Lesson 42 Converting In The Metric System: Fill & Download for Free

It’s difficult to answer your question because your question is two-fold:First, you ask how to generate traffic with 0 marketing budget.Then you expand:My Startup is out of cash and we are 2 days before launch.I don't think we will see any investment coming in next 3 months not even from family members, so we need to start selling quickly.So what is it?Do you need traffic or cash?Before getting into the actionable tips of getting both, I want to clear a few things out of the way.Correlated VS causal metricsIf two metrics change together, they’re correlated.If one metric causes the other to change, they’re causal.If you find a causal relationship between your revenue and something you can control – like your website traffic, then you can change the future.It means that you can start selling more if you get more traffic.Unfortunately, in startups, more traffic doesn’t always mean more revenue because not all traffic is equal.Let me give you an example:At my previous startup HeadReach, we were getting a ton of referral traffic from an article that was ranking for a very generic/seed keyword for our industry – “find an email”.At first, I was ecstatic about our newly acquired traffic channel.But soon we found that this traffic was barely converting and not bringing us any revenue.The traffic was converting at below half a percent.Lifecycle Funnel metricsKnow your Lifecycle Funnel metrics like you know the back of your hand.Traffic means jack if you can’t convert it to paying customers.Wherever I start consulting work for a new startup or a SaaS, the first thing I do is to set up a complete analytics dashboard of their lifecycle customer metrics.First, what is a lifecycle funnel?It’s a framework (or a model) that helps you understand how your business is performing at different stages of your customer journey. From the first customer touchpoint with your startup to the moment they become loyal customers.There are different lifecycle funnels or frameworks.Just to name a few:AARRR - Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, Revenue - Dave McClure’s model from 500 Startups.AIDA - Awareness, Interest, Desire, ActionAIDAS - Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action, SatisfactionAIDASlove - Attention, Interest, Search, Action, Like, Share, LoveTIREA - Thought, Interest, Evaluation, Engagement, ActionREAN - Reach, Engage, Active, NurtureNAITDATSE - Need, Attention, Interest, Trust, Desire, Action, Satisfaction, EvaluationSource: JetBrainsTVDon’t get too worked up about which model you choose to use at your startup.Do this instead:1. Decide on a model fast.2. Understand how the model applies to your specific customer journeyLet’s say you go with AIDA. Your funnel might look like:Attention: Site Visitors (Unique Website Visitors)Interest: TrialsDesire: Demo requestedAction: Purchased a paid plan3. Set up a tracking dashboardUse tools like Google Analytics and Baremetrics to set up a lifecycle metrics dashboard.This is a dashboard I’m currently using for OutreachPlus (one of my SaaS clients).As you can see I’m using a similar model: Activation, Acquisition, Customers.Important: I also track the conversion rates of the funnel:How many people convert from Visitor to TrialHow many people convert from Trial to CustomerAnd the end-to-end conversion rate from Visitor to CustomerGo in Google Analytics -> Admin -> View -> Goals and make sure to set up conversion goals for your startup in order to track the conversion rates above.Then in Acquisition -> All Traffic -> Source/Medium you’d be able to view how each traffic source is performing:Also, Encharge allows you to create insightful customer funnels dashboards in just a few quick steps.Now you can filter the good from the bad traffic. The profitable from the unprofitable traffic and make sure you’re focusing on traffic that leads to revenue.Then and only then you can start thinking about bringing in traffic to your website.Now let’s look into some actionable tactics to get revenue and bring traffic to your site.I’ll start with the tactics that are less likely to bring a lot of traffic to your site, but most likely to generate revenue in the shortest time possible.Once you have some cash on the table, you can invest more of your time on long-term traffic strategies.This means that the tactics on top are also less likely to scale but will bring revenue the fastest.Cold emailingCold emailing or outbound sales is a tactic that will probably bring very little traffic to your site, but it’s very likely to increase your revenue right out off the bat.It will also cost you close to $0.The premise is simple:You find relevant potential customers to contact.You offer them to solve a problem they’re currently facing.You get them on a call.You make your product demo.You close the deal.Most people get this wrong in step one of the process – targeting irrelevant leads at the wrong time.Let me give you an example of a successful outbound campaign for the first version of Encharge.Before becoming a marketing automation software, Encharge was an integration platform – helping other software tools integrate with other tools. Think of it as Zapier for the backend.We prospected companies that have recently integrated with Zapier. In other words, they were experiencing the pain of integrating other apps at this very moment.We reached out to them offering to solve this problem for them.This was the outreach email we used:We received over 42% reply rate and managed to schedule 30+ demo calls within weeks.Offer a service with your productBy far this is the least scalable tactic on the list. But also probably the one that can bring some cash in the bank fast.Think of ways to package your product/tool with personalized one-to-one service.This could be:Paid lessons by the hour – you can teach your customers to be successful with your product by providing private lessons.Premium support – similar to the previous one but one as taxing on your time. Also, not a viable option if you’re just starting out or have few customers.“Done for you” premium service. A lot of SaaS companies offer these as an extension to their product.Examples:Simvoly – a website builder offers custom web designs.Popular proofreading tool Grammarly has a Human Proofreading service accessible at the reach of a button.Monitor social media for mentionsUse Mention - Media Monitoring Made Simple | Influencer Marketing Platform to monitor Twitter, Facebook and other social media networks for mentions of the problem you solve or for people that are looking for a product in your category.Alternatively, you can go to Twitter and Facebook and start prospecting for mentions yourself. Takes some time to find a good nugget but when you do you have a piping hot lead at your disposal.Monitor Slack channels for mentionsSimilar to the tactic above but for Slack.Join as many relevant Slack groups as possible.For each Slack group click on the group's name -> Preferences like that:3. Then click on Notification Settings:4. At the bottom of the notification settings, you will see "Highlight Words':Let's say you're running an email marketing service. You're going to type in "email marketing", "email sequences", "drip campaigns", etc.Every time someone mentions one of these words or phrases in the Slack group you will receive a notification. These are usually people asking questions or interested in your topic. In other words — piping hot leads. All you have to do is DM them. Engage with them, ask them questions, sell them your product.Fund your startup with a lifetime dealLaunch your product on a lifetime deal platform like:AppSumoStackSociaMightyDealslPitchGround.This tactic will bring both a lot of revenue and a lot of traffic to your startup.Lifetime Deals don’t charge anything upfront. However, they get a hefty cut out of the deals sold – between 50 and 75%.These communities have hundreds of thousands of targeted customers. They will bring hordes of startup junkies to your site and help you generate tens of thousands of dollars if not more in revenue.Considering your specific situation, this is probably your best go to revenue tactic.The drawbacks?Since these are lifetime deals, the customer lifetime value of these people would be as big as your lifetime deal – i.e., small.Consider the potential impact of being associated with a “discount” service like this.Pro tip: think of ways to up-sell your lifetime deal customers.Grow on the back of someone else’s email listAlso popular among the marketing community as Joint Venture partnerships.This is when other people with lists send you tons of traffic, and it doesn’t cost you a single dollar upfront. You pay them out of the sales that are generated by that traffic.Jeff Walker, the creator of the Product Launch Formula, stated that he’d added more than 50,000 people to his list in a matter of days using this tactic.Write a big eBook on your topic of expertise and promote itFor my first startup HeadReach, I wrote a 240-page eBook that I packaged with 4 additional bonuses.This was my main lead magnet. A lead magnet is something you use to “bribe” people to leave their email.I promoted the hell out of this book:On RedditFacebook groupsMediumProductHuntThis is the traffic I got to my eBook landing page:Integrate a Viral LoopFor the HeadReach eBook, I used a tool called Gleam: Business Growth Platform.Gleam helps you run giveaways, rewards, and other cool widgets to help you collect more emails.Gleam has “Rewards”.Rewards are a more advanced social payment system.Think “Pay with Tweet” but with more options and flexibility.Viral engines won’t cost you anything apart from the small monthly fee that you’re going to pay for the system.Leverage other outlets’ audiences by republishing your contentRepublishing is the tactic of leveraging existing audiences of other bigger external channels by publishing your best content on them.Think: posting your posts on Medium and Reddit instead of on your personal blog.It’s not a great strategy for long-term gains but works just perfectly for quick traffic peaks. As well as attracting targeted audiences quickly.Launch on ProductHuntProductHunt is a great free community full of early adopters and people willing to spend money on startups.At HeadReach (my first startup) we got some of our first customers from ProductHunt.I joined forces with a few other marketing masterminds and discussed how to launch on ProductHunt in the video below:—There you go!10 tactics to generate website traffic with $0 marketing budget, AND also generate revenue for your startup.For more marketing tactics check out our blog.

