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Are you looking for tips on how to increase your blog traffic?
Learn about how Pinterest, blogging courses, blog design, quality content, and SEO can help increase traffic for your blog within months. These are my 8 tips for generating blog traffic.
This post first published in the fall of 2018 and has been updated for summer 2019.
Are you there, God? It’s me, Christine. Is anyone reading my blog? I must, I must, I must increase my page views.
Yup, boosting your blog traffic is pretty similar to Margaret wanting boobs and her girlie flow in Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. AKA: Milestones that amount to a dreadful amount of work but transcend you into superwoman status. Milestones like learning how to increase your blog traffic. Blume knew all about life’s struggles.
If you don’t know this bookish reference and have decided that I’m already too much for you, just skim on down to learn about how to increase traffic for your blog and start seeing your hard work pay off.
How To Increase Your Blog Traffic
Are you blogging your behind off to no avail?
Over a year ago, I decided that instead of returning to a public library job with my newly minted MLIS-degree, I would monetize my blog by forming an LLC. I made that sound so easy. HAHA. Commence silent hysterical tears of joy and stress. BUT I LOVE IT!
All of these slightly younger and hipper millennials were crushing it so why couldn’t I?
I did not seriously start taking courses and strategizing, though, until the fall and winter of 2018-2019. In the meantime, I pounded away at content, spent hours perfecting posts, and thumbed through social media as if my phone was an extension of my hand. Follow me. Love me. Buy from me.
I realized that while all of these tasks helped support my blog, they didn’t necessarily equate to earning income or generating blog traffic. I needed to boost page views for my blog and start earning money if I wanted my business to thrive.
So at first, did the 30-100+ page views a day feel hopeless with all of this time I dedicated and toiled away at on my blog? You bet!
Grateful for every single site visitor, I still desired and needed more. Any business blogger hoping to make blogging a career watches stats, incessantly checks affiliate income reports, and prays to the Pinterest gods that a pin will go viral.
I watched other bloggers talk about their successes in TEDx Talks, took their online courses, and read hundreds of free blog articles.
Why after putting in the hard work was my blog not growing as much as I hoped? How could I increase traffic for my blog to pay out my passionate efforts? Was I doomed to call this a career?
No!
What I Quickly Realized About Blogging For Business
Then, one fateful day, I watched my blog stats increase. I broke 1,100 daily page views, and I sat dumbfounded. I hit a goal that I set for over a year away—a goal that smaller ‘big time’ bloggers achieve regularly with no trouble at all. I’m sure they would scoff at this. The next day, I watched again as my blog stats increased. This was within less than 4-6 months of blogging. Did those stats last every single day? Nope.
BUT, today, I watch more and more as my pins go viral and pray to Margaret’s God that I will be a Mediavine blogger by the end of the year. In the past year, my traffic has increased by 800% according to Google Analytics. It was THAT bad when I first started.
I’ve had steady and growing blog traffic, and after analyzing stats, I know what I need to work on for future blog posts. Full disclosure, though, I am no pro. As with all things blogging, do your due diligence and research too. These are just some tips and advice that have helped me grow.
So What Had Changed To Increase My Blog Traffic?
From this summer to last, I learned the beginning keys for how to increase blog traffic:
- Self-hosting my blog, downloading the right plugins, and installing a user-friendly and attractive theme
- Determining a more specific blogging niche
- Grasping Pinterest marketing and having a strong Pinterest strategy with scheduling aides
- Investing in my blog and myself by taking blogging courses from the professionals
- Creating quality and timely content based on my analytics
- Working on SEO
- Not soliciting unengaged followers on social media channels
- Spending time away from social media
Let’s break it down:
8 Easy Tips For How To Increase Your Blog Traffic
Boost Your Blog Traffic With Self-Hosting
SiteGround Rocks
I was going to leave self-hosting off this list, but I have been fielding so many questions about self-hosting that I feel like it isn’t a given. These days, it has to be.
If you want to truly monetize, increase traffic for your blog, optimize your site to show up in Internet searches like Google, and have control over the functionality and gorgeousness of your baby, you need self-hosting.
Say goodbye to the once hobby-friendly and awesome WP .com. Let it go. Let it go. No holding back anymore…
Once I switched over to self-hosting, my site instantly started ranking in Google and my blog traffic increased within the week. Plus, I bought an attractive new blog theme that functions on all devices—which again, will help increase blog traffic.
What I recommend: Use SiteGround as your self-host with WP .org as your stomping grounds. WP. org looks exactly like WP .com with a few extras, and you can add in all the plugins you want.
Why do I love SiteGround? Particularly number one: they didn’t lose all of my content into the black Internet abyss when I first transferred over to WP .org. Yup, they transferred everything for me.
SiteGround also offers 24/7 chat help—which has been AMAZING—and when I crashed my site with a plugin, they were my shot of whiskey with Xanax. Within minutes, they fixed my error with no questions asked.
Plus, they start plans at $6.99 a month, which is just what this poor blogger needed at the time. That’s cheaper than a glass of my daily wine. You can read more about my love of SiteGround and how I use them to make money blogging here.
I should note that I just renewed SiteGround for 3 more years.
Self-Hosting Means More Theme Options
Part of learning how to increase your blog traffic means having a site that is easy to navigate, looks appealing to readers, and is SEO-friendly. I love StudioPress themes as well as their child themes paired with the Genesis Framework. Genesis allows you to build a gorgeous website that works well with Gutenberg, is mobile responsive, and has great customizations. You want a blog theme that works well on mobile devices if you are like me and have a large mobile audience.
With Genesis, I have a child theme, Restored 316, that I love. Restored 316 designs are clean-cut and attractive. I was easily able to integrate my social sharing buttons, newsletter signup forms, and popular posts with a solid theme.
All of these features create a better user experience that makes Google happy and keeps your readers returning and staying on page longer.
