Every blogger’s dream is to have visitors on their website everyday.

The reality however is that most bloggers struggle to get people to see their content because they do not know how to generate traffic.

When you’re blogging most people think that they need an SEO friendly site and we both know that, that takes almost forever to take effect.

So if you are just starting with your blog and would like to know how do you really get a massive number of people checking out your site, keep reading.

This post is going to break down actionable steps that you can take right now to set up your blog to start receiving it’s first visitors.

What You Will Learn

• How to set up your first guest blogging campaign
• How to use Pinterest to drive traffic to your blog
• How to use PPC to get visitors to your blog and keep them coming back
• How to use influencers to share your content to get blog visitors
• How to use Facebook groups to drive visitors to your blog

How to Set Up Your First Guest Blogging Campaign

What is guest blogging?

Guest blogging is writing a blog post for someone else’s blog.

It’s also known as guest posting or you may have heard about blogger outreach campaigns.

Why guest blog?

When someone decides to do a guest blog post, the truth is they’re not thinking about that one additional post that the blogger will add to their archives.

Actually, what they are really thinking about is the traffic that can potentially be directed back to their website which can turn into leads, relationships and potentially sales.   

Not only can there be an immediate increase in traffic from the time the guest post is published, but the other benefits to think of are:

• Permanent traffic back to your site.
• Authority spurt if your guest post is published on an authority blog. You can then use this as a point of reference to influence more prominent bloggers to host your guest post.
• SEO growth. A backlink from an authority blog actually increases your SEO value.
• Being able to network with influential bloggers thereby opening up the gates to meet more bloggers.
• Builds your online presence as more people will know about you.

If you are going to do guest blogging you need a strong strategy to get the results that you want. So here are a few things that you should consider and do before launching your campaign.

What sites are you going to guest post on?

|Google Search

Finding guest blogging sites is as simple as doing a Google search for guest bloggers. For example, use the key word “write for us blog” and you will find a large quantity of blogs that accept guest posts.

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If your search results are too broad, try narrowing it down by using your niche keyword. For example affiliate marketing write for us blog or personal finance write for us blog.

The disadvantage of this tactic however is that you come across both low authority and high authority sites.

You want to pay attention to the higher authority blogs because it is more likely that they will have a bigger audience to see your content and greater value for SEO purposes.

|Copy The Right Cat

Therefore to find those higher authority blogs, I use this awesome hack which I like to call Copy The Right Cat.

Basically it’s finding guest posts by popular bloggers and then adding those blogs to your list for later analysis. This makes it easy because that popular blogger has already done the work for you.

So why reinvent the wheel.

For example if we search for “guest post by Pat Flynn” this is what we come up with:

Do you have any favourite bloggers and do you think you can copy their steps and find the blogs that they guest post on and pitch to them? Of course you can!

|As Featured On

Another way to find those high authority blogs is on other bloggers’ blogs. Watch out for their credentials that look something like this:

And don’t be too worried about the blogs that these bloggers have written for. You do not have to be a huge influencer to get your post featured on these blogs.

All it takes is just simple creativity, great content and a determination to be featured (which will be discussed in more detail below).

|Listiller

If you want a simpler way and the work already done for you then feel free to visit Listiller’s List of Over 3000 Blogs that Accept Blog Posts. They are categorised by topic, domain and page authority.

Now that you have an idea of who is going to make it on your list, start with a spreadsheet that is set up something like this:

Then work your way down the list until you have completed your outreach.

Pitching To Bloggers

There are two ways that you can pitch to bloggers for guest posting opportunities.

The process itself can be time consuming and monotonous but once you get at least one foot in the door with a high authority blog, the results can be phenomenal.

|The Long Way

The longer but smarter way to pitch to bloggers is by forming relationships with the bloggers before you actually pitch to them.

Now I have a love hate relationship with this way as not only does it take sometime to build the relationship, but in my opinion I am convinced that most bloggers have seen it all and no longer fall for these gimmicks.

But hey, some bloggers say they prefer that the relationship is built before they pitched whereas other bloggers say that they just want a straight-to-the-point pitch so that no one’s time is wasted.

So let’s talk about the long way for a minute.

How do you build relationships?

