The most important thing for any blog to be successful is to have traffic. The more traffic your blog has the more people you can help and the more money you can make! When you are a new blogger it is hard to build up your traffic organically. Most new bloggers rely solely on Pinterest as it is the best way to get traffic to your new blog.
Others use Facebook groups and social media to grow their blog traffic. Then, of course, there is also SEO and hoping that Google sends you some blog traffic love.Another option is to guest post on other blogs or be featured on their blogs.
Guest Posting/Featuring
Here is a list of places that you can add your blog on to get more traffic!
Another great resource to learn much more about growing your blog traffic is this ebook Boost Blog Traffic. I got this ebook when I purchased the Genius Bloggers Toolkit and it is packed full of resources to help grow your blog traffic! Including 100 Ways to Promote Your Blog Post Checklist!
Next is this course by Suzi that teaches you how to create the perfect blog post and submit a guest post to her blog.
Suzi walks you through how to create the perfect blog post and then she gives you the opportunity to take what you have learned in her course and submit a guest post to her blog!
The course Post by Number is only $9 so not only is it worth it for everything that you learn in the course but on top of that, you really can’t beat the guest post opportunity to get in front of Suzi’s large following!
Pinterest
You can’t talk about driving traffic to your blog without talking about Pinterest. It is the fastest way to get traffic to your new blog.
Here are some resources to help you grow your blog traffic with Pinterest!
Pinterest has definitely been my main source of traffic. I try and post on my social media accounts often so I do get some traffic from those and I am starting to see organic traffic as well. It takes time regardless of where you start but as a new blogger, I would focus on Pinterest and looking to guest post and collaborate with other bloggers!
Collaborating with other bloggers is a great way to connect and grow your blog. Plus, it is really fun to work with other bloggers! That is why I started my feature program. I want to help connect other bloggers so we can all help each other grow together!
How I Gained over 600 Page Views in One Day on My Small Blog
I am beyond excited to write this post! I still am in shock of what has been happening on my blog!
I started Mom Blog From Home on September 1, 2017. That was the day I launched it and made it all official. I still didn’t know what I was doing so I would post some and research a lot.
In October, November, and December things were a bit busy in our life and so I didn’t get to work on my blog as much as I would have liked.
I didn’t have much time to work on my blog
I helped out some friends by watching their little girls all day until the end of November so that was a bit time-consuming. In October it was my 30th birthday and I love Halloween so we celebrated big. In November it was my daughter’s birthday and we surprised her with a trip to Disney World and then of course Thanksgiving. Then lastly, in December we celebrated Christmas, my husbands birthday and New Years.
All birthdays and Holidays crammed into three months.
So, after the first of the year had come, I decided I needed to refocus back on my blog!
For the month of December, I had a total of 300 page views. Not too great. Also, not horrible considering I hadn’t done anything for about 3 months to my very new blog.
Even though I didn’t have a whole lot to share on my blog I knew I needed to focus on traffic. I could critique from there what needed to be fixed as traffic rolled in.
I am horrible about thinking everything has to be perfect first but it will never be perfect so it just had to happen now.
I needed traffic
The first thing I knew I needed to do to get traffic was to test out Pinterest. I always hear that Pinterest is the best way to get traffic to your blog.
So, I did a quick recap (I had already researched it and set it all up) and I gave it a whirl!
I believe it was at the end of the first week of January when I put my Pinterest strategy into effect. I set it up and let it go.
I still worked on my blog every day but it wasn’t until I logged in on Tuesday I had to do a triple take!!
200 views?!? I am used to 10 page views a day, how did I get 200 views?!
By that night before bed, it was at 400 views! I couldn’t believe it! I already had more views in one day than I did all last month!
Finally, the next day after the dust had settled I realize that it had reached a total of 645 views! That is right, 39 views on Monday and 645 views on Tuesday!
You can see here are my page views from January 3, 2018 – January 9, 2018. The total was 874 but 645 of those were on one day, Tuesday, January 9, 2018.
