Time to get that “no traffic” monkey off of your back. Me from my visit to Manual Antonio, Costa Rica with Capuchin monkeys over my shoulder.
You’re screwed.
Seems like the blogging gods are against you.
Checking your stats is a lesson in futility. A frustrating experience.
You’re struggling like hell because you have no clout. No connections.
Nobody seems to know about you or your blog. An afterthought.
Know this; the tide can and WILL turn. I promise. Because I followed these tips to go from “blogging non grata” to building my dream life through blogging.
You too can turn your blogging pain into pleasure. If you’re as frustrated as can be, you can turn that frustration into financial success. By following these proven, profitable, prospering, traffic-driving tips, for everybody from blogging newbs to veteran, struggling bloggers.
Ya just gotta learn how to get more blog traffic even if you have no connections or no clout.
How to Drive Traffic as a Struggling Blogger
Remember this: we all start from zero. We are all new to blogging at one time. Most of us have zero clout and no connections in the beginning because any prior offline experience you have does not translate into any online influence which you can apply to your blog.
I was a bum, laid off security guard.
Sit back, relax, and feel the relief of seeing steadily increasing blogging traffic. Go ahead, do it. It helps you to establish the right mindset before reading this post. Even if you feel like a Blogging Nobody whose audience consists of a chorus of crickets, mocking you each time you hit the “publish” button.
Follow these 10 tips to boost your blog traffic without having any clout or connections.
1: Follow Your Passion
Follow your passion. Blog your fun.
The passion/fun is the reward. Blog traffic and comments are extras. The icing on the cake. The cherry on top. The pandan on your disgusting hot dog bun (Thai sweet treat reference).
Your passion fuels your journey. Your passion gives you clout. Your passion is the gas, the fuel, that enables you to follow tips #2 through #10.
If you picked a niche you do NOT feel passionate about, trash the blog today. Immediately.
Before you sob in your blogging Cheerios read this post to understand how Blogging From Paradise was born.
Do you have 3400 blog posts to trash, a blog and an entire income stream, as a new blogger? Probably not.
Blogging your passion makes you shine as bright as a lighthouse in a wicked storm.
Have you noted how some new bloggers – even if their writing is not super crisp or clean – feel awesome to be around? Like, you’re pulled to them, kinda like moths to a flame?
These gals and guys blog with passion. With zest. You see less of a newbie blogger and more a person who passionately blogs from their heart.
Be passionate! Blog passionate. I don’t care if your posts read like Captain Caveman wrote them after a 2 day drunk; if you blog with passion you will drive traffic and gain influence, even as a green, new blogger.
2: Build Connections 1 to 1
Don’t think thousands.
Think individuals.
At least in terms of how to build lasting, powerful friendships with bloggers from your niche.
Respond to comments. Quickly. Address your commentors by name. Thank them for their time.
Comment on top blogs from your niche (tip #3). Leverage your presence but do so 1 blogger, 1 new friend and 1 connection at a time. Smart leveraging is really the ultimate paradox; you may dream sugar plum fairy dreams of the 300,000 readers in Darren Rowse’s Pro Blogger community when commenting on his blog but the real traffic is in the 1 to 1 bonds you build with readers who stumble over to your blog from your comments, and who comment on your blog.
All traffic grows – especially when you are a new, unknown blogger – through the power of building 1 to 1 friendships with like-minded folks.
Watch the video as I explain:
3: Leverage the Stuffing out of Your Presence
Comment on top blogs from your niche. 5 paragraph or longer masterpiece.
When you mind says, “I am a new blogger. How can I guest post on top blogs from my niche? It feels too tough/unrealistic to me?”, simply follow tip #4 below.
All the traffic you are craving as a non-connected, unknown blogger with zero clout sits on other blogger’s blogs. So, connect with other bloggers, build friendships and expose yourselves (no not that way) to these other blogger’s readers, through blog commenting and guest posting.
Blog Commenting Resource to Buy: How to Build an Online Empire through Blog Commenting
4: Make Fear Your Ally Not Your Enemy
Make fear your ally. Not your enemy. Because all the traffic you desire sits firmly placed in the middle of your fears.
You may read this post. Look at every other tip and say:
“Nah, this advice doesn’t resonate with me.”
which is code for:
“Holy shit these things are scary to do!”
After reading this post you have 2 choices: feel the fear associated with following each tip and follow the tip anyway (make fear your ally) or turn around and ignore these tips because the fear feels too scary to dive into (make fear your enemy).
I did not know what a blog was 8 years ago. But I have been featured on Fox News. How many fears do you think I needed to face, embrace and release to go from blogging doofus to blogging dynamo?
