Welcome to Part 4 of our WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint article series, where we explain how to automate traffic to your site using the WordPress CMS platform.
So far, here is what we have covered in this 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 to start generating traffic is post great content on a consistent basis!)
In Part 2, we discuss critical setup decisions. We help you understand the best way to start if you don’t have a website yet, how to set everything up if you already have a website, and what to do if your existing site was built using WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you where to set up a WordPress website on your domain)
In Part Three, we focus on the configuration phase of the traffic automation system.
Here, we configure all the settings (hosting, WordPress and external) that can affect your website’s ability to generate traffic automatically …
(In Part 3 you learn how to configure hosting settings, WordPress settings, and external settings that affect your website’s ability to generate traffic automatically)
In this step, we will look at ways to automate traffic generation using various WordPress plugins.
Why Automate The Traffic Generation Process?
Depending on which business marketing expert you get your advice from, you could end up trying to spend 1-2 hours per day (or more) posting content on social media in addition to managing your business, your content and your web presence.
Many small business owners simply lack the time, resources and financial means to employ the services of a full-time marketing and content creation department and engage in the kind of content marketing that many online marketing experts prescribe. If you are spending most of your time checking Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn in addition to writing content for your website or blog, 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 source: National Federation Of Independent Businesses)
Small businesses spend most of their working hours trying to keep their businesses up and running. In addition to running a business, there’s sales and marketing. After all, businesses need to stay competitive and grow in order to survive.
A study of small businesses done by VerticalResponse – an email and social media marketing company, found that:
- 43% of all small businesses surveyed spent 6 or more hours per week on social media (most of the other 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 done today, the numbers would most likely be higher.
- More than half of all businesses surveyed spent 1-3 hours or more to create a blog post.
- Finding and posting content for social media was the activity that consumed the most time online for all businesses surveyed.
(Small businesses are spending more time each year marketing and promoting themselves online. Source: VerticalResponse.com)
As small businesses spend more time on online marketing in order to compete and survive, this leaves less time for under-resourced businesses to focus on other equally vital areas …
(Businesses with limited resources, time, and budgets and many different areas to focus on require careful planning of their marketing strategy.)
Another important thing to keep in mind is that, in addition to spending time social media sites, all of your efforts are going into virtual real estate that you have no control over. You don’t own Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest. These sites can and will make decisions that can dramatically impact your business without prior notification. Why invest so much time and effort building a business on rented real estate? With a self-hosted WordPress website, you can control your own virtual real estate and distribute your content automatically to other online accounts.
Automating systems and process to leverage time and increase productivity is not new. Businesses have been doing it ever since the dawn of the Industrial Age. In the Information Age, however, the increasing 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, resources, and time. For example:
- Which of these channels should you invest more time, budget, and your efforts 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 neglecting your own domain?
- Do you create new content for every channel you plan to promote and market your business on?
The Benefits Of Automating Your Traffic Generation With WordPress
What I’d like to show you now, is a free, simple, and effective method for automating the traffic generation process with WordPress.
With this method, you will be able to:
- Save time creating content for your website or blog and other marketing channels (e.g. social media),
- Save money on content creation and unnecessary online marketing costs,
- Determine which channels you should focus more of your time, budget, and efforts on,
- Invest most of your time building your own asset 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 urge you to avoid using black hat methods, software, sites, and anything that violates the policies and terms of service of companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc..
(Automating your web traffic does not have to involve the use of black hat techniques!)
What we are focusing in this article is to show you how to be smart with your resources and automate your content distribution so you can leverage your time and marketing efforts, and increase your exposure online to websites that your target audience frequents.
An Automated Content Distribution, Traffic And Lead Generation, And Sales & Marketing System
We’ve just seen that most businesses lack the time, resources and budget to engage in the kind of content marketing that many online experts prescribe. What you want to do, then, is to be strategic and work smart within your limited budget, time, and resources.
So, instead of using this time-consuming approach …
(Posting content to different marketing channels is very time-consuming!)
Why not use this time-saving strategy 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 once, and automate the distribution of your content to all other channels.
You can:
- Automatically distribute content to social channels and social bookmarking sites,
- Automatically distribute comments and content 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 get all of this done?
Simple … first, set up your site as explained in Part 2. Then, get everything configured as described in Part Three. After all this is in place, you then automate your content distribution using 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 Blueprint – Plugins
Let’s take a quick look at some traffic-generating plugins that can be used to:
- Syndicate content to social sites and social bookmarking accounts
- Syndicate comments automatically to other blogs
- Syndicate content automatically via RSS to other websites
Jetpack WordPress Plugin
You can get your posts automatically distributed to sites like Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, GooglePlus, LinkedIn and more as soon as you publish new content using a plugin like JetPack.
Download URL: https://jetpack.com/
Jetpack is a free WordPress plugin with loads of useful features.
After installing Jetpack, you will need to connect the plugin to your WordPress.com account (set up in Part Three.) …
(Make sure that Jetpack 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 Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, LinkedIn, Google+, and more …
(Publicize your content to various social accounts.)
After all of the 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 details displays in your Publish section.)
Now, whenever you publish new content, it will automatically be shared on every account you have set up …
(As soon as content is published, it is automatically distributed online.)
The Jetpack plugin provides you with a hands-free way to get more exposure for your content online on social media networks.
CommentLuv
(CommentLuv)
WordPress has a built-in commenting feature that lets your site users engage with your website, post comments, reply to existing comments and engage with your content as part of a community.
You can enhance the WordPress native 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 create more user engagement on your site. The plugin encourages readers to comment using SEO and social reward features like adding twitter usernames to comments, search-indexable backlinks, ability to use keywords in the username, and social enticements for sharing content. This plugin will visit the comment author’s website or blog while they type their comment and retrieve their most recent blog posts, which they can include below their comment when they click submit.
(CommentLuv can encourage a greater level of commenting and create more user engagement on your website or blog.)
Go here to learn more about this handy plugin:
Social Link Machine
(Social Link Machine – Content distribution plugin)
Social LinkMachine is a set-and-forget WordPress plugin that lets you drip-feed content, build diverse anchor text backlinks, include relevant images and videos, and 2nd-tier links and social signals on auto-pilot …
(SocialLinkMachine – syndicate your content automatically to many traffic-generating websites)
With Social Link Machine installed, you can automatically drip-feed your content to dozens of social websites, such as:
- Social Bookmarking Sites: e.g. Bitly, Folkd, Instapaper, Stumbleupon, etc.
- Blogging Platforms: e.g. Livejournal, Rebel Mouse, Tribe, etc.
- Social Platforms: Google Plus, YouTube, etc.
- Image Sharing Platforms: e.g. Flickr, etc.
- Document Sharing: e.g. Docdroid, Gett, etc.
For more details about this plugin, visit this website: Social Link Machine
Also, if you would like to know more about setting up social media monitoring (in order to get useful information about your content distribution campaigns), we have written a detailed article on social media tracking tools that are worth checking out and knowing about. To learn more, go here:
The above are just some examples of the many plugins that WordPress makes available for automating the distribution of your content online.
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: Automated Content Distribution Stage – Summary
Once you have your website and plugins configured and set up, all you need to do then to begin bringing web traffic is add great content consistently.
If you need help coming up with unlimited great ideas for content that you can post on your web site, then subscribe to our FREE email training course on growing your business with content marketing here:
Once you have configured your WordPress site, the next step is to optimize as much of the process as can be improved. This step is explained in the next section of the series.
This is the end of Part Four
To read more, click here:
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