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The complete formula to craft the perfect blog post in under 2 hours and take your content to the next level

The complete formula to craft the perfect blog post in under 2 hours and take your content to the next level

[+ free download –my popular blog post cheat sheet and the 25 persuasive headlines swipe file]

IMPORTANT NOTE: I am not an affiliate with any of the tools I write about in this blog post, so I do not make any money if you click on the links or purchase any of them.

It doesn’t matter what industry you are in. It doesn’t matter if you are a solopreneur or you have a few employees. It doesn’t matter what your favorite marketing tactic is

The one must have skill today is writing effective blog posts.

Why? I am glad you asked.

Research shows that blog posts are still the #1 asset for engaging with your audience and generating warm leads for your business. In fact, marketers who use blogs generate 67% more leads than those who don’t. Not only that, but blog posts also cost 62% less per lead than other types of marketing efforts. At least this is what Neil Patel is saying ( https://neilpatel.com/blog/how-to-write-blog-post/) and who am I to contradict him?

I have asked a lot of people why they don’t publish more content, although they know the importance of it. The answers that came up were among the following:

  1. I am not a good writer
  2. I don’t know what to write about
  3. Writing takes me forever

If this is your case, continue reading, as I am going to take all your excuses away! I believe that writing a great blog post is a skill you can learn fast. And in this article, I will show you exactly how to do it.

I have even taken it a step further and created for you:

  • a swipe file of 25 persuasive headlines formulas that work in any niche
  • a blog post writing cheat sheet
  • an editorial calendar template (plug in the 25 headlines, and you will have half of year worth of content that you will be eager to start producing)

You will find them at the end of the article.

Now let’s get to the meat and potatoes. I am going to show you the step by step process of writing not just any blog post, but one that will stand out, seduce your readers and transform them into hot leads as quickly as you can spell… “leads.”

Here is what we will cover:

  • Understanding what your audience wants to read.
  • How to choose your topic.
  • How to come up with the perfect headline every time.
  • How to write the blog post and what to include for maximum results.
  • How to easily edit and proofread your blog post.

Ok, so let’s start.

 

1. Understanding what your audience wants to read

 

As you can see, everything related to your business, even your content, begins with your client in mind. In this case, we are talking about your readers. They are your target, and you are trying to come up with the right blog post to move them one step further towards becoming your paying clients.

You want to educate, entertain and/or inspire them.

Always ask yourself: what would they love to read about this week? It shouldn’t be too hard to imagine if you think about who they are, what do they try to achieve and what are the top 5 struggles they face.

So take 5-10 minutes here and make a list of a few general topic you can write about.

For example:

Let’s say that your audience is stay-at-home-mothers who want to start a side business and earn some money while raising their kids.

In this case, a few general topics you can easily come up with would be:

  • the best WordPress themes for the non-tech woman,
  • how to make 1000$ on the side as a stay at home mother or
  • how other stay-at-home moms succeeded in growing a successful side business.

You see? They are all general topics related to what those stay at home moms would relate to and would be interested in reading.

 

2. How to make sure you have a solid topic every time

 

Coming up with the general topic idea is one thing. But making sure that you fill the blog post with the information that is super relevant for your audience is a different thing.

And that is because general topics are made of lots and lots of subtopics. You can’t cover them all in one blog post and you shouldn’t.

So how do you decide what is the must-have information to include so that when your audience reads it they instantly feel like you were just reading their minds?

The secret lies in copywriting.

You see, any good copywriter will tell you that, before writing any copy, they perform a lot of research to understand what their audience wants and needs and what their exact questions are.

If you want your blog post to be effective, you will do the same.

There are a lot of good ways to do this easily. I will list a few of them, the ones I use every time I write something.

  • Tools like Buzzsumo or EpicBeat: they are paid tools, but they also have a free test version. The way they work is: you input your general content ideas, and they will show you the top performing articles that cover this topic. In only a few seconds you will have a list of a lot of very good article ideas, which are virtually guaranteed to resonate with your audience since they are already going viral on the internet. This is a nice starting point, right?
  • The blogs of your competitors: here I recommend looking at the big names, and this is because they have a lot of information about the needs of their audience and they use this information to come up with engaging blog post ideas. So have a look at what they are writing about and see what you can add to that.
  • Blog comments: if you already have a blog where you have been publishing content, and people are already commenting on your articles then you can use this. Take a look at the comments on your blog posts and see if your readers have specific questions or if they share information about their struggles that you can address with your future articles. If you are not that advanced, you can do the same thing with the comments posted by the readers of the bigger blogs in your niche.
  • Amazon is a never-ending source of inspiration for me. I used it to come up with different online business ideas or to do research for my copywriting It works every time. All you have to do is to look for products or books in your niche and read the reviews of the buyers. You won’t believe what gems are in there. Of course, everything comes with a price. In this case, it’s the time needed to go through all those comments (there can be hundreds of them), but it is well worth it.
  • FB groups: if you know some Facebook groups where your audience hangs out, go there and use the search function to look up posts related to your topic. Then read the posts and comments. You can find some useful information.
  • Quora: a place where people ask questions on any topic! What more would you want? You can get a pretty good idea about what people would want to hear more of, so this is worth spending 10-15 minutes on.
  • www.answerthepublic.com: this is a free online tool you can use to see what kind of questions people have on a specific topic. You just write your topic in the search field, press “enter: and you will receive a big list of questions people ask online.

3. How to come up with the perfect headline every time.

 

People who come to your blog and see your article will first read the headline. The headline must be compelling enough to make them think “Hmmm, this sounds interesting, let’s have a look”. Otherwise, everything will be in vain, as they will leave without reading it.

The first thing to do is choosing a working title. Then work it out, based on the tips below:

  • Use the following structure “adjective + topic + benefit.” For example: “The quickest way to lose 10 pounds even if you are the busiest person in the world”
  • Make a big promise to your audience, one that you know they want and one that you can keep. For example, I could write a post called “How to start an online business and become a millionaire in 2 months”, but I am sure you’ll just walk away thinking that this is a scam and you’ll never trust me again, right?
  • Pick the most important benefit the reader will have after reading your blog post and include that benefit in the headline. Example: “How to start a side business and quit your job in 60 days”
  • Try to use words that will offer your reader an emotional benefit. Emotion sells best, and it’s the “weapon” of choice of all the good copywriters. Example: “The 5-minute read that will make you a marketing genius” (in this case the reader understands that if they read the post, they will feel smarter).

As you can see, the idea here is to seduce the readers, making them feel like you have the answers they have been looking for. Of course, you will also have to live up to your promise and deliver the value in the body of the article.

 

4. How to write the blog post and what to include for maximum results.

 

Now comes the writing part, which I know a lot of people dread because they think they can barely write their own to do list.

I have some good news: you don’t have to be the next Ramith Sethi to come up with great articles. It will probably take you more time than it takes Ramit today, yes, but you can do this.

