Marc's Blog

4 Ways To Get More Blog Traffic From Twitter

January 6, 2016 by Marc Guberti 4 Comments

If there is one social network that you need to master for the sake of your blog’s growth, that social network must be Twitter.

Out of all of the social networks I use, Twitter brings in the most traffic. And many prominent bloggers within my niche have praised Twitter in a similar way.

Twitter just happens to be a great social network for getting more blog traffic. But only if you know how to bring your followers over to your blog.

The way you use Twitter ultimately determines what you get out of it. To get the best out of your Twitter efforts and generate more blog traffic, follow these four tips.

#1: Pin A Tweet Promoting Something On Your Blog

A while ago, Twitter rolled out a new feature that allows people to pin a tweet to the top of their feeds.

If you want people who visit your Twitter profile to always see a specific blog post or page on your blog, then you can pin one of your tweets. That pinned tweet will also generate massive social proof since it’s half-life is infinite.

The half-life of most tweets are very short. Within a few hours, most tweets become completely irrelevant and pushed to the bottom of our ever growing feeds.

When you pin a tweet to the top of your feed, that tweet does not die. It is immortal until you decide to pin another tweet on the top of your profile instead.

Right now, I am still going strong with the same pinned tweet that has hundreds of likes and retweets. The massive social proof indicates popularity and gets people to click on the link and share it with their audiences.

It’s no wonder that this particular landing page is the most popular thing I have on my blog.

#2: Tweet Consistently Throughout The Day

If you go to different blog posts, you will get different advice on how many tweets to send in a given day. Some people will advise 10 tweets per day while others will advise no more than five tweets per day.

The actual science of tweeting frequency is discovering what works best with your audience. What works best for my audience is tweeting consistently throughout the day.

I started tweeting more often when I saw other people doing the exact same thing and getting better results because of it. I wondered if I could double my daily tweets and then double my blog traffic from Twitter.

It turns out I could, and as a result, my blog grew exponentially over the next few months.

The growth my blog experienced was directly related to my tweeting more often. However, I’m not simply tweeting anything that comes to mind.

I am tweeting my blog posts often. In fact, I tweet about my own blog posts more than 90% of the time. Some people would advise to only tweet your content 20% of the time, but I discovered something different:

As long as you tweet valuable content, your followers will appreciate it.

If you write valuable content and want to promote that valuable content, then your audience will appreciate it. Even if you only tweet your own blog posts, people within your audience will still read your content and engage with you all the same.

#3: Tweet With 1-2 Hashtags

Tweets with 1-2 hashtags have been proven to get more engagement than tweets that don’t have any hashtags at all. Getting more engagement from your tweets will result in more blog traffic for you.

And including 1-2 hashtags within a tweet is one of the easiest ways to boost engagement. Not only will you get more engagement, but you will also get more exposure.

I like to view hashtags as the SEO for Twitter. When you type in a hashtag into Twitter’s search engine, all tweets with that hashtag will show up. When someone clicks on a hashtag, that person then sees the most recent tweets containing the hashtag.

Including relevant hashtags within your tweets makes it easy for people to find your tweets. Better yet, if you can take advantage of a trending hashtag and relevantly insert that hashtag into your tweet, then that tweet will pick up some exposure from the trending topics.

Tweets that including trending topics are going to be seen by a significant amount of the Twitter population.

#4: Make It Easier For People To Share Your Blog Posts Via Twitter

All of my blog posts include a tweet button at the very bottom. I include this tweet button at the bottom of all of my blog posts to make it easier for people to tweet my content.

While the tweet button is a nice start, there are several ways to make it easier for people to share your content.

You can have social media icons on the side that drag down so people can share your content at any point.

For Twitter in particular, you can also use tools like Click To Tweet and various WordPress plugins that allow you to create links to custom tweets in the middle of your blog posts. Here is an example:

[Tweet “4 Ways To Get More #Blog Traffic From #Twitter. http://bit.ly/1OvGd7C”]

I used the Click To Tweet plugin to create this custom tweet in a few seconds. Custom tweets like these that are in the middle of blog posts are easy to notice.

As a result, more people utilize these custom tweets.

The best part is that since you can craft the custom tweet in any way you like, you can create a shortened link (less characters get taken up), add hashtags where you believe they are necessary, and track clicks if your shortened link comes with statistics (if you are unsure of which link shortener to use, go with Bit.ly. It’s free and awesome)

In Conclusion

Twitter is the best social network for getting more blog traffic. By changing how you engage with your audience and tracking your results, you are bound to get more blog traffic from Twitter.

Just like anything else in life, Twitter Domination is a journey. Dominating the platform requires an investment in your time that may feel difficult in the short-run but will be very rewarding in the long-run.

