Welcome to Part Four of our Web Site Traffic Blueprint article series, where we explain how to create an automated traffic generating machine using the WordPress CMS.
So far, we have covered the following in this series:
In Part 1 of this article 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 add web content on a consistent basis to bring more traffic!)
In Part 2, we looked at the setup phase. We explained the best way to start if you don’t have a web presence yet, how to set things up if you already have a website, and what to do if your site has been built using WordPress.
(In Part two we show you how to set up a WordPress website on your domain)
In Part Three, we focused on the configuration phase of this blueprint.
In this step, we configure hosting settings, WordPress settings, and external settings that affect your website’s ability to generate traffic automatically …
(In Part Three you will configure all the settings (hosting, internal and external) that can affect your website’s traffic-getting ability)
In this section of the series, we will show you how to set up various plugins that can help get new visitors automatically to your site simply by adding content on a consistent basis.
Why It Makes Sense To Automate The Traffic Generation
Depending on which marketing experts you talk to, you could end up investing 1-2 hours every day (or more) promoting your business on social media while also running your business, creating content and managing your online presence.
Many small business owners simply lack the time, resources and financial means to run a full-time marketing and content creation department and engage in the kind of content marketing that many online marketing experts are recommending. If you are spending hours posting updates on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn in addition to planning and writing content for your website or blog, how can anything else in your business get done?
(Small business owners spend most of their working hours simply keeping their businesses up and running. Infographic: NFIB)
Many businesses spend most of their time trying to keep their businesses up and running. On top of this, there’s also sales and marketing. After all, businesses need to remain competitive and make sales in order to survive.
Marketing research done in 2012 by email and social media marketing company Vertical Response found that:
- Almost half of all small businesses surveyed spent around 6 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 was a 66% increase from the previous year, so if the same research was done today, the numbers would most likely be significantly 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 more time on online marketing in order to compete and survive, this leaves even less time for under-resourced businesses to focus on other areas …
(Businesses with limited marketing budgets, resources, and time 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 websites, all of your efforts are going into virtual real estate that you don’t control. You don’t own Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest. These sites can make decisions that can dramatically affect your business without prior warning. Why invest so much time and effort building content on someone else’s real estate? With a self-hosted WordPress website, you can have complete control of your own virtual real estate and post your content automatically to other online properties.
Automating processes to save time and increase productivity is not new. Businesses of all sizes have been doing it ever since the Industrial Age. In the Information Age, however, the exponential growth marketing channels creates a number of dilemmas for small business owners, especially for those with limited time, marketing budget, and resources. For example:
- Which channels do you invest more time, efforts, and your budget on?
- Should you invest so much time and effort building assets on sites that belong to other businesses (e.g. YouTube, LinkedIn, Tumblr, etc.) while neglecting 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 Traffic-Getting Process With WordPress
What I’d like to show you now, is a free, simple, and effective method for automating the traffic-getting process with WordPress.
With this formula, 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 time, budget, and your efforts on,
- Invest most of your time and 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 urge that you stay away from all black hat software, methods, websites, and anything that violates the policies and terms of service of services like Twitter, Facebook, Google.
(Automating your web traffic doesn’t require using black hat techniques!)
The purpose of 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 get additional exposure online from sites that your target audience frequents.
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, human resources and budget to engage in the kind of content marketing that most experts advise doing. What you want to do, then, is be strategic with your limited budget, time, and resources.
So, instead of posting content to each channel, which can be very time-consuming …
(Posting content to different marketing channels can be 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 once, and automate your content distribution to all other services.
You can:
- Automatically distribute content to social media sites 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 WordPress website as explained in Part Two. Then, get everything configured as shown in Part 3. After all this is in place, you then automate various processes with plugins.
The video below shows you how everything works once your WordPress site has been expertly configured …
WordPress Web Traffic Automation System – Traffic Generation Plugins
Let’s take a quick look at a few WordPress plugins that can help:
- Distribute content to social sites and social bookmarking accounts
- Syndicate comments automatically to other blogs
- Distribute content automatically via RSS to other sites
Jetpack
You can get your posts automatically distributed to sites like Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ 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 Three …
(Connect Jetpack to your WordPress.com account)
Next, activate the Publicize feature …
(Activate the Publicize feature)
Once this section is configured, you will be able to automatically share your posts on Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, GooglePlus, and more …
(Distribute your posts automatically to various social media networks.)
After configuring all plugin and account settings, your content is ready for distribution.
The Publicize feature adds a new section to your Publish box …
(Publicize account settings appear in the publishing area.)
Now, whenever you publish new content, it will automatically be shared online to all of the accounts you have set up …
(As soon as posts are published, they will be automatically shared online.)
Visit this website to learn more about the benefits of this handy plugin: Jetpack Plugin
CommentLuv
(CommentLuv)
The built-in WordPress commenting function lets your site users interact with your website, post new comments, reply to other users and engage with your content as part of an online community.
You can expand the WordPress built-in commenting feature using 3rd-party plugins like Disqus, IntenseDebate, LiveFyre, or CommentLuv that integrate with social media, helping to share and spread them around.
For example, a plugin like CommentLuv (Pro version) can encourage a greater level of commenting and improve user engagement on your site. The plugin encourages readers to comment using SEO and social reward features like social enticements for sharing your content, SEO backlinks, the ability to add twitter usernames to comments, and ability to use keywords in the user name. This plugin will visit the site of the comment author while they are entering their comment and retrieve their latest blog posts, which they can choose to include with their comment after clicking submit.
(CommentLuv can help attract more comments and create more user engagement on your website.)
To learn more about this plugin, go here:
Social LinkMachine
(Social Link Machine – WordPress content distribution plugin)
Social Link Machine is a set-and-forget plugin for WordPress that allows you to automatically drip-feed content to over 30 traffic-generating sites, build diverse anchor text backlinks, include relevant videos and images, and social signals on auto-pilot …
(SocialLinkMachine – drip-feed your content automatically to over 30 traffic-generating sites)
With SocialLinkMachine installed, you can automatically syndicate your content to dozens of traffic-generating websites, like:
- Social Bookmarking Platforms: e.g. Bitly, Linkagogo, Plurk, Stumbleupon, etc.
- Blogging Platforms: e.g. Livejournal, Sett, Tumblr, etc.
- Social Media Platforms: Google Plus, YouTube, etc.
- Image Sharing Platforms: e.g. Flickr, etc.
- Document Sharing Platforms: e.g. Issuu, Gett, etc.
To learn more about this great plugin, visit the plugin website: Social Link Machine
Also, if you would like to know more about setting up social media monitoring (in order to get actionable information about your content distribution campaigns), we have written a detailed article where we explore over 30 social media tracking tools and technologies that are worth knowing about. More information:
The above are just a few examples of the many plugins that WordPress makes available for automating and syndicating 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: Content Syndication Stage – Summary
Once you have your site and plugins configured and set up, all you need to do then to attract new web traffic is add great content on a regular basis.
If you need great content ideas for your website, we recommend subscribing to our email training series on 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 section of the WordPress Traffic System series.
This is the end of Part Four
To read the rest of this article series, click on the link below:
- Web Site Traffic Blueprint Part 5 – How To Automatically Get More Website Visitors For Your Business
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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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