If you have a blog you know how important traffic is. More traffic means more people buying your products, joining your list and more sales for your business. The challenge is to know what works. Search online and you'll find lots of advice - some works, some doesn't. It's confusing and can waste a lot of your time. That's why we've polled 21 of the most successful bloggers to bring you simple, but uncommon, changes to get you better results. Mari Smith Pat Flynn Brian Clark Neil Patel Darren Rowse Jeff Bulas Brian Dean Anne Handley Mitch Joel Jeff Goins Leslie Samuel Peg Fitzpatrick

1. Traffic
Building
Tips

2. "Finding success is all about
taking action. You can read all
you want, but nothing will
happen until you execute."
-Pat Flynn,
Smart Passive Income

3. If you have a blog,
you know how
important
traffic is.
If you have a blog,
you know how
important
traffic is.
If you have a blog,
you know how
important
traffic is.

4. More traffic means
more people buying
your products, joining
your list and
more sales
for your
business.
More traffic means
more people buying
your products, joining
your list and
more sales
for your
business.

5. THESE
21TIPS
WILL HELP
THESE
21TIPS
WILL HELP

6. We’ve polled 21 of the most successful bloggers
to bring you the best tips to make your blog more
attractive, more sharable, and ready to attract
the right prospects to your business.

7. Let’s get
started!
Let’s get
started!

8. Your first job is to
understand the
problem
your audience is
trying to solve.
UNDERSTAND YOUR AUDIENCE#1

9. #1UNDERSTAND YOUR AUDIENCE
“You need to
understand your
audience better than
they understand
themselves.”
- Brian Clark,
CopyBlogger

10. Typically, more targeted is
better—targeting millennial
leaders is better than
targeting any leader and
writing for online
entrepreneurs is better than
targeting any entrepreneur.
#1UNDERSTAND YOUR AUDIENCE

11. If your goal is to build
readers by publishing
consistently it helps to
block time every week
on the same days (like
1 hour in the morning).
#2BLOCK TIME TO WRITE

12. "Writing is like the gym:
the more often you go,
the more results you see.”
- Ann Handley,
MarketingProfs.com
#2BLOCK TIME TO WRITE

13. A quick way to save time,
organize your content and
get to first draft is with a
writing template.
#3SAVE TIME WITH A TEMPLATE

14. It could be as simple as:
1. Opening
2. The problem
3. Promise a solution
4. List 3-5 solutions
5. Conclusion
6. Call-to-action
#3SAVE TIME WITH A TEMPLATE

15. Just like buying a car,
your blog allows prospects
to test drive your solutions
before buying. That’s why you
need to share your best ideas
and solutions every time.
#4GIVE THEM YOUR BEST

16. “Give away free content that
adds value to people’s lives
‘until it hurts’ and
they will love you and
become loyal fans.”
-Jeff Bullas,
JeffBullas.com
#4GIVE THEM YOUR BEST

17. With just a bit of extra effort you
can turn a boring headline like
“5 ways to lose weight”, into one
that gets more attention and more
shares, like “This is How Much You
Should Walk to Lose Weight Fast”
#5WRITE GREAT HEADLINES

18. “Without a compelling
promise that turns a
browser into a reader the
rest of your words may as
well not exist.”
- CopyBlogger
#5WRITE GREAT HEADLINES

19. #6GO BIG WITH AN ULTIMATE POST
Sometimes a topic deserves
more depth and more content.
An ‘Ultimate post’ is a more
detailed, in-depth post
about a topic your readers
are hungry for.

20. #6GO BIG WITH AN ULTIMATE POST
“Longer content is 52%
more likely to get heavily
shared. Aim for at least
2,000 words per post.”
-Brian Dean,
Backlinko.com

21. Get your copy of all
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22. #7MIX IT UP!
If you want readers to keep
coming back, experiment
with different topics and
themes - just like a
magazine.

23. #7MIX IT UP!
Experiment with:
• List post “5 surprising
ways to reduce clutter”
• Being controversial “Most
time management books
are a waste of time”
• Being contrarian “Why a
little clutter is a good thing!”

24. #7MIX IT UP!
Experiment with:
• A case study “How this
entrepreneur cleaned up
their life”
• Personal sharing “Clutter and
why I needed to get help”
• Video post “Learn how high
achievers start their day”

25. #7MIX IT UP!
“Focus upon creating content
that changes people’s lives in
some way and it
will help people to feel like
they know, like and trust you.”
-Darren Rowse,
ProBlogger.com

26. #8DRESS IT UP WITH PICTURES
Our brain can process images some
60,000 times faster than words.
Posts that contain multiple images
receive double the social media
shares compared to articles
with only one image.

27. #8DRESS IT UP WITH PICTURES
“Help people help you by providing
an image that they can share—if
people can look like a rockstar
sharing your content, it’s a win!”
- Peg Fitzpatrick,
PegFitzpatrick.com

28. #9GO VIRAL WITH VIDEO
Even a short video can
add variety to your posts
and enhance your reader’s
experience. Your videos don’t
have to be professionally
produced—as long as
you have good light and
sound, you’re good to go.

29. #9GO VIRAL WITH VIDEO
“Video is quickly becoming
one of the most effective
ways to drive floods of
targeted traffic directly to
your blog, sales pages and
other online offers.”
- James Wedmore,
JamesWedmore.com

30. #10 EXPOSE YOURSELF
Even if you’re writing a B2B
business blog, readers
want to know something
about the person behind
the blog. If you write about
customer service, you can
share a story of a
good/bad/indifferent
service experience you had.
Even if you’re writing a B2B
business blog, readers
want to know something
about the person behind
the blog. If you write about
customer service, you can
share a story of a
good/bad/indifferent
service experience you had.

