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My 2018 Traffic Strategy - Room To Improve?

by Jake Green
19 replies
Hey guys, I just thought I'd share what my plan is in 2018 to try and get people to visit my website.

A little about me

So I started my self development/improvement blog in late 2016 and have been posting lots of articles and videos and trying to promote them on social media... unfortunately, this got me very low traction and I've only amassed 30 people on my email list so far...

I have a product that I created. Its a 250 page book that I sell for 37$ that teaches people how to solve the biggest pain point in my niche.

My 2017 traffic strategy:

Article creation on website: Created 50 keyword rich articles (1,000 words - 4,000 words) on topics in my specific niche that had a search volume on more than 1,000 searches per month.

Result: I get zero traffic from google, none of my articles are even close to being on the first page... dont know what im doing wrong... I even targeted long tail keywords that had a very low search volume (300-500/m) to try and rank for those but for some reason i am not.

Created YT videos: I created 30 videos on my niche topics and pitched my freeby at the end of each video.

Result: My views on my videos are extremly low so i did not get anybody to optin to my list via YT.

Email capture: I have numerous opportunities for people to opt in to my list when they are on my website. (Just recently changed my freeby to something more valuable).

Results: Around half of my 33 email followers opted in from my website.

Article and video promotion: I have promoted my articles and videos on facebook groups, reddit groups, pinterest, forums in my niche, Digg, StumbleUpon, Medium, Thumblr. Everytime id write a new article, I would promote it once by writting a sumary on each of these sites mentioned above.

Results: To my surprise, most of my website traffic came from reddit. I would get on average 250 views everytime i would promote an article there. But sadly, the sub reddit i was posting on deleted my account and all my post because they said I was spaming them with my website links... (i didint know I couldent link my website ;S)

So right now, im getting zero traffic per day... and im very discouraged. I have been working out what my 2018 strategy will be and here is what I came up with:

My 2018 traffic strategy:

1. Stop writing so much (as it takes me forever to write one article) and focus on creating shit tonnes of videos on yt... I could create 100 targeted quality videos this year. I will focus on video since that is what I am good at and absolutely love to do and also because video is more popular then written articles. I want to make YT my biggest traffic source. Each video will link to my opt in at the end.

2. I will use REV .com to transcribe my videos to still have written content on my blog.

3. I will start building an instagram page with lots of posts dedicated to helping people in my niche (most people that use YT as their main brand awareness platform also have an instagram following)

4. I want to submit at least 10 articles on other big sites similar to mine and add value with a link to my website.

5. I also want to create a kindle lead capture funnel on amazon with 2-3 permafree kindle books.

That's all I have for now, bassically I want to make YT my main platform (thats how people will know me). I know YT takes time... (It took PewDiePie 150 videos to get his first 1,000 subscribers). But I think it will pay off and I love making videos and improving at it...

Any thoughts? How do you try and get traffic to your site?
#2018 #improve #room #strategy #traffic
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  • Profile picture of the author myob
    My traffic strategies have not changed significantly for 20+ years. More than 85% of all my traffic comes directly from syndicated articles in niche-relevant online/offline publications and social media.

    So far, I have seen nothing else that comes close for generating such massive quantities of highly convertible traffic, particularly in hotly competitive niches.

    Because of this extremely powerful marketing model, none of the search engines are even needed. The traffic I get from search engines is insignificant; just a by-product of syndication.
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    • Profile picture of the author Jake Green
      Originally Posted by myob View Post

      My traffic strategies have not changed significantly for 20+ years. More than 85% of all my traffic comes directly from syndicated articles in niche-relevant online/offline publications and social media.

      So far, I have seen nothing else that comes close for generating such massive quantities of highly convertible traffic, particularly in hotly competitive niches.

      Because of this extremely powerful marketing model, none of the search engines are even needed. The traffic I get from search engines is insignificant; just a by-product of syndication.
      Wow ok! Sounds good! I'll definitly get into that then...

      So bassically you just write articles for other websites and post your link to your website on top and at the end of your article?

      How does syndication work on social media? You offer to create a post that links to your website?
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      • Profile picture of the author myob
        Originally Posted by Jake Green View Post

        Wow ok! Sounds good! I'll definitly get into that then...

