This is a guest post by Ana Hoffman (@WebTrafficCafe) who teaches how to increase Web site traffic in her WebTrafficCafe blog.
You’ve probably heard it a hundred times, but apart from making money with your blog, there are several other reasons to strive for more traffic.
Some of the most important reasons include higher rankings on search engines, self-promotion and brand awareness.
After all, as long as your conversion funnel works like a well-oiled machine, as it should, you have a great chance of still converting a good portion of your blog traffic that didn’t come to your blog to buy – necessarily.
So let’s take a look at the following 10 blog traffic magnets that are meant to do one thing and one thing only: bring you tons of targeted traffic.
Traffic Magnet #1: High volume, FREE searches
You will need: a keyword research tool
Method: Find searches related to your niche. These searches need to have good traffic, but not advertiser bidding.
If nobody is bidding on these keywords, there is no money to be made on the search upfront. However, there will still be sufficient traffic to be directed to your blog.
How do you tap into this kind of traffic?
There are 2 options: Using paid advertising such as Google Adwords is the quicker option; alternatively, you can use SEO to optimize your search terms to ensure that you are on the first page of Google. While this takes longer to achieve results this way, it is free.
Traffic Magnet #2: Controversy Brings Visitors
You will need: A controversial blog post
Challenging beliefs or passions make controversial content.
Method: You need to have a plan in mind for how you will approach the post and how you will defend your position. The best places to create controversy would be via social media, blog comments and online groups. This will bring a good amount of traffic from various sources, but you should know that the bulk of the traffic would be from the group that opposes your views.
Warning: Be professional in handling objections, as this is a great way to win a good following.
Traffic Magnetic #3: Cover Industry Events
You will need: A popular industry event in your niche.
Method: Attend the event, meet new people, socialize and rub shoulders with the big names. Be the insider for your readers by posting everything you learned in a timely manner to make your readers feel that they were there.
Traffic Magnet #4: Create a Top 10 List
You will need: 10 great ideas with a common goal that will be beneficial to your audience.
Method: While this seems simple enough, you should bear in mind that many similar lists do exist. Make sure that your list stands out from the crowd. Think it through, ensure that it is targeted and ensure that it will benefit your readers. It has to work!
Traffic Magnet #5: Explain Complicated Concepts
You will need: A good understanding of the topic, or a good publication, which explains it.
Method: Create a simplified version of the publication and include tips and examples. Simpler posts often outrank complex explanations on search engines. That is the objective of the exercise – to make it simpler for the reader!
Traffic Magnet #6: Translator Plugin
You will need: Any translator plugin
Method: By using a translator plugin on your site, you will be able to increase page-views by readers who are not native English speakers. While the translation will not be perfect (as with most automated writing applications), it will still attract an international readership.
Traffic Magnet #7: Blog Carnival Submission
You will need: A good blog post and a niche-related carnival.
Method: Search online for blog carnivals and then find one related to your topic. The post will most likely be published, resulting in backlinks and increased blog traffic.
Traffic Magnet #8: Social Bookmarking Sites
You will need: Fresh, unique, solid and targeted content using a great title and description.
Method: Submit your content to bookmarking and link sharing services. I would stay away from the big ones such as Del.icio.us, Digg and Technorati, StumbleUpon, and Reddit, but stick with smaller, but active services like Blokube, BlobEngage, Bizsugar, etc.
Traffic Magnet #9: Top 10 Blogs in Your Niche
You will need: Research
Method: Be the first person to compile a Top Ten list of blogs in your niche. This type of post will rank highly in general searches, which will translate into a good stream of targeted traffic.
Traffic Magnet #10: Giveaway!
You will need: Something to give away – duh.
Method: Find or create something niche related to give away. E-books work well, as do free consultations, marketing opportunities and more.
Marketing Takeaway
Your next step? To take what you’ve just learned and put it to the test!
Plus, remember: any traffic is useless traffic if you don’t know how to convert it to paying customers / subscribers. So make sure your conversion pieces are all in place before you go out and invest your time in this kind of blog traffic generation.
Love it or hate it? Comment to show me that you’re alive!
GAIL @GrowMap suggestion: Be sure to follow Ana @WebTrafficCafe on Twitter and check out her blog!
Ana | Traffic Generation Cafe
Hello Anna,
I was worried because even after writing my heart out, I am not getting traffic to my blog but after reading this article and your ideas I will definitely try.
Thanks for this…keep up the good work…
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Thanks for sharing your ten sure-fire blog traffic magnets Ana!
I can certainly affirm several of them, certainly do help
increase our targeted traffic.
I only wish, I had known about them, before I started my blogging journey!LOL!
Because it would have shortened my learning curve a whole lot.