If at any point you feel overwhelmed by Twitter, you can always outsource some of the work. I used to do everything for my Twitter account’s success all by myself. As my workload grew, maintaining my Twitter account seemed to get in the way of everything else.

I decided to outsource parts of my Twitter strategy, and then more time began to open up. Twitter is not the ultimatum to success, but it is one of the most valuable platforms that will aid in your blog’s growth.

What are your thoughts about using Twitter to get more blog traffic? Is Twitter the supreme social network in your strategy or do you believe another social network is more important than Twitter? Which of these tips was your favorite? Sound off in the comments section below.

The 3 Steps To Goal Achievement

January 4, 2016 by Marc Guberti 6 Comments

The Three Steps To Goal Achievement — The first step is to read this blog post 🙂

We all have goals. Not only do we all have goals, but we all want to accomplish them. This is basic information.

And then beyond that, the enigma dwells.

“I have big goals but how do I accomplish them? I never feel like I have enough time!”

Sound familiar? I have heard many excuses and admittedly made excuses myself (I don’t anymore, but I used to). The most common excuse is a lack of time.

A few months ago, I gave myself a goal that seemed like it wouldn’t happen. The goal was to find some time in my busy schedule to play the piano every day and get really good at it.

When I first gave myself this goal, it seemed impossible. I am a high school student, daily runner (unless I am resting), and entrepreneur all wrapped into one.

I would have to open up some time in my schedule to play the piano.

I knew goal achievement from a business perspective, but this was something completely different. I had to take a big leap out of my comfort zone.

This goal found its way into my head last July. I started playing in August. Now I play every day. I was attentive to my journey through the whole process.

How did I accomplish this goal? How could I use this knowledge to make it easier for me to accomplish my other goals?

How could I communicate this with my readers? This blog post is the answer to that final question. It turns out that goal achievement is EASY, but only if you know what you are doing.

Goal achievement can be broken down into three steps.

#1: Identify The Goal

The first way to solve a problem is by identifying that problem in the first place. The first way to accomplish a goal is by identifying that goal in the first place.

Chances are you have already identified a particular goal that you are heading after. One step down. Two to go.

#2: Put In The Work Every Day

In life, this tip alone is the closest thing you will find to the silver bullet. Want to become a successful blogger? Want to become a singer? Want to do something new?

Put in the work every day. You won’t get any closer to a silver bullet.

The more work you put towards something, the more committed you become to that work or idea.

If you put in the work every day, the work eventually becomes a habit. Habits eventually become a part of your life.

Working on my business and playing the piano are two daily habits that I hold dearly. If I don’t do both of them, I roll around in my sleep.

Okay, I don’t know if I roll in my sleep. I don’t have a security camera in my room, and I wouldn’t want to see video of myself sleeping. That would be in between awkward and creepy.

The point is that if I don’t perform BOTH of those tasks, then my day is incomplete. There are few things worse than going to bed at the end of the day knowing that your day is incomplete.

It’s the reason why I sometimes write blog posts past 11 pm. No matter how challenging the workload becomes, I always find the time to do something for my blog every day.

#3: Let Nothing Stand In Your Way

When new goals get added to our lives, we must create the time to make those goals happen. Creating the time for our goals means giving up other things that may be holding us back.

When I decided I wanted to play the piano every day, I knew I had to give something up. If I gave up blogging, I would have had a meltdown. I love writing these blog posts.

I also enjoyed playing video games. But much to everyone’s surprise, it turns out I didn’t enjoy them enough. Video games got the axe and I was able to play the piano every day.

If you are a teenager reading this blog post, then you know how fun video games can be. I played Super Smash Bros and Mario Kart are often as I could.

Suddenly, I would never be playing those two video games (or any others) again. Just like that.

When I first unplugged all of the devices and put them in the basement, there were some moments of fear. However, once the job was done, I knew I made the right decision.

When you make a significant decision to take away something standing in your way (especially something that has stood in your way for a long time), you get more commitment.

I gave up video games. I was not going to let the piano collect any more dust than it already had.

What stands in your way? Maybe you watch too much TV. Maybe you find yourself surfing on YouTube too often.

Something stands in your way. You have to get to the root of it and eliminate it. Once you eliminate something that has been standing in your way, you will gain more commitment towards the goal, but more importantly, towards yourself and everything that you stand for.

In Conclusion

I play the piano every day. The same songs that I thought I could never play are the ones that I can now easily play.

The reason I accomplish goals is because I follow this three step process. In the end, goal achievement is all about putting in the work each day.

Once you willingly put in the work every day, you automatically want to learn more. Nothing I ever do will be forced upon me.

The reason I have fun writing these blog posts, running, and playing the piano is partly because I chose those paths for myself. If you choose your own path, then you are bound to have more fun with it.

It’s not forced on you. At that point, you develop the natural drive that we all have as you go after your goals.

