Welcome to Part 4 of our WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to drive traffic automatically to your website using the WordPress CMS platform.
So far, here is what we have covered in this series:
In Part 1 of this article series, we provided an overview of 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 site, all you have to do is post great content consistently to bring traffic!)
In Part 2, we focused on the setup phase. We explained the best way to get started if you don’t have a website yet, how to set things up if you already have a website, and what to do if your existing website has been built with WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you where to set up a WordPress website on your domain)
In Part 3, we discussed the configuration phase.
Here, we configure hosting settings, WordPress settings, and external settings that affect your website’s ability to generate traffic automatically …
(In Part 3 you will configure all the settings (hosting, WordPress and external) that affect your website’s ability to generate traffic automatically)
In Part Four, you will learn how to set up various WordPress plugins that can get new visitors automatically to your site.
Why Automate Your Traffic-Getting Process?
Depending on which expert you listen to, you could end up trying to spend an hour a 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 lack the time, human resources and budget to engage in the kind of content marketing that many marketing experts advise doing. If you were to spend most of your time posting updates on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn in addition to writing articles for your blog or website, how could you get anything else in your business done?
(Small business owners spend most of their time keeping their businesses up and running. Source: NFIB)
Small businesses spend most of their working hours keeping 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 by email and social media marketing company Vertical Response found that:
- Almost half of all businesses surveyed spent six or more hours per week on social media (the rest 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 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 consumed the most time online.
(Small businesses are spending more time every year marketing and promoting themselves online. Infographic source: VerticalResponse.com)
As businesses spend more time promoting and marketing themselves online in order to compete and survive, this leaves less time for under-resourced businesses to focus on other vital areas …
(Businesses with limited resources, time, and budgets and many different areas to focus on need to plan their marketing strategy very carefully.)
One other thing to keep in mind is that, in addition to spending time promoting and marketing your business on a number of social media websites, all of your efforts are going into virtual real estate that you don’t control. You don’t own Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube. These companies can make decisions that can dramatically impact your business without first consulting you. Why invest so much time and effort building content 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 business processes to save time is nothing new. Businesses have been doing it ever since the Industrial Age. In the Information Age, however, the availability of so many new online marketing channels creates a number of dilemmas for business owners, especially for those with limited budgets, resources, and time. For example:
- Which of these channels should you invest more of your efforts, budget, and your time on?
- Should you invest so much time and effort building a web presence on other people’s sites (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.) while ignoring 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 we’d like to show you now, is a free, simple, and effective method that lets you automate the traffic-getting process with WordPress.
With this method, you will be able to:
- Save time creating content for your website and social media,
- Save money on content creation and unnecessary web marketing channels,
- Determine which marketing channels you should invest more budget, efforts, and your time on,
- Invest most of your time 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 recommend avoiding black hat tools, websites, methods, and anything that violates the terms of service and policies of companies like Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc..
(Automating your web traffic doesn’t require the use of black hat techniques!)
The purpose of this article is to show you how to automate your content distribution in order to leverage your time and efforts, and increase your exposure online to websites frequented by your target audience.
An Automated Content Distribution, Traffic And Lead Generation, And Sales & Marketing System
We’ve just seen in the previous section how many small business owners lack the time, resources and financial means to engage in the kind of content marketing that most experts advise. What you want to do, then, is work smart within your limitations.
So, instead of doing this …
(Posting content to services individually can be very time-consuming!)
Why not opt for this time-saving method 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 the distribution of your content to all other services.
You can:
- Automatically distribute content to social media channels and social bookmarking sites,
- Automatically distribute content (and comments) 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, get it configured as described in Part 3. After all this is in place, you then connect all of the dots using plugins like the ones shown in the following section.
The video below shows you how everything works once your WordPress site has been expertly configured …
WordPress Traffic Automation System – Traffic Plugins
Let’s take a brief look at some traffic-generating plugins that can help to:
- Post content to social sites and social bookmarking websites
- Syndicate comments automatically to other blogs
- Distribute content to other online properties via RSS
Jetpack
You can get your posts automatically distributed to sites like Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, GooglePlus and more as soon as you publish new content using a WordPress plugin like JetPack.
Download URL: https://jetpack.com/
Jetpack is a free WordPress plugin with loads of great features.
After installing Jetpack, you will need to connect the plugin to your WordPress.com account …
(Connect Jetpack to your WordPress.com account)
Next, activate the Publicize feature …
(Jetpack – Publicize)
Once this section is configured, you will be able to automatically share your posts on Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, GooglePlus, LinkedIn, and more …
(Distribute your posts automatically to several social 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 options show in the post publishing area.)
Now, whenever you publish new content, it will automatically be shared online to every account you have set up …
(As soon as posts are published, they are automatically distributed online.)
Visit the plugin site to learn more about the benefits of using this plugin: Jetpack
CommentLuv
(CommentLuv)
The WordPress native commenting system lets your site users engage with your site, post new comments, reply to other users and engage with your content.
You can expand the WordPress built-in commenting feature with a 3rd-party plugin like Disqus, IntenseDebate, LiveFyre, or CommentLuv that integrates your comments with social media, helping to share and spread your content around.
For example, with a WordPress plugin like CommentLuv (Pro version), you can make your site more attractive to commenters by offering them a choice of backlinks if they plus1, like, or tweet your content. This plugin will visit the comment author’s site while they type their comment and retrieve their latest blog posts, which can be included with their comment after clicking the submit button.
(CommentLuv can encourage a greater level of commenting and improve user engagement on your web site.)
Visit this site to learn more about the benefits of using this powerful plugin:
Social Link Machine
(Social LinkMachine – Content distribution plugin for WordPress)
SocialLinkMachine is a plugin for WordPress that lets you automatically drip-feed your content to many online sites, build diverse anchor text backlinks, include relevant images and videos, and create social signals on auto-pilot …
(SocialLinkMachine – syndicate and drip-feed your content automatically to over 30 online websites)
With Social LinkMachine installed, you can automatically syndicate your content to over 30 authority platforms, including:
- Bookmarking Platforms: e.g. Bitly, Linkagogo, Plurk, Stumbleupon, etc.
- Web 2.0 Blogging Platforms: e.g. Livejournal, Sett, WordPress.com, etc.
- Social Media Platforms: Facebook, Twitter, etc.
- Image Sharing: e.g. Flickr, etc.
- Document Sharing: e.g. Docdroid, Gett, etc.
To learn more about the benefits of using this handy 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 marketing campaigns), we have written a detailed article listing many social media measurement tools and technologies that are worth knowing about. More info:
The above are just a few 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 Blueprint: Automated Content Sharing Stage – Summary
Once your website or blog and plugins have been configured and fully set up, all you need to do is post great content regularly to automatically drive more web traffic.
We have created a complete email email-based training course aimed at helping you come up with unlimited content ideas for your web site:
Once you have expertly configured your WordPress site, the next step is to optimize as much of the process as can be improved. This step is covered in the next article in our WordPress Traffic Blueprint series.
This is the end of Part Four
To read the rest of this article series, click here:
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"I am beyond impressed with what you have put together. I can tell that you put a ton of hard work into building what you have. You have the absolute best content on WordPress I have ever seen!" - Robert T. Jillie
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