I don't know when you will be rich but according to various reports, articles and notable people, here are 365 ways to get rich!#1Sir John Templeton: “Invest at the point of maximum pessimism.”#2Don’t mistake a low P/E ratio for a value stock.#3Benjamin Graham: “Patience is the fund investor’s single most powerful ally.”#4Let your attorneys ride shotgun, but not in the driver’s seat.#5Remember Enron; reduce your employer’s company stock in your 401(k).#6Warren Buffett: “Rule No. 1 is never lose money. Rule No. 2 is never forget Rule No. 1!”#7Fund a Roth IRA if you’re eligible; your money grows tax free for retirement, and in an emergency you can take your contribution back without penalty.#8Barry Sternlicht: Pay attention to the big themes, because they are what will help you earn ten times your money.#9Back a friend or relative’s startup with a convertible loan, so you share in the upside.#10Use commodities as a hedge against inflation.#11Raise the deductibles on your auto and home insurance.#12Form family limited partnerships to transfer assets at a tax discount.#13Beat death taxes in 20 states by making big gifts while you’re alive.#14For simple federal tax-free wealth transfer, make $14,000 annual gifts to children and grandchildren. It won’t cut into your $5.25 million lifetime exemption from gift and estate taxes.#15Get tax advice before settling a lawsuit.#16Read Reminiscences of a Stock Operator by Edwin LeFèvre.#17To keep peace with both relatives and the IRS, document all family loans.#18Peter Lynch: “Never invest in any idea you can’t illustrate with a crayon.”#19View collecting as a hobby first and investment second; psychic returns can make up for a lower average return than in stocks.#20Add a personal items floater to your homeowner’s insurance to cover collectibles.#21When the bear charges, stand your ground.#22For protection from inflation and currency devaluation, buy the “gold you can eat”—farmland.#23Know your risk tolerance. Pick an asset allocation that lets you sleep at night, so you won’t panic and sell stocks at the bottom.#24Don’t keep too much in cash equivalents—over time, this “safe” investment barely keeps up with inflation.#25After setting an asset allocation, rebalance yearly; it forces you to take profits when stocks have surged and to buy more shares when they’re cheap.#26Benjamin Graham: “Adopt simple rules and stick to them.”#27Buy Bitcoin as a speculation or political statement, not a hedge.#28Be a tax-smart investor. Hold taxable bonds in a 401(k) or IRA. Put individual stocks in taxable accounts so you can sell losers to harvest tax losses.#29Pay attention to the IRS’ wash sale rule when harvesting capital losses.#30Don’t invest in a hedge fund unless its audited results are reported in compliance with Global Investment Performance Standards.#31Build an emergency fund outside your 401(k).#32For the biggest tax break when donating collectibles to charity, make sure they’ll be displayed and not sold.#33Put alternative investments like real estate (but never collectibles) in your IRA.#34Burton Malkiel: “All index funds are not created equal. Some have unconscionably high expenses.”#35Keep an eye on—but don’t obsess over—mutual fund fees and expenses.#36Even committed indexers should use actively managed funds to buy municipal and high-yield bonds and value stocks.#37Yield is nice, but total return is the metric that matters.#38Gold is overrated as an inflation hedge—historically, its price moves are unrelated to inflation.#39For inflation protection, buy floating-rate corporate bonds.#40Don’t let the mood swings of Mr. Market coax you into speculating.#41Beware affinity fraud; find God, not hot investments, at your church, synagogue or mosque.#42Sir John Templeton: “The four most dangerous words in investing are: ‘this time it’s different.’”#43Don’t put more than you can afford to lose into a crowdfunded deal; startups are always risky, and the new JOBS Act reduces both paperwork and investor protection.#44Don’t underrate the importance of liquidity.#45Use Quicken or a Web service to track all your finances and see your big picture.#46Use different passwords for each of your online financial accounts; add optional security questions whose answers can’t be found in your Facebook or LinkedIn profiles.#47Write down your passwords and hide them; tell one person where they are.#48Don’t fight demographics—allocate a portion of your portfolio to health care and biotech stocks.#49Diversify globally to boost your portfolio’s risk-adjusted performance.#50Benjamin Graham: “Speculation is neither illegal, immoral nor (for most people) fattening tothe pocketbook.”#51Cash in on companies with stealth dividends—meaning stock buybacks.#52Diversify, but don’t overdo it.#53Set investing rules for yourself that block impulsive decisions.#54Look beneath a fund’s name, with Morningstar’s Style Box and X-ray.#55Use software to track your asset allocation.#56Ask for a “brokerage window” in your 401(k)—an opening that allows you to invest in any mutual fund and even individual stocks.#57Bond laddering is good, but diversifying your income investments is important, too.#58Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) offer protection from inflation—not from rising interest rates.#59John Bogle: “Time is your friend. Impulse is your enemy.”#60Use salary increases to boost contributions to your 401(k).#62Defy conventional wisdom and increase your stock allocation after retirement.#63To make money in small-cap stocks, look for novel business methods and niches, not the next blockbuster drug.#64Don’t abdicate investment decisions to your spouse.#65Be suspicious—and investigate further—when a corporation changes its auditors.#66Carry a $2 million or bigger umbrella insurance policy to protect your wealth from liability suits.#67Warren Buffett: “Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful.”#68Invest to meet goals, not to beat indexes.#69Clarify your own objectives by writing an Investment Policy Statement.#70When you get restricted stock in a startup, make an 83(b) election; if the company takes off, you’ll save big on taxes.#71Consider your marriage tax penalty (or bonus) before setting a wedding date.#72Aim to have five times your salary in your 401(k) and IRAs by age 55 and eight times before you retire.#73Dan Ariely: “If you can’t save money, be really nice to your kids.”#74Put peer-to-peer loans in your portfolio using sites like The Leader in Peer to Peer Lending: Loans and Investing for monthly cash flow and yields of from 7% to 9%.#75Peter Lynch: “Go for a business that any idiot can run—because sooner or later, any idiot is probably going to run it.”#76Never take on a mortgage just for the tax deduction.#77Keep no more than $250,000 in any one bank.#78Buy an index fund weighted to fundamentals.#79Remain anonymous after winning the Powerball jackpot.#80Work for a charity for ten years and get your federal student debt forgiven.#81Beware personal finance gurus pitching products.#82The most successful investors spend many hours at it each day and have passion and patience. There are no shortcuts.#83Warren Buffett: “Diversification is protection against ignorance.”#84Like Captain Kirk, have advisors from different planets.#85Before funding college accounts make sure you’re saving enough in your retirement accounts.#86To avoid a tax penalty, tap IRAs, not 401(k)s, to pay college tuition.#87Borrow from grandma at 4% for grad school; Uncle Sam’s Graduate Plus loans go for 6.41%.#88Marry a billionaire, or perhaps even more rewarding, divorce one.#89When buying a luxury condo, ignore superfluous amenities like massage rooms and pet spas; they won’t contribute to resale value.#90Add commercial real estate to your portfolio.#91Wait for inflation to rise before buying TIPS.#92Howard Marks: “Rule number one: Most things will prove to be cyclical. Rule number two: Some of the greatest opportunities for gain and loss come when other people forget rule number one.”#93Before remarriage, discuss estate plans.#94Track gambling losses to offset taxable gambling winnings.#95Confess any tax crimes to a lawyer, not a CPA.#96Deduct your yacht loan as mortgage interest on a second home.#97Don’t do deals between yourself and your own IRA.#98Don’t roll your old 401(k) into an IRA if you might face a lawsuit.#99When creating a trust or family limited partnership for asset protection, don’t give it your own name or one obviously identified with you.#100Profit from stock market volatility: Buy into a VIX futures fund and use wild, seemingly irrational swings as buying opportunities.#101Gary Shilling: “The market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent.”#102Beware dividend traps—fat payouts supported by declining cash flow.#103Bet against weak currencies, like George Soros.#104Back up your financial records using a secure cloud service.#105Before investing in your own state’s 529, compare its fees and tax breaks to New York’s rock-bottom cost plan.#106Buy liens on homes of real estate tax deadbeats.#107Know thyself: Read books like Dan Ariely’s Predictably Irrational and Your Money & Your Brain by Jason Zweig.#108Learn a lesson from each stock-picking mistake.#109Julian Robertson: “Buy into forgotten markets.”#110Join an angel investing club.#111Keep your own entrepreneurial options open by refusing to sign onerous noncompete agreements.#112Buy stocks of companies still controlled by their billionaire founders.#113Leon Black: Do your homework, but still don’t bet the ranch.#114Louis Bacon: “As a speculator you must embrace disorder and chaos.”#115Almost all great value investors look for market anomalies or disconnects that they can exploit.#116Warren Buffett: “Big opportunities come infrequently. When it’s raining gold, reach for a bucket, not a thimble.”#117Always keep some investment powder dry.#118Allocate investments against your life risks.#119Andrew Tobias: “A penny saved is two (pretax) pennies earned.”#120Deduct losses from your sideline/hobby by bunching your expenses and showing a small profit in 3 of 5 years.#121Postpone real estate gains tax with a 1031 exchange.#122Qualify as a “real estate professional” to save big on taxes.#123Be leery of investments sold for tax savings.#124Burton Malkiel: “Start saving now, not later: Time is money.”#125Before making a big discretionary purchase, calculate future cost—what the dollars you’re spending could grow to if invested for 20 or 30 years.#126Read How to Make Money in Stocks by William J. O’Neil.#127Buy designer goods at consignment shops; when you get bored with them, sell for a profit on eBay.#128Discuss any prenuptial agreement way in advance of your wedding.#129Hell hath no fury. Never cheat on your taxes and your spouse at the same time—exes are a big source of IRS leads.