Self-Hosting Also Allows For Helpful Plugins
With SiteGround and self-hosting, you can download any plugins that you find necessary to shrink pictures and clear your caches to ultimately increase site speed, which search engines love. You can also add plugins to help you rank with and improve SEO. A few plugins I champion include:
- Yoast
- WP-Optimize
- Smush (Although I now use Photoshop and tinyPNG)
- Broken Links
- W3 Total Cache or SG Optimizer if you have a higher plan
While you do not want a ton of plugins to bog down your site, some of these will help increase your blog traffic by making your site run more smoothly behind the scenes. Search engines factor in how fast your site loads, how long users stay on your site, and if users click elsewhere to read more posts.
How To Increase Traffic For Blogs By Niche-ing Down
This tip for how to boost blog traffic is the hardest for me, and I am still working on it. Once you go self-hosted and decide you want to blog for business, you need to niche down. I truly believe that gone are the days of blogging about everything in one blog. Yes, people still do this and some are successful–however, this is usually people who have been blogging for years and years.
In the eyes of your audience and search engines, you want to be known as the expert. This means that you want to have a defined niche.
TUL, for example, is all about travel books (books set in destinations, global books, and books around the world) and book-inspired travels. I also throw in some boozy recs and blogging tips, which is more because of my passions and not necessarily because I’m being smart. I recently stopped posting generic travels around the world because being all over was not helping to increase my blog traffic.
People need to know exactly who you are and what you are about. It helps when they can instantly see what value you provide and need that you fulfill.
You can read more about this idea of writing for one person vs everyone here→
How To Increase Your Blog Traffic With Pinterest Marketing
I’m not going to lie, Pinterest is a beautiful visual platform that boosts my blog traffic like whoaaaaaa. Pinterest is my number one traffic source along with direct visits and Internet searches (SEO). As my blog ages, SEO is tied, but when the fall and winter arrives, Pinterest is BOSS.
Pinterest is no longer just a space for rockstar stay-at-home moms and yuppies wanting to host hipster parties. Everyone is on Pinterest and many are looking for help or to make a purchase. Plus, pinning is downright fun.
Most importantly, Pinterest is a visual search engine. Like Google, people use Pinterest and keywords to look up information that they want or need. Unlike Google, Pinterest offers pretty pictures for every search.
The day I realized Pinterest’s potential was when I first hit over 1,000 daily page views:
Also, see the bounce rate? GAG. Just a reminder that I’m not amazing, but I am improving, vastly.
Pinterest Basics To Increase Traffic For Blogs
- Make sure you have a business Pinterest account for your blog and enable rich pins. Rich pins pull more information from your site. Rich pins also perform better than regular pins. With a business account, you can track analytics to see what pins are thriving. By knowing what content people love from you, you can build similar content to keep them happy.
- Your Pinterest account is an extension of your blog and business. You need to brand appropriately. This means making visually appealing board covers, keywording your profile, verifying your website, and pinning quality pins from your site as well as others.
- You have to play well in the sandbox. Ask popular bloggers to join their group boards and circulate pins from bloggers that you love. Don’t spam, and make sure you know all of the rules for group boards, using affiliate links, and even Pinterest itself. When you join group boards and follow other bloggers, you want to stay as niche-specific as possible. Pinterest doesn’t love generic boards for pin dumping. Plus, you want engaged pinners who are interested in your topics.
- AND YES, your blog needs to have at least 1-2 pinnable images. I recommend one at the beginning and one at the end of your post. You should make at least 4-6 pins per blog post but just pin the rest directly from Pinterest. Pinterest sees every new pin cover as a new blog post.
Advanced Pinterest Tips To Generate Blog Traffic
ALT Tags Are For SEO So Use This Code
- Remember that your alt tags are meant to be keyworded for SEO. While Pinterest pin buttons pick up alt tags first, you can overwrite that. Use the code: data-pin-description=”Pinterest description with solid keywords here.” This piece of code goes in your html after the pinnable image’s dimensions.
Invest In Tailwind (TW)
Pinterest loves consistent pinners. I highly recommend making the investment and using Tailwind to pin at least 30-40 pins daily. 80% of these pins should be yours and 20% should be others if you have a decent following and your Pinterest account for a while now. Tailwind pins at your optimal Pinterest times and only takes a few hours a week to use for a HUGE ROI.
But Is TW Really Worth The Money?
Since Pinterest is one of my major blog marketing tools these days, I am the first to admit that it is A LOT to pin away all day. I’m talking 30-100 pins a day at all hours of the damn day. Not to mention that you have optimal hours where people are pinning your content while you are or should be asleep. You need to be pinning then.
Sounds impossible or exhausting, right? I thought I could manually pin on my own and succeed but I couldn’t. Some bloggers manage, but I like having a life too. The local brewery has a wine glass painting night, and I NEED to be there.
I didn’t want to spend the cash on Tailwind, which costs around $100-$119 a year depending on which deal you snag. Being a cheapo and impoverished blogger, I started with the trial that everyone told me wouldn’t give me the slightest inkling of Tailwind’s power. They were right.
What Is This Glorious Beast? A Pinterest Scheduler (or IG if you so choose).
Week by week, I personally schedule at least 30+ pins a day that circulate at my Pinterest account’s most optimal times. Perks for Tailwind include:
- Stats: Find pin and board stats to see how everything is performing and what people love.
- Tribes: Pin your content in groups where other like-minded niche bloggers can easily access and repin your material.
- Board Lists: TW allows you to create themed board lists. I have many for travel, blogging, and books. With one click, my pin is hitting 30 boards in seconds.
- Smart Loop: Smart Loop recycles top performing pins and re-recirculates them throughout the year, which people like for seasonal content. I no longer use this feature, but I know a ton of bloggers who still do.
- Stats Round 2: TW lets me see what people DON’T love so I can stop wasting my time creating and pinning that content. After a while, a dud might just be a dud.
Feeling Overwhelmed by Tailwind and Pinterest? Try This Pinterest Course To Increase Traffic For Your Blog
If all of this sounds confusing or terrifying to you, I love Ell from Boss Girl Bloggers’ Pinterest course.
Pinterest With Ell by Ell Duclos teaches you how to master Pinterest and increase your sales and website traffic. And that it did. Ell is the goddess of Pinterest, and her blog hits the 80,000+ monthly page views that we all want.
