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How to Get Started on Tailwind and Skyrocket Your Blog Traffic

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Reading Time: 7 minutes

How to

Get Started on Tailwind

And Skyrocket Your Blog Traffic

I’m just going to say it- the thought of learning a new platform sucks.

If you’re anything like me, you love to learn but the thought of learning another new platform makes me want to run for the hills. All of a sudden anything and everything on your To-Do List is more important than learning yet another platform.

This was the case with Tailwind. I’ve heard how wonderful it is (especially Tribes) and how fast it can help blogs gain traffic but one of the first courses I took as a new blogger suggested Boardbooster so that’s what I’ve been using.

I’ve always known Boardbooster was an unapproved scheduler for Pinterest but I never had any issues so I continued to use it.  Unfortunately, Pinterest came out last week and encouraged people to discontinue using Boardbooster because accounts using Boardbooster were being marked as spam and shutdown. Yikes!

I turned off Boardbooster and within a few days my traffic plummeted which meant it was time to suck it up and learn Tailwind.

Tailwind to the Rescue

Once I got started with Tailwind I realized it was easy. *Facepalm* I should’ve convinced myself months ago to make the switch.

I haven’t figured it all out yet but just in the last week I have seen a nice little bump in traffic which is motivation to get it all figured out sooner rather than later. There is a lot to learn when it comes to Tailwind but it seems pretty simple over all.

Getting started has been super easy so I wanted to share with you how this Tailwind Newbie (aka me) did it so you can get up and running with Tailwind ASAP too.  

What Is Tailwind

Visual Marketing from Tailwind

Tailwind is a Pinterest and Instagram scheduling platform. Both Pinterest and Instagram want businesses and creators to use their platforms consistently and they often reward consistency with more traffic. As much as we love blogging, no one wants to be on the computer all day sharing pins though and that’s where Tailwind comes in.

Now that we know what Tailwind is, let’s talk about how to set it up. One small disclaimer though- this is how I set up my account. My reach went from growing by about 1,000 a day to 3,000 a day so I’m happy with this setup but I’m sure there are other ways to schedule your pins. If you have any suggestions or want to pipe in about what has worked for you leave a comment at the bottom of this post.

Want Some Tips to Help You Boost Your Pinterest Game? Check Out These 19 Tips Directly From a Pinterest Rep. 

Getting Started on Tailwind

Step 1: Sign Up and Sync Your Pinterest Account

Signing up with Tailwind and syncing your Pinterest account is simple and self-explanatory. Check out this screenshot above taken directly from Tailwind below.

Step 2: Create Board Lists

I am all about ease so the first thing I wanted to learn after starting Tailwind was how to group my boards. I was happy to learn it’s super easy to make a list of similar boards so that you can schedule a pin to all of them at once if you choose.

To make a list of boards go to the left side of Pinterest and select ‘Publisher’ then ‘Board Lists’ from the box that drops down.

Once on the page you can click the ‘+’ to create a list of boards. At the top of the board that pops up highlight the words ‘New Board list’ and change the title of the board to something easy to remember.

You can then either type in the name of the Pinterest board or scroll down until you find the board you want to add. You can add as many boards as you want and they can be group or personal boards.

Do this as many times as you need to cover all of the categories on your Pinterest account.

Getting started on Tailwind

Step 3: Create Your Pinning Schedule

Tailwind has made setting up your pinning schedule easy as well.

Go back to the left side of the page and select ‘Publisher’ and then ‘Your Schedule’ from the dropdown box. Tailwind has a pretty handy feature that looks at the times your Pinterest account gets the most pins and then auto-populates them for you. The times in green are scheduled and the times outlined in green are additional pin times you can schedule.

At first Pinterest will give you a random schedule. It will open up with 4 pins scheduled per day (on average) but you can change that by selecting ‘Generate New Smart Schedule’ at the top and you can select how many pins you want scheduled a day. Pinterest likes to see between 12-30 pins per day from a business account.

Step 4: Select Pins to be Scheduled

When you first start up Tailwind it will force you to go through a quick tutorial. This is great for getting started but I’m not a fan of being forced to do anything so I pretty much just clicked wherever I had to to get through it.

However, one of the things it has you do is upload the Chrome Extension ‘Tailwind Publisher’ and that extension is the easiest way to schedule pins.

In order to schedule a pin, go to any page and select the Tailwind symbol that’s now at the top right hand corner of your web browser. For convenience, I will go to a popular board or trending page and select several pins to schedule at once.

Once you are on the page you want to schedule from you can either hover or the pin or picture and click the Tailwind icon that appears or (and this is what I prefer to do) select the Tailwind Publisher app added to Google Chrome which will then show all of the pins available for pinning.

Scheduling Pins on Tailwind

When you select a pin a blue outline will appear around it. Select as many as you like. To schedule the pin you can either choose a board at the top of the page and all of the pins selected will be scheduled to that board (at varying times) or you can select which board or group boards within each individual pin.

Once all of the pins have boards selected, click ‘Go Schedule’ at the bottom right-hand corner of the page. Your pins are then scheduled to your boards!

Step 5: Shuffle Your Boards

The following step is a tip I picked up from Raelyn Tan, a blogger I love because she knows her stuff. Once you schedule your pins, go back into Tailwind. Select Publisher on the left-hand side and go down to ‘Scheduled Pins.’

