Strategies and Tactics for Women by Dr. Shannon Reece

1. Give Them What They Want

I would say my most proven strategy is to write a blog post solving my client’s problem. It has worked for me and I’m still tweaking as I go. I always do a Question/Answer game on my fan page, asking them what their concerns and problems are. Once they tell me that information, I get to blogging and researching to give them the best possible answer. So, I would say Give them What they want and the traffic will eventually keep coming back!

Thanks to LaTersa Blakely of Baby Diaper Cakes & Beyond by LaTersa

2. Integrate Your Blog & Ezine

I’ve tried all sorts of ‘creative’ approaches, but what I’ve found the best success with is something so simple: Integrating my blog posts into my ezine.

I have a highly engaged ezine readership. So by highlighting in each issue what’s new on my blog page, I’ve been driving a significant amount of readers there. In turn, they share my content with their followers by using the social media share links.

Of course, in order for this strategy to work, you have to publish great content. In my book there are two ingredients to great content: giving people actionable information (so it’s worth their time) + having a clear point of view (to make it interesting).

Thanks to Angelique Rewers of The Corporate Agent

3. Using Keywords To Harness Targeted Traffic

For our company, the one strategy that we utilize more than anything to garner targeted traffic to our blog is keywords. We use WordTracker to find the best combination of words or phrases that will correlate to the most targeted traffic through search engine optimization. When we find those keywords, we implement them in our blog posts throughout the day, which helps bring up our website during search results on popular search engines. The effectiveness comes from the research. We are diligently checking different combinations of words or phrases that will bring the highest percentage of obtaining targeted traffic.

Thanks to Michael Pesochinsky of GovernmentAuctions.org

4. Connect To Your Social Sites

My number one tip is to connect your blogs to your social sites. Post a monthly announcement regarding your blog, have the links on your social site and invite your network to subscribe. I post the link to my blogs on my Linkedin, Twitter and Face-book pages. I also post on my e-mail marketing via my monthly newsletter. This marketing strategy has increased subscriber, increase referrals and leads via our subscriber that forward and recommend our company.

Thanks to Eula M. Young, COO of Griot’s Roll Film Production & Services Inc.

5. Be Search-Friendly!

By far, the best strategy for attracting targeted traffic is SEO (Search Engine Optimization). If your site, including every page and every blog post, is optimized properly then it will do wonders for attracting high-quality, targeted traffic. Why? Because people who find your blog or site via search engines are already looking for your exact content (otherwise they wouldn’t be searching for it). If you optimize your site properly, you are simply making it easier for people to find the content they are already looking for and giving your site far better exposure. I recommend 1) using a great SEO plug-in (if you use WordPress, I use “WordPress SEO”) and also using Google’s Keyword tool to find out what keywords to optimize your site for when posting.

Thanks to Mike Sprouse of MikeSprouse.com

6. Social Media Marketing Drives Traffic

The single best strategy that we use is social media marketing. On our blog, we post amazing deals that are handpicked by our staff each day. Those blog posts then get put up on our Facebook and Twitter pages. This gives us more visibility and interest. When an outstanding deal or an interesting item is posted on these social networking sites, people share and retweet them for others to see. This strategy targets people who have already liked those pages and also for new users who get info through word-of-mouth or sharing.

Thanks to Elik Aaron of SaleRacks.com

7. Giveaways Are The Answer

We drive the most targeted traffic to our blog through contests and giveaways. Our site provides people with great freebies and contests that are going on all throughout the web, and we also run our own giveaways. These giveaways are on Facebook, so people have to like our page just to have one entry in the giveaway. There are other ways to obtain multiple entries, but the first thing that is required is to like us on Facebook. This is a fantastic way for us to get targeted traffic to our blog. People check on the social media site, then click on the links that are provided, which redirects them to our main blog. It’s effective because people are always interested in free items–especially when they are mega-prize giveaways.

Thanks to I. Aronovich of Awardable.com

8. Twitter Chat Is Where It’s At

Time is money, so I’m always looking for efficient ways to connect on Twitter. I’ve found that targeted Twitter Chats are a great way to interact with my niche. Personal favorite is #smallbizchat on Wednesdays from 7 to 8 CST run by Melinda Emerson. Note that pitches are reserved for the end of the chat.

Thanks to Nicole Fende of Small Business Finance Forum

9. Four Foolproof Blog Traffic Generators

1. Have great content and write about what you know (with passion). Without that, the traffic you do get is not going to stick around, let alone tell their friends.
2. Network with similar blogs and become a regular commenter on those blogs. Leave really good and thought-provoking comments. This will get you new traffic pretty quickly, but more importantly it will start to develop your authority on the subject.
3. Use social media outlets. Develop a free Facebook page for your blog and encourage your readers to ‘Like’ you on FB. This will help grow a sense of community and reader loyalty.
4. Look for blog festivals and blog carnivals to submit your blog posts to. This is a great way to get free publicity and new, highly targeted readers. My personal favorite is the Festival of Frugality.

