8 No BS Ways to Get Traffic and Subscribers to Your Blog

build-subscribersThis is a guest post by Dan Sumner, author of the Bloggers Roadmap. Dan has been working online since 2006 and specializes in online marketing, product development and yep, you guest it blogging. Enjoy!!

If you read all of this post I guarantee you will increase your blog subscribers! A bold statement to be sure, but one I stand by 100%, no BS theory, just stuff that works!

Ok, let us get right into this with the stuff that works. I assume you have a blog online, if you don’t then take a look here, but before you do please finish this article as it will help you during your blog creation.

Generating subscribers to your blog is essential, not only for building business but for your own sanity! There is nothing more disheartening than seeing no traffic and no interaction on that personal space you so dearly care about. So let’s change that and start with – 8 tips to build subscribers!

These tips are applicable to anyone at any level and most of them are free or very low cost.

1. Opt-in – First of all when it comes to gathering subscribers to your blog, you need a process in place to gather those readers with. By process I mean an opt-in form. This type of opt-in form can be seen here on John’s blog, my blog and many others like it. So your first step is to get an opt-in and position these opt-in’s to maximise exposure.

Maximum exposure from an opt-in can be achieved by positioning your opt-in on one or all of 5 positions:

a. Sidebar – The most popular place to opt-in. Keep the opt-in high on the sidebar and above the page fold.

b. Below the post – After the post is a great place to have an opt-in, providing you give great readable content so the reader gets that far :-D. This opt-in can however be overlooked by those who would rather comment, so don’t rely on just this opt-in.

c. Pop-ups – Popups can be very annoying, but also very effective. Probably the most effective of all popups is to have a good looking pop-up with a great call to action. Some opt-in software such as Aweber can be set to show only new people the opt-in, this helps to prevent old and already subscribed readers from seeing the popup every time.

d. Feature Box – A feature box is not available on all blogs, but this is one of the best places to put an opt-in. Just below the title (same as John’s blog) is prime real estate to place your opt-in and call to action. This gets seen almost immediately when a visitor lands on the site.

e. About me page – Surprisingly, having an about page on your blog gets visited a lot. People are naturally curious to see who is writing and what they do. On your about me page, place a description, images and also your opt-in. It is very important to connect with people and by creating an about page, you can do just that.

2. Facebook – Facebook has 3 avenues which you can effectively distribute content to others:

a. Groups
b. Fan Pages
c. Personal Timeline

a. Groups – By joining groups of like minded people, you will find the space to share your information with the people in those groups. By providing good information on related content and inserting your blog post hyperlink to the group post, you can link direct to your post. This is gold if the group you are in enjoys your content.

The same goes for your own groups. If you own a group of related content to your our blog, then you have a gateway to share your online content with the people who are interested in what you have to say. Sharing your content with your own group will allow your readers to interact with you on another platform i.e. Your own blog.

b. Fan pages – Fan pages are a little different to groups where the content of the page is more about the owner of the page. The principals are the same as a group however. Just remember to ask permission of the page owner to share your content on their timeline.

c. Timeline – Simple, share your content on your own timeline. If you have a single Facebook account, you can group your friends together into internal groups so you can share content with these specific groups. Syndicating your groups like this allows you to share valuable content on your timeline with people who want to read it. Once more, the link back will provide an access to your blog and allow you to build subscribers from your opt-in’s.

3. Blog Hopping – Yes, you may have heard of this before and may have tried it, but did you stick with it? Blog hopping can be very time consuming, but it works. Take your time and spend it commenting on around 5 blogs per day to generate links back to your own blog. I guarantee, if you engage the readers and authors on the blogs you visit, you will see results.

Rules:

a. Always leave value when commenting. This is essential to gain interest from fellow bloggers and the blog author.

b. Share content on social networks. By using the share links on the blogs you visit, especially if they have them setup right, you attract the attention of the blog owner. Reciprocation is not always returned but quite often is. If your posts are shared by others, this creates a viral effect and generates traffic back to your posts. Let your opt-in do the rest!

4. Guest posting – Simple but very effective! By providing value on other people’s blogs you can set yourself as an authority in your niche. The guest blog will always give you a link back to your own blog, which will generate traffic and new readers.

