17 Insights For Creating a Blog That Attracts Targeted Traffic Like a Magnet

A blog not only helps you attract qualified traffic, it also helps you build relationships with your prospects and customers. That’s why you’ll want to use the following 17 insights for planning, setting up, and running your own popular blog. Take a look…

1. Choose Your CMS

Your first step is to choose your content management system (CMS) on which you’ll build your blog. Popular options include Joomla, Drupal, and WordPress.

Our choice? Use WordPress.org. This is a popular, supported and secure program with plenty of plugins and custom themes for you to install.

2. How to Choose Which Plugins to Install

Once you’ve installed WordPress, you’ll note that there are a lot of different plugins you can install to increase the functionality of your site. Your job now is to ONLY install the ones you actually need. If you install too many, you may slow your site down, and your site might even have problems the next time WordPress (WP) updates.

Here are the popular types of plugins many people tend to install:

A plugin to create a contact form.
A social media plugin, which makes it easy for visitors to like and share your content on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and other social media platforms.
An anti-spam plugin (to reduce spam in your comments).
An SEO plugin, which structures your site in a way that’s friendly for the search engines.

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3. 7 Ways to Monetize a Blog

Before you build your blog, you’ll want to think about how you’re going to monetize it. Here are some of the most popular ways to do it:

Sell your own products or services.
Promote affiliate products or services.
Insert Google AdSense ads.
Place pay per action ads (e.g., you get paid if someone fills out a form).
Sell advertising on the site.
Build a list (and then promote offers to the list).

You may use multiple methods to monetize your blog. Generally speaking, the best combination is to build a list and sell your own products or services.

4. How to Create a Blog That People Will Want to Visit Often

What keeps people in your niche coming back to a blog again and again?

For starters, you need to give your readers something they can’t find anywhere else. This might include unique tips or even strategies that you’ve pioneered. It also includes sharing “old” information in a new way, with a fresh perspective.

Secondly, give readers what they WANT. If you’re not sure what this is, then do your market research. Hint: if people are buying information on a particular topic, then you can bet they’ll eagerly consume the same type of information on your blog.

Finally, be sure your content is well-written and engaging. If it’s easy to read and entertaining, people will come back again and again to read more.

How do you create “fresh” and engaging content? See the Guide on Content Marketing for more information on this topic.

5. 20 Kinds of Content You Can Post on Your Blog

One key to creating a successful blog is to post a variety of content, being sure to keep track of what sort of content your audience responds to the best. Here are 10 ideas to get you started:

How to articles/tutorials.
Tips articles.
Lists (such as resource lists).
Podcasts.
Videos/webinar replays.
Infographics.
Mind maps.
Process maps.
Checklists.
Worksheets.
Templates.
Swipes.
Planners.
Product reviews/comparisons.
Buying guides.
Direct-response ads.
Memes.
Inspirational/motivational stories.
Case studies.
Interviews.

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6. How to Create Article Titles That Get Clicks

Your title can make or break the success of your article, which is why you’ll want to take your time creating clever titles. Follow these guidelines:

Present a Big Benefit

Your title needs to give your readers a good reason to click on the blog article, which you can do by presenting the article’s biggest benefits. E.G., “How to Choose a Puppy That Will Grow Up to Be The Best Dog You Ever Had.”

Arouse Curiosity

Create an “itch” with your title that your visitors can only “scratch” by reading your article. E.G., “The #1 Little-Known Way to Erase Ugly Cellulite.”

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7. The Secrets of Creating Content That Gets Shares

Whenever you write an article for your blog, one of your goals should be to get your blog visitors sharing this article on social media and elsewhere. In order to do this, your blog article needs to be “shareworthy.” This means it should offer fresh content in an engaging way.

One way to do this is to create a “formula” around a how-to process, and then share your formula in a tutorial. For example, if you were teaching people how to write great sales copy, you might create a formula based on the acronym “S.A.L.E.S.,” where each letter corresponds to a step in your process. E.G., “S” is for “Specifying the Target Market,” “A” is for “Auditing the Benefits” … and so on, until you have five steps reflecting each letter in the word “SALES.”

For more information on this topic, check out the Referral Marketing Guide, which talks about viral content. Which brings us to the next point…

8. Integrating Your Blog With Social Media

One way to jump start the viral effect is to make sure it’s easy for visitors to share your content on social media. To that end, check out these tips:

Use a social media plugin on your blog (such as WP Social), which lets people share your content on their social media pages with a click of their mouse.

Post teasers with your blog content on your social media pages, and encourage visitors to share.

Work on creating compelling blog titles, which will get more people clicking on and sharing your viral content.