But since your ten proven traffic generating strategies are so evergreen, practically
any serious blogger, at any level, can and will benefit from utilizing them!
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Your post is really useful to get idea about how to get free traffic for website.But i like to say something about social bookmarking sites. Social bookmarking sites really helpful to get more traffic, not only that, it will help to get quality back links for your website or blog. After a long research i have made a list of 250 top social bookmarking sites of 2015, that will help to others to get quality back links , as well as good traffic.
Regards
Unitmask
Hi Sayan,
Thank you for sharing your research with us. I’ve shared it with my blogger collaboration and saved it for future reference.I’ll also share it on Twitter.
Have you considered offering a service bookmarking content to all these sites? You could have 3 packages with different prices, maybe one for Top 14, another for 50 and one for all of them.
Many people may want to have their content bookmarked, but not want to do it themselves. Promote that as a service and you could be making money from it.
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Thank you Gail.. yes i regularly search for new things which will be helpful for others. Yes i want to give service of social bookmarking.. But i do not know how to get customer for that. And you are right for social bookmarking need patience , and many people have not such patience to bookmark their content. It is a great way to get massive traffic in blog or website, as well as can get high pr back links which will improve page rank also. 🙂
Yes, another great article to increase blog traffic quickly! If someone follow these 10 traffic magnets, he or she will definitely increase blog more blog traffic and it is free! Great idea! This is worthy to share. Eager to know updated traffic magnets from you!
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Hi Anna, you explaine all the points in detail very well. i hope i will be able to use some of these magical magnets.
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Already tried stuffs like this out and it helped alot ,Nice article.This will help others,
Hello Ana,
I can not but print this article. As a new blogger it helps me lot. You have saved a year of learning. I don’t know how may i thank you. I did not learn it from Darren Rowse. You have taught me awesome blogging tips.
Keep Writing awesome things…
Regards,
Gautam
I am sort of not agree with your point that this traffic will not make money for you. Everything make money, if you know what to do. You are just favoring the sales, or at least affiliate marketing business model and writing this with term that these tricks will not bring any sale to your business, which means no money. But I would like to say that selling things online are not the only way to make money.
One can use different type of ad-networks on his blog to cash this traffic. One can even break his records of earning money with huge traffic. According to me, it all depends on your strategy and planning.
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It’s the first time I’ve heard about blog carnival…will check it out. Thanks for the great tips.
Social bookmarking sites can be great source of traffic but you have to be careful because they can be a big time waster and keep you from doing more important things in your business.
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I have been trying these steps but i guess it something that I am not doing right because my traffic still sucks, but I am still trying to make it work. I have been thinking about install a translator plugin on my site but dont want to make plugin to deal with.
Thanks for the great tips Ana – I’m new to this. Setting up a top ten list sounds easy but has it been overused? Is there any magic about using 10 versus 5, say? Or if you spell it out T-E-N versus 10? Interested to know your thoughts on this.
Thanks
Geoff
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I try to follow all these steps for my blog. It is only a little bit older than a month, but I am seeing decent traffic every now and then. This is the hardest part is getting people to your blog when you first start out. That last way is all about determination, with a good amount of content you can bring in a decent amount of traffic for that alone. Awesome post!
Great tips for generating traffic. I think the main point here is, no matter how many traffic generation methods you’ve learned, they’re useless if you don’t put it to the test!
And I couldn’t agree with you more that any traffic is useless traffic if you don’t know how to convert it.
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Thanks to Anna for sharing her ideas. I think I knew her from somewhere.
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This is very interesting post. Nice Idea.
Really interesting list!
Does more traffic really mean higher rankings?
Because I can easily send an extra 1000 people to my sites through automatic traffic.
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Well.. It depends really. Yes, lots of traffic is good, but if they all come from trafficsurf sites, you’re going to experience a huge bouncerate, and low average time spent on the website. And that’s bad for your ranking. It basically shows that your website has nothing of value, so people are leaving really quickly. So if that’s the things you had in mind, I wouldn’t recommend it.
If you could get a lot of interested traffic who spends time on the site and click around, it’s going to benefit the bouncerate and average time spent, which in return will be beneficial to your rankings.
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Hi Jonas,
I agree that trading traffic or pay to surf sites would seem to be a very bad idea. I know a group of bloggers who use them, but all of them have much lower pageranks than any of the serious bloggers I collaborate with who don’t. They may be shooting themselves in the foot without knowing it.
Blog carnivals don’t get very much exposure at all. Why is that? Are they just not very powerful or is it just time-consuming work to find good ones to submit to?
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Great list Ana!
I am always amazed at how “top 10 list” or any other kind of “list” posts draws so much attention. People really love such posts. I guess its because its easy for people to go over the content quickly and get the points of the article.
