Traffic Stampede

welcome to traffic stampede

Day 11

The Promotion Engine: How To Promote Your Content So You Gain Traffic From Day 1

Welcome back to day 11.

Ok, so we know that for our site to gain traffic it will come from 3 sources, SEO, viral and community.

So the question is:

How do we actually get our content to travel online?

And today we are going to set out your promotion for every article.

This way your article stands the best chance of success

How To Promote Content (and your business)

So, you have busted your ass and picked 'problems' (keywords) that your website has a good chance to rank for and  created your best Skyscraper 2.0 content. 

This content rocks, you know it, you believe in your content so much that others will bound to agree.

But then you press publish and share it on your social media pages.........tumbleweed.

This is what happens to the vast amount of content on the web, only a handful read it.

So, how can you avoid this happening to you?

Well, assuming that your content has been written, there is a solution.

And it all starts before you write a word.

Content Growth Hacking

We have covered what makes something go viral (and by viral, I don't mean on the front page of Reddit, I mean read by as much as your target audience as possible). 

We have already talked about content going viral through communities.

But what if you could make every piece of content you have 'go viral' without worrying about it?

What if you could make sure your content is read like crazy before you even write it?

Well, you can and here is how.

You take your keywords/ problems and write them in one of a few proven 'formats'.

Content Formats That Crush The Internet

There is a myth that great content goes viral, no, great formats do.

Formats are the way your great content is encapsulated and yes, you can even take an old post and re format it and then have even greater success.

So, what formats are going to work.

Here are just a few:

1. A list post

2. A review

3. How to.....

4. Controversy/ Critical Why posts

5. Comparison posts

7. Complete Guide

There are other formats but these are enough to get you started.

If all of your content fits into one of those 7 overriding formats you can't go wrong.

But here is a more in depth look.

1.List Post

I am not going to go in too much detail here as most are self explanatory, but people like lists. 

So if you are writing about the 50 best small hotels in London you know you will have a hit on your hand with the right promotion.

2. A Review

People love reviews, they love them because they help people to make up their minds on a future purchase.

Entire websites and YouTube channels are dedicate to reviews.

3. How To...

People love to learn and if you can take your keyword and turn this into a way to learn then you will be set for success.

The great thing about this is that most keywords are problems, so it is easy to do this.

4. Controversy/ critical why posts

This is a tricky one as it can backfire badly.

But if you want to get eyeballs on your site and quickly you can create a controversial view.

A good way of doing this is to create a 'why' post.

'Why your taxes are helping the rich', 'why Facebook is killing small businesses', 'why the public are...'.

You get the idea. But be warned if you kick people, expect them to kick back and it can be a tough time.

5. Comparison Posts

People love to compare. 

'iPhone v's Samsung'

'BMW v's Mercedes'

'Apple V's Microsoft'

If you create a comparison post you will gain traffic because people are drawn to things they know. Some will read because they want to defend the thing they love, others will want to learn.

The best thing is that this works for almost everything.

You can compare anything where there is a choice for a consumer and create an epic post.



7. Complete Guide



The complete guide/ ultimate guide is another love affair people have with the web and I have written a lot of them.

The Ultimate Guide is loved because people can learn all they need to know about a subject, it is as if you have created a book on a subject for them and yes Google loves that too.

The Promotion Engine

The Promotion Engine is a great strategy for growing online.

And I will say that the promotion engine will help you to make connections and build backlinks.

In essence The Promotion Engine is all about building yourself a network of connections and an abundance of social equity.

By doing this you will find that gaining backlinks and clicks to your content is easy, people will happily share your work for free and say great things about you.

Just take a look at a few of the nice things people have said about me in Facebook groups:


A lovely recommendation without me even having to say a thing.


And look at this:


An offer to promote this course to their connections for free.


This is the power of building your network or 'promotion engine'.


The Promotion Highway


There is a reason most content promotion fails.

The company or person trying to promote it is selfish.

They literally send thousands of emails saying 'hey look at my great article'.

When you are creating your promotion engine or network you need to do so with generosity.

