Guess what?
No website in the World can survive without one thing:
Traffic.
It drives everything we’re trying to accomplish online.
Traffic = leads, sales, and a thriving business.
Yet, the #1 complaint I get from new subscribers is that they don’t have enough traffic.
(I ask each new subscriber how I can help them.)
And it makes sense, too:
They’ve listened to forum “gurus” shelling out cookie cutter advice, they’ve tried sketchy black hat techniques (and been penalized for them), and searched far and wide without an answer to their traffic problem.
So I decided to compile some of the best guides on traffic generation from some of the top experts in the field.
These articles will teach you how to promote your website, get more social shares, build backlinks, get ranked in search engines, network with influencers, and build an audience that supports a thriving business.
And you know what that means:
We’re on the first flight out to Thailand, sipping mai tais on the beaches of Ko Lipe 😉
But first, let’s drive a ton of traffic to your website.
I’ve used the strategies in these articles to help one of my clients (now business partner) go from nearly zero to over 140,000 monthly visits in less than 12 months:
Needless to say, the leads and sales that came from this traffic have been huge for the business.
These tactics work.
I suggest trying as many as possible, find the website promotion strategies that work best for your website or blog (for us, it was SEO), and focus on them 100% until you master them.
I’ve categorized this list by traffic generation strategy. Use the links below to skip to each section:
- Content Promotion
- Blogging Tactics
- SEO & Link Building
- Social Media Marketing
- Paid Advertising
- Content Marketing
- Guest Blogging
Enjoy!
P.S. Thank you to everyone whose articles are in this list. Keep on killing it.
Content promotion involves creating valuable content and distributing it around the web. There’s one goal in mind when executing this strategy:
Get eyeballs on your content.
Just make sure your articles are optimized to build your email list (read my 12,000-word tutorial) before you start driving traffic.
Use the following articles to get eyeballs on your content as fast as possible:
How To Drive Traffic to a New WordPress Website (50+ Actionable Tips)
Author: Tom Ewer
Website: WPKube
Why This Article is a Beast:
WordPress powers 25% of all websites and 58.7% of websites that have a CMS. It’s not surprising that Tom decided to make WordPress the focus of this article.
Tom put together a monster list of tips for driving traffic to a new WordPress installation.
Many of his tips are people-focused and designed to help you build relationships. Relationships lead to social shares, traffic, and backlinks.
He also breaks down different tactics to take advantage of each major social network, content marketing, guest blogging, and more.
If you’re looking to jump start your traffic, this article is a great place to start.
Top Tip: Create amazing content that wipes the floor with the competition.
How to Ensure Your Next Post Gets Seen by Thousands of People
Author: Ramsay Taplin
Website: Blog Tyrant
Why This Article is a Beast:
Ramsay Taplin is one of the most popular bloggers out there. Having sold blogs he’s built from the ground up for five figures, he knows a thing or two about getting eyeballs on his content.
This post is all about strategically promoting your next blog post (and the ones after that) for an immediate burst in traffic. By strategically, he means using different tools to make sure you’re choosing popular topics people are predetermined to share and link to (as opposed to going at it blindly).
Ramsay also breaks down one of my favorite tactics for encouraging people with large followings to share your content. (You’ll have to read the article to find out what it is ;))
Top Tip: People don’t share things they think are helpful. They share things they want other people to think they’re reading.
Also read… Analysis: What is the Best Source of Web Traffic?
21 Strategies to Drive More Free Website Traffic Today
Author: Michael Karp
Website: Copytactics
Why This Article is a Beast:
I advise most people to go after free traffic when they’re first starting out.
Why?
Because you can get into a deeeep hole paying for traffic if your offer isn’t optimized correctly yet.
This tutorial breaks down 21 strategies I’ve used personally to drive traffic to mine and my client’s websites (at no cost). It will give you a crash course on free traffic generation.
I suggest trying out each strategy, analyzing your results, and picking the 3 that worked best. Then focus on those 100% until you’ve mastered them.
Then move on to the next one, rinse, and repeat.
Top Tip: Use Top X Articles and Expert Roundups for an instant traffic boost.
Also read… Cost Effective SEO: How I Drove 34,000 Search Engine Visits in 60 Days (For Free)
(Looking for some professional help growing your brand? Check out Dawn Creative.)
How to Get Blog Traffic: 13 Steps to Thousands of Readers
Author: Travis Levell
Website: Project Pivotal
Why This Article is a Beast:
In this epic guide to driving blog traffic, Travis breaks down the strategies he used to increase traffic by 10X+ at the last startup he worked with.
Using these tactics, you can drive at least 1000 visitors to each article and keep 50-100 of them as subscribers. If you post and promote 2 articles per week, that’s at least 8,000 visitors and 400-800 new subscribers each month.
And your results will compound as your residual traffic from each article increases, your subscriber base increases, and you start getting ranked in search engines.
Struggling to promote your website? Check out Travis’s article.
Top Tip: Create post-specific opt-in offers (content upgrades) to capture more of your traffic as email subscribers.
10 Specific Strategies to Make Your ‘Most Popular Posts’ Work Even Harder For You
Author: Pat Flynn
Website: Smart Passive Income
Why This Article is a Beast:
Often, the lowest-hanging fruit is promoting and optimizing the content that has already done well for you (rather than creating an entirely new piece).
Pat Flynn shows you 10 ways to take more advantage of your most popular content. From re-purposing your content to tap into new audiences, to optimizing it to capture more emails, to turning it into paid products, I guarantee you will find a new way to utilize your most visited pages.
Don’t have traffic yet? No worries. Use these tips to plan a larger content strategy to fit your business. (#10 is an excellent way to conduct to conduct market research.)
Top Tip: Do more of what’s working, and less of what’s not.
Also listen to… The Smart Passive Income Podcast
Case Study: How I Increased Traffic 272% In 30 Days (Without Spending A Penny)
Author: Robbie Richards
Website: RobbieRichards.com
Why This Article is a Beast:
Becoming good at traffic generation is about establishing a repeatable process that works for your website.
In Robbie Richards’ 6,000-word content marketing case study, he breaks down the exact step-by-step process he used (and continues to use) that increased his traffic 272% in 30 days. Not only that, he did it without spending any money on paid advertising.
It’s centered around The Skyscraper Technique (created and popularized by Brian Dean), which involves 1) finding proven content ideas, 2) making your content better than what’s out there, and 3) “promoting it like your blog depends on it.”
Robbie takes The Skyscraper Technique to a whole new level. He leaves no stone unturned, teaching you exactly how he researched, created and promoted his content. (He even tells you where to click.)
Use this tutorial/case study to make sure your next blog post drives traffic to your site and becomes a valuable business asset.
Top Tip: Posts that are linkable and shareworthy form the foundation of any successful content marketing strategy.
Also read… How To Promote Your Blog Posts To Get 19,011 Social Shares (Without Spending A Penny)
The 80/20 Rule for Building a Blog Audience
Author: Derek Halpern
Website: Social Triggers
Why This Article is a Beast:
Derek Halpern spends 20% of his time creating content and 80% promoting it.
Why?
In Derek’s own words, “If you spend time writing a piece of content, and that content only gets 1,000 readers, chances are there are one million other people in the world who can benefit from what you wrote. Why, then, would you spend more time creating content when you already have something that your ideal customers can benefit from?”
From March 2011 to April 2012, Derek posted a little over 2 blog posts per month and built an email list of almost 27,000 subscribers.
The proof is in the pudding.
This post changed MANY people’s outlook on content creation and how to use it to build your business. Read it to see why.
Top Tip: It’s smarter to find another 10,000 people to consume what you’ve already created as opposed to creating more.
Also read… If You’re Struggling to Get Blog Readers, Read This (Or Continue Wasting Your Precious Time)
How Content Promotion Works: 11 Strategies to Try
Author: Kevan Lee
Website: Buffer
Why This Article is a Beast:
There are many facets to content promotion: Email outreach, niche communities, social media, making your content shareable, and much more.
Kevan Lee, Buffer’s chief content creator, breaks down 11 content promotion strategies he has been using to get additional eyeballs on his articles. These are some of the best tactics I’ve come across, and I’ve seen each one work in one form or another.
