What You NEED to know about Blog Traffic! Plus Free Awesome Content Checker!

blog traffic how to learn So I sent out a question asking a bunch of bloggers what their biggest struggle is as a blogger, is it promoting your posts? writing the content? the actual understanding of your website and designing it? Well over 70% of you said getting traffic to your blog was the hardest part! Social media promotion wasn’t far behind! So I thought if traffic is what you’re struggling with then let’s break it down together! Because WE GOT THIS! 

Traffic traffic traffic….the thing all bloggers want and yet so little receive! So why is it sooo hard to get traffic to your blog?! Well when you say it’s hard to generate traffic or views to your blog in my book that boils down to several things that lie behind the scenes that will affect your overall traffic:

  • Your content needs to be good for people to actually want to read it!

  • Blog post promotion needs to be relevant and strategic!

  • You need to promote to your Target Audience, not just any audience!

So let’s break this down together!

1. Your content needs to be good for people to actually want to read it!

Okay so you’ve just published a brand new blog post! Yay! You can’t wait to share it with everyone! So you do, you share it a ton of places and yet no one is viewing it?
A common pitfall it that you share a post that you think is great (And it could damn well be the best piece you’ve ever written!) and yet, it literally has no relevance to anyone. The title isn’t grabbing anyone’s attention and the content itself doesn’t help your reader at all. It’s important to remember that yes your blog is for you to share whatever it is you want to blog about, but if traffic is something you’re hoping for then you can’t just blog for yourself, you have to make your blog posts for your reader too whilst writing about what you love! 

Here’s an example, say you’re a travel blogger and you just spent the best week in Hawaii ever! Compare the two blog titles:
‘My incredible week in Hawaii!‘ Or ‘My Top 5 Things to do in Hawaii!‘

Which would you be more likely to read?
Remember: The people who are finding your post are probably those who have literally searched for ‘Things to do in Hawaii’. So if I was that person then the latter title would entice me much more to read your post! Presenting your information in a way that will actually benefit your readers will gain a lot more interest than simply putting the information out there in any manner!

If you need more info on making your content AWESOME! Here’s my Awesome Content Checker!

2. Blog post promotion needs to be relevant and strategic!

Nothing bugs me more than a ‘follow for follow‘ or ‘like for like‘ post on Facebook. For several reasons:

  1. These people are not your ‘ideal audience’, they may boost your page views but the success is temporary. Also if someone follows to just unfollow 24hours later then this actually affects your blog negatively meaning your content is less likely to be seen.
  2. This does not provide you with engaged fans of your work. Traffic is nothing if you don’t have any engagement, that’s why you need to be searching for the RIGHT kind of traffic.
  3. If this is the only way you can get likes or followers then you really need to rethink what you’re writing about and how you’re promoting yourself, harsh but hey!

So how can you actually relevantly promote yourself AND with a strategy in mind!
Well this does take a lot of practice! Not going to lie, for ages I neglected probably one of the biggest platforms I really shouldn’t have….Pinterest! It is definitely one of the hardest platforms to grow on at the beginning because there is soo much content already on there, however perseverance is key and definitely worth it!

Facebook is a great way to get your content out there and get some feedback but you are constantly trying to find your ideal audience and sharing can become repetitive with little results whereas on Pinterest your Ideal audience is pretty much trying to find you! It does take time to build followers, but updating your boards regularly (or using an app to do it for you) and joining collab boards really helps! (You can join my collaborative board here! Simply leave a comment on one of my pins and I’ll add you in!)

When sharing your content online make sure to include a reason WHY people should be interested in reading your post. Posting a link just simply isn’t enough! Even write a well thought out promotional status with the link to your new blog post and copy and paste that and share it in several different groups or pages or with people specifically! You don’t need to waste time writing a detailed promotional post over and over again but of course depending where you are sharing it you may need to change it up slightly!

So how can you be strategic in your promotional posts?

This of course takes some pre-planning! A good way to entice your readers into sticking around and excited to see what you have to offer next is by literally telling them what is next to come! I love when someone shares a post and tells me ‘if you enjoyed this then just wait until next week where I’ll share with you my top 10 reasons why I love to blog!’ (Random example but you get my drift right?) I’m now clocking this blogger to make sure I keep an eye out for their post next week, or I’ll follow them because I already know I’m interested in the other posts they have to offer! This takes planning on the bloggers part because you can’t share your next blog title if you haven’t even thought of it yet! This also works well when you’re creating an online product to sell or in the process of creating an awesome freebie, by dropping hints and teasers in your promotional posts you’ll gain the interest of your readers who can’t wait to get their hands on your product when you finally release it!

Being strategic ensures that you as a blogger are organised and stops you from just throwing out whatever content you think of on the day! Instead your posts are well thought out, they’re exactly what your ideal reader want, and you can consistently deliver top class content!

3. You need to promote to your Target Audience, not just any audience!

So you’re sharing your awesome content and you know it’s awesome because you’ve used this Awesome Content Checklist! and you know you’re sharing your posts with detailed descriptions and enticing teasers for future content/freebies and yet hang on a minute…still no traffic?

Here’s another pitfall, are you sharing your awesome posts in the right place? I’m always seeing bloggers posting in Facebook blogging groups which are more or less designed for bloggers to get advice on blogging etc. But if you’re a parenting blogger, blogging groups are not your ideal audience! Yes you will get a good few views from sharing on there but not huge numbers if that’s what you’re looking for! Go find a parenting group, get involved and share your content with them if you feel it would genuinely help them!