On the right you will see all of your scheduled pins. Above that you will see a button labeled ‘Shuffle Queue’. Click that button and all of your pins will re-order. This is important because you don’t want Tailwind sending out the same pin 10 times in a row which can look spammy.

You are now set up to start pinning on Tailwind! Awesome and easy, right?

But there’s more- Tailwind Tribes.

Tailwind Tribes

Tailwind Tribes are really what make Tailwind shine. Tribes are free with your subscription to Tailwind and you are allowed to join 5 tribes and schedule 30 pins a month.

Join a tribe is similar to joining a group board on Pinterest except you can see who is pinning and who isn’t. This makes having a healthy tribe much easier than having a healthy group board because it holds people accountable. Tribe owner’s can set rules for their boards (like one re-pin for every pin) and kick out anyone who doesn’t follow them.

Tailwind Tribes are a great way to grow your engagement in Pinterest because you are practically guaranteed re-pins on your pins. The more engaged people are with your pins, the better chance you have of a pin going viral or at least getting good reach on Pinterest.

To join Tribes click on “Tribes” in your Tailwind dashboard on the left side of the page and then click ‘Find a Tribe’. Type in your blog niche and you’ll get a list of tribes you can join or request to join.

Scheduling pins to tribes is very similar to scheduling them to post. The only difference is  instead of selecting a board to schedule the pin to you will select a tribe. A list of your tribes will pop-up and you can schedule your pin to go into that tribe. You can either do this from directly from your blog article or within your Pinterest account.

Learning Tailwind... or Any New Platform

Learning a new platform is always something I will think of as being a pain in the butt. However, Tailwind has made their platform ridiculously easy to learn and use. I can honestly say I am glad I was forced to make the switch.

Hopefully you’ll be able to get up and running on Tailwind and start seeing increased traffic to your blog.

Are you new to blogging? Get a copy of my FREE 25 page Blog Content Planner and get your blog set up and running the right way.

How to Monetize Your Blog Before You Launch

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Reading Time: 16 minutes

How to

Monetize

Your Blog

BEFORE You Launch

I’m sure you’ve come across lots of ‘How to Start a Blog’ posts and read how easy it is to start a blog.

But, if you’re anything like me, your next thought was “It’s easy to start a blog but what then? How do I grow a blog, get traffic, gain followers, and make money from one?”

When I decided to start a blog I did some research, got a vague idea on how to monetize then went ahead and started one… and I made no money whatsoever for the first year.

You read that right- a year.

I know- I probably shouldn’t tell you that. Why would you want to learn blogging from someone who didn’t jump in and immediately start making money like everyone else seems to? Don’t people start making money in the first, second, and third month? That’s what all the income reports say, right?

The problem is we only hear from those who succeed but that’s not the whole story.

There are  bloggers out there who were instantly successful but they’re in the minority. I’ve read that over 90% of people who start a blog give up before they even reach three months of blogging. Of those bloggers who stick with it, only about a quarter are able to ever make more than a couple hundred dollars a month. Ugh!

I tried following what all the experts said and build up my content before launching.  I wanted to have at least fifteen articles posted when I went live but with two small kids at home I was lucky to get one post a week which means launching my blog took about 3 1/2 months.

Then when I finally launched my blog and started promoting it nothing happened. Pageviews trickled in but I wasn’t making any money.

Finally, after months of earning pennies, I received an email that changed everything.

Ironically, it had nothing to do with blogging, but it’s the reason I was able to stick with blogging long enough to get a consistent income established. 

I want to share what I learned with other new bloggers like you because no one wants to twiddle their thumbs for months waiting to be paid for their efforts. You want to see real results.

It’s not the typical “blogging path” but it’s a path that can get you making money a lot quicker. It worked for me and I am confident it can work for you too.

Monetize your blog before you launch

Monetize Your Blog Before You Launch

Step 1: Choose a Niche and Audience

The first step to starting a blog is to know what you plan to blog about. This means choosing a topic and niche. A niche narrows down what you want to write about and who you want to write to.

Some bloggers will insist that you can monetize any niche. That’s technically true but some niches are a lot easier to monetize than others. If you’re blogging to share your passion with the world (which is awesome!) then blog to your heart’s content and you’ll be able to monetize… eventually.  

However, if your goal is to monetize as quickly as possible then you will want to choose your topic and niche carefully because they are going to directly affect how fast you’ll start making money.

The seven niches which tend to be the easiest to monetize include:

  • Beauty/Fashion
  • Food
  • Healthy & Fitness
  • Lifestyle
  • Making Money
  • Personal Finance
  • Personal Development

Narrowing down a Niche

Standard blogging logic is to narrow down your niche as much as possible because the better you know and can relate to your audience, the easier it is to talk directly to them and get to know them. You can even go as far as to have an avatar (one person you write to and get to know intimately).

The concept is great but can often be hard for new bloggers. A better idea is to cast a wide net at the beginning and see what your audience responds to.

For example, instead of niching down to natural parenting for crunchy moms, try a natural lifestyle blog with several topics- one which includes parenting. Instead of a blog for the Keto Diet for Diabetics, write about the Keto Diet and then get to know your audience and see what content they respond to and what struggles they are having.

