The 5 Stages of Blog Growth and Traffic Tactics

The key to blogging success is not a secret. It’s in the traffic tactics. These five stages of blog growth and traffic tactics will help you build up your audience, attract new readers and make money from it all on autopilot! Blog growth and traffic tactics are tricky things to master. There are five stages that you must go through to reach your goals. The first stage is finding the right niche, the second stage is getting content written, the third stage is promoting your blog, the fourth stage is building an audience, and finally, the fifth stage is monetizing your blog. You can start from zero and grow a blog with over 100,000 monthly visits in less than a year if you know what you’re doing. However, likely, you don’t know precisely what you need to do to get there, and that’s ok. But, because you’re here and eager to learn, you’ll know exactly what you need to do to turn your blog into an utterly viable company one day. Another consideration is the amount of time it takes. Some of you may be able to start a successful blog in a year, while others may need two, three, or even five.

Your blog will go through five distinctive phases along this journey:

1. Creating a blog
2. Finding your first 100 “genuine fans” is the first step in growing your business.
3. Increasing your traffic
4. Reap the benefits
5. Keeping your good fortune

Five phases of blog development:

Stage 1: The Birth of your blog.

Estimated completion time: less than two weeks. Hundreds of thousands of visitors and profit are the hot aspects of most blogs about starting an internet company and online marketing.

However, traffic and profit are the outcomes; your foundation is the reason for those outcomes. It’s not always simple to figure out the vital features of your site, but you can’t create a skyscraper without a strong foundation. During this period of preparation, you must complete four tasks. Even if you already have a blog, going through these items again and enhancing them if you missed them previously may be beneficial.

• Establish your target market. This is the first stage, and it’s where most blog owners fall short. It’s critical to understand who will benefit from your material. To put it another way, who do you want to serve? You don’t have to know how you’ll do it just yet. It doesn’t matter yet what items you’ll manufacture, what content you’ll write, or how you’ll get visitors.
• First and foremost, consider the audience you wish to assist. You must be able to say and be as straightforward as possible about the sort of individuals you are attempting to serve. It’s preferable to be too specialized than too broad sense you can continually expand afterward. For example, you could wish to service office employees who want to learn how to eat correctly at work.
• Create a persona for your target audience. You need to discover more about the folks you wish to help now that you know who they are. To generate material that benefits people, you must first learn who they are, how they behave, and what problems they face.

You may learn a lot about your target audience by doing things like:

• discussions held in person
• Alexa and SEMrush are two examples of demographic websites.

You should know the following about your target audience after your research:

• age
• gender
• job
• hobbies
• beliefs
• values

Give your reader persona a name if you choose. Keep in mind that each of these must be as detailed as possible. For example, 25-35 years is a range, not an age. Choose an age range that best characterizes your target reader.

Finally, you should have one particular person in mind for whom you may write. This will assist you in creating material that your viewers will like.

• Start your blog. If you want to start a blog-based company, you’ll need a working blog at some point. For the time being, I suggest keeping with WordPress unless you want some unique functionality. It’s the quickest method to get your blog up and running, and you can permanently alter it afterward. This is a tutorial on how to set up a WordPress blog.
• Find out where your readers congregate. You must first determine where your target audience spends their time before attempting to attract them to your blog. It’s worth noting that in specific niches, you may need to go offline and attend conferences or local gatherings to engage with your target audience and encourage them to visit your website. Find the most popular blogs in your field to begin. Googling “top [your broad niche] blogs” is one of the simplest methods to achieve this.

To keep track of these sites, make a spreadsheet. First, indicate if the blog permits comments in one column and guest articles in another. Then, Google “[domain name] guest post” to see if any is available.

Examine any large lists of blogs and pay attention to each one. Look for evidence of significant traffic, such as many social shares or several comments on each blog article. Make a list of the greatest ones. Next, you want to determine which blogs your reader persona reads to direct them to your site. You should try to identify as many as possible, but at least 50. If you’re having problems coming up with that many, broaden your search to include “best health sites” rather than “best nutrition sites.” After blogs, it’s time to look at specialist forums. Search for “[your general niche]+ forum” again, then read the first several pages of results.

If you come across forums that you think your target audience frequents, keep track of them in a separate area of your spreadsheet. To demonstrate activity and popularity, count the number of members or active members. Forums aren’t usually large enough to be utilized as a primary traffic technique, but they can help you develop your reader profile and use specific advertising strategies.

Stage 2: Identifying your 100 real supporters.