Once you know which blog you’d like to guest post on, it’s all about making them know that you exist. You can achieve this in a few ways:

• Comment on their blog
• Follow them on social media and engage with their posts
• Subscribe to their blog and reply to email newsletters

When doing this make sure that you get their attention and that usually happens when they respond to any engagement that you have already done.

This activity should continue for at least two to three weeks.

Also keep in mind that when you are engaging with their content try to offer some praise. You know, make them feel good.

Once they have seen you and the relationship is built it’s time to reach out to them with your pitch. Here’s my pitch email that I sent to Francisco Anes from Passive Income Wise.

Whilst doing it the long way does not guarantee that you will get a response to your pitch, it does boost your chances of getting a response as the blogger would recognise your presence from your interaction.

|The Short Way

The shorter version is simply to write your best pitch to the blogger without trying to build that initial relationship with them.

Instead you do it on the first meeting and in a way that you stand out from the rest of emails that they get.

For example don’t be boring. It’s ok to add personality to your emails.

You’re not writing to the President of the United States, so keep all formalities away.

A good pitch with personality looks something like this:

Hi Jon

My name is Dawn and I am a digital marketing blogger from the UK (yip the country with four seasons in a day).

I know how it can be as an influential blogger that you probably get one of these ALL THE TIME so I will try to keep my email as short as possible (I had to actually cut it down to less than a hundred words. I did not know when to shut up LOL).

Anyway…

I recently did a blog post on The Ultimate Blogging Strategy and I quoted your specific advice from one of your blog posts which covered the same topic. (Your advice was epic by the way).

Here’s the blog post.

Given that you’re the go to expert, I was wondering whether there was anything you would change about it? You know I know you have some blogging magic powers.

I really value your advice as I am trying to create a series of emails for my email list that would help my subscribers learn from as they are all beginners and rely on awesome content to get them started.

Whatever little advice you can give it would be appreciated.

I am not going to keep you longer because I know your time is precious.

Neither am I going to insert this really cheeky request for you to share my post with your audience (because that would be killing it right?). But if you did I would be ever so grateful to you.

Anyway I always appreciate learning anything from you.

Your loyal fan.

Dawn-Marie

Once you have all your guest blog email pitches sent out, remember to follow up with the blogger at least three days later.

Here’s a good tip. Once your content is published be sure to plan strategically to make the most of this influx of traffic that you will get.

You may wish to add lead boxes to the page that you have linked back to your blog from the guest post to collect leads. I use LeadPages for my lead boxes. You can also use Clickfunnels. 

Also most importantly don’t forget to use some sort of email autoresponder to communicate with your leads. Aweber is my favourite. As well as GetResponse. 

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How To Use Pinterest To Drive Traffic To Your Blog

Many people overlook Pinterest because they see it as a place just for pretty pictures, recipes or home décor.

But actually Pinterest is perfect for bloggers. People who like to read blogs hang out on Pinterest and if you’re a blogger, that’s where you want to be.

It is almost like the perfect gem given that it is an untouched traffic source so you can take full advantage of this free traffic resource.

Here is a demonstration of how my blog has performed with Pinterest since I started using it. As you can see I achieved an increase of 1393.97% in daily visitors to my website in the month of September from Pinterest.

So how exactly do you use Pinterest to send traffic to your blog? Well I will share with you the steps that you need to take to get started with Pinterest.

Create A Business Account

Setting up a business account is free with Pinterest. A business account is preferred over a personal account as you have more tools to analyse your efforts with their Pinterest Analytics.

With Pinterest Analytics you will be able to see how your pins are performing so you can do more of what works and less of what doesn’t.

Verify Your Website

Pinterest requires you to verify your website so you can see what pins people are saving from your website and to validate that it is yours.

By verifying your website you will also be able to pull any images from your blog posts, meta data and create pins with this.

Apply For Rich Pins

Next apply for rich pins. Rich pins show more information about your blog post on your pin. So it will pull your title tag and image onto your pin and look something like this:

Once you have applied for rich pins you will need to validate your rich pins so that they can appear on Pinterest.

After applying for and validating your pins Pinterest will review your website and let you know if you have been approved.

Now that you have taken these initial steps it’s time to work on a strategy for getting traffic to your blog.

Join Group Boards

This part is the hardest but is the most important because this is what helps to increase your traffic.