My Pinterest account, The Uncorked Librarian, reached over 1.4 MILLION monthly views (of course this waivers up and down in the algorithm) in just mere months after Ell’s course. The more followers and views I gain, the more I pin articles from my own blog. This all equates to more blog traffic. Here are a few screenshots of my viral pins to prove it:
These three pins are examples of viral pins. You can see the number of saves each pin received on Pinterest and the number of link clicks which instantly equates to increased blog traffic.
How To Increase Blog Traffic With Courses
Ell’s course brings me to my next point. How else can you generate blog traffic when you are not seeing results? I strongly recommend taking courses from successful bloggers.
You can enroll in a free course or invest in one. Either way, it is time and money well spent. I’d love for there to be a graduate program for blogging. Anyone else in?! I love following and learning from bloggers and influencers like Ell Duclos, Cate Rosales, Elise Darma, Hilary Rushford, and Ann Tran.
These are my personal top-recommended blogging courses with full-blown explanations for what you get in each one:
You’ll find blogging basics courses, SEO, Pinterest, and even books and blogging tools that I love.
Boost Your Blog Traffic With The Right Content
Seasonal Content Perks Up Blog Page Views
This year, I am going to rock this so much better: Seasonal content is a must. Who knew? Everyone else. Everyone else BUT ME. Ok, maybe I knew a little, but I was behind…let’s call it jet lag. Check out Pinterest’s Guides for extra help here too.
I know not everyone celebrates all of the same holidays or even has the same seasons and weather but know your audience.
My audience freaking loves Halloween and the fall. I do too. Get those seasonal books and travel lists out 45 days or more in advance. Gift guides need to come out well before Thanksgiving and Black Friday.
And ya know what, I am a tool. I missed Black Friday and Cyber Monday last year. What about Amazon Prime Day? Regret. My wallet is filled with regret because there is SO much room where the cash should be.
Know fun days and calendar events and play that shit up—but only if you love it and truly standby those products. Don’t create cheap, crappy affiliate-laden posts that lack meaning. Write actual real content with stuff that you love, have tried, or know that others in your community can stand by.
Build Content For Your Audience
Besides playing into the trends and seasons, you have to know your audience, community, and readers.
Recently, a few bloggers messaged me asking for thoughts on what they were doing wrong. A quick look at their blogs and I could instantly see that they were writing solely for themselves. If you are a hobby blogger who doesn’t care about page views or generating side income, that writing style is awesome.
But if you want to make money blogging and increase blog traffic, this isn’t about you. I am so sorry if this is the first time you’ve heard this.
Now, I am not saying TO NOT BE YOU. Be you. As I wrote in a recent guest post: I believe in keeping my voice—the core of who I am—but to say that I don’t gear content toward specific consumers would be a lie.
I will always be a boozy book and travel blogger—that will never change. I love and live for books and travel. And occasionally, I drop an f’ bomb here and there, am long-winded, and am probably rated PG only for Pinot Grigio.
The rest is creative process mixed with blogging etiquette and rules. Blog writing is defined as trying to find the balance of personal and passionate writing for a niche audience. Successful bloggers are those who know their readers and create community and buy in to, well, you. Once your audience is hooked, you work together to create content.
To Check The Success Of Your Blog Content Do The Following:
How do you know what content is helpful to people? How do you know what they love or need?
- See what search terms are doing well for your blog traffic in Google Console. Build content off of it and connect it all together.
- Analyze both your Pinterest and Google Analytics stats to gauge what people love.
- Use Google Trends and UberSuggest to see what search terms are popular and in your reach.
- Ask your followers across social media channels or in your newsletter.
Don’t Forget To Make Your Blog Content Attractive and Sharable
Lastly, don’t forget to make this content attractive to increase your blog traffic faster. I don’t mean swirls and girlish fonts, although that might help. Dress it up for the party:
- You need clear images, branding, and pinnable posts.
- Your posts need share buttons. I use the plugin Shareaholic.
- I love products like Lightroom, Photoshop, and Spark for blog pins, photo editing, and my social media channels.
Also, I use presets to up my photography game. Grab my favorite presets here:
Boost Blog Traffic By Updating Key Posts
Don’t forget that one piece of having stellar content is maintaining it. If you want to save time, be productive, and stay on Google’s good side, I recommend updating some of your top-performing and staple blog posts each year.
If you drastically change content, re-publish the article right before the present date and time. With this method, you’ll change the date to be more current, push Google to crawl the newer content, and keep all of your previous comments and social shares.
Plus, search engines hate out of date material and links. Make sure that all information is up-to-date and that all links work.
Don’t Forget About SEO
I am not an SEO pro, but right now, I am ranking number for a post that brings me steady page views every single day. A few general SEO tips:
- I use Google Trends, UberSuggest, and Keywords Everywhere to research my long-tail keywords. I check in on what is trending on Pinterest too. See what is happening in pop culture, the travel world, etc.
- You want your keywords and synonyms in your blog post title, major headings, scattered throughout your post’s text, and in your alt tags. Make sure to properly save and label your images too.
- Small images increase your site speed. You need to worry about your site speed. It sucks…
- Interlink relevant posts on your site in a way that makes sense.
- Guest post and seek out keyworded deep links in others’ posts to build your DA.
One SEO course that I took:
How Not To Increase Your Blog Traffic: A Myth Dispelled
P.S. Why The Number Of Followers Isn’t King…or Queen For Generating Blog Traffic
P.S. Let me also add that soliciting and begging for followers on your social media channels isn’t the best way to increase traffic for your blog.
Having a small or large number of ENGAGED followers is great for support and comments. However, sometimes your following isn’t king. Don’t get me wrong: I LOVE my regular champions. I would be lost without YOU and everyone else. Numbers matter. I get it. They just do.
BUT, I watch people solicit blog followers on Twitter and Facebook–sometimes with 4x times the WP blog followers of The Uncorked Librarian–and they don’t understand why they don’t have the page views, engagement, and any income.
