50 Traffic Tips for Content Marketersby Dan Norris

Hi I'm Dan the founder of Informly, an app that helps content marketers engage their audience and drive more leads.

World first audience and site analytics for content marketers - Check it out now

Monday, 15 April 13

1. AUTOMATESet your systems up to automate the syndication of your content. This was one of a few tips from Brian Massey the conversion scientist. He covers automation in his Blog Volcano strategy here.

2. FORUMSForums particularly private memberships have been a massive support to me with my content. I am part of the Dynamite Circle and Fast Web Formula.

World first audience and site analytics for content marketers - Check it out now

Monday, 15 April 13

3. BASIC SEOGetting a basic SEO setup for your blog is a must. Check out the Informly guide to content driven SEO as a good starting point.

4. ADVANCED SEONeil Patel has just released an amazing new guide to advanced SEO, check it out here.

World first audience and site analytics for content marketers - Check it out now

Monday, 15 April 13

5. START PARTNERSHIPSWork out who has your audience (ideally a similar size) and partner on some content. This ebook on content marketing metrics produced by Convince and Convert and the Content Marketing Institute is a great example.

6. LISTING SITESBlog listing sites can be a useful traffic source. The Informly blog was recently added to the Alltop small business section, I’ll monitor this to see how it goes as a traffic source.

World first audience and site analytics for content marketers - Check it out now

Monday, 15 April 13

7. GUEST POSTINGGuest posting is my most effective source of traffic and conversions but only since I started doing it effectively. Here is a guest post about guest posting I wrote for ProBlogger recently.

8. USE SLIDE SHAREJoe Pulizzi from the Content Marketing Institute says “Take current PowerPoint presentations and promote them on SlideShare. It’s an excellent location to syndicate content you already have – no additional investment with content you already own.”

World first audience and site analytics for content marketers - Check it out now

Monday, 15 April 13

9. CREATE A LIST POSTDoing a list post is a very well accepted way of generating traffic. I haven’t done one before so I figured I would try. This top 50 content traffic strategies post is my take on a list post.

Sometimes it helps to just email people cold. For this traffic strategies post I emailed all of the people below about contributing to the post (and more). Getting influencers on board will sure help your reach. I also did a similar thing for my podcasting guide which is now my most trafficked post.

World first audience and site analytics for content marketers - Check it out now

10. COLD EMAIL INFLUENCERS

Monday, 15 April 13

11. RUN A WEBINARWebinars can be a great way to build your authority and get your name out there. Jake Hower from the Multimedia Marketing Show just recorded a great podcast with Lewis Howes on this topic here.

12. HELP A REPORTER OUTServices like Help a Reporter Out (HARO) and Source Bottle allow content creators to find experts for articles. Sign up for the email and contact anyone writing an article in your area of expertise.

World first audience and site analytics for content marketers - Check it out now

Monday, 15 April 13

13. GIVE AWAY STUFF FOR FREEThis should be second nature to content creators but it’s always worth thinking about what else you can give away for free. At Informly I give away big content like our guides, email courses, calculators and software as an example.

14. GET GUESTS ON YOUR BLOGHaving guests on your blog could come in many forms (not just guest posts). Brian Massey likes the strategy of ‘asking experts to spew’. He points to The Daily Egg blog which asks experts to comment on something (Websites in this case) and publishes their opinions / analysis.

World first audience and site analytics for content marketers - Check it out now

Monday, 15 April 13

15. CREATE A UDEMY COURSEUdemy looks like a very promising platform for creating educational content. Check it out here.

16. WRITE A PRESS RELEASEIf any aspect of your content is newsworthy in any way you can get a boost in traffic by releasing a press release. I use PR Web.

World first audience and site analytics for content marketers - Check it out now

Monday, 15 April 13

17. BE CONTROVERSIALLast year the Verge released an article on ‘scammy’ internet marketers which annoyed a few people. It’s got over 1,000 comments, 4.5k Facebook likes, almost 2k tweets, backlinks from the major internet marketing blogs and had the whole industry talking (for a while). Well done Verge.

18. AUTO FOLLOW ON TWITTERAuto following on Twitter can be a surprisingly effective (albeit a little bit dodgy) way at getting traffic. Check out the Informly guide on auto following on Twitter with Tweet Adder.