        So bassically you just write articles for other websites and post your link to your website on top and at the end of your article?

        How does syndication work on social media? You offer to create a post that links to your website?
        A proven method is to establish a blog or website for all of your articles. Publish them on your own sites first, to establish first ownership. Promotion and distribution of your articles is absolutely essential. For any given commercially viable niche there are literally tens of thousands of suitable outlets for online/offline publication and syndication.

        The format for article syndication has been around for at least 200 years. A currently practical and excellent online resource for learning this extremely powerful marketing model is ezinearticles.com. You really don't need very many articles at all to make a killing in your niche. The most important thing is to maximize the number of eyeballs reading your articles.

        Get established as an "expert" on EZA (submit articles until you have a minimum of 10 accepted) as quickly as possible, then promote your articles and portfolio directly to niche-relevant outlets such as blogs, websites, newsletters, magazines, newspapers, etc.

        Ignore all the nouveau-marketing garbage such as "keyword optimization" and SEO crap bandied around here on the forum over the past 8+ or so years by self-proclaimed gurus, and just put out quality content. Your target is people, not search engines.

        Besides, nearly all of your competition is erroneously doing the exact same thing you are trying to do. Mostly, it's only the deep-pocketed SEO professionals who are ranking profitably for the buyer keywords in this extremely competitive market.

        I would not recommend submitting articles directly to social media for your niche, although it may work well for other niches which have much less competition. A value-driven conversational style works best for social media, with a low-key link (not overtly self-promotional) to your pertinent article or your portfolio on EZA.
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  • Profile picture of the author ryanbiddulph
    Guest posting sounds good Jake. I dig that idea. I also dig the idea of quality over quantity. Apply this concept to your YouTube channel too. Forget posting a ton of videos. Just a few good ones, promoting to your growing network, should do the trick nicely. Think abundance above all else; how you can help a growing number of folks through your detached, generous service, via a wide range of platforms. This strategy works in 2018 or any year.
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    Ryan Biddulph helps you to be a successful blogger with his courses, manuals and blog at Blogging From Paradise
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    • Profile picture of the author Jake Green
      Originally Posted by ryanbiddulph View Post

      Guest posting sounds good Jake. I dig that idea. I also dig the idea of quality over quantity. Apply this concept to your YouTube channel too. Forget posting a ton of videos. Just a few good ones, promoting to your growing network, should do the trick nicely. Think abundance above all else; how you can help a growing number of folks through your detached, generous service, via a wide range of platforms. This strategy works in 2018 or any year.
      Thx a lot Ryan!

      P.s I am looking fowards to working with you in the future, i just dont have enough cash right now... As soon as I make enough your on top of my list of people I want to get help from!
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  • Profile picture of the author extrememan
    A combination of content marketing and paid. Mostly blogging, youtube, and solo ads. I try to focus on 2-3 and really master them. To many and I feel overwhelmed.
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    • Profile picture of the author Jake Green
      Originally Posted by extrememan View Post

      A combination of content marketing and paid. Mostly blogging, youtube, and solo ads. I try to focus on 2-3 and really master them. To many and I feel overwhelmed.
      "Too many and I feel overwhelmed"... I hear ya!
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  • Profile picture of the author DABK
    My answers in bold below:

    Originally Posted by Jake Green View Post

    Hey guys, I just thought I'd share what my plan is in 2018 to try and get people to visit my website.

    A little about me

    So I started my self development/improvement blog in late 2016 and have been posting lots of articles and videos and trying to promote them on social media... unfortunately, this got me very low traction and I've only amassed 30 people on my email list so far...

    I have a product that I created. Its a 250 page book that I sell for 37$ that teaches people how to solve the biggest pain point in my niche.

    My 2017 traffic strategy:

    Article creation on website: Created 50 keyword rich articles (1,000 words - 4,000 words) on topics in my specific niche that had a search volume on more than 1,000 searches per month.

    Result: I get zero traffic from google, none of my articles are even close to being on the first page... dont know what im doing wrong... I even targeted long tail keywords that had a very low search volume (300-500/m) to try and rank for those but for some reason i am not. What you did wrong is this: you expected to get traffic from writing articles and posting them on your site.

