus on two types of traffic
- Search Engine Traffic
- Social Traffic
I started Social-able (my blog) mid 2011 and I was frustrated that my words were not getting the attention that I thought they deserved. So I built and engaged my Twitter following (57,000 people) and I started to use Social Oomph to promote my posts. I chose Social Oomph to send some of my tweets as they are one of the few tools that can send recurring scheduled tweets.
Here’s we’re we get controversial; I send a link to a post that I am promoting 4 times a day. I’m not unique in this method - Guy Kawasaki and many other marketers use a similar method too. I figure that if I send the same tweet every 6 hours I will reach every one of my followers optimum time to read that post.
I’ve tested this technique and when I send out just one tweet about a post I get 10% of the traffic that I get when I send the link out 4 times. You must remember your followers home time lines move incredibly fast. If you are sharing valuable content with your followers they actually appreciate you sending additional tweets so they don’t miss out.
I make a point of sharing 95% content and 5% of tweets that are promoting a product that I love or service that I recommend. I talk and respond to my followers as I don’t believe in just tweeting links all day. I must admit I do spend a lot of time on Twitter, it is time consuming as are most social media platforms but I get 57% of my traffic from here so for me it’s worth it.
Every link that I send out I use a URL shortner. There are many pros to using a URL shortner, particularly when you only have 140 character space limit, plus of course tracking how much traffic your post gets. My favourite URL shortner is Stumbleupon’s. This little tool is incredibly powerful as not only does it act as a URL shortner but your posts are promoted to members within the StumbleUpon community.
If they like your post and give it the thumbs up then you’ll get more traffic. Bear in mind that StumbleUpon’s community is growing at a fast rate and currently is at 10 million. Just from using this method combined with sending recurring scheduled tweets can bring you a huge amount of traffic. But remember the better and more value your content the more people will thumbs up and share it.
Once I had built my Twitter following I created a Facebook Fan Page for my blog. I sent my Twitter followers to “like” my fan page and there I share exclusive content that I don’t share on Twitter. I also ask a lot of questions surrounding social media and then I write related posts and share it with the community on my Fan Page - my fans are now getting highly targeted content that is written just for them.
I also have “Fan post Friday” where I share my Facebook fans content with my audience. Together we both reach new audiences.
Using Twitter I send fans back to my blog site and here they engage with me further leaving comments and subscribing to my newsletter where they get a free gift on how to drive more traffic to their blogs and websites.
I also send my subscribers gifts like checklists before I promote them on my blog, this way my subscribers get to have the best stuff first. We work together, I share lots of tips and my readers share their advice 
I mentioned there are two types of traffic that I use and the other way is search engine traffic.
When I first started out I had no idea how to optimise my blog and get results, so I did a little research and I discovered that I needed to complete the meta descriptions for my posts - which is part of blog SEO 101. Now some people like to stuff these description boxes with keywords. I don’t, I write a little about what information I am sharing in the post.
4 months after starting my blog I was still only getting 1% search engine traffic and I wanted more because SEO is a gift that just keeps giving. I started to use Scribe SEO. Scribe breaks down your keyword density, suggests links and holds your hand through the SEO learning process. It’s not a free tool and as it costs you, you will use it. It’s made a significant difference to not only my traffic but is also helping me write better.
I could go on and list the other traffic methods I use but in all honesty I get 57% of my traffic just from doing the above. It’s worth remembering that traffic takes time to build. When I think back to how initially I wanted to get just 1000 visitors a day and 8 months later on average I’m getting close 6000 visitors it just goes to show that with some effort and providing great value you can achieve the same.
If I was to recommend one thing to any new blogger it would be write for your audience and give heaps of value. They will then not only recommend your page, promote your tweets, post comments, optin to your list but buy from you and after all blogging isn’t a hobby for me, I’m in it to make money.
Lilach Bullock is a social networking pioneer, business consultant, mentor and personal brand expert. One of the most dynamic personalities in the world of UK social media, she is frequently credited with the accolade of being the first in the industry to actively leverage networking. Lilach blogs regularly over at www.socialable.co.uk She launched and then sold her first business within three years of becoming a mother. Even now, she juggles a demanding home life with commercial commitments. Lilach’s contribution was recognised nationally, when she became a finalist at the Best MumPreneur of the Year Award, presented at Downing Street, where she was praised for her entrepreneurial efforts.
It takes time for content to rank in the search engines. That’s why it’s important to promote it in other ways. Social media is a great place to share links to your content, as long as you are using the medium to interact as well.