#130Don’t buy a large amount of a thinly traded stock all at once.#131Buy and hold at your own risk.#133Don’t be afraid to buy into strength.#134It’s okay to chase performance—sometimes.#135Burton Malkiel: “In the stock market, past is not prologue.”#136Start a 529 college savings plan for yourself before you have children. If you don’t use it for graduate school, transfer it to your kid.#137Make your kid rich by helping him fund a Roth IRA.#138Deplete Junior’s UTMA—you can spend it on a laptop, camps, private school and tutoring—before applying for college financial aid.#139Reduce your student loan interest rate with auto debit.#140Julian Robertson: Suggest your kid take an accounting course—“It was the course that helped me more than anything.”#141Robert Shiller: “If you want to get rich, go into finance or a related field. Finance is the technology for making things happen.”#142Identify companies that gouge you yet keep your business. Buy them.#143Buy stocks like socks—good quality on sale.#144Buy into big ideas just like a global macro hedge fund for as little as $1,000 to start.#145Use limit orders when buying small-company stocks with low trading volume.#146Don’t leave it all in the dollar. Invest globally for currency diversification.#147Dollar-cost average the whole stock market.#148Buy companies with high ratios of gross profits-to-total assets.#149John Neff: “Buy on the cannons and sell on the trumpets.”#150Monitor your individual stocks; set a Google news alert and watch for signs of possible trouble.#151Bone up on “risk parity” diversification.#152Always know how a financial advisor is getting paid and what if any commissions she’ll earn.#153Watch out for paid shills at investment seminars.#154Ken Fisher: “You know who didn’t have bad years? Bernard Madoff—until he got caught.”#155Buy a retirement annuity cheap by delaying Social Security until 70.#156If you need to tap retirement cash early, study up on the exceptions that let you avoid a 10% penalty, including taking “substantially equal periodic payments.”#157Burton Malkiel: “Tune out the financial TV channels. Watch the cooking channel or the gardening channel if you want useful advice.”#158Warren Buffett: “Returns decrease as motion increases.’’#159Ron Baron: “Don’t waste your time short-selling. Show me the short-sellers’ yachts.”#160If you earn too much to contribute to a Roth IRA, fund a nondeductible IRA and convert it.#161If divorcing, get a “QDRO” from the court that allows you to split retirement assets without owing immediate tax.#162Claim the American Opportunity Tax Credit for your kid’s college—if you’re eligible.#163Don’t make multiple $9,900 bank deposits—the government might seize your money and keep it on the grounds you’re trying to skirt anti-money-laundering laws.#164Do a bond fund swap to harvest tax losses.#165Gain funding—and a market—on Kickstarter.#166Barry Ritholtz: “Never confuse investing with trading.”#167Don’t let the tax tail wag the investment dog.#168Hold illiquid assets in a Roth IRA, not a regular IRA.#169Be like Peter Thiel and put hot startup stock in a Roth IRA to make all gains tax free.#170Learn about your fiancé’s debts, before you walk down the aisle.#171Beware high-yield investments pitched as being like a bank CD.#172Watch out for stock hoaxes on Twitter.#173Be leery of pitches involving a self-directed IRA.#174Benjamin Graham: “It is absurd to think that the general public can ever make money out of market forecasts. For who will buy when the general public, at a given signal, rushes to sell out at a profit?”#175Avoid sudden lifestyle changes after a windfall.#176Automatically divert money from your paycheck into savings to the point where it hurts.#177Retire to a place without state estate or inheritance taxes.#178Benefit from 20/20 stock market hindsight by reversing a Roth conversion if stocks tank.#179Donald Trump: “Sometimes your best investments are the ones you don’t make.”#180Ben Stein: Don’t move into a neighborhood of poverty. Avoid any situation that could leave you with too much unsecured debt.#181Get an entrepreneur mentor from SCORE, an organization of retired business folks.#182Tap your ethnic community for business funding.#183To get the best effort and thinking from employees in your startup, give them stock options.#184Like Spanx’s Sara Blakely, solve an irritating problem.#185Larry Page: “It is often easier to make progress on mega-ambitious dreams. …Since no one else is crazy enough to do it, you have little competition.”#186Don’t blindly rely on a target date fund in your 401(k).#187Don’t let your advisor manage you.#188Don’t rely on regulators to protect you from financial fraud.#189Warren Buffett: “What is smart at one price is dumb at another.”#190With large-cap stocks, focus more on cash flow than earnings.#191Strong stocks tend to stay that way. Buy high and sell higher.#192Don’t let family wealth become a curse on your children.#193Start your kid at the bottom of your business.#194Read Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits by Philip A. Fisher.#195Buy a gift annuity from your alma mater.#196John Neff: “When you feel like bragging, it’s probably time to sell.”#197Mine your closet for eBay gold.#198Mine your network for investment ideas.#199Warren Buffett: “The risks of being out of the game are huge compared to the risks of being in it.”#200Sell put options like Warren Buffett does.#201Buy stocks when a magazine cover declares “The Death of Equities.”#202Don’t count on an inheritance. If you get one, don’t blow it.#203Leon Cooperman: “Getting rich takes hard work, a passion for what you do and luck.”#204If you win the Powerball jackpot, hire a tax advisor before making any decisions.#205Hunt down pensions from old employers.#206If you’re 50 or older, with substantial self-employment income, use a custom-designed defined benefit plan to shelter $100,000 a year or more from tax.#207Max out your 401(k) contributions: In 2014 you can contribute $17,500, or $23,000 if you’re 50-plus.#208If your marriage is shaky, make a copy of all financial documents.#209If your spouse is shady, file separate tax returns.#210Burton Malkiel: “Never buy anything from someone who is out of breath.”#211Know when to fire your financial advisor.#212Be skeptical of “principal protected” products—ask how much is guaranteed and at what cost.#213Be wary of companies that have gone public in reverse mergers.#214Low-priced stocks aren’t necessarily cheap.#215Make sure a stock’s dividends are less than its cash flow and likely to remain that way.#216Warren Buffett: “Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.”#217Beware unlisted REITs.#218Save remodeling receipts to add to your home’s basis and cut gains taxes when you sell.#219Buy no more house than you can afford.#220Don’t accept a high property tax assessment of your home—you can appeal andtalk it down.#221Don’t assume you should buy a house. Start by calculating rent-versus-buy costs for homes in your market.#222If you have no time for complexity, diversify your portfolio with just three mutual funds.#223Buy a deferred fixed annuity to make sure you don’t outlive your money.#224Build your own ersatz retirement annuity with savings bonds.#225Boost income with closed-end, covered call funds.#226Burton Malkiel: “Trust in time, rather than timing.”#227Delay retirement as long as you can.#228But don’t assume in your planning that you can work full-time until 70.#229Compare insurance costs before choosing a new car model.#230Then go shopping for that model at month’s end.#231To save even more, don’t own a car, share one.#232Hold actively managed mutual funds—the kind that pass on the most-short-term gains—in tax-deferred retirement accounts.#233Hold real estate in your IRA—but carefully.#234Don’t let the groupthink of investment clubs cloud rational investment analysis.#235Warren Buffett: “Diversification is a protection against ignorance.”#236Follow top money-manager moves. Even the great investors piggyback on other smart investors.#237David Dreman: “The time to buy is when there’s blood on the streets.”#238Beware superstar CEOs with weak boards.#239Compare benefits (including options) before switching jobs.#240Find out how your 401(k) rates at Financial Planning Advice, Find a Financial Advisor, and 401k Plan Ratings | BrightScope; if expenses are high or fund choices poor, lobby for a better plan.#241Don’t give Uncle Sam an interest-free loan; adjust your withholding so you don’t overpay your taxes.#242Even if you can’t pay, file your tax return.#243Take a cue from Mark Zuckerberg: Get maximum tax savings for your charitable buck by giving appreciated assets to a donor-advised fund or supporting organization.#244Read Market Wizards and The New Market Wizards by Jack D. Schwager.#245Warren Buffett: “Time is the friend of the wonderful business, the enemy of the mediocre.”#246Don’t chase yesterday’s winners unless they’re still winning.#247Purchase “own occupation” disability insurance.#248Remember that market underperformance—just like costs—compounds.#249Ramit Sethi: Set up systems to automate desired behaviors. Leave your gym clothes at the foot of your bed. Have contributions to savings automatically deducted.#250Open a spousal IRA for a stay-at-home husband or wife.#251If you work from home, get a rider on your homeowner’s insurance policy to protect you if the FedEx man slips.#252To maximize college aid, make Roth 401(k) contributions, not pretax ones, while your kids are in college.#253Like Warren Buffett, make concentrated bets in stocks that you have high confidence in.#254Live dangerously; invest your emergency fund instead of keeping it in cash.#255Barry Sternlicht: Study outliers rather than eliminate them. You can learn everything thereis to know about the industry or the player from the company that is performing better or worse.#256Don’t wait until expiration. Always look to buy back cheap options.#257Most stock market gains since 1950 have occurred in the November-Aprilperiod.#258Over the long run, small-cap stocks have outperformed big blue chips.#259Take only calculated risks on the smallest Pink Sheet stocks.#260Move inherited IRAs from trustee to trustee only.#261Name primary and contingent IRA beneficiaries so your heirs can enjoy the maximum years of tax deferral.#262Maximize your Social Security using a couples claiming strategy.#263Open all mail from the IRS.#264Don’t cheat the IRS and your business partner at the same time.#265Never ignore a 1099, even if it’s wrong—the IRS won’t.#266Don’t lie to your tax pro.#267After you hit 70, take the required minimum distributions (RMD) each year from your traditional IRAs or face near-confiscatory tax penalties.