Thanks to Kyle James of Rather-Be-Shopping.com

10. Get Payload Results With The Same Effort

In my experience creating a blog post that is search optimized has been my best strategy. It makes it very easy to get ranked in the search engines. It is not good enough to just blog – one must be cognizant of using the right keywords in Titles, Sub-titles, and in the paragraphs. By simply tweaking how you write it is possible to get way more mileage out of the same effort. I created a blog post with specific steps for choosing the right keywords. — for more information visit http://askdotty.com/keyword-research-for-blogging/

Thanks to Dotty Scott of Premium Websites, LLC

11. Don’t Wait…Participate!

Follow other blogs in your industry, and get involved! Commenting on blogs that others have written will fuel conversation around a topic. Target your comments to blogs and entries that are specific to your industry or field. This is a great way to introduce yourself to the blogosphere and create interest around what you have to say. Adding valuable content onto a blog that is already followed will show readers that you are an expert in your field. In turn, this will drive traffic back to your own blog.

Thanks to Emily Carter of Grass Roots Marketing, Inc.

12. Everyone Loves A Carnival!

I’ve hosted the Professional Organizers Blog Carnival on “Your Organizing Business” since 2009. This feature is popular with my readers because it allows them to learn from and connect with other bloggers in their industry, as well as giving them an opportunity to showcase their own expertise. To maintain a high quality standard, each post must adhere to specific guidelines in order to be included in the Carnival. The Professional Organizers Blog Carnival often attracts more visitors, retweets, and other attention than my regular blog posts, and as a result, I’ve received exposure to organizing consultants around the world, many of whom would not otherwise have learned about my blog or my business.

Click Here for submission instructions. http://organizedassistant.com/blog-carnival/

Thanks to Janet Barclay of Organized Assistant

13. Guest Post Early And Often

One of the biggest sources of traffic I have for every project I’ve launched online has been regular guest posting (to the point of being religious). It gets my content in front of audiences that I haven’t reached yet, proving right off the bat why they may want to follow my blog.

It also offers opportunities to promote a post outside of my normal location, letting me approach audiences that might otherwise feel like they don’t have a connection to me on social networking sites.

When I’m putting together guest posts to promote a specific topic, I make a list of the blogs that I think have relevant audiences — not just those sites that cover the same industry, but those that have overlapping audiences. For instance, personal finance blogs occasionally carry posts on how to decorate a home on a budget. From there, I just send an email to the blogger in question. As long as you can show a sample of your writing (like your own blog), and give a relevant topic that their readers might be interested in, most bloggers will say yes to a guest post!

Thanks to Thursday Bram of Hyper Modern Consulting

14. Get It Out!

Our readers are updated about our latest blog posts through all of our social media outlets. Once a post is live you can rest assured knowing that everyone MyCorporation is connected to via Facebook and Twitter will know about it. Even our individual writers that compose the pieces tweet and post the MyCorp blog to their individual social networking outlets-that alone is a good amount of traffic.

Thanks to Heather Taylor of MyCorporation

15. Writing…a Lot

The biggest hurdle most people have with blogging is actually blogging. “How often do I have to blog?” Everyday. Right now I can feel people cringing. If you are not ready to blog daily then post 3 times a week. Ultimately, if you want traffic you need to generate content. The top blogs in the world all post a minimum of 5 times a day, and this is no accident. If you want to be perceived as relevant and current, you need to post frequently. So get out there are write, write, write!

Thanks to Lauren MacEwen of SM Cubed Consulting

16. Showcase Credentials, Share Knowledge And Gain Targeted Traffic

Our blog posts intend to provide knowledge and insight, which prove we know what we’re talking about, like posts about innovation or development in the industry, such as Google+ or QR codes. We know that marketing managers will often be asked by CEOs about various developments in the industry, such as mobile or video optimisation, social media or call tracking. We hope to provide those answers.

We listen to our clients and try to provide content which interests them, on the basis that it is likely to also interest other similar, potential clients. Subjects like ‘Site Migration Best Practice’ are also popular, as companies with highly skilled web developers might seek some seo consultancy to ensure that rankings are not adversely impacted when the new site is launched.

Thanks to Alan Cairns of SiteVisibility

17. Follow Me Home

My single best strategy is, localism coupled with effective long tail keywords.

Effective keyword research is done by using Google’s Keyword Tool (free); or Wordtracker (paid). Find keywords that have low competition and high search numbers.

Localized key words will have the city, town or specific monument that is local to the place you live, work and play in. The term real estate broker is pretty generic. You do not want to be fielding all these queries for all real estate brokers, so you will want to use “Manhattan real estate broker”.

The specific impact on my business is that I only get queries that are for Manhattan. No queries for Queens, Brooklyn, or the Bronx, even if it is still part of NYC. It hones your target market and niches you as the specialist in that area.

Thanks to Jennifer Chiongbian of Rutenberg Realty