You will begin by doing some research.

The research will help you to:

  • Understand more about your topic.
  • See what others’s wrote about it, so that you can think about what your own angle will be (save the links for the most valuable articles you found, so that you can include a few of them into your article, as a supporting reference – bonus points if the writer of that article will share yours with his audience!).
  • Discover the most popular articles already published on your topic, so that you can understand what the readers liked the most.
  • Gather relevant statistics and facts that you can incorporate into the article.

The tools I use for my own research are Google, Google scholar (mainly for statistics, facts, research articles) and Buzzsumo/EpicBeat.

I also use AirStory, which is writing online software designed for research-based writing projects. More details here: http://www.airstory.co/. (I got this through an AppSumo deal a few month ago, and I paid only $49 for lifetime access, so it was a great deal. They also have a free trial.)

Write down a high-level summary of your post

This would be the main ideas you want to write about. Then, after each main idea, write down three bullet points with mini-ideas that go under the main idea.

Then, all you have to do is to incorporate the results of your research and your own experience, theory, examples and fill in the blanks.

Write your introduction.

This should be a powerful one, a hook to make people continue reading. You can start with an interesting fact that catches attention, use an anecdote, a quote or even begin like an old-fashioned fairytale (I once wrote a blog post that opened with the phrase “It was a dark and stormy night back in 2010” and it was a hit). Be creative, try to include an element of surprise and study what others are doing. With time, you will become a natural at this, I promise.

Write your ending.

Draft your conclusion and don’t forget to insert a CTA (call to action) – think about what you want the readers to do further. The examples are many: you can ask them to go and implement what you taught them in the article, to comment, to share the article, to make a plan, to download your content upgrade, etc.

Also, brainstorm your content upgrade. A content upgrade is a lead magnet that is linked to your article. In this case, your CTA will be to sign in and download the content upgrade (list building). This is highly effective in turning readers into email subscribers. Brian Dean wrote a very detailed article about this here: https://backlinko.com/increase-conversions.

 

5. How to easily edit and proofread your blog post

 

I am not a native English speaker, and for a lot of time, when I was considering starting a blog, I thought that this would be a major setback. I was wrong.

Lots of different people will visit your blog. You can’t please everybody. The ones that matter (aka the ones that will resonate with your content and become your leads) will not pay attention to your imperfect grammar, but to the real value you deliver with your ideas.

Of course, I am not suggesting that you should forget about grammar and spelling. You should not! And with tools like Word Autocorrect, Grammarly and Hemingway, grammar, spelling, and punctuation are very easy to get right.

If you want to take it even further, you may also hire someone to do this for you. There are a lot of online services like wordy.com where a real person can proofread your text. So this is a great option if you have the budget. It is not that much, but costs can add up fast if you don’t pay attention and I know every dollar matters when you are just starting out).

 

6. It’s all about formatting

 

As David Ogilvy put it: “Write short words, short sentences, short paragraphs.” Don’t overcomplicate your sentences; they should be very easy to understand by someone who is no an expert on that topic. You are not writing for your peers, but for your ideal clients (well, unless your ideal clients ARE your peers). ?

Be consistent with your format: use the same fonts, if you make your subheadings italic, make all of them the same.

Use images. Adding a great image at the top will grab people’s attention and make them read. Inserting other visuals (images, charts) in the body of the article will keep your readers more engaged and increase the chances they read until the end (where your CTA is).

Don’t forget to pay attention to copyright. What I am using now are the amazing photos from Unsplash.com (all are high resolution and royalty free), and I also do my visuals with Canva.com and getstencil.com (both of them have a great free version).

Use subheadings to introduce your main points. This will make it easier for people to scan and then read the article. This is also good for SEO purposes if you include your keywords in the subheadings.

Don’t be afraid of using lists and bullet points. I know that there a lot of articles that use them excessively. I am tired of seeing it. But for some niches, it works wonderfully. So it all depends on who your reader is and what they prefer.

If you have some key points that the readers should pay attention to, emphasize them by bolding or italicizing.

Finally, my advice is, when you plan and write an article, don’t think about how much information should you give away. Give your best knowledge and tips. This is how you will make your readers trust you and keep them wanting to come back.

This will also set you apart from a lot of bloggers out there who think that writing 300 words list type posts is enough to have a sustainable blog and business.

The perfect example here is Ramit Sethi (again!) who gives away 98% of his content for free and based on this he managed to build a multi-million business. I also like Marie Forleo very much, because she knows how to make her (video) content engaging and fun.

But please remember.

With content marketing, high quality is never enough, you also need consistency!

Consistency is critical for building trust, getting new leads and turning them into raving fans and paying clients (more about that in a future blog post here).

Of course, I am all for publishing your best content. If you don’t provide super valuable advice to your readers, nobody will pay attention. It is too crowded out there.

But quality, while essential, is never enough per se. If you don’t publish constantly, you will never earn the trust of your readers. Your blog will be doomed to forever be a hobby, not a business.

Ok, so blogging seems to be hard enough, right? ? This is why I want to make it easier for you to write a new blog post every week (remember, quality and consistency are the keys if you want to grow your online business). So if you have some templates at your fingertips, why not using them?

This is why I put together for you:

  • a swipe file of 50 persuasive headlines formulas that work in any niche
  • a blog post writing cheat sheet
  • an editorial calendar template (plug in the 50 headlines here and you will have a full year worth of content that you will be eager to start writing).

Insert your best email below and I will send them to you right away.

 

101 effective ways to increase your blog traffic (website traffic) fast in 2020

101 effective ways to increase your blog traffic (website traffic) fast in 2020

This is a comprehensive (6.5k words) article on strategies you can use right now to increase your website traffic. If you don’t have the time read it now, get your free PDF download by inserting your email below:

Whether you want to get traffic to a new blog or you are thinking about the best ways to add new traffic strategies in 2019, you will love to see a detailed list of the best website traffic options available today, in the current online marketing landscape. Because just as money is the blood of any business, traffic is the blood of online marketing.
[Tweet “”Just as money is the blood of any business, traffic is the blood of any online marketing strategy” – www.OliviaAngelescu.com”]

Getting traffic and leads is the top challenge online marketers are facing, as you can clearly see in the research below:

The bad news is that there was never so much competition over people’s attention online. Whenever we grab that tablet or open our laptop we are instantly bombarded by content and lead magnets and ads, there are so many options everywhere and we are asked to take all sorts of actions. This means one thing: things must be really good to get our attention.

In other words, any bloggers and marketers need to approach their traffic strategy with two things in mind:

  • standing out from the crowd with authority and
  • providing the best experience to their leads, from the first second those leads interact with their content.

Here are 101 great ways to do just that.

