Top quality content takes time, effort, energy, resources, and knowledge.

In this article, we have put together a blueprint for how we like to publish content at IncomeDiary.

It is an approach that has consistently worked for us and it will for you.

Enjoy!

The 10 Most Important Steps For Successful Content Creation

1. Choose a Topic To Write About

Obvious I know!

Questions:

a) Who is your audience?

b) What do they need to know?

c) What can you tell them that no one else can?

d) What is your unique talent? (we all have at least one)

e) In one sentence what is the biggest lesson in life you have learned so far?

f) What was your biggest mistake and what did you learn from it? (Those who succeed the most also tend to fail the most!)

And most importantly of all with Content Creation:

How does your blog post benefit the reader?

Will what you are about to write improve the lives of your readers?

The most successful bloggers succeed because what they write adds value to the lives of their readers

Read the following posts for more inspiration and ideas:

Blog Post Inspiration Is All Around You – Open Your Mind

and…

8 Easy Ways to Generate Blog Post Ideas That Get Attention

2. Deciding On What The Goal Of Your Blog Post Is

You don’t create content just to get traffic.

It could be to:

• Make more money
• Get more subscribers
• To get more back-links
• To entertain
• To build your brand

Or it could be to simply improve a part of your business.

Using this post as an example, we get dozens of writers contact us every week, asking to publish guest posts.

We want content but it has to be amazing if we are going to accept it.

Writing this article means that we can better help guest posters write better content so that we can accept more posts and get more traffic.

3. Research Keywords For Blog Post

Once you have decided on your topic, you next have to figure out what you want to rank in Google for.

If you guess, often you will over estimate how popular the search term is.

We recommend you use Ahrefs for keyword research.

I will write in several different keywords until I find one that both fits my topic, but also provides plenty of traffic.

Example keywords for this post:

• How to write a blog post (4000 visitors)
• Blog Post Layout (90 visitors)
• Blog Format (600 visitors)
• Content Creation (5000 visitors)
• Creating Content (230 visitors)

Based on this information, I chose to go with content creation as my keyword. Not only does it get more traffic than the others but it’s more targeted than “How to write a blog post”.

In the screenshot above, you can see that the global search volume is 5000 and that I will need in the region of 26 back-links from other websites to rank in the top 10.

The Ahrefs app will show you a lot more than that though – and if you are serious about online marketing and SEO this is the one to use. (Their Lite Plan starts from $99 per month!)

It displays the top 10 websites that rank for a search term, plus how much traffic they get and what other keywords that page ranks for.

The keyword you decide to go with, should be what you name your blog post URL, so for example, IncomeDiary.com/content-creation/

Of course $99 per month is not an insignificant sum and will be a stretch for some.

In this case have a look at busywithseo.com

Just type in your URL or a competitors URL and they will provide a lot of useful SEO information free of charge.

A Back-links Counter is not included in the free options but they have plans starting from $10 per month.

4. Creating Your Blog Post

OK, you know your topic and you know the keyword/s you wish to focus on – how long should your blog post be?

The average blog post on the first page of Google is over 2000 words.

For this reason, I would suggest, always aiming to hit this number. It is not a hard and fast rule – sometimes I go well over and sometimes it is closer to 1500 words. But it is a fact in blogging that the highest ranking posts are often some of the longest.

Choosing a category for your post should be simple enough, as for tags, I usually choose two tags per post. It’s important that no post, category or tag should be named the same. So for example, if my keyword for this post is content creation, I shouldn’t have a category or tag called content creation. Only one page on your site can rank for a keyword and you don’t want pages completing.

As for writing your article, check out: 17 Writing Tips For Bloggers Who Think They Can’t Write!

5. How to Display Content For Readability

Two blog posts can have the same content, but one gets read and the other is closed within seconds. This is often down to how easy it is to skim read.

Here is how we layout our content:

Headline (h1)
Introduction
Image
Headline (h2)
Headline (h3)
Content
Headline (h3)
Content
Headline (h3)
Content

And so on…

Of course, you may also add images in, but as a general outline, this is what we go with. You can see an example of it in this very post.

Other suggestions include:

• Keep paragraphs short.
• Write lists because they are easy to skim.
• Spellcheck.
• Number headlines.
• Check out: 9 Classic Headline Templates That Consistently Get More Clicks

Mistakes to avoid:

• Repeating headlines.
• Starting three sentences in a row with the same word.

6. Adding Images To Your Blog Post

Images are very important.

We like to use three different styles of images:

The screenshot, the photo and the illustration.

Personally, I think all post images should be the same width, centered and shouldn’t link to anywhere.

7. Optimize Text For SEO

Using Yoast SEO Tool, you can figure out quickly what you need to do:

• Keyword should be in post title
• Keyword should be in at least 1 other headline
• Keyword should be in first 100 words.

8. Optimize Images For SEO

Well optimized images tell Google what your blog post is about and helps rank the page higher.

• Name one image the same as your target keyword.
• Name all other images related to keyword.
• Add alt tags.
• Compress images.

We have written a lot about SEO in the past – check out 10 SEO Blog Post Publishing Steps that Most Bloggers Forget

9. Add Internal And External Links

Linking in your post is important. It’s another way of telling Google what your blog post is about.

You should add a few links to external authority websites talking about a similar subject.

You should add a few links to internal pages on your site about similar subjects. (Like we have done here)

10. Marketing Blog Post For SEO and Social Media

One of the main ways Google decides where your page should rank in their search engine, is by counting links going to it.

The better your post, the more links you will get.

To get links, you need to get people to read your post.

To get people to visit your post, you need to name your post something people want to click.

Marketing a blog post is a lot more than getting as many links to your post as possible. It’s also about presenting your content in a way that people want to click.

This comes down to headline, description and featured images.

Headline:

Part of your marketing strategy should be deciding on a post headline that people will click on social media sites and in search engines. But at the same time, it has to be targeting your keyword.

If you were to focus on SEO, you might name your post, Blog Post Content Creation Guide.

If you were to name it for readers, you may write, Best Article Ever Written About Content Creation

What I recommend is you meet in the middle and write for both, Blog Content Creation Guidelines For High Traffic Websites.

Description

Search engine traffic isn’t just about getting number 1 rankings, it’s about getting as many people as you can to click through to your website.

Your blog post meta description should again be written for SEO and for readers.

Featured Image

When you see a featured image on social media, a blog homepage or in the related posts section, you either notice it and want to click, or you scroll right past it.

Final Thoughts on Content Creation…

Still struggling to know what to write about?

Try this:

a) Look at the ‘long tail’ of website search activity on your website. What questions are real people using to find your website?

Then you answer those questions in your content!

b) Check your social media (Twitter and Facebook in particular) and see if people are asking questions or making comments you can use for content creation. Another option is to check publishing tools on your business Facebook page – to see which subjects have the greatest reach, get the most clicks and write a followup to that.

Author Bio:
Barry Dunlop – lifelong Entrepreneur, Investor, Mastermind Facilitator and Sales Coach. Barry launched his first Internet Business in 1998. Follow Barry on Twitter

The post Top 10 Content Creation Steps For Bloggers appeared first on How To Make Money Online.

It’s really quite straight forward. Create the best content possible. That’s what people want.

People go to websites because they want something. It could be to buy something, to learn something, to be entertained by something, or any number of things. The better you are at giving people what they want, the more traffic you will get.