It’s great to write to diabetics but if the majority of your readers have high blood pressure then start talking more to them and their struggles.

Blogging is about sharing your passion but it’s also about listening to your readers and helping them with their struggles. Choose a niche then keep an open mind and see where your blog takes you.  

Step 2: Brainstorm a Blog and Domain Name

Your domain name will be the name of your blog and the URL people type into the address bar. My domain is BloggingEnthusiast.com.

The primary goal of your domain name should be to represent what your blog is about. People should be able to look at your blog name (and tagline) and instantly figure out what you write about. The quicker people figure out what your topic is, the longer they’ll stay to see what you have to say.

There are a few things to think about when thinking of a blog name.

Keep in mind that these are just guidelines and you probably won’t be able to stick to every one of them. There are plenty of blogs out there who have gone against every one of these and are still successful.

  • Keep it short and sweet.
  • Use the correct spelling of words. If you plan to name your blog ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors,’ you don’t want to spell it ‘Rok, Paper, Sizzors’ because no one will ever find you.
  • Try and get a .com. People tend to search for them by default and naturally trust them more.
  • Never, ever use a hyphen. No one will remember that you’re at My-Best-Life.com but you will send a lot of traffic to MyBestLife.com
  • Try and put your main topic first in your blog name. DogWalker.com will rank higher than WalkingDogs.com when it comes to Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
  • SEO is important but you can consider using your own name. If you have a name that’s hard to say or spell you can use a nickname, middle name, last name, or make up a pseudonym (aka pen name) instead.
  • Avoid niche specific terms that only those familiar with your niche would know. For example, people who follow a keto diet know what Bullet Proof Coffee is but someone looking to learn about the keto diet would have no idea and probably skip right past your site.

You can buy your domain from a number of services but I try to keep my domain and hosting all in the same place because it’s easier. My favorite host is Siteground. To see if your domain name is available scroll to the bottom and under ‘Services’ you’ll find ‘Domain Names.’ Click on it and it will take you to a page where you can see if the domain you want is available.

If this isn’t the first ‘How to Start a Blog’ post that you have read then you may be thinking “This is exactly what everyone says.” Step 4 is where things get a little different though. Instead of jumping to setting up your website, we are going to switch gears and shift to…

Step 3: Setup Your Pinterest Business Account

I know you’re thinking “Why should I set up a Pinterest account when I have nothing to share yet?” Because a warmed up Pinterest account is worth its weight in gold.

When you setup your Pinterest account the right way (meaning you have a business account, a profile with good keywords, and well-keyworded boards) you can start driving traffic and sales within a few weeks before you even start your blog.

You read that right. You can start priming the pump to drive sales before you even start your blog.

I’m not saying you will get rich quick doing this but you can set yourself up to start seeing a few dollars come in in a few weeks instead of a few months (or years) which is what happens to many bloggers.

I want you you to succeed as quick as possible so I am in the process of putting together an eBook to help you out. In the meantime, check out Carly Campbell’s Pinteresting Strategies. It’s an amazing, in-depth e-Book for getting started on Pinterest the right way and it’s amazingly affordable. 

Step 4: Register as an Affiliate and Start Promoting Affiliate Pins Your Audience Will Want

There are a ton of affiliate sites out there but the two you should focus on right now are Society6 and Zazzle. Both of these affiliates allow affiliate links on Pinterest and you don’t have to have your own website to promote their products. 

Both have easy to use platforms that allow you to link directly to their products and then pin to your well-keyworded boards. If you need help, comment in my Private Facebook group and I’ll help you out (I plan to do a Facebook live on both soon). 

*Side note: Never use an Amazon link on Pinterest. It’s a big no-no and great way to get your Amazon affiliate account banned. 

Once you’re an affiliate you’ll be able to grab pictures of the products that fit your niche and pin them to your boards on Pinterest.

When you pin your pin, make sureit has the reason why you love it, what the product is, and that you include [aff link].  You can also include three to five hashtags so people can easily find the product on Pinterest once you pin it. 

Pinterest Business Account

Step 5: Pin Daily

I waffled on making this Step 5 but I decided to because I wanted to highlight the importance of it.

Pinterest loves (and rewards) active users. This doesn’t mean you have to spend all day pinning but pinning 5-10 pins a couple of times a day can make a huge difference in your traffic.  

At first you won’t have many pins of your owns but make sure to pin relevant, third-party (aka not your own) pins to your boards. Once you build your own collection you can focus more on pinning your own pins. 

You may be thinking “I don’t have time to pin that often!” Which is fine because Pinterest doesn’t care if you don’t pin manually.

You read that right.

Pinterest doesn’t care how you pin as long as you pin so take advantage of Pin schedulers.

Tailwind is a Pinterest approved, easy to use scheduler and their Tribes feature is a great way to start gaining traffic. Join my Private Facebook Group to view a Facebook live on how to get using Tailwind. 

Once you have Tailwind, Schedule the pins you want pinned, set it to run, and you won’t have to worry about constantly being on Pinterest (except to update your pinning schedule a few times a month).

Tailwind Visual Marketing Suite

Why Should You Blog When You Can Make Money from Pinterest?

At this point you may be thinking “why should I bother setting up a blog if I can just make money from Pinterest?”

