3 Great Marketing Strategies for Bloggers With Limited Time

If you’re anything like me, you don’t have much free time to blog. Many of us just don’t have the time to spend four hours a day blogging. We’ve got the day job, family, social life, and other things taking up our time. So anything that can really help improve our blog without spending too much time is a good thing.

In this post, I’ll share the top three methods in my experience that provide the best results in the least amount of time. One disclaimer before we start. Just because these methods don’t take a lot of time doesn’t mean you won’t be working hard to implement them. The methods are based on creating something of value and doing that requires a little bit of determination, focus, and effort.

With that in mind, let’s go to the first strategy.

1. Keyword-Based Posts

One thing I’ve found is that if you’re intentional with using keywords in your posts, you’ll get a lot more traffic than simply writing whatever comes to mind. I’ve checked out many of the popular blogs in my niche and they don’t use keywords well. These blogs have many more links than me but I outrank them for key search terms because I do keyword research and insert the keywords in my posts.

You don’t have to spend months learning SEO to use this tactic. The process is simple.

First, do some keyword research.

Check out your keyword logs and see what keywords are driving traffic to your site. You can usually find keyword patterns that you can capitalize on. For example, let’s say you have a pet blog. You check your logs and see that you have a bunch of traffic for the keyword labrador retriever training tips. With this in mind, you can be sure to get traffic by targeting similar keywords by just substituting the name of the dog breed. Create posts that go after keywords like dachshund training tips and german shepherd training tips.

Also, think of some common search terms in your niche and then enter them in Google’s keyword tool. The tool will give you a lot of related keywords that you can use.

Then, simply include the keywords in the title tags of your posts.

That’s all there is too it. Yet, many bloggers don’t take use this strategy and they end up missing out on a lot of traffic.

2. Flagship Posts

I got the term “flagship” from Chris Garrett’s great ebook, Killer Flagship Content. Definitely check it out for more information. Flagship posts are posts that have a ton of value. They are comprehensive and longer than your average post. They are the type of posts that people bookmark and send to their friends.

You won’t be writing these posts in less than an hour, but they are great for your blog. Most posts are just not very good. This is sad to say but if you look at the average blog, their posts are not memorable at all. Flagship posts are therefore great at setting yourself apart and helping readers remember your blog.

For example, one of the blogs in my niche has really grown to be very popular. They’ve only been around for less than a year and they don’t post very often – around two posts a week. But each post is very good. They average about 1200 words per post and they routinely go over the 1600 word mark. Each post has relevant pictures and they use formatting wisely with headings and paragraphs so the posts look organized and are attractive to the eye. Their posts are so meaty that they only show 2 posts on their front page.

You can tell they put a lot of effort into their posts. As a result, they have a big audience with many repeat visitors that regularly comment on their posts.

This strategy may need a little promotional push especially if you have a new blog and don’t have an existing audience to spread the word about your blog. That brings me to the third strategy.

3. Guest Posting on Popular Blogs

Sending a guest post to a top blog and then having them publish it brings many dividends. You get your blog exposed to a big readership base and you connect yourself to a top blogger. Also, you brand yourself as an authority figure since you were able to get published on a reputable site.

The quality of your guest post is important. Most top blogs won’t take any post. They are looking for something of high quality. As such, I would treat these posts just like flagship posts from the previous strategy. Also, the better your post is, the more likely people will visit your blog and become a regular reader.

If you can’t seem to get published on the top blogs, then a publishing on popular forum can be an alternative. However, it shouldn’t be too hard to get a guest post on top blogs as long as you have a really good post for them. Therefore, don’t be afraid to send them quality guest posts. Blogs are always looking for fresh content so you have a great chance of being published.

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15 thoughts on “3 Great Marketing Strategies for Bloggers With Limited Time

  1. I think these tips are really basic and easy to follow. I appreciate how you outlined detail by detail these tips for your readers to easily grasp the thought behind this post. Thanks a lot and hoping to see new SEO tips on this site!

  2. Wonderful post filled with many great ideas. I’ve already started to pay attention to what drives traffic to my site, but I didn’t think to associate or substitute a term to drive more traffic. Thank you for the valuable insight.

  3. I think guest posts are the key but probably because I haven’t tried it yet but am hoping it will work when I do:)

    I understand the principle of key words but as my blog is only 6 months old not sure if Google has really noticed it yet although my blog has been found by people searching for ludicrous key words and even, once or twice, by related terms.

    Thanks for your ideas, I appreciate it!

  4. The perfect amount of info for almost anyone … no matter their level.
    I think the name would be “Three Bears Post” with all of them being just right though.

    I appreciate your points because brevity does not seem to be a word in my dictionary… (with the hope of offering value). Wonder if someone says something, I will refer them to your post and let them know I am working to have “Flagship Posts”.. (Though with the limited time I am looking to the fence on the other side and thinking….. keyword posts)

    This is a hidden gem. Thank you!
    Mike

  5. Well put, although these seem obvious I never would have thought to focus on these things as all. My first thought was to get tons of smaller posts out there for indexing but maybe I need to revisit that thought 😀

  6. Out of the three is the Keyword base is the one I like most, but all in all I agree with the idea and I must admit this true and reliable steps.

  7. I agree with this list and want to add a few things:

    You should do a lot of keyword research for synonyms. There are several google keyword tools giving you synonyms. Or just search your competition and look for words they use. And by the way using synonyms makes the post better to read. Instead of saying one and the same word over and over again just use other variations.

  8. Regarding number one, try and make sure and use the keyword in the first 100 words, which shouldn’t be difficult as you’d be introducing your topic anyway. Also, try to use it again in the last 100 words.

  9. @Kat

    Readers are definitely an unpredictable bunch when it comes to commenting. I don’t really know why that phenomenon happens. I’ve experienced the same thing with my posts.

  10. These are good suggestions. I also think it’s worth considering that different kinds of content offer different benefits – I’m often disappointed when readers comment way more often on posts that I would consider lower quality – even though more are reading the more popular ones. Do you have any thoughts on why that happens?

  11. I agree with all 3 points but I must admit I’ve yet to start doing point number 2 – flagship posts.

    And point number one – i.e. looking at previous keyword phrases that have brought you traffic is such a simple thing to implement – thanks for the reminder!

    Andrew

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