The object of today’s lesson is to start promoting that blog that you have now. You should have at least 3 blog posts of great content in your niche and now it’s time to start getting readers to your blog. The best visitor to your page is going to be someone that already enjoys reading blogs, so we’re going to get traffic from other blogs in your niche. To do this – you’re going to start guest posting on the other blogs in your niche.
Now this sounds really difficult, but it’s actually fairly easy. A guest post is simply an article that you wrote but instead of publishing it to your blog you’re going to give it to another blogger in your niche. In return, the blog owner normally gives you 2-3 links back to your website. The first link is a link to your blog, the second and third are links to your Twitter and Facebook account.
Now I’m sure you’re asking… how do I get these guest posts? Here’s the steps you’re going to take.
1. pull out that list you created last week that has all of your competitors, all of the blogs and all of the forums in your niche. Now go find the contact information for all of the blog owners in your niche. You’re going to take what Justin calls the “shot gun approach” to guest posting.
2. Contact all of the blog owners in your niche (at least 10-20 of them). You’re going to send them an email stating that you want to give them free content for their blog. Here’s a sample:
Hi [Blog Owners Name],
You have a great blog and if there are ever some days where
you just don’t want to write a blog post or you find yourself
out of ideas I’d like to offer you my article attached.After looking through your blog posts and comments I believe
your readers will love the article I’ve written. Plus, I’ve made it
so all you have to do is copy/paste and press publish.Take a day off on me
All I ask is that you let me know when it goes live and that you give
me credit for the article. I’ve included a short bio and links to my
blog/twitter/facebook. Feel free to use all of it or pieces of it.Let me know what you think of it…
Thanks,
[Your Name]
3. In that same email make sure you include the article you wrote and at the bottom a short description of who you are and the links to your blog, Facebook, and Twitter. This way the blog owner just needs to copy/paste it to the blog and publish.
This is one of the best ways you can promote your blog for two reasons; 1. it’s free traffic (who doesn’t love that?) and 2. You become a reliable and reputable resource to those readers immediately. SImply because their trusted source of information (the original blog owner) is publishing your content then you must be trusted by them and probably have other good content. So, they’ll click through to your blog and check you out.
Now, it’s extremely important that you have content there on your blog when those readers show up. SO if you’re already behind on blog posts, first spend a day catching up your blog and scheduling posts for the rest of the week. Then contact the blog owners.
This form of traffic recycling – where your cycling readers from other blogs to yours and then back to theirs (when they guest post for you) is very powerful because the readers get what they want (updated content in your niche) and you’re getting more and more traffic from blogs already established in your niche.
The task/goal for this week is to establish a consistent blog post schedule that you can keep up with and get at least 1 guest post spot (but preferably 2-3). As always feel free to post your questions below – I’ll drive back up to internet access tomorrow and make sure we get them answered. Sorry, for the delay this week – Justin and I are on vacation and we thought we’d have some form of internet (even if it meant driving to the local McDonald’s), but in upstate New York on the Canadian border there aren’t too many McDonald’s we can drive to for internet so I found some at a mall about 40 minutes away (WHEW) 
Have a great day
Chaunna
PS. This technically counts as Tuesday’s post – so I’ll log back in tomorrow for Q&A, and resources for the week will post on Saturday.
{ 2 comments }
Hey guys,
I’ve got to say that this looks a great way of getting traffic without being ’shady’ like commenting without giving any kind of input (such as “hey, great post”) and putting your name on the comment as a keyword.
As a blog owner I personally delete those ones and if the link looks spammy then they get clicked as a spammer.
I think this method you’ve given can really make the difference, and like you said; the fact they’re posting your article on their blog is telling their readers they can trust you. I like that a LOT
In summary, yep, I think the title of “the best free traffic method for bloggers” is spot on.
Hope the vacation goes well,
Tony.
Hey Tony,
Thanks for your input – the trust factor really gives you credibility and boosts the traffic to your blog. Glad to see you’re enjoying the challenge.
Have a great day
Chaunna