The first blog I built (from 2008-2018) I was able to get 1M+ page views per month.
The second blog I built I went from 0-30K Page views per month.
The third blog I built I took it from 10k-50K page views per month.
And finally, the blog I’m building now, I went from 0-500K page views per month! I’m currently plateaued at 300K, but determined to not only return it to 500K, but get it up to 1M before I sell the current one.
The best part about increasing page views is increasing ad revenue! I took my current blog from an $0 to a net profit of $100K per year with Raptive !
Here’s a few of the strategies I used to get backlinks and where the traffic is coming from:
- Pinterest– I started posting 3 pins per day to my main blog. I also started writing posts for Pinterest, rather than Google.
- Instagram– I started linking to an article from my stories 1 time per day.
- Facebook– I added SmarterQueue so I could have 5-6 articles go out per day on a consistent basis. Smarter queue is so easy to use, and worth every penny to me!
- Twitter– I posted to twitter each time I published a new post.
- LinkedIn– I started adding links from Linkedin on a regular schedule- and engaging there.
- Guest posting. I haven’t done this in awhile, but it was part of my strategy in the beginning.
- Podcast guest– There are so many reasons to become a podcast guest. One, for the backlinks, and two, to reach new audiences! There’s always an uptick in traffic after I participate in someone’s podcast.
- Google– Yes, I still get a majority of clicks from google. But I optimize this both for the serps and for google images
- Email newsletter- I built out my welcome series to draw people back to the blog and I send 2-3 emails per week.
- Improved navigation I remember the epiphany that if I could get HALF of the people that visit my blog to click on one more article, I’ll grow my traffic overnight! So, I constantly analyze the UX of my site and look for opportunities for people to go down a rabbit hole and click, click, and click again.
- Reddit: I rarely share links on Reddit, but my profile is linked, and when I engage in communities, People do look at my profile and click on my site.
- MSN publishers program. This not only pays you money, but you can get lot’s of links (and lots of clicks) to your site!
- YouTube-Under every YouTube video I link to SOMETHING on my blog. If it’s extremely related, I’ll also mention it inside the video.
- Flipboard– I set up flipboard several years ago to just push an RSS feed out. To this day, every time I publish a new post, flipboard picks it up and puts it on the magazines on my profile.
- Press Releases– I spent a year sending out 4 press releases. You can usually have one link in each press release article, and it gets syndicated to publications in mass, which is good for traffic and backlinks.
- Directories– When you get your personal training certification, you can be added to the ACE Personal trainers directory. I got certified as a Psychology of Eating specialist, and they also had a directory! I certified to be a personal chef, and they also had a directory! Getting these backlinks can be significant for traffic.
- TV appearances– If I’m invited to do a local news segment, I’ll always make sure my blog name is mentioned and I get a link to my blog from their website. This has worked well for our local NBC and ABC affiliate stations. Spend 5 minutes on a segment, get a link for life!
- Profile links for all personal social accounts: Facebook, tiktok, twitter, Youtube, instagram, etc. Once, I was engaging with a girl in a Facebook group. She was talking about her blog. Naturally, I clicked her personal profile to find out what her blog was, and she didn’t have it mentioned or linked anywhere! It’s such a missed opportunity. And, if you’re embarrassed by your website or content, you probably should change to a niche you’re not embarrassed about.
This will be a dynamic post, and I’ll continue to add more stats and new traffic sources as I use them.