A. How to increase blog (website) traffic by using the content published on your own platforms

 

1. Choose the best topics to write about

 

Your content will get shared a lot only if it provides immense value for the readers. This means two things:

  • Your topic should address a burning need of your targeted audience (whether this is teaching them how to do something or just providing lots of motivation or inspiration)
  • Your content needs to be stellar, so try to write the best content that is written on this subject.

If you need some inspiration, here is a list of great blog post ideas for every niche. Remember that, to maximize your results, you should write evergreen content that will be relevant for a long time.

 

2. Pay attention to the length and format of your posts

 

According to BuzzSumo, long-form content (more than 3,000 words) gets the most shares.

So short, fluffy, average value content no longer cuts it. Also, your content needs to be easy to read. Break up your content into paragraphs, use an easy-to-read font, subheadlines, bullet points and emphasize the main ideas with bolded text. In this way, you will optimize your article for both your readers and for SEO purposes. Needless to say that proofreading is a must; Grammarly is a great tool if you are not a native English speaker.

 

3. Write stellar headlines that grab people’s attention immediately

 

Without a great headline, your content will not get read and shared by most of your website visitors, which means your traffic will not increase. There are a lot of tools that can help you come up with engaging headlines, read about seven of them in this BloggingWizard article.

 

4. Invite others to write for your blog

 

By inviting other experts in your space to contribute articles to your blog, you take a lot of pressure off your shoulders (who said creating regular great content is like a walk in the park?), while allowing them to reach your audience. In exchange, ask them to share their guest post with their audience: a win-win situation!

 

5. Create the best content and include share buttons at the end (but no more than 3)

 

Make sure you make it very easy for people to share your content, by including social sharing buttons at the end of each article. Keep it at maximum three buttons, don’t give people a lot of actions to choose from. Otherwise, they will not take any.

 

6. Insert a CTA to share your article if they want to download a content upgrade

 

We already know content upgrades are a great way to build your email list. Once your readers sign up, offer them the option also to share the article if they want to access yet another content upgrade.

 

7. Add “click to tweet” widgets inside your posts

 

By embedding a simple tweet into your post, you will make it easy for your readers to share it quickly. Just like I did here (I am using a plugin called Click-To-Tweet by CoSchedule.

[Tweet “Adding click-to-tweet boxes to your content is a simple way to increase your website traffic.” – www.OliviaAngelescu.com”]

 

8. Update old content

 

When you have valuable articles that get the most traffic, make sure you update them to include the latest information and consider adding more information or visuals to make it even better. Google fresh and relevant content, so updates are necessary.

 

9. Repurpose your content to increase your reach

 

People learn differently: some are more visual, others prefer to read, while others prefer audio or video content. So it makes sense to repurpose your content, to reach as many of those people and make it easy for them to consume (and see the value in) it.

 

10. Use other’s viral content

 

Don’t be afraid to use puppy videos or another type of viral YouTube content to make a point about your own topic (you need to be able to tie the two of them in a natural way, of course). The video will attract a lot of attention to your blog post, which you can then gracefully redirect to the meat and potatoes.

 

11. Start a podcast

 

Launching a podcast in a great way to tap into a new audience that prefers to put their headphones on and consume information. The guys at Fizzle have a great resource on starting a successful podcast that increases both your traffic and your income, check it out here: Fizzle podcast article.

 

12. Host webinars

 

Hosting regular free webinars to share valuable information (with or without a sales pitch at the end) is a great way to increase your authority and your traffic. Also, webinar traffic is better quality traffic (ready to buy), so you can start promoting at the end of each webinar as soon as you have a product or service.

 

13. Self publish an ebook

 

There is a lot of content out there on how to self publish a Kindle book, here is one of the best: https://smartblogger.com/kindle-publishing/. And this is what Neil Patel did to increase his traffic with 206% (the first traffic strategy he mentions is Kindle traffic): https://neilpatel.com/blog/7-proven-strategies-to-increase-your-blogs-traffic-by-206/

 

14. Create visual content and add it to your posts (infographics, charts, images)

 

Visuals can be a great way to get additional traffic to your website. You can also allow people to use your images for their websites with the condition to cite you as a source. For bonus SEO points give those images names that include your keywords; this will ensure they appear in searches.

 

15. Use multimedia type of content to engage even more the readers (more engaged readers = more shares)

 

The same visual content above plus any video you can add to your blog posts will also engage the readers more, which will increase the number of shares.

 

16. Write reviews or case studies of how you used specific tools/software/courses/advice and share it with those people/brands

 

If you have a blog or an online business, you must use at least a few tools such as website platforms, email marketing solutions, landing pages software, design programs, apps, etc. Also, I bet you joined a few online courses so far or maybe just followed the advice of a top influencer and this got you nice results. Write an article about this, including what you did and your results and mentioned that tool or brand that was useful. Then share the article with those you mentioned. There is a big chance that they will share your article with their audience.

 

17. Publish content consistently

 

Put together a basic content calendar and stick to it. You should aim at publishing at least two pieces of content per month. You can plan your content on paper or use a spreadsheet or even something like Trello. I specifically loved to see how Suzi Whitford from Startamomblog.com used colorful post-its for her content calendar, as you can see below.

18. Repurpose your content

 

From your blog posts, you can create social media content and emails that you can easily schedule. Also, you can record a video out of one blog posts and use it for a webinar. In this way you can focus on creating the best content out there, knowing that you will get this time back afterward.

 

19. Syndicate your content – SlideShare

 

SlideShare is a presentation-sharing platform owned by Linkedin that gets more than 70 million visitors every month, so it makes a great platform to use as a traffic source. Here you can read a detailed case study on how Eugene Cheng used SlideShare to get 2 million website visitors.

 

20. Mix (formerly known as StumbleUpon)

 

Mix is a syndication platform that allows you to submit content (links) that the other users can then discover, based on their interests.
21. Host a virtual summit
By leveraging the combined marketing efforts of your virtual summit guests, you can drive thousands (and more) people to your website and also convert a lot of them into subscribers and clients. Your authority will also experience a boost.

 

22. Hold online challenges, boot camps

 

Any event that involves sharing valuable content (how to, tips, strategies, step by step plans, etc.) over a limited period, will probably create lots of engagement and drive traffic to your website as a result (by word of mouth).

 

23. Answer to any blog post comments and engage with your readers

 

This is the first step towards earning their trust and hearts and transforming them into your raving fans, which goes a long way. Imagine having a little “army” of people who love your content and brand so much that they will share it anywhere!

 

B. How to increase blog (website) traffic by basic SEO

 

SEO is the most natural way to get more readers to your blog. The downside is that it takes time and consistent effort: you need to publish a lot of awesome content (for at least a few months) and know what it takes to get your website ranking high in searches.

 

24. Focus on long tail keywords

 

While keywords are words that people use when they search online for potential solutions to their problems, long tail keywords are longer and more specific words combinations/phrases (at least three words). For example, instead of targeting keywords like “online courses” (which probably has a lot of competition), you can think about a long tail keyword like “online courses for fitness coaches” or “online courses for career development.” In this way you will target a niche audience rather than a mass one and your results will be much better.