Rules:

a. Provide massive value when writing guest posts

b. Always have a great posts on your own blog for people to connect with

c. Be on hand to return comments to every commenter on the post with a valued and respectful message. This allows interaction as well as relationship building with new readers. Remember, just because you landed a guest post doesn’t mean your traffic will explode. You need to work with your new readers. Earn their respect!

5. Product development – A little trickier than the sharing methods above due to the fact you need to create a product before you actually can share it, but the end benefits are huge.

a. Free Guides – By creating a free guide you can share this in many places and also allow it to be shared. This then creates a viral effect which, yes you guessed it links back to your blog. You can give these away on many platforms including social media, ad swaps, giveaways, Kindle amazon, eBay (paid for) to name a few.

b. Paid for products – Something I remain constant about is creating a link back to my blog from every product I create. No matter what happens to that product when it is sold or after it has run it’s course, my blog link is always there and my blog is always constant. Having a blog link in your products provides extra value for the product buyer and also provides a place to become part of your own community. Always give value to retain customers.

6. Paid traffic – I’m sure I could hear the groan when you read that! Ok, forget Google, and look toward Faceboook and Just Retweet.

a. Facebook – Did you know your can target your ads to pretty much anyone and any location. The demographics are awesome, so don’t discount a Facebook ad offering free information. This will guarantee you some new readers and customers. Just remember to provide value.

b. Just Retweet – Ok, Just Retweet (JR) has a paid and a free option, but the free option is very time consuming, so I suggest spending $10 on some targeted tweet traffic. JR allows you to buy tweets from real people, from which the real people earn points so they can in-turn spend their points on retweets.

By placing your link and short description on JR for people to retweet, the people who retweet your post gain points and you gain visitors from twitter. Good enough posts can go viral! I have had in excess of 150 tweets and the same in subscribers from just $10. JR is worth looking into for some of your more informative posts.

7. Tribes – Admittedly, not something I have spent a ton of time involved with but works very well. Sites like triberr.com allow you to join a tribe of bloggers who actively share each others content over the blogosphere. Joining a tribe allows you to become part of a blogging community, to share your content and also learn a thing or two about blogging on the way. Remember adding value and sharing each others content is the key here.

8. Content sharing – Ok, lets say you have written a very good article on something in your chosen niche. You have exhausted all your avenues of social media sharing and are looking for the next place to gain more exposure? Have you considered asking people on similar blogs to share your content? Some bloggers or websites will gladly share your content with their readers. They may even ask you to write a small article and then link back to your article, but this small task is nothing to what you will get back from it.

Remember, we live in a content hungry age and people/businesses are more than willing to share important information with their readers if it makes the reader happy. Don’t be afraid to ask people to link to one of your articles in their own articles if it’s related. Sharing is fun!

What are you waiting for? Get to it!

I hope you enjoyed these 8 tips today and do take something away with you and put them to work. You will see improvements to traffic by doing so I guarantee it.

If you have any questions related to this post, please let me know in the comments section below or if you have any additional value to add, please let me know I would love to hear what you have to say.

If you liked this post and would like to read more from Dan, you can check out his blog here at DanSumner.com. Dan writes about online marketing, focus methods and business tips.

12 Comments

  • Carl Picot

    Reply Reply February 15, 2013

    Nice post Daniel

    I know that I’ve definitely got to update my ‘about me’ page thats for sure. I need to get my blog looking as nice as yours LOL

    cheers mate

    Carl

    • Daniel Sumner

      Reply Reply February 16, 2013

      Hey Carl,

      Go for it, all it takes is a little time. If you don’t have that outsource it :-)

      Thanks Carl

  • Sergio Felix

    Reply Reply February 15, 2013

    Hey Dan, wonderful blog post and about Triberr, I happened to join them when Dino Dogan was barely starting it and it was a complete blessing.

    I happened to join a team of really amazing bloggers and that’s how I quickly got noticed on the blogger’s map so it’s definitely a great way to invest your time in if you’re looking for a team of supporters.

    My only recommendation for anyone thinking of joining Triberr would be to make sure you pick a tribe that you like because the idea is that your content is going to be shared but it’s something you must do as well for others in your tribe so the old saying of “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” rings a bell here.

    Apart from that, the rest of the tips are SPOT ON.

    I hope I can guest post on your site soon Dan and why not? Right on this site as well so now you know John! 😉

    Take care guys and have a great weekend!

