How To Fix An Author Blog With No Traffic

Greg Reed aka C T Mitchell

So you’ve started your new author blog (well done!) but there’s deadly silence. No interaction, no post likes and you’re wondering if anybody else is reading your masterpiece except you? Frustrating I know and disheartening.

But sadly this can be just more than a sickening feeling in your gut – it can be real. In today’s noisy online world it’s hard to grab the attention of potential readers. There’s simply a lot of choice and your author blog must be relevant if you are going to attract visitors.

But sadly even relevancy isn’t the only thing you’ll need to cut down the noise and to get the right visitors. Read this post on how to fix a new author blog with no traffic.

Blogging is great and content marketers sing its praises. And as an author trying to build an audience, create a platform and ultimately sell more books, you should too. But too many blogging authors dismiss the power of social media platforms to get exposure to their brand. Exposure to your brand is the key here. I know authors use social media, usually the wrong way. More on that in another post.

So let’s look at how you the ‘world’s greatest fiction author’ can get more exposure.

Offer Valuable Content

I know you’ve heard this a million times. But why do authors just post stuff about their latest book release, price drop or upcoming signing. Boring! Do you really think readers are sitting on the edge of their seats waiting for you to tell them that your latest masterpiece is now 99 cents. NO! You can mix some of this content in 10% of the time but readers are looking for information that is relevant to THEM not you!

There are a lot of social platforms where you can offer varying content. Mix it up with a video post about the benefits of print books over digital, write an article on what the ultimate price should be for a short read or just throw in an inspirational quote from a famous author.

Look at similar content (don’t plagiarise), personalise it to your own voice and release it on steroids. Don’t deliver the same ‘old ho hum’ stuff – give it stick!

Run A Contest

Great way to get eyeballs at any time but especially when your author blog is new. Your prize needs to be interesting and relevant. A night’s stay at a resort is nice but will it sell you more books? An Amazon gift card would be great, signed copies of books would be valuable or even a Kindle Pro would be useful for a reader to check out your books.

You can Google ‘giveaway sites’ to find a ton of places to promote your giveaway. One of my favourites is http://www.giveawaypromote.com

If you want to step it up a notch check out Rafflecopter or KingSumo – these professional giveaway software programmes create a very professional looking promotion for your contest.

Post Shareable Posts or Graphics

Let me start off by shocking you with an awful truth. People aren’t interested in YOU. They are only interested in themselves and how you can help them. They also live in a very negative world bombarded each day with thousands of noisy messages. No wonder depression is on the rise.

So the number one, numero uno, #1 type of post you can put on your social media platforms is an INSPIRATIONAL one. Inspiring posts win hands down and easily thump your boring ‘me me posts’.

Where do you find great posts?

They are everywhere. On Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr – everywhere. But collating all of them is time consuming and you should be writing your book, right? Yes that is right. That’s where the money is.

How will you know if your inspirational radar is in tune with your audience? Want to know a simple little trick that will get you tons of engagement, a huge reach and a bucket load of likes and shares? Use posts that have been PROVEN to have got lots of likes and shares. Simple but still time consuming. Here’s what I do.

I use the pro version of My Post Planner (http://www.mypostplanner.com) . For $9/mth I grab the best performing posts and send them to my Facebook and Twitter accounts. In fact on a Sunday morning I sit down, grab 3-4 posts a day and schedule my week; all in about 15-20 minutes. That’s right! The best 21-28 performing posts to my audience in just 15 minites for $9/mth. My Post Planner is awesome!

Run Ads

If your budget allows, run some ads. You can use Google Adwords or my preferred choice is Facebook. With 1.8 billion users, their audience is huge. Start off at just $5, promote your blog post AND add a bonus for visitors to get a BONUS report when they get your blog.

What To Write About

Your topic must be relevant and interesting to a reader. The simplest way to do this is to do some keyword research by jumping over to Google’s free keyword planner and putting in some keywords and grabbing the most popular searches. If you are a crime author search for the best crime authors, what makes a good crime plot, ideal book length etc.

But if you want a ninja tactic go to Buzzsumo.com and enter a competitor’s details and see what are their best performing posts. Buzzsumo free edition will allow you 1-5 searches a day of such content. You’ll get to see what has performed best by likes, shares and reach on Facebook and other platforms. Simply grab this high performing idea and make it better but DON’T copy.

Use the above tips and your new author blog will soon see a rise in traffic. What methods have you tried? What social media platforms do you prefer? Leave me a comment below.

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BIO

C T Mitchell writes mystery thriller short reads and novels that entertains readers worldwide. He is passionate about having non-readers becoming readers through short stories and fast reads because he knows ‘everybody loves a quickie’ Check out his short reads and author insights at http://www.TheShortReads.com