Completion time is expected to be less than four months. Kevin Kelly invented the term “1,000 real fans” back in 2008. When Seth Godin began mentioning it in his recommendations, it took off. In a nutshell, he explained how anybody could earn a lot of money if they connected with and were supported by 1,000 loyal followers. This post was designed with musicians and artists in mind, but the same principles apply to most small enterprises. If you don’t already, a small group of dedicated readers may help you grow your company to the point where you can become a full-time blogger. Going from zero to 1,000 followers on a new blog is a significant step. In my view, it is too large and needless. A better objective would be to amass 100 loyal supporters. When you initially start a blog, you’re at square one. You’ll make blunders no matter how well you study your target audience. The difficulty is that no one—at least not yet—will tell you what errors you’re making. You will be able to attract your first 100 admirers if you have identified your target demographic (although it could take a while). These followers will be crucial to the success of your site. Loyal readers will leave comments on blogs and react to emails. They’ll let you know when anything strikes a chord with them by leaving comments and feedback. They will also let you know if they don’t like anything by leaving a remark, sending an email, or being silent. If you have 100 high-quality subscribers but no comments or email responses, the issue isn’t with the subscribers; it’s with the content. You’ll most likely land anywhere between perfect resonance and radio silence in reality. You’ll receive a lot of activity on specific postings (say, 10-15 comments from your 100 admirers), but just one or two on others. Use this information to improve your reader persona and create content that will benefit this new persona. That’s when you’ll see more constant resonance and faster subscription growth. So, where are we at the moment? You’ve just started a blog, but there’s no one reading it (or a tiny one). This is the most challenging task you’ll face. You must get your first 100 followers. You, too, have a lot on your plate. You must develop content, establish connections, create more material, market your content, and so forth. However, since your site isn’t making any money, you’re probably the only one who can do it. You must make the best use of your time. That’s why I will reveal to you the best tactics for getting your first 100 genuine followers.

• Guest posting is the best method. Guest posting should be at the heart of your first traffic plan. Other blogs are probably where your target audience hangs out the most (in most niches). You must locate well-known blogs with a large following. Your target audience will make up a modest fraction of this group. You may then use a guest article to get these visitors to subscribe to your site. Guest blogging is a crucial tactic for all types of blogs.

One typical blunder you may make is creating any guest post that you believe would be popular on a website. Even if the guest post is well-received and generates a large number of subscribers, they may not be the perfect ones to base your blog and company around. Instead, choose a subject that you believe will be popular on the site where you’ll be guest-posting, but tailor it to your target audience. For example, I wouldn’t write a broad piece on the present status of the economy if I were writing a guest post for Forbes (which I often do). I’d instead create a somewhat less popular essay on how the current economic troubles affect your company’s marketing approach, or anything along those lines, even if it becomes popular. Always keep in mind that your primary aim at this point is to discover a small group of 100 loyal admirers and get them to your website. Prioritize attracting their attention before evaluating the remainder of a traffic source’s audience.

• Write the correct kind of blog material. Your time is short, as I’ve previously said. While it’s good to produce a lot of material to get your blog off the ground, it’s not the most crucial factor. You have few (if any) visitors right now. You don’t need to develop new material regularly since no one reads it. It’s best to spend time attempting to generate traffic from other places before publishing many blog entries. That said, your blog does need some material, but certain sorts of content are better than others. For example, it’s pointless to write an opinion piece since no one cares what you believe at this point. That isn’t meant as a slight; it is a fact. Before publishing an article like that, you need to establish your expertise. However, some forms of information may be effective at this point. Create a few blogs, in particular that may help you establish connections with influencers and acquire excellent backlinks. If you do it correctly, it could even result in tremendous focused traffic.

The following are examples of magical content:

• posts in a roundup
• posts that feed your ego
• Posts by “poster guy.”

You’re undoubtedly familiar with the concept of link roundups. You pose the same question to numerous specialized influencers and publish the findings. Some influencers may respond to the content by leaving comments, linking to it, and sharing it on social media. Ego bait refers to a variety of postings. Essentially, you want to appeal to the ego of a well-known influencer or corporation. Make them appear suitable by demonstrating that their counsel helped you or someone else handles an issue. Let them know you wrote the article, and they could link to it. Finally, the “poster boy” formula may be used. It’s similar to ego bait, but it takes the strategy to a new level. Find a few key influencers and ask them for a specific piece of strategy or technique guidance. Then put that advice into action and monitor the outcomes. Finally, create a case study of your products that highlights the influencer. As a result, the influencer will continue to link to your case study as proof of their excellence. This final strategy takes a lot of effort, but it pays off. On a new blog, Bryan Harris could attract over 400 subscribers using this strategy.

