A blogger’s dream is to drive a ton of traffic to their site. The holy grail is to have that traffic coming back every month. Traffic brings followers, comments, an email list, and income.
But other than reminding people you have new posts, how do you get people coming back every month?
You create a resource. A valuable resource that becomes a part of their routine.
What’s a Resource?
A resource is anything your readers use to reference on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. It is a tool you create to make their lives easier or better. If your resource improves their lives you have a winner on your hands!
A resource can be a:
- Checklist
- Reference Guide
- Plan
- Toolkit
- Challenges
Why is a Resource a Good Strategy?
A resource is a great marketing strategy because you are helping people. The more you help people and become a part of their routine, the more they will remember you. This recognition will drive them back to your blog.
Also, they are likely to share your resource with people who are just like them. At that point your resource is a marketing magnet!
Your resource is also something you can promote on social media sites and in Facebook groups. It is different from what other bloggers are doing and will set you apart from others in your niche!
What Do Your Offer
Now that you see the opportunity in creating a resource how do you decide what to offer? This requires some research on your part. You want to find out what people in your niche are struggling with. If you have done this research for your email list or your blog posts refer to those answers.
Here are the three main steps I suggest for deciding on what to offer your readers as a resource.
1. Look at your popular blog posts
If you have blogged for a while go into your Google Analytics and look at your most popular blog posts. Make a list of the top three posts and brainstorm ideas. What could you create for bonus content that would make people’s lives easier?
2. Look at competitors popular posts
Next check out five popular bloggers in your niche. Which posts are getting the most comments and shares? Make a list of their top three posts and take the same brainstorming steps. What can you create that goes above and beyond this content to help people?
3. Look on Social Media
Finally do some social media spying. Look for popular Facebook groups in your niche and look for questions that people are asking. Follow hashtags on Twitter and see what people are sharing. Make a list and brainstorm even more ideas for a resource to create.
Do the research for each of these steps. You want to make sure you are offering something people want, not what you think they need. This is how to create a resource that drives people to your blog every month.
Ideas for Resources
Here are a few of my brainstorming ideas for different blogging niches to get you started:
Social Media Bloggers: Social Media Prompts
Food Bloggers: Meal Plans; bonus if it is specific like for kids, gluten-free, etc.
Parenting Bloggers: Bucket list to do with kids every month
Organizing Bloggers: Rooms to organize, tips to declutter each month
Personal Finance: Hidden budget items that people forget about for that month
Spiritual: Monthly Bible Study plans
Health/Wellness: Different workout routines for the month
Bonus Idea: Make it a Lead Magnet
As you know I am all about building your email list whenever you can. A bonus idea is to turn your resource into a lead magnet. Make people give you their email address in exchange for our awesome resource. Keep your resource behind a landing page so people can’t access it on your blog. Create a “resource” list in your email service provider. Then send out an email when you update your resource.
All bloggers, myself included, are looking for ways to drive traffic to our blogs. We wouldn’t be blogging if we didn’t want that engagement! But in a sea of millions of bloggers we have to be different. One way to do this is to offer a resource to your readers that helps them. Take the time to get to know what your readers want and create a resource for them. Your goal is to create a resource that becomes a part of their routine. Something they reference every single month. This simple act will keep traffic coming back to your blog regular basis!