The Buffer Blog has grown immensely, largely in thanks to Kevan’s ability to create uniquely valuable content and promote it. Check out the 11 tactics he uses to steal some of that success for yourself.
Top Tip: If you need a reason to reach out to a big name in your industry, include the person in your post. Then give them a heads up.
Also read… The Psychology of Facebook: Why We Like, Share, Comment
Sharing Other Peoples Content and Simultaneously Promoting Your Own
Author: Paul Shapiro
Website: Search Wilderness
Why This Article is a Beast:
In this article, Paul shows you how to promote your website and other people’s content at the exact same time.
He offers a few sneaky tricks to do this, including one that will actually let you show up in someone’s Google Analytics account (with a custom message) when they get traffic from an article you’ve shared.
Using these tactics, Paul has shared other people’s articles while giving his content and website exposure at the same time. He also landed a few guest post opportunities from it.
Earn your follower’s trust by sharing other people’s content, and sneakily promote your own at the same time.
Top Tip: Use UTM parameters to promote yourself while sharing other people’s content.
Also read… Building Do Follow Links with High Quality NoFollow Links
18 Influencer Outreach Strategies to Optimize Your Campaign and Get Better Success Rates
Author: Darmawan
Website: Panduanim
Why This Article is a Beast:
Whether you want to build a relationship, get a link to your website, or get a share to social media, you need to do influencer outreach. It’s the essential content promotion skill.
But, in reality, influencer outreach sucks.
If you ever do it yourself, you know how small the percentage of people who responded to your emails is — generally, less than 5%.
In this article, you will learn you will learn how to:
- Optimize your content for outreach
- Optimize your outreach email
- Build relationships with the top dogs
- Find more target for your outreach campaign
- Improve your success rate
Read the article if you want to stop wasting your (and other people’s) time with your current outreach strategy.
Top Tip: And outreach campaign starts before you create your content. Optimize your content for specific influencers to get better results.
The following articles offer general tactics and case studies to help you grow and promote your blog.
You will learn about tools the top bloggers use, strategies for monetizing your blog and increasing traffic, an epic strategy for building your email list (that I have used personally in this case study), and much more:
How I Built A Top 100 Blog In 12 Months
Author: Matthew Woodward
Website: MatthewWoodward.co.uk
Why This Article is a Beast:
This is my favorite case study ever.
In this 14,000-word essay, Matthew Woodward walks you through his first year as an SEO and affiliate marketing blogger.
He accomplished a lot in that first year:
- 632,452 page views
- 31,715 hours/3.6 years spent reading his posts
- Won 5 major awards
- $73,334.09 profit
- A Technorati Top 100 Business Blog
The case study shows you how he planned out the blog before launching (including his content strategy), the simple technique he used to drive traffic, how he set up the blog to accomplish his goals, how he monetized it, and much more that lay in the details of his story.
Matt goes month by month through that year, showing you everything he did to achieve his goals and make it as a full time blogger.
The information in this case study is gold, whether you’re a solopreneur or a company trying to build your audience.
Top Tip: Use people-focused traffic generation strategies, like forum marketing and BuzzBundle.
Also read… How to Steal Your Competitor’s Rankings
The Complete Guide to Building Your Blog Audience
Author: Neil Patel
Website: Quick Sprout
Why This Article is a Beast:
There are many ways to build an audience online. The tough part is finding the most effective way for you to do it.
In this epic guide, Neil Patel shows you how almost any blog can grow their audience, step-by-step. He breaks down:
- How to build a community of people who want to hear from you (through an email list)
- Types of blog post that drive traffic easier than others
- Taking advantage of search engine traffic
- Paid advertising
- Social media marketing
- Content syndication
- And much more
This is one of the most comprehensive guides on the web for building popular blogs (something Neil knows a thing or two about).
If you’ve been struggling to build your audience, it’d be a crime not to give this guide a read.
Top Tip: It’s much easier to market to people who opt-in to receive information from you.
How We Grew a Blog from Zero to $6 Million
Author: Ryan Deiss
Website: Digital Marketer
Why This Article is a Beast:
The Digital Marketer team are experts at creating, monetizing, and growing blogs to astronomical heights. (Their Survival Life blog does over $1 million in sales — monthly.)
How did they do this? They tested and tested until they found which 20% of their strategies were getting them 80% of their results.
In this article, Ryan Deiss debunks a few blogging and online business myths that are usually preached as gospel. By doing the opposite of what most people do, and by testing like crazy, they were able to grow a blog from zero to $6 million.
You will learn how they chose their market, how they designed the blog, how they drove traffic (whenever they wanted to), and the #1 thing they focused on.
Top Tip: Traffic is everywhere. You just need to understand the economics of your blog.
Also read… Customer Value Optimization: How to Build an Unstoppable Business
7 Cool Tools for a Blog That Will Rapidly Increase Your Traffic
Author: Ian Cleary
Website: Razor Social
Why This Article is a Beast:
Tools are a blogger’s best friend. Like certain tools in real life, different services can drastically amplify or speed up what you would have to do manually.
In this piece, Ian Cleary describes 7 of his favorite tools for increasing traffic to your blog. They’ll help you with SEO, crafting eye-catching headlines, keyword research, and social media marketing.
Top Tip: Use HitTail to analyze your Google Webmaster Tools account to see which keywords are driving traffic to your site, and create blog posts based on them.
Also read… 5 Awesome Ways to Increase Blog Traffic Through Competitor Research
How to Use a Giveaway to Get 2,239 Email Subscribers in 10 days
Author: Bryan Harris
Website: Videofruit
Why This Article is a Beast:
An email list is one of the most valuable business assets you can have. These people want to hear more from you, you can establish one-on-one connections easily, and it’s a channel that people still check almost every day.
The tricky part is building your email list.
In this case study, Bryan Harris breaks down one of the best list building techniques on the planet — a marketing giveaway.
By creating a contest that offers a reward he knows his ideal email subscribers would love, and by strategically promoting it around the web, Bryan was able to capture over 2,200 subscribers in just 10 days.
(I’ve also had a ton of success with this strategy.)
Not only can you build your email list at an alarmingly fast rate, but you also spread goodwill by giving people the opportunity to win something valuable.
(You see these types of strategies in almost every market, like when H&R Block gave away $1,000,000 a day for 32 days.)
Want to build your email list as fast as possible? Try using Bryan’s method for creating and promoting a giveaway.
Top Tip: Pick a killer prize that your audience covets.
The Ultimate Guide to No-Pain Copywriting (or, Every Copywriting Formula Ever)
Author: Joanna Wiebe
Website: Copy Hackers
Why This Article is a Beast:
You may not notice it, but copywriting is EVERYWHERE.
It’s in the obvious places, like sales pages and advertisements. But it’s also at play in many other situations.
Here are a few more places where copywriting principles can make a big difference in your results:
- Blog post headlines
- SEO titles (the title that shows up in search engine results)
- Landing pages (like this one)
- Social media posts
- Outreach emails
- Blog posts themselves
Whenever you’re trying to convince someone to take any action, whether it be to buy your products or to continue reading your blog post, copywriting is influencing how effective you are.
In this monster of an article, Joanna Wiebe lists a ton of copywriting formulas for you to take advantage of.
These formulas are proven to get results in their respective situations. Joanna has formulas for sales pages, headlines, calls to action, testimonials, email sequences, subject lines, ads, blog posts — the works.
Use these formulas to make your headlines more shareable, your blog post intros more enticing, your outreach emails more convincing, and much, much more.
Top Tip: You should be using copywriting formulas whenever you write anything.
Increase Website Traffic: The Ultimate Blueprint to More Profitable Web Traffic
Author: Ana Hoffman
Website: Traffic Generation Cafe
Why This Article is a Beast:
There are many ways to drive traffic to a website. The key is trying as many as possible to find the ones that work best for you.