Make fear your ally. Feel it. Dive into traffic-generating activities. No matter how uncomfortable. Boost your traffic. Quite quickly, if you make fear your ally.
5: Double Down on Personal Development (Or….Start)
Fear swims around in your newbie mind.
Hidden Beach, Bali.
Like the Biblical swarms of winged termites I recently saw in Thailand, these newbie-related fears multiply like demon spawn and obliterate your blogging campaign….unless you double down on personal development.
Spend the first 30 minutes of every day:
- meditating
- praying
- reading and studying self help books
- visualizing
- writing out your fears (then burn that paper, over a sink preferably, if you value your home)
- doing anything related to personal development
because as within, so without. This means as you feel and embrace and release your deepest blogging fears, you will move into inspired, freeing actions that boost your blog traffic quickly.
6: Laser Focus Your Niche
New bloggers succeed quickly by specializing.
New bloggers struggle terribly by trying to blog about everything under the sun.
Specialize. Prosper.
Do only 1 thing. Cover 1 hyper specific niche. Gain influence. Build connections. Increase your blog traffic. From scratch.
7: Immediately Introduce Multi Media
8 years ago I thought my head looked like Igoo the Rock Ape. Too square of a jaw.
I had the conviction of a cowering milquetoast as I delivered my videos.
I looked like a deer in the headlights while in the cross hairs of a skilled hunter.
8 years later, some daring (bribed) souls call me charismatic. (More Funny Ryan, less Jim Jones. More cool travel stories. Less Kool-Aid.)
Anyway, introducing video and podcasting to your new blogging campaign makes you human. When folks see you as living, breathing, and a feeling human, you go from words on a screen to a sentient being. Sentient beings gain clout fast. Sentient beings make friends fast.
Example; my friend David Boozer does a fabulous job integrating videos and podcasts into his blog. Peep his latest posts to learn from a seasoned internet marketing pro.
The Challenge
As a newbie blogger you are likely terrified to do a Facebook Live Video. Nut the eff up. Hit the record button. Do it.
Feel the fear and do it anyway.
This is how to boost blog traffic as a newbie; feel the fear, and do it anyway.
Manual Antonio, Costa Rica.
Create videos on Facebook and YouTube. Or start a podcast. Add multi-media to your blog. Outshine new bloggers who piddle in their blogging pants when they think of doing videos. Be human. Prove you’re human. Gain clout.
Feel the fear. Do it anyway.
8: Can the Crickets
Can the crickets. Meaning, when only crickets appear to be your readers – despite following these tips for a week or two – you simply need to ignore the lack and turn your attention to growth.
Note the fact you actually have a public blog. Accept the gift that you are blogging your passion. See your blog as a vehicle through which you can free yourself and others.
The crickets (i.e., no readers, like, 1 reader) may be screaming at your attention. Telling you how much you are failing, that you should stay angry, be frustrated, that you should quit blogging. Screw ’em. Can ’em. Put a lid on the crickets. Even if you appear to have no readers or traffic right now, this is temporary. Things are changing. Because you are following advice that is proven, that big dawg bloggers offer, that helped them live their dreams.
As they have succeeded, so shall you succeed.
9: Spend Money on Resources
Imagine trying to learn Atmospheric Thermodynamics by reading free blog posts?
Ain’t happening. Trust me; I took Atmospheric Thermodynamics as a Meteorology major at university. It is as difficult a subject to study as it looks. Which is why I paid something called “tuition” to learn from skilled teachers in the proper format.
When you’re a new blogger, if you want to cut your learning curve by decades you buy somethings (i.e. pay your blogging tuition) called:
or maybe you spend money investing in coaching services, to cut your learning curve and to hit the ground running.
A new blogger recently invested money in my audio course (saw payment hit my bank account yesterday). That $350 investment will help them make $10,000 or $50,000 down the road. Even better, it will help them avoid all the fear-based mistakes plaguing new bloggers. Even better, $350 will help them live their wildest dreams.
Pay your online tuition. Buy a course or eBook to help you learn blogging from a skilled pro, in a structured environment. Increase your blog traffic from scratch by learning from the seasoned pros, through their premium, properly formatted, robust offerings.
10: Write 500 Words Daily for Practice
Open a Word document. Write 500 words. I care not how long it takes. Just write.
Then trash the document.
This simple habit:
- adds power to your writing
- lets your writing voice shine aka helps you find your writing voice
- boosts your blog traffic
- gives you clout
Write! Hone your #1 blogging skill. Go from green newbie to blogging big dawg through the mysterious concept know as: Practicing When the Lights Are Off……or….Practicing When Nobody Is Watching.
Your Turn
What tips can you add to this list?
Are you a new blogger with no clout or influence?
Have you followed these tips?
