Promote Your Blog and Get More Visitors

I’m getting a lot of e-mails lately from people who have just started a blog and are looking for tips and suggestions for getting more visitors and traffic to their blog. Here’s an example:

Hi Mike. I have just recently started a blog and I have a question about promoting it or getting the word out about it. Right now it’s small and I only have two posts but I’m lost on that part. Can you give me some actual advice or something that I can do right away in order to start receiving more visitors?

It’s not an easy task, but if you get things right at the beginning you will start receiving some traffic and it WILL increase over time. I’m suggest you follow the methods below, and if you do, you will see some results. However, don’t wait for a miracle and be prepared to wait at least 2-3 months for a decent traffic flow.

1) Create good content / well-written blog posts

This should be your number one task from the beginning. You’ll need to write compelling and interesting blog posts. If you are having writer’s block or just don’t know what to write about, then I suggest you check my post titled: 101 blog post ideas
Furthermore, make sure your blog posts consist of:

• Information that other people (your blog readers) may not be aware of. It’s even better when it’s valuable and up-to-date.
• Help or actual advice that helps your readers to succeed in something particular (for example: I’m writing this post in order to help you get more traffic to your blog).
• If possible, add images & videos – people love to browse with their eyes.
• Bullet points and well-organised paragraphs are all parts of a good blog post as well as outgoing links to different authority sites/other blogs that give out even more information on this specific topic.
• In addition, you can share you own stories or news that might engage your readers from the very beginning.
• The longer the better (usually). After blogging for more than four years, I’ve found that longer content gets more shares/likes and links. Keep in mind though, that your ultimate goal is not to stuff your blog posts with fluff and empty words, but rather improving the overall quality with useful, actionable and informative content.

Once you have at least 4-5 compelling blog posts or articles you can start thinking about promoting your blog. If your blog is unfinished and you don’t have much content to read then people will just think “OK, it seems like this blog is a work in progress and there’s not much to read. Perhaps I should come back later.” But here’s the sad truth: they don’t usually come back later.
For further reading: How to write killer posts that attract visitors
Conclusion: Believe it or not, content is king. You might drive thousands of people to your blog, but if there’s nothing to read, they will leave and most likely never return.

What's GCASH?

GCASH is a link shortener which is operated by Rika Netmarketing GmbH. Webmaster can earn money with shrinking links and distribute them. The company is already running a big cashback portal (gprofit.de), which claims to have paid over € 500,000 to the users. How exactly can you earn money with GCASH?

The webmaster has the possiblity to create short URLs in the login area using the domain gca.sh. He has the choice between an automatically generated Short URL or he can modify it. An example of a shortened link looks like this: http://gca.sh/WxXkh or as alias with own text http://gca.sh/own-text
GCASH then pays a fixed CPM of $2.50 for 1,000 visitors. A negative point is that the user has to fill out a captcha after clicking the shortened link (see example). Not really good for usability. The user will also only be counted after a successful entry of the captcha. In addition, the webmaster can also specify a description for your links, or even set a password. The webmaster dashboard has an up-to-date look and you get all the clicks transmitted in real time. Moreover for each link you can view detailed statistics.

Payouts at GCASH are possible when you reach $10 and can be requested either by bank transfer or Paypal. According to GCASH payments are handled within 4 hours! In our test the Paypal payment indeed took only a few minutes!
Current proof of payment (requested on 12th of December 2014)

Conclusion: GCASH is a new (german) URL shortener, offering at first glance a very strong compensation ($2.50 per 1,000 visits). But if one looks closely, the bigges negative point is taht the user needs to enter a captcha to become redirected. But first reviews show that users can handle with this "barrier". With the coupon code "cash4webmaster" you get $3 starter bonus.

