After you have spent some bucks getting your own domain name and of course a good hosting deal, what could possibly go wrong? A long time after several posts, you barely have an audience, and hardly any visitors. Totally not what you imagined it would be, right?
You probably write the best contents in your niche, yet no audience; well aside family and friends. It’s really hard to keep writing and hitting the publish button, when it feels like no one is listening! I understand how that feels, totally. You are probably wondering to yourself “what am I doing wrong?”.
Well, here are 5 effective ways to drive traffic to your blog and save up some bucks!
Write Engaging Headlines
You don’t build a house, and then break through walls to make doors!
What does building have to do with writing headlines? You may ask. Well, some persons have a practice of developing a headline after writing the main content. I’d be very direct about this; it is a WRONG practice. Your headline is like the door into your content.
Take your time to research your headlines. Develop as many headlines as possible for the content you want to write. Check out other headlines that are successful, online or in magazines. It’s okay to lift headlines from other persons’ work. It takes a while to perfect the headline game.
A headline should be attention grabbing. It should contain the content’s promise; That is the problem the content should solve, or the desire it should satisfy. The promise in the headline must be fulfilled by the content, if not, the content has no actual value!
Here are a few tips on how you might develop that successful headline:
- As much as you want your headline optimized for search engines, you must first consider writing for human readability. You definitely should write for humans before machines!
- Including numbers to your headlines does some magic too. Like the headline of this post!
- Do not let your headlines get too long, so they don’t get shortened in search results. A character count less than 70 should do it.
A good content with a bad headline would never work! Practice and find what works.
Get On Social media
Socialize on social media, develop a professional personal brand. And be human about it! This is where your audience is hanging out and asking questions. Be authentic and show authority in your niche; people respond to that.
You don’t have to keep up with posts about where you were last night or what you had for breakfast. But show who you are and what you stand for, in the best way you can, and you’d cultivate your audience organically. Share posts from your blog frequently and observe how people respond to them. Use emoji, they send a good vibe!
As much as it is a good tool for leading people to your blog and sharing your content, the social media is a good feedback tool. Find out what people are saying in your niche, what their problems are and how they are currently solving them.
Build an Emailing List
This is a very important practice in building your own audience and developing good communication with them. The email has been proven to be a very personal and direct way of reaching clients.
Add a subscription pop up box to your blog, to allow your audience subscribe to your emailing list. Send regular newsletters on post updates to keep your audience engaged. Utilize good auto-responders for your blog. Customize a good welcome mail for new subscribers. Like the good old saying “you never get a second chance at a first impression.” You could try the free emailing feature on Mailchimp.
Guest Write
A good way of getting new audience is guest writing. Talk to another writer, who has good audience already, about collaborating. They need not necessarily be in your niche! But if you share the same audience (like sports and nutrition, could share an audience) ask to make a guest post.
Make sure to make your post useful and worth the time your readers would be giving you for it. And don’t forget to add to your guest post, one or two links to your work from your own blog.
Follow Trending Topics in Your Niche
This would be one of the importance of getting active on social media. Good research is a prerequisite for a good content. Find out where your audience hang out online, what they do, the questions they ask, and the problems the talk about, when they’re hanging out.
This helps you know what is trending in your niche and you’re able to respond to your audience’s deep yearnings. Write and be passionate about it, because you understand them. Because you are one of them!
A Word from Me
While it’s probably easy to buy traffic to your blog, it is cost effective and most rewarding to grow them organically. The audience you grow organically is your REAL audience; the audience you can convert to sales.
Although paying for promoted posts on social media and running ad campaigns have their advantages, you can help your blog grow at a steady pace and keep your money, with the 5 tips I have mentioned in this post.
A quick summary of the 5 fascinating ways to get traffic to your blog and save some bucks:
- write attention grabbing and useful headlines.
- Get on social media and engage your audience in a professional way. Don’t be robotic about it!
- Build a smart emailing list. Use a good auto-responder with a great welcome mail.
- Contact other writers you admire, and ask to guest write. Could make the difference!
- Get in the trend. Write contents that are useful to your audience, and be passionate about it.
Thanks a lot for doing this with me!
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You are welcome to share other tips that worked for you, in the comment section below.
Image source
Image by Ralf Vetterle from Pixabay, licensed under creative commons and eligible for commercial use.