Yesterday I shared with your Get Seen, Traffic part I. This post is the next in the series of getting traffic, and getting eyes on your content.
Everyone wants to know the fastest way to build an audience with an interest in what you do. The solution is to Challenge Yourself.
If you’ve ever watched a TV show like Mastermind, or MTV's The Challenge you'll know that millions of people tune in each and every week to see people push themselves out of their comfort zones.
Now imagine if you could generate that kind of traffic to your social media page, community or website, just by challenging yourself and doing something that shows your tenacity.
Join The Blogging Challenge
Way back in 2007, I set up my first 30-day blogging challenge. I wanted to master blogging and I did, with a group of friends. We're still friends to this day. We wrote a blog post and published every single day for 30 consecutive days. It seems tough, but the truth is it gets easier.
This lead to me publishing blog posts every single day for 3 years and winning new clients who all said “We've read your blog”.
Plenty of people join the 30 Day Blogging Challenge and fail miserably. They don't want to be seen, they don't want to write and they don't want more traffic. They want the easy option, but the easy option doesn't win the hearts and minds of your audience – they see easy all the time. It no longer impresses them.
Step out of invisibility and into your spotlight and join the blogging challenge. 10,000 bloggers a year join, and 25% of them complete it. Be one of the 25%.
Write a Book…Or 20
When Kristen Joy of TheBookNinja.com needed a boost in traffic, she turned to Kindle publishing. She decided to write and publish a new Kindle book each week for 20 weeks.
As the word spread about Kristen’s plan, her traffic grew (and grew, and grew). Why? Some people no doubt wanted to see her fail—after all, that’s really why we watched shows like Big Brother, isn’t it? But most people rightly thought that Kristen must have something important to say if she had committed to such a large project.
The Kindle book aspect is a really powerful one. In 2015 I released a book a month for 8 consecutive months. It was tough on me, because I felt I was really putting myself out there – more than when I blog – but I did it. These books form the backbone of my Amazon sales, and I update them every year. As I type this I feel the urge to publish more Kindle books, more frequently!
Journalling
Blogging daily too much? Writing and releasing books just a little too crazy? You can always journal it out and use a group to do it in. Dale Darley has her journaling community, and you can order the journal and the prompts from Amazon.
Each day Dale is active in her community encouraging them to journal and create the books they've dreamed of writing.
Dale's audience appeared from nowhere. It appeared when she challenged herself.
Now you may be thinking it's alright for them, but I have xxx. Dale has Osteoporosis and is healing her spinal fractures naturally. If your excuses are bigger than your dreams, carry on making them but understand that your audience is rooting for you.
Stretch Yourself A Little
Now you don’t have to write a book a week for 20 weeks, or even journal every day. But there are plenty of things you can do to build some buzz and drive some traffic to your site. The key is to find something that would make most people say “I could never do that.” And then do it.
- Go Live on Facebook every day for a month and give something away a place on your course or program. Announce the winner on the next day's Live. Encourage people to share.
- Guest a new video to YouTube every day for 90 days. This will take some organising, but you'll find it's worth it.
- Speak at or attend one conference or telesummit each month for a year
- Read a book a day and give a synopsis of the book in your community
- Earn an extra 100 a day for 30 days, and share exactly what you did to achieve your goal on your website
- Publish an infographic every day for 10 days
Whatever challenge you decide to tackle, it must have two components to be successful:
- It must be outside what most people would consider their comfort zone
- You must commit to it publicly and often—tell your list, your social media followers, your blog readers, your clients, everyone.
A challenge of this sort must have one other component as well—your absolute desire to finish. The last thing you want is to publicly declare your intention then quietly fade out mid-way to your goal. If this happens you'll spend the rest of your time justifying and rationalising why the challenge didn't work for you. You don't want to be known for this reason.
If you’re looking for a fun, innovative way to drive a lot of traffic to your website, and to get more eyes on your content, consider setting a big, outrageous goal for yourself. You’ll be surprised how many people turn up to watch and cheer you on, and you’ll have fun along the way.
When you complete your challenge, you’ll have lots of content you can repurpose again and again, and you will have learned a thing or two about your audience and yourself, too.
Look out for Get Seen, Get Traffic III