Honestly, You don’t have to set up a blog to make money.

But, if you want to help people, increase your earning potential, and have a business you are in control of (instead of Pinterest controlling you) then you need a blog.

A blog is something that is yours. You make up the rules and you own it. Pinterest can change their rules or algorithms at any moment ( and they do- quite often) and your income stream could vanish. It’s a crappy truth but the truth.

That won’t happen with your own site though.

It’s one thing to market through Pinterest and make sales but it’s a completely different ball game once you start to connect with your readers. Connecting with readers is what will keep you motivated.

Another plus of having a blog is that studies have shown building your own email list is the single most important thing an entrepreneur can do to earn more money and building a list is almost impossible without a blog. 

Readers are 40 times (that’s not a typo- 40 TIMES) more likely to buy from someone who emails them than any other form of communication. Imagine the difference between 1 in 300 buying a product you suggest versus 13 out of 100.

Yes- a blog is more work (a lot more work) but it’s worth it if you are planning to run a business and not just a side hustle.

Step 6: Start Writing and Build Up Content

At this point you are probably itching to setup your blog. That’s the fun stuff and I just went on and on about how a blog is all yours to do what you like with, right?

But the moment you setup your blog it will become the biggest distraction to writing that you have. You will get sucked into the vortex of branding, email series, learning new platforms, etc.

If there is nothing for your readers to read they won’t come back so focus on content first. At a minimum, you want to have ten articles on your blog when you launch. If you can, try and have another six blog posts set aside. I know six seems like a random number but there is logic to my madness.

Once you setup your blog, you can put up your ten blog posts then launch your blog and open it up to readers. Since you will still be new and trying to build up your trust with Google, you will want to try and post two times a week for the first month at least. 

If you can write one post a week and then post one of your previous posts a week there’s your two times. You will then have two spare posts for when life happens and you can’t write one week.  

Finding Content Your Readers Want to Read

The best way to find popular content is to check out other bloggers in your niche. See what content has done well for them and start writing about those subjects.

Try not to read the articles until after you write your own to avoid their view influencing yours though. I’m sure I don’t have to say this but I will anyway: research and inspiration is fine but copying someone else’s work is never okay.

Most bloggers have a “Popular Posts” section which is great because your work is done for you. However, another neat trick is to go to Buzzsumo. Type in the URL of a blogger and get other bloggers top four posts. Buzzsumo is a paid service but you can get five free searches a day so use them carefully.

Keep your writing on topic and don’t forget to put yourself in the shoes of your reader. Aim to solve one problem with one post and you will be on your way to blogging success.

Need more tips on writing great blog content? Check out my post on ‘How to Write Blog Posts Your Readers Will Love’.

Set Yourself Up for Success with Good SEO

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and what it boils down to is you want to focus each post around a few keywords that, once your blog is established, will give you the chance to show up on the first page of Google.

SEO and keyword research is a massive subject so I don’t want to try and cover it here but Moz has a great explanation of long tail keywords for Beginners page in their ‘Beginners Guide to Keyword Research’. It’s free to check out and will give you a great basic understanding of what long tail keywords are and the best way to find them.

Digital Nomad Wannabe also has a great free keyword research article and Stupid Easy SEO offers a free eBook for beginner bloggers as well.

Step 7: Setup Your Blog

Now that you have at least ten blog posts it’s time to actually start your blog.

If you need help with the technical portion of starting your blog, check out my post on ‘How to Start a Blog’. I put together a step by step picture tutorial on how to choose the best hosting plan and upload WordPress to get your blog up and running ASAP.

I also plan on doing a Facebook live video in my Private Facebook Group to show you how to buy a domain and setup a WordPress blog so stay tuned.

I love Siteground and they come highly recommended from the tech guy I trust most, Grayson Bell. He put together a free course, Blogging on WordPress, to help you understand why Siteground is the best host compared to other popular hosts like Bluehost. He also walks you through the technical aspects of starting a WordPress Blog and setting it up so it’s secure.   

Web Hosting

Choosing a Theme for Your Blog

A theme is  the layout of your blog and it determines where everything on your blog will be. Headers, footers, sidebars- all of these things are built by your theme.

Choosing a theme was one of the biggest headaches for me when I started a blog. There are literally thousands and I had no clue what I wanted. Thankfully, my two favorite theme providers, Studio Press and Elegant Themes, have a great way to narrow things down for you. You can browse by your criteria or choose and compare the themes you like.

When choosing a theme, try and ignore the colors and look at the foundational stuff like where everything is and how big headers, footers, and sidebars are. Colors can be changed but those items can’t.

StudioPress Theme of the Month

Free Themes vs Paid Themes

When you upload WordPress, it will come with a basic free theme and there are other free themes you can search through. Starting off you may decide to use one of these which is understandable when you’re still in the beginning stages of blogging and don’t want to invest a lot of money.

However, you get what you pay for.

Free themes are not updated often (if at all), can be glitchy, and when you do update you’ll have to reset all of your fonts, colors, and styles which can be a royal pain in the you-know-what.

Paid themes will generally come with a parent theme and a child theme. A parent theme is the framework for your website and it will hold all of the information you have set like colors, fonts, and styles so that when you update the child theme (which happens a few times a year) you will not have to reset everything.