What are your thoughts about goal achievement? Which of these tips resonated with you the most? Do you have any other tips for goal achievement? Sound off in the comments section below.

How To Have A Breakthrough 2016

January 1, 2016 by Marc Guberti 4 Comments

I can’t start this blog post without wishing everyone a big HAPPY NEW YEAR!! The beginning of the year always gets me pumped.

I look back at my achievements from 2015 and look forward into what I can achieve in 2016. I look back at my mistakes to see what I can avoid in the future.

I have been doing a lot of looking back lately. I graduate high school in May.

In a few days, I’ll be celebrating my 18th birthday. I am already in the process of changing all of my bios from “17 Year Old” to “18 Year Old” because I definitely don’t want to do that on my birthday.

That was just me walking down memory lane and looking at what is to come. The main point of this blog post is how you can have a breakthrough 2016. Last year was kind to me. This year is going to be epic.

Maybe I sounded overconfident there. However, to have a breakthrough 2016, you need to have a strong amount of confidence towards yourself. It’s better to be overconfident than it is to lack confidence.

It’s okay to be confident in your ability to achieve your goals.

However, confidence alone won’t get you to the finish line. You can feel confident that you will finish the marathon, but taking action and running the marathon is what actually results in you crossing the finish line.

This is where most people mess up. We gain confidence when we write our New Year’s resolutions on paper. A few weeks later and that same sheet of paper is nowhere to be found.

Intentionally lost in the shuffle.

New Year’s resolutions work when you combine that high level of confidence with taking action the right way. Taking action does not mean forgetting your resolutions and remembering them in November.

Taking action the right way means taking consistent action to achieve a certain goal.

View your New Year’s resolutions as a skyscraper with 365 floors. Every floor on the building has something or someone important for you to achieve your New Year’s resolutions.

Maybe on one of the floors, you do some videos before going back into the elevator. Maybe on another floor, you meet with a partner who can help you move forward. You spend more time on certain floors than others.

You consistently go up one floor at a time. The consistency becomes a habit and soon the work becomes effortless. I used to struggle to write blog posts like these. After writing blog posts for several years, I have gotten better—only because I continued to consistently write content.

Writing content went from a tedious task to an effortless habit.

Showing up every day and putting in the work are two key elements of highly successful people. Not once per month or once per week. Every day.

“But I Don’t Have Time For That Much Work”

Most excuses revolve around a lack of time. The New Year’s resolutions look good on paper, but as some people say, “When life gets in the way,” those resolutions suddenly look impossible.

Life getting in the way and a lack of time are excuses. Nothing more.

Blog posts like these tend to share the general tone of not making excuses and that excuses are lame.

If you make excuses the right way, they can present opportunities for growth.

One of the goals I had in the middle of 2015 was to get back on Udemy and create courses. I had less than 10 courses on Udemy. But I couldn’t go back on Udemy right away.

Why? Because I didn’t have enough time.

I knew Udemy would help my business and that I could do it, but I had an excuse that seemed to make sense.

Then I asked myself the most important question I have ever asked myself as an entrepreneur.

“How do I find more time?”

I took an excuse that was holding me back and asked myself how I could make that same excuse illegitimate.

The answer for me was outsourcing a large percentage of my business. In less than a week, more than half of my business was outsourced.

I repurposed my extra time towards creating and marketing more Udemy courses. By the end of the year, I had a total of 20+ Udemy courses.

Spoiler Alert: I plan on doubling that total in 2016.

It’s not lame to make excuses. It’s only lame if you make an excuse but then don’t do anything about it.

“I can’t run the marathon because I’m not in shape. How can I add more workouts to my schedule?”

“I’m not talented enough to sing. How can I learn more about proper singing right now?”

“I can’t achieve my dreams. How can I push that thought away and start chasing my dreams?”

Recurring excuses create shame. Eliminate any of those excuses and it becomes a habit that surges your confidence.

A Breakthrough Year Require Breakthrough Goals

There’s no way around it. I have goals that to some people may sound crazy. They may sound impossible and too ambitious. They sound like they will never happen.

I like those types of goals. I approach them with full force. I don’t care about what people say I can and cannot do.

In that respect, all that matters is what I say I can and cannot do.

I understand that some people are conscious about what others think about them and their goals. Some of us are fearful of what people will think about our ambitious New Year’s resolutions.

Some of us are afraid of getting dragged down and being told that we can’t do something. Then why do you have to tell anyone your most ambitious New Year’s resolutions.

If you keep them to yourself, those particular goals will boil within your heart. Soon enough, accomplishing those goals will become your top priority.

The other option is to tell people your New Year’s resolutions, even the most ambitious ones. Maybe people will comment about the unlikelihood of those goals happening. You can use other people’s doubts as the fuel to your fire.