In her blueprint to increasing web traffic, Ana Hoffman lays out a ridiculous amount of tactics you can implement. She breaks them down into 8 different categories:
- Content leverage
- Relationship marketing
- Social marketing
- SEO
- Product creation
- Mobile traffic
- Paid traffic
- Offline traffic
For each category, Ana tells you the estimated priority of each strategy (high, medium, or low), the traffic potential, and the time it takes to implement each strategy. I suggest reading through her post and picking the top 3 you think will work best.
Then implement them, master them, and choose 3 more to focus on.
Top Tip: The best way to figure out where to start with your traffic generation is to see which platform your competitors drive the most traffic from.
The Myth Of “Being Everywhere” And The Smarter Path To Traffic
Author: Yaro Starak
Website: Entrepreneurs-Journey.com
Why This Article is a Beast:
With all of the traffic generation options available, it’s easy to want to try everything. Or as Yaro says, be “everywhere.”
Not only can this bog you down with choices, you can also spread yourself too thin and get worse results because of it.
In this post, Yaro Starak warns bloggers against trying to drive traffic from too many sources, at least in the beginning.
His advice is to focus on your best source of traffic first and ignore the rest. As your blog grows, then start moving on to other methods.
Check out this article to see why this is a better strategy and how to get started.
Top Tip: Pick one platform or one method, and get good enough that it brings in sufficient income for you to reach the next phase of your business growth.
Also read… How Much Traffic Does Your Blog Need To Make $100,000 A Year?
How I Lost 80% of My Traffic Overnight (And How I Got it Back, Plus More!)
Author: Darren Rowse
Website: ProBlogger
Why This Article is a Beast:
It’s the internet-old cautionary tale:
Your traffic can die at any minute. So don’t get too comfortable, and make sure to hedge your bets by diversifying your traffic sources.
In this podcast, ProBlogger founder Darren Rowse talks about how he lost between 80% and 90% of his traffic overnight.
His blog was thriving and Google was sending him a ton of passive traffic (85% of his total), so he didn’t really think about other traffic sources. That was until most of that traffic disappeared.
Darren talks about that experience and tells you the 10 ways he recovered the traffic he lost (and what to do if the same thing happens to you).
Top Tip: Sticking with just one traffic source for your blog is very risky.
Also read… Grow Your Blog’s Traffic and Income by Creating a Resources Page for Your Blog
An Open Letter to Bloggers Struggling to Get More Traffic
Author: Jon Morrow
Website: Boost Blog Traffic
Why This Article is a Beast:
Some bloggers follow every bit of advice to the T. Some bloggers create mind-blowing content. Some bloggers work 10-12 hours a day to build their business.
Yet they still fail. Why is that?
Jon Morrow has taught thousands of people how to build a successful blog. In this article, he talks about how, even after applying all of the techniques he taught them, some of his students were doomed to fail from the beginning.
Jon is open and brutally honest about why this is the case — why not every topic can be made into a popular blog/business. He put together 7 tests that every blog must pass in order to be successful.
Before getting too deep into your subject, read this article to make sure you’re setting yourself up to be successful.
Top Tip: The single most important question for new bloggers: “Is my blog capable of getting traffic?”
Also read… How to Quit Your Job, Move to Paradise and Get Paid to Change the World
How to Build an Army of Volunteer Contributors for Your Blog
Author: Michael Brenner
Website: Marketing Insider Group
Why This Article is a Beast:
Some of the most popular blogs in the World thrive on having many authors, with most of these writers contributing content for free. (Think: The Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, Copyblogger, etc.)
They create content that goes viral, gets ranked in Google, generates leads — all while the blog’s owners focus on other parts of the business.
In this article, Michael Brenner describes how Business2Community built an entire media company based on guest contributions, or “Author Curation,” and the 6-step process you can use to attract contributors for your own blog.
It can be a powerful strategy build an online presence, and it’s one of the few that haven’t been beaten to death.
If guest contributions could benefit your business, make sure to check out Michael’s piece.
Top Tip: They believed strongly in creating a sense of community with both their readers and their authors that went beyond just the traffic and exposure they were giving them.
Also read… Influencer Marketing and How to Amplify Your Content
5 Most Powerful Ways to Monetize Your Blog and Increase Traffic
Author: Zac Johnson
Website: ZacJohnson.com
Why This Article is a Beast:
Monetizing your blog and increasing traffic go hand-in-hand.
In order to make money from your blog, it needs to be 1) optimized to bring in revenue and 2) have a consistent amount of traffic (customers) visiting it.
Zac Johnson has made millions of dollars online. In this guide, he breaks down 5 ways to effectively monetize your blog and 3 ways to drive traffic to it.
I’ve personally used each monetization strategy and can vouch for the traffic gen strategies as well. This is a must-read for all bloggers (including business bloggers) who want to get the most out of their efforts.
Top Tip: A sales funnel is where the money is.
50+ Digital Marketing Tools To Grow Your Startup
Author: Bryan Eisenberg
Website: BryanEisenberg.com
Why This Article is a Beast:
Digital marketing tools can drastically amplify your growth. The more you can cut down the time it takes the task, or the more you can scale a task, the faster you will grow your website.
In this article, Bryan Eisenberg lists over 50 digital marketing tools that you can use to grow your business. These tools range from email marketing, to web hosting, to competitive analysis, and more.
The tools in this list are extremely high quality. Give Bryan’s article a read to see if there are any that can amplify your growth.
Top Tip: Just getting started with SEO? Check out Green Lotus.
How to Write Magical Blog Titles that Get Results
Author: Marcus Sheridan
Website: The Sales Lion
Why This Article is a Beast:
An article’s headline can either make or break its success. Newspapers and old-school copywriters have known this for a long time, and in the past decade or so this knowledge has transferred to the digital world.
In this video, Marcus Sheridan breaks down the blog title methodology he uses to help his clients increase their website traffic (sometimes by 5-20X).
You will learn how to create headlines that attract the right people, and headlines increase the number of visitors to your website.
Top Tip: When writing blog titles, you need to appease two people: searchers and search engines.
There’s nothing like the feeling of thousands of targeted traffic flooding your website — on autopilot.
That’s search engine traffic.
It’s one of the most valuable types of traffic out there because these people are actively searching for what you’re offering, they’re coming to you free of charge, and once your rankings are in place, your traffic generation becomes 100% passive.
These guides will help you optimize your on-page SEO correctly, build backlinks, and get your site ranked in Google.
Onpage SEO Checklist: Get More Search Traffic Without Links
Author: Gael Breton
Website: Authority Hacker
Why This Article is a Beast:
There are two types of SEO: On-page and off-page.
On-page SEO tells Google 1) what keyword(s) you want to rank for and 2) how valuable your content is in and of itself, and off-page SEO tells Google how valuable other people think your content is.
But here’s the catch:
If you don’t get your on-page SEO right, no amount of off-page SEO will help you rank on the first page.
In one of the most in-depth articles on the topic I’ve seen, Gael Breton does an excellent job breaking down correct on-page SEO best practices.
On-page optimization isn’t just about keywords, so Gael makes a point to break down the other crucial factors, like site speed, image optimization, media, and social signals. He even talks about how to optimize your content to generate leads and attract social shares.
If you want to learn how to format your articles correctly for on-page SEO, read Gael Bretton’s guide (and download the checklist).
Top Tip: Site speed, performance and shareability have a big impact on how search engines rank your website.
Also read… How To Get Free Traffic From Facebook Even If Your Fanpage Is Lame
17 Untapped Backlink Sources
Author: Brian Dean
Website: Backlinko
Why This Article is a Beast:
Backlinks form the cornerstone of off-page SEO. In my experience, they are the biggest ranking factor (that you can control) which determines your rankings and search engine traffic.
Needless to say, they’re important. But high quality backlinks can be hard to come by, especially for marketers who are new to SEO.
In this monster tutorial, Brian Dean walks you through 17 backlink sources you probably haven’t heard of yet (or thought of).
For each source, you will learn how to find link building opportunities, how to determine whether you can get the link, and how to reach out to each site owner effectively. (Some are simple as submitting your website.)
If you’ve been struggling to build backlinks to your site, I guarantee you’ll find at least one strategy that works in this article.
Top Tip: Find link roundups for easy link building opportunities for your content.