I don’t spend much time working on getting Facebook likes and getting top search engine rankings because it’s quite often the bi-product of great content.

Below I have outlined what you can learn from the 50 articles that send IncomeDiary the most traffic.

1. The articles that get the most traffic are lists… Shock!

Out of my 50 top articles, 35 start with a number. When I write, I write in a way, I would like to read. Being dyslexic, I like to summarize things, make it easy on myself to consume information. That’s why I think I do such a good job with lists.

Here’s 4 examples of top lists:

1. 30 Most Influential People In Blogger
2. 10 Christmas Gifts For Photographers
3. 20 Health Experts To Follow on Facebook
4. 10 Reasons Why It Rocks To Be a Young Entrepreneur

Here’s some examples of my favorite top list titles.

2. Mentioning famous people gets you traffic

9 out of 10 of our top articles mention people in some way.

Think about it this way:

If I wrote an article called: 10 Things Usain Bolt Does To Run Faster

I don’t need Bolt’s permission to write about him, but I get all of the benefits of having his name associated with mine and what it represents about what is written.

Usain is the fastest runner in the world. That means these tips must be the best tips in the world.

If I write about how to run faster, no one will want to listen.

3. Linking out can increase the time someone spends on your website

4 out of the top 5 articles on this website link out to over a dozen other websites. These articles also had noticeably longer visitor times.

Don’t be scared to link out and show some love. If you recommend something or someone and your reader likes where you sent them, then they will end up trusting you more.

4. The title can make or break an article

Something that is made really obvious when I look at my top 50 blog posts is… the title can really make or break an article.

If you are stuck trying to come up with a title of a post, go to the supermarket and look at the magazines. Modify titles of articles to make them relevant to something you want to write about.

5. Motivation beats inspiration and instruction

8 out of the top 10 articles on IncomeDiary are motivational. Here’s the breakdown for the top 50 articles:

• Motivational: 24
• Tutorials: 17
• Inspirational: 9
• Reviews: 0
• News: 0
• Interviews: 0

Motivational, is the type of posts that make you take action and start working.

Tutorials, are articles showing you how to do something. These can often be monetized well by recommending products required to do what you instruct in the tutorial.

Inspirational, is the type of post that gives you ideas.

Reviews, we review products and mention them in our customer autoresponders.

News, often something I would shy away from because it’s not evergreen (always relevant) content. If it gives me a positive ROI, then I will publish them.

It seems people value motivation higher than anything else. It’s not often lacking the skills that holds us back, it’s our work rate. Motivational posts help us focus more on our goals.

Although Reviews and News are not featured in the top 50 posts, they are still a relevant part of my blogging strategy. I just prioritize.

6. Have a content plan

I’m a systems guy. I like to follow a blueprint when I’m doing something because it’s tried and tested, proven to give the best results. I have a doc called Contest Strategy which I send to writers to make sure they have every required to do the best job possible. The better job they can do, the more traffic I get, the more traffic I get, the more money I make. This is some of the information I provide for everyone who writes for us:

• Image sizes
• About the author
• Blog post template
• Post publish time & date
• Post title review
• Post titles swipe copy
• How to optimize post for search engines
• PSD graphic files which writers can edit

7. Articles are worth paying for

A large percent of articles published on IncomeDiary are paid for.

One of the highest performing posts on IncomeDiary was published last year and has so far received 9,883 visitors in the last 30 days & 106,338 visitors in the last year. I paid $120 for that article.

I published a post in 2011 that cost me $100. In 2017 it makes me over $1000 a month.

The easiest way in my experience to get people to write for you is to ask. If asking fails, offer them money. We put together a training video on how we pay people to write our posts.

In this screen shot, you can see that the article is now getting more traffic weekly then it did in it’s first week. I have done nothing to it since the day it was published. None of us are SEO experts. All we focus on is great content and let the universe do the rest of the work

To Conclude:

To write posts that drive lots of traffic, make sure to:

• Write it in a list form and number it.
• Mention people your readers will know, it will draw them in.
• Link out to other websites.
• Write the perfect name for your article. This should be thought about.
• Motivate your reader.
• Keep to a plan & implement.

What type of blog posts are sending you the most traffic right now?

Read next: ‘How To Promote Your Blog – The Fastest Way To 1000 Visitors Per Day’

The post 7 Lessons From 50 Blog Posts That Send Me The Most Traffic appeared first on How To Make Money Online.

It’s also the most fun.

Don’t be afraid to put a significant amount of mental energy into your headlines…

Your title is what audiences recall, even more so than the content itself.

It’s what’s displayed in the search results and their bookmarks menu – setting the stage for the entire blog post.

I invite you to create a word document with about 100 headlines for inspiration and reference it anytime you’re creating new post titles. Alternatively, you could just use the 110 headline templates in Traffic Domination.

Straight up, if your headlines sucks, your posts won’t get viewed and your site won’t keep as many visitors.

10 Post Titles Guaranteed to Get YOU Results

1. Classic How-to

A lot of popular blogs and websites have discovered formulas that deliver results every time.

One headline formula that’s been incredibly effective for more than a century is the classic how to. This is a great way to increase engagement, just be sure to deliver on your promises.

They don’t even necessarily need to start with the words “how to” to be a how to headline.

“How to Have a Healthier and More Productive Home Office”

“10 Step To Successfully Outsourcing Your Online Business”

“21 Ways to Dominate Youtube: The Ultimate Guide”

2. Identify and Solve a Problem

One of best ways to get new readers is to Identify and solve a problem with trigger words.

The top companies use emotional triggers in nearly every headline – another classic style that’s withstood the test of time.

You’ll notice major companies like Cosmopolitan, DailyMail and Yahoo using this style often:

“6 Instant Confidence Boosters”

“Parenting Guru: From Chaos to Access”

“Gene Breakthrough Restores The Sight Of People With Inherited Eye Disease And Could Save Thousands From Blindness”

3. Make A Statement

Sometimes we get writers block and can’t think of a clever headline… This is where making a direct statement is the easiest and most effective way to engage your reader.

“Twitter Goes Public: 21 Things You Should Know”

“Tips That Show Anybody How To Make Money Online – Guaranteed”

“Thousands Already Make Millions Online And So Can You”

4. Strike A Note Of Controversy

Blog posts that have controversial titles grab more attention.

Riding the wave of controversy is good for blogs that want to pull audiences in, get them emotionally involved and commenting on your site.

“Why All Guys Cheat, Fresh Insight”

“Which One Deserves To Die?”

“10 Reasons Civilization May Collapse Because Of Organic Foods…”

It’s a very effective tool for generating attention. Just try not to land on the wrong side of an issue or be disrespectful.

You don’t want to offend your primary audience unless of course you’re trying to not make money.

Remember, you want to pull readers in not push them away.

5. Shorter Titles Are Great

Concentrate on keeping your headlines to the point.

People like short and sweet and have limited attention spans – especially online!

“No Cellphones – By Law”

“Rob Banks Legally”

“Fat Makes You Thin”

Try to avoid wordy headlines as they dilute your message and distract from the point of your post.

6. Ask Questions

Using a question as a title is an excellent opportunity to get people to click through to your post.

When people spot a question in a title, they’ll automatically think of a response. It’s natural…

“Are You Too Clever For Success?”

“Want To Immediately Reverse All Your Health Issues?”