 

25. On page SEO (how to optimize a post)

 

On page SEO optimizes content for a target keyword within a single blog post. A few tips to keep in mind are:

  • Use your keyword in the title (at the beginning of the title, if possible)
  • Use your keyword in subheadings and throughout your blog post (experts recommend a 1.5% keyword density)
  • Use keywords in the title of the images
  • Link to other posts on your blog and credible external

 

26. Link internally (crosslinking)

 

In any new blog post, make sure to include links to your older content that is relevant. This is the easiest way to improve your SEO. Below you can see an example – the red arrows indicate the use of crosslinking.

27. Backlinks

 

You can use a few different strategies to get backlinks from authority websites, like:

  • Guest blogging – publishing your articles on high authority websites (and linking back to your website inside the guest post or within your author bio)
  • News releases – releasing an expert positioning article in the format of a news release that quickly gets picked up by hundreds of websites with a high Google authority (like the local websites of the TV stations ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX and Google News). This is a great way to quickly get dozens of good quality backlinks. One of my clients has recently got 1029 backlinks in only 48 hours with this exact strategy, so I see a lot of potential here.
  • Backlinks exchange with other bloggers.

 

C. How to increase blog (website) traffic through email marketing

 

28. Email marketing with CTA such as “share this”

 

One of the great things about having an email list is that you always have a group of people who, the more engaged they are, the more will help you spread the word on your new content.

 

29. Email marketing – autoresponder

 

If you don’t have a welcome email sequence in place, consider it. It is a great way to introduce yourself to new subscribers and start a great relationship with them, but it can also have a strategic impact on your traffic if you insert a few links to your best content.

 

30. Include a link to your blog in your email signature

 

Everyone you come in contact with should know that you have a blog and, depending on your email software, you can use a variety of tools to do this.

 

31. Roundup emails

 

Depending on how much content you produce, you can send out monthly/quarterly/yearly emails containing roundups of your best content.

 

D. How to increase blog (website) traffic by getting in front of other people’s audience

 

Especially when you are starting out, leveraging the audiences of more established platforms is an amazing way to get a traffic kick and gain email subscribers as well.

 

32. Guest posting/guest blogging

 

Online marketing gurus like Neil Patel and Ramit Sethi swear by guest blogging as a powerful traffic strategy. This means you write an article that you publish on an already established website and make yourself visible in front of their readers. I could talk about this topic all day long. If you want to learn more about how to write persuasive guest blogging pitches, you can read my article here.

 

33. Medium

 

You can write an article on Medium and then submit it to various publications that use Medium as a publishing platform. Once your article is accepted, you can get lots of traffic (depending on how many readers that specific publication has).

 

34. Be a guest on a podcast

 

If you are better at talking than writing, you will be happy to know that there are thousands of podcasts that are looking for a guest. Do your research and send your pitch.

 

35. Syndication

 

There are online platforms that accept publishing content that has been published somewhere else: Business2Community, LinkedIn, Medium, etc. You can also use paid tools like Outbrain to take your content syndication strategy one step further.

 

36. Use HARO

 

Create a free account on HARO (Help A Reporter Out), where lots of bloggers and journalists are looking for the best sources for their articles. Once you sign in you will get three emails per day with all the HARO queries (you can filter them by topic) and by replying to those that fit your expertise you can get featured on authority websites.

37. Use SourceBottle

 

SourceBottle is the Australian little brother of HARO, so it makes sense if you are targeting an audience based in Australia and New Zeeland.

 

38. Get on local TV/press/radio

 

Do your research and find out newspaper columns, radio shows and TV segments that are a great fit for your brand, business or story. Then find out the contact information of the editor/host/producer and send your pitch. Start locally and move your way up on the media ladder.

 

39. Be a speaker in a virtual summit

 

Virtual summits can do wonders for your traffic because they are gathering together a good number of experts that offer their advice and tips to the same audience. So the traffic potential is multiplied.

 

40. Apply for speaking gigs

 

There are lots of offline conferences and workshops organized in different niches. Find a list of events that are happening this year in your industry and send speaking inquiries. A shortcut would be to ask someone you know, who has been a speaker before, to introduce you to the organizers of a specific event. And don’t think that only big events are worthwhile: especially if you don’t have a lot of credentials and connections that can back you up, start with small events.

Here are a few Google search results that came up when I researched “speaking opportunities 2019 online marketing”:

41. Host a free workshop for other people’s communities

 

It will always be much easier to leverage an existing audience that to start one from scratch. Find people who are targeting the same audience as you do (but are not your direct competitors) and reach out. Chances are they are looking for quality free information to offer to their audience, so this will be a win-win situation.

 

42. Host a joint webinar

 

By hosting a joint webinar with another business, you are both leveraging each other’s audiences and marketing efforts (via a joint promotion strategy, thus splitting any costs involved).

 

43. YouTube video cross promotion

 

Record a value-packed YouTube video for someone who serves the same audience as you do, without being your direct competitor. Then return the favor.

 

44. Write about established people in your space and share the articles with them: case studies

 

It is always a great idea to write a valuable post about a specific strategy that an influencer has used to get from point A to point B. The more accurate and value-driven the article is, the more likely will be that the influencer will share the article with his/her huge audience.

 

45. Be part of a joint giveaway

 

Joint giveaways are a popular method to quickly increase an email list (and traffic). In a joint giveaway, several brands come together to offer something of value that will be part of the giveaway bundle (sometimes worth thousands of dollars). People are asked to perform a certain action (signing up, sharing the giveaway, following a social media page, etc) to participate in the giveaway and increase their chance of winning.

 

46. Write “quotes” based articles with quotes from 10 influential people in your space and share the post with them

 

Choose your topic the create a panel of experts that can share their tips/insights. Use social media or email to reach out to them and ask for their quote, then write and publish your article and share it with anyone who contributed. If the article is relevant, they will share it with their audiences.

 

47. Content curation

 

Curate a list of “best articles on [insert your topic]”, publish it on your website and then share it with everyone you included in your post.

 

48. News releases

 

You can write a journalistic style piece on different topics that position you as an expert (market predictions, sharing tips based on your experience, explaining what life lessons can be learned from a popular movie, sharing company updates etc.) and use a news release service to put it out there. In just a few days your story can get picked up by thousands of websites and blogs and you can use all these media logos as an authority element. I used this strategy many times for my clients and it works like a charm (when done the right way).

 

49. Interview someone and ask them to share

 

By interviewing someone who serves the same audience as you do (but in a different way), you are producing great value content for your audience while also reaching that other expert’s audience (once they share it).