World first audience and site analytics for content marketers - Check it out now

Monday, 15 April 13

19. DAILY SOCIAL MEDIA SHAREUse Google Reader to subscribe to the top blogs in your industry and post a link to social media on the best article you find each day. I use Hootsuite to auto post to Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin.

20. IMPROVE YOUR TITLESHeidi Cohen says “When it comes to driving traffic, the most efficient thing you can do is to craft compelling headlines since they do the heavy lifting of driving traffic. Readers decide whether or not to read or share your content on the basis of your title.” Here is a great article she has written on the topic.

World first audience and site analytics for content marketers - Check it out now

Monday, 15 April 13

21. START A PODCASTChris Ducker says It’s no longer a matter of ‘Should I, or Shouldn’t I Start a Podcast?’ Producing a podcast has boosted traffic to my blog like I never would have imagined. It’s a complete game-changer as far as I’m concerned. Check out Chris’ The New Business Podcast here.

22. INTERACT WITH INFLUENCERSThere are people out there who have audiences big enough to send thousands of visitors to your site with one mention. Find them and do all of the things I talk about in this podcast episode.

World first audience and site analytics for content marketers - Check it out now

Monday, 15 April 13

23. POST CONTENT TO FORUMSEveryone tries the approach of going onto forums and answering people questions but it’s crowded and a lot of work. Why not save some of your best original content and post it on a forum instead of on your own blog. Don’t forget the compelling call to action in your forum signature.

24. CREATE NEWS AND OTRJames Schramko has built up a large following with a news based video approach known as Own The Racecourse. He has recently released the whole training series for free here.

World first audience and site analytics for content marketers - Check it out now

Monday, 15 April 13

25. COMMENT ON SOME BLOGSBlog commenting can produce a range of benefits. I don’t see it has a huge traffic strategy but it can be a great way to interact with influencers so build a list of your favorite blogs and make a habit of posting thoughtful replies to posts.

26. CREATE AN INFOGRAPHICI regularly get twice the traffic to my infographics than I do to typical blog posts. Visual content is taking off so why not have a go. Here is a post from SEO Moz on10 tools for creating infographics.

World first audience and site analytics for content marketers - Check it out now

Monday, 15 April 13

27. RESPOND ON QUORAQuora is a hugely popular site now and it also has a lot of high quality content and contributors. When you have a particularly useful post why not reply to some Quora comments with useful responses and drop a link to your blog post with more info.

28. JOIN TRIBERRTriberr is a site that allows bloggers to form tribes and support each other’s content efforts. Check it out here.

World first audience and site analytics for content marketers - Check it out now

Monday, 15 April 13

29. GO VIRAL ON HACKER NEWSRecently my friend Brian posted his first article to Hacker News and got 17,000 visits in 2 days. I wrote about it here.

30. SEND A ‘MENTIONS’ TWEETWhen you mention others in your content send out a tweet saying ‘Mentioned in this podcast / post @tropicalmba, @neilpatel’ etc. Some people will take notice and retweet it (particularly if it’s great content).

World first audience and site analytics for content marketers - Check it out now

Monday, 15 April 13

31. DO SOMETHING FUNNYWhy so serious? Matt from Vooza seems to be doing just fine, check out some of these not so serious startup videos.

32. DRAW SOMETHINGBrian Massey again with this tip “Since tablets are all the rage, I say ‘Draw Something’ Scott Brinker uses an iPad app for this (see here)”. I also produce Illustrations at Informly check them out here.

World first audience and site analytics for content marketers - Check it out now

Monday, 15 April 13

33. CREATE AN EMAIL COURSEEmail courses are a great way to get an opt in and also build a relationship over time (unlike a one off ebook). CopyBlogger uses them so it must be good. I use MailChimp for our email courses on content marketing and actionable analytics.

34. SYNDICATE YOUR SOCIAL UPDATES

Use Hootsuite or Buffer to auto schedule your social updates on the various networks throughout the day. I use Hootsuite as it’s pretty much a full replacement for Twitter.