“Six Types Of Investors – Which Group Are You In?”

Increase the chance the question resonates with your audience by being certain it’s relevant to your demographic.

An easy way to do this is by installing a survey plugin like YOP Poll or FluidSurveys and asking what type of posts your readers want to see more of.

7. Use Headlines That Offer Explanations

Explanatory headlines make things instantly clear to readers by doing exactly what the name suggests, explaining something…

“How I Doubled My Money With Facebook Ads”

“For At Risk Youths, Learning Digital Media Is A Luxury”

“New Shampoo Leaves Your Hair Smoother – Easier to Manage”

Sometimes it pays to have breaking news in the title itself.

When you turn your news into explanations, your audience knows exactly what they’re getting into before they ever start reading.

8. Go For An “Intrigue” Style

Write a headline that makes people do kind of a double take when they read it.

Make them wonder and ask if it’s even possible.

National Enquirer is notorious for this…

“Father Goes For Kidney Treatment – Leaves Hospital As A Women”

“How Jack The Weakling SLAUGHTERED THE DANCE FLOOR HOG!”

“Wall Street Getting Kicked In The Face By Asian Techs!”

9. Try A “Finality”

Another way to generate interest is by using finality style (power) words like ultimate, best, exclusive, only, guaranteed et cetera.

If you can deliver after somebody clicks the headline, you’ll almost certainly earn a new reader.

“The Ultimate Guide to Making Money Online”

“Every Internet Entrepreneur Regrets Not Doing This Sooner”

“This Blog Post Will Make You More Money Guaranteed”

10. Craft A “Top List”

This is one of the simplest formats to follow, and it’s ideal for SEO and getting ranked in the search engines for the more competitive terms.

Put the topic first, ideally optimized for popular search terms, and then use a “emotion-provoking” description.

Numbers grab attention and tell your audience you’re an authority. It lets them know you have something specific, concrete and real to offer them.

“24 Rules I Follow When Creating Successful Websites”

“5 Ways to Make More Money Online – Even If You’re Just Starting Out”

“Top 10 Facebook Advertising Mistakes To Avoid”

These types of posts get us over 100,000 visitors to this website every month, click here to learn how.

Headlines are a critical element because they’re what draw the reader into the body of your post.

Recognize what posts captivate you and start a list of the headlines that compelled you to click – I bet you’ll notice something strikingly similar about each.

Identify that “something” and use it to your advantage.

If you want to learn more about how we get millions of visitors to our sites every year, I recommend you read the following posts:

• 7 Lessons From 50 Blog Posts That Send Me The Most Traffic
• 101 “B.S. FREE” Ways to Drive More Traffic To Your Website
• 9 Reasons Why You’re Not Getting Search Engine Traffic

The post 10 Article Headline Examples That Got Us 10 Million Readers appeared first on How To Make Money Online.

Traffic to me is the simplest thing on the planet. It is so easy to get! All you have to do is provide people with a solution to their problem and they will come and read it & they will share it with their friends!

I have created over 100 ‘top list’ type posts which have been viewed by millions. They are so popular and well received that they have been featured on Reddit Homepage, New York Times, Yahoo News & one even became a Trending Topic on Twitter! The best part… I can get these types of posts created for just $25. Let me teach you how.

Why Creating Lists Will Drastically Increase Your Traffic

When you Google, think what you are typing in, lets say you are looking for a cure for a health problem. Just for example, you are going to type in Cure Acid Reflux. That’s a big search term. Same with anything else in the industry that people are trying to cure. Firstly you would be surprised how many people don’t name the article what people are searching for in Google. This blows my mind. Why are you calling your article something fancy and using words people don’t ever use, just to make yourself look smart. No one is typing that in Google, so you shouldn’t be naming your posts that.

I’m no SEO expert, there I said it. But I do get around 200,000 visitors a month from Google alone so it’s kind of a big deal for me. Here’s what I believe: Google ranks sites which are naturally awesome. Forget everything about buying links and social love. Just imagine that your posts are so cool, people spend ages on your site and people love to share your stuff. That’s what GOOGLE wants! Great content because they are in the content industry. There job is to provide users with the right content and the best possible option, if yours is not that, then you don’t rank so well.

Back to my health post, I will call it :

10 Ways To Cure Acid Reflux

Somewhere I heard that odd numbers work better for open rates and marketing so I often will change the 10 for 7, 11, 13, 17 basically any odd number that looks good. I will decide how many I want before I even create the post.

But lets look at those silly people I love that make my life easy when I try to out rank their articles because they name their articles something stupid, for example:

Surefire Ways To Eradicate Acid Reflux

Are you freaking kidding me. I’m sure some idiot will type in Eradicate Acid Reflux every month or two but Surefire Ways? No Way!

You think this is an extreme example? Heck no, this is a nice example.

Tip 1. Name Your Posts Something People Search For!

Here’s where top lists dominate:

• Firstly, they are quite long so people tend to spend a while reading them.
• Each part is in section, for example, our Cure Acid Reflux post, its 7 cures, so we have 7 headlines with each option. Because of this, people can quickly decide YES, there’s something here I am willing to do, so I will read it all. I think a lot of articles don’t do well because people are not prepared to commit time to read a page if they don’t think it’s going to help them.
• The title says exactly what you get, so you know what you are getting into.
• When shared on social media, again, people know what they are about to get. I swear, people will retweet and share stuff just because of the title, not even knowing if the article is good or not.

Step 1. To Dominating Any Industry

Post a crap load of top posts. That’s what I do, I show up in dozens of industry’s and just do the same old top list posts but for different industry’s. Here’s some examples:

Blogging/Make Money Industry

• Top 30 Most Influential People In Blogger
• 10 Reasons Why It Rocks To Be a Internet Entrepreneur
• 10 Christmas Gifts For Entrepreneurs
• 17 Tips To Cure Bloggers Block
• 20 Bloggers To Follow on Facebook

Photography Industry

• Top 30 Most Influential People In Photography
• 10 Reasons Why It Rocks To be a Photographer
• 10 Christmas Gifts For Photographers
• 17 Tips To Fix Bad Photos
• 20 Photographers To Follow on Facebook

Health Industry

• Top 30 Most Influential People in Natural Health
• 10 Reasons Why It Rocks To Be Healthy
• 10 Christmas Gifts for Super Healthy People
• 17 Tips To Cure Acid Reflux
• 20 Health Experts To Follow on Facebook

Young Entrepreneur Industry

• Top 30 Most Influential Young Entrepreneurs
• 10 Reasons Why It Rocks To Be a Young Entrepreneur
• 10 Christmas Gifts For Young Entrepreneurs
• 17 Tips To Stop People Treating You Different Because Of Your Age
• 20 Young Entrepreneurs To Follow On Facebook

Are you getting the gist yet?

And it doesn’t stop there. Each post can be done in so many other ways. For example:

10 Reasons Why It Rocks To Be a Photographer… you could flip this on it’s head and do 10 Reasons Why It Sucks….

Tip 2. Turn One Top List Into a Series of Top Lists

Remember our post suggestion: 20 Bloggers To Follow on Facebook

How about doing that with every social network:

• 20 Bloggers To Follow on Twitter
• 20 Bloggers To Follow on Youtube
• 20 Bloggers To Follow on Pinterest
• 20 Bloggers To Follow on Google+

Instead of doing a post such as “20 Ways To Improve Your Website” – you could split it into a series and niche each one down, so for example:

• 10 Ways To Improve Your Websites Load Time
• 10 Ways To Improve Your Websites Usability
• 10 Ways To Improve Your Websites Blog Layout
• 10 Ways To Improve your Websites Conversion Rate

Step 2. Getting Articles Created (20 at a time)

So in order to achieve great success with my blogs, I need a crap load of content…. by doing basically no actual work. Want to know how I get articles written for $25 with a 24 hour turn around period, 20 at a time.