#268If you don’t need your RMD, consider rolling it directly to a charity.#269Sign a living will, health care proxy and power of attorney, even if you’re still healthy.#270Get a will. What happens to property if someone dies without one (intestate) varies by state and might not be what you would want.#272Warren Buffett: “No matter how serene today may be, tomorrow is always uncertain.”#273Insure your home for its replacement value; buy flood insurance if there’s a risk of water damage.#274Scan in your tax records, and keep a copy on the cloud or on an external drive at work; fires and floods happen.#275Keep business and personal expenses separate.#276Maintain at least some financial accounts separate from your spouse’s.#277Peter Lynch: “Know what you own and know why you own it.”#278Have your kid read The Little Book That Beats the Market by Joel Greenblatt.#279Don’t fall for cheap stocks that are really worth even less.#280Read the classic Where Are the Customers’ Yachts? by Fred Schwed Jr.#281Run from a pitchman “guaranteeing” high returns.#282Benjamin Graham: Speculate only with a separate small portion of your capital.#283Snitch on tax cheats and collect a multimillion-dollar IRS whistle-blower award.#284Learn what behavioral economists have found about self-destructive investor behavior—so you can try to avoid these common and expensive mistakes.#285Understand the risks of using leverage and inverse ETFs, which rebalance assets daily.#286Benjamin Graham: “Every nonprofessional who operates on margin … is ipso facto speculating.”#287Register for Medicare at 65, even if you’re still covered by your workplace insurance, to avoid having to pay a penalty later.#288Rob Arnott: “No strategy can make up for inadequate savings or premature retirement.”#289Start saving for retirement in your 20s to put the compounding winds at your back.#290Use the Rule of 72: Divide your expected percentage return into 72 to figure how long it will take you to double your money.#291Never sell a stock that keeps on rising in price.#292Warren Buffett: “When we own portions of outstanding businesses with outstanding managements, our favorite holding period is forever.”#293Ben Franklin: “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”#294Use ETFs to be your own international fund manager.#295Don’t try to impose your ego on the market.#296Set up 10% trailing stop-loss orders to avoid unexpected nosedives in your portfolio.#297Barry Sternlicht: You have to be willing to change your mind. If you are a stubborn mule, you’ll get killed.#298Read Warren Buffett’s favorite book, Benjamin Graham’s Intelligent Investor.#299Be a vulture investor: Buy distressed bonds at pennies on the dollar like Marty Whitman and David Tepper.#300Pay attention to moving averages. When the 20- or 50-day average crosses below the 200-day average it’s bearish.#301Monitor the level of fear in the market with the CBOE put/call ratio and theVIX.#302Get tax help if you’ve got incentive stock options—they carry tax benefits but also a nasty alternative minimum tax trap.#303Pay public school tuition for your overachieving teen by getting steep discounts at great private colleges.#304Don’t treat your 401(k) as a piggy bank; you’ll regret it come retirement.#305Read Money Masters of Our Time by John Train.#306Never buy anything from a cold-calling broker.#307Be alert for the signs that a bubble is forming.#308Use sentiment indicators as contrarian tools.#309Don’t confuse correlation with causation in markets.#310Small-cap stocks with lower price-to-book values tend to outperform.#311Tap an IRA—not a 401(k)—without penalty for a first-time home purchase.#312Leave the dollars in a Health Savings Account growing tax free for retirement while you cover medical deductibles and copays from your current income.#313Use a “flight path” approach to asset allocation, raising your exposure to stocks as you become a more confident investor.#314Know your sell rules before you buy.#315Read letters of great investors such as Warren Buffett and Jeremy Grantham online.#316Become an online stock researcher.#317Beware of asset protection scams.#318When stuck paying AMT, accelerate some income.#319Rent out your vacation home for two weeks a year, tax free.#320Most people don’t need a whole life policy; buy a 20-year level-premium life insurance policy before your first child is born.#321Warren Buffett: “You only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out.”#322Save $40,000 or more by sending your overachiever to community college and then have her transfer to a top public university or the Ivy League.#323Save on a master’s—for yourself or kids—by earning it in Britain in one year.#324Have your eldest child take a gap year before college so that more than one child is in school at the same time—you’ll get more financial aid.#325Rothify—Roth conversions make sense in more cases than most people realize.#326Time 401(k) contributions to make sure you grab your full employer match.#327Factor your individual health and life expectancy into your decision on when to take Social Security.#328Use an online calculator to help you determine the best strategy to maximize your Social Security benefits.#329Put junk bond funds in tax-deferred accounts.#330If your spouse dies, file an estate tax return to preserve his $5.25 million estate/gift tax exemption (rising to $5.34 million in 2014) for your own use later.#331Buy master limited partnerships late in life to avoid their tax drawbacks.#332Only buy closed-end funds trading at discounts to net asset value.#333Invest in businesses with sustainable competitive advantages.#334Don’t fight the tape.#335Remember, three out of four stocks follow the market’s overall trend.#337Spend 25% less than you make—it will give you flexibility to pursue the big opportunity.#338Bruce Greenwald: To get really rich, copy the hedge fund, private equity and VC masters and “get your hands on somebody else’s money.”#339Warren Buffett: “Investors should remember that excitement and expenses are their enemies.”#340Watch out for high fees hidden in some tax-sheltered products like 529s and variable annuities.#341Protect your assets before there’s a claim against you; after-the-fact moves can backfire.#342Check your advisor’s ADV at www.sec.gov.#343Remember Bernie Madoff: Make sure your investment advisor keeps your money in an account with an independent custodian.#344Gary Shilling: Don’t try to reinvent the wheel. Instead, intelligently and efficiently apply what is already well known.#345Warren Buffett: “You don’t have to make money back the same way you lost it.”#346When selling a business, plan ahead and you may be able to save big on tax.#347Retire to a place where jobs are plentiful.#348Factor taxes into your retirement income strategy.#349Take $500,000 per couple in gains on the sale of your home, tax free.#350Don’t be afraid to deduct a legitimate home office—you can now claim up to $1,500 a year, with minimal recordkeeping.#351Review the assumptions an ex-employer has made in calculating your pension. Mistakes aren’t unusual.#352Keep 5% of your portfolio in gold.#353Own gold through ETFs like GLD.#354When pundits declare the death of “buy-and-hold” it could well be the sign of a market bottom.#355Warren Buffett: “It’s optimism that is the enemy of the rational buyer.”#356Burton Malkiel: “ ‘Efficient markets’ does not mean that the price of every security at every moment in time is correct.”#357Look for undiscovered stocks with market caps between $1 billion and $10 billion.#358Understand how the businesses you invest in make money.#359If the short sellers are swarming around your stock, investigate the bears’ thesis.#360When company insiders buy, you should, too.#361Benjamin Graham: Those who want “freedom from concern” must accept lower returns.#362Warren Buffett: It is “far better to buy a wonderful business at a fair price than to buy a fair business at a wonderful price.”#363Burton Malkiel: “Avoid the temptation to follow the herd.”#364Steve Jobs: “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”#365Plan.I hope this helps.

1. Write Useful Content (aka Create Content That Answers Questions)It sounds obvious, but most SEO-focused content boils down to this:Answer a question that a lot of people are asking online, that isn’t being answered well.If you have a question, what’s the first thing you are likely to do? You Google it.It can be literally anything. From what is a meme, to where the best place to live is to why were cornflakes invented:Examples of questions people search on Google2. Write Evergreen ContentEvergreen content is content that will continue to be relevant way after it’s been published.It can include things like:Types of evergreen content (Image source: Keyword Research, Competitor Analysis, & Website Ranking | Alexa)3. Publish Long-Form ContentThere is no right or wrong content length. The ideal word count for your content is the one that best covers the topic fully.Having said that, it has been observed that longer content works best:Word count vs ranking position in Google (Image source: SEO Training and Link Building Strategies – Backlinko)4. Publish More List PostsA list post is an article whose headline features a numbered collection of things.There are a lot of list posts floating around the internet. BuzzFeed publishes mainly list posts:Examples of list posts ranking in Google5. Create a System (Hint: Use a Content Calendar to Plan Out Content)Driving traffic to your site is like a lot of things in life, it’s all about consistency.Consistency in your content strategy not only keeps you relevant to your audience but also signals to Google that you are on a reliable source of information,Slowly but steadily publishing blog posts is better than a frenzied and erratic posting schedule.And one of the best ways to manage this is with a content calendar. Somewhere you can store ideas and plan out what you are going to publish and in what order.You can use an editorial calendar, your project management app of choice like Trello or Asana, an alternative or a spreadsheet or even pen and paper (well, that’d be old-school).Example of an editorial calendar Trello board (Image source: Trello)6. Repurpose Content on Other Channels (And in Other Formats)Repurposing content is best described as finding new ways to reuse your existing content.It is useful for reaching new audiences on different mediums, breathing new life into forgotten content as well as making the most of your content efforts.Ahrefs does a great job of repurposing their content across their blog and YouTube channel, like with their content audit article + video:Example of repurposed content by Ahrefs7. Create Content That Appeals to InfluencersMost