Follows for follows don’t guarantee engagement past the shallow number. Other bloggers of similar status cannot be your only target audience. If you want to blog for business, you need a marketing strategy that pushes past these boundaries. You want and thrive on sincerely interested readers.
You want to create and build community through quality and consistent content.
Lastly, Don’t Waste Too Much Time On Social Media
Yes, we all know what I am talking about. This past season, I decided to put my thumbs away and back off social media platforms that were eating my blogging time. Always consider what happens if those SM channels were to disappear. Would you still have a following? Would people know where to find you?
While having a consistent presence is important on most channels, pick one or two that you love and focus the most on them. I don’t really consider Pinterest as a social media platform, but I live there and on Twitter. Instagram is where I see the least return (and I don’t love it) so I backed off. Facebook doesn’t take a ton of time so I try to have fun and drop a daily post.
It’s amazing how much content you can produce when you put down your phone. Also, don’t forget to get that email list going.
Do You Know How You Will Increase Your Blog Traffic?
After trial and error for months, these are the methods that have most helped me increase blog traffic. I hope you better understand how tools like Pinterest and Tailwind can help you generate more blog traffic. What other tips do you love for increasing traffic with blogging?
Never hesitate to hit up this uncorked lady on any social media channel with questions.
Save These Tips For Later: Pin It!
Thank you so much for this wonderful guide. I’m a massive advocate of Ell’s course as well and I am just on my one month trial of Tailwind – definitely liking it so far. This just emphasises how much I need to up my Pinterest game as I am a long way off the 1k daily views mark! Melis
Hey!! Thank you for reading, and I am so glad! I feel like I always read these blog articles where amazing bloggers are making it work, and I can’t. Finallyyyyyy it’s starting to pay off. It’s the hope we ALL need on occasion. I hope this post helps shed just a little more light on the marketing process. Ell’s course is legit the best. 1k is a great start–which also means that you have a business profile–so you will get there. You are already on the right track. I went through the TW trial and definitely hated it lol. It also looked really scary and intimidating at first. But Ell swore I needed TW in her course and in her FB group, and she was right. It is SO easy too now that I get it. I noticed instant results. Plus, I save time. Thanks for reading and always following along. I appreciate it so much! Xxx
Hey, thank you so much for this post. I am lacking behind in Pinterest and scheduling through tailwind. I think that’s the stop I am getting. But will overcome and grow slowly and steadily ?.
Hey!! Thanks so much for reading and following/supporting me on every channel. I appreciate it SO much, and of course, thanks for the social shares I saw today too. It means the world. Pinterest is the one platform where I do well–and it takes effort, but not like Instagram. Tailwind also made my life SO much easier. I actually tried to avoid the expense for months. I had read so many mixed reviews, at first. But truly, it has been one of the best investments I made this year. That course by Boss Girl Bloggers is only $10 right now with the code TisTheSeason, if you haven’t checked it out already. That course helped me and shaped me up. I still need to do some cleaning. Thanks, again!
No problem lovely. Happy to help. ?
I started off on blogger. I was at over 10K page views a month with blogspot. I realize that’s not a lot BUT since I went self hosting with wordpress I’m lucky if I see 5K page views a month and I have no idea why.
I used to use blogger wayyyyyyy back in the day. I don’t remember the platform that well, unfortunately. Did you migrate all of your followers over (I’m not that familiar with blogspot), did/do you have analytics set so that they don’t track your personal IP address as views, and did you change anything about your blogging style lately? Content, marketing, etc? 5-10K is still amazing. There are also a ton more bloggers out there, which might be syphoning readers.
Self-hosting, for me, works much better because I can fully monetize. Even with WP .com, although it says that you can monetize with the highest paid plan, you cannot fully use all types of affiliate links. I had no control over my plugins or design either. I also find that self-hosting let me pick the best theme that is friendly on all devices, which is huge since my traffic is a mix of iPads/tablets and cell phones. This helps with SEO. Are you using Yoast or some type of SEO plugin? Are you ranking in Google?
I know when I switched to self-hosting, I migrated followers over, which helped, and since I was a WP user, I kept Jetpack. If you are now on WP, Jetpack lets users easily subscribe and the reader is buggy but still great for me. Some bloggers say Jetpack takes up too much space and preach against it, but others love it. Just a few thoughts, if that is any help at all.
Another fabulous post! As always, thanks for all your great information and detailed guides. I love reading what you share.
Thank you so much! I hope that they are helpful. I’ve read 100s of blogging articles, and it is always so hard to know what will work for each blogger. I’m glad that I can finally contribute to the pile with a few of my minor successes. I’ve learned a ton.
My favorite part of this entire thing: I drop an f’ bomb here and there, am long winded, and am probably rated PG only for Pinot Grigio. I mean, I bow down at your creative writing! Can you publish a blog on writing tips? Totally need it. 🙂
Everyday you message me tips and I’ve slowly been taking them. Sometimes, I know not fast enough because I get distracted with other shit, however, I am TRULEY grateful for your guidance and support. I absolutely love this guide and Ell’s guide, which I think has also helped a ton. I don’t have views nearly as close to yours. I’m lucky if I break 50 in a day. I also don’t write weekly. Wish I had the time, creativeness and content. I don’t want to start writing stuff that isn’t quality content. I’m still trying to update old posts. HAH. You have really helped me a ton. Thanks so much for sharing all your tips! Gonna read a couple other e-courses you mentioned here.
AHAHA, thank you!! I just wrote that line for an author’s guest post, and guess what the topic is: THE WRITING PROCESS LOL!! I will share the article when she publishes. I usually try not to recycle any material, but once I wrote that line, I really wanted to use it on my site (and I accidentally wrote 3 pages for her so one sentence is beans…lol). I will try to think up a writing tips post for you. Writing has always been the one thing that comes naturally to me. And I love it. Like your love of editing pictures (shoot me now!).