Just to confirm. I pay $25 for each article, I often buy 20 at a time and each article only takes 24 hours and can be written by thousands of different authors. The best thing is, if I don’t like it, I either get them to edit it or I can refuse to pay for it. Incredible?!?!!

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Love what you have read so far?

Get the rest inside Traffic Domination – online training that will teach you exactly how we get over 100,000 visitors every month to multiple sites, year after year.

You will also get access to a new bonus, 110 copy and paste blog post headlines that have got me 10,000,000 visitors!

The post How I Get Over 100,000 Visitors a Month With Top List Articles appeared first on How To Make Money Online.

But how do you make sure you produce valuable viral content – rather than nonsense content, that is quickly forgotten?

Last year I reviewed hundreds of different posts and figured out most viral content shares 4 common elements.

Elements that are essential for viral success and shareability!

Also, my research revealed that some of the most shared content arguably had little commercial value. The clever marketers are the ones who find away to make this often cute and funny content into commercially viable content. I mean what is the point of attracting huge amounts of visitors and paying enormous bandwidth and hosting costs if that traffic has no benefit in terms of sales etc.

Definition of commercial value will vary – but for most of us that will include:

=> Increased Revenue

=> Link Backs and Shares (More inbound links – Improved SEO)

=> PR and Brand awareness (Fame for you and your website)

=> Viral content is a generally low cost way from the small blogger to compete with big budget companies.

The clever blogger can always finds ways that ‘cute’ and ‘funny’ viral content can be used in their online business.

[Examples included below.]

4 Keys to Creating Viral Content

Users share content for different reasons.

Let’s take a look:

#1 “Do not allude to the story. Tell the story” – Kindra Hall

Kindra Hall stated that using the storytelling approach can improve communication with clients and brand strategy for your customers. People love and remember interesting, warm-hearted stories. [Such as in Example below]

The interesting thing about the above Dog Story is that the Publication – metro.co.uk has managed to duplicate the lost dog story many times! [In commercial terms – if you own a blog about dogs or own a pet store this is the kind of viral content to watch out for]

Remember…

People handle visual content 600 000 times faster than text. People read only 20% of the text on a website and the rest of 80% is accounted for by visuals.

Have you ever heard about pareidolia?

This is “a psychological phenomenon involving an image or a sound wherein the mind perceives a familiar pattern of something where none actually exists”. [See Example Below – can you imagine how often something like this gets shared? Find away to include something like this based around your product or niche and you can be on to a huge winner in terms of traffic and links and shares. A company involved is supplying CCTV systems could for example use this.]

#2 “Follow the trend lines, not the headlines” – Bill Clinton

Today to be original is not enough, it is important to keep pace with trends and use the proper platforms to get across to your target audience. You have to analyze different social media networks and monitor what news and topics are trending every day. It will allow you get all interests of your audience and you will know what you should focus on.

Take a look at what influencers share and say about a particular topic and offer users something better. Monitor news on a national, regional and local level.

We all know that in-vogue topics can always increase engagement with your target audience. But we never know what sort of content can go viral and there is no guarantee to predict it.

Here is a great example of following a trend…

I guess everyone has heard about a smashing hit “Game of thrones”. Millions of people are watching the film and monitoring all news based on this film. BuzzFeed is a very popular website that covered one of this posts about this trend and got over 96k shares and 1m views.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Another good example that demonstrated a huge reaction and got over 586K shares is about a Zombie. It was a really fun and trending post that went viral and dominated other most shared content. [If you have a Blog about cruise travel or travel this would work ]

For those who are creating viral content, it is important to be on top of today’s trending content and have a strong knowledge of what is relevant in your industry in order to become viral. Understanding this need, I recommend you to check out this post from Ann Smarty that covers useful sources to find out what is the latest trending and new topics.

#3 “You need emotional content” – Bruce Lee

People are quite emotional creatures and can feel different feelings from fear up to excitement. When you know the reasons and issues that your target audience cares about, you can integrate a strong emotional tie to your content.

If you can activate a human’s emotional side, you can win the jackpot. They will share and talk about your content. No matter what emotions (positive or negative) you trigger with the content you provide, you will skyrocket chances of building new connections and of being shared by your target audience.

The New York Times revealed that entertainment is one of the most common reasons why people share content with friends. Jonah Berger, the author of the book Contagious, studied 7 000 New York Times articles and found out that people like to be “bearer of the good news” rather than a “Debbie downer.” He also revealed that content triggering such emotions like excitement, anger, joy, etc. got shared more than content with low-arousal emotions like sorrow, sadness. But of course there are exceptions. Below we have an article that got a lot of peoples attention – and for many a huge emotional connection.

Here is a great example of emotional viral content…

Remember Cecil the Lion

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Here is another emotional viral content example, again the story is from Metro

This is the story of a penguin that swims 5000 miles every day to meet the man who saved his life and has received over 800, 000 shares. In more recent times stories with cute animals and babies become cliche and fly off the shelf on the Internet.

This study made by Ipsos revealed that 61% of global users share interesting things, 43% funny and important things and only 29% share unique content.

Make people smile and you are on the right way to going viral. Write content that triggers positive emotions. Make sure that headlines are one of the first things that people see when viewing your content. Add a touch of curiosity and wonder to read content.

#4 “Create something people want to share” – John Jantsch

You know well that being successful in content marketing, you need not only create unique content on a regular basis, but also be more creative. It’s high time to shake your content balance and make some experiments with different types of content you have never checked out before.

In my experience, most people really love list articles. Why? Because they provide a bunch of useful information, and they are easy to read and keep in mind. List posts look great when you are going to promote it on social networks like Facebook or Twitter. For research of interesting ideas, you can try out SE Ranking keyword suggestion tool.

People love numbers, and as we have mentioned many times on IncomeDiary –Top list posts attract visitors. For example, the post “27 Handy Tools for Better Visual Content Marketing” on Content Marketing Institute received over 5.4K shares.

Adding images to your list posts can be an ideal format for boosting chances of shareability. List posts rich with graphics and images can get double shares and gain the interest of your target audience.

Lists of quotes in particular attract a lot of shares. Just make the quote relevant to your audience.

If for example your website is about Renewable Energy – create a list of famous quotes about renewable energy. Or if you are a photographer – a list of photography quotes or if you are an entrepreneur a list of entrepreneur quotes.

Here is a another example…

For Viral Content – Quizzes also work!

Quizzes are another successful type of content that can encourage more users to share on social media. This approach works well if the result can be presented in a positive light. Take look at this personalized quizz that has become the most shared post (over 2.5m shares) on Play Buzz:

Easy-to-take quizzes can tell something about users and make them easy to share the results with friends on social media.

Don’t forget to create attractive headlines

We all know that viral posts can’t do without good headlines. How to do that? I like how BuzzFreed tests different headlines with A/B testing that helps them to find out the best options based on real audience interaction. You can take a look at the following elements before integrating into your headlines.