 

50. Guest emailing – write a value-driven email that others can send to their lists

 

Email is a powerful nurturing and selling tool, and as part of the nurturing strategy, delivering awesome content emails to your subscribers is a must. Marketers send out regular emails for which they need to create the content so if you write the content for them you make their lives easier. The principle here is the same as with guest blogging: you write value-packed email content that another person sends to his/her email list, thus introducing you to them.

 

51. Become a regular contributor

 

Once you have published your first article on a popular platform in your space, it will be much easier to publish a second one. Use your new connection with the editor/blogger to propose another great article and then another. There are also platforms where, once your general author application has been approved, you can publish as many times as you want, like Business2Community. Other platforms charge a small fee to allow you to become a regular contributor, such as YourTango ( a great website in the personal development/relationships niche).

 

52. Connect with influencers

 

Reaching out to influencers and providing value to them will be extremely beneficial for your traffic (and business). Here you can listen to a great podcast episode with Selena Soo, a top media strategist (and one of my media mentors), on how to do this without looking desperate.

 

53. Be a star student

 

Online course creators are always on the lookout for new great case studies and testimonials they can use in their launches and showcase to thousands of people (together with your website).

A few examples: Bushra Azhar (love this woman!) from The Persuasion Revolution was featured as a stellar case study on Ramit Sethi’s website and Shamanth Pereira who achieved some great results when she launched Invisibelly landed a great feature in all the promo materials made by the guys at Foundr.

 

54. Share your results

 

Think about what products, services, tools you use and email those brands with your (stellar) results – this will make them look good in front of their audience, so they will be happy to share your story.

 

55. Ask fellow bloggers / online business owners

 

While running your blog or online business, we are always making new connections and friends from people like us, who are at the same business level as we are. I am sure lots of them will be more than happy to share your super valuable blog post (as you can see, almost everything centers around VALUE).

 

56. Add your blog to AllTop

 

AllTop publishes news from all niches. If you meet their requirements, you can submit your website, which means that your articles will be featured inside the AllTop category they best fit into.

 

57. Join Triberr

 

Triberr is a network of content creators that cross-promote their content. There are thousands of “tribes” grouped around a common topic (from the environment and pets to fitness and humor).

 

58. Add your blog to Blogarama

 

Blogarama is one of the oldest blog directories with millions of visitors. You can submit your blog for free and also get a premium version to get even more visitors.

 

59. Google News

 

If you meet specific requirements, you can submit your blog to Google News, which means great exposure for your website.

 

60. Platforms specific to one niche

 

There are platforms where you can submit your content and engage with other people in your space, in a specific niche — examples: GrowthHub for online marketers, GitHub for developers, ManageWP for WordPress geeks.

 

E. How to increase blog (website) traffic by leveraging the power of your website

 

61. Use an SEO friendly online publishing platform

 

I use WordPress, which makes it easy to publish SEO friendly content. For a more detailed comparison between several platforms, check out this article.

 

62. Use the right hosting

 

The most expensive hosting companies are not always the best ones and this will affect your website speed and even availability. Do your due diligence and look for the best options you can afford. Don’t be afraid to ask for other’s personal experiences with hosting; you can learn a lot of things. Two years ago, I switched from a big-name hosting company (with crappy customer service) to TMD Hosting and never looked back.

 

63. Keep it simple – remove any distractions

 

Set up one desired objective for each page on your website and then remove any potential distraction that can keep website visitors take the desired action (reading and sharing your blog posts, signing in, book a call with you, etc.) Also, if traffic increase is your primary objective, don’t allow third-party advertising on your website, as this can drive people away.

 

64. Improve speed

 

Surveys say that half of our website visitors tend to abandon a site that isn’t loaded within 3 seconds. So the speed of your website directly impacts your traffic (and sales).

 

65. Responsiveness

 

In 2018, for the first time, mobile traffic worldwide was bigger than desktop traffic, with regions like Asia witnessing even a whopping 60% mobile traffic. It makes it a no brainer that your website must be responsive (to look good when accessed via a mobile device). Luckily, most website platforms and theme offer this option at no extra cost.

 

66. List your most popular posts

 

On website platforms like WordPress, you have the option of displaying your most popular blog posts as a list on your home or blog page, making it easy for readers to go to those posts. Below you can see this tactic as applied by Marie Forleo:

67. Social proof / Authority signs

 

Any authority signs (such as media logos, social media audience, email subscribers, number of clients served) should be displayed in prominent places on your website. If you are just starting out, using a great news release that is guaranteed to be picked up by major websites is a great shortcut to having a few great media logos to use (on top of doing wonders for your SEO).

 

F. How to increase blog (website) traffic through social media

 

68. Include a link to your website on all your social media profiles

 

Everyone who gets to any of your social media profiles should be able to immediately see that you have a website. Here are a few great examples:

Facebook profile example – Talia Koren from https://workweeklunch.com/

 

Instagram profile of https://thesheapproach.com

 

69. Share your content regularly on all the social media platforms you are on

 

You can use paid tools like Buffer or MeetEdgar to automate your content posting and make sure you have a consistent social media content strategy with minimal effort.

 

70. Start a Facebook group

 

In 2018 Facebook groups became more popular than Facebook pages, as they better foster connection with likeminded people. Half of the 3 billion active Facebook users check groups every month. By starting your group, you can build a community that will love reading and sharing your content that they find valuable, entertaining or motivating.

 

71. Join and be active in FB groups: powerful introduction, be helpful, watch the promo threads, search for threads on your topic

 

Facebook groups provide a place where members can connect based on a common interest and share their views, images, videos and much more. Here is a detailed article about how to find relevant groups for you and how to use them for blog traffic.

 

72. Ask your friends to share your content (via your personal FB profile)

 

This should be the first traffic strategy to use when you are just starting out. If 30 people share your new blog with their connections, you can get your first 1,000 readers in one day. Plus, you can never know who your blog post will reach, after today we are only a few connections away from anyone.

 

73. Start a Youtube channel

 

YouTube is the world’s second largest search engine and third most visited site after Google and Facebook. In 2018, as the Facebook ad cost increased, a lot of influencers in the online marketing space have started to focus more on their YouTube strategy (content and ads) and I predict that in 2019 this trend will continue, demonstrating once more that YouTube is a great platform to leverage for blog traffic.

 

74. Pinterest

 

Pinterest is another search engine that is often mistaken by a social media platform. Pinterest works like magic for blog traffic, as its users are there to look for information and consume content. 1 out of 2 millennials confirms using Pinterest every single day. And with 40% of its users making more than 100k/year, it makes it a no brainer to focus on a Pinterest strategy in 2019. Suzi Whitford from Startamomblog.com has put together an amazing post on how to use Pinterest for traffic in 2019.

 

75. LinkedIn – publish content

 

It is very easy to publish an article on LinkedIn and, if it gets traction, it can be featured on LinkedIn Pulse, which will get a lot of visibility. LinkedIn members have the most purchasing power compared to any other social media network.

 

76. LinkedIn groups

 

Participating in LinkedIn groups is a great way to establish your authority and get people back to your website.