You can either choose one of those two approaches. Think about how you would feel if you told people your New Year’s resolutions and then choose the best approach for you.

If you choose to tell people about your resolutions, then make sure you also have a group of people to keep you accountable. The people who keep you accountable will motivate you to stay true to those resolutions.

Breaking Out Of The Traditional 366 Mindset

It turns out that this year is a Leap Year. So there are 366 days instead of 365.

Making a breakthrough also requires that you break through the status quo of thinking. Most New Year’s resolutions follow this cycle:

They bring hope on New Year’s Day
They “mysteriously” disappear in the middle of February
They are rediscovered in November
December 31st: “Back to the drawing board”

Why do most New Year’s resolutions go through this cycle? The answer is that since there are 366 days in a leap year, we believe that we can take a few months off. The result is resolutions not getting accomplished, and then on December 31st, back to the drawing board.

The simple solution is to change the deadline. Most people view December 31st as their deadline. You need to view each month as a deadline.

What must you do in January to get closer to your New Year’s resolutions? What must you do in February? The closer the deadline, the more productive you will become.

If you make the deadline much closer than December 31st, then you will be more productive and move towards accomplishing your 2016 resolutions.

In Conclusion

The New Year is always an exciting time filled with possibility and hope. The challenge with any New Year is to maintain the excitement and hope throughout the year.

By changing the way you view a typical year and how you accomplish your goals, you will discover that it is easy to accomplish your resolutions.

I end this blog post with a tidbit I heard last month. Maybe it’s the greatest tidbit for productivity, but many tidbits nowadays hold that title.

I recently read an article about the mindset of a Navy SEAL. The Navy SEAL mindset is this:

When your body says you are done, then you are really just 40% done.

The Navy SEAL who shared this mindset has run several 100+ mile races—and in some, as one of the top finishers.

It’s very hard to not find that impressive.

So the next time you feel like you are done, in reality you are just 40% done. Don’t limit yourself in any way. Strive to tap into the other 60% so you can go from good to great.

What are your thoughts about achieving New Year’s resolutions? Do you have any tips for us? Do you have New Year’s resolutions? Sound off in the comments section below.

10 Methods To Turbocharge Your Blog’s Growth

December 30, 2015 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Most blogs see a consistent level of traffic. No big increase and no big decrease. Stuck at the same level whether that by 10 daily visitors or 100 daily visitors.

Just because a blog is stuck at the same level does not mean that will always be the case. By striving to turbocharge your blog’s growth, you may get thousands of daily visitors to your blog in just a few months.

It all depends on how much work you are willing to put in.

Turbocharging blog traffic is what allows people to get twice as many visitors in just one month. It results in the exponential growth of your blog.

Interested in learning how you can make that happen for your blog? Here’s how you can start turbocharging your blog traffic today:

#1: Get Hyper Active On Social Media

Getting active on social media means going on social media often and posting content whenever you feel like it.

Getting hyper active on social media means going on social media and scheduling numerous posts to get published each day.

On Twitter, I tweet more than 100 times per day. On Pinterest, I have a freelancer pinning my content dozens of times throughout the day.

90% of these posts should focus on promoting your blog posts. Most of the tweets I send promote my blog posts. That’s why Twitter is my #1 source of blog traffic and routinely brings in hundreds of daily visitors.

If you want to get hyper active on social media, then you need to use HootSuite. HootSuite does a great job at connecting all of the social networks together.

That way, you don’t have to log into and out of each of them.

HootSuite Dashboard

If there was a holy grail to social media, it would be this dashboard. I don’t need to have 10 tabs open on my browser to update all of my social media accounts. I don’t have to use my iPhone to post something on Instagram.

My social media strategy’s foundation is within the HootSuite dashboard.

#2: Become Comfortable With Writing Blog Posts

The more comfortable you become with writing blog posts, the easier it will be to provide value. The more valuable your content is, the longer people will stick around.

Becoming comfortable with writing blog posts also enforces consistency. Consistently updating your blog will help out with SEO since your blog would always be fresh with new content.

The more important benefit of consistent blog posts is that some of your readers will discover your publishing pattern.

Just as all Big Bang Theory fans tune in on Thursday nights for new episodes, your readers will learn what times to tune in for new content on your blog.

I publish content on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and always at 9 am. Maintaining that consistency for over a year creates a schedule that my readers can rely on.

I’m sure some of my blog readers are back on my blog during those days and times just to see what I published next.

The more comfortable you get with applying a skill, the better you get at applying that skill. Writing blog posts is no different.

#3: Focus On Growing Your Email List

I won’t go into the spiel about why it’s so important. I have done so before, and I’m sure you have heard many marketers go into their spiels about the email list.

I’ll save you the speech and end off by saying focus on growing your email list. That’s how you get consistently rising traffic and revenue.

I wrote a blog post that goes into detail about growing your email list.