• Type (video, facts, infographics, images, quotes and etc.)
• Emotions (heart-warming stories, amusement, surprise, warnings, etc.)
• Topics (trending topics)
• Format (quizzes, list posts, tips, stories)

The truth is there is no perfect formula to make your content shareable but incorporate the above elements and your chances of success are greatly enhanced.

You will never know for sure whether your post will get a significant number of shares or will be ignored by target audience. In my experience, content creation is not so important as content amplification. And don’t forget, sharing content with 2-3 well-known influencers can sometimes be enough to provoke significant content sharing.

Remember that most people want to use your piece of content in order to make the lives of other people better. Your goal is just to make this process as easy as possible.

Author Bio: Irina Weber is a marketing specialist, blogger, guest writer and social media expert for WebDeveloper.Sydney. You can follow Irina on Twitter

Related:

7 Tips for Creating Posts That Will Spread on Social Media

How To Find Content For Your Next Viral Post

The post How To Create Viral Content Your Readers Will Love appeared first on How To Make Money Online.

… Content marketing is also defined as a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.

Content marketing is not writing a couple of blog posts a week, hitting publish, and hoping for the best.

If you are doing that then you are merely scratching the surface.

A decent content marketing strategy takes into account audience desires, buyer personas, scheduling, repurposing, re-marketing, and a whole lot more. It is a process. But what really makes certain content strategies pop out and outshine all others, is their ability to include different types of content.

Content marketing means not limiting yourself to just one type of written content.

Content Marketing Strategies You Need To Implement

Content Marketing Strategy

Think of it this way, it you ate the same food every day you would soon be bored. Simply writing blog post after blog post but neglecting other means of communication is not a good strategy.

The most common forms of communication are: Visual, Verbal & Written – your blogging strategy needs to incorporate all of these – eg Video, Podcast, How-To Articles

In this Social World we need to offer Easily-Shareable Visual Content…

Examples of Shareable Visual Content

=> Memes

A Meme is:

“an image, video, piece of text, etc., typically humorous in nature, that is copied and spread rapidly by Internet users, often with slight variations.”

Used sparingly, and given that your brand style and industry allow it, they can serve as great social media fodder. They are fun, likeable, simple, and what is most important, they are extremely shareable! Don’t overuse them as they can devalue your brand, but if you are struggling with what to treat your Facebook audience with try coming up with a funny industry or business-related meme and check out how many shares and likes that gets you.

=> Recommended Tool: Meme generator

Creating meme’s is a piece of cake! If you have a good sense of humor – why now use a photo of yourself – as Income Diary Interviewee Sean Stephenson did recently… (the point is it creates shares – as is proved here)

=> Video Content Marketing

Video content is a great tool for engaging younger audiences. They react way better to visuals than they do to written blocks of texts. Keep your videos short, to the point, and fun and you will most certainly notice an improvement in your SEO, audience reach, and engagement.

Some interesting facts about video…

=> Shoppers who view video are 1.81X more likely to purchase than non-viewers.

=> Using the word “video” in an email subject line boosts open rates by 19%, click-through rates by 65% and reduces unsubscribes by 26%.

Recommended Tool: Videoshop

This is an online video editor that allows you complete control over your content without limiting you to a set of templates. You can use existing footage or videos, or add your own. After that effects and voice-over, and edit everything until it’s just the way you like it!

=> Content Marketing Infographics

Infographics are a great way of presenting your content in a visual way. They are more appealing, make it easier to succinctly present your findings, and have a great sharing potential. Some studies show that infographics get shared three times as much as other types of content, so there is a real possibility of going viral here! If you are a bit of a design wiz you can try creating your own infographics with tools available on the Internet.

Infographics like this

=> Recommended: Piktochart

If you need a great infographic then your tool of choice should always be Piktochart. Intuitive and easy to use, this tool has a free version that allows you to choose between 10 different templates and is completely functional. Your graphic will carry a Piktochart logo in this case, but if you upgrade to a pro version ($ 29 a month) the logo can be removed and you will have access to more than a 100 different templates!

=> SlideShares

If infographics are too costly are take too much of your time, try slide-share software. It allows you to turn your old, boring content into a presentation and recycling it. You can even create new content to be presented in that form. It is easily shareable and great for Facebook and Pinterest.

=> Recommended: Kizoa

When you want to turn your articles and posts into a slideshow presentation, Kizoa should be your go to resource. It is easy to use and you can add video, photos and music to your slide deck, making the whole thing visually appealing in a matter of minutes.

Example Slide Share – 7 Habits That Kill Creativity

Examples of Shareable Written Content

The Best Written Content – goes Deep and the Wide.

Lists

Lists work like a charm because we like them. They are hard-wired to our brain ever since organized religion. Think about it; all religious texts have lists in them, and when something is listed you know it is important (think 10 commandments).

One reason lists work is because they are hierarchical and scannable. Simply introduce your topic, add a numbered list and finish off with a conclusion. There is no magic number you need to aim at when creating list articles, so don’t limit yourself to 9s, 12s, odd numbers, or long lists. Anything will work as long as your topics are relevant and provide value.

6 Steps To Writing The Ultimate Top List

How I Get Over 100,000 Visitors a Month With Top List Articles

How-to articles

How-to articles and their viability will depend on your niche, but if you can find some room to wiggle them in then you’re in luck! They are a great way to peak audience interest because they are extremely valuable. This is how to go about them.

o Present the problem

o Present the final solution

o In detail, give a step-by-step solution to the problem

o Provide a conclusion

Try to give as much detail as possible. The easier to understand your solution is, the better the audience will accept it.

Example How-to article: How to Write Epic Blog Posts that Rank Well

Opinion posts (Also Known as Rants)

Not everything you publish has to be strict, business-like, and curbed. If you are a small entrepreneur you can allow yourself an occasional opinion post, aka a rant, on a particular topic in your industry that you feel really strongly about. Remember, even if you are writing an opinion post this does not entitle you to go on a rampage. Express your views strongly and respectfully, and don’t overdo it with opinion posts. For a fine example on how to Rant – Click Here

Create E-books

The e-book is an example of an in-depth type of content that will appeal to those people in your audience that are further down the funnel. Usually, an e-book is a free, but gated piece of content, meaning that you will require a registration in exchange for the book. This is a good bargain; you will spend a lot of time creating a valuable asset for your customers and asking for them to register for your newsletter is not unreasonable.

If time is limited or you can consider outsourcing some of you writing at sites such as AussieWriter and Scripted.com

How to Plan and Write an eBook

Templates

For a type of content that is evergreen, try looking into creating a set of tools and templates that you can then offer to your audience free of charge. For some businesses, this type of content proves to be a gift that keeps on giving because templates are utilitarian in need and solve an immediate problem you, customers might be facing. You’re not walking away with nothing; this content will prove to be a long-term lead generator.

Do Expert Interviews

Reach out to other thought leaders in your industry and see who would be willing to set aside some time for an interviews session. You can do these interviews live, setting up a broadcast and sending the link out to your email list, or you can shoot a video that you’ll publish on YouTube. And of course you can offer a transcript.

You can include your audience in the interview process as well. Reach out to social media platforms and publish the interview date and the interviewee. Ask your followers to submit questions that you might get to ask in a short audience Q&A after the interview itself. This will promote the event, create a buzz, and get your audience invested.