Now, you can bet I was doing the happy dance! I really honestly couldn’t believe it!
I knew it had to be from Pinterest because that was the only thing I had changed!
And It was!
Pinterest had sent 645 people to my blog, in actually about an hour, on Tuesday.
I have continued to test this out to make sure it wasn’t a one-time thing, and time and time again Pinterest delivers!
It is incredible the amount of traffic that has been sent to my new blog. I am still in shock and disbelief to show you this next screenshot.
This is of today January 19, 2018, at 3pm
Just shy of 3700 page views in 19 days! Isn’t that amazing!?
Last month I had a total of 300 page views and with 12 days left in the month of January, I am already at 3700 page views!
THANK YOU PINTEREST!
So, how did I do it?
I didn’t just throw stuff up there on Pinterest. I follow a strategy.
Tailwind is an app that pins for you on to Pinterest. You can’t be on Pinterest yourself all day so Tailwind does it for you!
Within Tailwind, you can schedule your pins for days, weeks, or even a month of pins. They have a new feature called Tailwind Tribes, this is like Facebook Groups but on Tailwind.
Members of the tribe share their content with their fellow tribe members and they all then share it on their Pinterest accounts. Being apart of a tribe helps you get great content to share and to get your content out in front of fellow bloggers to share as well.
You think about it, each of them probably has hundreds or thousands of followers! That is a lot of potential people to see your pins!
There are certain rules per tribe, just like on Facebook Groups. It isn’t anything crazy just be aware and read those first.
Another great feature is you can make board lists for all the group boards you are in to categorize some of your boards.
For example
I made a board list with all of the group boards I am on so when I want to pin one pin to all of those I just click on the board list instead of clicking each one of the group boards each time.
Also, I do the same for when I have boards on my Pinterest that are all about paying off debt or all about starting a blog. Then when I find a pin I like that I want to go to all of those I choose that board list!
Super easy! And very effective!
If you are interested in trying out Tailwind free for a month then you can use my link right here!
If you want to learn the best way to set up your Pinterest account for success then I recommend checking out McKinzie’s FREE Pinterest Primer Course!
If you do check out her course and chose to test out Tailwind then I would greatly appreciate it if you used my link! It get’s you a free month plus me a free month!
I don’t know about you but I sure could use as much free stuff as I can get!
I am putting together more information about how to make an attractive pin on Pinterest and more in-depth details of the Pinterest strategy I used!
I would love to share more with you! If you do sign up for Tailwind just let me know and I can help show you what I did!
How I Got an Interview with a Bigger Blogger – with little to no traffic
When you first start out as a new blogger one of the things you can’t wait to accomplish is your first guest post. Whether that is someone guest posting on your blog or you on posting on theirs, either way, it just makes you feel like an official blogger.
Well, I feel pretty official to share with you that I landed an interview with a bigger blogger! It’s not quite the same as a guest post. She didn’t write the post for me but I did get to ask her whatever questions I wanted and now I get to share those answers with you!
There was so much from this course but I had a few follow up questions so I reached out to the creator of the course.
I didn’t know that she was a bigger blogger really, I just knew I had questions. She was wonderful and answered them all right away!
She has an even better Pinterest Course that I knew I wanted to be able to offer to my readers so I asked about that as well. Once again, she was wonderful and helped me out with all of that as well.
Here is a quick (updated) look at McKinzie’s Pinterest profile:
She has over 500,000 monthly views and over 20,000 followers!
(Update: when I first wrote this blog post in Jan 2018 she had 6,800 followers so this speaks volumes on how much she has grown since then making her an expert for sure in Pinterest!)
The Interview
At this point, I realized who she was and I reached back out to her to see about a possible guest post or different ways I could share her product with my readers to help benefit them as well.
That’s when she suggested doing an interview! I loved that idea! I got to pick the questions and share her answers with my readers!
Here is what she had to say to my question:
How long have you been blogging?
