Welcome to Part 4 of our WordPress Web Site Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to grow your business online automatically using the WordPress CMS.
So far, here is what we have covered in this series:
In Part 1, we described the traffic automation process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website is the key to generating automated web traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress website or blog, all you have to do to drive more web traffic is publish fresh content regularly!)
In Part 2, we discuss the setup phase of this blueprint. 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 website was built with WordPress.
(In Part two we show you how to set up a WordPress site on your domain)
In Part 3, we focus on the configuration phase of this process.
In this step, we configure all the settings that can affect your website’s traffic-getting ability …
(In Part 3 you learn how to configure hosting settings, WordPress settings, and external settings that can affect your site’s traffic-getting ability)
In this section of the article series, we will discuss ways to automate your traffic using a number of plugins.
Why You Should Automate The Traffic Generation Process
Depending on who you listen to, you could end up spending a couple of hours or more each day promoting your business on social media.
Many businesses simply lack the time, human resources and budget to employ the services of a full-time marketing department and engage in the kind of content marketing that many marketing experts advise. If you are spending most of your time checking Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook in addition to writing content for your website or blog, how will you get anything in your business done?
(Keeping a business up and running is how most small businesses spend their time. Source: National Federation Of Independent Businesses)
Many business owners spend most of their working hours trying to keep their businesses up and running. On top of this, there’s sales and marketing. After all, businesses need to stay competitive and grow in order to survive.
Research conducted in 2012 by email and social media marketing company Vertical Response found that:
- 43% of all businesses surveyed spent at least 6 hours per week on social media (the other half spent even more time – between 6 and 21+ hours per week). This 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 small businesses surveyed spent 1-3 hours or more to create a blog post.
- Finding and posting content for social media was their most time-consuming online activity.
(Businesses are spending more time each year marketing and promoting themselves online. Infographic: VerticalResponse.com)
As small businesses spend more time promoting and marketing themselves online in order to compete and survive, this puts more and more of a squeeze on businesses to prioritize their time on other areas …
(Businesses with limited resources, budgets, and time and many different areas to focus on require careful planning of their marketing strategy.)
One other thing to consider is that, in addition to spending time marketing and promoting your business on various 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 Pinterest. These companies often will make decisions that affect your business without requiring your input. Why invest so much effort and time building content on someone else’s real estate? With WordPress, you can control your own real estate and distribute your content automatically to other online properties.
Automating systems and process to leverage time and increase productivity is nothing new. Businesses have been doing it since the dawn of the Industrial Age. In the Information Age, however, the increasing availability of many new online marketing channels creates a number of dilemmas for business owners, especially for those with limited time, resources, and budgets. For example:
- Which of these channels should you focus more budget, efforts, and time on?
- Should you invest so much time and effort building a web presence on other people’s sites (e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn, Tumblr, etc.) while ignoring 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 Web Traffic Generation Process With WordPress
What we’d like to show you now, is a free, simple, and effective method that lets you automate your traffic generation with WordPress.
With this formula, you will be able to:
- Save time creating web content and social media,
- Save money on content creation and unnecessary web marketing costs,
- Determine which channels you should focus more of your budget, efforts, and time 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 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 websites, strategies, solutions, and anything designed to “game” or violate the terms of service and policies of companies like Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc..
(Web traffic automation doesn’t need to involve the use of black hat methods!)
What we are focusing in this article series is 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 sites visited by your target audience.
An Automated Content Distribution, Traffic And Lead Generation, And Sales & Marketing System
We’ve just seen that most small business owners lack the time, human resources and budget to engage in the kind of content marketing that most experts are prescribing. What you want to do, then, is be strategic with your limited resources, time, and budget.
So, instead of choosing this time-consuming approach …
(Posting content to services one at a time is very time-consuming!)
Why not do this 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 marketing channels.
You can:
- Automatically distribute content to social media channels and bookmarking sites,
- Automatically distribute content (and comments) 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 WordPress site as shown in Part 2. Then, configure everything as explained in Part 3. After all this is in place, you then automate your content distribution 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 – Plugins
Let’s take a brief look at a few traffic-generating WordPress plugins that can:
- Syndicate content automatically to social sites and social bookmarking accounts
- Syndicate comments automatically to other blogs
- Distribute content to other online properties via RSS feeds
Jetpack
You can get your posts automatically distributed to sites like Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn 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 useful features.
After Jetpack has been installed, you will need to connect the plugin to your WordPress.com account …
(Make sure the Jetpack plugin is connected to your WordPress.com account)
Next, activate the Publicize feature …
(Jetpack – Publicize)
Configure this section to share your posts on Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, GooglePlus, LinkedIn, and more …
(Distribute your content to several social 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 section.)
Now, as soon as you publish new content, it will automatically be shared on all of the accounts you have set up …
(As soon as new content is published, it is automatically distributed online.)
Visit the plugin site to learn more about this plugin: Jetpack
CommentLuv
(CommentLuv)
WordPress has a native commenting system that lets your blog readers engage with your web site, post comments, reply to existing comments and engage with your content as part of a social community.
You can enhance the WordPress default commenting feature with third-party plugins like Disqus, IntenseDebate, LiveFyre, or CommentLuv that integrate your comments with social media, helping to share and spread them around.
For example, with a plugin like CommentLuv (Premium version), you can improve user engagement on your website. The plugin encourages readers to comment using SEO and social reward features like social enticements for sharing content, SEO backlinks, ability to use keywords in the user name, and the ability to add twitter names to comments. This plugin will visit the website of the comment author while they enter their comment and retrieve their most recent blog posts, which they can include at the bottom of their comment after clicking the submit button.
(CommentLuv Pro version can help attract more comments and traffic and improve user engagement on your site.)
To learn more about the benefits of using this handy plugin, visit this website:
Social Link Machine
(Social Link Machine – Content distribution plugin)
SocialLinkMachine is a set-and-forget plugin that lets you automatically syndicate your content, build backlinks, include relevant images and videos, and create social signals on auto-pilot …
(SocialLinkMachine – syndicate and drip-feed content to dozens of authority websites)
With Social Link Machine installed, you can automatically syndicate content to dozens of traffic-generating sites, like:
- Bookmarking Sites: e.g. Bitly, Linkagogo, Plurk, Zotero, etc.
- Web 2.0 Blogs: e.g. Blog.com, Rebel Mouse, WordPress.com, etc.
- Social Media Platforms: Google Plus, YouTube, etc.
- Image Sharing: e.g. Pinterest, etc.
- Document Sharing: e.g. Docdroid, Scribd, etc.
To learn more about this plugin, visit this site: SocialLinkMachine
Also, if you would like to know more about setting up social media monitoring (so you can get useful information about your content marketing efforts), go here to learn about social media measurement tools that are worth knowing about:
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 Automation Blueprint: Automated Content Syndication Phase – Summary
Once you have your WordPress site and plugins configured and set up, all you have to do is add fresh content on a regular basis to attract traffic organically.
If you need great content ideas for 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 the process. This step is explained in the next section of our series.
This is the end of Part 4
To read more, click on the link below:
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