10 Tips for Creating Awesome Interviews for Your Blog

Podcasts – Still a Viable Type of Content

A lot of people have their favorite podcast. Even though they are no longer at the height of their popularity, podcasts are quite easy to create and will add value to your content mix. Also, you can start creating a podcast with bare essentials; a microphone a short how-to guide to creating a podcast is all you need!

Podcasts are great for reaching out to people who might be interested in what you have to say but simply can’t find the time to sit and read long-form blog posts or whitepapers. This way they can tune in while driving in their car, so you’ve created an opportunity for them to participate! A good idea is to add a transcript of the podcast in the notes; some people prefer to read, and written content will help you further your SEO efforts.

=> Recommended: Audacity

Creating podcasts is pretty simple and straightforward; all you need is some basic equipment and some software. Unfortunately, you’ll have to get the equipment yourself but we can hook you up with an excellent recording and editing software! Audacity is an easy-to-use, free audio editor that will make your podcasting a walk in the park!

Also, ever recorded a great video or audio – but then discovered you got the volume or some other aspect wrong – https://auphonic.com can help.

Finally…

You should never approach content creation as if one size fits all; when it comes to content it’s not even one type fits all. You have to mix your content so it appeals to a broader audience; otherwise, you are missing out on valuable opportunities. If there are types of content on this list you are not doing, try working them in your mix in the future. Adding one new type of content to your mix every month is not difficult at all. Measure the results afterwards to see what worked for you, refine it, and keep at it!

Author Bio: Amy Cowen works as a content marketing strategist and manages a talented team of content writers, always trying to find new ways to maximize the commercial impact of content. Feel free to contact her on Facebook or G+.

The post Smart Content Marketing Strategies for Bloggers appeared first on How To Make Money Online.

Even if you’re a beginning online marketer, you probably know about the importance of growth hacking.

It’s become a buzzword in recent years as startups have found unique ways — or hacks — to drive massive growth at a low cost.

As a growth hacker your efforts are focused on more customers, more revenue and specifically in this article – More Traffic!

A classic growth hacking example is AirBnB, which is now billion-dollar business. The platform, geared at facilitating vacation rentals, used a powerful trick to reach their current state of success:

Craigslist spam*

Before they were well known, AirBnB found Craigslist listings of houses for rent, contacted the renters and asked them to place their ads on AirBnB instead. (*Ref Article)

The hack gained them thousands of new users, and the company soon went viral.

The moral of the story is that you don’t have to be a programmer or a tech guru to take advantage of growth hacks for your business. That said, we do not advocate you SPAM – indeed AirBnB did not approve of this and blamed the action on a rogue sales team.

There are lots of easy and legal ways to drive growth, and your blog is one of the best places to start:

=> 70% of customers say blogs influence their purchasing decisions
=> Companies who blog have 97% more inbound links and 434% more indexed pages

Read this post to learn 13 growth hacks you can start today to increase traffic to your blog.

1) Keyword optimize your content.

Blogging isn’t all about developing content that resonates with your audience — you need to make sure it reaches your audience as well.

Search is a great way to amplify your content, bring massive traffic, and even drive sales; 81% of B2B purchase cycles begin with search.

Here’s what you do…

Step 1: Keyword Research

If you have a good idea of the kind of terms your target audience is searching for, you can start keyword research. Tools like SimilarWeb, Google AdWords and others make this pretty simple.

When deciding which keywords you want to rank for, you should consider:

=> Search volume: How many people are searching for the term?
=> Relevance: Will this keyword draw in the right kind of traffic?
=> Competition: Is it possible to rank well for this keyword?

You should prepare a long list of relevant keywords to incorporate into your content creation efforts.

Step 2: Optimize Your Content

Now you can start incorporating keywords into your content. Key areas your keyword should appear include:

=> Title tags
=> Meta descriptions
=> Alt attributes
=> URL structure
=> Body content

And rather than spending your time memorizing SEO best practices, just get a plugin to do it for you. If you use WordPress, SEO by Yoast will show you exactly what you need to optimize for each blog post:

2) Write headlines for people and search.

Upworthy recommends writing 25 different headlines for each post. That might seem like a lot of effort for a small part of your content, but it matters.

Often, the headline is one of the only things people see when they decide whether or not to read your post, so they have to be perfect.

As mentioned before, your headlines should be keyword-optimized, but make sure you’re writing for people as well as search engines. You need to ensure:

=> You have a good balance between word types
=> You have the right word and character length for different promotion platforms
=> Your headline will resonate on social, search, and everywhere else it appears

There are a lot of great tools out there that can help you do this.

CoSchedule has a free headline analyzer tool that will analyze the structure, grammar and readability of your headline. Or if you need help coming up with a title, the Inbound Now Blog Title Generator can help with that.

If you blog with WordPress, a cool new tool you can also try is Title Experiments. The plugin will automatically A/B test several different headlines with your actual audience, and determine which one works best:

The basic version is free.

3) Promote your blog in your email campaign.

This hack often gets overlooked by even the most experienced digital marketers, because many assume that email marketing isn’t as effective as it used to be.

It’s true people get a lot more email than they used to, but the marketing efforts still pay off. In fact, emails convert three times better than social media, and can yield an estimated 4,300 percent ROI.

Given those numbers, promoting blog posts in your email campaign is a must. You can feature relevant blog posts or even a series of related posts in an email newsletter. Just make sure you’re encouraging clickthroughs back to your blog.

Don’t have a huge email following yet? It’s easy enough to do with your blog. Here are some methods you can use to get email signups:

=> Subscribe forms
=> Content upgrades — More detailed content about the blog topic

=> Opt-in Incentives — Free eBooks, whitepapers, etc., offered in the post
=> Pop ups
=> Product samples or free trials

4) Market your blog on online forums.

If you do it right, online forms, question and answer sites like Quora, or even Reddit, can be a great way to drive massive traffic back to your blog.

Be on the lookout for topic forums and queries that your blog posts are relevant to.

For example, if someone asked a question about great quotes from entrepreneurs, and you have a blog post titled, “100 Inspirational Quotes from Successful Entrepreneurs,” you could reply to their query and direct them to it.

Just tread carefully with this method. If your comments aren’t relevant or seem overtly promotional, you could get negative feedback.

5) Reach out to influencers.

One of the most impactful ways you can encourage massive growth in blog traffic is by taking advantage of other people’s audiences.

This is done through influencer marketing — or collaborating with powerful individuals in your niche to spread the word about your content. According to Visual.ly, content that influencers share gets 16 times more engagement than content directly from a brand.

The reason?

People don’t trust brands.

No matter how useful your content is, people still know you’re out to market to them, which is why 70% of people consider information from brand advocates better than information from the brand.

So how do you find influencers?

I recommend Buzzsumo.

Just search for keywords related to your blog topic, such as “big data analytics,” then click over to the Influencers tab:

Then, you’ll see a list of influencers who regularly share this kind of content that you can reach out to:

Once you’ve found influencers relevant to your niche, work to build a relationship with them by sharing their posts, commenting on their blog, etc. Then you can reach out for help promoting your own material.

6) Get traffic from SlideShare.

SlideShare presentations are a great way to complement your blog content and drive massive traffic. Ana at Traffic Generation Cafe made a few slideshare presentations for the first time and managed to go from 0 to 243,000 views in just 30 days.

SlideShare presentations can be about just about anything.