World first audience and site analytics for content marketers - Check it out now

Monday, 15 April 13

35. POST TO SOCIAL MEDIA GROUPSLinkedin and Facebook are both filled with endless groups of people within your niche. Join them and start posting valuable content (within the rules of course).

36. PAID DISCOVERY

World first audience and site analytics for content marketers - Check it out now

Outbrain is the Google Adwords / Adsense for content marketers. It enables you to show up as a related post on other big name blogs like Mashable. Check it outhere.

Monday, 15 April 13

37. SEND UP TWILERT

38. JOIN A COMMENT TRIBE

Twilert is a really easy way to see exactly who is tweeting your content. It will email you every day showing who has tweeted anything on your domain. You can sign up for free at Twilert.com.

World first audience and site analytics for content marketers - Check it out now

If you are just getting started one thing you could consider is joining a group of bloggers who comment on and share each other’s posts. This gives you traffic and adds some credibility to your content (an empty comments section and low social sharing numbers isn’t a good look).

Monday, 15 April 13

39. WRITE A BOOK

40. IMPROVE READABILITY

Most of the well known content marketers are either writing a book or already have at least one. It’s still the ultimate authority builder.

World first audience and site analytics for content marketers - Check it out now

AJ Kohn from Blind 5 Year Old reminded me of the importance of readability. Here is a great article he wrote on making your posts more readable

Monday, 15 April 13

41. JACK THE NEWS

42. MEET SOMEONE IN PERSON

David Meerman Scott says “Inject your ideas into a breaking news story via a real-time blog post, photo, or video and generate tons of media coverage”. He would know, he wrote the book on Newsjacking…like literally….here’s the book newsjacking.com (with a free chapter).

World first audience and site analytics for content marketers - Check it out now

The web hasn’t killed basic human nature. People will always be more likely to get on board with what you are doing if you have met them in person and have a real relationship. Get to some events and get yourself known. Meetup.com is a good place to find local events.

Monday, 15 April 13

43. CROSS PROMOTE YOUR CONTENT

44. CREATE SOME DEEP CONTENT

It’s easy to forget that your audience in one place might be different to another. Don’t forget to mention your blog posts on your podcast, your podcast on your videos etc.

World first audience and site analytics for content marketers - Check it out now

Make sure your site isn’t just filled with ordinary articles. Filler articles are great but you have to include some pillar content as well. I spoke with the godfather Joe Pulizzi about this here.

Monday, 15 April 13

45. DEEP LINK TO OTHER BLOGS

46. POST TO REDDIT

When you link to someone else’s blog post (not their homepage) there is a good chance they will get a ‘trackback’ notification. This is an easy and subtle way to let people know that you are talking about them (they might share the post or at least visit your blog out of curiosity).

World first audience and site analytics for content marketers - Check it out now

When I launched Informly and when I’ve published my infographics I’ve always received a decent amount of traffic from posting on Reddit. I admit the conversions and onsite metrics are horrible but it’s a good way to get something noticed.

Monday, 15 April 13

47. NOMINATE FOR AN AWARD

48. CREATE LANDING PAGES

I was recently voted Australia’s top small business blogger all because I spent 5 minutes nominating myself for the award. I got a decent boost in traffic immediately and no doubt there will be long term benefits.

World first audience and site analytics for content marketers - Check it out now

Adam Franklin from Bluewire Media says “Offer your premium content like e-books, tools and templates on landing pages where people fill out a form to download the content.”. Adam practices what he preaches too, check out the Web Strategy Template.

Monday, 15 April 13

49. EMAILS NEWSLETTERS

50. PRESENT OLD IN A NEW WAY

Don’t forget to build your mailing list which could easily become your biggest traffic referrer and your highest converting traffic source. Here are 20 tips from Priit Kallas on how to build your list.

World first audience and site analytics for content marketers - Check it out now

Dan Andrews recently re-purposed his story (which he had shared many times before) on a forum of likeminded people. His forum post (see here) now has 177 replies, 244 thanks and over 17,500 views.

Monday, 15 April 13

World first audience and site analytics for content marketers - Check it out now

Understand your audience and what content drives them to action with Informly. Check it out now

Presentation by

Recurring revenue and more customers with custom content - learn more

Monday, 15 April 13