• Paid traffic is the third-best approach. Paid traffic is a strategy to accelerate your development if you have more money than time to spend in your company. It is, however, absolutely optional. Many successful blogs never utilize sponsored advertisements, but many others do so at some time. Paid advertising has the advantage of allowing you to build an audience even if you have no previous traffic. On the other hand, it may be costly, particularly if you’re new to sponsored advertising. Before you invest thousands of dollars, you must spend some time optimizing your email opt-in rate.
• Develop a social media presence. Last but not least, you must maintain a presence on social media. The most popular social media platforms—Facebook and Twitter—almost certainly comprise your target demographic. The issue is that any effective social media plan takes time to implement. If you’re going to utilize social media, you’ll need to be willing to use it regularly for months before it begins to pay off in terms of traffic. If you’re dead bent on utilizing social media to drive visitors to your site, bought traffic may help you get there faster. As I showed in the nutrition site case study, Paid Facebook advertisements are pretty inexpensive and may help you rapidly develop an authoritative page. I don’t advocate utilizing social media as your primary traffic strategy unless you’re prepared to spend in it regularly. However, you may start establishing one or two channels while focusing on other traffic creation tactics. What about search engine optimization? If you know me, you’re aware of how much I enjoy and profit from SEO. However, other than generating authoritative connections when you have the opportunity, you shouldn’t put too much emphasis on it at first. It takes many months to create high-quality content to gain the authority and confidence of search engines. After approximately a year, you should start seeing some meaningful organic search traffic, at which point you may concentrate more on SEO.

Stage 3: Attracting swarms of fans—increasing the size of the audience.

Expected completion time: 8-24 months Now that you have a good idea of what your audience needs and wants, it’s time to ramp up your traffic-building efforts. You will develop considerably quicker than you did in the previous level, but it will still take time. Take, for example, the NeilPatel.com blog. I started writing this blog around the end of September 2014. My traffic increased to 63,827 visits in May 2015, which took around eight months.

Even with my expertise and personal brand, it took me eight months to get to this stage. In addition, I’m currently working on increasing the traffic to that blog, so it’s still in this stage. You have some traffic and a fair notion of your target audience at this stage. Your critical task now is to start producing outstanding material regularly. Furthermore, you still have a limited amount of time.

• Keep up your traffic-building efforts. You’ll have less time to attract traffic from other sources since you’ll have to spend more time on content production. You must, however, continue with your traffic strategy from Stage 2. Even if you have 100 loyal admirers, if you rely only on them to spread the word, your pace of development will be too sluggish. Instead, as your blog’s traffic grows, you should devote more effort to generating and marketing content on your site.
• Create a content timetable as the second-best approach. You began writing material for your blog in the previous step. It is now required to do so regularly. Consider not just the sorts of articles we discussed but any form of material that your loyal followers could love. You must pick how often you will publish and what you will write about. A comprehensive content calendar can help you prepare material for up to a year ahead of time. You’re still receiving a lot of input from your 100 loyal admirers at this stage. I’d suggest preparing your material for just a few weeks or months at a time so that it may be tweaked in response to feedback. You may plan your content calendar as far ahead as you like after you’ve established constant resonance.

• Begin to think about monetization. While traffic is good, the ultimate objective should always be to generate cash. If you’re selling a service, such as consulting, you can do this right away with no problems. A basic landing page may be created in a short amount of time. Include a link to it in your menu, and include it in your emails to subscribers as needed.

Your blog’s long-term purpose may be to sell a product. If you already have a product, now is the time to start selling it and boost your conversion rate. If you don’t already have an effect, now is a fantastic moment to begin paying attention to your audience’s primary pain points so that you can build one around them. Most items take months to develop, so the more time you have to prepare ahead, the better.

Stage 4: Reap the benefits—getting compensated

Estimated completion time: three to six months The distinction between Stages 3 and 4 is often muddled. You should monetize your blog as soon as you have a significant readership (most people aim for 5,000-10,000 subscribers). At the same time, you must continue expanding and implementing all of the Stage 3 growth methods.

