Blog Traffic Tip #2: Give the People What They Want

Shared on November 23 36 Comments

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As I mentioned in Blog Traffic Tip #1, I am sharing bits and pieces of my blog traffic strategy with you guys because I am writing an ebook on How I Went from 17k to 350k+ Monthly Page Views in 9 Months (UPDATE! the ebook is here!!!), and I keep thinking of more and more tips to share. So instead of making this into the longest ebook that never ends, I’m calling it a day and putting my other tips on the blog for everyone to see.

Since I first started writing my blog traffic ebook, my monthly blog traffic has shot up to ~~375,000~~ 420,000! It’s been 10 months since I decided to focus on page views, and the counter has been steadily going up ever since.

Blog Traffic Tip #2: Give People What They Want

In an ideal blogging world, everything you write will go instantly viral, with hordes of readers commenting and sharing your content.

In the real world, it doesn’t work that way unless you have a huge loyal following built in. Sometimes what we want to write about is either not very interesting or not very popular.

As much as I want to let the world know about my very heartfelt post on being a stay-at-home-mom to three kids under the age of 5, I know that it will only be seen by so many people – first, the post has to find its way to them (via Pinterest, Google, Facebook, wherever) and then they have to be intrigued enough by the title to click over and read. I get the occasional email or comment when it strikes a chord with another mom in that 3-little-kid situation, but for the most part it’s one of my favorite posts that gets very little traffic.

You could argue that my image isn’t that great – I know it isn’t because I created it before I had any clue what I was doing with images – but I really don’t think that’s the problem (in fact, that would be a good case study to test out…I might just do that!) I loved writing it, and I felt it was an important message, but the demand just isn’t there.

Take my Pretty Pink To Do List, on the other hand. This post gets gangbusters CONSISTENT traffic. It’s consistently in my top 50 posts. I didn’t realize it would be popular at the time – I just really like to do lists and had created this for my own personal use (ignore the social share count on this…I think it got messed up when I switched to Flare from Shareaholic, so it’s showing low numbers).

Every day (according to Google Analytics), I see people searching for “pretty to do list printable” and the like to find my blog. And this is what they’re finding! It’s a fun post that took me about less than 1 hour to put together, and it provides a resource that a lot of people are interested in using keywords they’re searching for and they can download it instantly. I mean, who doesn’t like a good to do list?

What People Want

Out of the 1,000 posts I’ve published online to date (some on my blog, some for an online magazine), if I’ve learned one thing, it’s this: People want useful. People want practical. People want instantaneous.

The topics that make sense for your blog will vary, but the basic premise is the same – useful & practical information that can be implemented immediately will bring consistent traffic to your blog. For you, it could mean writing about the perfect last minute dinner solution. Or it may mean writing about how to naturally clean your shower scum. Or it may mean simple tips to get your kids to stop whining. Or it may mean teaching a skill.

Instead of writing 100% what I wanted you want to write about all the time, think about what people want. What they’re looking for. What they’d be willing to share with their friends. Be useful. Crazy useful.

How do you know what to write about?

Listen to what others want – Do you hear people asking the same question over and over in your daily life? Tackle that question with a post focused on solving that one problem.
Guess – you have nothing to lose except the time you put into writing the post. Worst case, it flops. Best case, you find another topic that fits into your blog that people dig!
Let the data lead you – Make sure you have Google Analytics installed on your blog and monitor the search data. What are people typing into search engines to find your content? What are they viewing the most? Write content catered to those searches and those types of visitors. It’s a safe bet to say if it worked once, it will work again.

Making the Most of What You WANT to Write About – Consider Your Titles Carefully

Even when you write something from the heart or something you know just won’t be that popular, there’s a way to make it better – consider your title carefully.

Before you publish it, take a step back and analyze the post title for marketability. Is the title enticing? If not, how can you make it more appealing?

Let’s say your first title idea for a post about using coconut oil in your hair is “How Coconut Oil Makes Hair Lovely (an amalgam of real examples I’ve seen recently). A simple rephrase and possible blog post restructuring into “3 Ways to Use Coconut Oil in your Beauty Regimen” would be way more popular. I would totally click over to that second headline, not so much the first, even though the content may very well be nearly identical!

I hope you’re enjoying my blogging tips series. See below for more ways to get involved and increase your blog’s potential!

BLOG TRAFFIC EBOOK

My ebook launched just before Christmas, and I’m super excited to say it’s sold over 100 copies in a few days! I couldn’t be more thrilled, and I’m excited to see what’s to come in 2016.

I’ve been getting great feedback on it. Everyone is getting something different from the book. Some bloggers are saying it’s validating everything they’re doing right (and just need to do more of); others are saying they always suspected they were doing some unnecessary blogging tasks, and my book helped them see they were wasting their time. And others are saying that I included tips they’d never heard of before, especially when it comes to StumbleUpon and Google+.

I think just about any blogger who doesn’t have at least 1,000,000 page views per month will find something they can use in this ebook. I’m now at 420,000 page views for the last 30 days, and I’m still doing everything I mention in this ebook. And I will keep on doing it until it stops working! 🙂 I hope you join me on my journey! Hop on over to read more about what you’ll find in this book and to get a glimpse into my journey (with traffic screenshots)!

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Blog Traffic Tip #2: Give People What They Want

What People Want

How do you know what to write about?

Making the Most of What You WANT to Write About – Consider Your Titles Carefully

BLOG TRAFFIC EBOOK

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