industries have influencers: individuals with large followings who seem to get loads of likes, shares, and links to their content.Wouldn’t it be great to leverage their authority for your own content?If you want influential people to share your content, you need to create content that appeals directly to them.Here’s a simple process for creating content influencers want to see:Find influencers in your industry with influencer research tools or do a quick search to find their direct email address.Analyze what they are talking about.Look for a common theme.Create content about this theme.Get your content in front of the influencer.8. Write Eye-Catching Headlines (Using Headline Analyzers)Headlines are one of the most important parts of your content.They are likely to be one of the first things people see in Google Search results. Without a compelling headline, even the most comprehensive blog post may go unread.To help you craft eye-catching headlines, you can use a headline analyzer like Sumo’s headline generator:9. Improve Old Blog PostsThe solution to increasing traffic to your website is probably something simple that you already have: old blog posts.If you’ve been blogging for a while, you probably have tons of posts sitting in your archives in need of some love to bring them back to life and get them generating search traffic.Look for pages that are hovering at the bottom of page one or the top of page two of Google’s search results. These pages are perfect examples to improve.But how do you improve them?Here are some quick ways to improve old blog posts:Update any outdated information.Add more images, screenshots, videos, etc.Improve your introduction (to make people want to read on).Increase your word count (if it makes sense to do so).Add links to and from related posts.Improve readability with shorter paragraphs and bullet points.Republish them and promote them again as new.Sometimes though, instead of updating old posts, you are better off just merging them…10. Merge Similar Articles (+ Redirect Them)If you have a backlog of similar articles covering the same topic and keywords, it may be worth merging them into a single post.By consolidating similar posts into one page, it is likely to perform better in Google as well as cleaning up your site architecture.Why?Because you aren’t spreading the ‘authority’ across multiple articles. Instead, you have one focused and strong post. You’ll also have one longer post that goes deeper into a topic, leading to more traffic.11. Use the Skyscraper TechniqueThe skyscraper technique is a marketing term coined by Brian Dean of Backlinko.Basically, it is a system for turning content into high-quality backlinks.Here’s how it works:Step 1 – Find existing content with lots of backlinks.Use tools like Ahrefs Content Explorer or BuzzSumo to find URLs with a lot of social shares and links.Finding successful content (to replicate) with Ahrefs Content ExplorerStep 2 – Now go and create something way better.Now you need to figure out how you can improve upon it. Can you add more up-to-date information? Maybe you can improve the visuals or expand it to include more points.Step 3 – Promote your skyscraper contentGo to the sites linking to the original content and ask for links to your superior content.Here’s an outreach template you can use:Hey [NAME],I was reading your post about [TOPIC] and noticed you linked to this page: [INSERT LINK]Just wanted to let you know that I just published an updated, more in-depth version of this page.Here it is: [INSERT SKYSCRAPER LINK]Might make a nice addition to the page?[YOUR NAME]12. Create an Expert Roundup PostExpert roundup posts are blog posts that collect quotes from experts and then use them in the article.Here’s an example from Databox about the best free SEO tools according to experts:Expert roundup post example by DataboxEmail MarketingIf you are doing anything online, you need an email. No matter the size of your business or website, being able to email your audience is vital.Seriously, half the world’s population uses email:Email statistics by OberloWith so many people reachable via their inboxes, email is one of the best ways to drive traffic to a website because:Your email list is already interested in your site.Traffic is almost guaranteed as you are talking directly to your list.Emails drive targeted traffic to the pages you choose.13. Increase Website Traffic with Email MarketingEmail marketing is a fairly inexpensive but effective way of reaching your audience.Aside from following email marketing best practices, here are some essential steps to take for increasing traffic with email marketing:Build a subscriber list as soon as possible.Choose the right email marketing software.Keep your emails to the point.Write eye-catching subject lines.Add social sharing buttons to your emails.Add a CTA (Call to Action).Don’t send too many emails.Make sure your email template works on mobile and don’t get marked as spam.14. Use Content Upgrades to Get More SubscribersContent upgrades (or lead magnets) are resources you give away in exchange for an email address. Here’s a list of some of the best lead generation WordPress plugins to check out.If you get the right upgrade, your audience will gladly sign up to your email list in order to get the free content.However, you’ve got to understand your audience and know what they would want. Perfect Keto does a good job of this:Content upgrade example by Perfect Keto15. Create an Email Welcome SeriesA welcome email series is a sequence of emails that are automatically sent to your subscribers when they first opt into your list.Just remember: it’s your chance to make a good first impression. This can go a long way in increasing your website traffic, as well as increasing your subscribers.Drift does a good job with this email that gets straight to the point and directs new subscribers to popular content:Welcome email example by Drift (Image source: HubSpot | Inbound Marketing, Sales, and Service Software)16. Add a Way to Capture Emails to Your SiteTo start leveraging the power of email for traffic, you need a way to collect email addresses via your website.You can use a sidebar or in-content sign up form like this:Example of Kinsta’s email signup form17. Submit Your Content to Aggregator SitesA content aggregator is a website that doesn’t create its own content. Instead, they collect content from other sites and “aggregate” it into one location.Users generally like aggregators as it gives them the chance to find a variety of content in one place. On the other side, publishers get their content in front of people who want to see it.18. Write Some Guest PostsGuest posting is when you write a blog post for a site other than your own. In return, you’ll get a link back to your site.This sends traffic to your site, gets you a backlink, and helps to increase your brand awareness.One of the biggest challenges with guest blogging is finding suitable websites that would be willing to accept and publish your guest posts.Thankfully, with just a quick Google search (+ some search operators) you’ll be able to find tons of guest post opportunities relevant to your niche:Finding topic relevant guest post opportunities with Google19. Promote Your Site With Blogger OutreachBlogger outreach is the process of finding relevant blogs and sending them a personalized email highlighting your website, service, product, etc.Step 1 – Find Blogs to Reach out ToYou could reach out to bloggers:who you have already featured on your site.who have written content on the same topic.who have previously linked to similar topics.who have tweeted related articles.Step 2 – Find the Right Contact Details for ThemBefore you can get in touch, you need to find the email address of the blogger you are reaching out to.There are a few ways of doing this, but one of the quickest is using an email lookup tool like Hunter.io:Find email addresses with HunterStep 3 – Write Your Outreach EmailNow you need to write the email you are going to send.If you need some help crafting your pitch, check out these email outreach templates by HubSpot.All that’s left to do now is hit “Send”.20. Invite Others to Guest Blog on Your SiteDon’t forget: guest posts are a two-way street.Don’t think you can only write content for other sites. Invite other people to write for your blog too. Providing they write a high-quality and original article that’s interesting for your audience of course.Not only do you get some new content on your site, but the guest blogger is likely to promote the article, bringing in more traffic to your site.Everyone’s a winner.21. Write on Medium (+ Other Sites)Medium is a user-generated site that prioritizes and suggests articles based on their users’ reading habits.You should consider writing on Medium because:It can send consistent traffic back to your site.It boasts a built-in and engaged audience.They even have a dashboard which shows how your articles are doing:Article stats/performance dashboard on MediumThere are also a couple of sites like Medium you can write on like:Write.asSvbtleSteemitMake sure to read our Medium vs WordPress guide.22. Promote Content in Relevant Online CommunitiesOnline communities are places where your audience hangs out on the Web and can include Facebook groups, Reddit, Slack channels and forums.Finding relevant online communities is easy if you are already part of the niche.If you are not, here are some helpful resources:Directory of Slack communities400 Slack communities500+ Facebook Groups (via Dropbox)5000 Top subreddits23. Post Useful Content On RedditReddit is a large and active community. There is probably already a subreddit related to your site’s niche.Leverage Reddit can send lots of traffic to your site if you get it right and don’t get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of discussions happening at any one time.In fact, you can use a tool like TrackReddit to track Reddit discussions:Track Reddit discussions happening that are relevant to your siteHowever, promoting things on Reddit can be hard. And users don’t pull any punches if they don’t like what you are doing.24. Get into Facebook Groups (+ Share Your Content)You should join some Facebook Groups related to your niche and share your content inside them.Again, you should respect the specific rules about promotion within those groups first.Facebook Groups cover a wide range of niches where your target audience may hang out. For us, WordPress support based groups like WordPress Freelancers or WordPress Speed Up are likely to have members who would be interested in our content.You can actually search for groups to find discussions happening related to your content:Digital Marketing Questions is a popular