Also read… Content Strategy Case Study: 36,282 Readers + 1,000 Email Subscribers
The Linkbait Bump: How Viral Content Creates Long-Term Lift in Organic Traffic
Author: Rand Fishkin
Website: Moz
Why This Article is a Beast:
When content goes viral, you usually see a big spike in traffic before it slowly tapers off. However, it usually tapers off to a higher level than your previous traffic.
Why is this?
In this episode of Whiteboard Friday, Rand Fishkin explains why viral content leads to a higher long-term lift in organic traffic.
He talks about how increases in social signals, followers, email subscribers, brand searches, and links gained all lead directly or indirectly to this lift in search engine traffic.
But most importantly, he also shows you how to create this viral content (or “10X” content) and the factors that help is generate the linkbait bump.
Get entertained and educated with this episode of Whiteboard Friday (it’s transcribed below the video, as well).
Top Tip: What you want is a deep understanding of what influencers in your niche will share and promote and why they do that.
Also read… The Beginners Guide to SEO
How To Grow a New Website to Over 100,000 Organic Visits Per Month
Author: Nick Eubanks
Website: SEONick.net
Why This Article is a Beast:
Building search engine traffic is no easy feat.
In this epic SEO case study, Nick Eubanks shows us how he grew a brand new website to over 100,000 organic visits in less than a year.
(And he did it in a language he doesn’t speak, understand, or read.)
He does a great job breaking down the technical side of his campaign. This includes building out an extensive keyword database, web hosting, his content strategy, and the website’s information architecture.
If you want not only proof, but instruction, on how to rapidly grow a website through SEO, read through this case study.
Top Tip: Technical SEO combined with content strategy can deliver serious results.
Also read… How I Sold My Little SEO Blog for $100,000
How To Check Smartphone Rankings As Google’s Mobile-Friendly Algorithm Rolls Out
Author: Glen Gabe
Website: G-Squared Interactive
Why This Article is a Beast:
Google’s mobile friendly update was the talk of the town in April 2015. They increased the rankings of websites that were mobile friendly (at least, a certain percentage of websites were impacted).
So everyone rushed to mobile optimize their sites if they hadn’t already. The trick is, how do you know if your rankings changed?
In this article, Glen Gabe talks about the mobile friendly update, how the websites he was monitoring were affected, and five ways you can check your mobile rankings.
And if your site isn’t mobile optimized yet, now might be a good time to get on that and catch the low-hanging fruit.
Top Tip: Try using Search Analytics Reporting in Google Webmaster Tools.
Zero to One Million: an SEO Campaign Blueprint
Author: Matthew Barby
Website: MatthewBarby.com
Why This Article is a Beast:
No, the that is not a typo.
In less than 12 months, Matthew Barby was able to take a startup from zero to one million pageviews using a clean-cut SEO strategy.
In this case study, you will learn:
- How to hijack the rankings of bigger website to drive traffic back to your own
- How he hit the front page of Product Hunt
- Influencer outreach tactics
- Journalist outreach tactics
- How he got ranked for terms specifically to attract more backlinks
- And much, much more
This article is a meaty 28-minute read that’s packed with actionable SEO insights. A must read for any aspiring SEO.
Top Tip: Use parasite SEO to tap into the authority of well-established websites and rank for competitive keywords (and consequently funnel traffic to your own website).
Also read… An Advanced Guide to Building an Email List
Outreach Tactics for Effective Link Building in 2016
Author: Jason Acidre
Website: Kaiser The Sage
Why This Article is a Beast:
Too many people still believe that if they simply publish high quality content they’ll get ranked in Google. While I have seen this work in some cases, it’s usually through randomly ranking for low-competition keywords.
And these sites usually end up losing their rankings to people who actively build backlinks and promote their content. (At the very least, these sites are left vulnerable to this happening.)
In this guide, Jason Acidre helps you understand why it’s important to take an active approach to your link building and exactly how to do it.
He offers 5 white-hat outreach tactics to collaborate with people or help people out in exchange for a backlink. His techniques are strategic and based around exchanging value.
I highly recommend giving them a shot and adding them to your link building strategy.
Top Tip: Instead of guest posting, try upgrading others people’s content.
Also read… Scalable Link Building Process Using Influencer Marketing
How Mark Zuckerberg Stole Your Search Traffic & What To Do About It
Author: Brian Massey
Website: Conversion Sciences
Why This Article is a Beast:
It’s vital that you keep your visitor’s journey in mind. After all of the work you do to drive traffic, you want to make sure that you’re maximizing the value of every single visitor.
In this piece for Search Engine Land, Brian Massey discusses how Facebook and other social networks could be stealing your search engine traffic.
How?
It’s those sneaky little social icons. Brian talks about how you’re paying for search engine traffic or you’ve worked hard to get it, only to shuffle a percentage of your visitors to a more authoritative site where they’re more likely to remain.
Read this article to learn why this could be hurting your business and find out the right time to send people to your social media profiles.
Top Tip: Pick the right time and place to ask people to join you on social media.
How To Do Local SEO For Your Website in Five Minutes (or So)
Author: Andrew Shotland
Website: Local SEO Guide
Why This Article is a Beast:
With all of the hubbub that goes on in the SEO world, local SEO tends to take a backseat. People whose business’s depend on local SEO are usually left asking, “Okay, so how would I apply this to my local business?”
In this tutorial, Andrew Shotland shows you 10 quick and easy ways to optimize your website for local search engine traffic.
He breaks down on-page and on-site issues you might be having, some additions to your website that could quickly boost your rankings, and a few longer-term strategies.
Take a look and see if any of Andrew’s tips can help boost your local search rankings.
Top Tip: Claim your profile on Merchant Circle, Google Local Business Center, Yahoo Local, and other Yellow Pages-type sites.
How to Get the Most Out of Organic Traffic
Author: Tim Ash
Website: SiteTuners
Why This Article is a Beast:
It’s always important to search for and capitalize on low-hanging fruit when you can.
In this article, Tim Ash discusses the relationship between search engine optimization (SEO) and conversion rate optimization (CRO).
He gives you 5 key areas to focus on when improving your conversion rate from SEO:
- Ranking
- Click-through rate
- Stickiness
- Engagement
- Conversion
Each one plays a role in how successful your sales funnel operates. Check out this article to make sure it’s functioning the way you intend it to.
Top Tip: Break the process down into smaller areas you can optimize with small, tactical decisions.
Broken Link Building Using BuzzStream
Author: Paddy Moogan
Website: PaddyMoogan.com
Why This Article is a Beast:
Broken linking building is one of the best link building strategies. It’s scalable and there are usually many opportunities to implement it in almost any niche,
In these guide, Paddy Moogan breaks down how to do broken link building with my favorite email outreach tool, BuzzStream.
Paddy shows you exactly how to find broken link prospects, how to import them to BuzzStream, how to create personalized templates for quick outreach, and exactly what to say to maximize your chances of getting the link.
This is one of the best “quick win” link building strategies out there. Read through this article to learn how to take advantage of it.
Top Tip: The same rules of link building apply – you need a site that deserves links.
Also read… Blackhat vs. Whitehat SEO – My Opinion
The 2015 Local Search Ranking Factors
Author: David Mihm
Website: DavidMihm.com
Why This Article is a Beast:
When building out an SEO strategy, it’s important to know what factors contribute to your rankings and how much each factor contributes.
Since Google doesn’t reveal it’s algorithm, we’re left to guess, observe, and analyze.
In this article, David Mihm introduces Moz’s 2015 list of local search ranking factors. He describes the four parts of the survey:
- General Ranking Factors
- Specific Ranking Factors
- Relative Change in Importance since Snack Pack/Local Stack
- Negative Ranking Factors
It then goes on to show the results.
Check out the factors affecting local SEO to make sure you’re focusing on the right ones.
Top Tip: On-page signals accounted for the highest importance (20.3%), followed by link signals (20.0%).
Also read… The Best Local SEO Resources on the Internet (OK, so I’m a little biased)
How to Steal the Best SEO Tricks From TOP 5 Online Marketing Experts
Author: Michael Pozdnev
Website: I Wanna Be A Blogger
Why This Article is a Beast:
One of the best ways to learn any skill is to observe some of the best people in the field.
