...and do it without lists, without JV partners, without name recognition and without advertising? Peep Laja was a brand new blogger who knew he would have to do something different to get visitors to his brand new Conversion XL blog. And to put this in perspective in case you're not a blogger yet, getting 50,000 visitors in your very first month is akin to winning the lottery - it rarely happens and when it does it can pay off big. So what did he do? We broke his methods into these steps: 1. Choose a niche you're passionate about. Peep chose conversion optimization because it's closest to his heart, and it's also what his company does. 2. Make some quick posts to make it appear as though your blog has been around for awhile. Peep already had 10 or 15 posts from previous work that he could immediately publish. Hopefully you already have some content written, whether it's articles, an ebook, etc. Break whatever you have down into blog posts and post them. If you don't have content already written, it's up to you whether or not you take this step. By having content already on your blog it appears as though you've been doing it for awhile, but posting inferior content that you rushed to write is never helpful if someone should actually want to read it. 3. Do your research. Peep researched what kind of blog posts take off in his niche, and which get the most shares on social media. His research showed him that he needed to write really long posts - between 2200 and 3000 words, and he needed to use mixed media that included bullet points, video, images, sub headlines, etc. And his research showed that "how to" posts or posts that people can apply to their business or life are the most popular. 4. Apply what you learn. Once he did his research, Peep knew just what to do and he did it. 5. Think about distribution. You can write your posts according to what your research finds works best, but that still won't initially get your article in front of people. Even the most shared blog posts in the world have to first be seen before they are shared, and if you have no traffic to begin with, you've got to find it. So what Peep did was tailor his first post specifically to the audience of a social news website that he read everyday called Hacker News. By tailoring it to that specific audience, there was an excellent chance they would love it and share it. 6. Write amazing content. Peep spent 3-4 days writing his initial post. That's right - 3-4 DAYS, not hours. Make your content great. 7. Use what contacts you have. Don't have any? Get some. Peep started the ball rolling by having a handful of friends give his post a bump so that people would begin checking it out. The post was good, it took off and as he says, the rest was history. 8. Capture email addresses and ask for social shares. Be sure to place your opt-in box on every page, both in the right hand column and again at the end of the article. And ask your readers - if they found your post helpful - to share it via social media. 9. Rinse and repeat. Peep found a formula that worked, so he did it again and again, each time focusing and targeting his newest blog post to a very specific distribution channel. You might not hit the 50,000 mark your first month, but if you follow these steps you could very well hit it within 2 to 3 months, even in a smaller niche. Imagine if you capture just 20% of that traffic - that's an email list of 12,500. Not a bad way to start a blog.
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