    Article syndication is where you write articles and post them in place where your likely buyers visit. I mean VISIT. Not sites that are in related niches, not sites in the same niche. But sites in the same or related niches that are getting good traffic.

    An analogy, if I may. You built a house in the middle of the wilderness expecting visitors.

    What you should have done:
    a. build a house at the corner of two very busy streets in a very large city
    b. build a house anywhere you wanted, then send everybody within x miles a postcard telling them you built the house and come right over.
    c. a combo of and and b, build house in crowded city, invite people over.
    Created YT videos: I created 30 videos on my niche topics and pitched my freeby at the end of each video.

    Result: My views on my videos are extremly low so i did not get anybody to optin to my list via YT. Same issue as with the articles, though youtube has visitors, but it's too crowded, so you need to stand out (SEO or some kind of marketing)

    Email capture: I have numerous opportunities for people to opt in to my list when they are on my website. (Just recently changed my freeby to something more valuable).

    Results: Around half of my 33 email followers opted in from my website.This is good. As soon as you send 2 million people to your site you'll have 1 million subscribers. If only 1% of them buy 1 each month, your in online marketing heaven.

    Article and video promotion: I have promoted my articles and videos on facebook groups, reddit groups, pinterest, forums in my niche, Digg, StumbleUpon, Medium, Thumblr. Everytime id write a new article, I would promote it once by writting a sumary on each of these sites mentioned above.

    Results: To my surprise, most of my website traffic came from reddit. I would get on average 250 views everytime i would promote an article there. But sadly, the sub reddit i was posting on deleted my account and all my post because they said I was spaming them with my website links... (i didint know I couldent link my website ;S)

    So right now, im getting zero traffic per day... and im very discouraged. I have been working out what my 2018 strategy will be and here is what I came up with:

    My 2018 traffic strategy:

    1. Stop writing so much (as it takes me forever to write one article) and focus on creating shit tonnes of videos on yt... I could create 100 targeted quality videos this year. I will focus on video since that is what I am good at and absolutely love to do and also because video is more popular then written articles. I want to make YT my biggest traffic source. Each video will link to my opt in at the end.

    2. I will use REV .com to transcribe my videos to still have written content on my blog.

    3. I will start building an instagram page with lots of posts dedicated to helping people in my niche (most people that use YT as their main brand awareness platform also have an instagram following)

    4. I want to submit at least 10 articles on other big sites similar to mine and add value with a link to my website.

    5. I also want to create a kindle lead capture funnel on amazon with 2-3 permafree kindle books.

    That's all I have for now, bassically I want to make YT my main platform (thats how people will know me). I know YT takes time... (It took PewDiePie 150 videos to get his first 1,000 subscribers). But I think it will pay off and I love making videos and improving at it...

    Any thoughts? How do you try and get traffic to your site?
    Thoughts: Why don't you identify someone who's selling something related and convince that someone to send messages to his/her list (solo ads) or endorse you on their site, or link to your site from their site?

    Look into silo structures for SEO, look into the skyscraper technique too.

    You don't need to create content. You need to get visitors to your site. Can be done through content... but you need to use your content differently... Look up Alexa Smith on this forum, a while back she posted a lot of good stuff about syndicating articles (she was also fighting people who thought article directory marketing and article marketing are the same (they are not); feel free to read those parts too.
    Threads like these: https://www.warriorforum.com/main-in...utm_term=title

    https://www.warriorforum.com/main-in...mith-myob.html
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  • Profile picture of the author paperown
    Thanks for the shared this Interesting post...
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  • Profile picture of the author Caitlinz
    SEO is the best way to get traffic. Learn it or hire someone to rank some of your keywords. Once you rank the first keyword, the second is not going to be tough.
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    • Profile picture of the author Jake Green
      Originally Posted by Caitlinz View Post

      SEO is the best way to get traffic. Learn it or hire someone to rank some of your keywords. Once you rank the first keyword, the second is not going to be tough.
      How much monthly searches should my targeted keywords have as a beginner?
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  • Profile picture of the author JohnVianny
    DOING TOO MUCH WILL LET YOU WITH PANTS OFF !

    I mean, focus. Do not make 100k videos, focus on ONE VIDEO and promote it, on promoting this one if you want.

