How To Beat A Traffic Plateau

This post is not really related to this site, but if I hadn’t taken steps to avoid an early plateau, it definitely would be. 9 weeks ago I published my very first post and the site has been getting busier ever since. Over 1,500 comments on over 140 posts, but it would be far to easy to stay at this level.

I want more, I want to help more people and listen to even more readers views, I want more emails asking my advice on things. Now all websites level off then climb again, level and climb, but for me and others reading this post, what if you want to minimize those leveling off periods?

• Spark

Most people know about my background, it’s something I’m not proud of, but in a way I am thankful. Having nothing makes you thankful when you do have something, no matter how small. The other thing it gives me is the ability to never expect anything. I know you have to work hard and I know my reasons for working hard.

Whether it be more time with your family, publishing your own book, or leaving the dead end job you’re in, use it. Use the energy that it gives you and get to work. If that means working even harder to stop your traffic levelling off by working more on your promotion or producing more content, then do it and remember why you are doing it.

• Evaluate

I’m always going on about how young this site is (9 weeks old in case you missed it) and one of the reasons for this is because I’m constantly looking at where I have come from to where I am going. What worked, what didn’t, what hasn’t been tried yet. All this is going through my tiny mind all day and to be honest I think it’s important that it does.

Imagine a military patrol deep behind enemy lines, no support, just 4 guys and a mission. They don’t think that they are safe because the first few miles were OK. Constantly evaluating the situation, not predicting what will happen (that will lead to disaster) but watching and remembering.

Did that controversial post bring in tons of traffic or did it back fire? When you had a guest post published on that site, did it increase your sales? Think about your past to make sure you employ the correct tactics.

Quick caveat on that would be, make sure you are careful not to overcook things as you could quickly end up in a rut, it’s easy for a pattern to emerge and take over, so evaluate and keep it fresh.

• Fight

Passion, fire, excitement, all things you need to keep you in the fight. It could have been quite easy for me to run with the life someone decided was for me. I didn’t want it and did everything I could to fight my way out. Why did you start in the first place? What was your aim and goal? Well stop putting up with this life and traffic and go and get more. Make sure you never give up on what you really want.

Even stale bread makes croutons. I’ve come from nothing, but here I am now with a 9 week old website that’s got over 1,500 comments on it and ranked as the 36,000 most popular website in the US.

• Stop Reading

Get out there and spread your content, write for others, have others write for you. Get help from your local business centre and more importantly stop wasting time. If you visit a site and add a comment to add value to the post and at the same time leave your link, that’s great. But if all you do is read facebook or play games, or anything else that’s not productive, have a very strong word with yourself.

I visit other sites all the time, I leave my crumbs everywhere I go, but I still have fresh content and reader interaction as my number 1 priority. Get your business done first, then if it means you need to stay up late answering emails and promoting your content then so be it, but at least the reason you are doing everything else is sorted.

photo credit: p_c_w

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Tagged as: beat traffic, plateau