My favorite parent/child theme duo come from Studiopress. Their parent theme is called Genesis and it is compatible with hundreds of child themes. They also have easy-to-follow tutorials and great customer service in case you ever have any questions.

The first time you purchase a theme from them, it will come with Genesis and the child theme. Down the line if you purchase a different them you will only have to purchase the child theme. For more info on Genesis and parent/child themes, check out their Q&A page.

A couple of blogger friends of mine use Elegant Themes and love them. They have a similar parent/child setup and great customer service.

Both Studiopress and Elegant Themes come with money-back guarantees so if you try a theme and don’t like it, return the theme and try another (I went through three when I started my first blog and never had a problem with returning it).

Step 8: Use Pinterest to Drive Traffic

Now that your blog is setup and you’ve started adding content, the next thing you want to work on is driving traffic to your blog. I wish someone would have told me this one tip when I first started blogging.

Spend the majority of your time PROMOTING your posts.

Content is important because it’s what your readers want but a post without anyone seeing it doesn’t do you any good. Once you have a lot of content you should spend about 20% of your time writing and 80% of your time promoting but at the beginning a 40/60 split is more realistic.

The good news is you’re in position to get great traffic thanks to the time you spent setting up your Pinterest account and pinning daily. Now, you get to start creating and pinning your own pins.

There are a ton of Pinterest resources out there to help you learn how to create your own pins in Canva but the best one I have found is Carly Campbell’s Pinteresting Strategies. It goes through how to create great pins but it also goes through how to create pins in a way that will increase the chances of them going viral and driving tons of traffic to your blog.

A few tips to get you started growing your Pinterest account even faster:

  • Pinterest is mostly for traffic so your primary focus is to get people to click through to your blog. However, don’t be afraid to go for the easy win. People love to repin infographics, quotes, memes, cute animals, and even things like color palettes if you’re in the Home Decor niche. Create a couple of simple pins and start circulating them for a little boost in Pinterest traffic.
  • Creating pins for blog posts will be different than creating pins for affiliate marketing only. Use Canva to add big, easy to read lettering to your pins.

Check out my article on 19 Pinterest Tips Directly from Pinterest for even more tips on how to grow your account.

Step 9: Make Google Happy

As mentioned before, you will want to get your first ten posts up and then publish a couple of posts a week so you start to show up on Google’s radar.

Why is Google so Important?

Because to make your blog a business you have to have great SEO to send you traffic. The search engine you need to send you traffic? Google.

Of course there are other search engines (Yahoo, Bing, Ask) but Google is the search engine giant. If you ever decide to do sponsored posts (posts in exchange for money, products, or services) or want to have ads on your page, your Google Analytics is what companies will ask to see.

SEO is a beast of a topic which is why I suggested the free resources above but there are a few basic things you can do to start to get on Google’s radar.

Upload the YOAST Plugin

There is a free and paid version of the Yoast plugin for WordPress but if you’re just getting started the free one is fine (they also have a great tutorial on SEO and how to use their plugins).

Yoast is a very user friendly plugin and it’s pretty self explanatory. When you upload it, it will analyze your post and let you know how good the SEO is. Following the plugin is a great way to start crafting your posts in a way that will help them rank high in Google.

It will also create a sitemap  of your page which you will want to submit to Google. A sitemap tells google about the organization of your site content and pages with sitemaps tend to rank higher.

Setup Google Search Console

You’ll also want to setup your Google Search Console. Your Google Search Console will tell you what words you rank for.

To ‘rank’ for words means you show up on page one of Google when someone enters a specific phrase. Ranking for any key phrase on Google is a great reason to do a happy dance. The more phrases you rank for on Google, the more traffic you will have.

Upload Your Posts to Google +

Google plus is Google’s version of Facebook. There are quite a few people on it but not near as many as Facebook (honestly, I didn’t know it existed before I started blogging).

You can check out this article by Twelve Skip on how to setup your Google + Business account and then you want to upload your posts to it. When you upload a post to Google +, don’t expect much to happen. However, Google + is owned by Google and rumor has it they give preference to posts on their own platform so take the moment to post it.

Blogging Success Is Mostly About the Right Mindset

This post contained a ton of information but don’t let it intimidate you. Half of blogging is mindset and you can (and have to believe) that you can do this. There’s no magic formula for success, you just have to do what needs to be done and do it consistently until you get to where you’re going but you don’t have to do it alone. Join my Private Facebook Group to ask questions, get Feedback, and share your blog to help you grow. I hope to see you there and best of luck on your blog!

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9 Places to Promote Your Blog for Free

by Leave a Comment

Reading Time: 8 minutes

9 Places to

Promote Your Blog

for FREE

You spend hours crafting the perfect blog post. You follow all of the tips and advice to make it as helpful as possible and easy to read. You then publish your amazing content and… crickets.

When I was new to blogging the most frustrating part of the entire process was getting blog traffic.

I had informative, helpful posts but no traffic.

It was so frustrating.

At least, it was until I took the (free) 12 Week Bootcamp by Scrivs who runs the Billionaire Blog Club.

In his course he discusses the importance of content but he also talks about the importance of promoting yourself and your blog in order to create traffic. He goes by the 20/80 rule which means he spends about 20% of his time creating content but 80% of his time promoting his content.

