Welcome to Part 4 of our Web Site Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to create an automated web traffic generating machine using the WordPress CMS.
So far, here is what we have covered in this series:
In Part 1, we explain why using an expertly configured WordPress website or blog is the key to generating automated web traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress site, all you have to do to begin attracting new web traffic is add content on a regular basis!)
In Part Two, we looked at critical setup decisions. We explained the best way to get started 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 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 discussed configuring WordPress.
Here, we configure all the settings that can affect your site’s ability to generate traffic automatically …
(In Part Three you learn how to configure hosting settings, WordPress settings, and external settings that affect your site’s ability to generate traffic automatically)
In Part Four, we look at ways to automate the traffic-generation process with plugins.
Why Automate The Traffic-Getting Process?
Depending on which online marketing gurus you listen to, you could find yourself trying to spend a couple of hours or more per day posting content on social media while also trying to manage your business, your content and your online presence.
Many small business owners lack the time, human 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 marketing experts recommend doing. If you spend most of your time checking Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter in addition to writing content for your blog or website, how will you get anything in your business done?
(Keeping their business running is how most small businesses spend their working hours. Image source: National Federation Of Independent Businesses)
Many business owners spend most of their working hours keeping their businesses up and running. In addition to running a business, there’s sales and marketing. After all, businesses need to stay competitive and make sales in order to survive.
A study of small businesses conducted in 2012 by VerticalResponse – an email and social media marketing company, found that:
- 43% of all small businesses surveyed spent six or more hours per week on social media (the other half 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 even 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 their most time-consuming online activity.
(Businesses are spending more time every year marketing and promoting themselves online. Infographic source: VerticalResponse.com)
As businesses spend more time marketing and promoting themselves online as a matter of business survival and competition, this puts more and more of a squeeze on businesses to prioritize their time on other equally important areas …
(Businesses with limited budgets, resources, and time and many business areas to focus on have to plan their marketing strategy very carefully.)
One other important thing to keep in mind is that, in addition to spending time marketing and promoting your business on a number of social sites, all of your efforts are going into virtual real estate that you don’t control. You don’t own Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube. These sites often will make decisions that can significantly impact your business without requiring your input. Why invest so much time and effort building a business on someone else’s asset? With WordPress, you can control your own real estate and post your content automatically to other sites.
Automating systems and process to save time is nothing new. Businesses have been doing it ever since the Industrial Age. In the Information Age, however, the exponential growth online marketing channels creates a number of dilemmas for small business owners, especially for those with limited marketing budgets, resources, and time. For example:
- Which channels do you invest more time, efforts, and budget on?
- Should you invest so much time and effort building assets on sites that belong to other companies (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.) while neglecting your own website?
- Do you create new content for every channel you plan to promote and market your business on?
The Benefits Of Automating The Traffic-Getting Process With WordPress
What we’d like to show you now, is a free, simple, and effective method that allows you to automate your traffic generation 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 costs,
- Determine which marketing channels you should focus more efforts, budget, and time 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 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 urge you to avoid using black hat sites, methods, tools, and anything that violates the terms of service and policies of sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc..
(Web traffic automation does not have to involve using black hat methods!)
The focus of this article is not to game web services or break their terms of service, but 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 websites 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, most small business owners lack the time, human resources and financial means to engage in the kind of content marketing that most experts recommend. What you want to do, then, is be strategic with your limited budget, resources, and time.
So, instead of choosing this approach, which is very time-consuming …
(Posting content to individual channels is extremely 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 channels.
You can:
- Automatically distribute content to social channels and bookmarking sites,
- Distribute comments and content automatically to other blogs and online 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 site as shown in Part Two. Then, get everything configured as shown in Part Three. Once all of this is in place, you then automate the process using plugins.
The video below shows you how everything works once your WordPress site has been expertly configured …
WordPress Web Traffic Automation System – Plugins
Let’s take a look now at some plugins that can help to:
- Syndicate content to social media sites and social bookmarking sites
- Post comments automatically to other blogs
- Distribute content automatically to other websites via RSS
Jetpack Plugin
You can get your posts automatically distributed to sites like Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ 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, connect the plugin to your WordPress.com account (which you would have set up in Part 3.) …
(Connect Jetpack to your WordPress.com account)
Next, activate a feature called Publicize …
(Activate the Publicize feature)
You can share your posts on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, GooglePlus, LinkedIn, and more …
(Publicize your content to several social networks.)
After configuring all of the plugin and account settings, your content is ready for distribution.
Publicize adds a new section to your Publish box …
(Publicize settings displays in your post publishing area.)
Now, whenever you publish new content, it will automatically get shared online to all of the accounts you have set up …
(As soon as new posts are published, they are automatically syndicated online.)
The Jetpack plugin provides you with a hands-free, automated way to create more exposure for your content online on social websites.
CommentLuv
(CommentLuv)
The WordPress native commenting feature lets your visitors engage with your website or blog, post new comments, reply to existing comments and participate in discussions as part of a social community.
You can expand the WordPress built-in commenting feature with 3rd-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 WordPress plugin like CommentLuv (Premium version), you can create more user engagement on your website. The plugin encourages readers to comment using SEO and social reward features like social enticements for sharing your content, SEO backlinks, using keywords in the user name, and adding twitter usernames to comments. 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 Pro version can attract more comments and web traffic and improve user engagement on your website.)
Go here to learn more about the benefits of this plugin:
SocialLinkMachine
(Social Link Machine – WordPress content distribution plugin)
Social LinkMachine is a plugin that lets you automatically drip-feed your content, build backlinks, include relevant images and videos, and create social signals on auto-pilot …
(Social LinkMachine – syndicate your content automatically to over 30 authority websites)
With Social Link Machine installed, you can automatically syndicate and drip-feed your content to over 30 social websites, like:
- Social Bookmarking Platforms: e.g. Bitly, Linkagogo, Kippt, Reddit, etc.
- Web 2.0 Blogging Platforms: e.g. Blog.com, Rebel Mouse, Tumblr, etc.
- Social Media Platforms: Facebook, Twitter, etc.
- Image Sharing: e.g. Flickr, etc.
- PDF Sharing Platforms: e.g. Docdroid, Scribd, etc.
Visit this site to learn more about using this great plugin: SocialLinkMachine
Also, if you would like to know more about setting up social media monitoring (so you can get useful information about your content distribution campaigns), we have created a detailed article listing a number of social media monitoring tools and technologies that are worth checking out and knowing about. For more details, go here:
The above are just some 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 Blueprint: Content Syndication Stage – Summary
Once you have your website or blog and plugins set up and expertly configured, all you have to do then is post great content on a regular basis to begin attracting web traffic.
If you need endless content ideas for your site, then subscribe to our FREE email training course on content marketing here:
Once you have expertly configured your WordPress site, the next step is to optimize the process. This step is addressed in the next section of the WordPress Traffic Blueprint series.
This is the end of Section 4
To keep reading, click here:
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"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum
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