By Gini Dietrich
Yesterday, my friend Sheryl Brown-Madjlessi posted on my Facebook wall, “Facebook is a jerk and never lets me see your posts in my newsfeed.”
But, actually, it’s not Facebook. It’s me.
I haven’t posted much there lately because I have the summer doldrums (I have them every summer…I think I should have been a school teacher so I could have summers off), hence nothing showing up in her feed.
So, it is at this time every year that I have to come up with ways to become more engaging, more funny, more entertaining, more informative, and more interesting with A LOT of effort.
I was going through some old posts to do exactly those things for you today (and repurpose some content because, well, summer doldrums) and found this gem.
Increase Blog Traffic
Following is a list of 12 things to increase blog traffic and beat the summer doldrums.
- Create a video series. Think about “Will It Blend” or the “HelloFlo” ads. Both companies are extremely creative in their approach to otherwise either boring or embarrassing subjects. But they take a new approach with their video series and make it fun.
- Write case studies. Or, heck, video them and provide images and graphics. People love to know what you do, but also want to be entertained. Do a better job with your case studies.
- Write more guest posts. Guest posts work ridiculously well for both your own SEO and for media relations. But we all get busy and they tend to get pushed down the priority list. Make an effort to do one or two a month.
- Write longer form content. I’m talking about the how-to guides, the beginner’s guides, and the gospel according to your organization.
- Start an affiliate program. Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to sit with Danny Iny and his affiliate group. In it were 10 people who had helped him build his business…and sell seven figures. The people in that group are people I really respect and I decided it was time to get affiliate marketing a fair shake. If you’re still on the fence about it, read Chris Kramer’s affiliate marketing article he wrote here a week ago.
- Network with new groups. There are likely some crowds where you are well known, but others who have never heard of you. Network—yes, in person—with those groups. Try for one new group each quarter.
- Use owned images for content. A couple of years ago, I attended a pre-conference session on how to use your iPhone to create images for your content. Create as much visual content on your own as you can.
- Participate in Q&A sites. Not just on LinkedIn, but on Quora, Yahoo, and others. Find the sites where people ask questions about marketing communications—or your topic du jour—and begin to build your influence and authority there.
- Test pop-ups. Not pop-ups for more subscriptions (though that is always nice), but to encourage people to share your content as they read. The social share buttons should already be on the content, of course, but this encourages additional sharing, which Google loves.
- Survey your readers. We did this in May while we were launching our coaching program (which has since closed, but will re-open next year). During that process, I learned what many of you miss in the content here…and have made changes to fix that. We’ll also launch additional products this fall to accommodate your needs.
- Create a podcast series. Of course, we have Inside PR and that won’t change. What kind of podcast can you create?
- Host an event. An event is a huge undertaking and the digital world is amazing, but nothing replaces the in-person experience. Try to host something—even if it’s an intimate dinner—once a year.
Of course, you can’t do all of these things at once, nor should you. But this gives you a lot of great fodder to get you through the next month of wishing you were still on summer vacation.
What else would you add?
I drew/wrote the image on an Admiral’s Club napkin in the Austin airport.