#4: Communicate With Your Email List Often

No matter how large your email list is, if you don’t communicate with that email list, it is worthless.

You could have one million subscribers, but if you don’t communicate with them, then you’re no better than the person with one subscriber.

Don’t wait until you have that many subscribers to start communicating with them. Communicate with them now, even if you have less than 10 people on your list.

Communicate with the people on your email list at least once per week. The more they see you in their inboxes, the more these people will remember you.

Get in the inbox too much, and then people will get annoyed, so be careful.

What would you tell your email list about? Here are a few suggestions;

Your blog posts
Your YouTube videos
New project you are working on
New product

Just start somewhere. Get to know the people on your email list and see what they engage with the most.

If you realize that your email list responds well to blog posts about Twitter, then continue writing blog posts about Twitter.

If you realize that your email list responds poorly to blog posts about chess, then don’t write any blog posts about chess for a while (or forever depending on you, your blog, and your audience).

I can’t give you the silver bullet and tell you how to communicate with your email list word-for-word.

The truth is that we all have our own silver bullet. We just have to find it in the very bottom of our toolbox. The way we find that silver bullet is by looking for it (also known as taking action).

In this case, you take action by actually communicating with your email list.

#5: Write Guest Posts

Every guest post you write gives you and your blog a little more exposure. If you write a guest post on a popular blog, your blog could get hundreds of extra visitors from that one guest post.

You would definitely get more credibility.

But what does that mean for blog traffic? The first thing is that a guest post on a popular blog is bound to get a lot of exposure. You also get to build a relationship with the guest blogger, and that guest blogger may decide to help you out someday (i.e. by promoting one of your products).

But there is an advanced way to get the best out of your guest post. Turn it into a series. The guest post acts as Part One and should end by leading readers to a specific blog post on your blog.

That specific blog post is Part Two of the guest post. If people loved Part One, they’ll enjoy Part Two.

That’s why Avengers is so successful and why The Dark Knight trilogy is the best trilogy on the planet.

The lessons we learn from multi-billion dollar businesses can greatly transform the way we blog.

#6: Have An Outreach Strategy In Place

This is the big one. The results can get quite incredible, but it also takes a massive amount of time to pull it off.

The concept of an outreach strategy is that when you publish a new blog post, you tell as many influential bloggers about it as possible.

All of these influential bloggers must be bloggers within your niche.

The masters of the outreach strategy are routinely telling dozens (if not hundreds) of other bloggers about their new blog posts.

A simple email with five or fewer sentences kindly encouraging the person to share your blog post will do the trick. It is critical that you say that sharing the blog post is optional and that you’ll continue reading the influential blogger’s content either way.

You don’t want to aggressively ask for the influential blogger to share your content. Influential bloggers get plenty of emails like that.

You want to take a more gentle approach similar to this email (from Brian Dean’s skyscraper technique):

skyscraper-technique-outreach-template1

To increase your chances of these people sharing your new blog posts, here are some actions you can take:

Share some of their content on social media first
Mention them with the @username so they can see you shared their content
Comment on their blog posts and try engaging with them on social media

The more action you take to build the relationship, the more likely these people will share your content.

Depending on how strong you build the relationship, some influential bloggers will feel obligated to share your blog post with their audience.

Especially if you mention the influential blogger within the blog post.

But it takes a lot of time to make it happen. If you have the time, then go for it. If not, here’s how you can open up more time.

#7: Outsource As Much Of The Work As Possible

I like to believe I am a full-time blogger and entrepreneur. The reality is that I am not. I am a full-time student which means, by definition, everything else is part-time.

Don’t tell that to the entrepreneur within me 🙂

It was hard to acknowledge that as of now, all of this is technically part-time. In the long-run, this acknowledgement helped me change the way I work on my business.

My junior year of high school taught me many lessons about work and life. The school workload was challenging. That workload decreased the amount of time I had left for my business.

In the end, my business remained intact and grew a little. I also got good grades so it was worth it.

But I learned a very important lesson about business that applies to all of us.

No matter how productive we are (or think we are), we can’t do it all alone.

When the workload got challenging and I was taking standardized tests, I only had time to do what I already knew how to do.

Grow my Twitter audience and write blog posts. I did other things, but those two activities probably took up 90% of the time I put towards my business that year.

I gained over 100,000 new Twitter followers and wrote dozens of blog posts. That work looks good on the surface, but there was no expansion.

I was just expanding on my current platforms without opening the doors to more possibilities.

I recognized this was due to a lack of time. So I made a big decision. I began outsourcing most of my work.

The days of scheduling tweets, manually growing my Twitter audience, sending pins, and creating pictures for this blog were over.

The days of Udemy, rediscovery, and affiliate marketing were beginning. My business began expanding in different directions.