You need to engage with people first, to be genuine, to provide value and to help people.

I urge you to build your promotion engine by helping others to build theirs.

We all live in an interconnected promotion highway.

We are all trying to get ahead and we can do by helping each other.

For this reason I have numerous connections who could drop me a message and ask me to share their work, recommend them or even link to them.

I would do so because we have already connected and shared value of some kind online or in person.

We are all on the road of promotion.

So by helping others you will find that you will gain the help you need when you need it.

It might sound corny but it is the truth!

Nothing I have told you throughout this course is been based on spamming or trying to trick people.

It is all about being genuine and generous.

That is the core of marketing.

How To Build Your Promotion Engine

The Promotion Engine is like any engine, it needs to be built first before you start it up and running.

But how do you actually build your engine?

There are a lot of ways but these are the 3 ways I want you to concentrate on.

1. Facebook

2. LinkedIn

3. Groups

Overview

The strategy is fairly simple. 

Connect with those types of people that you want to work with on LinkedIn and Facebook and then get them into a group where you can reach them easily. 

Told you...simple.

1. Facebook

To set up your Facebook engine you will actually need to seek out/ join groups you find online.

To do this just head over to Facebook and search through the groups related to your field:

Make sure you pick a group that is relatively active and then dive in.


Start to comment on and like posts, eventually sharing your know how.


You want to become of value to the group.


Then, after a few weeks of being in their and active start to add people in the group as friends.



People will accept your invites over time and your personal network will grow.


This is key because now your 'community' is growing. If you want a more private Facebook experience add a second profile but this is how you use Facebook and stop it from using you.


2. LinkedIn


LinkedIn is much the same, head over and start to connect with people who you would love to target.


  

From here you can start to connect with the people you think would be interested in both your business and your content.


It really is as simple as pressing connect.


(Word of warning LinkedIn only likes you connecting with about 25 people a day unless you are paying for their premium service)


3. Groups


OK, so now your network has grown we need to place them in a position where you can access them easily.


If you recall I have added you to my email list by being in this course.


However I have also created a Facebook Group where you can join to get support, ask questions and to share your work.


So creating a group is a good thing for you to do too.


To do this you create a group and add those people you added to your personal friends list, those people who will benefit from your group.


I won't lie, managing a group can be tough which is why I like to add people to my personal Linked in and Facebook profiles first.


This way you can take a step back from running a group and start it up again if things get too much.


But having a group is super powerful because you can literally drop a link and reach thousands of people.


I prefer Facebook groups but I also know that some people run successful LinkedIn groups too.


Now, you might be thinking....'my business is a local one, how does this work for me?'


It works exactly the same.


Add your customers to a group, create a buy and sell group, add local people to your profile as friends, add customers to your local profile as friends.


It works the same way!


The Formula For Promotion

So, by now you might be thinking.

'OK, I get this but what does this process actually look like?'

Well I can show you exactly how I would promote an article and it comes in 3 stages:

1. Warm Up The Promotion Engine

At this time you need to go to your groups and your network and tell them that you have a new article on its way.

As you can see I have already done this for this very course you are taking.

You want to prime people to be ready to receive what you have to offer

2. Share Your Work

The next stage is to share your work online, do this a few days after your original posts.

Be honest and genuine but never ask for feedback.

If you ask for feedback you will have people trying to critique your work rather than share it.

3. If The Post Is Being Well Received Boost It

We are covering boost tomorrow but if the post is starting to be well received and get great feedback it doesn't hurt to boost in or pay for promotion on the various platforms.

Of note you will only be able to do this if you have a 'page' for your business.

This really should be a given though, if you run a website or business you should have social media pages.

Homework

Today's homework is simple.

Start to decide on content formats for your ideas and then also start to grow your network by joining groups/ adding friends and of course jump in and provide value to people.

By now you will have your keywords identified, a good idea of what subject matter is going to be well received in your industry and now the formats that will help your content to spread.

Tomorrow we will talk about paid traffic and boosting posts.

Thanks

Andy

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