I was having a drink with my friend Ash in a bar near Hammersmith Station in London the other day. That’s where I got introduced with Jackey (name changed as she does not want to get identified).
3 Powerful traffic sources for your blog other than Google
Jackey is my friends new acquaintance. They both met at a Expo last year in canary wharf.
Jackey runs a SEO business and she was meeting my friend to talk about her new content strategy.
Hence Ash decided to take me with him so that I can help him for the same.
She mentioned that most of her clients are looking for fresh and new content and she is after someone who can write well researched and engaging articles for her.
We all had a good chat and at the end Ash had a good contract with him.
Although that’t not where the meeting eneded.
Jackey started talking about another issue she is facing.
She mentioned that she has a blog with more than 200+ articles on it. She monetise it with diversified channels. But recently she started seeing drop in her organic ranking and this directly impact on her earnings.
sample traffic source for a blog not (Jackey’s blog)
After careful analysis of her blog. I found out that she is absolutely right.
She actually depends upon google for most of her blog traffic.
Now obviously she worked really hard from last 10 years to get her blog on the top of google. But just because her ranking is going down. All of her past work has been doomed.
But as I advise everyone around me every challenge comes with an opportunity.
I said to Jackey: This is the time when you look into other source of traffic for you blog.
Because just like real life, as you can’t just rely on one source of income; similarly you can’t just rely on one source of traffic.
So she asked me to send her some tip related to how she can build over her traffic again by using different traffic sources other than big G.
So I though why not list all those traffic source for everyone on my blog. So here is the list you can generate traffic for your blog without depending on Google.
Reddit — hidden gem
source: redditmetrics
Reddit has been one of my favourite source of traffic for my blogs since from 2012. They have massive following of working professionals around the world. Reddit has thousands of /subreddits with millions of people sharing crucial information.
The best way to utilise this platform is to become a part of the community. Respect its rule and regulations. Once you have your reputation build you start sharing your content. You can also purchase gold coins and distribute your love.
You could also use Reddit advertisement if you are willing to invest some bucks.
Just remember to follow the guidelines of subreddits before sharing your content on them. Most communities has strict rules on sharing hence you have to be careful. Or else you might get your account banned for life.
source: redditmetrics
Blogs as a Guest Author
We know that google loves content. And hence the big G always looking for fresh and insightful content on the internet. Although have you ever noticed that, if google was not there where would your traffic will come from. Imagine a world without search engines. Don’t you think all of your traffic will then come from different blogs and other online identities?
So why not approach this problem like that. Lets say if there is no search engine what will be your strategy to get traffic to your blog?
source: ahrefs
I would say you will start approaching different blogs and ask them if you could publish a piece of content on their blog.
So why not do that now. I mean you are not loosing anything.
You are actually increasing your authority in your niche by approaching different blogs. There is a brilliant blog post by ahref on guest blogging for seo have a look into it if you want to know more about it.
Forum blogging
You might have heard this first time.
Why I came up with this terminology “forum blogging”? because its easy to understand and make sense.
Forums has been one of the best places to raise your queries and concerns. I mean one of the best example is stakeoverflow. It is a forum for developers and look at its stats:
source google data labs
I am not saying stakeoverflow flow is for you. I am just saying that there is a great potential in blogging on forums. First of all you just need to register yourself on the forum and start blogging.
You don’t need to outreach or get the permissions. Just read through the forum guideline and you are good to go.
Secondly most of the forums already have a pre-built community. So you just need to be a part of it and leverage its interest.
Here is a great blog post about where you can find the top forums to bring tons of traffic to your blog.
Social Networks
From 2004 onward when Google launched its orkut social network. In developing countries like brasil and india it got viral. There was a time when every single youngster was on this social network. As it got closed somewhere around 2014. Facebook took over.
You will be surprise to know how many active users visit these social network every day.
monthly active users on social networks
This clearly depicts the potential in terms of traffic you could generate from social networks.
Now lets have a look at the a study done by ofcom. They have generated most fascinating insights about social media and one of them which influenced me the most is this one:
source: ofcom
This tells me that younger generation who will be looking for information online soon with in next few years are the people who are well worked and educated with social media platforms.
That means its easier for a blogger to reach out to them if you have your presence on social media.
That said this is one of the best alternative to bring lots of traffic to your blog compared to google.
Tip: Remember to add a social network share button on your blog. This will enable your readers to share it on their social media and increase your reach.
Potential Impact
As I have suggested above methods to Jackey. Hopefully her blog traffic will increase. Although just so that you know I have tried all of them myself and they have helped me out allot.
My intention was to get more engagement via different channels.
But in return all web2.0 backlinks and mentions actually increased my google ranking too.
So basically if you spread the word around that means you will get more SERP for your content which in return impact possessively on your google ranking.
Conclusion
It is always a good idea to get your traffic from diversified sources. This not just enables your blog to perform better but also make sure if traffic from one source reduces then you still got other platforms bringing in traffic.
If you are new to blogging and would like to start a blog then don’t forget to checkout my article about how to start a blog for beginners.
Please let me know if comments below if there are any other sources you use to bring traffic from your blog?
Originally published at https://www.blognow.org.