Some online businesses, like Wordstream, even use them to create visual summaries of their blog posts:

This is helpful because sometimes your SlideShare presentation will be more popular than your blog post.
Here’s how you drive traffic to your blog from SlideShare:

=> Link back to your blog

Make sure your SlideShare presentation has a prominent link back to your blog at the beginning, end, and in the slide deck description.

=> Suggest related content

Have a blog post related to the slide deck topic? Mention it as a resource in the presentation and link back to the post.

7) Blog more frequently. (No1 Growth Hack for Bloggers!)

Many digital marketers hate to hear this fact, but the more you blog, the more traffic you get.

Research from Hubspot found that companies who published at least 16 posts per month received 3.5X more traffic than those who published 0-4 posts.

Planning to blog 16+ times a month can be overwhelming for many, but if you use WordPress, you can make use of an editorial calendar plugin to keep on track.

For some, it might be worth investing in some freelance writers to catch up on the slack. Writers can be found with nearly all skill levels (and rates of pay) on freelance websites like Upwork or Guru. Consider the cost against the potential payoff for your indexed traffic.

8) Growth Hack – Write long, detailed content.

According to research by Buzzsumo and Moz, the vast majority of online content is fairly short:

It would seem that many bloggers aren’t putting a lot of effort into creating long, detailed content. As a result, the same study also found that long-form, research-backed content have a strong correlation between shares and links.

Research has also shown that long-form content gets better ranking in search.

So if you want your content to really stand out against your competitors, put effort into making it long and detailed.

9) Growth Hack – Cross-link to other relevant posts.

In every blog post, you should look for opportunities to insert relevant links to your other blog content. This is good for SEO because:

=> It encourages click through
=> Google considers internal links when indexing your pages

Cross-link the right way, and you’ll see a boost in SEO and increase traffic to your blog.

First, find relevant posts related to your new content. Excellent social media and web monitoring tool. You set up alerts based on keywords, and content related to those keywords is displayed through the Mention application or sent to you via email or social media. LikeAlyzer is a very simple (and free) tool to assess your Facebook Page and provides suggestions to improve it.

Then, look for key phrases in your new post to serve as the anchor text for the links. These should be related to the current post’s topic, since Google will use this information to rank the post.

10) Encourage engagement with social media campaigns.

Hosting a competition, sweepstake or giveaway on social media can be a really effective way to drive more traffic to your blog and get new email signups as well.

Giveaways or sweepstakes don’t have to be costly for you — they can be small prizes such as products you offer. Or if you offer a service, you can giveaway some one-on-one consulting.

The tweets and shares your campaign gets can drive massive traffic. A great example of this in action is Namecheap’s Twitter campaign. They posted a simple series of Christmas-related trivia questions to launch the new Twitter account. If you were one of the first three @replies with a correct answer, you won a one-year domain registration (if you set up a Namecheap account).

The campaign resulted in a 10% website traffic increase in one month, and a 20% increase in domain registration.

A great tool you can use to run your social campaigns is Rafflecopter. Use it to set up a giveaway page, and then you can embed a Javascript snippet into your blog for people to opt in.

11) Repurpose written content to visual.

If you want to have a powerful blog that brings in the most traffic, it needs to have more than just written content.

Image via Quicksprout

Some ways you can repurpose written content to visual include:

=> Infographics
=> Videos
=> Illustrative stock photos
=> Annotated screenshots

If you create a great video, it opens the door to many other platforms that can help drive traffic back to your blog, such as YouTube, Vimeo and Yahoo!

Here are some helpful tools for DIY visuals:

=> Pablo and Canva — for editing and designing images
=> Awesome Screenshot — for editing and annotating screenshots
=> Infogr.am — for creating your own infographics and edit videos

12) Submit to content curation communities.

There are quite a few platforms out there that are looking for bloggers to submit content that they deliver to their audience. This is another great way for you to get your posts in front of new eyes, but only if the content is truly exceptional.

Content curation communities are pretty competitive, so make sure you’re submitting your best content to get strong traffic.

Here are a few content curation communities you can submit to:

=> Triberr
=> BizSugar
=> Blog Engage

13) Growth Hacks Multiplied – Get featured on high traffic niche websites.

Finding opportunities to guest post on high traffic niche websites can give your own blog a boost as well.

For one, getting backlinks from high authority sites is great for your own website’s SEO. Also if the website is related to your niche — e.g., has an audience that would also be interested in your blog — then you can also get a lot of traffic from the post directly.

Many high authority blogs offer guest posting opportunities. Some may not want you to link back to your blog in the post you write, but they almost always will give you a link back in the byline.

Not sure where to find opportunities? Just turn to search.

Think of a keyword related to your blog or a topic you’d like to write about, and then use it to find sites that might accept related content by searching for:

=> Keyword “write for us”
=> Keyword “guest post”
=> And other relevant terms.

Many will have published guidelines on how and what to submit. Just make sure you aren’t pitching posts to your direct competitors. Example: Write For IncomeDiary

There you go — 13 growth hacks that can drive massive traffic to your blog.

Which growth hack are you going to implement first?

Author Bio: Since selling his company Tapdog to Similar Web in 2014, Noam is blogging at HackingRevenue.com where he writes on monetization channels and how to grow the revenues of your online business. Check it out!

The post 13 Growth Hacks to Increase Traffic to Your Blog appeared first on How To Make Money Online.

I am often asked: ‘If you had to start over online, from scratch – what would you do to promote your blog and build up your traffic again as quickly as possible’

A very good question and one I have been giving quite a bit of thought to recently.

I think most people over-complicate traffic. They’re reading too much into all these techniques and spending all their time making sure their blog looks good.

There’s nothing wrong with having a great blog design or doing SEO the right way. But it is a problem when you’re spending so much time on the technical stuff that you forget your site’s purpose: to provide immense value for your visitors.

Extraordinary content is the key to extraordinary traffic.

So assuming you are starting from scratch or your funds are limited here is my Kick Start Strategy For Bloggers:

How To Get 1000 Visitors To You Blog Every Day

Step 1) Create Great Content For Your Blog

The number 1 thing you should focus on to get traffic is, great content. Why? because that’s what attracts people to your website.

When I’m writing an article, I have two things in mind. Firstly, I want to make it as simple for someone to understand as possible. Secondly, I want to make it as beneficial to the reader as possible.

So, with that in mind, how much great content do you need to get 1000 visitors a day.

10 articles getting 100 visitors a day.

20 articles getting 50 visitors a day.

100 articles getting 10 visitors a day.

Looking at these numbers, I would say you were best of focusing on less articles, that bring more traffic.

So how do you go about creating content so good that you can get 1000 visitors a day? Here is step by step what I would do:

Brainstorm and research high traffic keywords.

Great content gets linked to a lot, on both social media and blogs, but only if people can find it in the first place.

Links help you rank high in Google.

But none of this matters if you don’t target your blog post for something people are actually searching for in Google.

That’s where keyword research comes in.

Keyword research is all about finding keywords that get the most searches in Google.

To do this, we use Ahrefs. This has to be my favorite tool that I have found this year. It’s far better and more user friendly than any other tool similar to it.

Once you signup for an account (they have a free trial), go to their Keywords Explorer tool and type in the topic you want to write a blog post about. You want to find keywords that have a lot of searches but are not so competitive that you can’t rank for them.