Talk about a lightbulb on moment.

Promoting your blog is what will get you readers, subscribers, and to your ultimate goal of monetization. But you don’t just want any readers- you want the right readers. You want to find your tribe.

How do you find your tribe?  Trial and error.

I know not what you want to hear but it’s a truthful one.

You can think you know your audience but until you get your content out there and people start to respond you have no idea where your audience is or exactly what they like. When you first start blogging it’s pretty much a best-guess-crapshoot.

The best way to determine what works best is to test it. Pick a way to promote your posts,try it out for a couple of months, then check back and see how things went. If you notice a bump in traffic, keep doing it. If you don’t, stop and move on to another avenue of promotion.

Keep doing this until you have at least five places to promote your content which drive you traffic consistently.

9+ places to promote your posts to get more traffic

Post promotion and blog traffic

1. Pinterest

Pinterest is the best traffic driver for most bloggers.

I say most because how well you do can depend on your niche. Home decor and crafts get the most reach while business pages tend to do better on other platforms like LinkedIn. Either way, you want to get your posts out there and not just once- often and with several pins for one post.

Make sure you pin to your well-keyworded board first and your pin is well keyworded too. The best way to continually get your pins seen on Pinterest is with a scheduler like Tailwind. It allows you to select the pins you want pinned in advance so you are not constantly on Pinterest pinning.

Getting seen is only half the battle though- the other half of the battle is having well-designed pins that are likely to go viral with great titles. Carly Campbell from Mommy on Purpose has put together an amazing guide on setting up your Pinterest business account, profile, and boards for success. Her book is called Pinteresting Strategies and she also reviews the anatomy of great pins and her eBook is underpriced in my opinion (shhh- don’t tell her I said that). Check it out by clicking above- it’s definitely worth its weight in gold.  

Tailwind Visual Marketing Suite

2. Facebook

Personal FB page

Your personal FB page will have more reach than your business one especially if people like your posts often. Take advantage of this and share your posts on your personal FB occasionally. If you publish more than one post a week space out your posts unless people interact a lot with them.

When posting, try and pull an excerpt from the post and then leave it trailing just a bit. This peaks your reader’s curiosity and encourage them to click through.

Business FB Page

This is one you can do consistently but don’t expect much from it. The Facebook algorithm puts page posts at the bottom of the feed.

However, you still want to set up a business Facebook page and make sharing your posts a habit. It’s like having your product at Walmart- some companies don’t even profit by having their products there because the prices are so low but they can’t afford to not have their product there- it looks bad. Have a FB page but don’t put much effort into it unless you plan on doing paid advertisements.

Your Group FB Page

Starting a FB group is the best way to get organic reach on FB- especially if your FB group is well engaged and followers interact with each other.  Share your best posts and you’ll see a nice little spike in traffic.

Don’t worry about having a small group at the beginning. Small means a more personal experience for your early readers so take advantage of it and try and provide as much value as possible for your first followers which is what I try to do on my Private Facebook page. 

My followers get to ask questions and receive personal responses from me. I also try to address their questions in my Facebook Lives as well. 

Other On-Topic FB Groups

Join a few FB groups and spend some time getting to know the other followers. Answer their questions and try to be helpful. After a bit you can start posting your links in response to questiosn with something like “This article is great for helping with xyz.”

FB Group Promo Threads

Most blogging groups will have a daily or weekly thread where you can share your posts. Get involved and start sharing. This is best for new bloggers- once you have a steady flow of traffic I would use your time doing other traffic-boosting activities.

Create an Ad

FB ads are great for reaching target audiences. You can specify sex, age, location, and other interest to make sure the ad gets in front of the right people.

3. Twitter

Twitter is a great way to grow a following because when you tweet and tag someone their following can see it. Find bloggers in your niche, share quotes from their articles, tag them, and drop a post link of your own. If you get lucky, they may share it.

You can also increase your reach using Twitter by:

  • Tweeting new posts with a quote from it in the heading
  • Add your blog website link in your Twitter profile
  • Set up an auto Direct Message for new followers telling them the benefits to checking out your page
  • Participate in FB Group re-tweet threads.
  • Do a search and see if anyone is asking questions about your topic. Answer them and link them to a post that can help them out.

4. Your Email List

The people on your email list chose to subscribe so don’t forget to share posts with them.  When you email them, dig posts out of your archive to share along with new ones. If you can, try and relate them to what you’re currently emailing about but you can also just add a P.S. at the bottom of your email (which is often read the most) and encourage readers to read an older post.

Just because your subscribers have seen a few posts doesn’t mean they’ve seen all your posts so don’t be shy about sharing them.

Need an email service? ConvertKit is the gold standard for bloggers looking for a professional email service. 

ConvertKit

6. Google Plus

Google tries to have their hand in every jar but has kind of bombed in the social sharing platform. I still suggest you post here though.

Why?  

Because it’s owned by Google and Google likes to share content on Google. Posting to Google + is a great way to give your posts a slight edge in Google search results because it’s shared on their platform. It’s simple to do and is definitely worth the minute out of your day to post if it makes Google happy.

5. Medium

You can st up a free Medium account and start sharing your posts in just a few minutes. Medium is pretty easy to figure out but if you need help their Q&A section will walk you through it.

