It’s easy to get overwhelmed when you’re trying to figure out how to get more people to visit your website, but it doesn’t have to be that complicated. To get you started, I’ve compiled a list of five simple things you can post on your website over the course of the next week that I guarantee you will get you more traffic to your website than you currently receive if you take a little time to do them.
Ideally, you should have some kind of blog functionality on your site which makes it easy for you to add content – if you don’t have that yet, then you’re going to want to set that up before you do this. But assuming you do have the ability to easily post content on your website, then here’s a simple outline you can follow to jumpstart your website.
Day 1: Write A Blog Post Telling A Great True Story From Your Life
To kick things off, take a moment to think about some hilarious, crazy, interesting, or monumental thing that’s happened to you in your life, write that story and post it on your website. Try to come up with something that’s genuinely entertaining and unique – don’t just tell a story that’s probably happened to lots of other people.
When you post it on your site, include a picture or two to illustrate the story (it’s ok if you just find a relevant picture through a Google image search if you don’t have your own photo to use). When you title your story, try to make sure it’s a compelling title that explains what the story is about – for example, “What It’s Like To Drive Into A Hurricane” is a much better title than “Crazy Story.”
Once It’s Posted: After you’ve posted your story, you’ll want to share a link to it with your Facebook, Twitter, and email subscribers. You’ll also want to seek out some relevant websites and blogs that you can email it to who may be interested in linking to it. For example, if your story is about cats then you may want to find some cat blogs and email it to the people that run the blogs.
If you’re looking for suggestions of where to send it, you can always check out my 100 Places To Promote Your Comedy Content list.
Day 2: Find A Cool Video On YouTube And Post It On Your Website
Here’s a really easy way to add content to your site that’s going to attract more traffic. Go spend a little time trolling around YouTube and find a really crazy (or inspiring) video you think people will enjoy. This shouldn’t be a video you created, just something you think is interesting for whatever reason.
Then, embed the video in a blog post on your website and write a couple sentences about why you’re sharing it and what you think of it.
Once It’s Posted: Share it with your friends/followers and encourage them to comment with links to their favorite YouTube videos and/or videos that are related to the subject matter of the one that you posted.
Day 3: Write A Top 10 List
Think about something you’re passionate about and would be likely to debate with friends over dinner or drinks. It could be comedy-related or it could be about anything. Then, take your opinion and turn it into a Top 10 List.
For example, you could write a list of The 10 Most Underrated Comedians Of All Time, or The 10 Athletes You’d Most Want To Sleep With, or The 10 Biggest Myths Politicians Tell Us, or anything else you come up with. And when you write the list, include an explanation for each choice and their ranking – don’t just post a list of names. Make it fun and compelling.
But whatever you choose, try to make it the kind of thing that will be controversial and that will be fun for people to agree/disagree with and something that people will want to debate. If you’re looking for some inspiration, you can always check out Cracked.com which publishes tons of great Top 10 lists.
Once It’s Posted: When you share this post with your friends/followers, encourage them to comment and debate the choices in your list. If you’ve written a good list about a compelling topic, then they’ll likely have a lot to say about your choices and want to engage with you about them.
Day 4: Write A Post Linking To At Least 5 Other Sites You Like
Here’s another simple post you can create that will help drive traffic to your site. All you have to do is find at least 5 other websites or blogs that you enjoy and do a post linking to a piece of content on each of them with a little description of why you’re linking to them.
Basically, you’re just sharing links with your readers to cool stuff that you find out there. It’s ok to link to big websites like the Huffington Post, but try to have most of the links be to smaller, more personal blogs. The reason for that is because the smaller the blog you link to, the more likely they will be to notice that you linked to them, and the more likely they will be to link back to you and introduce their readers to your website.
Once It’s Posted: Reach out to each of the bloggers who you linked to (either through social media or by sending them an email through their website) and give them a heads up that you linked to them. You don’t have to ask for anything in return – you can just tell them something like “Hey, I just wanted to give you a heads up that I posted a link to your site on my website – love what you’re doing, keep it up!”
At a minimum, each of those people will likely check out your website and thank you for the link. But most likely, they’ll return the favor by linking to something on your site and sending some traffic your way.
Day 5: Write A Blog Post About Something Topical In The News Today
To wrap up this 5 day plan, take a moment to write a blog post about something that’s happened in the news today. Try to pick a subject that’s as topical as possible – whatever the world is talking about today and is one of the top stories in the news.
The reason for this is not only because people are interested in topical things, but also because it’s likely that you may be able to receive some free traffic from people searching Google looking for people talking about whatever that news may be.
If you’re looking for some inspiration, you can always check out Google Trends to see what people are searching for a lot at the moment.
Once It’s Posted: When you publish a post about something topical, you can then go search Twitter to find people talking about that subject matter and engage with them. If they’re talking about the same thing you just wrote about, the chances are they’ll be interested in what you had to say about the subject so it’s a really easy way to promote and get some more traffic to your site.
There’s lots of ways you can increase traffic to your website, but if you start by following this simple 5-day plan you should see some immediate results. If you decide to give it a shot, please post links to your content in the comments on this post – I’d love to see what you come up with!
Okay, you know that I love all of your info. But this is definitely something that I keep struggling with…
I think (emphasis on think) that my website is pretty good. I am not a web designer, I just bought a URL and used Word Press to build it, BUT I think it looks okay and is easily navigable. Also, my goal in making it, was for it to be for “fans” and have a separate tab for “booking.”
So, my home page is a blogroll. And the posts I put there are interesting updates like “I’m hosting the Otto & George show tonight” or new videos I’ve created, etc. I write short essays and articles (with pictures) all the time but I post them on my Tumblr: http://www.newsgood.tumblr.com.
I decided to keep all of that stuff separate from my website but was I wrong? Should I be posting all of that on my website too? I agree that it would make my website more dynamic and current, in fact I’d probably have something new to post every day. But, is it okay for your Tumblr and website to be almost identical? I feel crazy. I like the name NewsGood (because it lets readers know that the stuff will be topical) but should I just change it to DerikBoik.tumblr the way your Connected Comedy Tumblr is just an offshoot of your website?
Here’s my dilemma (and possibly the topic for your next article): I have a website, a Tumblr, Facebook (a personal profile AND a fan page), a Twitter and a YouTube channel. What stuff do I post where? Which stuff should I NOT post on what? What should be posted on multiple places and what SHOULDN’T be? Help.
Hey Derik, this is a good (and common) question – I’m going to answer it in a full post soon so stay tuned.
Posted: https://connectedcomedy.com/what-to-post-on-social-media/
Thanks for the question!
Thanks to this site, I already do a few of these things for my blog and they do work! I picked up a lot of neat pointers from this post and I’m looking forward to trying them out.
Thanks for providing such a great service. My site traffic has increased 50% and continues to rise!
db
http://www.dannybrowning.biz/blogs
http://www.dannybrowning.biz
As always, right on the money. These are easy things to do and they get a conversation started to get people to engage with your site. I plan on repeating this plan every week once I am up and running. Thanks Josh.
This is such a great, simple exercise and really shows how easy it can be to create content that people want to interact with!
Thanks. If by the amount of spam comments I’m getting is any indication of the increase in traffic. It’s through the roof. Keep up the fantastic pointers.
Have multiple platforms, use and harness the mediastreams and think audience segment all the time you are posting. Each platform has its strengths, unique qualities. But you have to feed them, post to them daily.
ya its good post.. and i’m gonna to do some thing from ur post.. tx.