31. “Don’t delegate
relationship building or
try to outsource your
personality.”
-Mari Smith,
MariSmith.com
“Don’t delegate
relationship building or
try to outsource your
personality.”
-Mari Smith,
MariSmith.com
#10 EXPOSE YOURSELF

32. #11 CREATE ROUND-UP POSTS
A round-up post is a collect of
opinions, interviews,
reviews—anything that
brings together solutions
from a variety of sources. For
example, a collection of book
reviews, or opinions from
authors, or advice from
bloggers (like this article)

33. #11 CREATE ROUND-UP POSTS
“The experts that
participate in your roundup
can send traffic directly to
your post by sharing it with
their (often large) social
followings—it’s the type of
content people actively
want to share.”
- Jon Morrow,
Smart Blogger

34. #12DELIVER MORE OF WHAT THEY WANT
While you might be
tempted to keep
dreaming up new topics;
if readers already ‘vote’
with their traffic,
comments and social
shares, give them more
on those topics.

35. #12DELIVER MORE OF WHAT THEY WANT
“Pay attention to what
your readers respond to
and find a way to deliver
more of the same.”
-Hugh Culver,
getSOS.net

36. #13 WRITE LIKE YOU SPEAK
Like any discussion, you’re more
authentic if you write like you
speak. Avoid unusual words, or
overbuilt, or awkward sentences
that slow the reading experience.

37. #13 WRITE LIKE YOU SPEAK
“Always use a conversational tone
and keep it light.”
- Rich Brooks,
Take Flyte Media

38. #14 DON’T TRY TO BE EVERYWHERE
When promoting your blog, it
might be tempting to try to be
everywhere—one day you’re all
over Twitter, then it’s back to
Instagram and Facebook, then
LinkedIn. Instead, choose 2-3
channels (like LinkedIn and
Twitter), build up your
followers, and apply a simple
promotional sequence for
every blog post.

39. #14 DON’T TRY TO BE EVERYWHERE
“Your audience will dictate
where they want to see you
by the way they interact
with you.”
- Leslie Samuel,
Become A Blogger

40. #15 MAKE IT EASY TO CONSUME
Always design your post to
be easy to consume: use
short sentences
and paragraphs, dashes
and em-dashes to break up
your reading, sub-headings
for any post longer than 300
words and insert images to
break up long posts.

41. #16 BUILD YOUR EMAIL LIST
Building your list allows
you to use direct email to
promote sales, webinars,
contests, surveys and to
promote every blog post.
Experiment with different opt-in
offers and measure your results -
your blog should be a magnet to
attract more prospects to your list.

42. #16 BUILD YOUR EMAIL LIST
“Building an email
list is one of the
cheapest, most
cost-effective solutions
for staying in touch with
your prospects and
customers.”
- Derek Halpern,
Social Triggers

43. #17 PROMOTE, PROMOTE, PROMOTE
If you want to get noticed,
you have to promote every
post. Email your list,
promote on social media,
repost on LinkedIn and
Medium and respond to
every comment, retweet
and share. And document
your process - eventually
you should outsource part,
or all, of it.

44. #17 PROMOTE, PROMOTE, PROMOTE
“Think of it more as
publishing instead of
marketing. Be authentic as
a publisher and create
content that helps you
connect to everyone
else...because they're
already connected.”
- Mitch Joel,
Six Pixels

45. #18MAKE YOUR READER FEEL SMART
Readers share what
makes them look
smart—your job is to
write compelling,
original content that
makes them think:
“This is so good I need
to share it.”

46. #18MAKE YOUR READER FEEL SMART
“If you want these people
to share your content,
create objectively
exceptional content.”
-Marcus Taylor,
Venture Harbour

47. #19BE CONSISTENT
Plan to publish on the same
day, at the same time every
week or two weeks.
Consistent publishing
encourages consistent
readers and makes it easier
for you and your team to
execute, measure and modify
both the publishing and
promotion of the post.

48. #19BE CONSISTENT
“It’s much easier to lose
your traffic than it is to
build it up, so make sure
you consistently blog.”
- Neil Patel,
NeilPatel.com

49. #20DON’TMEASURESTATISTICSTOOEARLY
It takes time before
you’ll see the results
you want from you
blog. Be patient and
create goals for traffic
and list building, and
measure results (at
least monthly).

50. #20DON’TMEASURESTATISTICSTOOEARLY
“If you’re obsessing over
daily numbers and
you’re only a few
months into your
blogging journey, you’re
wasting your time. It’s
still too early to pay
close attention to
trends.”
- Jeff Goins,
Goins Writer

51. #21ANDFINALLY…EXPERIMENT!
Try different topics,
headlines, ultimate
posts, themes, images,
video, round-up posts,
and promotion. Then
watch your reader
comments, social shares
and changes in traffic.

52. #21ANDFINALLY…EXPERIMENT!
The more you
experiment and refine
your blog (and measure
results), the better it is
for your readers and
the more readers they’ll
bring to your blog.

53. And now it’s
time to get
started!
And now it’s
time to get
started!

54. Get your copy of all
21 Pro Tips
in this
FREE DOWNLOAD NOW.