 

77. Stand out on Instagram

 

Just having followers on Instagram will not help at all, you need to have an engaged audience. So for Instagram success, you need tasty content and here is a great resource on how to do just that: Instagram Success in 2019

 

78. Instagram shoutouts

 

Two brands can collaborate by agreeing to give each other a shoutout and post a photo or a video asking their followers to follow the other’s account. If your audience is on Instagram and you have a marketing budget you can even buy IG shoutouts from influencers. Pay attention when spending money, though, you will only get results if that audience is engaged.

 

79. IG – hashtags

 

It is well known that Instagram is all about using the right hashtags for you, that are also trending. There are lots of tools to find hashtags, but experts like Deepshikha Sairam from Socialique recommends, the best way is the old fashioned way: manually.

 

80. Twitter

 

I know Twitter is still a mysterious social media platform for a lot of businesses, so here are a few things to have in mind, according to Jeff Bulas:

  • Just like with your blog posts, the headlines must be worth clicking on
  • Use relevant hashtags for engagement increase
  • Tweets with images get 150% more retweets
  • You need to tweet frequently

 

81. Google+

 

On Google+ you can find communities, the equivalent of Facebook groups. Their topics range from photography to Harry Potter and business and some of them have up to 10 millions members, so they are definitely worth exploring.

82. Slack

Started as a tool used for office communication, Slack has also become a way for people to connect, share content and ask for feedback. The group topics range from startup to gaming and Asia – see here a full list of Slack groups.

83. Other social media platforms

 

Because everyone’s attention is on the top 4 social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn – I excluded the search engines like Pinterest and YouTube), it is a great moment to tap into hidden gems where the competition for people’s attention is lower. Here you can find a list of 60 social media platforms that are worth exploring.

 

G. How to increase blog (website) traffic by generating buzz around your brand/business

 

84. Super valuable free lead magnets

 

If you have a lead magnet (or more) that are so good that people would pay for, your traffic strategy just got easier. People like to share super valuable things with their friends, it makes them look good, so once the word goes out about your free optin offer you can have lots of word of mouth referral. I wrote about how you can make a lead magnet convert at +60% in this article.

 

85. Host a free online course on your own platform

 

Put together a great online course on your topic and make it free then share it with everyone you know. You can even allow people to access it for free only after they share it. This is possible if you host your course on a platform like Teachable (they have a free plan)

 

86. Publish a free course on Udemy

 

Udemy is an online courses marketplace with more than 80,000 courses and 24 million students. A great traffic strategy is to publish a free course here and include links to your website for further resources.

 

87. Viral referral

 

You can host a giveaway, asking people to share your content if they want to have a chance of winning. A giveaway is a great traffic strategy, and you can make things simple by using tools like UpViral.

 

88. Q&A platforms

 

Platforms like Quora or StackExchange are a good way to build up your expert status while also going deep into the burning needs of your audience. Look for questions on your topic and answer them, providing as much value possible. You will also insert links to any content that you have on your website that is relevant. Here are a few topics of discussion on Quora:

89. Reddit

 

The Reddit platform may look a little bit outdated but don’t let this fool you. The community is very engaged, which makes is a great place to share your expertise. Like with any other community, observe the rules and keep away from spamming with your links. Focus on providing value and insert your links if it makes sense. There are many subreddits, and each of them has its own rules, so do your research.

 

90. Blogging communities

 

You can join blogging communities to network with like-minded people that support each other. Here is a nice list of 70 blogging communities you can check out: Mashable list of blogging communities

 

91. Comment on the articles published on the top websites in your niche

 

This will help you get on the radar of the influencers who published those articles, while also establishing your authority in front of the other readers. One of my clients, Seema, used this strategy and immediately landed a guest post on an authority blog because the blogger liked her value driven comment and invited her to expand on it via a guest post.

 

92. Attend conferences/networking events

 

I am talking about conferences on your topic but also conferences addressed at your ideal audience. While you are there, make sure you can tell any new connection in 10 seconds what you do and what is your website. You can also prepare business cards and include your website info.

Also, conferences are not only for marketing or business people; you can find at least a few ones in almost any niche. Just look at how many knitting conferences I found with a simple Google search:

93. Organize your own offline event

 

Depending on your market, an offline event can be even more successful than an online one. You can host a free (or even low price) workshop or just a networking event which will give you the opportunity to make new connections and let people know about your website.

 

94. Be active in online communities in your space

 

Besides Facebook groups, there are also stand alone online communities that formed around specific topics and interests, like GrowthHackers and Inbound for marketers or DeviantArt for designers and StackOverflow for developers. Reddit also has lots of subgroups on various topics.

 

95. Start a Wikipedia page or submit content to other Wikipedia pages

 

You can create a page about a specific topic and include links to your articles as a source of information. If you are an expert in your topic (according to the Wikipedia rules) you can also submit your articles as Wikipedia resources.

 

96. Enter to win an industry award (or more)

 

Today you can find a lot of awards available for companies in many industries. Winning one of them is a great authority builder, and it can also get a lot of traffic to your website.

 

97. Launch something

 

Launches involve a good amount of work, but when done right, you can earn money while skyrocketing your traffic and email list. I wrote here about how to put together a launch strategy.

 

H. How to increase blog (website) traffic through paid traffic

 

98. Paid ads (on the social media platform that is relevant for your audience)

 

Yes, some ad costs have gone up in 2018. But this should not scare you, a LOT of the ads that I see today are sounding and looking all the same, which means you have an opportunity if you choose to do things differently. With the right testing, you can get great traffic even with a small budget. The only thing to get right is to be clear about what is the right ads platform for you, aka where your ideal audience hangs out.

For example: as 90% of Facebook ads are focused on promoting people to their lead magnet or even paid offer, your solution to stand out is to direct people just to your latest piece of content. I want to emphasize that this content needs to be highly valuable, not average in any way. This will increase your reach and your overall results while ensuring a low cost per click. At the end of the article, you should include a content upgrade as a way to also grow your email list (if your article is valuable, I bet people will love to sign in). Maybe you will not get as many sign-ups as with a traditional optin ad, but their quality will be better, and you will spend less money.

On the other hand, when you stop the ads, the traffic will also stop. So you want to use this strategy as a supplement of all the other organic traffic strategies.

 

99. Paid influencers promotion

 

If you want to get more traffic to a sales page and you carefully choose the influencers you want to collaborate with, this strategy can give you a nice return on investment. In this article on SocialMedia Examiner, Lilach Bullock has covered getting started with influencers marketing campaigns.

 

100. Paid media

 

There are lots of great websites that accept standard guest post submissions, while also offering the possibility of a promoted story. If you are a brand that is looking to get quick media coverage, you can pay to get your story published fast. A sponsored story usually gives you the opportunity to insert links to your product pages inside the article, which is not allowed in a “regular” submission.

