You + These 2 Steps = More Traffic

If youve ever wondered:

I know I need to promote my contentbut Im not sure how. My content is great. But my blog feels like a ghost town. How can I email influencers in my niche without being a pushy jerkface? I publish A TON of unique content on my site. But I still dont rank in Google.

Then youll LOVE todays article. Because today Im going to reveal the secret to promoting your content (the right way). Ive got a lot to cover so lets dive right in

Why Most People Struggle With SEO (Real Talk)

Most people think the key to higher rankings is to publish great content.

So they open their laptop, crack their knuckles, and bang out article after article of great content.

And what happens when that doesnt work?

They think,I guess I havent published enough great content. Time to put a pot of coffee on and write another article.

Well, heres the truth:

Publishing great content puts you in line with the thousands of other people doing the EXACT SAME THING.

Trust Me, Ive Been There

Im not afraid to say it:

My first few sites were epic failures.

And looking back, its no surprise why.

At the time I thought the formula for white hat SEO looked like this:

Great content + more great content = #1 rankings.

Facemeet palm.

Now I know better.

Today Im laser-focused on content promotion.

In fact, Id say that spend more time promoting than writing.

And thanks to my tested content promotion strategies, Backlinko generated over 100,000 unique visitors last month:

And because I know how to generate targeted traffic on-demand, I have the freedom to do what I want when I want.

A few months ago I decided to go on a 5-week backpacking trip through Indonesia and Thailand.

Because I run my own business, I didnt need to stress over budgets or schedules. The cost and dates wereminor details.

I booked my flight figured out the rest later.

Heres me at Borobudur temple in Java:

But this type of freedom is only possible if you know how to generate targeted traffic.

And bringing in targeted traffic is ONLY possible if you learn how to ONLY possible if you learn how to promote your content (the right way).

A Real-World Example of Content Promotion Done Right

Lets face it:

For most marketers, content promotion is a HUGE struggle.

Despite that fact, there are people out there that promote their content with ease

Take Sue Anne Dunlevie for example.

Sue runs SuccessfulBlogging.com, a blog that helps entrepreneurs get more leads and sales.

When Sue first started her blog, shed publish a new blog post every weeklike clockwork.

Instead of promoting her new post, shed fire up WordPress and start working on NEXT weeks post.

And despite all this content creation, Sues traffic wouldnt budge:

After months of banging her head against a wall, Sue decided to switch things up.

And Heres What Happened Next

Thanks to strategic content promotion, Sues traffic has increased by 342%(compared to when she didnt do any content promo):

Instead of the 21 email subscribers she used to get every week, she now brings in a baller 214+:

But most important of all, her business has grown like a beanstalk.

In the 3-months she started to take content promotion seriously, Suessales increased by 283%:

How did she do it?

Keep reading

Lets Zoom In and See a Recent Example

Because Sue strategically promotes her content, she consistently generates A LOT of traffic, backlinks and comments.

For example, Sue recently published (and promoted) a post called: How To Start A Blog And Make Money.

That post generated an impressive 776 social shares.

And because of all the buzz and shares, Sues post brought in a spike of traffic in the first weekand 4,500 total unique visitors to date.

Her secret?

She strategically promotes everything she publishes.

Now Sue may look like a natural content promoter, but the truth is bit more complex

How Sue Cracked The Content Promotion Code

Like I mentioned to you before, Sues first stab at content marketing was a huge failure.

As Sue puts it:

I was consistently publishing a new post once a week. I would put the blog posts on social media and thats about it. My numbers were depressing. I was getting about 5 comments per post and hardly any social shares.

Sue Anne Dunlevie

For example, heres one of Sues early posts:

Yes, thats 22 sharestotal.

Flash forward to today and here are the social shares from one of Sues recent posts:

Thats 10x more shares.

How is this possible?

According to Sue, she invested more effort towards creating epic blog postsbut she also spent more time promoting what she wrote.

According to Sue:

Before Id publish a post and share it on Twitter and Facebook. Now I also do blogger outreach  I contact other influential bloggers when I have a great post coming out and ask them to share it. And a lot of them do!

Sue Anne Dunlevie

While Sues results may look remarkable at first (and they ARE impressive), her results arent mysterious.Its because she ditched The Publish and Pray Approach and decided to embrace strategic content promotion.

And That, My Friend, Is The Clincher 

Believe it or not, but I used to struggle with SEO and content marketing.

Big time.

In fact, my first few sites were huge flops.

I remember one day I was staring at my laptop screen wondering if I would ever figure this whole SEO thing out.

I was this close to turning my back on SEOfor good.

Fortunately, I didnt throw in the towel. Instead, I decided to test EVERYTHING.

And after years of experimenting, I learned a valuable lesson about online marketing a lesson that I wish someone handed to me on Day 1:

Big Lesson:

Most so-called SEO experts tell you:publish great content and the backlinks and rankings will take care of themselves.

(This is what I call The Publish and Pray Approach)

Through years of testing Ive found that first page rankings dont come from publishing great content.

