Marc Guberti
Do you want more traffic for your blog? So many people look for the answer to this question. They focus on bringing traffic to the blog in general. However, it is not the actual blog people are interested in. It is the blog’s content, the blog posts, that people are interested in. Yes, it is important to focus on getting traffic on our blogs, but our attention also needs to shift to getting more traffic for individual blog posts. If you get more traffic for individual blog posts, then you are also getting more blog traffic. It is simply a better way to strive for blog traffic. If you want to get more traffic for your blog posts, and therefore more traffic for your blog, here are 11 ways to promote and market your blog posts so they get more traffic.
#1: StumbleUpon, Digg, and Reddit
StumbleUpon, Digg, and Reddit are the three most underrated ways of getting more blog traffic, but at the same time, these three methods of getting more blog traffic are like hit-or-miss opportunities. Some of my StumbleUpon posts got me a grand total of five blog visitors. Others Stumble Upon posts got me thousands of extra visitors to my blog in a few hours. I occasionally use Reddit to promote my blog posts and products. Most of them are swings and misses. However, when I used Reddit to promote a big discount for my Twitter Domination training course on Black Friday (and Reddit was basically the only way I promoted the course at the time), I got over 100 on that day. I have not used Digg yet, but many experts say that Digg is another great place for blog traffic. This blog post explains it really well.
#2: Tweet, Pin, Post
You can use your social networks to promote your blog. One of the biggest mistakes blogger make is abiding to the 80/20 rule where they only promote their blog posts 20% of the time. I practically promote my blog posts all of the time on my social networks. Not only does it result in more traffic, but people appreciate the value (I can tell based on the interactions I get), and many of my followers promote my content. You should make it a point to grow your audience on one social network and post consistently on that social network. I focus most of my time on Twitter which is why my Twitter account is the most successful social media account that I have.
#3: YouTube
Even though YouTube is the third most popular website on the entire web, and over 1 billion people go on it every month, I still believe it is an underrated social network. I feel as if most of the people who go on YouTube either go on it to watch other people’s videos or barely put in any effort to create and promote their videos. In some of your YouTube videos, you can talk about individual blog posts and then promote them at the end of your YouTube video. At the end of your YouTube video’s description, you can add related videos and articles, and all of those videos and articles can either point back to your YouTube channel or your blog.
#4: Guest Blogging
When you write a guest post, be sure to include a link to one of your blog posts in the guest post (you need to check if that’s okay with the person you write guest posts for). Including a link to one of your blog posts will boost your blog’s SEO and also give that blog post more exposure. When you promote your blog post in a guest post, you must make sure that blog post is related to the guest post. Don’t just add a link to one of your blog posts for the sake of adding a link to one of your blog posts.
#5: Joint Ventures
Joint ventures are mutual relationships between you and another blogger in which you promote each other’s content. You can use joint ventures to get more visibility for your products and individual blog posts. If you believe one of your blog posts is related to your partner’s niche, ask that partner to promote your blog post. You don’t want to turn this into a daily habit because your partner may get annoyed, and your partner will definitely want you to promote something for them in return. Regardless of how you use your joint ventures, they are great to have.
#6: Hubs
Hubs are great places to write niche-related content and promote your blog posts at the same time. Normally, I would recommend Squidoo, but since they merged with HubPages, HubPages is now the best place to publish hubs on the web. I occasionally publish hubs related to digital marketing that then point back to some of the blog posts on this blog. You can see some of these hubs in action here and here.
#7: Forums
Forums are one of the most underrated ways to get more blog traffic. If you join a forum with like-minded people, you can promote one of your blog posts and then get more traffic that way. Before you jump in and promote one of your blog posts, take some time to see how the people in the forum communicate with one another. See how the community accepts promoted blog posts and what they like to talk about before you jump in. You don’t want to look like the outsider of a forum filled with like-minded people.
#8: Related Articles Section
At the bottom of your blog posts should be a related articles section. In this section, you should display 3-5 articles related to the article your visitor just finished reading. This serves two major benefits:
- Your individual blog posts get more traffic
- Your bounce rate decreases which is helpful for SEO
If you get people to stay on your blog for a long period of time, chances are those readers will come back to read your new content. This is the most effective way to get more traffic: keep readers on your blog for a long period of time so they frequently return to your blog, and as a result, increase the traffic for individual blog posts.
#9: Popular Articles Section
On your blog’s sidebar should be a popular articles section that allows your visitors to see which of your articles are getting the most traffic. Most visitors associate the most popular content with the most valuable content. That means when people see your most popular articles section, they will visit those blog posts expecting to get wowed by valuable content. This is yet another reason to make sure all of your blog posts have the valuable content that could wow your audience.
#10: Promote Blog Posts Within Blog Posts
Some of your older blog posts can add value to the newer blog posts that you wrote. Not only can this strategy add value to your content, but your individual blog posts get more traffic, and this strategy will decrease your blog’s bounce rate. Similar to promote your blog posts within guest posts, you want to make sure the blog posts you add relate to the newly written article. If I wrote an article about increasing SEO, I would add a link to an article that explains bounce rate, but I would not add a link to an article about entrepreneurship. Only include links to the older blog posts that provide value to your new content.
#11: Fix Big Media Outlets’ 404 Error Pages
Believe it or not, the big media outlets have 404 error pages. While some 404 error pages such as the 4-0-Forbes error page are creative, other simple display 404 error messages. Regardless of what happens when someone encounters a 404 error page, it can be frustrating, and most visitors won’t know what to do from there. Some visitors may simply leave the site.
If you find a 404 error page on a big media outlet’s website (or anywhere for that matter) that relates to your niche, you can offer the solution. You can tell these big media outlets that they have a 404 error page and you know of a blog post that could be used instead (a.k.a. one of your blog posts).
The time it takes to find a 404 error page and make your blog post the solution has very rewarding results. The first benefit is that you can say your content was featured on a big media outlet which adds to your social proof. The second benefit is that blog post will get more traffic when people click on the link, and when these people decide to share it on their social networks. The third benefit is that your blog gets a very valuable backlink which increases the blog’s SEO rank as a whole. This is an underrated way to get more blog traffic, and if you find a 404 error page on a big media outlet that was supposed to lead people to an article about promoting and marketing blog posts, I hope you’ll suggest this one 
In Conclusion
Many people focus so much on the big picture that they forget to focus on the smaller parts of the picture. Many people strive to get more blog traffic, but it is a series of blog posts that generate traffic that results in a popular blog. If you can increase the traffic to your blog posts and get your visitors to read multiple blog posts on your blog, then more of those visitors will become returning visitors.
Which method of promoting and marketing blog posts was your favorite? Do you have any additional thoughts or advice on promoting and marketing blog posts? I want to hear from you.
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