Ahrefs will tell you how much traffic a search term is getting and how many backlinks you are likely to need to rank for this search term. It will also tell you who is already ranking for it, how much traffic they are getting and what other keywords they rank for on that page.

This is an important point to remember. Your blog posts won’t just rank for 1 keyword, but perhaps 100’s and in some cases, 1000’s of different keywords.

Write a headline to sell people on your article.

A headline is what attracts people to your blog post.

When we write headlines for our posts, we try to include what they will learn, the benefit from learning it and also why they should learn it from us.

A good example of this is: 10 Headlines Examples That Got Us 10 Million Readers

They will learn the best headlines, to get lots of traffic and they should listen to us because we have been successful at it.

Another example could be: 18 Website Optimization Tips For More Traffic and Higher Conversions

They learn website optimization tips, the benefit being more traffic and higher conversions.

Create a top list article around keywords.

Our readers seem to prefer top list articles much more than any other type of post. I think this is because you know exactly what you are going to get.

Not only do you know what you are going to get but you also know how the content is going to be laid out.

I think this is key to their success because people want to skim content. They don’t want to invest time into reading long posts if they don’t know it’s going to be worth it.

One recommendation I would make is, link out to other websites in your blog posts. When we write articles such as 50 Most Influential People In Blogging, we link to each blogger. When they see the post, they often share it and link to it somewhere on their blog.

As mentioned earlier in this post, the more links a website has pointing to it, the higher it ranks in Google.

Make Sure Your Blog Post Looks Amazing

Optimize readability and proof read your blog posts.

We like to write content in a way that people can come to our site and quickly skim an article and figure out if it’s an article they want to read. I think this is a big part of why so many people read our posts.

Think about it this way, if you go to one of our blog posts and it’s just 2000 words, no paragraphs, no headlines, no images, are you going to invest your time reading it? It’s unlikely you would.

When we create a blog post, we make sure we use images, not just to promote our posts, but to split up the content.

Here is an outline of how we display our blog posts on IncomeDiary:

Main Headline
Introduction
Headline 2 (h2 tag)
Headline 3 (h3 tag)
Text
Image
Headline 4 (h3 tag)
Text
Image

And so on…

Sometimes we include sub-headlines for sub-headlines. It’s important to break up content to make it easy to read.

Step 2) Search Engine Optimization

Now that you have found a good keyword and written a blog post, you need to optimize your post for that keyword.

Optimizing Your Blog Post For a Keyword

Go and download a free WordPress plugin called Yoast SEO. This plugin will ask you what search term you want your blog post to rank for. Then it will tell you everything you need to do to best rank for it.

Such as:

• Including keyword in headline
• Including keyword is meta description
• Including keyword in first paragraph of post
• Including internal and external links
• Including an image with the name of your keyword
• Add alt attributes with the focus keyword to your images
• Mentioning the keyword enough times

Once you have done this, you should be ready to publish your post.

Optimizing Your Website For Search Engines

A big part of how Google decides on where your blog post will rank in it’s search engine is based on how much it likes your website.

Google wants to link to websites that are up to date, user friendly, trustworthy and popular.

Here is a list of ways to achieve this:

• Have a contact page with address and phone number
• Get HTTPS in your website URL
• Add a sitemap to your website
• Always fix broken links
• Improve your page speed
• Make sure you have no duplicated content

Remember, you can optimize your blog posts as much as you like, but if the content isn’t amazing, it’s not going to get linked to, which means it’s not going to rank well in Google.

Step 3) Optimize Your Blog Marketing

Now that your blog post is published and it’s optimized for Google, the next important thing I recommend you do, is to make it easy for people to find your content.

You want as many people as possible, all coming to your website at the same time to view your new post. Not just because you want lot’s of traffic but because it gives you a better chance of getting even more traffic.

Think about it this way, if someone sees one person share your article, they often won’t look at it. But if they see 10 people sharing your article, they start to think, WOW, this must be good.

If you’re creating great content, you’re bound to eventually get some big spikes in traffic.

The only problem with spikes in traffic is that they can be gone as quickly as they come. The spike of a successful article goes down after two or three days.

But a good website is designed to turn one-time traffic into recurring traffic. After jumping from 400 visitors a day to 4,000 visitors a day, it goes back down to 600 or 700. That’s a big increase from where it was before.

We turn traffic spikes into long-term traffic by asking people to subscribe to our email list. You’ll notice we have a popup and an opt-in box in the footer of this web page which offer exclusive content for people who subscribe by email. Email is the most direct way to let people know that you’ve published a great new article.

Another way to get first-time visitors to come back to your site is through social media. These communities bring a consistent social buzz to each new post.

Here are my top tips for getting lots of traffic to a brand new blog post:

Email Your Subscribers

Like I just mentioned, one of the best way to instantly get a lot of people to visit your website is to email subscribers.

Every time we email our list about a new post, 1000’s of people visit our site. Some of them share it on social media, some link to it on their blog.

This gets us backlinks to our blog post and gives our search engine optimization a good boost.

This is an important part to the success of any post.

But how do you get email subscribers if your blog is new? Read this post about 10 ways to get email subscribers.

Mention It On Social Media

Similar to having an email list, you can Tweet/Facebook your article and a whole load of people will visit it. If the article is amazing, people will share it.

We don’t put a lot of effort into building our social media accounts because we know if we write great posts, our readers will do the sharing for us. Having said this, social media has been one of our best traffic sources. One of the reasons for our success with social media is we signed up and started using it way earlier then the majority of other people.

When I launched IncomeSup, something that was going really well right then was Twitter. Twitter was the in-thing. Everyone was jumping on board.

Since Twitter was new, the make money online niche wasn’t yet saturated.

I was getting huge amounts of traffic — literally 100,000 visitors in a month from Twitter. And I could take advantage of it so easily by just following thousands of Twitter users a day. Thousands of people would come to my profile to see who has followed them and follow me back, click my profile link, my updates, and so on.

Then when Pinterest launched, we were able to do the same thing.

We have found that often in business, we are able to achieve huge amounts of success by acting quickly and not waiting to see how things work out. Some bloggers may of looked at Twitter and thought it won’t last and decided not to join until a lot later.

Getting People On Your Blog To Read Your New Posts

This is also an important step in your blog promotion. One of the easiest way to keep website traffic high, is to keep people visiting page after page and coming back to your website. A few ways you can do this:

• Add a link to your top navigation bar. If people enjoy your content, they will want to look for more.
• Add a link to the top of your sidebar.
• Make sure the post is featured on the home and category pages.
• Make sure the post is featured in related/popular posts.

Ask Friends to Comment and Share (read why)

When I first started blogging, I would often ask friends in the industry to comment and share my posts. Most of them didn’t have any traffic, but that wasn’t important.

What was important, was if I was getting lots of comments and shares, other people coming to the site would be a lot more likely to comment and share.

Remember, it’s about momentum.

The Last Word:

Traffic is a Marathon, Not a Sprint.

Even if you’re doing everything right, it’s unrealistic to expect to have a ton of traffic and income right away. These things need time.

My brother didn’t make any money with Expert Photography the first few months. But he kept at it because he’d seen exactly how long it had taken me to grow my websites in the past. Eventually, he was making $100 per month, then $1000 per month, now he makes $1000’s a day.

Read more: ‘10 Best WordPress Plugins For Getting More Traffic To Your Website’

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