In this extremely detailed piece, Michael Pozdnez dissects how 5 online marketing experts conduct their SEO activities. He does an excellent job analyzing their optimization habits to pull out every bit of SEO knowledge.
You will learn:
- How these 5 experts optimize their on-site factors
- How they create content that gets results
- The off-page SEO techniques they use to get ranked
- The top 15 tips they implement
- And much more
Read this article to learn from some of the best in the biz.
Top Tip: Nowadays related and synonymous LSI keywords rule.
The Best Citation Sources by Category
Author: Darren Shaw
Website: Whitespark
Why This Article is a Beast:
Citations are a huge part of local SEO. Often, these citations will rank higher for your business than the business itself.
The trick is finding them.
In this fantastic resource, Darren Shaw and his team collected the best local SEO citation sources for 72 different industries. They’re even separated by the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia.
To develop the list, they ran multiple search queries for local terms in hundreds of cities. Then they combined the results to find the most frequently appearing sites within the results.
If local SEO is a part of your business, make sure to check out this list of citation sources.
Top Tip: Use it!
Also read… The Best Citation Sources by City
4 Small Business SEO Tips That I Ignored to Grow My Site to Over 3,000 Visits per Month from Google in a Year
Author: Brad Gerlach
Website: Local Mixed
Why This Article is a Beast:
There is so much misinformation and SEO myths published on the internet. Many small business owners don’t have time to filter through years of blog posts to find the most current and accurate information.
Brad Gerlach shows in this post how he took his website from nearly zero organic traffic to over 3,000 organic search visits per month by circumventing old SEO tips and spending time on the most important aspects of SEO.
If you think you don’t have time to tend to build your website’s traffic, Brad will show you how you can slowly build your traffic one page at a time.
Top Tip: Don’t just publish a post and move on. Nurture and re-optimize your post until it is performing as you would like.
Social media is one of the most powerful forces on the Internet (if not THE most powerful).
With over 2 billion monthly active users on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn alone, there is a ton of traffic potential for you to harness.
These articles will show you how:
The 4-Step Approach to Effective Facebook Ad Targeting
Author: Jon Loomer
Website: JonLoomer.com
Why This Article is a Beast:
Facebook is one the most powerful advertising platforms around (if not the most powerful). The targeting options are so advanced that you can target your ads to people who like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches if you wanted to.
The trick, as with any paid advertising, is developing a system that works for your business.
In one of my favorite articles on Facebook advertising, Jon Loomer breaks down his 4-step approach to targeting Facebook ads.
Each step naturally leads into the next, helping you slowly but surely build up an audience both on Facebook (your fan page) and off Facebook (your email list and sales).
This article is a must read if Facebook advertising is a part of your business.
Top Tip: You can create the best possible ad, but it won’t matter if you’re reaching the wrong people.
10 Types of Visual Social Media Posts That Get Shared Like Crazy
Author: Anna Guerrero
Website: JeffBullas.com
Why This Article is a Beast:
Social media is a visual platform. Don’t believe me?
Colored visuals increase one’s willingness to read a piece of content by 80% and visual content is more than 40X more likely to get shared on social media than other types of content.
In this article, Anna Guerrero shows you 10 types of visual social media posts that are proven to get more social shares.
These posts range from stock photos, to infographics, to behind the scenes shots of your workplace. If you’ve been looking to take advantage of the increased shareability of visual posts, put some of Anna’s suggestions in your arsenal.
Top Tip: If you want to create images that impact your target audience consider: What made them choose you over your competitors?
Also read… 33 Social Media Facts and Statistics You Should Know in 2015
How To Suck At Social Media: An Indispensable Guide For Businesses
Author: Avinash Kaushik
Website: Kaushik.net
Why This Article is a Beast:
Social media’s potential as a business asset is astronomical. Why?
Because where else online will you find so many of your target customers (both B2C and B2B) hanging out almost every day of their lives?
However, this doesn’t mean you should jump right in a get started without some strategic thinking.
In this article, Avinash Kaushik warns businesses against being ignorant to the fact that not every social network is right for you business. He breaks down 6 of the top social networks and what current B2C and B2B businesses are doing there.
He then gives you reasons why your business might want to be on each network and what your marketing strategy could look like.
It’s easy to get caught up in the hype of one social network, but in the end it’s about whether a social platform is right for your business.
Read Avinash’s extremely well-thought out article to decide where you should be spending your time and resources.
Top Tip: When we choose to invest in Social Media, it comes at a cost. Not just what we are investing on Social Networks, but also what else we are not doing.
50 Quick and Easy Ways to Get More Facebook Likes
Author: Kim Garst
Website: KimGarst.com
Why This Article is a Beast:
Building an audience on any social network can be supremely valuable for your business. Just like an email list, these people are fans of what you do and they want to hear more from you.
The trick is building that audience in the first place.
In this article, Kim Garst gives you 50 tips and tricks to get more Facebook likes. They range from simple things like adding a like box to your website, to more advanced tips like cross-promoting with other pages in your space.
Kim packed these tactics in an easy to read format that you can take action on immediately. Facebook is the largest social network with the greatest potential for businesses of all sizes.
Check out her list for ways to quickly and easily grow your audience on Facebook.
Top Tip: Cross-promote with a business in a complimentary niche.
How I Use the Social Networks These Days
Author: Chris Brogan
Website: Owner Media Group
Why This Article is a Beast:
Not every social network is created equal. Some are better for reaching certain goals than others, and each network is constantly changing.
In this piece, Chris Brogan his experience with each social network and the changes he is noticing. As someone with hundreds of thousands of followers, he has a first-hand look at how having a large audience (like the ones we’re all trying to build) impacts his business.
Check out this piece to see his thoughts on each social network. It could spark some thoughts about where you should be allocating your time.
Top Tip: When people do use Instagram for business, it’s powerful.
How to Use Viraltag to Schedule to Pinterest, Tumblr, and More
Author: Kristi Hines
Website: KristiHines.com
Why This Article is a Beast:
One of the great aspects of social media is that you can automate your traffic generation. There are many tools out there to help you do this (both free and paid).
In this tutorial, Krist Hines show you how to use Viraltag to schedule posts to five of the top social networks: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Tumblr, and Pinterest.
Viraltag is especially good for visual posts, and Kristi shows you exactly how to set up your account and how to schedule posts using all of the features available.
If you’d like to automate some of your social media traffic, use this guide to set it up.
Top Tip: Use Viraltag as a Buffer-equivalent for visual content.
Free Traffic from Twitter – The Ultimate Guide
Author: Tim Felmingham
Website: TimFelmingham.com
Why This Article is a Beast:
Twitter can be an excellent source of traffic (it’s my #1 source of social media traffic). As with any social network, there’s the free route and the paid route.
In this in-depth guide, Tim Felmingham shows you how to drive 100% free traffic from Twitter. You will learn:
- How to grow a large base of targeted Twitter followers in a few minutes a day
- How to automatically fill your Twitter feed with quality content
- How to turn your followers into engaged fans
- How to get your posts seen and shared
- Which free tools will do most of the work for you
- And much more
If you’ve been struggling to grow your Twitter following, this guide is a must-read.
Top Tip: Around 30%—40% of the people you follow will follow you back.
5 Sly Ways to Get More Clicks
Author: Jay Baer
Website: Convince & Convert
Why This Article is a Beast:
Most effective social media marketing campaigns come down to one thing:
Clicks.
Are people liking your post? Clicking your link? Clicking the right areas on your website to enter your sales funnel?
In this article, Jay Baer breaks down 5 ways to get more clicks on your Youtube videos, Facebook posts, and on your website to funnel visitors in the right direction.
Every aspect of your social media post or website should encourage people to take the actions you want them to. Jay gives you 3 powerful tools and 2 social media tactics to do just that.
Check out this post to learn 5 ways to encourage people to click their way into your business.
Top Tip: Actions are more important than eyeballs.