I think for the longest time, I felt like I was drowning in all of the things that I thought I should be doing. I will always be grateful that I decided to grow all of my social media channels at the same time. I think that was needed for a business presence. But, you don’t need to do it all like work on a newsletter, start a FB group, create a lead magnet, create a course, monetize…AHHHH!! That is what this traffic explosion taught me: Here I was pounding out 2 blog posts a week and trying to do it all. NONE of that mattered. All it took was a close to viral Pinterest moment with two pins, and there I was. And then someone bought a Harry Potter mug. Others clicked on my blogging resources. Multiple people decided to try AWIN out as an affiliate and pick up SiteGround for hosting. I stepped back and realized that with Pinterest marketing, I could be a solid blogger–and it would eventually help my other channels so that if it died, my blog wouldn’t. But that means making really awesome posts, even if it’s less. I could chill out over self-imposed deadlines. Plus, I now had a focus: making marketable pins and content. Once that is all set, I’ll move on to SEO and maybeeeeeeee newsletters. I’m not sold there. I’d rather sell products.
Oh girl, I have to update so many old posts. I took a break from that. I think I’m going to combine a chunk in one new post, redirect, and call it. As we are constantly updating and recreating our brands/niche and learning, I’ve decided it’s all BEANS. Coffee beans.
Hillary Rushford is WILDLY entertaining. I can’t afford her paid for classes that hit hundreds of dollars but her free info is great.
I love that Are You There God, It’s Me, Margaret reference! My childhood! This post is really great! I just got Ell’s pinterest course thanks to you! I definitely want to be utilizing Pinterest to it’s full potential. Your success so far really has me excited to keep working on my blog so that I can see those big numbers some day! Thanks!
Haha, I am so glad that you get the reference! CLASSIC! I actually read Are you there, God…for a library graduate school class. I laughed through most of the book–it was a ‘banned book’ in its time, which makes it even more special. Blume was definitely a childhood staple.
I am so glad that you grabbed Ell’s (very) discounted course at the moment. I hope it helps–it will!!–and never hesitate to ask any of us if you have questions. Ell’s BOSS of Pinterest. I still have a few Pinterest tricks that I want to learn and quite a few questions. Tailwind keeps rolling out all of these cool new features that I have to play with too. Regardless, though, Pinterest is my number one blog traffic source, and when a pin BLOWS UP so does my blog. It’s the best! Plus, pinning is fun and is nothing like fighting the Instagram algorithm from hell.
Your blog will do great! It’s truly like everyone says, you have to put in the time and just work at it. There is a lot that still isn’t working for my blog or that I need to fix and cleanup. BUT, it’s also great to see successes and start learning what works. I can’t wait for 2019 and new projects. Thank you so much for all of your support here, on FB, Twitter, and everywhere.
This is such a helpful blog. Thank you! I have been struggling to grow my own following and views, trying to monitize my blog, and still struggling to understand it all. I’m going to be going over all of your tips. My website is meant to promote my own creative writing and others through book reviews and soon-to-come author interviews. Do you think your tips would work for me?
Hey Amelia,
Thank you! I am so glad that some of this info is helpful for you.
I looked at your blog and follow along already, and yes, definitely. I write book reviews and travel tips as well–which I saw on your blog. Pinterest is really amazing for all of these topics. People are always looking for book reviews and book lists, especially on Pinterest and google. Many plan travel based on Pinterest articles. If you have posts with writing tips, publishing, and anything author-related, people look for those too. You can always check out my Pinterest boards @theuncorkedlibrarian since I think they cover each of your topics too–it might give you a few ideas.
P.S. I monetize all of these topics as well with ads, affiliates, and hopefully soon, sponsorships and courses.
Thanks for reading!
Great tips Christine! I think I would love to just quit my job and start blogging for a living! ? I love reading about experiences like yours cos it makes the blogging life more real for us that are on the outside ☺️
Pinterest is one of my all time favorite platforms. Its so pretty ? Having to worknfull time limits everything for me though. So for now I will just stick to reading the books and reviewing them on my blog i guess. ?
Take care!
Thank you! The blogging life is definitely getting more and more real.
I love Pinterest too for exactly the same reason. I love pinning and looking at gorgeous images.
I have been slacking at book reviews. I don’t have as much time to read these days, and even though I review for the blog, those posts also don’t pay off blogging expenses. I usually make less than 40 cents off of each book purchased through my blog. Most times, it is 8 cents. Sigh. Book lists perform a little better.
Have a good one!
Perfect, as always!! This is great timing for me, as with my one year anniversary, I’m trying to step it up! I love the idea of niche-ing down and that’s #1 on my list! xx
Hey! Thank you so much!! I am always working on refining my niche. It takes a lot of trial and error to see what people love and what is working. I still have a few of my own ideas to test out. Plus, it’s hard to figure out what I still want to keep on the site passion-wise versus popularity too.
What a helpful post! Also, your reference in the beginning was just perfect. I loved that book as a kid and it’s one of those that stay with you forever 🙂
I started my book blog 4 months ago and first focussed on Twitter for blog traffic, then on Facebook and now on Pinterest. I feel Pinterest is the one that overall has the most impact, because it has this potential to surprise you with an unexpected amount of visitors in the morning. Something Facebook and Twitter don’t really do for book bloggers. Your post gave me the nudge I needed to step up my game again. Although I don’t think I’ll ever manage to overcome my absolute design-blindness. I just can’t do pretty 🙁
Thank you! I pin your content all of the time on Pinterest–your pins are unique.
I sometimes stink at design. I stare and stare and stare and stare all day at others’ pins. I think I am slowly getting better. You’ve probably noticed from my pins that I play around with design a lot. You never know what is going to work sometimes. I think I found a book review design that works as well as a book list pin format that circulates more than others. I still haven’t pinned down travel pins yet–but I think I have an idea of what people like and am getting closer. I find Lightroom helps, and people love pretty images. I’m noticing a trend leading toward images vs words right now. Those pins take me FOREVER to make.
Pinterest is 200% boss for me, BUT this week, for TWO DAYS Twitter beat everything out. I couldn’t believe my recent twitter referrals. Pinterest, direct, and SEO sustains me. Facebook is ok, but does nothing for me. I just try to have fun there.
