Last Updated on by Michael Brockbank
One of the reasons why many people blog is so they can make a few extra dollars on the side. However, not everyone will experience the same level of success. When you don’t have anything to sell, it can be difficult to get someone’s attention. This is especially true if you don’t have money to put into marketing your website. So, what can you do to increase visitor traffic to your blog when you don’t have extra money for advertising?
Increasing Visitor Traffic When You’re Broke
There are many ways you can monetize your blog to make money. However, none of them will work unless you have people visiting the website. Here are a few ways that I’ve found to help increase my visitor traffic over time. Keep in mind that this is also niche related. Some topics may be far more successful than others.
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It’s All in the Content
The first step is to make sure you’re writing content that will engage your audience. Most experts will attest that your material is the first and foremost step to driving high levels of visitor traffic. It needs to be informative, engaging and easy to understand. Otherwise, people can simply go to someone else’s website to get what they need.
There are a ton of different aspects to creating good content. Eventually, I’ll create a more in-depth article about how to do this. The gist of it is to create something that is unique which flows well throughout the page.
Don’t worry too much about finding the perfect keywords at first. While they are still important, it’s the quality of your material that engages Google. After all, scoring well in search is a major part of getting some of that visitor traffic that can help you make a few bucks.
Eventually, you’ll want to find that perfect level of words for your blog posts. Although many experts praise how long 2,000 word posts can drive traffic, not all industries experience the same circumstances. In fact, I often see shorter posts in my gaming blog gather more attention that a 1500 word piece in the health and fitness blog.
Blog Submission Sites
In some instances, blog submission sites can be helpful to create links or get the attention of potential visitors. However, I’ve found them to be far less productive than social media. I’m sure they have great potential, but I’m just not seeing it.
That’s not to say that blog submissions sites are worthless, though. I’ve had a few visitors come in from those platforms. Since most of these submission websites are free to use and easy to set up, it might not be a bad idea to spend a few moments to use them. After all, you can set it and forget it. You may have better luck than myself.
Referrals from Others
Now, I haven’t done this for myself. But I have seen it work for a few clients for whom I write. This is when you mention another blog or website on your own and send the owners an email requesting a link back from their websites. Essentially, it’s making backlinks – which is beneficial in search engines as well as driving visitor traffic.
However, you need to be very careful about what sites you connect with. Google focuses on content that is relevant when considering backlinks. The wrong connections may actually hurt your search engine rankings.
For instance, you don’t want to link your golf website to a cloth diaper website.
Make sure all of your references and links are related to the industry or topic.
Join Content Sharing Platforms
Most of the visitor traffic for Writer Sanctuary comes form platforms like WordPress.com. I’ve connected this blog to that system in order to engage those readers. However, there are a ton of other sites you can use for this purpose. It’s much like blog submissions sites but with more interaction.
Recently, I’ve signed up with Postwaves. It’s currently in Beta, but it looks promising for increasing quality traffic. I’ll have to explore this platform a bit more and get back to you. The point is, you can share your content directly with others based on specific industries and topics.
I like these methods more than blog submission sites. The more active you are on these platforms with other people, the more visitor traffic you generate organically. Plus, I enjoy reading the works of others through these kinds of websites.
Sharing on Social Media
The most popular social media websites are free to use. But did you know you could set up a professional page to accentuate the blog? It’s always a good idea to separate your personal life from you professional one. Setting up a page specifically for the blog can keep your personal views and experiences away from the professional atmosphere.
Sharing on social media is one of the most common ways people get their news in today’s digital world. In just mere moments, you can engage potentially thousands of people simultaneously. The trick is to know how to manage these social hubs to help drive visitor traffic to your blog.
Currently, my social profiles are a bit lacking. However, one of my blogs receives a large chunk of visitors from Facebook as well as Twitter. Although these people may not be following my accounts, they are still reading the content. This is done by using tools such as Buffer or Jetpack’s Publicize feature in WordPress.
In either case, sharing your posts on social media is a great way to add a little boost to visitor traffic. All it takes is a few seconds of your day and knowing which hashtags are going to be the most productive for your niche.
In one instance, an article I wrote in the health and fitness blog is featured on a college website in the health category. They found it through social media, and it’s kind of neat seeing a few visitors coming in from something like that.
Get Publicity Any Where You Can Find It
There are a ton of excellent platforms that can help you generate a great deal of visitor traffic. Unfortunately, many of them require some kind of a payment plan or a registration fee. Not everyone has the finances to take their blogging to the next level. Find publicity any way you can and grow your website.
No blog will make money without gaining visitors. Even Google Adsense, one of the easiest money platforms for websites, will require people coming into your site. When you don’t have the money, you need to be a bit creative. But it is possible, as long as you have a bit of imagination and a few minutes per day to cultivate your site.
What kind of ways do you use to generate traffic?
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