Facebook group25. Answer Questions on QuoraQuora can be great for driving traffic to your website.If you don’t have one already, first you’ll need to create an account. Once you have a Quora account, you need to find the right questions to answer.We grew our traffic 1,187% with WordPress.We’ll show you how.Join 20,000+ others who get our weekly newsletter with insider WordPress tips!Subscribe NowSubscribe to the Kinsta newsletterSubscribeI agree to the Terms and Conditions and Privacy PolicyThis is simple, just enter a keyword and Quora will suggest you related topics:Quickly find niche relevant questions to answer on QuoraChoose your topics and you’ll be able to see the latest questions related to that topic.Just hit “Answer” to add yours. Try to answer the questions fully and provide a link to any relevant content you have on your site if it makes sense to do so.If you to get the most out of Quora, fully complete your profile, pick questions relevant to your audience and add in links where it makes sense to do so. You should also check out our Quora marketing tips to help increase your reach.26. Post on Product HuntProduct Hunt is a community that curates the best new mobile apps, websites, and technology products every day.Product Hunt homepage can drive traffic back to your site27. Drive Traffic To Your Website From ForumsForums have been around since the very early days of the web. Since then, people have been using them to drive traffic back to their websites.Niche forums may be ugly, but they can drive good (and relevant) traffic to your websiteEven though certain forums can look outdated, if they have an engaged audience, they can be a great source of relevant traffic.28. Create Your Own ForumIf you can’t find a good forum for your industry, you could look at setting one up yourself. In fact, with WordPress forum plugins you can be set up fairly quickly.WordPress forumIf you do go this route, you need to make sure your users are producing quality content, you have moderators, and your forum has good UX.Getting that right could mean a steady stream of traffic back to your site.SEOAll the keyword research (more on that later) and content in the world won’t save your site if you have ignored SEO.SEO is one of the best ways to get consistent traffic flowing into your site. As long as you rank high in Google, you’ll be able to generate organic traffic to your site.Now that sounds great, but nothing in life comes for free or without some work.To benefit from SEO, you need to write about topics people are searching for in Google (which we covered in the previous section). But to fully benefit from it, you also need to ensure your site is optimized for search engines.Here are some things you can do right now to use SEO to drive traffic to your website:29. Pay Attention to Your Website’s SEO HealthSEO is pretty simple. Most of the benefits from following best practices to make sure your website is healthy and has everything Google expects to see.Getting these things set up can make a big difference on the amount of traffic to your site.Here’s are the SEO fundamentals you need:An SEO-friendly CMS like WordPress.A responsive design and good mobile usability.A valid SSL Certificate.A fast and reliable web host.Links from relevant sites.Content that people actually want to read.There can be more elements to SEO obviously, with website technical health being one (we’ll cover this later on), but this should lay the groundwork for you.30. Build Backlinks to Your WebsiteLinks from authority and relevant sites are like votes of confidence for your site.A simple overview of how backlinks help your site’s SEO (Image source: SEO Training and Link Building Strategies – Backlinko)The types of links to build will differ depending on your niche. Here are some useful link building resources:9 EASY Link Building Strategies (That ANYONE Can Use) by Ahrefs50 Local Link Building Tactics for ANY Budget by Loganix60+ Link Building Techniques Checklist by Mangools31. Get Your Content in Featured SnippetsSince its inception, Google has been adding more information to the search results to enhance the experience for users.One such feature is featured snippets:Featured snippet example32. Use Analytics Data to Find Under-Performing Pages (& Vice Versa)If you are familiar with Google Analytics open up the dashboard.Got to Behaviour > Site Content > Landing Pages and then hit the Sessions column to order from low to high.You’ll get something like this:Finding underperforming pages (to improve) in Google Analytics33. Optimize Your Best Traffic SourcesIn Analytics, go to Acquisition > All Traffic > Source/Medium.Now you’ll see where your traffic is coming from:Finding top traffic sources in Google AnalyticsIn case you are unsure:Source is the place users are before seeing your content, like a search engine or another website.Medium describes how users arrived at your content.From here, you want to ask a few questions about your traffic sources:Which send the highest volume of traffic.Which send the highest-converting traffic.Which send the most engaged traffic.From there, try and figure out why those sources are effective. Then try to replicate it.And it’s not just your traffic source you should be thinking about…34. Steal Your Competitors’ Traffic SourcesSometimes the best way to get more traffic is to see what is already working… and then do that.One of the quickest ways to do this is by ‘stealing’ your competitor’s traffic. If you feel bad about stealing from your competitors, let’s just call it reverse engineering instead.Now you will need to use an SEO tool for this one.Here are two quick ways to spy on your competitors:Competitor Traffic Method #1 – SimilarWebGo to SimilarWeb and paste your competitors URL in the search box.Scroll down to the Referrals sections to see exactly where they are getting their traffic from:Spying on your competitors traffic using SimilarWebCompetitor Traffic Method #2 – AhrefsGo to the Ahrefs backlink checker. Input your competitor’s domain and click check backlinks.Now you’ll be able to see the top 100 backlinks and how much estimated traffic they are sending to your competitor:Spying on your competitors traffic using AhrefsArmed with the knowledge of what is working for your competition, you can go out and try to replicate it.Keyword ResearchKeyword research is the process of finding relevant phrases (keywords) that your audience is searching for.Once you have a list of keywords, you want to include them in pages with the intention of these pages showing up in search engines.There are lots of ways to generate keywords, using both free and premium tools.Let’s get started:35. Target Topics with Traffic PotentialSEO is one of the best ways to send consistent traffic to your blog (more on this later in this article).But to get Google to send visitors your way, you need to be showing up for the right keywords. In other words: you need to target keywords with traffic potential.After all, you want your traffic to look like this:The type of graph all website owners want to see: organic traffic increasesThe metrics you want to keep in mind when doing keyword research are:Search and Global Volume: how many people are searching the keyword each monthKeyword Difficulty: how difficult the keyword will be to rank for.36. Target Long-Tail KeywordsLong-tail keywords are 3+ word phrases that are very specific to whatever you are selling or the information you are providing on your blog.Here’s an example:Longtail keywords = more conversions (Image source: http://semrush.com).37. Do Question-Based Keyword ResearchAs we mentioned earlier, you really want to be writing about things people are asking.Two great tools finding these question-based keywords are Answer the Public and QuestionDB.Just drop in your keyword and you’ll get loads of question ideas.Here are the results for the keyword ‘credit card’ on Answer the Public:Use AnswerThePublic to generate lots (and lots) of question-based keywordsAnd here are the results for QuestionDB:Use QuestionDB to get loads question keywords people are askingAs you can see, from just one keyword you can generate lots of potential questions you can turn into articles (that people in your niche are asking).38. Identify Keyword GapsThis is just a fancy way of saying find keywords you don’t rank for that get a high amount of monthly searches.And then — you guessed it — try rank for them.The quickest way to find keyword gaps is with this free content gap finder or with Ahrefs.If you choose the latter, here’s a quick walkthrough:Fire up the Ahrefs Content Gap tool and drop in the domains you want to compare:Use Ahrefs Content Gap tool to find keywords to targetHit ‘show keywords’ and you’ll see any potential keyword gaps:Keyword gaps in AhrefsIf you do this for your site and a few of your competitors, you’ll be able to see all the keywords they rank for, but you do not.Based on your competitors, you’ll be able to prioritize the keyword gaps to go after and try and rank for.39. Optimize Your Content With LSI (or Semantic) KeywordsLSI, which stands for “latent semantic indexing” (also sometimes referred to as semantic keywords) are words/phrases that are related to your main keyword.Since Google Hummingbird, the search engine has put more importance on understanding a topic fully. LSI keywords are a good way to help the search engine crawlers.You can use a tool like LSI Graph to find them. Just drop in your main keyword and it will give you a list of terms related to your topic:Examples of LSI /semantic keywords using LSI GraphTry to add these to your articles and pages.To be honest, if you are writing good content, you will be including semantic keywords anyway, but it’s worth keeping in mind.40. Prevent and Remove Keyword CannibalizationKeyword cannibalization is when two or more pages on your website are competing against themselves by trying to rank for the same term.It’s actually quite common, especially with large sites with lots of pages. Here’s a pretty detailed article from Moz about it.The lesson to learn here is: you want to avoid keyword cannibalization as it can confuse Google (it won’t know which page it should rank). Having two similar pages competing against one another is not helpful for driving traffic.It can also:Lower the authority of your page.Dilute any links you have to the page(s).Impact your conversion rate.Often you will be better off consolidating these into one post. You can use this free spreadsheet to find keyword cannibalisation and run a quick “site:yourdomain.com ‘keyword’ query to surface potential issues.41. Find Easy-Win Keyword OpportunitiesHere’s a quick traffic win you can do if you have an existing site:Find pages that are performing