Welcome to Part Four of our WordPress Website Traffic Blueprint article series, where we explain how to turn your website into an automated traffic generating machine using the WordPress CMS platform.
So far, we have covered the following in this series:
In Part One of this article series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress site is the key to generating automated traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress website, all you have to do is publish new content on a consistent basis to automatically begin attracting new web traffic!)
In Part 2, we look at the setup phase. We explain the best way to start 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 site was built with WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you how to set up a WordPress web site on your domain)
In Part Three, we focus on the configuration phase of the automation blueprint.
In this step, we configure all the settings that can affect your site’s ability to generate traffic automatically …
(In Part Three you learn how to configure all the settings (hosting, WordPress and external) that affect your site’s ability to generate traffic automatically)
In this step, we will discuss ways to automate your traffic using various plugins.
Why Automate Your Traffic Generation Process?
Depending on which marketing guru you talk to, you could find yourself spending a couple of hours or more every day promoting your business on social media while also trying to run your business, creating content and managing your online presence.
Most businesses lack the time, resources and financial means to run a full-time marketing department and engage in the kind of content marketing that many marketing experts recommend. If you are spending most of your time posting updates on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn in addition to planning and writing content for your blog or website, how will you get anything else in your business done?
(Small businesses spend most of their working hours just keeping their businesses up and running. Infographic source: NFIB)
Many business owners spend most of their working hours simply 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.
Research done in 2012 by VerticalResponse – an email and social media marketing company, found that:
- Almost half of all small businesses surveyed spent around six hours each week on social media (the other half spent even more time – between 6 and 21+ hours per week). This use of social media was a 66% increase from the previous year, so if the same survey was done today, the numbers would probably be 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 was their most time-consuming online activity.
(Small businesses spend more time each year marketing and promoting themselves online. Source: VerticalResponse.com)
As businesses spend increasingly larger amounts of time promoting and marketing themselves online in order to compete and survive, this puts more and more of a squeeze on businesses to focus their time on other areas …
(Businesses with limited resources, time, and marketing budgets and many areas to focus on have to plan their marketing strategy very carefully.)
Another important thing to consider is that, in addition to spending time 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 LinkedIn. These companies can and will make decisions that can dramatically affect your business without consulting you. Why invest so much time and effort building a business on someone else’s real estate? With WordPress (self-hosted), you can control your own virtual real estate and post your content automatically to other websites.
Automating systems and process to save time and increase productivity is nothing new. Businesses of all sizes have been doing it since the Industrial Age. In the Information Age, however, the increasing availability of so many new channels for promoting and marketing a business online creates a number of dilemmas for small business owners, especially for those with limited resources, budget, and time. For example:
- Which marketing channels do you focus more budget, time, and your efforts on?
- Should you invest so much time and effort building assets on sites that you do not control (e.g. YouTube, LinkedIn, Tumblr, etc.) while neglecting your own website?
- 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 I’d like to share with you now, is a free, simple, and effective formula that allows you to automate your traffic-getting process with WordPress.
With this strategy, 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 channels,
- Determine which channels you should focus more budget, time, and 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 recommend staying away from all black hat software, strategies, sites, and anything designed to manipulate or violate the terms of service and policies of companies like LinkedIn, Google, Facebook, etc..
(Automating your web traffic does not require the use of black hat techniques!)
The focus of this article is to show you how to automate your content distribution so you can leverage your time and efforts, and get additional exposure online from 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 businesses lack the time, human resources and budget to engage in the kind of content marketing that many experts prescribe. What you want to do, then, is be strategic with your limited resources, time, and budget.
So, instead of choosing this approach, which is very time-consuming …
(Posting content to marketing channels one at a time can be extremely time-consuming!)
Why not use a smarter, time-saving approach like the one shown below 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 the distribution of your content to all other services.
You can:
- Automatically distribute content to social media sites 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 website or blog as described in Part Two. Then, configure everything as described in Part Three. After all this is in place, you then connect all of the dots using plugins like 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 – Traffic-Getting Plugins
Let’s take a look now at a few traffic-generation WordPress plugins that can help:
- Syndicate content automatically to social sites and social bookmarking websites
- Distribute comments automatically to other blogs
- Distribute content automatically via RSS to other web properties
Jetpack
You can get your posts automatically distributed to sites like Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ 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 great 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 a feature called Publicize …
(Activate the Publicize feature on Jetpack)
Configure this section to share your posts on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and more …
(Distribute your content automatically to various social media networks.)
After all account and plugin settings have been configured, your content is ready for distribution.
Publicize adds a new section to your Publish box …
(Publicize account details show in the Publish area.)
Now, whenever you publish new content, it will automatically get shared on every account you have set up …
(As soon as new posts are published, they are automatically shared online.)
For more details about the benefits of using this WordPress plugin, visit this site: Jetpack by WordPress.com
CommentLuv
(CommentLuv)
The WordPress built-in commenting feature allows your site users to interact with your website, post comments, reply to other users and engage with your content.
You can enhance the WordPress built-in commenting feature using third-party plugins like Disqus, IntenseDebate, LiveFyre, or CommentLuv that integrate your comments with social media, helping to spread and share them around.
For example, a plugin like CommentLuv (Pro version) can encourage a greater level of commenting and improve user engagement on your web site. The plugin encourages readers to comment using SEO and social rewards like social enticements for content sharing, using keywords in the user name, adding twitter usernames to comments, and SEO backlinks. This plugin will visit the comment author’s website while they type their comment and retrieve their last blog posts, which can be included with their comment after clicking the submit button.
(CommentLuv can encourage a greater level of commenting and create more user engagement on your site.)
For more details about the benefits of using this WordPress plugin, visit this website:
SocialLinkMachine
(Social Link Machine – WordPress content distribution plugin)
Social Link Machine is a WordPress plugin that allows you to automatically syndicate and drip-feed content, build backlinks, include relevant images and videos, and create 2nd-tier links and social signals on auto-pilot …
(Social LinkMachine – syndicate content automatically to over 30 authority websites)
With SocialLinkMachine installed, you can automatically syndicate and drip-feed your content to dozens of social platforms, like:
- Social Bookmarking Platforms: e.g. Bitly, Diigo, Kippt, Stumbleupon, etc.
- Blogs: e.g. Livejournal, Overblog, WordPress.com, etc.
- Social Platforms: Facebook, YouTube, etc.
- Image Sharing: e.g. Flickr, etc.
- Document Sharing Platforms: e.g. Issuu, Sendspace, etc.
Go here to learn more about the benefits of this plugin: Social Link Machine
Also, if you would like to know more about setting up social media tracking (so you can get actionable information about your content distribution efforts), we have written a detailed article about social media monitoring tools and technologies that are worth checking out and knowing about here:
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 Automation Blueprint: Automated Content Distribution Process – Summary
Once your website or blog and plugins have been configured and set up, all you then have to do is add new content on a consistent basis to automatically start driving traffic organically.
If you need help coming up with ideas for posting content on your site, then subscribe to our email training course 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 covered in the next article in our series.
This is the end of Section Four
To continue reading about this topic, 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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