The trick to getting traffic back to your post on Medium is to only share part of your post and then encourage readers to click to your page to read the rest. If you publish the entire article readers will have no incentive to click over.

Since Medium isn’t used as much as other platforms (but still has plenty of traffic) it can be a lot easier to gain momentum.

7. Quora

I love Quora.  You don’t have to guess what your audience is thinking or what they need to know. They tell you in the form of a question.

Not only are you helping them by answering their questions but you can come up with great future blog content as well.

Don’t be shy when it comes to answering questions either. If you don’t have an article ready in answer to their question, answer their question then say something like“this is something I really think my readers would enjoy reading about. Your question has inspired me to do a post about it. Subscribe to my blog and I’ll make sure to mention this post came to me from our conversation.”

You’re practically guaranteed a new subscriber because who doesn’t like having their ego stroked and seeing themselves mentioned in print?

8. Stumbleupon (soon to be Mix)

Steumbleupon (soon to be Mix) is a platform where you can submit your content. People browse through and if they like what they see it gets shared which puts it in front of other people. It’s a quick domino effect and can result in quite a few hits in one day (or week) if a post goes viral.

Stumbleupon seemed to be a little tricky to navigate but Mix seems more user friendly and it is on my To-Do List to see just how much traffic I can gain from it. 

9. Bloglovin'

Bloglovin is a bit different than other platforms because it is specifically for bloggers by bloggers. You can save your favorite blogs and share them.

The best part of Bloglovin is the chance for another blogger to share your link in their blog. This can result in excellent traffic from people who are most likely your ideal readers and a backlink for your blog which is great for increasing your Domain Authority (how reliable and informative your blog is) in the eyes of google.

Traffic Traffic Everywhere

Driving traffic can be one of the hardest parts of having a blog. Even though I have listed several different platforms here, your best bet is to focus on learning one at a time and then automate what you can.

Traffic takes time but it can be done. Choose a platform, promote your content, be consistent, and you’ll see steady growth for your blog.

Need help with other parts of blogging and networking? Come join my Private Facebook Group and interact with other bloggers and submit your questions to my Facebook Live to get real answers directly from a real person!

19 Pinterest Tips to Skyrocket Your Views (Directly from a Pinterest Rep)

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19 Pinterest Tips to

Skyrocket Your Pageviews

(Directly from a Pinterest Rep)

I don’t know about you but my relationship with Pinterest is a bit of a love/hate one. I love it when it works but hate it when my views drop for no reason or it’s being glitchy. The bad part? There’ no amount of Pinterest tips which can help that part of using Pinterest. We just have to put up with it.

I wanted to pull my hair out recently when, after two months of steady growth going from 13k views per month to 306k views per month, my pageviews completely stalled. What the frick???

Then I realized they hadn’t stalled and had actually jumped to 401k* but my front page analytics just weren’t showing it. Woohoo!!

*Wondering how I grew my Pinterest views so fast? I have taken a lot of Pinterest courses (more than I care to admit) but the most valuable were:
– ‘Pinteresting Strategies: How I Went from 0-200K Page Views with Manual Pinning‘- an eBook by Mommy on Purpose’s Carly Campbell.  
– The ‘Simple Pin Master Course‘ by Kate Ahl from Simple Pin Media. This is great for intermediate bloggers and Pinterest users.
– Pinterest Improvement Master Plan (aka PIMP) by Jennifer of PotPie Girl. This is best or Pinterest users with a large reach who have been unable to grow further for awhile.

See what Pinterest puts me through though? I don’t need this aggravation- I have kids for that.

But… I actually do need them because they are the best source of traffic for a blogger. Great…

Of course, the best thing to do would be to chill and go with the flow but thanks to Tailwind I have something even better. Pinterest tips and advice from Pinterest themselves.

You read that right- Tailwind was able to get the ever-so-elusive Pinterest on Facebook Live. They answered tons of questions and gave lots of tips. Score!

The Facebook live video is almost an hour and a half though. Don’t have an hour and a half? No worries. You can read through the tips below and and apply them to your account to start upping your Pinterest game today.

19 Tips to Help You Rock Pinterest

Profiles & Boards

TIP 1. DON’T WORRY ABOUT BOARD COVERS

Board covers don’t matter to Pinterest. Many articles suggest to do them to help with branding but I also know several other popular pinners who get millions of views a month who have never bothered with them. If you haven’t set them don’t waste your time on them.

If you really want to create a branded look, create pins with your brand colors then set them as your new Pinterest header.

TIP 2. YOU CAN HAVE BOARDS OUTSIDE OF YOUR NICHE

People like to follow people. Not brands. Pinterest won’t punish you for having a few boards outside of your niche just don’t go crazy. You want to make sure the majority of your boards relate to your niche.

Keywords

Tip 3: Keywords are King

The most important part of your pin are your keywords. Include what your pin is about and words your readers may be using to search for it. 

You also want to add keywords to your Pinterest profile, board titles, and board descriptions.

Need help finding keywords? Pinterest will actually help you with this. Do a broad search for the term you are trying to keyword and then use the tiles below that come up. Those are actual keywords people are searching for.