    Do not waste your energy: focus on email marketing. Build your List.

    HOW?

    With Solo Ads: find a good seller, try here in classified ads, search for solo ads, and contact the seller, ask if the opt in page is good for his traffic and if he has any advice.

    Then buy the 100 package to test his traffic.

    Rinse and repeat.
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    Learn my Simple 3-Step Formula Earns me over $146.72 in 12 Hours using Emails: Click HERE!
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  • Profile picture of the author IGotMine
    Get established as an "expert" on EZA
    Are you using EZA just to establish your "expert" status?
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    • Profile picture of the author myob
      Originally Posted by IGotMine View Post

      Are you using EZA just to establish your "expert" status?
      EZA, according to their site is, "a platform for experts in over 600 niche markets who share their expertise".

      Anything less than an "expert" status on EZA just doesn't have any credibility punch, and perhaps is not even worth mentioning.

      However, leveraging your account profile and portfolio with at least EZA's "expert" level can be an extremely powerful marketing tool.

      Here is an example of effectively leveraging EZA, especially using the "free advertising" contained in the author's profile and portfolio of other articles:
      Professor Bob Boyd Achieves Platinum Expert Author Level at Ezine Articles!

      Note especially the tremendous amount of exposure in the author's profile for his articles, websites, social media, etc. Advertising and marketing genius at its best!

      For us the article (and the publication platform) seems funny as hell, but in all seriousness this could quite often actually be the razor's edge for getting articles syndicated in top online/offline publications.

      In my own experience (and hence in my not so humble opinion), this marketing method can drive massive quantities of highly convertible traffic in even the most hotly competitive niches.
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  • Profile picture of the author IGotMine
    By far the most affordable option I have used.
    You should do some shopping around. The prices they charge are insanely high.
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  • Profile picture of the author Geoff Hopkins
    Do you have any suggestions that aren't outsourced to India for social content and blog writing?
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  • Profile picture of the author John Jonas Phil VA
    I think videos are the way to go, especially since you mentioned that it is something that you love to do. I would love to videos but I'm more comfortable writing than being in front of the camera.
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    Hire a Filipino virtual assistant and make your business better through outsourcing.
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  • Profile picture of the author brettb
    Try making something USEFUL. That's how I've had the most success online.

    Just writing worked back in 2010 but you need something more now. Even video is pretty saturated.

    If you make something useful you get a tonne of natural backlinks.
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    ÖŽ FindABlog: Find blogs to comment on, guest posting opportunities and more ÖŽ
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  • Profile picture of the author anayb
    You made some classic mistakes; no problem everybody does it in the beginning, but you continued it up to 2018! You registered in WF in 2014 just like me.

    Tell you my story in brief since we started out our IM journey at around the same time.
    I spent six months or so in trying to promote some products using the same free methods, which resulted in zero traction. Then, I quickly realised that I'm dealing with ad companies (Google, FB etc) in a wrong way. What they want? They want your ad dollars; Yes, you heard it right: ad dollars, and they give their 100% to prevent spam, and they wouldn't allow you to promote your stuffs in Google/YouTube search very easily.

    It made me believe that it requires monetary investment to see results fast, but I have had no ad money. Without wasting a minute of my time, I tried to offer my video creation service: another failure since I barely understood how the adobe after effects works. I didn't know until I tasted that it takes tremendous amounts of time, dedication and efforts to create great videos, and there are many established creators, so finding job wouldn't be easier either. I gave up after some time.
    Back in the 2015, I found FFmpeg: a multi-media software, and it changed my circumstance. I suddenly realised I could create videos without any adobe after effects-type software totally dynamically using my programming skills; it will significantly reduce production time, and I can offer express delivery time within 24 hrs--which not many creators can. I invested the next two years in creating such an app and sold some 230 videos, raising more than 100K in ad dollars during that time.

    You need money to money in the digital world; nothing comes free. Those who make high in SERP either in Google or YouTube invest heavily in making and promoting quality content. Nothing is free!!
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    Do you need an exclusive video product?
    Graphics Design - Motion Graphics - 2D & 3D Animation - Video Editing - Color Grading - Logo Animation - etc
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