• The best technique is to concentrate on monetization. “Why does everything have to be about the money all of the time?” I realize it may seem like I’m encouraging you to be greedy by recommending you to monetize as quickly as possible, but that’s not the case. You have tens of thousands (at least!) of visits every month at this time. How can you continue to serve your readers properly if you don’t monetize your blog? You can no longer invest in better content or answer all emails or comments. A single individual cannot serve a crowd of thousands. If you have no time to produce a product, know that you will be asked for joint ventures frequently (JV) if you have a large following. In essence, the other party will manufacture the product; you will offer the market for it to be sold to, and the profit will be divided. Accepting the first JV offer is not a good idea. To deliver as much value to your audience as possible, take your time and only work with someone you trust and respect. Finally, if you don’t feel ready to produce your product, you may always advertise other respectable affiliate deals.
• Hire someone. Now that you’re making money from your site, you may hire some support so that you can keep helping your readers as much as possible. But, first, determine which portions of the blog need the most excellent care. For example, I like to write the material for my blogs (on Quick Sprout and NeilPatel.com). Therefore I can’t outsource that. On Crazy Egg’s blog, though, I’ve engaged an editor who has put together a team of writers to create material.

The following are the most prevalent areas where bloggers hire:

• assistance with the product
• creation of new products
• easy email responses (get a virtual assistant)
• design for print (images and infographics for content)
• growth of the internet (for site redesign)
• creation of a content strategy
• writing content

Start employing individuals to take care of the remainder of your blog after you’ve determined which aspects need your attention. Then, slow down and make sure you’re recruiting good individuals to assist you. It will save you a lot of time and aggravation in the long run.

Stage 5: Keep your seat on the Golden Throne.

Expected completion time: ideally, you’ll be here forever! (or until you find a buyer) You’ve now established a full-fledged company. Your site should quickly generate enough revenue to devote all of your attention to it. Quick Sprout has been at this level for quite some time now. You’ll get to this phase quicker in specific niches than others, just because of your target demographic and market size. You will, however, lose your success if you just dwell on it. Your company is often constantly expanding or contracting. Focusing on development is preferable to letting the fruits of your labor wither. At this stage, your primary task is to keep generating high-quality work in the form of blog material and goods. Furthermore, you still have a limited amount of time to take advantage of all of the presently available options.

• The best option is to keep recruiting. If you’re doing everything correctly, your traffic will continue to rise. You’ll need to locate other dependable folks to add to your small team to maintain your quality standards and free up time. Finding and retaining excellent individuals on your team is the most challenging aspect of running a successfully expanding company. If you discover someone who performs a good job, pay them fairly, even if you could get them to work for you for a lower wage. This not only makes people happy while they work, but it also makes them less likely to want to quit in the future. You will save much more money in the long term by not having to constantly search, employ, and train people than by keeping a few dollars on salary.
• Automate is the second-best method. The beautiful thing about having a lot of money coming in is that you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. Almost every tedious blog operation can be automated, either by using a commercial program or hiring a freelancer.

The majority of hiring should be for a specific job. Don’t simply allow someone to find things out on their own when you employ them. You must develop simple processes that define what you want your staff to accomplish in a step-by-step manner. Although initial training may take time, it will save you time in the long run by allowing you to avoid wasting time correcting errors and modifying their work habits to fit yours.

• The third best method is to be selective. At this stage, you’ll be approached with offers to do anything from guest blogging to speaking at conferences. Because you only have so much time, you must choose your chances wisely. Right now, it’s all about increasing traffic and developing your brand. Choose the possibilities that will benefit your reputation and position as a thought leader in your profession the most.
• SEO is the fourth most effective method. No, I didn’t forget about search engine optimization. Your domain should have a lot of authority and trust by now, and you should be getting a lot of organic traffic from search engines.

There are three things you should do at this point:

1. First, examine your blog’s layout for the best “link juice” flow.
2. Examine previous material to see if it can be improved for better search phrases.
3. Finally, incorporate keywords into your future material in a strategic way.

If you don’t have any expertise with SEO, you can always employ someone who does now that you’re making money.

Conclusion

The goal of this article was to show you how a blog-based company develops over time. Growing a successful blog is not something that can be accomplished overnight. What I hope you take away from this is that if you utilize the appropriate strategies at the right time, you can expand your blog deliberately and eliminate guesswork and chance. Finally, you should never cease studying your readers and attempting to assist them. Although this site has progressed beyond its infancy, I’m still learning how to better serve you every day via your comments, emails, and visiting behaviors. I’d love it if you could leave a comment below letting me know where you are in your company or blog so I can better understand where you are.