Aw, thank you <3
Some of my quotes pins did very nicely. And I am mostly happy with how they've looked lately. But it's very spiky still. I'm still looking for a better platform for them, group boards or tribes. But I couldn't find anything yet. It's weird how quotes are so popular, yet there seem to be so few groups for them.
We are in at least one of the same book tribes, maybe even both. P.S. Have you noticed SO many off topic pins entering those tribes? Drives me crazy. The pin quality lately has been pretty bad too. Sometimes I found great content so I’m not sure what is up.
Thanks for contributing to my book bloggers board. Are you in Thrifty Bibliophile’s group board? It’s fairly new. Peek at my group boards to see which ones I am in. So far, those have been performing well for me. Then request to join ; )
Yes, we’re in 2 tribes together. But you aren’t in my favourite book tribe + Books and Reading +. It’s not so big, but I’ve gotten most shares there. The pins are always nice too. But none of the book tribes have been good to my book quote pins.
Yeah, I’m on Thrifty’s board too! You should join mine as well, Book Review Favourites 🙂
I’ll check out the other tribe. Thanks for the idea! I have the 5 tribe limit on TW so I have two book ones, two blogging ones, and then a travel tribe (that does nothing for me). That one might need to go.
Please send me an invite for your group board! You know my handle: @theuncorkedlibrarian ; ) I usually join a week or two later once I get my stats and views stable each week.
Thank you!
This was a timely read for me. Over Thanksgiving weekend, I had a pin go mini-viral. I’ve been watching my daily views climb steadily since Black Friday, and I damn near crapped myself last night when I logged onto my stats after a long, hard day at my “regular” job and saw that I had amassed… 2,845 VIEWS!!!! …IN ONE DAY!!!! About 2000-something of them came from that one pin on Pinterest. Holy schmegeggies.
Between that pin and that 87 cents I made this week after deciding to monetize my blog a few weeks ago with ads, I am flying high this morning. 😀
But, I know it won’t last. Sooner or later, my magical pin will lose steam, and I want to keep those daily numbers from dipping back down into their usual 50-100 views. I’m revising my Pinterest strategy (because, HEY, um, IT WORKS. I knew but didn’t believe until I saw it for myself), and I’m aiming to break into the Twittersphere next month (oh, crap, that’s in two days…) to get even more coverage. I am also planning on taking one of Ell’s classes in January. I could use some help in creating pins before I pay for something like Tailwind.
But, I hear ya about the struggle. For months I’ve had barely more than 70 views per day, which I am completely and 100% grateful for, like you said. But, I’m also like, is anyone reading this freaking thing that I’m pouring my heart and soul into?!?! IS IT WORTH IT?!?!? (I mean, yes, because I love it, even if my mom’s friends are the only ones reading it, lol).
I’ve seen so many bloggers write about their pins going semi-viral or their viewers booming all of the sudden, after only having been blogging a few months, and I just hug my knees to my chest, whimper, and go “When is it going to happen to me?!?!” I’ve been working my butt off to try and make good content and to market my content better and, somehow, magically, it’s starting to pay off. THANK GOD.
But I love all the tips you’ve given in this article. I’m definitely going to be using them as I plan my next moves. 🙂 Thank you for sharing!!
What pin was it?! I have to go look now and share all over if I haven’t already. CONGRATS!! That is awesome! I am so happy (and proud) for you. I totally get it too: When is it my turn? And then that day arrives. I love your content–although I am SO behind on reading it. You, Keeping Up With The Penguins, Asiana Circus, Cultura Obscura….I love them all.
I sadly would have reached over 1,000 views, but it was same few days that SiteGround had an external problem–and my blog was one affected. My site crashed for hours and then my dang loading times skyrocketed from it. It was literally as TWO pins were going viral on the holiday. I got endless emails about it, signed on to SiteGround, and in their ticket area they even said: we know. Please don’t contact us. We are on it. LOL. AND SOB. They have NEVER had a problem since I’ve used them, and I’ve heard it’s extremely rare. I am sure this had everything to do with the holiday, Cyber Monday, and Black Friday too. And honestly, regardless, my site couldn’t hold with the traffic. I currently pay for the cheapest plan (10,000 monthly views) so that sudden influx of traffic didn’t bode well on top of a server problem. BUT, I could care less because I made money and hit a page view count that was a dream. As you know too.
My traffic has, of course, decreased since too. But, it’s definitely a lot higher. In a month or two, I have to upgrade my self-hosting plan, which IS AMAZING. I’m stoked. This past week, Twitter blew up my blog too. I love Twitter. P.S. Last week I tried to find you on Twitter to give you a shoutout for the amazingly engaged and wonderful blog comment about the lack of blogging support from friends. You definitely need to get on Twitter. Add me when you do so I can shout you out over and over again.
Damn, I wish more of my friends, family, and their mom’s would read my blog. I get so excited when I find out that friends I didn’t know were reading my blog. I also know a ton have never once peeked at my website, which bums me out just a tad. Like just look once. Just once.
Thanks for reading and sharing your success! We got this!
Aww, you are so sweet for trying to tweet at me!! Thank you!! I noticed I got some hits from Twitter a week or two ago, but I couldn’t figure out what the Tweet was since I don’t have account. So, I was stumped. I figured it was a publisher that I sent a review to, but perhaps it was you!?! I dunno. But, either way, thank you for the thought! I will let you know when I’m up and about on Twitter. I’ll probably also be stalking your feed to figure out how to navigate things, lol. Twitter’s one social media I never quite got the hang of…
Gaaah still so excited about my pin. It’s the blue Man-Catcher Cake one: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/139048707230052870/
Other pins from that post are getting re-pinned, too, but I think that’s the pin where it all started. I am in amazement. And enjoying the ride while it lasts!
I am behind on reading blogs, too, I need to set aside a time to read and comment on other’s blogs that I follow. THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH HOURS IN THE DAY!!!
