How to Increase Blog Traffic – New Marketing Platforms and Strategies

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As you may know, I have written a post on how we were able to reach 2,000 page views a day in our third month of blogging.

Since that post, many things have changed, our blog has evolved significantly and we have tested some different strategies.

Currently, in addition to Pinterest and Facebook, some less used platforms are among the social referral sources that are driving the most traffic to our blog.

In my free course, I recommend exploring other platforms that could bring massive traffic to your blog depending on your niche (e.g. Bloglovin’, LinkedIn, Quora, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Medium, SteemIt, Warriorforum).

I always thought of writing a post about how we use these less known platforms but between a project and another, I have never found the time.

Then, through my Facebook Group Blogging for New Bloggers, I got to know a very successful new blogger, Tom from This Online World,  who has had impressive results with some of these less known platforms.

When it comes to driving blog traffic, there are many methods professional and everyday bloggers alike use to reach their audience.

Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are incredible marketing tools for bloggers. Considering the reach of these social media platforms, it’s of little surprise that many bloggers often recommend strategies that utilize these platforms to drive blog traffic.

Don’t get me wrong, all of these platforms present an immense amount of opportunity for bloggers and content creators. After reading the Pinterest Strategy Guide by Marina, I think I’m even going to revamp my efforts in the Pinterest marketing department.

However, I think it is also important to always consider unique marketing approaches and to maintain an open mindset.

Not every promotional strategy needs to use traditional channels or cookie-cutter methods. The internet is a dynamic place after all, and you need to stay on your toes!

In fact, my most successful marketing campaigns for my blog This Online World have come from using less prominent platforms.

So, I want to share some ways you can drive traffic to your blog by using fresh marketing strategies that might be new to a lot of bloggers out there.

This post will cover methods to increase blog traffic by using:

• Quora
• Reddit
• LinkedIn
• Medium

Let’s get to it!

Quora Blog Marketing – Increasing Blog Traffic with Quora

I’ve covered Quora marketing strategies in depth on my own blog, but I am always eager to write more content about Quora because it is my favorite way to increase blog traffic.

Quora is a question-answer platform that was founded in 2009. On Quora, the community manages almost every aspect of content. People ask questions, industry experts and everyday people chime in, and the best answers are upvoted while poor answers gradually fall to the bottom of a thread.

It’s almost a cross between Yahoo Answers and Reddit.

Quora is also a vast platform, with 190 million active monthly users as of April 2017. Quora even has thousands of question-answer topics, such as writing, music, health, fitness, technology, and finance.

So, in short, you can answer questions on Quora to increase traffic to your blog.

However, I’m going to outline the most effective way to do this based on my experience with Quora marketing.

Step 1: Create a Detailed and Professional Quora Profile

When you answer questions on Quora, you are representing your blog and brand. You need to remain professional, and also take advantage of every inch of webspace you can.

Here is how I have structured my Quora profile:

My profile accomplishes 5 main goals:

• It informs Quora users what my interests are.
• It explains why I am even on Quora.
• It asserts my expertise in particular topics by using credentials.
• It links Quora users to some of my best blog articles and additional platforms.
• It advertises my blog URL on every answer I write.

Other Quora authors take various approaches to designing their profile. Some are more minimalistic, while others have multiple paragraphs that explain their life/business story.

Regardless of your style preference, be sure to remain professional and build your blog/brand image.

Step 2: Find Questions to Answer

When I first started answering questions on Quora, I just followed some topics that interested me and then answered whatever appeared on my homepage.

Please don’t do this.

Quora marketing is all about efficiency. You need to find trending questions in your niche to answer rather than questions that will only get a few views.

I break down the criteria in greater depth in my Quora guide, but in general, look for questions that:

• Have a high number of views and followers.
• Have top answers that are missing some critical information or aren’t very good.
• Aren’t already saturated with answers from industry experts and Quora giants with thousands of followers.

In other words, you need to find questions where you have a fighting chance and where there is still value to add.

Step 3: Answer Questions

Once you’ve found some great question real estate to stake your claim on, it’s time to start answering!

My general answer formula is fairly straightforward:

• Write a brief introduction that relates to the reader and topic at hand.
• Answer the actual question with your opinions. Be sure to include images, screenshots, relevant stats, and proof to back up what you are suggesting.
• Conclude by thanking all readers and link them to additional and related resources from your blog.

This last element is crucial for driving traffic to your blog. If you don’t link to your blog resources, people will not find you.

I usually accomplish this with a sentence along the lines of:

It’s that simple.

Just remember, you need to add real value for Quora readers to upvote your answers and reward you with visits to your blog.

I’ve made an effort to try to write the best answers possible and help people, and my results haven’t been bad after 2 months:

250,000 Quora views on my answer have turned into over 2,000 sessions on my website!

Additionally, your best answers will generally lead to steady referral traffic even in the months following your answer!

Plus, you might even be featured in the Quora Email Digest if your answer is amazing, enabling you to reach even more readers:

Reddit Blog Marketing – Increasing Blog Traffic with Reddit

“If you want to successfully market on Reddit, you need to make sure you aren’t a marketer.”

That phrase, in general, describes the Reddit landscape incredibly well when it comes to utilizing Reddit to drive blog traffic or promote your business.