What's adf.ly?

adf.ly is a URL shortening service (URL Shortener) with which you can make money. It is operated by the company side x19 Limited with registered office in the United Kingdom.
URL Shortner are a popular tool especially in the social networks to shorten long internet addresses (especially on Twitter, where only a limited number of characters is available). The advertising format of adf.ly is that you will get a shortened link and when the user clicks on this link he gets an adversal frame or forwarding ad page.
To earn money with adf.ly there are two different options available. The easiest way demonstrate these two forms of advertising is by doing an example. We have shortened the URL "http://www.soseles.blogspot.com" in two different ways:

• Intersitial Advert (must remain open for 5 sec). Example: http://adf.ly/Ya3OH
• Framed banner (banners in a separate frame). Example: http://adf.ly/Ya3Sw

The Intersitial Ad brings more money than the Framed-Banner and the comission is highly variable depending on the country the traffic is coming from.  Since April 2014 the adf.ly surface is also available in three new languages ​​(German, Chinese, and Portuguese).
A payout is possible from $5 and is paid on the beginning of the month automatically and without Paypal fees (see below payment proof). Since April 2014, a daily withdrawal is available for heavy users. To get access to this feature the account must be at least 30 days old and must have at least one verififed payout. In addition, the contact data must not have been changed less than 72 hours before applying.
Current payment proof of adf.ly (automatically generated on 02.01.2015):

Conclusion: Adf.ly is one of the most popular url shortener. Good payout rates and a nice user interface round off this service. Highly recommended!

What's Linkbucks?

Linkbucks is a paying URL-Shortener where you can earn cash for posting links. The service is owned and operated by Linkbucks.com, LLC from Culver City, Canada. The company was founded in 2012.

And this is how Linkbucks works:

If you click on "Create Links" tab (once logged in) you will see the following screen:

With the help of this form you can now shorten single links (it is also possible to convert multiple links). First enter the URL that you would like to convert. In the next line you select the "Page Content". You can choose between "Clean (all age)" and "Adult 18 +". This setting defines whether adult advertising is shown or not.

Next, you can select the ad type. There are three options:

• Intermission: The user sees an intermediate page with an ad. After five seconds he can click on a "skip this ad"-button and is taken to the desired target page. This kind of advertising is also named "Interstitials". Example: http://www.linkbucks.com/q5nc
• Locker Link: Requires a survey or offer be completed before redirecting to the site. Example: http://www.qqc.co/q5uz
• Short Link: Here you can shorten an URL WITHOUT any ads. Of course you will not get any compensation here.

The final step is to choose which URL alias you would like to have. There  is a whole range of different domains to choose from as any.gs, cash4links.co, dyo.gs, inylinks.co, qqc, co, megaline.co and many more. It's a matter of taste which kind of domain you select, the compensation is of course the same everywhere.
After clicking on "Generate Link" you directly get the new, shortened link. You can start to earn money by using this link on your own website as well as in forums or social media platforms such as Facebook or twitter. The more people click the link, the higher is your income!
Payout Rates: The compensation varies depending on the Ad Type and country and is constantly adapted to the market situation.

You can request a payout from Linkbucks if you have earned at least  $ 10. You can select PayPal or Payoneer as payment service. The payout time in our test was just a few hours and there were no PayPal fees (see the following payment proof):
Current payout proof of Linkbucks (applied at 16/09/14):

 

Conclusion: Linkbucks is one of the few URL shortening services that work seriously. The many choices for the user to convince. Especially webmaster with many outbound links can generate with Linkbucks a nice extra income. By the way: Adult websites may use this provider.

What's SHORTE.ST?

Shorte.st is a URL shortener service from Poland. The site is available in English, Spanish and Russian and pays for international traffic.

Users can monetize their external links by shrinking an URL. And this is how shorte.st works:

Long URLs can be easily shrinked to a short URL. Simply paste the desired URL into the form an click "SHORTEN". You will immediately get the shrinked link.

Every time a user clicks this link he will be redirected to an intermediate page with an ad. After five seconds he can click a "skip this ad"-button and is taken to the destination URL. 

And here is an example: After shortening the long URL (http://soseles.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2015-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&updated-max=2016-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=5) you get this short link: http://sh.st/OiHt.

The service is very easy to use and pays for traffic from 223 different countries. The payout rates vary by country and are updated regularly.