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9. A Simple Way to Get More Traffic

Another good way to use your blog articles to get more traffic is by optimizing each article for the search engines. This means researching the keywords your audience is using to search for content in your niche, and then including these keywords in the blog article title, the page URL, the meta description, and within the content itself. Use these keywords sparingly to avoid being penalized for search engine spamming.

For more information on this topic, check the SEO guide in this package.

10. How Often Should You Publish?

One of the keys to a successful blog is to publish regularly. How often depends on your niche and what your competition is doing. However, in general you should post at least once per week. If your blog shares late-breaking news or similar content, then you should be posting daily or even multiple times per day.

The reason this is so important is because you want your visitors to get in the habit of checking your blog on a regular basis. If you publish sporadically, your visitors will bookmark your blog and come back… but if there isn’t anything new on the site, they probably won’t be visiting again.

The other advantage of publishing fresh content on a regular basis is that Google and other search engines favor new content. The more high-quality content you publish, the more often Google will drop by to crawl your site and index your new content.

11. Automating Your Blog Activities

Want to make your blog activities easier? Then look for tools to help you automate your blog.

For example, if you use WordPress, then you can upload content today and schedule it to publish it whenever you want. This feature lets you post content even when you’re nowhere near your blog, such as when you’re on vacation.

12. A Clever Way to Get Subscribers

One way to build your blog is to encourage your visitors to join your mailing list. That way, you can send out an email whenever you post new content, you can encourage subscribers to share your content, and you can invite them to join the discussion.

Now here’s a good way to get even more subscribers: put your best content on your blog behind a password. You can then put an opt-in form next to these password protected articles, and let prospects know they can get instant access to this “premium” content once they join your list.

13. How to Get People Coming Back For More

One of the keys to building a successful blog is to make sure you get a lot of repeat traffic. This sort of loyal readership is more likely to click on your links, buy your offers, and even tell your friends about your site.

Here’s how to get people coming back for more:

Create a user-friendly blog. Be sure you’re using a responsive theme, so people have a great experience no matter what device they’re using.

Offer regular features. This might be a weekly “Ask the Expert” column, or a weekly “Featured Product” that comes with a discount or other special offer.

Provide unique content. For example, offer case studies, which are always unique even if others do similar studies. You can also share unique stories, tips and examples.

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14. Test and Track Your Blog Campaign

The only way to tell what’s really working on your blog is test and track the different parts of it. This means getting a tracking tool (such as the WP plugin MonsterInsights), and then testing the following:

Your blog titles.
Short versus long content.
Text content vs video content.
Different forms of content such as infographics.
The headline and call to action on your opt-in page.
Your ad placements on your blog.
Your ad titles, body copy, call to action and graphics.
The best time of the day (and best day) to post on your blog.

Once you know what your audience responds to, then you can create more of that type of content.

15. Where to Get Article Ideas

You’ll never run out ideas for your blog if you follow these steps:

Ask your audience what they want.
See what your competitors are writing about.
Using a keyword tool to uncover what people want.
Check Quora.com to see what people are asking about.
Read your blog comments to see what people want.
See what’s popular in paid products on ClickBank.com, Udemy.com and Amazon.com.
Check your own site to see what topics are popular.
See what’s popular on social media in your niche.
Find out what topics are popular on niche forums.
Browse magazine cover articles and tables of contents.

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16. 3 Tips for Creating Content Faster

Once you start blogging, you’ll quickly find you need to create a lot of content. Here’s how to create all this content even faster:

Outsource It

Go to a site like upwork.com, freelancer.com or similar to find reputable writers who can create some or even all your blog content for you.

Start With PLR

If you start with high-quality private label rights content, then you can create an in-depth article in just a few minutes rather than several hours.

Use Technology

Most people can talk faster than they can type, which is why speech-to-text technology can speed up your writing. Check out Dragon Naturally Speaking, or any number of alternatives.

17. Get Free Content and Traffic With This Trick

Here’s a great way to quickly establish a new blog and get high-quality traffic to it: ask a notable influencer in your niche to write a guest article. Alternatively, you can ask to interview the expert and then post the interview on your blog. Either way, most marketers will help you promote the interview or article, so you’ll get the benefit of free traffic, free content, and a soft endorsement from a niche expert.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are a lot of good reasons to start blogging, from getting traffic to establishing yourself in your niche to building relationships with your audience. That’s why you’ll want to put these 17 ideas to work ASAP so you can start reaping all these benefits.

Keep Reading: 17 Tips And Tricks For Getting Your Content In Front Of a Warm Audience

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