Pinterest related keyword tiles

TIP 4. MATCH YOUR PIN DESCRIPTION TO YOUR BLOG CONTENT

Here are those pesky keywords again. Pinterest is working hard to stop stolen pins and one of their best defenses in ensure the content on your blog matches the pin description. This will naturally happen if you are using the same keywords on Pinterest and on your blog posts.

TIP 5. BE THE FIRST TO SAVE A NEW PIN

Pinterest assigns a subject and keywords to a pin based on the board it was pinned to first. You need pin a new pin first to ensure it’s on a well keyworded, relevant board first.

How and When to Pin

TIP 6. SCHEDULERS ARE YOUR FRIEND

I’m not going to lie- this one was a bit of a surprise to me. I would’ve sworn up and down manual pinning gave my account an edge but Pinterest doesn’t give priority (or penalize) whether you manually pin or use a scheduler.

The two most popular schedulers are Tailwind and BoardBooster. I personally use BoardBooster only because I took Affiliate Marketing for Bloggers which walked me through how to set it up step by step. It’s a great course if you’re interested in learning the ins and outs of affiliate marketing but it’s only opens a couple of times a year. The Affiliate Marketing for Bloggers eBook is amazing as well. 

On a side note: I plan to start using Tailwind because I am hearing great things about Tailwind Tribes boosting traffic. Anyone can join a Tribe even if you don’t use Tailwind. 

Both BoardBooster and Tailwind come with free trials if you want to check them out.

TIP 7. PIN CONSISTENTLY

I have read a few articles that suggest you pin between 30-50 pins a day but not more than 50 because Pinterest will stop showing your pins. This is completely false. There is no such thing as pinning too much.

However, consistency is more important than volume. It’s better to pin 15 pins a day 6-7 days a week than 100 pins once a week.

TIP 8. THE FIRST 5 PINS OF THE DAY ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT

The first 5 pins of the day after 8pm EST/5pm PST are the most important so make them count by pinning your own stuff first. They are important because your followers will see those pins first when they jump on Pinterest.

If you don’t have enough content to pin daily then make sure to pin pins your followers will like. The more they repin your pins the more likely your boards will show up as ‘suggested’ on Pinterest.

TIP 9. PIN YOUR STUFF MORE

There is no magic number for how much you pin your own stuff versus how much you pin others so pin your own stuff as much as you want. Just make sure to pin a few pins each day. Consistency is the name of the game.

Pin Creation

TIP 10. USE THE RIGHT PIN SIZEs

Pinterest recommends a ratio of 2:3 (600 x 900 is optimal). Anything greater than 600 x 1260 will get cut off so don’t bother going too crazy or long with infographics.

TIP 11. LIMIT TEXT ON IMAGES

So, I am taking this one with a grain of salt. Pinterest suggests limiting text on images but my most popular pins have had in your face ugly text that is easy to read on mobile. Your pin may be easier for Pinterest to “see” if there is less text in the way but people will probably click on it less. Choose your poison.

TIP 12. MAKE YOUR PINS MATCH YOUR CONTENT

Pinterest uses Lens for visual search and photos on pins help Pinterest to group similar pins together. Try and use a picture on your pin that matches your content.

Followers & Reach

TIP 13. USE a Social Sharing App Like MILOTREE

Add Milotree to your website and following you is super easy. All someone has to do is click on ‘Follow’ to go directly to your Pinterest page.

TIP 14. ENGAGE NEW FOLLOWERS BY CUSTOMIZING THE PINS ON YOUR HEADER

Your new profile has a dynamic header that lets you highlight the content you want your followers to see first. This is a great place to show off your pins. 

Consistent branding on your pins is a great way to make your pins stand out here. 

TIP 15. USE YOUR PIN CODE

Pincodes can be created for your boards or your profile on either your desktop browser or the Pinterest app. Save the Pincode to your camera roll or computer and share it so people can find you and your ideas on Pinterest.

To create a Pincode for your profile, tap on your profile image to see your profile Pincode.

To generate a Pincode for your boards while using a desktop browser, click on the three dots above your board name and select “Create Pincode”. On the Pinterest App, generate a Pincode for your boards by tapping on the board share button.

Pinterest pin code creation for group board
Pinterest pin code creation for group board

TIP 16. MAKE HASHTAGS WORK FOR YOU

Hashtags are only meant for new content on Pinterest and get more distribution the day they are pinned. Don’t waste your time going back and adding hashtags to old pins.

Hashtags can be placed within a pin description or or at the end of a pin description

TIP 17. NEW CONTENT GETS PRIORITY

Pinterest distributes new pins to followers first to see which pins get engagement. The pins with the highest engagement get recommended in the home feed, search results, and related pins.

TIP 18. USE THE INFO YOU HAVE

What works will keep working so keep an eye on your analytics and pin more of what your followers like and click on. 

TIP 19. USE a CTA on Your Pin

Using CTA (Call to Action) words like Shop, Find, Click, and Discover increase the chances people will click your pin to read your post.

Using Pinterest to Boost Your Blog Views

Pinterest is an amazing way for bloggers to get more traffic to their blogs and you can’t go wrong when you get Pinterest advice directly from Pinterest themselves.

Use good keywords, pin consistently, and engage with your followers and you will see steady growth on your blog. 

Implement the rest of the tips mentioned above and watch your Pinterest views and page views sky rocket!