 

I. Rinse and repeat

 

101. Analytics

 

As with any other business or marketing strategy, you need to measure your results and see what works best for you. For measuring your website traffic, Google Analytics is a great and easy to use tool. So install it on your website, track your best results and simply do more of that.

This is it! 101 great strategies to increase your website or blog traffic in 2019 (and beyond). You can also download the PDF version and save it on your computer for future reference, do this by inserting your info in the box below.

How to make your Optin convert at +60%

How to make your Optin convert at +60%

[+ free download: the OPT-IN ideas swipe file – 60 great opt-in example for every niche ]

As I was scrolling my Twitter feed today, I saw this hilarious post that featured potential reasons why you are probably single:

“Last time I went in for a checkup my doctor asked me what birth control I was using and I answered:

– My personality.

She laughed so gotdamn hard she had to put her clipboard down.”

It made me think: this is just like in the online business space, where your “opt-in personality” can scare away your audience. Whether your lead-magnet truly sucks (it’s you), or they just don’t immediately see the value it brings on the table (it’s them), it doesn’t matter. If you don’t change something quickly, you are doomed to be alone forever.

This is tragic because no email subscribers = no business.

And no business = your freedom dreams crushed.

The good news is I can help you change all this is as little as one day. Yes, you heard me right. I will share with you the exact steps to take if you want to copy my results:

  • An opt-in that, when promoted in one FB group, gives you 365 comments in 1 day
  • An opt-in that once published on your website gives you a 60% conversion rate
  • An opt-in that, once you are running ads, is so attractive that it gives you leads for a few cents.

All of these without being a “guru,” a native English speaker or having hundreds of happy clients that are dying to write fabulous testimonials for me.

Wanna know how? Let’s dive in.

 

1. Find out your USP

 

First things first, you must be clear about your USP. This stands for Unique Selling Proposition and it means you must know what your service/product is and who is it for.

If you know this already, that’s great. If not, let me help you quickly solve this. Fill in the blanks below and here is your USP.

“I help [insert your target audience] with [insert their general problem you can solve] by [insert your solution]”

Like in my own example:

I help TIME STARVED ONLINE ENTREPRENEURS with their LAUNCHING STRUGGLES by TEACHING THEM SMART CONTENT MARKETING STRATEGIES THAT WORK.

 

2. Choose your ideal client (and my counterintuitive advice on why you should NOT brainstorm around the ideal client avatar)

 

Once you are crystal clear about your USP, let’s get to the famous “ideal client avatar” step.

Except: I DON’T BELIEVE IN A CLIENT AVATAR. This avatar might work great for SF movies, but that’s about it.

This is what most people recommend: brainstorm the shit out of your ideal client avatar. When I was just starting out, I did the same. And guess what? It gave me months of procrastination, of not moving on with my business because I was so unsure what I brainstormed was the real thing.

And it was not about the easy questions like “are they a man or a woman?”. Oh, no. There were questions like: “What keeps them awake at night?” that got me stuck. I could have kept fantasizing for hours and then ending up wondering if I got this right at all.

Maybe it was my previous career as a finance and management consultant; maybe it was my experience with writing hundreds of business plans for small and big companies, maybe it was all those times I helped businesses identify the profit leaking sources and take measures to close them quickly. One thing is for sure: not one of those business experiences relied on going onward with an idea without testing it first to make sure it works.

So, please excuse me if I don’t trust those highly priced business coaches who sell this like this is the natural thing to do. Because IT IS NOT.

So I did things a little bit differently. I went to a Facebook group filled with people who were in my general audience (women who wanted a freedom business). I chose one person I knew and whom I WOULD HAVE DONE ANYTHING to have the opportunity to work with. In fact, when I tried to put a face to my “ideal” client avatar, that was the person that immediately came to my mind.

I reached out to her (we previously talked about our business struggles) and I told her about a new product idea I was working on. I asked her if she would hop on a call with me for 20 minutes to answer a few questions I had. She agreed.

 

3. Do your research to figure out what they want

 

Earlier on in my business process, when I was validating my product idea, I went to Udemy and searched for courses on my general topic (content marketing) that had at least 100 good testimonials.

I also performed a basic search on BuzzSumo for smaller topics within my general topic that had lots of shares (more than 10k shares in the last 12 months).

From doing this two things (which only took 30-40 minutes), I ended up with more than 30 different ideas I knew I could use for my opt-in. But I had no idea which of them would be the most attractive to my ideal clients. This was exactly what I was going to find out during my call with my ideal client (which was real, not some avatar).

Before the call, I prepared a list of questions. These questions helped me not only easily finding out what the most relevant struggles were (bye-bye brainstorming forever!), but also making her open up and going deep with her answers.

What I mean is that I didn’t get generic answers like “I would like to have more guest blogging opportunities but don’t know where to start”, but things like “Every time I want to open my laptop to research potential websites to write for, my research anxiety kicks in. After 5 minutes of staring at the Google page I feel like my brain freezes and then I begin doubting my entire business building abilities. Am I ever going to do this when I can’t even come up with one darn website that would be great for my brand?”.

See the difference?

 

4. Choose one thing and narrow it down

 

Your paid solution (the product or service you want to sell) is something that will help your clients solving their problem. We know that.

But how do you come up with the perfect opt-in idea that makes your subscriber scream “Give me more of that!” and then immediately taking out the credit card and purchase your product?

Things are pretty straightforward; you just have to answer the following three questions:

Does this solve a small part of my customer’s problem (like the first steps they need to take towards solving their problem)?

Is very easy to consume and implement?

Is this so good that other people I know charge money for it? Don’t be afraid to do this. The internet is very crowded today and, if you are only starting out, the only chance to stand out is to give away for free something extremely valuable. And then having a strategy in place to rip off the benefits of doing this, of course (more details will follow in my next emails).

Now, if you want to see some great examples of lead magnets that tick all the boxes above, I have put together for you a free download you can immediately access: the Opt-in swipe file with 60 lead magnet ideas for every niche. Fill in your info in the box below and enjoy it.

 

5. Free or low-cost tools you need to put together a highly converting opt-in offer

 

Once you found your winning opt-in idea, you can easily put it together, by using free (or almost free) tools like:

  • Graphic design tools

I have tried a lot of free and paid tools and the only ones that worked for me are Stencil and Canva. Both of them come with a FREE version.

  • Shooting videos and video editing software: your laptop/smartphone camera and free software like Screencast (for Windows) or iMovie (for Apple products).
  • An email management system like MailChimp (which has a free version) or ConvertKit for delivering a free mini-courses as your optin.
  • For quizzes: take a look at Typeform (www.typeform.com) which has a free version or the quizz builder from Thrive Themes. I’ve heard very good things about both, but I never used them personally.

