Somebody’s got to pay the bills right?
You’ve got an empire to build. Money to make, problems to solve, people to help…
But, there’s a problem. A big problem.
You’re not quite there yet.
God damn, you want to quit your job and make something of
The only realistic way out is to gradually transition out of your day job, one step at a time. And doing that means building your online empire as a side project first until you have enough of a financial runway to quit.
As a result, you’ve got bugger all time to get anything done.
Necessity is the mother of all invention as they say, and that’s what this post is all about!
I’m going to be showing you sneaky blog outreach and traffic generation techniques you can do from your cell phone at work.
Come to think of it, seeing as your boss is paying for you to do the outreach, this could essentially be the first dollars you’ve ever earned from your blog :)
Go on, give yourself a pat on the back.
Alright, enough of that
OK. In this post, you will learn 9 blog outreach techniques that you can do at work from your cell phone. Each technique can be done in 5 mins or less.
You ready?
Lets go.
#1 QUORA (1-5 mins)
Quora is a question and answer platform.
I like to describe it as “A platform for insightful answers to interesting questions”.
It’s a great place to answer peoples questions and leave links that direct back to your site.
You have three techniques that you can use.
#1.1 Copy + Paste Answers From Your Blog To Quora (3 mins)
This is for the super lazy among you (of which I’m sure there are plenty ;)
Here’s what you need to do:
- Search for questions related to blog posts you’ve already written.
- Copy + Paste your entire article into Quora as your answer.
- Hit ‘Post’
- Done
*Tip. Use links sparingly, and if you have any affiliate links within your post, make sure they’re cloaked using a plugin like Thirsty Affiliates.
This is a very effective way of re-birthing your old (otherwise dormant) content.
#1.2 Quora Video Responses (1-5 mins)
If you know your topic off the back of your hand (which you should), and you’re comfortable in front of the camera, you can simply use your cell phone to record a video answer.
Record. Upload. Done.
Nearly…
*Tip. Make sure that you have a Quora signature added under your video post to direct users back to your site.
#1.3 Or You Could Just Write An Actual Answer! (5 mins)
I know. So old school.
Most of you are pretty nifty with the keypad on your phone nowadays that you can easily knock up a pretty decent answer in under 5 mins.
Here’s a few tips to writing great Quora answers:
- Make sure you actually answer the question.
- Try not to make answers too long (under 1500 words if possible).
- Use images to make your answers more engaging.
- Make good use of Bold and Italic text to bring your answers to life.
- Use lists where possible to break up your content.
- Keep your paragraphs short. No more than 3 sentences.
- Make your writing informal.
*Tip. Connect your social media accounts and share your answer with your audience immediately after your answer is published.
#2 RE-POST ARTICLES ON MEDIUM (3 mins)
Medium is a platform for publishers (amateur or pro) to share their articles. It introduces a social element to content publishing, and it has a big following.
Again, we’re going to be using the trusty old
Here’s what you need to do:
- Register your account with Medium and take a few minutes to set up a good profile.
- Go to ‘Create post’.
- Grab an article from your blog.
- ‘Copy + Paste’ the shit out of it.
- Done.
*Tip. Medium’s algorithms promote posts with high engagement. So, once your article is live on Medium, share it on all of your social channels to give it some love.
#3 WRITE BLOG COMMENTS (3-5 mins)
Writing insightful comments on other blog posts within your reach is a tried and tested method for driving traffic back to your blog.
Each comment you write leaves a digital footprint directing back to your site, and it will position you as an authority within your niche.
Here’s some tips for writing good comments:
- Actually, read the article and reference something within it in your comment.
- Compliment the author on the article.
- Make sure your answer adds value to the other readers. This could be adding further depth to a specific topic within the post, or adding a personal experience etc.
- ONLY add links back to your site if they’re absolutely relevant and necessary.
- Take the time to create a professional Gravatar image.
- Above all else, make sure your comment is truly helpful.
*Tip. Blog comments are displayed in descending format. That means the faster you are to comment on new articles, the more prominent your comments will be.
*Bonus Tip. If you haven’t got it already, download the Feedly App. Feedly is a news/blog aggregator program. It curates a load of blog posts (related to your niche) for you each day into a content feed. Simply scroll through the feed and head to newly posted articles within your industry and post your comments.
#4 HELP PEOPLE ON TWITTER (1-5 mins)
This is a tactic I borrowed/stole from Hiten Shah of FYI.
His whole gig is to literally just to help people on Twitter.
Not in the ‘I’m going to help this guy and try and sell him my product’ kind of way. Instead in the ‘I’m just a good person who knows a shitload about my topic and I want to share that knowledge and help others’ kind of way.
There’s a big difference.
I had to learn this the hard way.
‘Building an audience and driving traffic is a byproduct in relation to the number of people you’ve helped. Nothing more, nothing less’
Rowan Clifford (Me :)
How to help people and drive traffic on Twitter:
- To find people related to your niche go into other high profile influencers profiles, search through their followers and follow anyone who you think might be receptive to your help.