I started my first blog in June 2012, so five and a half years now! My current blog, Moms Make Cents, I started in June 2016.
What is your favorite part about blogging?
I absolutely love the community. I’ve been able to connect and collaborate with women from all over the world. Blogging has brought some of my best friends into my life and I’m forever grateful for that. I also love that through sharing my passion and creativity I am able to make money from home. It has been a huge blessing for our family and has allowed me to stay home with my little boy.
What advice do you have to new bloggers?
Be a sponge and then go and do! I feel like sometimes new bloggers get super overwhelmed with all of the information that is out there and it can result in analysis paralysis. I would recommend taking a month or so to learn everything that you can. Read blog posts, books, take a course, etc. and then go and implement everything. I am a huge advocate for learning but sometimes it can actually get in the way of producing content, creating systems and networking in your business.
My second bit of advice would be to focus on 1-2 social platforms. If you try to be present on every single platform, creating different social media posts, graphics and engaging with your audience you are going to burn out. It is more effective to really kick butt on 1-2 platforms. I personally recommend Pinterest (this has been by far the most effective use of my time) and then either Facebook or Instagram depending on your niche.
What is one quick tip for those new to Pinterest?
Make sure to have strong pin descriptions right off the bat! Pinterest is really more of a search engine than social media and we need to treat it that way. It is much easier to do it right the first time on Pinterest vs. going back through all of your pins and making edits. You can check out how I recommend optimizing your pins for Pinterest SEO here.
What are some results people have had from your Pin for Profits course?
I’ve had hundreds of students go through my Pinterest courses and have had amazing results, here are a couple of examples. Jessica – Shades of Blue Design – Within 48 hours of changing up my Pinterest strategy I had a sale and traffic to my shop increased by 80-90%!
Jennifer – Women Winning Online – “Using McKinzie’s BoardBooster strategy I doubled my Pinterest traffic and increased my blog income. ”
Angela – Natural Born Mommy – “Within a month, I gained almost 200 email subscribers and earned my first few dollars by applying the affiliate strategies outlined in the course.”
Amanda – Mommy Imagines – My first month following McKinzie’s Pinterest advice I boosted my impressions by 1630%!
How can someone sign up for your Pinterest courses?
I know that everyone’s knowledge and experience with Pinterest is going to be on a different level, so I’ve broken my signature course into five smaller courses that you can purchase individually based on what you want to learn more about.
McKinzie has been an amazing help for me and growing my blog traffic! I have done like she says and I have become a sponge and listened to other bloggers and their advice on Pinterest as well.
Pinterest Primer is a perfect free course to start with, it walks you through how to set up your Pinterest business account for success.
I didn’t realize all the important details that make a huge difference in ranking high on Pinterest.
The biggest walk away I can say is signing up for Tailwind because it has made a dramatic difference for my blog.
You have to have all the pieces of the puzzle put together for the best results. Great Pinterest business account set up, great pin images, and tailwind.
Again, Pinterest Primer will get you set up for success but implementing Tailwind strategies has blown up my blog traffic compared to what I was getting before.
You can sign up for a FREE month with Tailwind right here. They have training videos on there to show you how to use it. It is very user-friendly!
By using Tailwind my blog traffic went from 300 views for the month of December to over 2,000 views already for January and the month is only half over!
(Update: I gained over 7,000 page views in 30 days after implementing what I learned using Tailwind!)
I hadn’t focused on blog traffic yet, I was more worried about getting my blog all ready and functioning. Then after the Holidays, I focused on traffic using Tailwind to drive it from Pinterest and I was shocked!
What You Should Do
If you are looking for ways to grow your blog traffic then I highly suggest using Tailwind and Pinterest! If you already use Pinterest and you don’t feel like you are getting any traffic then you definitely need to take McKinzie’s course to get your Pinterest account set up correctly.
Or if you are completely new and don’t have Pinterest then again I would highly recommend taking Pinterest Primer and taking McKinzie’s advice on setting your business account up correctly and using Tailwind to drive traffic to your blog!