No matter what your ideal reader is go find them, where do they hangout online? What apps are they more likely to use? How can I effectively reach these people and show them I have the answers they need? Putting a whole load of effort into your blog and sharing it to the wrong kind of people will not equal a great return for your efforts! So be strategic!

Top tip: If you can’t find a place where your ideal audience hangs out, create that place! You can create a Facebook page or group, joining together a small gathering of people and get a interactive community going! However don’t make it your prime focus just to share your posts because that can be annoying and spammy so aim to actually create an environment where people are engaged with one another and as a bonus you have the potential to share your relevant content to people you know will be interested!

Phew, we did it!

So how do you feel about traffic now? Maybe you’ve identified somewhere you can improve to increase your chances of more viewers, if so great! Let me know if this information was helpful in the comments!

Hold on there a minute!

I have another question to ask you guys! Are you wanting to increase your traffic because you feel that’s the only way you can earn money from your blog? Well if so, what if I told you it doesn’t have to be like that? I have a whole post dedicated to how you can start earning money online Here! And guess what? You could have zilch followers and you could still make money! No, it’s not get a ‘get rich quick scheme’ it does take effort of course! But it does mean you don’t have to rely on 100,000 views in order to get $10 from adverts on your page, which sucks right?

Remember your number of views isn’t everything, if you’re creating quality content consistently you will see an increase, whether it’s slow or fast everyone’s success story is different! So go make yours!

Want to be a part of the cool Crew? Well I’d love it if you did! So go on and Subscribe Here! I pinky promise I’ll only share cool stuff with you, cause we all hate spammy emails!

 

46 thoughts on “What You NEED to know about Blog Traffic! Plus Free Awesome Content Checker!”

  1. Sam @ Millennial Mingle says:
    Reply

    Great tips! Being new to blogging I really like the emphasis you place on being strategic and getting your content to the right people. As much as we like to think that if we create great content the readership will come, it’s definitely not the case. Thanks for sharing.

    Liked by 2 people

  3. Alex H - Lifestyle91 says:
    Reply

    Great tips! Going to find you on Pinterest now – I totally appreciate that you acknowledge that it takes time to grow. Some people make it sound like you can have overnight success and that just isn’t realistic for most new bloggers.

    Liked by 2 people

    • shannonbiggs122 says:
      Reply

      Yes it can be pretty disheartening if people make it seem like it’s super easy, it’s not, blogging is a very time consuming hobby/business especially at the start! Automation is the key these days but quality interaction is still super important!

      Liked by 2 people

    • shannonbiggs122 says:
      Reply

      Saved the best for last! Ha! So true though it can be hard to get views but even more so you won’t ever get meaningful views or interaction if you haven’t found where your ideal audience is and share it with them in particular! Thanks for the comment Emma! šŸ˜Š

      Liked by 1 person

  9. mimislifeandfood says:
    Reply

    Great post. Thanks for sharing. I too hate it when people like for like or follow to follow. I say only do it if you are truly interested.

    Liked by 1 person

  12. sksmith says:
    Reply

    Hey Shannon,

    You are right on point with this. You not only want to write valueable posts but you also want to promote it to a market that’s going to find it valuable. That’s key there! Once you consistently do this you’ll start to see your traffic grow!

    Thanks for sharing ! Have a good one!

    Liked by 1 person

  16. Shannon says:
    Reply

    These are great tips! I will be taking your advice in my upcoming posts and attempts to get more views, followers, comments, etc! Thank you for keeping it concise and relevant! I have been blogging less than six months and really want to get my blog up and running! Love your name too! šŸ˜‰

    Liked by 2 people

    • shannonbiggs122 says:
      Reply

      Most bloggers that have those tens of thousands of views have had to wait a while for that to build up and a lot of them do it as a full time job whereas a lot of us can only blog part time! Every success story is different though! Consistency and constantly growing and improving your blog is super important so keep it up! šŸ˜Š I’m sure you’ll see results!

      Liked by 1 person

  20. Thirty By 30 With Courtney! says:
    Reply

    You’ve definitely posted some GREAT advice! Thank you so much for sharing your advice. I look forward to future posts!

    Cheers.
    -Courtney from thirty30courtney.com

    Liked by 1 person

  21. lisaroswald says:
    Reply

    I have started a new area and don’t want to scare off my original reader. I am trying to integrate the two but I don’t know if it is possible. What are your thoughts?

    Liked by 2 people

    • shannonbiggs122 says:
      Reply

      Definitely there are ways to integrate an old idea and new idea together so your original reader will stick around. But in the new area you’re working in you are starting afresh finding readers who are true fans of your work (maybe you don’t want people who are just ‘sticking around’). Trying to keep original readers happy yet also trying to attract new ones can mean neither reader is getting what they want. I would try integrating it for a while and build up a small community of new readers but then cater for the new readers needs and slowly move away from trying to satisfy the original readers needs. When your ideal audience changes you have to be devoted to them, if anyone from your original area sticks around then great, if not then don’t worry you’ll get plenty more fans! Hope this helps at all! Thanks for the comment! šŸ˜Š

      Liked by 1 person

  22. Amber says:
    Reply

    I’m a new blogger and reading as much as I can to learn new knowledge and soak it all in. I especially love the example you gave about how the title of the post can make such a difference. Thanks for posting!

    Liked by 1 person

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