Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you click through a link and make a purchase, it will earn me a small commission, at no additional cost to you! See our disclaimer for details.

4 Steps to Get More Blog Traffic 

On this blog I focus primarily on money management, budgeting, saving money, and investing. So, why am I discussing my blog traffic?

Simple! Answer this question: If you are a blogger, why did you decide to take this journey?

You probably needed some extra cash on hand each month, or you wanted to escape the corporate world and be more independent. No matter your unique situation, blogging is a great form of passive income and a way that many people attain extra cash, pay off more bills, get rid of debt, and get just a bit closer to financial freedom!

With that said, if you don’t get traffic, you don’t get nearly the opportunity to monetize and earn money. 

Over my first year and a half of blogging, I went through some serious learning curves but I’m now earning over $1,000 a month and spending less than 10 hours a week blogging.

In this article I will go in-depth to discuss why your blog is not getting traffic and how to fix it, based on my experience with SEO, affiliate marketing, and social media!

In short, the reasons your blog is not making money is because you aren’t using your time wisely, you keep comparing yourself to other bloggers, you are not utilizing social media correctly, and you aren’t using the correct SEO approaches!

Everyone’s blogging experience is unique, but these 4 tips will be a great help to boost your blog’s traffic!  

1. The Time Commitment is No Joke!

Tip #1: Have Realistic Expectations

A huge issue with new bloggers is the expectation that they will start earning hundreds per month right away.

You’ll see countless articles on Pinterest, promising that you’ll be able to achieve amazing results, fast.

Sure, some people can. But, do you have the ideal situation to do this?

If you have no children, no full-time job, about $1000 ready to spend, many hours per day available, graphic design experience, are technologically-savvy, and have at least 1 other person to help, then yes, your chances of quick success are significantly higher.

Unfortunately, we aren’t all that way.

If you are preparing to start a blog, then you are at a perfect opportunity to set realistic and appropriate goals! Here are some pointers to keep in mind: 

• You are highly unlikely to gain 1000+ followers on social media every month
• You probably won’t be making hundreds of dollars, even after a few months
• You may get rejected from affiliates and have to spend hours learning how to optimize your website

Now, these are just based on experience, from reading innumerable blog articles and speaking with other bloggers. You could always be an exception!

A tip I highly encourage is to grab a journal and document your progress every month. Or, make progress/income reports on your blog every month or quarterly.

Also, I just recently completed a full course from Create And Go that promises to get you to your first $1,000! I’ve included a handful of tips that I learned within this article, but be sure to check the course out!

Some improvements to consider for improving traffic:

• Graphics and Layout – you can always change pictures, color palettes, and fonts at any time. Check out other popular blogs to see where you could improve!
• Social Media – this is a never-ending journey for everyone, us included! It’s a fun challenge to figure out what colors, designs, fonts, and sizes bring the most traffic. 
• SEO – Pinterest SEO is really unique but really important to learn! Go look up some ways to improve your pins to get more traffic. It’ll be worth it!

Before reading further, be sure to read through the 5 Reasons You Shouldn’t Be a Blogger!

Tip #2: Set Goals and Re-evaluate

There just is not enough time in the day to achieve everything on your to-do list! Can you relate?

With blogging, there is a never-ending list of tasks to get done! 

Make more pins, research marketing, make design tweaks to your website, read books for blogging advice, write regular articles, look up affiliates and monetization methods, analyze your analytics…the list goes on and on!

If you are struggling with finding enough time to get everything done for your blog, one of the best places to start is to set goals.

Seriously, you do not want to burn out from blogging.

To set proper goals, think about what you want your blog to look like in 1 month, 6 months, 1 year, and 5 years. Write down everything from how much money you are earning, to social media followers. Add in whatever is most important to you, your audience, your niche, and to your family.

After writing down your long-term goals, set smaller goals. Make daily and weekly goals. If you really are having a hard time finding time to get your to-do done for your blog, the daily goals can help a ton!

Some ideas for daily goals can include:

• Make 3 pins
• Research 1 monetization method
• Read 3 articles about blogging to increase your Pinterest SEO/affiliates/emails/etc.
• Write out ideas for future articles
• Write out an outline for 1 article

Tip #3: Be Real with Yourself

What is your family life like? Your work life? As in, realistically, how can your blogging fit in with your personal situation?

As mentioned above, it requires ridiculous amounts of time and effort to write articles, learn how to blog, set up a website, learn additional skills, edit, market, etc. How much time per day can you devote to your new side hustle?

If you can only give one hour a day, then set expectations that reflect that reality. If you have 8 hours a day, then you can expect to achieve your goals sooner, or better.

You are doing the best you can! If you aren’t doing so, then use this as a motivational tool. You always have time, but it’s about how you delegate that time.

A few ways to fit blogging into your Busy day: 

• Manually pin on Pinterest while on the toilet (admit it, you have your phone with you anyway!)
• Watch YouTube advice videos about blogging while getting ready in the morning
• Listen to a blogging podcast while on a jog
• Make 1 new pin before going to bed 

2. Failing is Normal!

Tip #4: Don’t Compare Your Beginning With Someone’s Middle

If there is any advice, it is to keep this in mind!

