10 Awesome Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Blog

January 29, 2018 by Ann 24 Comments

Its been a while since I posted a how-to article about blogging, so, this week is the week. For my gardening followers, I hope you enjoy some of the flower pics I will be posting here that go along with blogging. Here is my latest post about blogging, which is about 10 awesome ways to drive traffic to your blog.

My first blog post was back in April 2017 and one of the biggest things I have struggled with is how to attract traffic to my blog. Now that I’m at the end of my 9th-month blogging, I have learned many tricks and techniques on how to gain traffic. There are much more than 10 ways, but today I just want to focus on the top 10 ways I have used to drive traffic to my blog.

Before I get into the methods I use to gain traffic, keep in mind that it’s taken a lot of work and time to see progress with any of these methods. I am definitely not an overnight success, but I use baby steps to reach goals I’ve made when it comes to driving traffic to my site.

Before focusing on traffic, make sure your blog is self-hosted and set up for success. You can learn more about how to do this with Bluehost by reading how I did it in How to Start a Blog.

I highly recommend paying to be self-hosted, since this gives you control over your blog and more ways to get paid to blog. Siteground is the self-hosting platform I use and I love it!

Now, on to 10 awesome ways to drive traffic to your blog!

Table of Contents

10 awesome ways to drive traffic to your blog, pinterest

Pinterest is by far the best way I’ve gotten traffic to my blog. I currently get around 500,000 views on Pinterest alone! Check out my Pinterest profile and follow me here!

A small amount is better than nothing. How am I making this happen? There are many small steps I took, the biggest one was switching my Pinterest account to a business one. I also applied for rich pins, to attract more followers to particular pins.

I reformatted my description to make it easier for followers similar to me to find me. I also showcase a few of my top boards at the top of my page. Using long vertical pins with awesome images and titles, along with great descriptions, has also helped.

UPDATE: I just finished taking Pin Practical Masterclass, an AMAZING Pinterest class from Monica Fruese. Since taking this class, I’ve gotten over half a MILLION views on Pinterest, more engagement on my pins, and more traffic to Blooming Anomaly! You can find out what’s working for me and so many others right here!

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How to Use Pinterest

To see an example of how a profile, boards, and pins should look, please click my Pinterest here and feel free to join me! I mainly feature gardening and some blogging boards. You can also see the many board groups I’m a part of, which also help drive traffic to my blog.

To join group boards, find boards that are similar to your niche. I’m a part of gardening, blogging, and general boards. If boards are open to new contributors, follow their guidelines to join. Reaching out to board leaders and asking to join won’t hurt either. UPDATE! I recently started an urban and container gardening group board! To join, check out the details here.

Another great way to automatically pin to Pinterest and gain even more traffic to your blog is by using Tailwind.

10 awesome ways to drive traffic to your blog

Get more details on how to use Pinterest to gain hundreds of thousands of views by reading Using Pinterest for Blog Traffic!

Twitter

Even though I’m getting more views on Pinterest, Twitter has given me the most followers on social media so far. Again, I’ve redone my description so that people know exactly what I’m about. I’m a big fan of retweeting gardening related tweets throughout each day, which also attracts potential followers.

For an example of how to set up your Twitter page, check mine out here and feel free to follow me!

Other Social Media

When I first started blogging, I was advised to set myself up on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. The more bloggers and blogging groups I followed, the more others were advised to just focus on a few social media platforms at first. I like this advice because if you are just starting out blogging, getting followers on social media can be overwhelming.

I’m still building my following on the five mentioned above but focus on one at a time. Right now I’m focused on building my following on Pinterest, so I’m constantly pinning on my boards and on board groups. When I post a new article on my blog, I’ll advertise the new post on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and Google Plus, then periodically post on social media, besides Pinterest.

Find what works for you and just go with that. Since I’m juggling several jobs right now, my followers are slowly growing, but that’s ok. I’m going at a pace that works for me.

Link Parties

I’ve heard about link parties for a while now but just started using them. They are a great way to drive traffic to your site. Just Google link parties for the niche you are in or ask bloggers in your niche if they know of any parties you can join.

Link parties are a “party” you can “join” by adding a link to your latest blog post on the party page. Here is a link to a home and garden link party I’ve been a part of, To Grandma’s House We Go. Link parties are also a great way to make connections with other bloggers in your niche.

Guest Posts

Guest posting on another blogger’s blog is great because you can attract their followers to your site and vise versa. If you are not sure how to find other bloggers looking for guest posts, there are many blogging Facebook groups where plenty of bloggers are always looking for guest posts. Finding and commenting on other blogger’s pages is also a great way to find opportunities for guest posting.

Guess what? I’m accepting guest posts! Check out my Work With Me page for more information.

Comment on Other Blogs

Commenting on other blogs is not only a way to gain more traffic back to your blog. It’s also a wonderful way to build relationships with other bloggers in your niche. This may take some time but is definitely worth it. You can guest post on each other’s blogs, bounce ideas off each other, and find other followers through each other’s social media platforms.

I love getting comments! Please make it thoughtful, so I know you took the time to read my post. A “great post, check out mine at etc” won’t cut it. Put some thought into your comment and you will get a thoughtful comment in return.

Write More

I’ve heard mixed reports about writing more posts as a way to drive more traffic to your blog, but if you have the time, drive and energy, write more blog posts! Every time I write a new post and publish it, an email gets sent out to my subscribers, who then check out the new post, boosting my traffic amount for that day.

I’m definitely writing more, but not necessarily on my own blog. I’m starting to get more freelance writing gigs, which cuts into my time to write blog posts for Blooming Anomaly. I’m still writing and publishing about one post a week and then spending the rest of the week promoting the post as much as possible.

The key to writing and publishing posts is being consistent. I try to get a new blog published every Monday morning. This doesn’t happen every week but most weeks. Again, find what works for you and your current job/life situation and stick with it.

Free Stuff

Everyone loves free stuff, which is why I offer a freebie when you join my email list. I advertise this on the right side of my blog, in some posts, near the end of others, when you are about to leave my site, and I mention my freebie on all my social media platforms.

Call to Action

A way to keep traffic coming to your site and that same traffic to come back to your site is to give them a reason to, like free stuff, as well as letting them know how to keep coming back for more like I did above with new subscribers. The type of call to action to have on your post should be based on what your audience wants.

How do you figure that out? This can take time and some research. If you don’t have Google Analytics connected to your blog, then I highly recommend you do that.

Google Analytics will show you who is checking out which posts and how much traffic is going to particular posts. By studying this you will get an idea of what your audience wants and needs from you. From there you can create a unique call to action and free materials for your audience.

10 awesome ways to drive traffic to your blog, call to action

Start Blogging

Do you have yet to start a blog? Get to it! It’s so much easier than you think! Check out this informative post to start blogging using Siteground. You will want to do this before any of the other steps since you want to guide traffic from social media and other sources back to your blog.