All because I suddenly had more time available. And it makes sense, even for a part-timer.

The reason part-timers don’t have enough time to focus on their side work is because time is so short. However, if you outsource some of your workload, you buy back some of your time.

For the sake of argument, let’s say working full-time means working for 40 hours every week. As a part-time worker, you may only be able to work for 15 hours every week. That’s typically how much time I utilize for my business each week.

That’s why summer is my best season for getting stuff done.

Going back to the main point, there is a 25 hour/week deficit. What if, each week, you paid freelancers to do 25 hours of your business work. Then you do the other 15 hours of work on your own every week.

The sum is 40 hours per week. Outsourcing some of the work can turn you from a part-time worker to a full-time income. Even if you put in the same amount of time as a part-time worker.

Even if you are a full-time blogger, outsourcing will still open up a massive amount of time for you. You can’t do it alone. You need a team behind you.

#8: Make Your Blog Load Faster

Blog speed is one of the most underrated elements of a successful blog. Google pays attention to blog speed when determining how to rank your content.

Your blog’s speed also determines how long your visitors stick around. If your blog only takes 1-2 seconds to load, then visitors will stick around.

If, on the other hand, it takes your blog over 10 seconds to load, you will lose a large percentage of your fan base.

We are busy people who are becoming increasingly busy with the rise of new opportunities and workloads. Every second counts. For Amazon, each second is the difference between making and not making an extra $1.6 billion.

You can use a site speed test to determine how fast your blog is. I recommend QuickSprout because it lets you see…

How long it takes for your blog to load
What is slowing your blog down
Other cool information

Once QuickSprout tells you what to do, the next step is to take action. Every action you take will make your blog load faster. Then your readers will stick around for a longer period of time.

#9: Look At The Data

When you get blog traffic, you get to see where that traffic is coming from. WordPress provides statistics that let you see your daily visitors, where the traffic is coming from, and which of your blog posts are receiving the most traffic.

Depending on how you interpret the data, you can discover what your audience wants, which source you get the most traffic from, and which sources of traffic you need to work on.

The way you interpret the data can impact the future of your blog’s growth. You can choose to focus on your strengths, address your weaknesses, or change what type of content appears on your blog.

The possibilities are endless, but you only discover the possibilities through exploration.

#10: Get People To Stick Around

Once you get a visitor on your blog, you want that visitor to stick around for as long as possible. You can get people to stick around with these following tactics:

Write valuable, attention-grabbing content
Include links to your older blog posts in your new ones
Introduce your previous blog post at the beginning of each new blog post
Include a teaser to your next blog post at the end of each new blog post
Get your visitor to enter an email address

Alexa lets you discover how long your average visitor sticks around. You can also use it to see how long the average visitor on your favorite blog sticks around.

In Conclusion

Turbocharging your blog’s traffic requires a lot of work. It isn’t easy, but once you put in the work and see the fruits of your labor, you will be happy with the results.

The way to approach blog traffic is to focus on the following:

Grow your platform
Leverage other people’s platforms in a symbiotic relationship

Putting in the work is what makes it happen.

Which of these tips was your favorite? How do you increase your blog traffic? Sound off in the comments section below.

5 Reasons Blogging Is Not Working For You

December 28, 2015 by Marc Guberti 8 Comments

We have all read the case studies. We know some of the bloggers who get hundreds of thousands of monthly visitors and are absolutely crushing it.

Blogging works, but it does not work for everyone.

Most blogs aren’t getting 100,000 monthly visitors. Most blogs don’t even get 1,000 monthly visitors. When looking at epic case studies, it is easy to either get very motivated or very discouraged.

I look at these case studies as motivation for what I can do in the future.

But there is more behind a blog’s success than your motivation. That motivation must be combined with the right work ethic.

More specifically, you must know what works and what does not work. Blogging doesn’t work for most people. Some of them still consider it a hobby while others give up on it.

I don’t want you to be one of those people. I want you to be one of those people who eventually gets hundreds of thousands of monthly visitors to your blog.

Don’t believe it’s possible? Consider the FACT that all of those people with the glamorous case studies started with NOTHING. They started with less than what you have now.

Still don’t believe it’s possible for your blog to get so many visitors? I hope the answer is no.

It’s just a matter of avoiding what does not work and focusing on what does work. This blog post discusses what you should avoid.

But in discussing what you should avoid, this blog post also discusses what you should do. Without any further adieu, these are the five reasons blogging is not working for you.

#1: You Aren’t Focused On Growing Your Email List

I could have put this method anywhere on the list. I decided to list it as Method #1 for a reason.

If you haven’t heard people mention the power of the email list, you’re going to hear about it later.

With an email list, you get to know your readers and develop a bond with some of them. In addition, email by far gets more response than social media posts.

Some people get over 20% of their subscribers to click on a message. While this is well above the average level, it does happen.

