Welcome to Part 4 of our Website Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to grow your business online automatically using the WordPress CMS.
So far, we have covered the following in this article series:
In Part 1 of this article series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress site is the key to automating traffic to your site …
(With an expertly configured WordPress site, all you have to do is post fresh content on a consistent basis to automatically start generating more web traffic!)
In Part Two, we focused on the setup phase of the traffic automation process. We helped you understand the best way to get started if you don’t have a web presence yet, how to set everything up if you already have a site, and what to do if your existing website has been built using WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you where to set up WordPress on your domain)
In Part 3, we focused on configuring WordPress.
Here, we configure all the settings that affect your site’s traffic-getting ability …
(In Part Three you learn how to configure all the settings that affect your website’s ability to generate traffic automatically)
In Part 4, we will discuss ways to automate the traffic system with different plugins.
Why Automating Your Traffic Generation Makes Sense
Depending on which marketing guru you get your advice from, you could find yourself investing 1-2 hours per day (or more) promoting your business on social media while also trying to run your business, creating content and managing your web presence.
Most small businesses lack the time, resources and financial means to employ the services of a full-time marketing department and engage in the kind of content marketing that many online marketing experts are prescribing. If you were to spend half a day posting updates on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn in addition to writing content for your blog or website, how would you get anything else in your business done?
(Small businesses spend most of their time simply keeping their businesses up and running. Image source: National Federation Of Independent Businesses)
Many businesses spend most of their working hours keeping their businesses up and running. On top of this, there’s sales and marketing. After all, businesses need to stay competitive and grow in order to survive.
Research done in 2012 by VerticalResponse – an email and social media marketing company, found that:
- 43% of all small businesses surveyed spent at least 6 hours per week on social media (the other half of businesses surveyed that used social media spent even more time – between 6 and 21+ hours per week). This usage of social media was a 66% increase from the previous year, so if the same survey was conducted today, the figures would most likely be even higher.
- More than half of all small businesses surveyed spent 1-3 hours or more creating a blog post.
- Finding and posting content for social media was the activity that consumed the most time online for all businesses surveyed.
(Businesses spend more time every year marketing and promoting themselves online. Infographic: VerticalResponse)
As businesses spend increasingly larger amounts of time promoting and marketing themselves online in order to compete and survive, this leaves less time for under-resourced businesses to focus on other equally important areas …
(Businesses with limited budgets, time, and resources and many areas to focus on require careful planning of their marketing strategy.)
One other thing to consider is that, in addition to spending time marketing and promoting your business on a number of social media sites, you are investing all of your efforts into virtual real estate that you have no control over. You don’t own Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. These companies can and will make decisions that can significantly affect your business without first consulting you. Why invest so much effort and time building content on someone else’s real estate? With a self-hosted WordPress site, you can have complete control of your own real estate and publish your content automatically to other online accounts.
Automating business systems and processes to leverage time is not new. Businesses have been doing it since the dawn of the Industrial Age. In the Information Age, however, the increased availability of many new online marketing channels creates a number of dilemmas for business owners, especially for those with limited time, marketing budgets, and resources. For example:
- Which of these marketing channels should you focus more time, efforts, and your budget on?
- Should you invest so much time and effort building assets on sites that do not belong to you (e.g. YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.) while ignoring your own website?
- Do you create new content for every channel you plan to include in your marketing strategy?
The Benefits Of Automating The Traffic Generation Process With WordPress
What we’d like to show you now, is a free, simple, and effective strategy that lets you automate the traffic generation with WordPress.
With this strategy, you will be able to:
- Save time creating content for your website or blog and social media,
- Save money on content creation and unnecessary online marketing costs,
- Determine which channels you should invest more budget, time, and your efforts on,
- Invest most of your efforts building your own asset instead of someone else’s and still benefit from other people’s marketing channels.
Many automated traffic solutions tend to focus on black hat methods, such as manipulating search engine results. This is not what the focus of this article series is about. In fact, we recommend avoiding black hat methods, websites, tools, and anything that violates the terms of service and policies of sites like Facebook, YouTube, Google, etc..
(Web traffic automation doesn’t require using black hat methods!)
The focus of this article series is not to game web services or break their terms of service, but to show you how to automate your content distribution so you can leverage your time and efforts, and get additional exposure online from websites frequented by your target audience.
An Automated Content Distribution, Traffic And Lead Generation, And Sales & Marketing System
We’ve just seen in the previous section how most businesses lack the time, human resources and financial means to engage in the kind of content marketing that many experts recommend. What you want to do, then, is be strategic with your limited budget, resources, and time.
So, instead of choosing this approach, which is very time-consuming …
(Posting content to marketing channels one at a time can be very time-consuming!)
Why not choose this time-saving approach instead …
(Set up an automated content distribution, lead and traffic generation, and sales and marketing system with WordPress)
With an expertly configured WordPress site, you can build more than just a website for your business … you can set up an automated traffic and lead generation and sales & marketing system, where all you do is publish your content and WordPress then automates the rest.