Any way, Good read Ana.
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me too..creating a list also enables you to discover things like when readers comment and refers you to another product or site..it’s really cool
I am curious about blog carnivals. One of my favorite way to maximize blogging is the round up posts, either you do it monthly or weekly. It’s a very active way to share good reads and connect at related bloggers at the same time.
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You just gave me a gift of an idea with creating a post with the top ten blogs in your niche; I just hope the people in my niches aren’t reading this and beating me to the punch! LOL
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Top ten blogs lists are a great idea. Not only are they a list – which always seems to bring in traffic. Plus the blog owners will be so pleased they’ve made it to a top ten list they’re bound to link to it in some way.
You’re welcome!
Alice Hoffaman, you are a goddess!!i love your take on blog traffic.It’s such a short but effective list of ways to draw attention to your blog.Keep up the good work,girl!
After Panda update, using Translate plugin too risk because your website can be marked as useless content, auto generation content.
Yes, it must be because they are easily read and remembered – more so than articles.
Wow, amazing ideas! You really give a simple yet very effective and direct to the point strategies! Hmmm, really nice post! Thank you very much for sharing your ideas with us. Sometimes, as a business owner or manager, you will really find hard to improve and develop your business strategies and absolutely, Internet marketing or creating traffic to your site is a must. I like your ideas because it gives me more interest and it encourages me to strive my best in my business. Many thanks for sharing this and I look forward for your other post!
LOL… You strike the right points. I plan to do the traffic magnet method number 10 but like what you’ve said: Duh! I need something to give away. Great post. Really enjoy it.
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Blog carnivals are great! I have run some myself and also had my posts there. Great way to leverage someone else’s blog community, or highlight people in a specific niche.
I will most definetly try out all of this tips I have some in my site you can always come and check them out, if you want. But I would like to say that this post is really interesting!
Well, I am glad you found this helpful, Petra.
Ana would love you to read ..5 Lead Conversion Ideas To Turn Blog Traffic Into Cash Magic
Ana,
My imagination just got another dose of inspiration (smile)
Thanks for the great ideas!
You’re most welcome, Kelly!
Ana would love you to read ..5 Lead Conversion Ideas To Turn Blog Traffic Into Cash Magic
Hey Ana! Great to see you here guest posting for Gail. I like your strategies and comments here prove I’m not the only one.
I’d like to add sponsoring blogging contests to this list. You mentioned Blog Engage and since Brian is having a guest posting contest every month this year – everyone needs to be involved on some level. Sponsoring the contest is a really sweet deal because the contestants gain points for writing reviews of the sponsor’s blogs. I get tons of traffic from all the reviews that were done on Basic Blog Tips recently.
Thanks Ana, and enjoy your weekend. Are you having coffee with everyone this Sunday over on Facebook? Keep me posted 🙂
Hey Ileane – Thanks for that addition. You are right, that is a great tip. I will try to work in coffee! 🙂
Ana would love you to read ..5 Lead Conversion Ideas To Turn Blog Traffic Into Cash Magic
Hi Ana,
Your Traffic Magnet #3, Covering Industry Events, is one that I haven’t seen touted as a traffic generator. But it certainly makes sense.
Case in point: I exchanged tweets with one of the recent NYC BlogWorld attendees while she was stuck at the airport on her way back home. I saw today that she’d written up a post on her learnings and observations. So timely is a real key!
Thanks Ana. I always get great ideas from you. 🙂
Yes, with this timing is key. Daily updates are ideal, if it is a multi-day event.
Ana would love you to read ..5 Lead Conversion Ideas To Turn Blog Traffic Into Cash Magic
We can make money with some other programs like PPC, Logo & Banner Advertising, not only to selling products.
Sure we can! However, many newbies want to make money now and it is hard to sell banners if they do not have much traffic yet. These tips are things that can be done right away for free.
Ana would love you to read ..5 Lead Conversion Ideas To Turn Blog Traffic Into Cash Magic
Good tips, especially for newbie like me. I still try to get more traffic to my blog. Thanks for your sharing…
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You’re welcome. All the best!
Ana would love you to read ..5 Lead Conversion Ideas To Turn Blog Traffic Into Cash Magic
Its better to get one user who makes one sale than 10 visitors who make no sale. In this perspective traffic magnets should also generate money, unless you offer enough valuable information that they may inform their friends about it and it goes viral.
That’s correct, Andreas. Using these tips you can benefit both ways.
Ana would love you to read ..5 Lead Conversion Ideas To Turn Blog Traffic Into Cash Magic
Ana,
As always you have some killer ideas. I love the translator idea. I have seen quite a few trackbacks from foreign language blogs on my site and encouraging this can only boost readership.
