People often speak in very broad terms when giving tips or suggestions to improve blog traffic.
We may hear unspecified suggestions, such as: “be active on social networks” or “partner with other blogs”. If you are attempting to launch a new blog it is likely to prove difficult and frustrating putting these things into practice, and all too often with limited success if not implemented properly.
Actionable and step-by-step advice seems that it’s all too rare these days.
So while the five tips below may not be a set formula that works for everyone, at the very least we hope they give you some ideas or inspiration to use on your own site. These steps below helped us grow our blog Man of Many from zero to over 100,000 page views in only three months.
Let’s jump in.
- Participate in Group Boards on Pinterest
Images are vital to our blog. Typically it is the visual imagery rather than the descriptions or written content that attracts visitors to Man of Many. Consequently, obtaining maximum reach with images of our feature products via social networks is essential to generating hype around our blog and reaching as broad an audience as possible.
Everyone knows Pinterest is absolutely golden for bringing in traffic, but it can often prove difficult to build up a following in initial stages of usage.
If you Google “Group Pinterest Boards” you are bound to find a few Group Boards related to your blog or niche. These Group Boards are a great way to share your posts with a targeted demographic, rather than simply starting from zero with your own board. Group Boards can often already have a large following (usually 1,000+ people) which can provide an excellent starting point for generating interest.
Usually the page description will contain an email address for you to contact if you would like to contribute. Alternatively just leave a comment on one of the pins requesting that someone invite you.
Steps
- Google “Group Pinterest Boards” or go to http://www.pinterest.com/pingroupboard/
- Press Ctrl+F and search for keywords on the page related to your niche.
- Contact the Group Board owners to request to contribute.
- Share your content with a new community.
Pros
- Easy and quick to implement.
- The audience fits perfectly in your niche and is hyper-targeted.
Cons
- Your pins can be drowned out by others if the board is active.
Alternatives
- Start Group Board of your own and ask others to contribute
- Automate Your Social Network Sharing
A big problem people many face is the significant amount of time it takes to individually upload an image, write a title and share the post on all of the social media networks you may wish to utilise (of which there are many!).
To simplify this process, we have been using a free WordPress add-on called NextScripts Social Network Auto-Poster. As soon as each post is uploaded via WordPress, this tool automatically shares the featured image (or whatever content you like) with your social networks.
The plug-in can publish nicely formatted messages to your Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Blogger, LiveJournal, Delicious, Diigo, Stumbleupon, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Plurk, VKontakte, WordPress, and Tumblr accounts. You can even customise the accompanying description, links to your page or title and even set a delay to sharing on your social media accounts. Best yet, there’s no annoying “Shared via NextScripts.com” or “Posted by SNAP for WordPress” messages as the posts will be 100% white-labelled and come directly from your own account.
**EXTRA HINT** Nextscripts can be used to share your content with Group Pinterest Boards as well but requires a Pro Account (see point #1 above)…..
This is a sample from a chapter in the brilliant book, The Big Social Media Book. Available from Amazon.