With WordPress, you can publish once, and automate your content distribution to all other marketing channels.
You can:
- Automatically distribute content to social channels and bookmarking sites,
- Distribute comments and content automatically to other blogs and online properties using RSS
- Automatically import content (e.g. videos)
As your business evolves, you can add more functionality and automate processes like:
- Sell products and services with e-commerce,
- Capture leads with opt-in forms and add your subscribers to newsletters and autoresponders,
- Allow visitors to register on your site with different membership levels,
- And so much more!
You can do all of this using inexpensive WordPress plugins. Once these plugins are installed and configured on your site, just direct your visitors to the appropriate sections (e.g. your store, subscription forms, membership area, etc.)
How do you do all of this?
Simple … first, set up your website or blog as described in Part Two. Then, get it configured as explained in Part Three. Once all of this is in place, you then connect all of the dots using plugins.
The video below shows you how everything works once your WordPress site has been expertly configured …
WordPress Traffic System – Plugins
Let’s take a look now at a few traffic-generating WordPress plugins that can help:
- Syndicate content automatically to social media sites and social bookmarking sites
- Distribute comments automatically to other blogs
- Distribute content automatically via RSS feeds to other online properties
Jetpack
You can get your posts automatically distributed to sites like Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, GooglePlus, LinkedIn and more as soon as you publish your content using a WordPress plugin like JetPack.
Download URL: https://jetpack.com/
Jetpack is a free WordPress plugin with many useful functions.
After Jetpack has been installed, connect the plugin to the WordPress.com account you set up in Part 3 …
(Connect Jetpack to your WordPress.com account)
Next, activate a feature called Publicize …
(Jetpack – Publicize)
You can share your posts on Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, GooglePlus, and more …
(Publicize your content automatically to various social media networks.)
After all of the plugin and account settings have been configured, your content is ready for distribution.
Publicize adds a new section to your Publish box …
(Publicize options appear in your publishing area.)
Now, as soon as you publish new content, it will automatically get shared on all of the accounts you have set up …
(As soon as new posts are published, they will be automatically distributed online.)
Go here for more information about the benefits of using this great plugin: Jetpack
CommentLuv
(CommentLuv)
The WordPress commenting system lets your blog readers engage with your website or blog, post comments, reply to other users and engage with your content as part of a community.
You can enhance the WordPress default commenting feature using 3rd-party plugins like Disqus, IntenseDebate, LiveFyre, or CommentLuv that integrate your comments with social media, helping to share and spread them online.
For example, with a plugin like CommentLuv (Pro version), you can improve user engagement on your website. The plugin encourages readers to comment using SEO and social reward features like adding twitter handles to comments, using keywords in the username, SEO backlinks, and social enticements for content-sharing. This plugin will visit the site of the comment author while they are entering their comment and retrieve their most recent blog posts, which can be included at the bottom of their comment after clicking the submit button.
(CommentLuv can encourage a greater level of commenting and create more user engagement on your website or blog.)
To learn more about using this powerful plugin, go here:
SocialLinkMachine
(Social LinkMachine – WordPress content distribution plugin)
SocialLinkMachine is a plugin for WordPress that allows you to drip-feed content, build backlinks, include relevant videos and images, and create social signals on auto-pilot …
(Social LinkMachine – syndicate content automatically to over 30 traffic-generating platforms)
With Social LinkMachine installed, you can automatically syndicate and drip-feed your content to dozens of authority sites, like:
- Social Bookmarking Sites: e.g. Delicious, Diigo, Kippt, Zotero, etc.
- Blogs: e.g. Blog.com, Sett, WordPress.com, etc.
- Social Media Platforms: Facebook, YouTube, etc.
- Image Sharing: e.g. Pinterest, etc.
- PDF Sharing: e.g. Issuu, Sendspace, etc.
Go here to learn more about this handy plugin: SocialLinkMachine
Also, if you would like to know more about setting up social media monitoring (so you can get useful information about your content distribution campaigns), we have written a detailed article where we explore over 30 social media tracking tools that will help you identify new trends and opportunities, track competitor activity, see what online conversations are taking place that could affect your business,etc. Visit this page to learn more:
The above are just some examples of the many content distribution plugins that WordPress makes available.
Kickstart Your WordPress Traffic System
After your traffic automation system has been set up, we recommend kickstarting the process of driving traffic to your site with the steps shown in this tutorial:
WordPress Traffic Blueprint: Automated Content Sharing Process – Summary
Once your site and plugins have been expertly configured and fully set up, all you have to do to start attracting traffic is publish content regularly.
If you need endless content ideas for your web site, we recommend subscribing to our email training series on growing your business online with content marketing here:
Once you have configured your WordPress site, the next step is to optimize the web-traffic generation process. This step is explained in the next section of our WordPress Traffic Automation System series.
This is the end of Part 4
To read more, click on the link below:
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"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group
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