If you have an email list of 100 people, and 20% of them click on the link to your blog post, then you got 20 new visitors.

To fully understand the power of an email list, we need to inflate the numbers. The marketers with over 1 million subscribers and the 20% clickthrough rate get over 200,000 visitors to the blog post.

Juicy.

But you don’t need a massive email list before you get a lot of traffic and revenue from that email list. You just have to start growing your email list.

But maintaining an email list can get expensive. If you don’t want to spend money in the beginning, then use MailChimp.

MailChimp lets you have up to 2,000 subscribers for free before you pay a single penny.

Right now, I use iContact for my email list. As I continue to grow my email list, the cost increases. That’s the nature of the game. However, as I grow my email list, my profit increases.

Just focus on growing your email list. Don’t overthink it. Just get to the step in which you are gaining a new subscriber each day.

I discussed some of the tactics I use to grow my email list in an earlier blog post.

#2: You Publish And Pray

It’s good to pray. I pray five or more times per day. Publishing and praying on the other hand. That ain’t good.

The Publish and Pray approach was first coined by Brian Dean. Here’s how the approach works:

You publish a new blog post
You don’t promote it in any way, shape, or form
You pray that it will get a lot of visitors

If you rely on this approach for getting more blog traffic, then prepare to be disappointed. It’s like expecting that if you create something the people will somehow, magically come.

The Publish and Pray approach does not work. What works then? Promotion through a variety of platforms:

Social media promotion
Outreach strategy. Check out Brian Dean’s skyscraper technique.
Email list promotion

There are plenty of ways to promote your blog post. As long as you are actually promoting your blog posts in one way or the other, you are doing more than publishing and praying.

You are actually taking action.

#3: You Don’t Write Blog Posts Consistently

The interesting thing about blogging and entrepreneurship in general is that it’s all on you. You don’t get a wage for writing blog posts. You can’t get fired.

But it’s all on you.

You have to find the willpower and the time to write your blog posts at a consistent rate. If you don’t write blog posts at a consistent rate, then it is more difficult to grow an audience.

The reason is that when you write blog posts and always publish them at specific times and days of the week, people know when to check in for new content.

It’s the reason why every successful TV show is successful. The next time you watch your favorite TV show, pay attention to the marketing.

At the end of every The Big Bang Theory show, fans like myself are reminded that the next episode is on Thursday night at the same time.

As an experienced fan, you don’t have to tell me that The Big Bang Theory is on every Thursday at 8 pm eastern. I know.

When I first started watching the show, I had to be told.

Once people know when you publish your blog posts, and they check in enough times, they don’t have to be told when you are publishing new blog posts. They know and check in.

The blogger I admire the most is Seth Godin. You don’t have to tell me when he publishes his blog post. I know that he publishes a new blog post at 6:30 am eastern.

That’s what happens when you write blog posts consistently. But in addition to giving your readers a time and day to check in, writing consistently also boosts your accountability.

Once you write blog posts consistently for a long enough period of time, you have a strong desire to continue writing them.

I have easily spent thousands of hours writing blog posts for this blog. I’m not giving up on it now. I never will.

The only way you will get to that point is by consistently writing blog posts.

#4: You Don’t Enjoy Writing The Blog Posts

I don’t like the blogs that are inspired by shiny object syndrome. There is no passion behind the content. These blogs just focus on the next big thing and try to run away with it.

When revolutionary ideas and tools get introduced, there are passionate people who write awesome blog posts.

However, some people will jump on just for the sake of making the buck. Once the shiny object isn’t so shiny anymore, the blogs inspired by shiny object syndrome die out.

Then these bloggers move onto the next shiny object.

Shiny object syndrome is one reason why bloggers get stuck with topics they don’t want to write about.

In other words, these bloggers ask themselves “What content would make me the most money?” before asking themselves “What do I actually want to write about?”

Only write blog posts about topics that you enjoy. No matter what topic you choose, it will take a long time before your blog ends up making money.

The only way bloggers survive to eventually thrive is by writing about topics that they enjoy writing about.

#5: You Overthink Successful Blogging

You can view the path to success in two ways:

An impossible to solve maze
A staircase

Most people view success as an impossible maze. They don’t know where to start.

They think about all of the possible ways they can complete the maze. But by thinking too much about how they will complete the maze, people stay stuck at the starting line.

If we did everything we thought about, we’d all have successful blogs right now.

The challenge is to take action.

A while ago, I gave up on thinking about how I would get through the maze. The maze indicates luck and that success is all chance. Make the right turn and then you’re closer. Make the wrong turn and then it will take you longer to complete the maze.

I decided to view success as a staircase. You don’t know how many steps are on the staircase, but what you do know is that the final destination is success.