Group boards are a group of bloggers who have come together and contribute their blog post pins to a forum where followers can see those pins.

So if you are new to Pinterest and have 100 followers but join a group board with over 10,000 followers, that is over 10,000 potential eyeballs on your blog post. That is the power of a group board.

A group board therefore accelerates your chances of your blog post being seen by a lot more people.

To find group boards in your niche start by using Pinterest’s search bar for your niche. Then click on Boards.

Choose a board. Make sure that they have a high number of followers.

Click on the circle which represents the board owner’s profile.

Then look for group boards on that owner’s profile. This makes it easy for you because the owner has already done the work seeking out those high quality boards that are worth joining.

Next go to each individual group board and if there is an invite process, follow it to get invited to pin to the board.

It is a good idea to set up a spread sheet to keep track of this process.

It can also be time consuming to get invited to boards but once you find a board that you want to join, make sure that you follow up more than once as the owner of the board may not have seen your invite the first time.

Also do not be discouraged if you do not hear back from board owners. This happens. You just have to keep finding new boards to join until you have joined many boards.

Now once you have joined as many group boards as you can pin your blog post pins to the boards frequently to start sending traffic to your blog.

Pinning your content to boards can get tiresome. I would therefore recommend an automatic scheduler like Tailwind which automates the pinning process.

The benefits of using Tailwind is that you can schedule your pins to pin at times when you are not available (think about late at night or early morning).

It also helps to free up your time so you can concentrate on doing other things that matter the most.

Automatic pinning helps to boost your traffic as your content is always present.

Tailwind analyses your pins and boards and tells you which one is performing well.

Click here to get the Tailwind automatic scheduler. They do offer you a free trial where you can pin your first 100 pins for free. I am convinced that once you see how easy it is to schedule your pins and have them pin automatically that you will see how beneficial this tool can be to the growth of your blog.   

Pinterest is a great traffic source but to get the best out of it, it is important that you learn how to master it. I would recommend the Pinterest Traffic Avalanche course which is the course that I am following that has helped me grow my blog traffic.

It has only been three months since I have started this course so I am not prepared to write a review of it just yet. However from September’s spike in traffic and my continued blog growth since I started the course it is producing results. 

Watch this post though for my review or join my mailing list to receive notification of when the review is posted.

How To Use PPC To Get Visitors To Your Blog And Keep Them Coming Back

Using PPC advertising is a great way to speed up the process of getting traffic and lots of it to your blog fast.

You can use PPC campaigns with Bing Ads, Google Ads and Facebook Ads if you want to share content and get a desired result such as more leads or product/service sales.

The great thing about using PPC advertising is that you can ensure that only targeted people will view your content.

This means that you are getting people to your blog who are either interested in what you have to say or are searching for your content.

So when using Google ads or Bing ads, if your blog post is about The Best Herbal Medicines For Migraines then you can target people who are searching for relevant key words and direct them back to your blog with the expectation that they sign up to your lead magnet or buy your product.

Whilst I am not an expert on Google or Bing Ads, the following courses will help you master each of these if you’re wanting to get started with search traffic.

• Pay-Per-Click 101: Intro to Google & Facebook Advertising
• Social Media Marketing 2017 – Learn PPC on 10+ Platforms
• Forget Google; Bing Pay-Per-Click Advertising Traffic Course

You can also use Facebook as a driver of traffic to your blogs depending on the interests of Facebook users.

Using the example that I gave above you can target Facebook users who have an interest in herbal medicine and direct them to your blog post.

If you would like to use Facebook Ads as a way to drive steady fast traffic to your blog then be sure to check out Jon Penberthy and Jubril Agoro’s Facebook Ads Course, Social Traffic Blueprint.

They teach you how to do proper targeting to keep your costs low and maximise your profit.

Retargeting

Suppose that you are getting visitors to your blog from all the efforts that I have outlined above. PPC advertising helps you to retarget those visitors to bring them back to your blog to take a desired action, such as opting into your lead magnet or making a purchase.

To do retargeting however you must install each platform’s pixel (a piece of code) onto your blog so that it can collect data and then use that data to show your ad again to the people who already visited your site.

To get started with Facebook retargeting follow their instructions for placing the Facebook pixel on your site.

