Webmasters Gallery

Many bloggers and website owners know the problem. You flounder, write excellent content, but the traffic you hoped for is not there. The users ignore your site, although there is enough potential. Today, I will present you 18 creative ways to solve this problem, and help you get more visitors onto your website.

Traffic is the currency in which websites are measured. Traffic gets you to – what I assume is – your goal: making money from your site or blog. You should be aware of one thing: these days, only writing or putting your online shop on the internet is not enough anymore.

There won’t be masses of people coming to your blog because you want them to. They should be asked, or even “persuaded” to do so. The 50/50 rule gives you a decent idea of this. 50 percent of your time is spent writing; the other half is put into the marketing of your website. Marketing means a lot of different things. The following 18 creative ways for more traffic can be described as such.

The Basic Requirements for More Traffic

Without these basic requirements, you won’t get anywhere, even if your marketing is creative. Make sure that the basic needs are met.

1. Write Really Good Content – write in-depth posts that are well-researched, and composed extensively. At least 1.000 words per article.
2. Write on a Regular Basis – publish a post at least once a week, twice is even better. Otherwise, you’ll be viewed as a hobby blogger, and not as a professional.
3. Share Your Articles on Social Media – Facebook, Google+, and Twitter are the minimum requirements.
4. Focus on the “Longtail Keywords”. Neil Patel has written a really good article on this topic.

On-Page-Optimizations for Increased Traffic

All the requirements are met? Fasten your seatbelt and let’s go.

1 – Fill Your Category Descriptions

The descriptions of your categories are important. They fulfill two tasks. Firstly, they inform your visitors what the articles within the categories are about. Your visitors will gain a brief overview. The second aspect is completely neglected by most bloggers and website owners.

In the Google search results, your categories often appear when a related term is searched. Thus, your categories should have a description. It should be just as long as the meta description of your posts, and not any longer. Then, they will be displayed completely.

For that, an SEO plugin with a small detour can be used. Open a new page or article, scroll down to the SEO area, and refine your category description. Then go back to your categories without saving, and copy your description into the box. Now save the description.

2 – Write a “New Here” Page

Whether the page is called “new here”, or “start here” doesn’t matter as long as it exists, and is a part of your main navigation. It’s where you get to link your best articles. Of course, this includes articles that you consider to be underrated.

Point out the most important articles and categories, tell something about you and don’t forget to add a subscription form to your newsletter.

3 – Refine Your Content

When your goal is an expert blog with lots of traffic, simply writing on a regular basis is not enough. The opposite is the case. You also have to take care of existing content, and either extend, refine, or even delete it.

Your old content is worth a lot. They only need to be polished. Good blogs attractive the old content and keep it up to date.

4 – Host a Giveaway

Giveaways always work well when you make the users share the post on social networks to participate. This kind of promotion will cost some money. However, you will get a lot of traffic in return.

You could offer a software or something similar in the giveaway. What exactly you should provide depends on the niche of your website. Depending on that, you may even get the prize for your giveaway for free. Message the companies that come to question and discuss what you plan, and what use your sponsors will have from that.

The chances are high that you will get the product provided for free.

5 – Hold a 30-Day Contest

Contests are popular as well. A 30-day challenge is a really exciting project that can prove to be very effective- Starting a contest is especially easy for bloggers. Maybe writing daily articles for 30 days straight?

The opportunities and topics are near endless; you’ll find the right thing. Whatever works best in your niche. To find the right topic, you could even ask Google about your niche and add “30-day challenge”.

6 – Start a Forum on Your Website

An active forum might be a magnificent way to bind visitors to your website and make them spend more time on your blog. A forum also lowers the bounce rate, which makes Google happy as well. By the way, forums tend to start to rank well for the appropriate keywords quickly. Starting a forum is fast and simple using bbPress.

Use Social Media to Boost Your Traffic

Social Media is one of the best ways to direct more visitors to your website. They provide very underrated ways to generate new, and fresh traffic.

7 – Optimize Your Profile

You know about the normal way of filling a profile. Add a good profile picture, a short description, and a link to your website. That is not the optimal way to use your profile.

Let’s assume that Twitter was your favorite network. Then, you could add a particular landing page that provides a checklist with tips and tricks for Twitter users. Or tools that help to manage Twitter more effectively. Such a page is almost guaranteed to drive more users to your website than a regular link to your blog.

Don’t forget using a “call to action”. This could either be used to collect email addresses for the newsletter or to lure your visitors deeper into your website.

8 – Use Facebook Groups

Facebook is the social network with the largest potential. In the past, running a Facebook page for your blog was indispensable, while today, Facebook groups often do the job much better. They offer lots of options that you should make use of.

Join the Facebook groups that deal with your niche. There, you will receive opinions of real people with real problems, and get to interact with them. You are also able to create articles that solve the problems you heard of in the group.

