Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
So you published 1000 valuable posts to your blog.
But you get no blog traffic.
Or maybe traffic ebbs and flows here and there before droughts set in.
What’s the problem?
You need to spend more time offsite.
Or you need to spend most time offsite.
Why?
Blog traffic travels along roads to your blog.
Blog traffic never falls out of the sky to land on your blog.
If you build it….they won’t come. But if you build it and also build a strong offline presence….they will come, stick around, buy your stuff and hire you.
How do you influence traffic to travel along various roads to find your blog? Leave your blog, get offsite and help people along those roads. Chat with people along those roads. Ask questions. Listen. Share answers.
Gradually, offsite traffic flows to your blog based on your offsite work, generous service and genuine, engaging frame of mind.
Billionaire Wisdom
A well-known billionaire professed how many people possess genuinely helpful ideas but no distribution system to get the idea in front of targeted eyes.
In blog traffic terms, many bloggers possess genuinely helpful blogs but no offsite strategy to draw targeted readers to their blogs.
If you never get out there in the world to help and chat no one will ever see, read and benefit from your blog.
Heed these warning signs that it’s time to get offsite.
1: Little Traffic with a High Volume of Blog Posts
Getting little to no blog traffic after publishing a high volume of blog posts can indicate that you need to get offsite immediately.
Think of it this way: you already have 500, 1000 or 1500 posts sitting on your blog. But how do people find those posts? Where do people see those posts? How do you market those posts?
If your traffic seems low then obviously you need to begin doing something offsite to bring traffic from offsite sources to your blog. Influencing readers to visit your blog from sites outside of your blog is the direct way to increase blog traffic.
What About SEO-Optimizing Posts Onsite?
Bloggers make the common error of believing that simply SEO-optimizing posts onsite is the solution to blog traffic woes.
But the Google algorithm favors blogs with high quality backlinks. Where do backlinks originate? Offsite. Why would someone point a backlink to your blog? In most cases, people point backlinks to your blog if you maintain an active presence on some highly-targeted site to build relationships with bloggers.
For example, a contributor from Smart Blogger linked to Blogging From Paradise after I published detailed, genuine comments on the blog persistently. I spent time offsite to build relationships with contributors for the blog. One contributor linked to BFP based on the offsite bond I established.
Help people offsite to draw folks from those sources to your high volume of helpful, detailed blog posts.
2: Few Blog Comments
Do your blog comments appear to be anemic?
Get your rear in gear with a genuine blog commenting campaign.
Blog comments can indicate either a healthy offsite campaign or poor presence offsite. BFP generated 1000’s of comments before the great post cull of early 2023. Commenting genuinely on blogs other than my own boosted onsite comments.
Busy yourself with:
- reading blogs related to your niche
- submitting genuine, detailed blog comments
Bloggers who appreciate your comments will comment genuinely on your blog.
3: Little Blogging Business
Seeing little blogging business usually suggests an offsite strategy needs to be followed to boost blogging income.
No blogger profits solely from the comfortable confines of their cyber cave. Pros know; blogs build credibility but the money flows from “out there” via:
- Facebook Groups related to your niche
- LinkedIn Groups related to your niche
- genuine blog comments published to niche blogs
- detailed guest posts published on niche blogs
How it works: publish detailed blog posts solving problems experienced by your ideal reader. Draw readers to your blog by helping people for free, offsite.
If you build it and serve people outside of home base in targeted spots then some of those folks will:
- visit your blog
- follow your blog closely
- buy your stuff
- hire you
- publish genuine comments on your blog
- promote your blog, products and services to increase your referral business
Where do you meet these future customers and clients? Offsite.
How do you draw them from offsite sources to your blog? Help them for free.
Note
Do not manipulate people with fear from offsite sources to get them to your blog. Fear repels because fear is needy, desperate and thirsty.
Lead with valuable help. Hang where your ideal readers hang. For example, I publish blogging tips to Facebook Groups and LinkedIn Groups related to blogging tips on a daily basis. I add a #bloggingtips hashtag to each post. Helping people in these targeted offsite spots draws some to my blogging tips blog.
4: Low Social Media Engagement
Does your social media sound as quiet as a church mouse among a congregation of famished felines?
Engage your ideal readers on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Hop offsite. Be social on social media sites. Increase social media engagement. Drive social media traffic to your blog by being truly helpful on social media sites.
Do You Not “Get” Twitter?
Legions of bloggers seem not to “get”, or understand, Twitter.
Most see it as a self-centered platform for publishing nonsensical updates like:
“I just brushed my teeth after eating popcorn while rolling around in cotton candy.”
or perhaps a Gladiator style sparring ring for politics or the news in general.
If you decide to use Twitter for these ends, those user’s private hell will become your public inferno.
But like every social media site, how you choose to use it mirrors the site back to you.
For example, I only use Twitter to publish:
- blogging tips through text-only updates, my blog posts and my guest posts
- travel pictures
in addition to following the #bloggingtips hashtag to engage these Tweeters, to Retweet their stuff and to build relationships.
Twitter sends blogging tips hungry bloggers to Blogging From Paradise because I spend time on the site helping bloggers who crave blogging tips.
Spend time offsite on social media sites to help and chat with people within your blogging niche. Some of those folks will engage you on social to liven up your Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Some of those folks will visit your blog.
5: Low Number of Backlinks
Bloggers with a high volume of genuinely helpful posts see a clear red flag: if no one links to the posts you need to get offsite to help, engage and bond.
Clearly, content is not the issue. In-depth, targeted blog posts are backlink-worthy. But if no one points backlinks to the posts you possess a blogger outreach problem. Do not publish another detailed post or try to make your past long-form posts “perfect” with yet another update that no one will ever see.
The problem is offsite, not onsite.
Build bonds with bloggers on their blogs. Submit personalized, genuine blog comments on their blogs. Promote fellow bloggers through Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Blogging buddies happily drop backlinks to your blog but only if you get offsite, meet ’em, greet ’em, chat with them and help them.
Conclusion
Before trying to fiddle with anything on your blog simply spot these red flags and get your booty offsite.
Draw blog traffic from offsite sources by helping and chatting to accelerate your blogging success.