Also read… Hug Your Haters
7 Ways To Fail At Twitter
Author: Danny Sullivan
Website: Marketing Land
Why This Article is a Beast:
Twitter fails happen all the time. People and businesses unknowingly post tweets they think are appropriate but end up turning people off (sometimes completely).
There’s a potential dark side to having a social media following. (Queue quote about with a large following comes great responsibility.)
In this article, Danny Sullivan discusses 7 ways to fail at using Twitter for your business. From listening to your customers properly, to mass reach-outs, to jumping on bandwagons, these are potentially reputation-diminishing acts that you want to avoid.
Thankfully, Danny also tells you how to avoid each fail and do the opposite to increase your reputation or following.
As your Twitter following grows, being careful about how and what you say becomes more and more important. Take heed of these fails and how to avoid them.
Top Tip: Don’t ask to be followed. If you want to be followed, you need to stand out in some way as being worth following
Social Stacking Technique: How To Grow Your Traffic With Social Media
Author: Loz James
Website: Content Champion
Why This Article is a Beast:
When driving traffic in any form, you want to continually test out different strategies. You never know when you’ll find one that works better or more efficiently that what you’re currently doing.
In this piece, Loz James breaks down his Social Stacking Technique that he uses to build social media traffic.
He uses a sneaky method to extend the social media life of a post from one week to six to eight weeks or longer, without annoying your followers or turning people off.
And that’s just for one post. Do this for several, and you’ve just multiplied your efforts (and traffic).
Loz’s technique involves creating many unique posts for the same article and scheduling them out for six to eight weeks. This extends the lifetime of the post on social media and allows you to reach a higher percentage of your followers more often.
If you’re struggling to build your social media traffic, this could be a quick win for you.
Top Tip: Use the Social Stacking Technique to get the maximum ‘bang for your buck’ when you publish a new blog post.
Also listen to… Zero To $9K In 4 Months: Building Authority Sites With Brian Dean of Backlinko
How To Market YouTube Videos More Effectively
Author: Ann Smarty
Website: AnnSmarty.com
Why This Article is a Beast:
YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine in the world. It offers one of the best video hosting experiences out there, for viewers and creators.
As a creator, just with written content, it’s tough to get noticed if you don’t promote your work.
In this article, Ann Smarty shows you 9 ways to market your YouTube videos and get more views. Couple with great material, you can use these tactics to grow an audience on YouTube that can’t wait for new videos to come out.
You can then funnel these people to your website, having already introduced yourself, and close them as leads and sales.
Use these YouTube marketing tactics to build an audience of enthusiastic viewers.
Top Tip: Use BirdSong Analytics’ YouTube feature to quickly identify the best-working practices of any YouTube user.
How to Track your Success (or Failure) on Twitter
Author: Rich Page
Website: RichPage.com
Why This Article is a Beast:
There’s only one way to know whether any type of marketing is working:
Track your results.
…so you can measure them.
In this article, Rich Page show you how to track whether your Twitter campaigns are succeeding or failing. He discusses 7 tools to help you:
- See whether your Twitter traffic is contributing to your Google Analytics goals
- Monitor the number of clicks you receive on each link
- Measure your reach
- Track your retweets
- Track your follower growth
- And much more
If you’re wondering whether or not your Twitter efforts are working, try out some of the tools in this article.
Top Tip: Use Twitalyzer to measure your influence on Twitter.
How Facebook Calculates What Appears In Your News Feed
Author: Mari Smith
Website: MariSmith.com
Why This Article is a Beast:
Just how knowing more about Google’s ranking factors can help you get higher search engine rankings, knowing more about the internal workings of different social networks can help you take greater advantage of them.
In this enlightening post, Mari Smith shows you how Facebook calculates what appears in your news feed. Or, from our perspective, how Facebook calculates whether or not your posts end up in other people’s news feeds.
She provides some alarming data about how Facebook’s organic reach has changed, and she shows you some interesting examples from her own Facebook.
Finally, Mari tops it off with tips for increasing your organic reach on Facebook.
We can’t control what Facebook does, but we can adapt to how it changes. Read Mari’s article to get up to speed and adjust your strategy if need be.
Top Tip: Check your Insights to see when your fans are online and test posting during these times.
Also read… 14 Ways To Get More Facebook Shares
5 Strategies for Using Twitter Effectively
Author: Aaron Lee
Website: AskAaronLee.com
Why This Article is a Beast:
Twitter can be a powerful platform for driving traffic, networking, and building an audience.
In this quick and dirty article, Aaron Lee breaks down 5 ways to use Twitter more effectively — to get more followers, retweets, and extend your reach.
These strategies come from a study by Buddy Media, where they analyzed over 320 Twitter handles from the world’s biggest brands to determine what works and what doesn’t.
These tips come straight from that study.
Check it out to make sure there isn’t anything you can’t add to your Twitter arsenal.
Top Tip: Brands that uses hashtags received two times more engagement than those without them.
Unlike most free traffic generation strategies, paid advertising is like a faucet you can turn on or off whenever you want.
Need some traffic? Turn the faucet on and your website or blog is flooded with visitors.
Don’t need it anymore? Just turn it off. It’s that simple.
But here’s the catch:
If you don’t convert that traffic, you stand to lose a lot of ROI. While it might take some trial and error, read through the following articles to help make sure that doesn’t happen:
How to Spend Your First $100 on Retargeting Ads
Author: Noah Kagan
Website: OkDork
Why This Article is a Beast:
Answer this question:
Is it easier to 1) sell to someone who doesn’t know you, or 2) sell to someone who has had at least a little contact with you and your business?
The answer 99% of the time is #2. That’s the basis for retargeting and why it’s so powerful.
In this in-depth tutorial, Noah Kagan shows you exactly how to get started with retargeting using Facebook ads and Google image ads.
He breaks down how and why retargeting works, types of retargeting ads you can use, how he personally uses retargeting to build his businesses, and how to set up and spend your first $100 on retargeting ads.
He also offers some advanced retargeting techniques at the end.
Noah Kagan has spent over $2,000,000 on retargeting ads. Read hit post to learn how to get started with your first $100.
Top Tip: Repetition and frequency are your best friends in retargeting.
Also read… What I learned spending $2 Million on Facebook Ads
PPC Advertising: Growing Your Business with PPC
Author: Larry Kim
Website: WordStream
Why This Article is a Beast:
Pay per click advertising can be one of the most effective ways to scale your business online. As long as you continue to get a positive ROI, all you have to do is increase your spending to increase your revenue.
But if you can’t get a positive ROI, you can find yourself in a deep hole.
In this introductory guide, Larry Kim and the team at Wordstream break down the basic mechanics of PPC advertising. They discuss what pay per click is, its role in digital marketing, different ways you can use it to grow your business, and tools to make the process a smooth ride.
They also include screenshots and other visuals to give you a better idea of what’s going on, and they provide a breakdown of their “20-Minute PPC Work Week,” a breakdown of how you can use their tool to maximize your ads in just 20 minutes a week.
Considering pay per click advertising or frustrated with your results? Start here.
Top Tip: A better approach for PPC campaigns is to target keywords with high commercial intent that are cost effective for your budget — long-tail keywords.
Also read… What Is PPC? Learn the Basics of Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Marketing
Retargeting Flash Sale Case Study: How An E-commerce Store Generated $18,750 In Sales From $114 Facebook Marketing, In 48 Hours
Author: Daniel Daines-Hutt
Website: Inbound Ascension
Why This Article is a Beast:
There’s nothing like a solid case study to teach you (and show you) exactly how to accomplish something.
In one of the best paid advertising case studies I’ve ever seen, Daniel Daines-Hutt shows you how he helped an ecommerce store spend $114 in Facebook marketing and get $18,750 in sales as a result.
(Psst…that’s an 9,111% ROI.)
He breaks down everything you could imagine:
- His retargeting methodology
- How to choose the right product to sell
- How to set up tracking to retarget your visitors
- The sequence of campaigns you can use to move your visitors through the buyer’s cycle
- The launch sequence he used
- And much more
The combination of Facebook’s retargeting ability and Daniel’s use of psychological principles makes this a must read case study for paid advertisers.