Lilach Bullock says
Thanks Nick:) You’re right it does take time especially as Google at the moment is changing its approach to the search results regularly and this is happening more and more.
That’s why I love social media so much, it has so many benefits and can really help you get more traffic - of course it helps that you engage and provide value:)
Abhi says
Hello Lilach,
I’m not paying for my blog. I’m on blogger. So just bought a domain.
I’ve understood the importance of Twitter. Because I’m reading about it everywhere. So I’ve started using twitter for blog promotion from a while.
Great share. I’m sharing this on my blog’s fanpages.
Nice to see you here. Good luck with the contest. I’d love to see you on my post. Just click over the most commented on PBS. 😀
Lilach Bullock says
Thanks Abhi:) Thanks for your great feedback and appreciate the share too:)
I’m actually a huge fan of WordPress - have you considered using that as your blogging platform?
Abhi says
Naah. Never, till now. And no plan for future to switch. I love blogger and I’m happy with my blog on blogger. Have a look to my blog and let me know if you can figure out that it’s on blogger in one visit.
Amit Shaw says
Greate share Lilach. Yes after publishing every blogger should share the article on Social media. Its the easy way to get visitor from SM. Thanks for sharing.
Lilach Bullock says
Thanks Amit:) Absolutely that’s what social media is about after all, networking and sharing great content:)
Pritam says
Thank you Lilach for sharing your idea but more or less, I have tried doing it the art is “how to increase your twitter followers?” 57,000 is a big number but I would really like to know how you achieved it ? were they random adds ? or did you formalize a specific strategy ? Moreover, I think SEO is more concerned with backlinking, how did you achieve it ?
I would love to have your thoughts on the two matters above.
Lilach Bullock says
Thanks Pritam:) To be honest it’s taken me nearly 4 years to get to the amount of followers I have. It doesn’t happen overnight (unless you’re a celebrity!).
I actually wrote a post on how to get more followers which you may find useful here http://www.socialable.co.uk/how-to-increase-your-followers-on-twitter/
Bjorn says
As far as I know there are only two ways of building twitter followers. 1 promotion, 2 following others.
When it comes to promotion it can be a badge on your own blog, a link from other social networks, links from forums and in blog comments(like Jane offers here..), and paid promotion.
You can by followers, but most of the followers that are sold is just bots.
By following otheres you can get a large following, but you will also get a lot of people to follow if you use a followback strategy. You can follow via twitter or use a tool like tweetbig to get targeted followers faster..
I got most of my 10K followers mostly this way.
Great post.
I will consider tweeting with time span in the future
Lilach Bullock says
Thanks Bjorn:) Like you say I don’t recommend you buy followers as they won’t be targeted so what’s the point?
There are many ways you can get followers, it’s not just a case of following others and posting badges on your website.
I’ve found that I’m now getting 100’s of organic followers every day as people recommend me and share my content. Also the more lists you’re on can really help too.
I’d say yes to all of that, with one little comment: does anyone remember how great Digg was for a while? Look what happened. So remember to keep on top of the sites you are promoting towards to make sure they are still relevant.
Lilach Bullock says
Thanks Michael:) Digg still is a good site, it’s not as widely used as Twitter but it’s still worthwhile sharing your content there too:)
Amanda says
Social media plays very important role in blogging, because only with the help of it your articles can be promoted. More over it’s not very difficult to do it.
Lilach Bullock says
Thanks Amanda:) I agree social media ties in with blogging, its a great way to share and promote your content whilst networking too:)
Dan says
Indeed, there are a lot of traffic types. I start a blog a while ago, unfortunately I got bored and stopped writing on it. I had a lot of traffic from social networks, it was really great, people “shared” my content on Facebook, I got “like”s and everything was ok. But, when you reach that gap of boredom, it’s really hard.
Lilach Bullock says
Thanks Dan:) It looks like you need to find some inspiration get blogging again:) I get more than 50% of my traffic from social media but it only works effectively if I blog and post valuable content. Otherwise you’re pretty much spamming…
Its a great way to promote your articles and get back links to your blog. But what if the blog don’t have any rank in the search engine? And for how much time generating the social media links, it will get a rank?
Lilach Bullock says
Thanks:) Social media is just one element of driving traffic back to your website. It doesn’t give you extra backlinks but what it does do is share your content and helps it go virally. Even if you had no backlinks and was using social media purely to generate traffic this would work - of course it works best if you’re blogging and providing great value:)
Kate says
To be honest basing on my experience it is so hard to get rank in different search engines, because Google keeps on changing its algorithm. by this post that you have shared it provided me an information that I can follow to gain and raise traffic easily by using social media sites , thanks for sharing this good information .