Small things like promoting my blog posts on social media, sending out email blasts, and writing the blog posts in the first place. Those are some of the steps on the staircase.

Sometimes I like to stop where I am and look back at all of the steps I walked up.

I like looking at my past achievements, but the only part of the future I look at is the grand vision. If I think about all of the steps I have to take to get there, it would be overwhelming.

Instead, I focus on the task at hand. Only once I complete the task at hand do I start acknowledging the next task that I must complete.

If you spend too much time thinking, then you won’t spend enough time doing.

In Conclusion

Blogs are powerful tools for building audiences and thriving by following your passion.

Knowing what works and what does not work will aid in your quest to become a successful blogger. But having the knowledge is just half of the story.

The other half of the story is taking action. Writing that blog post. Tweeting the one you wrote a few days ago. Growing that email list. Letting as many people know about your blog as possible.

Which of these tips was your favorite? Do you have any other advice on what we shouldn’t do with our blogs? Sound off in the comments section below.

Where Social Media Fits In The Sales Funnel

December 23, 2015 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Social media can make you a lot of money if you know where it fits in the sales funnel.

I hear a lot of talk about making money on social media. People believe that their social media audiences should result in a higher income.

But most people find themselves disappointed. They wonder if all of the time they spent on social media was worth it.

Social media isn’t the problem. The problem is how most people approach making money on social media. We can clearly see the problem in the first tweet I ever sent on Twitter

First of all, the link is broken now. The more important point is that this tweet makes no attempt at building a relationship with my audience. It was the good old “buy this product.”

I didn’t give people enough time to know, like, and trust me.

For a few weeks after that, I continued using social media wrong. My tweets were Amazon affiliate links and my blog posts (before this blog) had a strong focus on getting the sale versus providing value.

Then I focused on using social media to build the relationship with my followers. Once I changed the way I used social media, my revenue increased.

Here is the most important thing you will ever hear about making money on social media:

Social media is the best platform for generating indirect sales.

What does that mean? Social media is a platform where people get to know, like, and trust you.

Social media is also a great platform to promote your landing pages and get subscribers. The way I make money on social media is by using it to grow my email list.

Subscribers are far more likely to buy something you recommend than your social media followers. The logic is the expectation of each platform.

People are used to finding discounts and product information in their inboxes. In fact, some people welcome it.

People go on social media to escape important decisions. They want to interact and see what’s happening. They want free stuff.

In the sales funnel, social media is the very first stage. After you get your followers to complete a few other stages (i.e. subscribing), then some of them become customers.

Okay, that sounds nice. But I don’t have a landing page. Now what?

The quick answer is to create your own landing page as soon as possible. I use Optimize Press for my landing pages while other people use LeadPages. Both are excellent tools to have.

But I know that (unfortunately) not everyone will want to create a landing page right away. Don’t go back to promoting affiliate links to sales pages.

At any moment, there are dozens (or hundreds) or marketers who are asking affiliates to sell their products. These marketers offer training courses containing a wide variety of material.

At least one of those training courses will be within your niche.

These marketers put a lot of planning into their training courses’ success. They write the copy, set up the landing pages, and have affiliate links that ensure affiliates receive their proper commission.

I occasionally promote other people’s landing pages on my social media accounts for a few reasons:

#1: They have all of the email copy set up for you. These emails are optimized to get a lot of opens, clicks, and sales.

#2: The product is created for you. All you have to do is promote the landing page with your affiliate link.

#3: Each sale equals a big commission. The commissions you receive as an affiliate for a training course can get very high. Some people will provide you with a $500 or higher commission per sale.

#4: You get a better idea of how it all works. Maybe some day, you create your own training course and have your own team of affiliates.

It’s just a matter of finding people in your niche who offer this type of opportunity. Then all you have to do at that point is ride with the opportunity.

Is There Any Room For Direct Sales?

I am not actively pursuing direct sales from my social media audience. I prefer promoting landing pages and building the relationship before I offer any products.

With that said, it is possible to do some direct promotion.

I find myself looking through Kim Garst’s tweets again and again. She’s a social media expert with over 420,000 Twitter followers.

She will occasionally do a direct sale on social media that leads people straight to one of her sales pages. However, most of her tweets entice a relationship to be built.

Indirect sales are the best way to go. If you use social media to generate direct sales, my recommendation is to do so with a big discount involved. Discounts grab anyone’s attention, regardless of which platform the discount is discovered on.

When we buy something for a discount, we feel super smart. That’s the main reason discounts result in more product sales.

Sometimes, we won’t even care much for a product but buy it to feel like smart consumers.

In Conclusion

Social media is the best platform for generating indirect sales. Once you use social media with that in mind, you will get more sales in the long-term.

What are your thoughts about social media’s position in the sales funnel? Do you think direct sales work or that indirect sales are all you need? Sound off in the comments section below.