Welcome to Part Four of our Web Site Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to turn your site into an automated traffic machine using WordPress.
So far, here is what we have covered in this article series:
In Part 1 of this series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website is the key to generating automated web traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress site, all you have to do to automatically begin bringing more traffic is publish fresh content on a consistent basis!)
In Part 2, we focus on the setup phase. We explain the best way to start if you don’t have a website yet, how to set things up if you already have a site, and what to do if your website is built with WordPress.
(In Part two we show you where to set up WordPress on your domain)
In Part Three, we discussed the configuration phase.
Here, we configure hosting settings, internal settings, and external settings that can affect your website’s ability to generate traffic automatically …
(In Part 3 we show you how to configure all the settings (hosting, internal and external) that affect your site’s ability to generate traffic automatically)
In Part 4, we look at ways to automate the traffic system with WordPress plugins.
Why Automating Your Traffic-Getting Process Makes Sense
Depending on which business marketing experts you listen to, you could find yourself spending 1-2 hours per day (or more) posting content on social media.
Many business owners lack the time, human resources and budget to employ the services of a full-time marketing and content creation department and engage in the kind of content marketing that many marketing experts advise. If you spend hours checking Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn in addition to planning and writing articles for your blog or website, how will you get anything in your business done?
(Small business owners spend most of their time simply keeping their businesses up and running. Infographic: NFIB)
Small business owners spend most of their working hours simply keeping their businesses up and running. On top of this, there’s also sales and marketing. After all, businesses need to stay competitive and grow in order to survive.
A study of small businesses done in 2012 by VerticalResponse – an email and social media marketing company, found that:
- 43% of all small businesses surveyed spent around six hours each week on social media (most of the other 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 research was conducted today, the numbers would probably be significantly higher.
- More than half of all businesses surveyed spent 1-3 hours or more creating a blog post.
- Finding and posting content for social media consumed the most time online.
(Small businesses are spending more time marketing and promoting themselves online. Infographic: VerticalResponse)
As businesses spend increasingly larger amounts of time marketing and promoting themselves online in order to compete and survive, this puts more and more of a squeeze on businesses to prioritize their time on other equally vital areas …
(Businesses with limited budget, time, and resources and many different areas to focus on need to plan their marketing strategy very carefully.)
Another important thing to consider is that, in addition to spending time promoting and marketing your business on a number of social media websites, you are investing all of your efforts into virtual real estate that you have no control over. You don’t own Facebook, Twitter, or StumbleUpon. These companies can and will make decisions that can dramatically affect your business without requiring your input. Why invest so much time and effort building a business on rented real estate? With WordPress, you can have complete control of your own real estate and post your content automatically to other sites.
Investing in automation to save time is nothing new. Businesses have been doing it since the dawn of the Industrial Age. In the Digital Age, however, the increased availability of so many new channels for marketing and promoting a business creates a number of dilemmas for small business owners and business managers, especially for those with limited budgets, time, and resources. For example:
- Which of these channels do you invest more of your time, efforts, and your budget on?
- Should you invest so much time and effort building a web presence on other people’s sites (e.g. YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc.) while ignoring the benefits of building content on your own website?
- Do you create new content for every channel you plan to include in your marketing strategy?
The Benefits Of Automating Your Traffic-Getting Process With WordPress
What I’d like to share with you now, is a free, simple, and effective method that lets you automate the traffic generation with WordPress.
With this strategy, you will be able to:
- Save time creating web content and other marketing channels (e.g. social media),
- Save money on content creation and unnecessary online marketing costs,
- Determine which marketing channels you should focus more of your time, budget, and your efforts on,
- Invest most of your efforts building your own asset and still benefit from other people’s marketing channels.
Many automated web 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 strongly recommend avoiding black hat strategies, solutions, websites, and anything designed to “game” or violate the policies and terms of service of sites like YouTube, Google, Facebook, etc..
(Automating your web traffic doesn’t require the use of black hat methods!)
What we are focusing in this article is not to manipulate online services or flaunt their terms of service, but to show you how to be smart with your limited resources and automate your content distribution in order to leverage your time and marketing 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
As we’ve just seen in the previous section, most business owners lack the time, resources and financial means to engage in the kind of content marketing that most experts recommend. What you want to do, then, is be strategic with your limited resources, time, and budget.
So, instead of posting content to each different marketing channel, which can be extremely time-consuming …
(Posting content to different marketing channels one by one is very time-consuming!)