Top Tip: Focusing on converting your current traffic is key to making more sales.
The Most Common PPC Mistake that is Never Mentioned
Author: Brad Geddes
Website: Certified Knowledge
Why This Article is a Beast:
A mistake in PPC advertising can cost you a lot of money.
In this article, Brad Geddes talks about the most common PPC mistake that seems never to be mentioned.
I’m not going to spill the beans here, but I’ll say that it’s an easy one to make, and it can have significant effects on your ROI.
Thankfully, it’s also easily avoidable 🙂
Check out Brad Geddes’ article to find out what this mistake is and how to avoid it for good.
Top Tip: The most common PPC mistake is actually rarely talked about.
Also read… Advanced Google AdWords
The 7 Biggest Google AdWords Truths That Small Businesses Don’t Want to Hear
Author: Andrew Lolk
Website: White Shark Media
Why This Article is a Beast:
If you’re a small business, it’s easy to get caught up in the hype of Google AdWords and what it can do for your business. But many businesses jump in without learning about the full picture first.
In this piece, Andrew Lolk discusses 7 truths about Google AdWords most small business owners who try it don’t want to hear. They involve how your competition is doing compared to you, how the amount you pay affects your results, the truth about many AdWords agencies, and more.
As with any marketing channel, there are benefits and pitfalls if you don’t know what you’re doing. Read Andrew’s article to make sure you know what you’re facing with Google AdWords.
Top Tip: You don’t get much value from low CPC keywords simply just because they have low CPCs.
Also read… The Proven Adwords Strategy (Free eBook)
Content marketing is at the heart of growing most long-term, sustainable online businesses in 2016 and for the foreseeable future.
You create valuable content your audience desires, promote it around the web, and drive traffic back to your site. Your visitors reciprocate that value by becoming leads and buying your products and services.
It’s the reciprocal exchange of value I describe in my content marketing philosophy.
The following articles will teach you how to harness that reciprocal exchange of value for your business.
How to Build an Audience that Builds Your Business
Author: Brian Clark
Website: Copyblogger
Why This Article is a Beast:
This is one of the first pieces I ever read on content marketing, and it made me immediately switch from freelance writing to digital marketing.
The concept resonated with me. It made sense.
And I hadn’t known it at the time, but some of my favorite bloggers/businesses (like Mark Manson) were content marketers as well. I knew that was the type of impact I wanted to make with my business.
In this free ebook, Brian Clark shows you how content marketing can be used to attract potential buyers, get them like and trust you, and ultimately, to persuade them to buy from you when the time comes to promote your products and services.
He also shows you how to combine content marketing with copywriting to encourage people to take the actions you want them to take.
This ebook is an ode to content marketing if there ever was one, and I highly recommend giving it a read.
Top Tip: Content drives the Internet, and consumers are looking for information that solves a problem, not an immediate sales pitch.
12 Content Marketing Lessons Learned in 12 Years of Blogging
Author: Lee Odden
Website: TopRank Marketing
Why This Article is a Beast:
Content marketing is a long term endeavor, and the TopRank team have been doing it for a long time.
In this post, Lee Odden lists 12 lessons he’s learned about content marketing in the over 12 years they’ve been blogging.
He shows you the most popular of the last year (by social shares), their stats and statistics for 2015, and the 12 lessons he’s learned and how to apply them to your own blogging efforts.
If you’re looking for a little direction in your blogging, or you want a deeper insight into why you’re even creating content, read Lee’s content marketing lessons.
Top Tip: Be the best answer.
What Content Marketing Will Look Like in 2016: 40+ Predictions
Author: Joe Pulizzi
Website: Content Marketing Institute
Why This Article is a Beast:
Content marketing is only getting more and more popular, as brands, startups, entrepreneurs, and solopreneurs alike see the value it can bring.
In this ebook, Joe Pulizzi aggregates over 40 predictions for content marketing in 2016. These predictions come from thought leaders giving their insight into how content marketing will evolve and how businesses will utilize it.
Give it a read to see if any of these predictions could apply to your business as well.
Top Tip: “2016 will be the year marketers start to use data and a connection with leads and revenue to develop their strategy, to create better content, and to more smartly distribute it” — Pawan Deshpande (Curata)
Increase Traffic For Free – 9 Amazing Actionable Ideas
Author: Keith Gutierrez
Website: Modgility
Why This Article is a Beast:
At its core, the reason you create content is to drive traffic back to your website, and there are many ways to do this.
In this article, Keith Gutierrez lays out 9 ways to drive traffic to your content for free. Through step-by-step instructions, screenshots, and visuals, he shows you how to utilize your content more effectively.
You will learn:
- How to hack BuzzSumo to find the best social networks to focus on
- How to improve your headlines
- A simple technique to increase your search engine traffic
- How to optimize your content to maximize social shares
- And more
The ROI on free traffic can be huge if you implement the strategies correctly. Read Keith’s post to learn 9 ways to increase that ROI.
Top Tip: Sprinkle LSI keywords into your content to increase your ranking potential.
10 Ground Rules for Content Marketers
Author: Ann Handley
Website: MarketingProfs
Why This Article is a Beast:
As more brands and businesses adopt content marketing, the level of content out there continues to elevate as time goes on.
This involves everything from the impact one’s content makes to the consistency and professionalism of their content delivery.
In this piece, Ann Handley writes about her and Joe Chernov’s (VP of Content Marketing at Eloqua) 10 ground rules all content marketers should abide by. Her rules center around tell your brand’s story your way and sticking to high standards for your content.
This involves using data to back up your points, seeking out the best sources, making your content visual, and even checking your spelling.
Read Ann’s article to learn how you can hold your content to a higher standard, and thus, stand out amongst the noise.
Top Tip: Your content should show your product as it exists in the world, through customer stories, case studies or client perspectives and narratives.
7 Company Founder’s Growth Hacking Tips
Author: Ryan Watson
Website: GrowthHacks.Ninja
Why This Article is a Beast:
One of the best ways to learn how to build a business is to learn how other thought leaders have done it.
In this article, Ryan Watson pulls together growth hacking tips from 7 people who have founded successful companies. (His website is a collection of growth hacking interviews from various experts.)
In it, he includes tips from the likes of Michael Cheng (Founder of Sniply), Matt Bentley (Founder of CanIRank.com), and Neil Patel (Co-Founder of CrazyEgg, HelloBar and KISSmetrics).
You will learn how these people get influencers to share their content, how they encourage bloggers to write about their tools, how they engage with people online, and how they managed to stand out in a crowded online world — and thrive.
Check out this article to see if you can use any of these expert tips to accelerate your own growth.
Top Tip: “Include lots of people and companies in your blog and other content, let them know that they have been mentioned/included and request them to share.” — Sophia Solanki, Co-founder of DrumUp.IO
Inbound Marketing: The Definitive Guide
Author: Clarke Bishop
Website: Inbound Team
Why This Article is a Beast:
Inbound marketing entering your customer’s lives on their terms and providing value to attract them back to your business. It’s a way to bring people through the buyer’s cycle in a way that they are happy and excited to take that journey.
That’s why it’s so effective.
In this article, Clarke Bishop collected some of the best articles on inbound marketing and put them into one convenient location.
He breaks them down into:
- Inbound Marketing Basics
- Content Creations
- Traffic Generation
- SEO techniques
- Lead Generation
- Sales Funnels
- Customer Relationship Management
- Measuring Your ROI
- Advanced Inbound Marketing Skills
- Case Studies
AKA, anything you could ever want to know or learn about inbound marketing.
Use these articles jump start your marketing strategy and attain the real, lasting business results inbound marketing can offer.
Top Tip: Content is the backbone of the inbound methodology. It’s the catalyst that attracts prospects and converts them into leads.
How to Send an Email to Me (or anyone) and Guarantee It Will Be Read
Author: Peter Shankman
Website: Shankman.com
Why This Article is a Beast:
Email outreach is one of the biggest aspects of content marketing and building your audience.
If you want to network with influencers, get social shares, build backlinks, and build your authority, email outreach is critical to your strategy.
In this article, Peter Shankman shows you how to get your emails read by influential people (the toughest people to get in touch with).