- Follow hashtags related to your niche.
- Give valuable, insightful answers EVERYWHERE and anywhere you can.
- Retweet interesting posts (regardless of how many followers they have).
- Don’t be shy ‘liking’ other people Tweets.
- Don’t shamelessly try to direct people to your blog.
- Use Hiten Shah’s 3 step technique: 1. Help people. 2. Help people. 3. Help people!
It may take a little time to gather a following, but when they come, they’ll be a super targeted, warm audience of die-hard supporters.
#5 POST ANSWERS ON FORUMS
Even in 2019, forums are still a great way to drive traffic to your blog!
To help find forums related to your niche, try using some of these advanced Google search parameters:
- Keyword +
inurl : /forums/ (with ‘s’) - Keyword +
inurl : /forum/ (without ‘s’)
For example, to search for photography forums type into Google: photography + inurl: /forums/
The results will be populated with only results that are related to ‘Photography’ + they have the word ‘forums’ in their URL. eg. https://www.dpreview.com/forums
It’s also worth checking Quora for good lists of forums too.
Now that you know how to find forums in your niche, it’s time to get up to speed with how to conduct yourself whilst your there.
Tips for effectively interacting on forums:
- Add value first.
- Don’t add ANY links to your site until you’ve gained trust from other members, in the forum.
- ALWAYS keep on topic.
- Be genuine.
Or…
You’ll get kicked out.
#6 FACEBOOK GROUPS (2-3 mins)
Facebook groups can be an absolute gold mine for sending targeted traffic back to your site. You’ve just got to know how to use them effectively.
Firstly, to find Facebook groups in your niche just carry out a quick search within Facebook and you should come up with plenty of potential candidates.
*Tip. Aim for groups with approximately 1k – 15k members. Groups this size are small enough to build up a reputation and get noticed, yet big enough to drive good traffic.
*Bonus Tip. If you’re adding value to the group and people are engaging with your posts, you’ll get a ‘Rising Star’ badge. This badge will get your posts seen by more people. So, when you do post a link to your site, you’ll drive more traffic.
#7 INSTAGRAM (5 mins)
Love it or hate it (I hate it :) Instagram is here to stay, and with over 1 billion users, it’s something you just can’t ignore.
Sure, it’s notoriously hard to drive people away from the Instagram platform, but done right, you can drive some pretty decent traffic.
Plus, it’s a great way to re-use old content.
Here’s what to do:
- Copy your blogs featured image, and use that as your Instagram post.
*Tip. Use a text overlay on your images so Insta users can see what your post is about from your grid. Also, make your images bright and compelling.
Here’s a good example:
- Use your blog post introduction, or a short leading paragraph as your Instagram post.
- Add a link back to the article. *Note. It’s not possible to click these links within the mobile app, but it does encourage users to find out more. The only link they can click within Instagram is your Bio.
- Done.
*Bonus Tip. Content ages badly on Instagram. A sneaky way around this is to delete old posts, then re-post them again.
#8 INSTA STORIES (1 min)
Instagram stories have effectively made Snapchat redundant.
They’re a great way to engage with your audience from behind the scenes. It gives users a chance to see the real you.
Instagram stories are quick and easy to make, so they’re perfect for when you’re at work and on your break.
#9 BONUS TIP: QUUU (2 mins)
I know what you’re thinking, “What the F$#k is Quuu?
Let me explain.
Quuu is similar to Hootsuite and Buffer in the way it helps you schedule social media content.
However,
Quuu has its own integrated content promotion platform.
On one side you have the front end users, looking for relevant,
And on the other side, you have a marketplace where publishers can post their content in the hopes of getting it shared by industry influencers
Here’s the kicker though…
Quuu isn’t free. So you’re going to have to pay to post your content
But, if you’ve got a few dollars lying around and you think your post is worthy, it may well be worth it.
Here’s what you have to do:
- Go to Quuu and register an account.
- Add the URL of the post you want to promote.
- Tweak your post to make it super compelling.
- Pay the fee.
- Done.
AND ONE LAST THING…
Almost forgot.
To make all of this run smoothly, you NEED to have all of your passwords saved on your phone. If you’re using Apple keychain or similar that’s sweet. If you’re looking for a premium password manager to manage all of your passwords in the cloud, then take a look at LastPass.
I use LastPass
Whatever you choose, make sure you’ve always got all of your passwords handy.
CONCLUSION
When your just getting started you’ve got to hustle. If that means doing outreach from the toilet, or on your break at work, so be it.
It’s all about getting that big old cog in motion, turning it in your direction.
Your very first aim must be to reduce the number of hours you work at your day job. If you can reduce your workload by just one day, then that’s a whole extra day you can use to compound your efforts to quit work faster.
If you actually follow these steps, you’ll start to see results very soon.
Peace out.
Rowan.
I want to hear what sneaky tactics you use at work to help drive traffic to your sites. I’d love to hear them in the comments below.