Also, bear in mind that even free stuff (like your new opt-in) should have a sales page (which in this case is the opt-in page). Even if you don’t sell something for money, your visitors still need to decide to give you or not their email, based on what they see on the opt-in page. A few tips here:

– make the opt-in benefits clear: tell them what they will get AND how this will help them with their problem.

– make it easy for them to sign up: considering leaving out the “first name” box, even if you love personalized emails. The recent studies show that this can dramatically increase your opt-in rate. Also, don’t write a lot of copy here: a one-paragraph description of the opt-in and three bold benefits are more than enough.

Let’s see a few good examples:

6. Conclusion

 

As Marie Forleo, one of my mentors, says: everything is FIGURATEABLE! If you are stuck with your opt in idea, or the opt in you currently have doesn’t convert well, there is hope. You can change everything in as little as two days.

What does this mean? Let me show you.

Let’s say that you have a monthly traffic of 1000 people and your current opt in converts at 5%. This means you add 50 new subscribers every month.

Now let’s say you revamp your opt in offer and increase your conversion rate to 60%. This means you will add 600 new subscribers every month only from this change.

How would your business change if you could pull this out?

I put together for you an OPT-IN ideas swipe file with 60 great examples of lead magnets that you can use for immediate inspiration.

Download it for free here:

Top 5 lessons learnt from the worst guest blogging pitch ever

Imagine this for a moment: you are a very busy blogger and every day you wake up to an inbox filled with hundreds of emails from random people who are pitching their wonderful articles.

You grab a cup of coffee, sit down in front of your computer, open one of those emails and you see something like this:

“Hi, Sir.

Let me write you today to tell you how amazing I am and how your life will not be able to go on unless you feature my amazing and perfect article on your website.

Of course, I will include at least 25 links to my own amazing website, you readers will be amazed at how good I am!!

Also, I specifically need you to do it today or tomorrow at the latest, because I need it and I am awesome.”

Well, I might have exaggerated a little bit (ok, a lot!), but I wanted to emphasize a few things – I think you got the picture, right?

So what should the blogger do? I bet he will say something like:

“Errrr, what was this person even thinking?!” and then I bet he will immediately delete that email.

Here is a great example of a really bad guest blogging pitch (from the HubSpot blog) – I have highlighted in red all the terrible things that you should never include in your email if you want to actually have your article featured by the website you are pitching to:

What are the problems with this guest blogging pitch? Let’s take them one by one:

 

 

  • The email subject sounds spammy (please, please, stay away from those!)
  • The sender did not bother at all to get a little bit personal (like trying at least to research the name of the editor)
  • The opening phrase is… well… bad (“I really enjoy your website”???? Come on!)
  • All the misspelled words, my God!
  • The sender started requiring thing even if their article idea was not even approved yet! (because with guest blogging it’s all about them, right? WRONG!)
  • A seriously bad closing phrase!!!! I am sure the only thing that the editor regretted at that time is opening that specific email!

So are there any official rules of a successful guest blogging pitch? Well, it is actually the same as in any other sales interaction: you are selling yourself and your article ideas and the blogger or the editor is your potential client.

But to save you any overwhelm, here they are: the golden rules of a guest blogging pitch, collected right from the source (the busy star bloggers everyone is trying to impress).

 

1. Once you know what website you want to pitch your article to, start doing your research.

The worst approach is to send a blind pitch, without knowing anything about the blogger and what type of content he is interested in.

First, you have to very carefully read all the guest blogging rules they have (if any).

Then use the search box on their website to see what they have already published on your topic.

Study the format of their articles (are they short or long? Do they seem to publish a lot of “How to” posts? Do they seem to love lists or maybe infographics?).

2. Start to build a relationship with them before actually sending your guest blogging pitch.

Post comments to their articles, follow them and engage with them on social media.

If you do that for a while, when your name is going to pop up in their inbox they will recognize it and they will actually open your email.

 

3. Make the blogger care about you, as a human being, and he will be much more likely to consider your pitch.

Read their About page and try to find their name (if you can’t find it check their social media accounts or use Google research).

While doing that also note down some things you can include in your pitch email (like a hobby they have, a town they lived in, a recent trip they made or anything else they share with their audience).

This will show them that you took the time to actually know them.

 

4. Place yourself in their shoes.

 

Bloggers are not running their blogs to help people like you who want to write for them. Their goal is only to provide quality and regular content for their readers.

So in the first paragraph of your email, after shortly introducing yourself, tell them how you can help them bring more value to their audience.

Demonstrate those 2 things below and they will say YES:

  • that you can write well (by inserting links to writing samples) and
  • that you are focused on giving your best to their audience (show them you did your homework and you know exactly what their readers love to read about).

5. Just like any successful email marketing campaign, a successful pitch starts with the subject line.

 

When a blogger receives an email, he sees only two things: your name and the subject line.

This means that you need a subject line that will brag their attention and make them want to read more.

Research (like this http://frac.tl/pitching-publishers-best-practices) shows that 85% of editors open emails based on the subject lines.

Here is an example of a great email subject line:

“ Statistics show that 75% of brands promote their products on Facebook – guest post idea on how to make your brand stand out from the crowd” (specific, to the point, article idea included in the subject line)

And a not-so-great one:

“Guest Posting Inquiry” (general and… boring!)

 

6. Demonstrate respect for them and their time and make it really easy for them to say “Yes”

 

First of all, give before you ask. Don’t include any demands on inserting links to your website or promoting your freebie.

Wait until they say yes and them you can also cover this part. Right now it will only make you look greedy and we don’t want that.

Also, any blogger or editor is very likely to delete a pitch if it includes spelling and grammar errors, so double check your email before sending it.

Let them know that you are flexible and open to change the proposed headline, featured image or anything else in the article if they want.

And take care of all the necessary formatting and the blogger/editor will love you for it and will want to work with you for other future guest posts.

 

7. Include 3-4 article ideas in your pitch.

 

This will show them that you are full of ideas and willing to make this work.

 

8. Keep it short.

 

Have I mentioned bloggers are very busy people? 🙂

If they open your email and see a long page of words that could basically make an entire blog post they won’t read it (according to research 50% of them admit this).

So what you should include?

  • Your short introduction
  • Why your writing would be relevant to our audience
  • A list of 3-4 article titles or ideas (including one takeaway for each of them)
  • A short closing line (and please, don’t forget to thank them for their time!, Be polite.)

Of course that, even if you do your best in terms of researching and carefully crafting your pitch email, they might not answer back or they might say they are not interested.

Does this mean that you should never send them another pitch again? Certainly not! They said no to your specific article ideas, not to you, as a person.

So don’t be afraid to pitch again, with a new idea. Go again to step 1 and perform even a deeper research on their content and repeat the process.

Now you’ve all it takes to wow a blogger or editor. You just have to use everything strategically to show them what you’ve got!

If you have any additional questions on guest blogging pitches I can’t wait to read them in the comments, so don’t be shy.

Also, if you know anyone who would benefit from reading this feel free to share.