Reddit is essentially a massive forum where news and content from around the web are discussed.

Like Quora, Reddit maintains a high standard of quality, and users help moderate content through an upvote/downvote system.

Redditors are also very wary of content that is promoted by businesses or marketers. Content quality, humor, and transparency are generally much more appreciate and well received by the community than someone who is pitching a product or service.

So, when using Reddit to increase blog traffic, you need to be aware of the general Reddiquette (Reddit Etiquette) that exists and refrain from being overly promotional and rigid.

If you want to successfully promote your blog on Reddit, I would suggest doing the following:

• Follow subreddits that are related to your blog topic.
• Follow subreddits that relate to blogging (like r/Blogging or r/SEO).
• Make your Reddit name your blog name, if possible.
• Help other Redditors with their questions and provide value (similar to Quora!)
• When you discover something interesting that could help other people, share it.
• Remain genuine, transparent, and have some fun.

You would be amazed at how many Reddit users will direct message you to ask for additional information or request that you share your blog URL.

My blog is focused on blogging, marketing, and passive income, and I’ve shared tidbits of information with relevant communities along the way:

My referral traffic from Reddit hasn’t been massive, but the traffic is incredibly interested and likely to turn into subscribers/repeat users. Besides, just look at that low bounce rate!

Additionally, sometimes I don’t even link my blog. I just suggest people do some Googling (and I happen to rank very well for some particular niche topics in passive income, so they will find me anyway!)

Reddit is also excellent for building relationships, learning more about your blogging niche, and finding guest posting opportunities or new business partners.

If you want to try a new way to drive traffic to your blog, I would highly suggest becoming active on Reddit.

LinkedIn Blog Marketing – Increasing Blog Traffic with LinkedIn

While LinkedIn is a more recent platform I’m looking to use, it is easy to see the potential LinkedIn has for bloggers.

After all, LinkedIn is a commanding social platform with more than 500 million users.

Currently, I have only set up a business page for my blog. When I post a new blog article, I also share it on LinkedIn to quickly gain some traction:

Granted, a few hundred impressions and some clicks isn’t all that much, but I think LinkedIn offers some potential for bloggers.

Moving forward, here are my plans for LinkedIn blog marketing:

• Revamp my profile page and add relevant information about my blog.
• Join active groups specifically related to blogging, SEO, and marketing.
• Sharing my recent blog posts with these groups.

I mean, just look at some of the potential groups out there! They have thousands of members!

I believe that as long as you follow the same practices as Quora and Reddit (providing value, being transparent, etc.) you can effectively use LinkedIn to promote your blog by sharing content with relevant groups.

Medium Blog Marketing – Increasing Blog Traffic with Medium

Medium is another underutilized platform for driving traffic to your blog, and it is one of my favorites because it takes advantage of content you have already created.

I’ve covered Medium before and discussed how to make money by writing on Medium, but it also offers bloggers with a straightforward way to drive blog traffic.

Medium is actually another blogging/publishing platform. It has a minimalist design philosophy, and it’s owned by Evan Williams, the former CEO of Twitter.

Medium has plenty of popular topics such as finance, health, writing, and technology, but there are certain audiences to be found for almost any blogging niche.

As with Quora and Reddit, Medium allows for community members to interact with content by ‘clapping.’ Claps indicate people like your content, and if people clap for your work, there’s a strong likelihood you can spark awareness and even make money.

However, the best part about Medium is that you can import your old blog posts.

Medium allows bloggers to import stories from their blogs on to Medium. This is basically a form of content syndication, and it’s valuable because it pushes your work in front of a new audience.

Plus, Medium automatically adds the rel=canonical tag when you import a blog post onto Medium.

This tag lets Google know that your blog post is the original, most authoritative source for the content. This ensures that Medium cannot cannibalize your blog traffic using work you created in the first place.

Considering this tag, there is no reason not to import your blog posts to Medium.

Medium receives more than 60 million monthly readers. I don’t know about you, but that’s definitely a larger audience than my blog.

So, to drive blog traffic, create a Medium profile, import your work, and reach a new community.

I’ve been republishing blog posts to Medium since April, 2018, and the results haven’t been too terrible:

I’ve also managed to gain almost 50 followers on the platform, just by sharing content I’ve already created:

While it can be hard to track referral traffic from Medium, the platform ultimately allows you to continually build your brand/blog image, reach a new audience, and engage readers who are interested in your niche.

Additionally, you can also earn author bonuses or be paid when premium Medium users clap for your articles:

Ultimately, Medium can be a handy way to gain some additional traction on your work, and it requires minimal effort to import content you have already created!

Some Final Thoughts

At the end of the day, as long as you provide value to your audience and do not overly self-promote, I believe you can successfully market your blog and drive traffic on almost any platform.

Facebook, Pinterest, and other popular platforms are great. I use them every day, and my blog has benefited from me doing so.

However, it can also be rewarding to market your blogs on less saturated platforms that have different audiences. You would be amazed at the relationships you can build and the traffic you can generate just by being helpful to people!

If you’re looking to spice up your marketing mix and try something new, I highly suggest using any of the 4 platforms I have outlined.

Best of luck!

Also, thanks to Tinylovebug for this awesome guest post opportunity!

Tom from This Online World.