-S
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Absolutely! It makes it so much easier for foreign language users and opens up a wider market for you.
Ana would love you to read ..5 Lead Conversion Ideas To Turn Blog Traffic Into Cash Magic
Thanks for the tip. I didn’t know about the alternatives to digg / reddit / stumblupon. I’ve been disappointed by the traffic I’m getting from those sources so I’m definitely going to try out the other sites.
I have a couple of additional tips to share:
1 – content marketing via youtube. Create audio only versions of your articles and submit them to a youtube channel.
2 – create slides of your content and post them to slideshare.
Those are great tips too. I actually do make use of you tube marketing quite a bit.
Ana would love you to read ..5 Lead Conversion Ideas To Turn Blog Traffic Into Cash Magic
nice share article..
i still try to get more traffic to my blog
All the best 🙂
Ana would love you to read ..5 Lead Conversion Ideas To Turn Blog Traffic Into Cash Magic
I agree that controversy does bring in more traffic. Anytime we blog about a topic such as religion or politics there is double or triple the comments and traffic to that blog.
Indeed true! Must say that I am a fan of Ana’s writing. The way so blantly you put truth forward is so adorable. And the article’s title explains it all, Useless but still we want ’em.
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Thanks for the thumbs up, James – glad you could come by!
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I must say that I both love and adore your writing. And it was a niece piece of work from you and hence you deserve a thumbs up!
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A top 10 list can work great but it needs to have a) a killer headline b) that certain quality that makes people share it and c) if no-one sees it, no-one will share it – so you have to promote it and give it a good shove out of the dock otherwise it might go nowhere.
Another tip is to try going big on the numbers… people love “monster lists” and when it really is the best of its kind it can go off like a rocket. I’ve had great results with “50 ideas for xxxxx”, “50 ways to do xxxx” etc…. also I’ve seen other high number ones do well, like “140 places to get xxxxx for free” or something like that. One thing I have to criticize though, “use SEO to optimize your search terms to ensure that you are on the first page of Google” is not really very helpful advice…
Doesn’t all our content needs to have those qualities, Lex? Most certainly.
You don’t like SEO? Not sure what you didn’t like about my advice…
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ROFL! Gail, feel free to change your name to Ana! My bad – that’s what happens when you’re reading email and blog comments at the same time – and you’re old and senile like me!
🙂
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I love this post! Another great idea thanks to you, Ana! I’m thinking about that blog carnival tip in particular. Joseph asked if there are still quality blog carnivals out there – but why now start your own? Thanks, Ana, now I have ANOTHER project to get started on. LOL Have a great holiday weekend.
This is spot on! I’m glad I found the link to this post via http://kikolani.com 🙂
Time to implement these ideas in future posts!
I didn’t know Kristi found this post too, Gabriella – thanks for the heads up!
And I am glad it brought you here – hope you do use some of these tips.
Ana
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Great tips Ana. I’ve seen each of these used on the best, most visited blogs, so I know they all work wonders.
Yet even though I knew them, I haven’t tried all. I’m going to start using them more actively.
Thanks again Ana.
You are so welcome, Brandon.
There’s always a gap between knowing and doing, huh? 🙂
Ana
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LOL…yes…sometimes it is lack of “how-to” and other times it is limited amounts of time to do everything you want to get done. 🙂
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No money? As long as your blog is monetized, any of that traffic could payoff somehow…
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Not the kind of traffic that is ready to buy, Dennis.
For instance, anyone coming to my blog through a Google search about one of the products I reviewed are a good buying prospect.
I am with you though – any traffic can be converted; it’s all up to the blogger.
Ana
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These are definitely some good ideas, thanks. The one I was not so sure about was the blog carnivals. Are there really quality ones still out there today which can really help your blog? I think the top ten blogs in your niche is a great idea; hadn’t thought of that before!
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When I first started my blog, I participated in a couple of very top-notch carnivals, Joseph – that alone could’ve put my blog on the map back then.
It’s just a matter of looking around.
And, as Donna in the comment above noted, why not start your own?
I think it’s definitely worth a try.
Blog memes go into the same category.
Ana would love you to read ..5 Lead Conversion Ideas To Turn Blog Traffic Into Cash Magic
These sources are probably considered low quality in terms of conversion, but it’s up to the person using them to convert a portion of those visitors into real customers. Great post idea.
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That’s the idea behind it, Edgar.
Not all traffic is meant to be laser-targeted. Some of it you need to MAKE laser-targeted by converting them while on your blog.
Thanks for coming by!
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Thanks for the article! I’ve never used those bloggmarking sites that you mentioned above. Always awesome when you can take an applicable tool away from an article.