Welcome to Part 4 of our Web Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to create an automated traffic machine using the WordPress CMS.
So far, here is what we have covered in this series:
In Part 1 of this series, we described the traffic automation process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website or blog is the key to generating automated traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress blog, all you have to do is post great content consistently to begin attracting web traffic!)
In Part Two, we discussed the setup phase. We explained 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 site was built using WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you where to set up a WordPress web site on your domain)
In Part 3, we discussed the configuration phase.
Here, we configure all the settings that affect your site’s traffic-getting ability …
(In Part 3 you learn how to configure hosting settings, WordPress settings, and external settings that affect your site’s traffic-getting ability)
In Part 4, we will discuss ways to automate traffic to your website using a number of plugins.
Why It Makes Sense To Automate The Traffic Generation Process
Depending on which expert you get your advice from, you could find yourself spending 1-2 hours every day (or more) posting content on social media while also running your business, creating content and managing your web presence.
Most businesses simply lack the time, resources and financial means to engage in the kind of content marketing that many marketing experts prescribe. If you spent hours posting updates on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn in addition to writing content for your blog or website, how would you get anything in your business done?
(Small business owners spend most of their working hours simply keeping their businesses up and running. Infographic source: National Federation Of Independent Businesses)
Many businesses spend most of their time keeping their businesses up and running. In addition to running a business, there’s sales and marketing. After all, businesses need to remain competitive and grow in order to survive.
A study of small businesses conducted in 2012 by email and social media marketing company Vertical Response found that:
- Almost half of all businesses surveyed spent 6 or more hours each week on social media (the other half of businesses surveyed using 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 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 are spending more time every year marketing and promoting themselves online. Infographic source: VerticalResponse)
As small businesses spend more time on online marketing in order to compete and survive, this puts more and more pressure on businesses to prioritize their time on other equally important areas …
(Businesses with limited marketing budget, resources, and time and many different areas to focus on need to plan their marketing strategy very carefully.)
Another important thing to keep in mind is that, in addition to spending time promoting and marketing your business on a number of social sites, you are investing all of your efforts into virtual real estate that you have no control over. You don’t own Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube. These companies can make decisions that impact your business without prior warning. Why invest so much time and effort building content on rented real estate? With WordPress, you can have complete control of your own real estate and distribute your content automatically to other sites.
Automating systems and process to save time is nothing new. Businesses have been doing it ever since the Industrial Age. In the Information Age, however, the increasing availability of so many new marketing channels creates a number of dilemmas for small business owners, especially for those with limited budget, resources, and time. For example:
- Which channels do you invest more efforts, time, and your budget on?
- Should you invest so much time and effort building assets on sites that you do not control (e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc.) while ignoring the benefits of building content on your own domain?
- Do you create new content for every channel you plan to include in your marketing strategy?
The Benefits Of Automating Your Web Traffic Generation Process With WordPress
What we’d like to show you now, is a free, simple, and effective formula for automating the traffic generation with WordPress.
With this method, 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 marketing channels you should focus more efforts, time, and your budget 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 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 staying away from all black hat methods, websites, solutions, and anything that violates the terms of service and policies of companies like Google, Facebook, YouTube, etc..
(Web traffic automation does not need to involve the use of black hat methods!)
What we are focusing here is to show you how to automate your content distribution in order to leverage your time and efforts, and increase your exposure online to sites used 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, many business owners lack the time, resources and financial means to engage in the kind of content marketing that many experts prescribe. What you want to do, then, is to be strategic and work smart within your limited budget, resources, and time.
So, instead of choosing this approach, which is very time-consuming …
(Posting content to marketing channels one by one can be extremely 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 once, and automate your content distribution to all other services.
You can:
- Distribute content automatically to social media sites and bookmarking sites,
- Distribute comments and content automatically to other blogs and online 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 get all of this done?
Simple … first, set up your website or blog as described in Part 2. Then, get it configured as described in Part Three. After all this is in place, you can then automate these processes with plugins such as the ones listed below.
The video below shows you how everything works once your WordPress site has been expertly configured …
WordPress Web Traffic System – Traffic Generation Plugins
Let’s take a look now at some examples of traffic-generation WordPress plugins that can help:
- Post content automatically to social sites and social bookmarking accounts
- Distribute comments automatically to other blogs
- Post content automatically via RSS feeds to other websites
Jetpack
You can get your posts automatically distributed to sites like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Google+, 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 loads of useful functions.
After installing Jetpack, connect the plugin to the WordPress.com account set up in Part 3 …
(Connect Jetpack to your WordPress.com account)
Next, activate a feature called Publicize …
(Jetpack – Publicize feature)
You can share your posts on Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, and more …
(Publicize your content to several social media networks.)
After all plugin and account settings have been configured, your content is ready for distribution.
The Publicize feature adds a new section to your Publish box …
(Publicize settings appear in the publishing box.)
Now, whenever you publish a new post, it will automatically get shared online to all of the accounts you have set up …
(As soon as new posts are published, they will be automatically syndicated online.)
The Jetpack plugin provides you with a hands-free way to get more exposure online for your content on social websites.
CommentLuv
(CommentLuv)
The built-in WordPress commenting function lets your visitors engage with your website or blog, post new comments, reply to existing comments and engage with your content.
You can expand the WordPress built-in commenting feature with a 3rd-party plugin that integrates your comments with social media, helping to spread and share your content online.
For example, using a WordPress plugin like CommentLuv (Premium version) can encourage a greater level of commenting and create more user engagement on your site. The plugin encourages readers to comment using SEO and social reward features like social enticements for sharing content, ability to use keywords in the username, backlinks, and the ability to add twitter names to comments. This plugin will visit the comment author’s website or blog while they are typing their comment and retrieve their latest blog posts, which can be included at the bottom of their comment after clicking submit.
(CommentLuv Pro version can attract more comments and improve user engagement on your site.)
To learn more about this great plugin, visit this website:
Social Link Machine
(SocialLinkMachine – WordPress content distribution plugin)
Social LinkMachine is a plugin that lets you syndicate and drip-feed content to many social websites, build anchor text backlinks, include relevant YouTube videos and images, and 2nd-tier links and social signals on auto-pilot …
(SocialLinkMachine – drip-feed your content to many social websites)
With Social LinkMachine installed, you can automatically syndicate and drip-feed your content to dozens of social sites, like:
- Bookmarking Sites: e.g. Delicious, Diigo, Instapaper, Zotero, etc.
- Blogs: e.g. Livejournal, Overblog, Tribe, etc.
- Social Platforms: Facebook, Xing, etc.
- Image Sharing Platforms: e.g. Flickr, etc.
- PDF Sharing: e.g. Docdroid, Sendspace, etc.
Visit the plugin site to learn more about the benefits of using this plugin: Social LinkMachine
Also, if you would like to know more about setting up social media tracking (so you can get useful information about your content distribution efforts), we have written a detailed article on social media measurement tools and technologies that are worth knowing about. Go here to learn more:
The above are just a few examples of the many content distribution plugins that are available to WordPress users.
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 Distribution Process – Summary
Once you have your WordPress site and plugins expertly configured and set up, all you have to do then is publish new content on a consistent basis to drive traffic organically.
If you need ideas for content that you can post on your web site, we recommend subscribing to our email training series here:
Once you have configured your WordPress site, the next step is to optimize as much of the process as you can. This step is addressed in the next article in our series.
This is the end of Section Four
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