    Sergio

    • Daniel Sumner

      Reply Reply February 16, 2013

      Hey Sergio,

      Thanks for the Tiber update. Not many people use this and if they are dead set on spreading their content they should. Maybe you could hook me up with your tribe :-)

      We can talk about a guest blog Sergio, that’s no problem you know where to find me.

      Thanks for stopping by man.

  • Erwin

    Reply Reply February 15, 2013

    Hi everyone,

    good tips but I must say to place your sign up form everywhere is too much.

    And I don’t think pop-ups are good today? People are fed up with them so at the top of your sidebar is enough or maybe at the bottom of post.
    But we must have some logical thinking and not spam visitors with our sign up form.

    I know it is essential but please.

    All the others tips are very good.

    Thanks and see you on top
    Erwin

    • Daniel Sumner

      Reply Reply February 16, 2013

      Hello Erwin,

      Building subscribers is paramount to your business and what I speak about is not forcing the opt-in. By placing an opt-in in strategic places on your blog most certainly helps. I wasn’t implying you have to use all of these options at once but every option I spoke about will drastically improve your opt-in rate if used together. Think of it this way, what is the first think you do when you land on a blog page? Do you immediately check the sidebar for an opt-in? No, you read the post. Then at the end of the post if you see a call to action for a free eBook or newsletter you are more inclined to opt-in there if you enjoyed the post. The sidebar is not the most convenient place to have an opt-in.

      As for popups they can be a pain for some people but they are the still the biggest converting place to have your opt-in. John makes more conversions from his opt-in than any other subscription form on his blog. You see with Aweber, you can set the opt-in to show a variety of options, so you don’t annoy people. They may personally bug you, but some of the biggest and most profitable blogs in the world have them. Bottom line, they work.

      Glad you enjoyed the other tips Erwin, we will agree to disagree with the opt-in. Have a great weekend. :-)

  • Zora

    Reply Reply February 16, 2013

    Hi John,

    Thanks for getting Dan to post this good tips on your blog for us.Very good post and tips in there Dan thanks so much for doing this for us. Number 4 was a great one.

    Have A Good Day.
    Regards
    Zora

    • Daniel Sumner

      Reply Reply February 16, 2013

      Thanks Zora, much appreciated. Glad you liked number 4 :-)

  • Glenn Shepherd

    Reply Reply February 16, 2013

    Great content, thanks so much! Although I haven’t implemented all the techniques here I can at least vouch that blog-hopping definitely works. It wasn’t until I actively started making forum and blog posts that I started getting traffic (regularly too) and comments. I’m not getting floods as yet but as it’s still quite early days for me I don’t expect to and also I admittedly haven’t been doing it quite as much as I perhaps should. But I intend to notch it up a gear and I’m sure I’ll see the benefits

  • Cararta

    Reply Reply February 16, 2013

    Hi Dan,

    Great post, so much detail must have taken hours!

    Definitely a post to share even if it is on John’s Blog and
    not yours. Another Blog Post Mini Course for free.

    C.

  • Matt Morgan

    Reply Reply February 17, 2013

    Hello Dan and John, how are you doing?

    Great post, and I would like to chime in:

    TIP 1: On the free guides/distributed reports, Include something like this on the 2nd page
    [You now have free giveaway rights and can share this report with your website visitors!]

    This simple instruction encourages the list reader to spread your report around the web, and it can speed up the spread viral spread of it.
    I did this…. and by adding a link to the bottom of the report, the traffic to that link kept on rolling in and increasing week after week.

    TIP 2: Don’t be shy to contact marketers! Many newbies don’t approach marketers to
    For example adding an article for their website, or even offering a created video for their blog because they are too shy/ or scarred. The worse that will happen is that they will say no.

    TIP 3: Attend Seminars and make friends. These friendships can lead to potential JV partners who can work with you to help your progress, and provide traffic for your websites.

    TIP 4: Stand out from the crowd when contacting other marketers (bloggers or marketers at seminars)
    Think outside the box when approaching them, so you have your own edge.

    =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

    I couldn’t leave without a rhyme:

    This was a guest post
    by the one and only DAN
    By reading it you’ll realise
    he’s defiantly the MAN!

    He posted it on Johns blog
    who’s one of his VIPS
    If you have any sense
    You’ll apply Dan’s TIPS

    =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

    Take care

    Matt Morgan

  • Dave

    Reply Reply February 25, 2013

    Great post Daniel, some tips I knew and most I didnt , tribes sounds like a good place to start, are you a member of one?

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