relatively well, and then improve them to give them a boost.Let me explain:Pages/keywords that are ranking around the top of page 2 of the bottom of page 1 are ideally suited. These may just need a few tweaks to get them to climb up the ranks and send more traffic to your site.Some ways you can improve these easy-win keywords pages are by:Doing keyword research to target the main term + related terms better.Improving your on-page SEO.Adding more content.Pointing internal links to the page.Building some backlinks to the page.To find these pages you can use the built-in keyword filtering of SEO tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush again, use some free SEO spreadsheets for SEO tasks or go through the performance report in Google Search Console.Technical ImprovementsAnother aspect of SEO that determines how much traffic your site will get is its technical health.In order for search engine bots to find, crawl, and index your site, there are some technical elements you need to tick off.Let’s check them out:42. Follow Technical SEO Best PracticesTechnical SEO is the process of optimizing your site for Google’s crawlers.It is an important step in getting traffic to your site. If Google can’t find, crawl, and index your site, you won’t rank. No ranking = no organic search traffic.It is called “technical” SEO because it is less about the content of your site and more about the infrastructure.Technical SEO can be a big topic. But in terms of getting the best practices down, here are the things you want to do:Specify a preferred domain (www or no www?)Optimize your Robots.txt file.Optimize your sites URL structure.Have a logical site structure and website navigation.Use breadcrumbs to improve UX.Add structured data markup.Set up canonicals.Set up and optimize your 404 pages.Use 301 redirects.Have an XML sitemap.Install an SSL certificate.Make sure your website loads fast.Make sure your website is mobile-friendly.Set up Google Search Console.This is by no means an exhaustive list. But if you can tick off everything above, you are on the right track for a healthy site.43. Submit Your Site to Search EnginesYou want your site to show up on Google and Bing right?Then you need to submit your site to search engines.Actually, this process is very quick. Most of the work is done for you, but it is worth doing so you have control of indexation in the future.Search engines don’t technically require you to submit your site. But there are plenty of scenarios where it makes lots of sense to do. Think of:New sites with little to no backlinks.Rehauled sites with new content and structure.Recently hacked sites.Big chunk of updated content now available.Manually submitting your site to Google and other search engines should cut down on the time required to get re-indexed properly, hence gaining organic traffic regularly flowing towards you.44. Improve SERP Click-Through Rates (with GSC Data)Click-through-rate (CTR) is the percentage of searchers who click through to your website from the Google search results.Here’s the great thing:By improving your CTR, you can effectively increase traffic.To see your CTR, go to Search Console > Performance, now make sure Average CTR is selected and choose Queries. From here you will be able see your best and worst queries in terms of CTR:CTR performance report in Google Search ConsoleSome ways you can improve your organic CTR are:Improving your page titles.Making your URLs clearer and more descriptive.Improving your meta descriptions.Adding Structured Data.Improving page speed.45. Fix Lost ‘Link Juice’ on 404 PagesWhen you delete a linked page, add an incorrect URL to a page, or incorrectly change a URL, a broken link is created. These are bad for UX.No one wants to go buy some Lego and be greeted with this 404 page:An example of a 404 page on the Lego websiteOkay, so maybe they kinda do because that’s a good 404 page.So, how do broken links affect SEO?When a search engine is crawling your site and they find dead links, it can stop the spiders from crawling your site. This can stop it from being indexed.In other words, when searchers (and/or web crawlers) browse through your site and click on the link, they may be directed to a page with a 404 error.I don’t know about you, but when this happens, I either get a bit annoyed with the website in question or just leave.Don’t take the risk. Go find and fix any potential broken links.46. Boost Authority with Internal LinksInterlinks are links that point from one page on your site to another page on the same site.You will have seen them countless times before:An example of internal linkingInterlinks (or internal links) usually occur naturally when you are referring to past content or related pages in your content.Adding internal links can:Help visitors (and search engines) navigate your own website.Help to establish an information structure.Spread link juice or authority throughout your site.47. Make Sure Your Site is ResponsiveAlmost everyone has a smartphone. And almost everyone browses websites on their mobile.In 2019, there were 4070 million unique mobile internet users!Mobile internet user statisticsThat’s a lot of potential mobile visitors to your site. Google recognized this with its introduction of mobile-first indexing.If you don’t have a responsive website, here why you should:It improved site usability for visitors.It will load faster.It will reduce bounce rate.It may improve social sharing.48. Enhance SERP Appearance with SchemaAlso known as structured data, Schema is a markup easily read by search engines.It makes it easier for search engine crawlers to find and index your page. Because it gives search engine bots more information about your site, your site can get rich site snippets (which can improve your CTR).If you’re featuring reviews on your site, you could score rich snippets like the one below:An example of schema showing (review stars) in GoogleWe’ve actually got a more detailed guide on how to add schema markup to a WordPress site.49. Make Sure Your Site is FastWe’ve touched on this a bit already, but how fast your site loads does affect SEO.Page speed is a direct ranking factor, and can also affect rankings indirectly via increased bounce rate.Mobile page speed benchmarks (Image source: Home - CodeMeRight)Page speed is important for users. Think about: if a web page is loading slowly for you, what do you do? Do you wait for it to load or do you go somewhere else?Chances are you leave.Faster loading pages are more efficient for keeping people on your site. And Google knows this too. That’s why way back in 2010 they announced that page speed counts as a ranking factor for SEO.John Mueller of Google says to make sure web pages load for users in less than 2-3 secs:John Mueller’s (of Google) advice for fast loading pagesWhen it comes to speeding up your site, there are a few things you can do to boost performance like compress images, use a lightweight WordPress theme and have a good hosting setup able to deliver high performances.Social MediaIf you want traffic, go to the places online where your target audience hangs out and shares content. Social media can also help you build brand recognition as well as a community.And it’s not just sharing memes and cat videos: 43% of adults in the US get their news from Facebook:Tired of a slow host for your WordPress site? We provide blazing fast servers and 24/7 world-class support from WordPress experts. Check out our plansSocial media statisticsHere are some ways to drive traffic to your site using social media:50. Get Active on Social MediaThis sounds like an obvious step, but you actually need to set up your social accounts if you want them to drive traffic.The rule of thirds (Image source: Award Winning Web Design and Development Company in Chicago)Here are the essentials to complete across whichever platform you choose:Fully complete your profile (don’t forget to link to your site) and your business pages (Facebook and LinkedIn).Promote your blog content.Be sure to share interesting content (follow the rule of thirds).Post when your audience is online.Talk with your audience.In terms of which platform you should be on, depends on your audience.The best social media platform is the platform where your audience hangs out.51. Post On Social Media at Strategic TimesThis will be very dependent on your audience and the platform you are on.There have been lots of studies into when to post on social media like this one from Hootsuite or this one from Sprout Social.52. Add Social Share Buttons to Your SiteOh, and don’t forget to make it easy for people to share your content on social media.(Pssst, if you are reading this on desktop, just look to the left.)An example of social share buttons we use on all blog posts at KinstaThese improve your online exposure since users find pages and posts they enjoy, then share them on social media sites.The easiest way is to set up a WordPress social media plugin for your site.53. Use a Social Media CalendarWouldn’t it be great to get more click-throughs on social media?Well, the answer may be in using a social media calendar.This type of calendar helps you to understand:Why your audience shares (or doesn’t share) your content.Which types of content people prefer.What’s more, it also stops you from over sharing the same type of stuff too often and allows you to plan on sharing content you know works.It doesn’t take long to set up your calendar, a spreadsheet will do the trick:An example of a content calendar you can use to promote blog postsThis simple addition to your social media strategy can help you improve shares and get traffic back to your blog.Head over to the Post Planner blog to grab a free social media calendar template.54. Research Your Competitor’s Social StrategyA great tactic for improving the amount of traffic you get from social media is to spy on your competitors. See what they are doing that is working, and then try and replicate it.Here’s a couple of social media competitor analysis tools to use:BuzzsumoHootsuiteSprout SocialWant a super quick social competitive analysis plan?Let’s go:Step 1 – Find Your Competitors’ Social Media StrategyUse a tool like Sprout Social to see what your competitors are doing:Competitor research using Social SproutThen think about things like:What keywords are they using?Who are they following?What social networks are they on?How big is their audience?How often do they post?Step 2 – Analyze Their Profiles and ContentHave a look at each of their social profiles. What do they do well, and what don’t they do well?Look for things like:Are they posting relevant and up-to-date content?Do they have good or bad customer service?Are there spelling mistakes?What kind of images