Blogging Tip #2: How to get tons of traffic to your blog

Hey {NAME}, It's easy to look at big travel blogs out there and think, "I'll never be able to reach as many people as they do." However, every blog starts with the same number of readers: zero. No matter the blog you read, we all started the same. The ones that keep growing simply know how to keep gaining readers! Today I'm here to give you specific tips on how to actually grow your website's reach and get more traffic. [These tricks have gotten me to over one million readers per month.]() It didn't happen overnight — and it won't for you either, but if you focus on these core techniques and combine them with the strategies talked about in the previous email, I promise you'll succeed! Use social media Social media is the key to getting your blog read, right? Everyone knows that. But with so much noise these, how do you actually grow on these services? Here is some advice: Twitter - If you want to gain followers, just tweet about what you love. People with similar interests will follow you. Follow other people who tweet about your passions — they will follow you back. If you post interesting articles, people will retweet them and you will see increased traffic on your blog. Twitter is about communicating and engaging with people — not spamming them with links and shamelessly self-promoting. Moreover, scanning through one travel blogger’s followers will yield plenty of like-minded writers, allowing you to spend less time searching for other bloggers. Pinterest - Pinterest is a website that allows people to “pin” webpages to a virtual bulletin board and share them with friends. It’s used heavily by women as a way to find travel, design, home décor, and fashion advice. To succeed on Pinterest, have Pinterest-friendly images, make it easy for people to pin, be active on Pinterest, and promote your pins. Pinterest allows you to pay to promote your pins, which I’ve found helpful for providing a substantial boost in visitors and resharing. I spend $5 USD a day for promoted pins and run posts for about 3-4 days in order for them to gain some traction before I start promoting another post. Starting in 2015, I focused on ads and Pinterest-friendly images, and I now average over 2,000 visitors per day from the website. Facebook - Facebook pages are a great source of traffic. Facebook fans are great readers. They tend to stay on your site for a long time and view multiple pages. After all, they liked your page for a reason! Be consistent in your postings. The more consistent you are, the more people will share your page, and the more followers you will build. Be consistent not only with the days you post but also the time of day. No one interacts with a Facebook page that posts only once a week. Facebook rewards pages that are updated frequently by showing them more often in people’s newsfeeds. The more interactions and shares your post gets, the higher Facebook will rank it in newsfeeds and the more people will see it. Instagram - Instagram isn't a good way to monetize your website, but it is a good way to keep your brand top of mind. Post one photo every day, use lots of hashtags, and do lots of stories, so you stay at the top of people's feeds. There are so many polished accounts on the service that people are really looking for something more authentic and natural. Post pictures of yourself. Post pictures of you doing things. Reply to your readership. Show stories about your life and your thoughts on travel. This service is one of the best ways to build a connection with your readership. Get media attention Media attention yields dramatic results. A link from a major media website can send you tens of thousands of visitors in a day! To get media, first look at major newspapers. See who edits and writes in the travel/finance/gardening section. Follow them, read their articles and bios, and really get to know them so you can create personalized emails to them. If their email isn’t listed, Google their name plus the word “email.” If that doesn’t work, find an email address for someone else in their organization and use that format to email the person who you actually want to connect with. Most organizations follow the same email pattern (i.e., first name and last initial, like sams@abc.com). Next, be sure to follow and interact with journalists on Twitter. I’ve found many contacts (and good friends) from Twitter. It builds your relationships with them and gets you to the front of their mind. I got my first major break by responding to a tweet from the New York Times — and then they did a whole article on me in 2009. It brought in so much traffic, it crashed my site and brought me to the attention of a lot of other journalists. All because of a single tweet! Finally, sign up for the [HARO (Help a Reporter Out)]() newsletter so you can be alerted when your expertise might be needed. Journalists use this website to submit calls for experts and authority figures they need for articles they are researching. This email will get sent to you three times a day. I’ve used it to get into newspapers and online media sites many, many times! Getting media mentions will start slowly at first, but one mention begets another, which begets another. The more you are mentioned, the bigger your profile grows and the more people will seek you out for mentions. Guest-post Guest-writing is the steroid of the blogging world. I’ve guest-posted on many sites larger than mine, and they have all led to new readers and more traffic. I wrote a post for [I Will Teach You to Be Rich]() that brought over 5,000 visitors to my site in one day! My best guest post was one on [Thought Catalog]() that brought over 10,000 visitors in a single day! If you want traffic, guest-blog! It increases your brand awareness and has a direct benefit in terms of visitor numbers. Asking bloggers for the opportunity to write guest posts can be difficult — you have to ask the right way, or else you won’t get a response. If they have a guide to writing a guest post, follow it exactly. Don’t send an email without following their rules; doing so will result in your email being deleted right away. Here are some tips on how to approach them and succeed: - Address the blogger by his or her first name. - Introduce yourself and explain what your blog is about. - Talk about their blog, why you like it (compliment them), why you want to guest-post, and how your blog is relevant to them and their readers. Let them know you read their website. - Suggest the topics you want to write about. Be specific. List the titles and write a short summary of the articles. Bloggers don’t want to play email tag. If you can’t express what you want right away, you won’t get a response. - Be succinct. These bloggers get pitched all the time and are very busy. Get right to the point. - Write professionally. Make sure your email is well written, concise, cleanly formatted, and free of errors. I often write guest posts before I even pitch them to other blogs. I’ll think of a topic that will resonate with their audience, create an angle for the genre I want to write about (finance, life hacking, teaching, etc.), write the post, and then shop it around. Remember to also reach outside your niche. Expand your horizons. What are some fields related to your niche topic? I often blog on finance websites because budget travel appeals to people who like to save money. I also blog on consumer websites about finding travel deals. Think of ways that your niche topic can apply to websites that focus on a seemingly unrelated topic. Do interviews Finally, always say "yes" to interviews. They are not only a great way to get exposure but also a great way to get links and help your search rankings! Doing interviews allows you to help other bloggers as they start out (always help others!) and reach as many people as possible. Out of many little things, big things happen! Plus, most of the time, people ask the same questions, so you can save your answers to use as templates for future interviews. *** All right, today! Email me if you have any questions! Best, Nomadic Matt Quick Note #1 - If you're looking for more tips on how to stand out in the blogging world, [I've created a full-blown blogging class to not only help you find what makes you unique but also teach you the business side of blogging](). Remember, the most successful bloggers are the ones who are both passionate about their work and think about it like a business. Let me help you succeed the way I've helped others. Quick Note #2 - If you haven't downloaded my free PDF on how to start your blog in 20 minutes, [just click here](. If you have any trouble, let me know. I'm here to help. Really. [Unsubscribe]( | [Update your profile]( | 407 W University Ave, Georgetown, Texas 78626