You learn learn how to write enticing subject lines, the optimal length of your emails, how to craft your call to action, and more.
Frustrated that no one is emailing you back? Take some tips from Peter’s article.
Top Tip: Subject lines are EVERYTHING, and they simply must include a benefit to the reader.
The 10 Commandments of Content Marketing
Author: Brian Solis
Website: BrianSolis.com
Why This Article is a Beast:
With content marketing, you need to answer two questions:
Are you making the impact you want to make? And are you measuring your impact correctly?
In this pieces, Brian Solis lays out his 10 commandments of content marketing. They’re designed to help you focus on what’s truly important in your content marketing campaigns and release your focus on the less important metrics.
It’s easy to get caught up in likes, retweets, bounce rate, impressions, and the like. What’s harder is determining which aspects of content marketing must be honed in on.
Read Brian’s 10 commandments to find out.
Top Tip: Shift from views or impressions as metrics and instead track performance and outcomes.
Guest blogging is not only an excellent way to tap into new audiences. It’s also a viable link building strategy (despite what Mr. Cutts has said).
So you can kill two birds with one stone using this website promotion strategy.
The following article will show you how to do guest blogging correctly, find guest post candidates, and tap into new audiences.
Guest Blogging Strategies that Helped Grow 36,733 Email Subscribers
Author: Gregory Ciotti
Website: GregoryCiotti.com
Why This Article is a Beast:
Many people hail guest blogging as one of the best ways to build an audience online. But, as with any marketing campaign, you must do it strategically.
In this article, Gregory Ciotti 5 out-of-the-box strategies that helped build the Help Scout blog to 36,733 subscribers (a whopping number for any business).
Why do I love this post?
Because most of the strategies he breaks down are rarely discussed, and a few I had never seen mentioned anywhere else. These tips are truly unique and can have a great impact on your guest blogging efforts.
Namely, you will learn how to get the maximum value out of each guest post.
Top Tip: Avoid guest blogging burnout by rehashing information you’ve written about before.
How To Do Guest Blogging Right And Grow Your Audience By Leaps And Bounds
Author: Elna Cain
Website: Blogging Wizard
Why This Article is a Beast:
Everyone knows guest blogging can be beneficial, but how do you know where to start?
In this guide, Elna Cain shows you how pitch your first guest post as soon as possible. You will learn:
- How to find blogs that accept guest posts
- How to get on the radars of the blogs you want to write for
- How to submit a guest post
- And how to give your pitch the best chance of being published
Check out Elna’s step-by-step guide (with screenshots and email templates) to pitch your first guest post today.
Top Tip: One of the quickest ways to get your guest post denied is not following the rules the blog owner has in place.
List of Guest Blogging Sites (140+ best sites)
Author: Peter Sandeen
Website: PeterSandeen.com
Why This Article is a Beast:
Once you’ve got some expertise on your topic and you’re ready to start writing guest posts, all that’s left to do is to find guest post opportunities.
Thankfully, Peter Sandeen put together a massive list of sites that accept guest posts (over 140 of them).
He even categorized them by marketing blogs, self-development blogs, photography, technology, writing, fitness, finance, travel, parenting, and miscellaneous.
This is your one-stop-shop for finding guest post opportunities. Have fun!
Top Tip: These are some of the best guest blogging sites you can target.
Guest Blogging: The Ultimate Guide
Author: Glen Allsopp
Website: ViperChill
Why This Article is a Beast:
Do you have some experience guest blogging and want to take it to the next level?
In this article, Glen Allsopp takes a deep dive into guest blogging and how to make it an effective blog promotion strategy.
He covers:
- Why it’s an effective marketing strategy
- How to find sites to guest post on
- How to write articles that are worthy of being published
- Examples of guest posts and the results they’ve gotten
- And how to maximize your own results
This is one of the most detailed guest blogging guides I’ve seen. Make sure to give it a read if guest blogging is a part of your traffic generation arsenal.
Top Tip: Although bloggers who accept guest posts also ‘win’ because they get free content, they still want great content.
How We’ve Reached More Than 1 Million People by Guest Blogging
Author: Alex Turnbull
Website: Groove
Why This Article is a Beast:
In the final article in this post, Alex Turnbull shows us how Groove managed to reach an audience over 1 million people by guest blogging.
He shows you the incredible results they’ve gotten from their guest posts (including a post that brought in over 20,000 visits). He also breaks down how they come up with content ideas and their process for pitching guest posts that get accepted by major publishers.
If you’ve heard about guest posting but you’ve been waiting for proof of its effectiveness, read this post.
Top Tip: To write guest post pitches that not only get accepted, but that turn into great blog posts, you need to think about each specific audience and their unique interests, goals and challenges.
What’s Next?
Thanks for checking out this list!
I really hope these articles will teach you how to promote your website better in 2016.
There’s a lot of information out there, and even though I collected some of the best articles on each facet of internet marketing, this is still a lot of information to take in.
I suggest taking it one step at a time. Start with one article, apply what you learn, and move on to the next one.
What strategies are you excited to try? What has worked well for you?
Let me know in the comments below.
I don’t think those articles are beasts. Actually, this article is the real beast. thank you for taking the time to explain why every post is great and even including the top tips from each one. Not only is this article a beast, but even you are a beast.
thanks man
Haha thanks Shaurya. You’re the real beast out here 🙂
Hey Michael
Thanks for including me in this epic list!
Its very much appreciated, and you’ll be happy to hear I have more case studies and guides on the way soon!
Would love to see the traffic case study from the site you mentioned, that’s a HEAP of traffic so congrats!
Daniel Daines-Hutt
Excellent. Make sure to send em my way 🙂
And definitely! I’m hoping to put it together within the next few months. It’s going to be a MONSTER.
Thanks for the support man.
Hey Michael,
This post is a beast of an article (as always!) Thanks for featuring my guide too!
The resources that you put together are always great. Having done research to find the best articles on these subjects, I know that it can take hours upon hours and then some. Even though I’ve spent a ton of time researching this stuff, I’ve still never been able to put together a list this good/extensive.
For everyone else reading this, don’t take it for granted.
No problem Travis!
You hit the nail on the head. It definitely takes a while. But it’s totally worth it once you absorb the info you need to get the job done.
It’s crazy how much good content is out there 🙂
Keep up the good work! Looking forward to your next piece.
My first ‘wow’ article of 2016!
Thanks for including me in this incredible resource Michael.
To know the beast you must become the beast – I’m thinking this post will become a self-fulfilling prophecy!
Right – I’ve evidently had too much coffee today so I’m going to call it a night 🙂
Great stuff!
Loz
Cheers Loz! Means a lot coming from you 🙂
Mind…Blown!!!
I know a lot of work went into this Michael and it shows!
This is epic content at it’s finest! I will be proudly sharing, and encouraging folks to subscribe like I have done…
Can’t wait to see what’s next.
-BrooxC
Thanks Jason! Appreciate the support 🙂
Thanks for the great stuff!
I have started a guest bogging website for health. I’m trying to do all the activities for increasing its domain authority. Can you let me know which type of activity can help me to get DA fast.
Hey Ricky,
There are over 40 signals in the DA calculation: https://moz.com/learn/seo/domain-authority
But really it’s all about getting authoritative links from related sites/pages. Preferably, you want those links to be within the body content.
If you’re able to include links in your guests posts, that’s a great way to do it. But DA (and your traffic) will only grow as fast as you can build quality backlinks to your content.
Is guest posts still matter in 2017? Some say that Google algorithm changes significantly…
Thanks so much for including me in this post! Great list!
Ramsay
No problem Ramsay! Happy to feature you.
Nice Article , Thanks For Information .
Visits
No problem Jack
I am expecting more interesting topics from you. And this was nice content and definitely it will be useful for many people.
let me tell you, this was awesome..a complete guide and useful stuff, you combine it into one. merci beaucoup..!
This post is an hell! You must be a hell boy of Promoting the website content. Thanks for posting very informative blog post and the tips suggested in this post will definitely help my blog posts attract some visitors. Thanks for this.
This is very informative post, thanks for sharing.