That is AWFUL that your site crashed. And at that time. I would go nuts, lol. But your blog and your pins are so great, I’m sure it won;t be long until you have another viral experience soon. 🙂
As always, thanks for all the support!! xoxo
I think I did tweet one of your articles a few weeks ago. So glad people read it! The weird thing for me with Twitter right now is that I don’t even really try on the platform but it does well?! I was so tapped out on social media sites when I started that I just had a Twitter account kind of like a placeholder. I didn’t even know how to use it at the time. Over time, I figured out the basics, but I don’t utilize Twitter as much as I should. Somehow it just did its own thing–unlike IG–and I’ve been really pleased and grateful for the results. And a tad shocked. I do need to start scheduling late night tweets since my traffic is highest while I am sleeping. This might be a goal for next year: get better on Twitter. I know there is strategy that I’m not using. Sometimes I get scared to put too much effort into a platform in fear that it will make it worse. LOL. Instagram feels that way all of the time.
Your pin and the content is AMAZING. I can see why it was practically viral. Congrats! That’s definitely how you market.
Have a great weekend. I’m hoping to peek at your blog and a few others today to catch up. Fingers crossed. I have some adventures planned this month and throughout the winter so commence majorly getting behind.
Christine I am honestly so proud of you and all of the success you have found in the last few months, it has been really exciting to watch your blog grow & your hard work pay off! Thank you for putting together this post with all the tips, I don’t really use Pinterest right now as I favor Twitter, but I think in 2019 I might try to figure it out and put some more time in that platform. I also will probably move to self-hosted when my year with WP .com is up; I really want the ability to use Google Analytics and plugins.
<3 you book bestie!
Twitter loves you SO MUCH!! You are rocking it there. Your last stats, organizational tools, and bloggers’ everything post was killer! It spread like ?? too.
Thank you so much! It’s been really fun and exciting to learn everything and then slowly have it come to fruition.
Self-hosting has been a great move for me. I appreciate that the first year is cheaper. The pricing gives us a chance to make some money back.
Thanks, book bestie ??? I appreciate your endless support.
I really need to look into taking courses. I love blogging and even though it is something I enjoy I also want to be able to make money off of it. In January I’ll be at my 6 month mark and I really feel like I’m getting nowhere.
You got a new pink avatar! Are you rebranding a bit? Courses and reading articles has helped me a ton! You’ll get there—we all feel like that some days, trust me. I wouldn’t be anywhere without research, courses, studying, and trial and error. I have major flops, too.
Such a helpful post, love! I’ve been wanting to start using Pinterest, but since I’m not self-hosted, I’m not sure it will work? Thanks for all these tips! ❤️
Hey Kelly, you can still 200% use Pinterest. You just create a pinnable image for your post and upload it like a photo. Many people still have their own personal browsers hooked to a pin option, and most platforms, self hosted or not, allow for some sharing options.
Thank you for sharing this! I’m just wondering: Do you find most of your traffic is for your travel or blogging posts, as opposed to the bookish content? Sometimes it just seems hard to get this kind of traffic specifically as a book blogger.
I completely agree! Usually my book lists do much better. My witchy book list was by far my most popular book post aside from bookish gifts for book lovers that aren’t books. After that, my blogging posts (how to) get me a lot of traffic. Since I’ve been refining my travel niche (and cleaning that part up), those get the least traction. My birthday vacations has been a recent hit. Also, it helps me when popular authors advertise my review. One publisher, Harlequin Teen, retweeted my review to 40k people. That was fantastic. As a book blogger, it helps to bring a lot to the table. Readers like takeaways, questions answered, options, and even tools for being a better reader.
I finally took the course you recommended- Ell’s Pinterest course! I got tailwind too! In January, I’m totally gonna revamp my Pinterest page and also fix up my blog. I’ve got so much work to do!
That’s awesome! Did you find the course helpful so far? Tailwind has been a game changer for me. In under three months, I went from 20,000 monthly Pinterest views to 1.2 million. Slowly, I’m converting those views to blog traffic, which is great. I think you’ll find it helpful too!
I have a lot to fix up on my blog as well. I am re-writing and organizing my categories. I’m cleaning up my niche. Old posts need SEO and updating. It’s a lot. Once all that gets mopped up, I’m forging ahead into business planning and new 2019 adventures.
We got this! Let me know if you need any Pinterest help.
PG for Pino Grigio is the best rating system ever! Also, congrats again on your massive blogwin!!
Since [finally] investing in Tailwind & Ell’s course, we’ve actually started seeming SOME traffic from Pinterest. It’s still only a few views a day, but so far we’ve had at least one referral from Pinterest everyday this month, which is way more than we were getting… Of course, in general our views are massively down this month, so some days we’d actually be at ZERO if it weren’t for Pinterest. *Sigh*
Unfortunately we more or less missed Halloween this year, but I suspect next year, we’ll be killing it in October… dark tourism niche and all! Otherwise, I think the holidays are lost on me. We have a winter breaks board, but it gets almost no views. Really not our audience… And despite being in Europe over Christmas, which is what 99% of those articles are about, we barely spent any time at the markets, so we WON’T be capitalising on that! Clearly we’re still trying to suss out our audience…
This is SO mean of me, but I am kinda sorta relieved in that kindred spirit way that you missed Halloween as the dark travel specialists because it doesn’t make me feel like a total LONE blogger for pretty much missing EVERYTHING this year. LOL. But I am bummed that your traffic has been hurting, and next year: you got this! We got this! It happens to all of us, clearly. We get tapped out or are traveling to get content. I know I am missing out on a ton of New Years opps for book lists and blogging. I’m still trying to get in Christmas posts. FAIL.
I have learned a lot from watching what trended on Pinterest this year and all of the social media channels. I had no idea gift guides would explode, and out of all my book lists, why witches? Only time can tell you what your audience wants and then what the general world wants via Pinterest.
Since I just came back from Christmas Markets, I will be pounding out at least 2 posts. BUT, I am no expert on Christmas markets–so I am sticking with a theme that I do know about: BOOZE. But, alas, I will be late to the game on this one. I feel like I can still post these articles for the next year or so along with new, timely ones and be in a great position next year. I am OK with that. My early pins were not so pretty. I am getting better, and that I will take.