Instead, first page rankings are a direct result of strategically promoting your content the right way.

And thats exactly why Sue succeeds where many others fail.

More Proof That Content Promotion Can Be The Difference Maker

Heres the truth:

The strategies that Sue uses can be used by anyone that wants more traffic and higher Google rankings.

In fact, Ive taught my proven content promotion strategies to over 850 students from 33 different countries.

And Ive seen similar results from them, including:

Giovanni Dienstmann

Giovanni is the founder of LiveandDare.com

He recently created and promoted a guide that generated 33k visitors and (most importantly) 1,500 email subscribers:

Not to mention an editorial backlink from The Huffington Post,Not badnot bad at all.

Christopher Laursen

Chris runs http://EuropeanDomainCentre.com

Chris strategically promoted an infographic about domain names thats brought in over 34,000 total pageviews:

Its also helped him build 35contextual backlinks. Like this one from his competitor:

The question is:

How did they do it?

And more importantly, how can you do the exact thing?

It all starts with 2 simple steps 

Step #1: First, Find Someone That Wants to Share YOUR Content with THEIR Audience

Its funny:

A lot of people ask me for the wordfor-word email scripts that I use to promote my content.

OK so Im not afraid to brag a little bit here

Considering the fact that Ive sent (and tested) over 6,000 outreach emails, my scripts convert GREAT.

But heres the truth:

Your email script is only one SMALL part of content promotion.

Heres A Story To Illustrate What I Mean

A few weeks back I get this email out of the blue:

Whats wrong with this guys email?

Well to be honest with youA LOT.

But lets focus on the issue that forced my hand to the delete button:

I wasnt going to share his contentEVER. 

Why?

My interest in smartphones begins and ends with me taking out my iPhone to read http://ESPN.comon the subway.

Not to mention the fact that Ive NEVER covered smartphones here on the blog.

That means his script could have been damn-near perfect and it wouldnt have mattered.

The bottom line?

Because his content wasnt aligned with my audiences interests, I wasnt going to share it no matter what he said in that email.

Now, Dont Get Me Wrong Here

Im not some jerk who laughs like a supervillian while deleting outreach emails.

In fact, I share peoples stu?? all the time.

For example, heres an outreach email I got a few weeks back:

Heres the truth

Davids script could definitely use some work.

But he nailed the most important element of content promotion:

David found someone who was already interested in his contents topic (me).

And because of that, I happily tweeted it out:

The thing is:

Once youve found someone thats interested in your contents topic, content promotion gets 10x easier.

How About Another Example of Successful Content Promo in Action?

A few months back I published a post called 16 Actionable SEO Copywriting Secrets That Will Drive More Traffic To Your Site:

And to promote it, I reached out to a bunch of people that I KNEW were super-interested in the topic of SEO copywriting.

(If youre curious about what I sent to these people, stay tuned. Im going to cover that next week)

And because my content fit their interests (and their audiences interests) like a glove, they happily shared and linked:

Takeway Lesson: If youre serious about content promotion, step #1 is to find people that are already interested in your topic.

Step #2: Next, Give Them a Heads Up About Your Content

This might sound simple, but stay with me

Now that youve found someone thats genuinely interested in what you published, its time to give them a quick heads up.

Before I show you an example of what to do, lets take another look at a bad outreach email that came across my desk this week:

Like I mentioned before:

Nailing the topic is KEY.

And Kristztina actually did a decent job in that department (Ive published a lot of content about list building).

But heres the part I want you to focus on right now:

Think about that for a second:

Shes asking me to share her post  before I even said I liked it!

Thats the online version of getting a business card shoved in your face.

Not cool.

And because she was waaaaay too pushy, I hit delete.

In Sharp Contrast, Lets Look at a Great (Non-Pushy) Email I Received From Darren:

That email is so good I wanted to print it out, frame it, and hang it on my wall.

As you can probably guess from reading this post, Im a big fan of the topic of content promotion.

So Darren definitely found the right person to reach out to.

And his email was personalized and non-pushy.

He didnt say: share it with your followers.

He didnt say: link to it from a blog post.

He said: Id love to know what you think.

I thought the post was solid so I tweeted it out:

Also, because he shared something with me that I enjoyed reading, Darren has built a direct line with me.

The next time he publishes something similar, he can email me again and Ill probably share it.

All from a single email that never asked for anything.

Crazy, right?

Takeway Lesson: Your goal with content promotion is to get your content in front of the right people. Thats it.

What To Expect Over The Next 2-Weeks

Over the next few weeks Im going to show you the deadly mistakes people make with content promotion.

Ill also show you a behind-thescenes case study of how I used content promotion to promote a post that generated 16,696 unique visitorsin one week.

But before we get into that, make sure to read the next section of this post (its important).

Now Heres What I Want You To Do Next(Your Homework)

Leave a comment to let me know who you plan to promote your content to (step #1 from this post).

This is the first baby step towards crushing it with content promo. So its important that you do this now.

Original Source: www.mymakemoneyfromhome.com