are they using?Are they using unique angles to promote themselves?Step 3 – Monitor Any ChangesSocial media is a never-ending stream of content so monitor what your competitors are doing (some of the tools mentioned above can help).Check out how to leverage LinkedIn to grow your site traffic, how to take advantage of Facebook and Twitter for your marketing.Armed with this information, you’ll be able to hopefully see gaps where you can do something effective on social media to get traffic to your site.55. Put Social Media on AutopilotSocial Media can be a great way of promoting content to your audience.The only problem is that it can take hours out of your day, especially if you are posting a lot of content.Take for instance promoting new blog posts. You’ve got to add the title, a social sharing image and a link to the new post to each of your social accounts. And that’s for every post.Remembering to update all your social feeds like this when you publish a new blog post can be a time suck.Not if you use this Zapier Zap to automatically Tweet your new WordPress posts:Use Zapier to automatically post new blog postsThis is only scratching the surface of what you can do. Head over to Zapier to check over 100 different ways you can automate social media.56. Use Buffer to Schedule and Publish Social PostsWhile on the subject of automation, you can use a tool like Buffer to schedule your posts in advance and automatically post them to your channels:Use Buffer to schedule and publish social postsAlongside posting your content, Buffer can also suggest the best time to post. Nice, isn’t it?57. Use Quuu PromoteQuuu Promote is a paid tool that can drive traffic by promoting your content automatically to the right audience.Quuu Promote can help you generate lots of social sharesSo how does Quuu Promote work?In a nutshell:You create a social media post (with a link to your content).Quuu puts this in front of people in your niche who have signed up to get suggestions from Quuu.Some of these people may share it on their social profiles.You earn more traffic.58. Drive Traffic with These Twitter Marketing TipsBefore you even get started, you need to pick the right Twitter handle, profile photo, and header image. For Twitter to be an effective traffic generating machine, you need to be proactive.Did you know: the average lifespan of one tweet is just 18 minutes:Average lifespan of a tweet (Image source: SEO Software for Smarter Marketing)And with over 7,000 new tweets being sent every second, to get any meaningful return from your Twitter, you need a plan.59. Drive Traffic with Promoted TweetsPromoted Tweets (aka Sponsored Tweets) are standard Tweets, except they’re paid for by advertisers attempting to increase their Twitter reach and/or engagement.They are pretty easy to spot as they have a ‘promoted’ label beneath them:An example of a promoted tweetPromoted Tweets increase reach and drive traffic to your website and post-click landing pages, which in turn, increases lead generation and sales. For more in-depth tips on using Twitter to grow your traffic, check out our guide.Go here to get started running Twitter Ads.60. Drive Traffic with These Facebook Marketing TipsDriving Facebook traffic back to your website is essential, and FB traffic provides a great opportunity to target your ideal audience.If you haven’t already, create a Facebook page for your site, and then follow these Facebook marketing tips to help you generate more traffic:Use images on all your posts.Keep your updates short and to the point.Ask your fans short questions.Use a quote from blog articles when sharing content.Use videos.Curate content from other websites in your niche.There’s also Facebook Ads too…61. Use Facebook AdsYou are probably pretty familiar with Facebook ads:Example of a Facebook adWhen used correctly, Facebook Ads can be an effective (and low cost) way of sending traffic to blog posts.But if you know what you are doing, they can be the opposite of that: expensive and ineffective.You want to use targeted Facebook ads to drive traffic from Facebook back to your site, so make sure you are going after the right (and interested) audiences.If you are confused at all, look into using a Facebook ad tool.62. Retarget Visitors With Facebook AdsDon’t forget you can also use Facebook retargeting ads.Ad retargeting is the process in which you target ads to users who have previously been on your website or social media platform but haven’t converted.You need to have your Facebook Pixel installed and tracking your site traffic and website events.63. Drive Traffic with These Instagram Marketing TipsIt sounds obvious, but uploading good images and videos that are relevant to your audience is the key to success on Instagram.Think about it: if your audience is B2B, is this content useful?A popular Instagram meme page64. Use Instagram AdsLike Facebook ads, Instagram ads can be a great way of getting in front of your target audience.An example of an Instagram adInstagram ads can be set up through Facebook’s advertising platform You can run different types of ads including Photo, Video, Carousel, Slideshow, and Stories Ads.First, you need to connect your Instagram and Facebook accounts:Instagram/Facebook ad dashboardVery simply, here’s how you get started advertising on Instagram:Go to Facebook’s Ad Manager.Set your objective.Set your target audience.Pick your ad placements.Set your budget and schedule.Create your Instagram Ads.65. Drive Traffic with These YouTube Marketing TipsWith so many videos uploaded every day to YouTube, it’s easy for your content to get lost.Thankfully, there are some simple steps you can take for generating organic traffic to and from your videos.Here are some proven tips for getting traffic from YouTube:A reason to visit your site like a free PDF, ebook, course, or exclusive content.Add a link to your site in your channel header.Use cards to help views navigate around.Add a website link in your video descriptions.Use a clear CTA on videos66. Don’t Forget YouTube SEO (to Rank Your Videos)One of the best ways to get more video views is with YouTube SEO.In a nutshell:YouTube SEO is the process of optimizing your channel (including video playlists, metadata, descriptions, and actual videos) so that your channel shows up for the right people.You can actually optimize your videos for search results inside YouTube and Google.67. YouTube AdsWith a lot of your potential audience already on YouTube, it makes sense to target them with ads.An example of a YouTube adTo get the most from YouTube Ads, you need to:Target your audience.Choose the right ad format.Create engaging ads.Check out this guide to YouTube advertising by HubSpot for more information.68. Drive Traffic with These Pinterest Marketing TipsHere are some tactics you can use to harness Pinterest traffic:Sign up for a business account (and get access to Pinterest Analytics).Make sure each pin description is detailed, helpful, and actionable.Pin at the right time.Create pin-worthy images (that are the right size & include text).Join relevant Pinterest group boards.69. Use Pinterest AdsPinterest ads are useful for getting your content in front of more people as they search and browse Pinterest.LinkedInWith over 600 million users, LinkedIn is the go-to social network for B2B.LinkedIn is the place people go to when they want to connect with people in their industry, learn about their industry and share related content. If you want to drive traffic to your B2B blog or website, this is your platform.90% of social traffic is driven by LinkedIn to B2B sites (Image source: The #1 FREE email capture tool)70. Drive Traffic with These LinkedIn Marketing TipsLinkedIn can be a great traffic source if you use it right.Here are the essentials you need to start driving traffic from LinkedIn today:Create and optimize your personal Profile.Join groups (or start one).Create a company page.Regularly share useful content.Don’t share too much.71. Republish Articles on LinkedInDon’t forget you can leverage LinkedIn’s publishing platform to reach their massive audience.Republishing articles on LinkedIn is a great way to send traffic to your website and get in front of a new audience.To get started, just hit ‘write an article’ on the LinkedIn homepage:The “Write an article” feature in LinkedInBefore you publish your article, there are two things you want to make sure you’ve included:A short bio – add this to the end of your post to direct people to your homepage or blog.A CTA – directing people to a specific resource on your site that you think may help people.72. LinkedIn AdsYou can also use LinkedIn Ads to target your audience with sponsored content, sponsored or text ads.An example of a LinkedIn adLinkedIn is obviously most suited to targeting a professional audience. So if your site isn’t targeting that demographic, you may be better of saving your money.This guide by Hootsuite provides a good walk-through of LinkedIn ads.73. Use Paid TrafficWe’ve touched on this already with social ads, but paid traffic can be an effective way of getting eyes on your content. It’s also highly scalable (providing you have the budget).Types of paid traffic you can send to your website (Image source: http://charlesngo.com)Here are some of the best-paid traffic sources to consider:Display ads.Paid search ads (through Google AdWords or Bing Ads).Paid discovery (like Outbrain or Taboola).Sponsored content.Depending on the ads you’re buying, you could pay per click (PPC), pay per view (PPV) or pay per acquisition/action (PPA).74. Appear on Niche Relevant PodcastsMonthly podcast listening statistics (Image source: Content Marketing Consulting and Social Media Strategy | Convince & Convert)Doing podcast interviews can be a great driver of traffic.Not only do you get a relevant recommendation on the podcast but you also get in front of a new audience. And if you are on a niche relevant podcast, you may have gained new audience members of your own.75. Start a PodcastIf you are struggling to find podcasts to appear on, or you just have a burning desire to share content, why not create your own.Here’s how to quickly start a podcast:Pick your topic(s).Come up with a name, show description, and artwork.Set up and test your recording equipment.Plan your episodes.Record your episodes.Edit and then finally publish your episodes.Hey presto, you’ve just launched a podcast.76. Do Some Interviews (with Bloggers in Your Niche)Many people will be willing to talk to you if you just ask them, even if you only have a small audience.It’s pretty simple to get started too:Just send out a few emails requesting an interview to people in your industry. For the ones that get back to you, publish the interviews on your blog.