Let me know if you need any more Pinterest ideas. Right now, I have about 40 pins scheduled a day and manually pin at least 10-15 more. Pin from high view bloggers, pin appealing images, and pin to all your boards. I need to start integrating more and more of my own work in, and I constantly check for low performing boards. Check your group board stats–some of mine were destroying me, and if contributors don’t repin, they are useless.
HAHAHAHA. Solidarity, yo! We missed EVERYTHING this year. But I’m okay with that. We knew the first year would probably suck traffic wise and we’re still only on like month 3? 4? (I really should know that) We’re still developing our niche, which is hard enough – even knowing from the beginning what we wanted it to be – let alone trying to tackle all the trends from the get go. So yeah, next year we’ve got this!
Our early pins were fine, but not great. It’s a lot more work now to create new ones every single time, but they’re doing better. So I’ll take it. I was pinning like 80 a day, but it was too much. And I felt like our stuff was getting lost. Now I pin about 35ish a day, 1/3 of which is ours. Need more of our stuff, though. And I need to set up loops. Just haven’t had the time. I feel like our boards are currently all over the place. I don’t actually have many group boards. A few people have just said they don’t accept people with less than x followers & it’s put me off requesting to be on more. I’d loved to start my own for dark tourism or historical sites, but I don’t have enough dark tourism blogging buddies.
I was just cleaning up Pinterest boards. OMG my initial pins were SO BAD, I had to laugh, cry, and then hit delete. I was a total blogger poser, and I didn’t even know it. Your pins were all totally fine and just got even better. Mine got mauled by Queer Eye, were publicly shamed, and then came out like Oprah with makeup on.
I have one Pinterest smart loop going, and it’s not a Yale smart loop—that’s for sure. I am either using the feature wrong or it just hates me. I’m not sure what to think yet. I still have to brand the rest of my boards.
Confession: I have become a Pinterest group board snob to some. If I personally know your content, we follow each other, support each other, etc., come on in. But these random people asking me for ins (on closed boards that are announced as such) with poor quality pins, no pin covers at all, not using rich pins, no verified site, and really low views….ehhhh….ehhhhh. Karma is coming for me but their quality hurts my quality.
I think you should totally start a dark tourism group board. People might start coming out of their dark blogging caves…ya never know!
I NEED TO BRAND MY BOARDS. Also just figure out my boards. I feel like they’re currently a HOT MESS. And not one that’s birthing hot little baby blog views.
I’m sure your pins were fine! And even if they weren’t, you’re killing it now!!
If I ran a Pinterest board, I’d totally be a snob. (I mean, what, no I wouldn’t… GUYS, PLEASE JOIN MY BOARD SO I CAN LOOK COOL!!) But really, I don’t begrudge people telling me no. I just wish I was hotter shit than I am hahaha. BUT someone did let me (er, us) onto their board BECAUSE of our dark tourism niche, so that made me feel better.
I need to put covers on my boards very badly. I’ve actually designed a few options, just haven’t had time to manually pin them (scheduling them and then forgetting to make then covers kiiiiiiind of feels like it might be defeating the point…) I also need to decide which ones I’m going with. Semi-essential. Blogging goals for 2019……
I think I hit a blogging lull for the end of 2018. OOPS!! GAH!! My Pinterest views just dropped a tad (not under a million yet), and my click through rate just changed. I’m hoping everyone decided to opt for a digital detox this Christmas….like me.
I’m slowly learning that updating board covers every now and again seems like a good strategy too. Kind of like a refresh to bring attention to them once again.
Killer post, Christine! I learned a few new valuable things today, mainly that I need to get my Pinterest game together. I really know nothing about using it — I’m clueless! When the day comes to use Tailwind and become a Boss Girl Blogger, I’ll 100% use your affiliate links. About 80% of my traffic is organic (which is good and all), but I need to start using more social tools to drive traffic to my site on-demand. Thanks for all the Pinterest stats and screen shots. (They’re a great sell for the course.) I’m going to sign up eventually, once I knock out this massive to-do list, and you’ll be the one to thank. Again, great post! Thanks for all the info.
Hey Noel! Thank you so much! Lately, my organic traffic is definitely starting to come in too, especially being a slightly older site and semi-knowing what I am doing better. Pinterest is a great second to help get in some extra views. A lot of bloggers will note that Pinterest doesn’t work for every post (which is true), and you just have to figure out what content will circulate the best there: for travel, that content is definitely itineraries and anything seasonal like what to wear, etc. Traveling tips seem to do well for people. For me, the more niche travel is a harder push (for example, focusing on one library in Latvia) and the same for book reviews. Pinterest people love lists. It doesn’t hurt to play around and see what people like. Pinterest and TW both have stellar analytic systems. The key is using strong keywords for Pinterest and attractive pins. Best of luck! And thanks, again.
Thanks for the additional advice. I can’t wait to dive headfirst into Pinterest. I’ll let you know how it all goes. If you have any on-page SEO questions, I’d be glad to help. I’ve been studying it incessantly, and have a pretty tight grasp on it. I haven’t been pursuing many backlinks (which is the most important damn thing for SEO) because I’m bust revamping old posts and creating new ones. Will be dabbling in link building in the near future. Can’t wait to see the DA go up after securing a few good ones. I’ll race you to 30!
No problem. I need to be pursuing more backlinks too. I also want to purchase the SEO book by the group from MTH. Seems like it’s been super helpful to people. LOL! It’s ON!!! ; ) I’ve got so much to revamp still too.
Thanks for this! My blog is still fairly new and I am feeling a bit lost as to how to run it and drive traffic. I’ve been focusing on Twitter, but I think maybe a course is the first step. I’ve never thought about taking blogging courses before, but it seems it may be necessary.
Hey! I’ve taken a ton of courses and have a ton more that I want to take. I have two HUGE bundles of blogging and entrepreneurial webinars/courses/ebooks from this year alone. Twitter brings me traffic with new posts, but it doesn’t sustain it. I find that Pinterest and SEO really make my traffic last over time. Let me know if you need any course recs. I also find that reading up on current articles helps and definitely join the Make Traffic Happen FB group. Xxx