Lilach Bullock says
Thanks Kate:) You’re right, gone are the days when it was easy to get on page 1 of Google. Even the top SEO “guru’s” struggle as Google is doing a “dance” at the moment and continually changes their algorithms.
I think that’s why Social media is becoming more widely used, there are just so many benefits from it and traffic is a very good one:)
As far as i know so backlinks can be quite useful in getting more traffic. Am I right? Because I’m new in this sphere, and I don’t know a lot of things
Lilach Bullock says
Hi Melissa. Backlinking and social media are very different. Social media is about sharing your content and literally driving people back to it.
Feel free to check out my blog for more tips on how to generate traffic from social media (www.socialable.co.uk)
Mark says
I believe that social media is no longer optional for bloggers. For search engine traffic, i think that search engines like Google are struggling to keep their searches clean, and we’re struggling as well to beat those spammers that only care about getting their webpages ranked in the first page of SEs. Social media is much less abused, and we still have a chance to get noticed there (at least for now).
M Mark
Lilach Bullock says
Thanks Mark:) I have to admit I agree and am still surprised that so many bloggers aren’t actively leveraging social media in a way that they can/should be.
Google is constantly changing their algorithms and is making it harder for SEO specialists let alone bloggers to get page 1 rankings so the use of social media is now even more crucial to those who want to get found online.
There really are two aspects to this. I’ve noticed that good blog posts do generate traffic when promoted. Then there is the mathematical discussion of how many comment/blog links interest the search engines. The two are more closely tied than people often think.
@pritam Concerning Twitter followers, I really believe that the more organic ways are best. First, create stuff people like. And then once you have a body of followers that share interests, go check their lists and see who else to follow. We often think in terms of like-minded people. But it’s worth thinking laterally to the groups that would be interested. A record label that I worked with was busy trying to get fans of their music to follow them. I re-directed the attention towards venues, promoters and media in the niche quite successfully to generate concerts. But you have to know why you are Tweeting. In this case, it was to reach out to potential offline partners.
Lilach Bullock says
Thanks Michael:) I have always maintained that the more valuable content you share the more successful your social media will be. People love great content and are more likely to share/comment.
There are many ways to get followers and it’s all very well following targetted people (in the hope that they will follow you back) but gone are the days when people automatically follow back so you really need to be much more creative about getting the right followers.
LouisC says
I have gone of URL shorteners because you never know what that URL is redirecting to. I feel more comfortable clicking the full link just as long as it fits in a tweet!
Lilach Bullock says
Louis I would strongly recommend you use a URL shortner, particularly on Twitter, if you’re not you’re really missing out. If you use the full length of your url it will (most likely) get lost/broken if someone retweets your tweet - and that’s what you want. You want as many people to be retweeting your stuff - that’s how you can reach more people.
If you’re using a reputable url shortner like bit.ly or better still su.pr you can track your results too - and you need to be monitoring and tracking so you can test/tweak and improve.
“I talk and respond to my followers as I don’t believe in just tweeting links all day” Great point Lilach. I’m sure people who read this blog’d think before doing social spamming. I’ve seen a lot of people posting same link 20 -50 times a day. It’s insane. They may get few clicks but no good reputation.
Lilach Bullock says
Thanks Suniel. This approach is a very short term strategy - if it’s even worth calling it that.
Whilst it may work and get traffic I would imagine that the bounce rate would be high and the conversions (if selling a product) would be low.
Social media is like any marketing activity for best results you need to have a long term strategy - the results always pay off that way:)
Suniel, the one thing I would say to nuance that is that not everyone is on Twitter 24 hours a day. I do re-post moderately to at least ensure that posts I consider important cover different timezones or habits (in or out of work).
Ajnabii says
Hi Lilach,
Great post i appreciate your work! after reading this post i have learned new things
bcoz i’m new in blogging and just started my blog on wordpress, as like you i’m also a wordpress lover. i have twitter account, facebook fan page, stumbleupon and so on i’m working on them so i hope i will get followers and readers soon!
Thanks
Bhavesh Sondagar says
I am agree with your points, specially the point about sharing our own experiences.I am generally creating posts based on my experience and it helps me a lot to drive more traffic to my blog.
Thanks Devesh for great article.
Joydeep says
Social Media traffic is indeed the next phase of internet marketing. The focus is slowly shifting towards social marketing from search engine optimization. Search engines have started to rate social media even more higher. Companies can get enormous amount of traffic from social sites especially Twitter, Stumbleupon and Facebook. The tips discussed above are really nice.