9 – Use Videos and YouTube

This will give you a new group of visitors that will come to your blog via YouTube. In the introduction video of your account, I recommend telling your visitors what your blog is about as precisely as possible. Be calm, smile, and give a detailed, but short introduction into what you’re doing.

In the Facebook groups, you learned about the problems and wishes of your target group. Write splendid and detailed posts on that, and extend them with a video. The video should briefly talk about the solution and summarize it. At the end of each video, you should make clear what you expect from the viewers. Of course, that’s a visit to your website.

10 – Optimize the Video Descriptions

The video descriptions on YouTube are crucial. Don’t just write what the video is about, but also add links to extending articles. Links to other social networks also belong into the description. In any case, you have to place a “call to action” that shows a URL of your website, which you want the users to click.

Add a brief description of what your website is about. Put effort into that. The more brains it takes, the more advantages you will be able to draw from the video portal.

11 – Use the YouTube Banner Ads

In contrast to the other methods described in this article, this is a method that you have to pay for, but it can pay off very quickly. The function is still rather unknown. To activate it, you need to visit YouTube Advertise, and sign up. Then, you get to start up your first campaign.

You have full control over the type and shape of ads, as well as over the desired goal of the ad. Your ad will be displayed to the YouTube users when completed. This type of advertisement also has the advantages that you can directly address a specific audience.

Other Options for More Traffic

Here, you’ll also find promising options. Some are guaranteed to work.

12 – Offer Content in Addition to Your Blog Posts

Additional content can be very effective if planned correctly. Many plugins allow you to “pay” for additional content with a tweet, a share, or a subscription to the newsletter. The additional content could be things like checklists, or small e-books. A PDF version of the article would be another possibility.

13 – Start an Affiliate Program

This is an option when you sell products via your website, e.g. ebooks. This solution is perfect for online shops that desire more traffic. The respective affiliate networks can be very helpful when it comes to the realization of an own affiliate program.

14 – Write Guest Posts on Other Blogs

This is a great, yet underrated option to boost the popularity of your blog. Today, many blogs have to put out new and fresh content constantly, and often even daily. Thus, most blog owners will be happy when you offer them a high-quality article as a guest blogger.

The better and the more detailed your guest article deals with a user problem, the more benefit you’ll be able to draw from it. Contact other blogs in your niche and offer them an excellent article. Only very few of them won’t want to have it.

15 – Use the Huffington Post as a Guest Blogger

The Huffington Post allows you to write articles for them in the blog area. The email address that allows you to apply for a blog access can be found under every article of the magazine. Write high-quality articles of 500 to 1,000 words for the Huffington Post.

When your articles are shared a lot, you’ll remain on the magazine’s landing page for a long time, giving you substantial advantages. Every article comes with a short author biography with a link to the full bio, where you get to place everything of importance.

16 – Write and Sell Ebooks

You don’t know how ebooks are related to traffic? Well, every e-book requires an imprint that could contain your important information. That’s the right place to link your blog and social media.

Of course, the single chapters also provide enough options to advertise your website. Write an additional blog article for each section, and link it on the end of the respective chapter. Additionally, you could directly link your site on Kindle Direct Publishing, when you upload the e-book there to sell it on Amazon.

17 – Offer Webinars or Online Workshops

People love being able to learn. Host free webinars and offer the people a first look at your topics. Webinars are a great way of sharing your knowledge with your readers.

Put in effort and always address the problems of your target group, and deal with them. However, you should not go into too much detail in the webinars.

When the webinars are successful, and people enjoy coming to you because you offer them, you can turn that into a business, and make money with your blog. You could offer online workshops or very extensive video workshops that you can charge for. This way, you receive traffic and earn money.

18 – Use the Power of Freebies

When working on the internet, forgetting the real world is not an uncommon thing. Sure, the idea of promoting a digital website in the real world is not as obvious. Nonetheless, such an advertising option is very promising. Just have someone create freebies, invest money into them, and gift them to members of your potential target group.

Here are Some Ideas for Cool Promotional Gifts:

• T-Shirts With Your Brand and URL
• Imprinted mugs. A very popular freebie. Almost everyone likes coffee, and will have your website in mind with every sip
• Printed wall calendars
• Ballpens

Bonus: Create a Printed Magazine Based on Your Blog

Buy a refill pad or something similar, and turn your articles into a magazine. Compile your best articles, make them look appealing in Word or Pages, and print them on magnificent paper. Create an interesting cover page, and create your magazine.

When it’s done, you could distribute it in your local cafés. Many people sit in the comfortable cafés for a while, and some of them might be part of your target audience. These people will be very happy about this type of promotion, and are likely to visit your website afterward.

(dpe)