Here is Google’s.

Here is Bing’s.

Then simply place the ad and see visitors returning to read your content again.

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How To Use Influencers To Share Your Content To Get Blog Visitors  

Never underestimate the power of influencers.

These are people with high follower accounts who can send a bucket load of traffic back to your site and help you gain authority and build your own following.

But influencers are some tricky folk to work with because just like guest blogging, you have to reach out to them in a smart way to get your content shared.

However once your content is shared, the benefits to you and your blog is massive.

Follow these steps to finding great influencers to pitch and reach out to.

Where To Find Influencers 

The first place you would go to, to find influencers is on social media.

By influencers I am not referring to bloggers anymore. Rather I am referring to people who have an influence in your niche. For example if you have a travel blog, then an influencer could be a travel vlogger from YouTube or Instagram (granted they may have their own blog) who have a huge audience that dig their content.

If you have a cooking blog, then an influencer may have a cooking YouTube channel or a Pinterest account.

These are the people that you want to search for and you can easily find them by searching for them.

For example if I type the keywords cooking channel on YouTube I can find lots of channels on here with high subscriber numbers.

I would not recommend that you reach out to the more popular channels like these as you will probably get no response (although you can still try).

Rather reach out to the smaller channels like these where their subscriber base is large enough to give you good redirect traffic but still small enough to get a response.

You can then repeat this process for social media sites like Instagram, Pinterest or even Facebook.

Get The Quote

Once you have put together a list of influencers that you would like to target get them to respond to you by asking them for a response to a simple question that you can put as a quote in your blog post.

If you do not want to make the initial contact you can always view their content on their respective channels and refer to something that they have done that’s interesting and add it to a blog post.

For example they may have prepared a recipe that looked delicious. In your blog post you can cite them as a reference.

They may have recently visited a country and made a post about it. Again cite it in your blog post.

Publish and Share

Then when the post is published ask them to share it with their audience.

You can use the example cold email that I mentioned in my guest blogging category. Here’s one that I did with Alex from Conquer The World.

And here’s his response.

From my email you will see that I made sure that I did a few things:

• I spoke to them directly and stated my relevance. I was writing a travel related blog post and his was a travel related channel.
• I made my approach personal. I let him know that I watch his channel.
• I asked him for a quote and told him that I would feature it in my blog. This makes it easy for me to come back and share it with him so he can share it with his audience.
• I gave him a due date so he knew it was urgent
• I offered to promote a link to his channel so it would be mutually beneficial for the both of us. Remember the WIIFM (what’s in it for me) tactic.

How To Use Facebook Groups To Drive Visitors To Your Blog

Just like Pinterest group boards, you can use targeted Facebook groups to drive traffic back to your blog.

Using Facebook groups does require you to manually post your blog post into the group, but if your content is popular it can get lots of shares and people going back to your blog.

The difficulty with Facebook however is that unlike Pinterest, the lifespan of your post remains visible for a couple days whereas the lifespan of your pin remains visible for years.

In any event the key to getting traffic to your blog using Facebook groups is to post in groups that are relevant to your niche.

So if you have a weight loss blog join weight loss groups.

Be sure that you do not spam your links. Offer content that is valuable and helpful to the group members.

A better way to do this is with a method that Tori Reid calls the Ask & Deliver method.

Basically what you do is

• Start with a simple question: “What is your biggest challenge with…”
• Next check the most popular responses on the post and write a blog post about that challenge. Offer solutions and give them guidance.
• Return to the group and post your blog post link – deliver.

By answering to a specific problem that most people had, will ensure that they will be hungry for your content as it will help them solve their problem.

Using this method does take a few tries so don’t give up if no one responds to your post on the first try.

Before I Go

That’s it. Five steps that you can take to get traffic to your blog.

I would recommend that you try one or two of these and stick to it until you master it.

Don’t try to do all as they may overwhelm you.

Also a good idea is to use lead capture pages like LeadPages or Clickfunnels to capture potential leads and grow your subscriber list using email automation software like Aweber or GetResponse.

If you have not yet gotten the hang of email marketing then be sure to check out my article The Ultimate Guide To Email Marketing.

Be consistent and good luck in growing your traffic using these awesome traffic generation strategies.

Cheers