A 30 Day Experiment to Get More Blog Traffic Fast

I’m Starting an SEO Only Experiment for 30 Days… Oh, and it’s a FREE blog on WordPress.com

Growing a blog in 30 days is unrealistic. But with the right focus, you might be able to give your blog traffic a huge head start.

I will be spending the next 30 days focused on growing a new blog and getting more traffic. After 2 years of weekly blogging – and many changes in direction – I’ve decided to finally put all the tips and advice I’ve received into action.

This post is going to outline how I plan get more blog traffic, and what I hope to get out of this 30 day content experiment.

Covering topics like scheduling, topic selection, promotion, and more – this is my 30 day strategy to get more blog traffic.

What This Post Is Not

This post is not:

• Expert advice.
• Growth “hacks”.
• Guide on advertising a blog.

I am no expert. After all, I haven’t grown yet. I’m in the same position as whoever is reading this.

I am a creator who is sharing their learning in public.

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Why I Haven’t Grown in the 2 Years I’ve Been Blogging

InTakeCreate traffic hasn’t grown very much since I started it, and this is due to some obvious reasons.

• I was sloppily promoting with no solid focus.
• I wasn’t in a “niche”.
• Mixed in personal blog posts about family.
• No keyword research.

If you want your blog to just stay readable by your friends and people who already know you – do those things.

If you want to start growing a blog and getting more traffic each month, you have to utilize the tools and advice at our disposal. Even if some of it is annoying and missing nuance.

How I Plan to Grow a New Blog in 30 Days

I’ll be starting a new blog, hosted on a free WordPress.com plan. It won’t be InTakeCreate related. Instead, I’ll finally be allowing myself to write about Pro Wrestling.

My strategy for growing this new blog in 30 days is really going to come down to 4 steps.

1. Set a Publishing Schedule
2. Stick to a “niche”.
3. Learn More About Keyword Research
4. Minimal Promotion.

What I Won’t Be Doing

• Buying followers
• Buying email lists
• Advertising
• Spamming links

Setting a Publishing Schedule

The very first step for growing a blog is straightforward. You have to post.

I have set a strict one post a week plan. With room for shorter pieces throughout the week if I can manage it.

I don’t believe that you have to post every single day, or even every week to guarantee better SEO rankings. Though by publishing more, you do get more opportunities at ranking.

The real benefit of a strict once a week regime is keeping it top of mind.

If I want to grow a blog in 30 days, I have to be working on it whenever I can. By giving myself a due date every week, I add in a sense of responsibility that will *hopefully* ensure I do the work.

Picking a Niche, and Sticking to It.

New bloggers are left at sea, wading in an ocean of bad advice around “niches”.

Every direction has different advice, and takes on niche. From not believing in them, to seeing them as a superpower. When left weighing the advice, new bloggers often have no idea how to implement it or where to start.

Counter-intuitively, once you start publishing, it makes more sense. I really don’t think you can start out with a clear “niche” in mind. Instead, you start publishing and you get a feel for what comes naturally and what resonates.

Combining what comes naturally with what resonates with your early audience is how you create a niche.

You create a niche, not pick one.

Nicolas Cole on Twitter talks about this point quite often. You don’t just pick a niche from a drop down menu. You create it from an amalgamation of your life experience, your skills, and your target audience.

Keyword Research

Keyword research is essential for any blog that wants to grow. There are a lot of tools available, but for the sake of an accessible challenge for new bloggers, I won’t be using any paid tools.

Instead, I’ll be using a concoction of free tools from Google.

• Trends
• Search
• Keyword Planner

When I know of a topic I want to write about, or a problem I want to solve, I’ll hammer a myriad of searches into these 3 platforms and start trying to think like a Google searcher.

It is clearly essential for growing your blog traffic. Though it is the area I am the weakest in, so I’ll be spending my time learning as much as I can about it.

Here’s the 2 biggest tips I do know going in:

• Target specific, low volume searches
• Google your keyword, and visit the results

Blog Promotion is a Distraction

The final step in my process is promotion. But instead of building out content designed to promote these posts, I am going to ignore the social media accounts for the 30 Days.

Focusing on SEO will hopefully to prove more effective than social media promotion.

In the 2 years I’ve been blogging I would share my links on Facebook, a few odd places on Reddit, and sloppily share on Twitter. These are not good tactics for social media promotion.

Since re-launching InTakeCreate a few weeks ago, I was deeply focused on creating a solid social media plan. All this did was distract me from actually writing any content.

Of course, I’ll still be active on Twitter on my personal account. But not pursuing promotion.

The Most Important Advice to New Blogs Trying to Grow

Now, since you’ve followed all the way through this 30 day plan, I have bad news.

Expecting a blog to grow in 30 days is unrealistic.

Blogging is a Long Term Strategy

It doesn’t matter how many SEO videos I watch on YouTube, or how many green lights I get in my WordPress dashboard. Growth isn’t fast.

Sadly, this rushed mindset is one in which many bloggers and content creators get trapped. Eager to grow, they push themselves hard at the beginning and doubt their capabilities when the growth doesn’t happen automatically.

This 30 day challenge is not a plan to grow my traffic astronomically. This is a 30 day challenge to get the snowball rolling.

By having a deep focus on blog growth for 30 days, I am allowing myself the space to build proper habits and processes that can keep the momentum going.

Join the Challenge

I’m going to be Tweeting along this little experiment, so follow me on Twitter to see the results.

If you want to do this challenge along with me, make your first post a public declaration of growth. Lay out your plan. Then share it with #InTakeCreate. I’d be happy to steal your ideas…