You clicked on this article because you wanted to know how to make your blog more successful. Understandable. But, what does “success” look like to you?

Is “success” the bloggers who have been writing for years, have 100k+ followers on Pinterest, and make $30,000+ per month? If that is how you measure success, and you have only been blogging for 3 months, then it is critical you realize that blogging takes time!

If you spend your time looking at all the pins on Pinterest talking about “How I make six figures blogging in only 3 months!” type of blogs, and comparing yourself to them, then you may be doing yourself a disservice! 

Tip #5: Making Money Takes Time

Every niche is different, every person’s personal situation is different, and your blog will be very different than every other blog out there!

I’ve spoken with bloggers who didn’t earn for 8 months, despite posting articles weekly, pinning often, and trying their best to do all they could. Yet, others are able to start earning hundreds within a few short months. 

There are plenty of bloggers out there who say, “Make thousands with these affiliates!”, or something along the lines of, “learn how to make $1000/month in a few hours!”.

 Making money is also getting harder by the day due to the insane increase of new bloggers. Affiliates are paying out less (I’m looking at you, Amazon), and the blogging market is getting oversaturated!

If you are looking into making money by blogging, think ahead about what will make your blog unique to others. What could you offer that is different than any other. Why should someone read your blog over every other option on Pinterest or Google?

Just keep in mind that a reason you aren’t successful as a blogger at the moment could be that your blog just isn’t unique enough at the moment! Maybe your articles could use a facelift, or you could make a few design adjustments.

3. Social Media is Your Best Friend (and Worst Enemy)!

Tip #6: Learn Continuously and Never Stop Trying

If you are having trouble with getting viewers, it is highly recommended that you check out how to optimize your Pinterest SEO!

Pinterest seems simple to use and easy to understand. Yet, as a blogger, there is a lot to it!

If you don’t already have a Pinterest for your blog, get that started! Pinterest is the best way to get viewers to your blog, as stated by countless bloggers!

There is a lot to learn with Pinterest and SEO in general, so I suggest researching how to improve your traffic  through the following articles:

• The Blogger’s SEO Bible: Simple Steps to Years of Success
• Tailwind for New Bloggers: What I Learned After Years of Blogging
• How to Get Free Traffic to Your Site Through this Social Media Hack!

Tip #7: Get Yourself Tailwind and Actually Use It

Tailwind is a unique service that posts pins on Pinterest and shares onto your Instagram for you! 

If you are an established blogger already, I can almost guarantee that you already have an account with them.

Instead of going into the depths of this software, go learn about how Tailwind can be a blogger’s life saver in the articles I linked to above!

However, if you don’t have an account, just know that it saves you incredible time and will help you down the road when you get to be in my situation where I have a full time job and don’t have extra time to spare!  

If you are interested in trying out Tailwind for free, you can click here for a full month’s worth of pins! It’s at least worth the try!

4. Your Business will Thrive, Your Hobby will Survive

Tip #8: Set Your Intentions

Give this a good thought: Is your blog not succeeding because you’re treating it as a hobby instead of a business?

How to know the difference between a hobby blog and a business blog:

• If you do not think about it daily, and don’t try to constantly improve your blog
• If you keep your blog hidden to yourself, or don’t ask for help from others
• If you are not investing money into it’s success (services to improve the website, courses, email, etc.)
• If you avoid writing articles, if you see working on the blog as a chore, or if you don’t have regular schedules
• If you don’t have goals written out for your blog, both short-term and long-term goals

Once you treat your blog as a business, everything will change! You’ll have more passion for it, and you’ll actually be excited to work on it!

By sitting down and writing out your goals, or by spending time every day to daydream/meditate about your blog’s success, you’ll be much more motivated to work on it and work toward those goals of yours!

[Be sure you don’t miss out on learning how any new blogger in any niche can make money from affiliates!

Tip #9: Try New Approaches Regularly

The last, and best piece of advice is simply to never stop trying.

There are tons of methods to blogging, and it doesn’t hurt to keep trying until you figure out what works for you! This could mean making new designs for your pins, changing up your website, or using a different posting schedule.

If what you are not doing right now isn’t resulting in what you want, then it is an opportunity to do something different.

It does not mean you are unsuccessful. It does not mean your blog is not great already. It does not mean you can’t be an amazing blogger. It just means that you need to try something different!

Hopefully this post offered you at least one idea as to how you can improve your blogging experience! It isn’t always easy.

And, for those of you reading who haven’t begun your blog, be sure to keep these tips in mind. You have endless potential, but don’t let yourself get burnt out or defeated before your blog could explode with traffic, for example.

It takes the right person to make good money blogging, but it takes time, endless effort, and dedication. It takes resilience. 

Keep researching, keep trying, and use today as an opportunity to discover one way you can improve!

here are some extra articles to learn from!

• Step 1: Discover If You Will Succeed as a Blogger
• Step 2: Set Up Your First Blog
• Step 3: Learn How to Set Up Social Media
• Step 4: Learn Exactly How SEO Works
• Step 5: Make Money As a Brand New Blogger