Why not choose this one 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 content one-time, and automate your content distribution to all other marketing channels.
You can:
- Distribute content automatically to social media services and bookmarking sites,
- Distribute content (and comments) automatically to other blogs and web properties using RSS
- Import content automatically (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 site as explained in Part Two. Then, get it configured as described in Part Three. Once all of this is in place, you can then automate various processes with plugins such as the ones listed in the section below.
The video below shows you how everything works once your WordPress site has been expertly configured …
WordPress Traffic Automation System – Traffic Plugins
Let’s take a brief look at some traffic-generating plugins that can help:
- Post content to social media sites and social bookmarking accounts
- Syndicate comments automatically to other blogs
- Distribute content via RSS feeds to other web properties
Jetpack WordPress Plugin
You can get your posts automatically distributed to sites like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, LinkedIn, GooglePlus and more as soon as you publish your content using a plugin like JetPack.
Download URL: https://jetpack.com/
Jetpack is a free WordPress plugin with loads of great features.
After Jetpack has been installed, connect the plugin to the WordPress.com account you set up in Part Three …
(Make sure the Jetpack plugin is connected to your WordPress.com account)
Next, activate a feature called Publicize …
(Activate the Publicize feature)
Once this section is configured, you will be able to automatically share your posts on Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, and more …
(Share your posts on several social media networks.)
After all of the settings have been configured, your content is ready for distribution.
Publicize adds a new section to your Publish box …
(Publicize account details in your post publishing section.)
Now, as soon as you publish a new post, it will automatically get shared online to all of the accounts you have set up …
(As soon as content is published, it is automatically syndicated online.)
Jetpack provides a hands-free way to get more exposure online for your content on social sites.
CommentLuv
(CommentLuv)
The built-in WordPress commenting system allows your blog readers to engage with your website, post comments, reply to existing comments and participate in discussions.
You can expand the WordPress default commenting feature using a third-party plugin like Disqus, IntenseDebate, LiveFyre, or CommentLuv that integrates your comments with social media, helping to spread and share your content online.
For example, with a plugin like CommentLuv (Pro version), you can make your site more attractive to commenters by offering them a choice of backlinks if they like, tweet, or +1 your content. This plugin will visit the comment author’s site while they are typing their comment and retrieve their latest blog posts, which they can include with their comment after clicking the submit button.
(CommentLuv Pro version can encourage a greater level of commenting and improve user engagement on your web site.)
Visit the plugin website to learn more about this plugin:
Social Link Machine
(SocialLinkMachine – WordPress content distribution plugin)
SocialLinkMachine is a WordPress plugin that lets you automatically drip-feed content to dozens of traffic-generating websites, build anchor text backlinks, include relevant images and videos, and social signals on auto-pilot …
(SocialLinkMachine – syndicate your content automatically to over 30 online websites)
With Social LinkMachine installed, you can automatically drip-feed your content to over 30 authority sites, like:
- Bookmarking Platforms: e.g. Deviantart, Folkd, Kippt, Zotero, etc.
- Blogs: e.g. Blogger, Overblog, Tumblr, etc.
- Social Platforms: Google Plus, YouTube, etc.
- Image Sharing Platforms: e.g. Pinterest, etc.
- PDF Sharing Platforms: e.g. Docdroid, Sendspace, etc.
To learn more about this great plugin, visit the plugin site: Social LinkMachine
Also, if you would like to know more about setting up social media tracking (in order to get useful information about your content marketing campaigns), we have written a detailed article about social media monitoring tools that will help you identify new trends and opportunities, track competitor activity, see what online conversations are taking place that affect your business,etc. Go here to learn more:
The above are just a few 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 System: Content Syndication Stage – Summary
Once you have your website and plugins set up and configured, all you have to do is post web content regularly to start generating new web traffic organically.
If you need help coming up with great topics for posting content on your web site, we recommend subscribing to our FREE email training series on growing your business with content marketing here:
Once you have expertly configured your WordPress site, the next step is to optimize the web-traffic generation process. This step is explained in the next article in our series.
This is the end of Part 4
To read more, click here:
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"I love the way your email series "Infinite Web Content Creation Training Series" is documented and presented. It is very absorbing and captivating. The links and tutorials are interesting and educational. This has motivated me to rewrite my content following the concepts I am learning from the email series." - Mani Raju, www.fortuneinewaste.com
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