Do you need a gigantic blog to drive traffic and results? At the start of a new quarter, I like to look back on the past quarter and year. I delve into what worked and what didn’t work so well here on Inspire to Thrive.
Often, I try new things here and like to share them with you. You can learn from my mistakes and grow with my successes. In the past, we always talked about driving traffic to our blogs. But traffic alone is no longer what is needed to grow your blog or your small business.
After all, you spend so much time working on your blog or small business that you no longer want to waste any time. You will want to see results and not just traffic coming to your site.
You want people to click on your calls to action and make a purchase or sign up for an event, etc.
Table of Contents
What Do I Mean By Blogging Results?
Results are when people perform an action you want on your website or blog. They purchase a product, they download a pdf or they sign up for email.
I also looked at the bounce rate for various sources of traffic – most from the entire year of 2017 and again in 2024. A high bounce rate shows me people do not stay here long enough to read something nor do they perform any type of action.
I wrote about bounce rates 3 years ago, read more on bounce rates.
Now that we are in 2024 Google no longer measures the bound rate of websites.
High Bounce Rate Sites
The websites that produce a high bounce rate for the blogs included: Stumble Upon, Flipboard, Dlvr.it (social automation tool) content studio i.o (another automation tool), and Facebook referrals, – yes, that’s a surprise. (the mobile Facebook was slightly better but not good at 92%)
What Are Facebook referrals?
**A Side Note – Business Facebook – From the Facebook page the bounce rate is much lower at just 38% – so sharing from the Inspire To Thrive Facebook page vs. my personal or your personal may be the way to go.
(Although you must stay on top of Facebook and the algorithm that changes constantly!)
I have known for years Stumble Upon had a very high bounce rate, 99-100%! It’s not a website I use but my readers did share there.
On the other hand, I loved using Flipboard over the years. It generated lots of traffic but the bounce rate was fairly high for the past years overall at 90%.
5 Surefire Ways to Drive Results To Your Blog
1. Commenting On Other Blogs Drives Referrals
One of the highest referrals comes from other blogs or websites. These happen when you comment on other niche blogs or do guest posts on other blogs. The bounce rate from these other gigantic blogs was extremely low.
What do I consider a gigantic blog? A gigantic blog is one that lasts for years and has over 500 blog posts.
2. Participating in Forums and Online Communities
Biz Sugar – This online community drove a lot of traffic for me back in 2017. The bounce rate was a little high over 70%. Biz Sugar came in #10 of all my top traffic drivers.
It continued to do so in 2023 but slowed in 2024. I then moved over to Reddit forums.
More Places to Participate
Triberr – Not bad at a 61% bounce rate and #27 for my overall traffic source. I have been using the Triberr lite for years now and still recommend this tool to every blogger as they grow their blog into a gigantic one.
Quora – I loved being part of the Quora community in 2017. This one started to drive traffic after 6 months of answering questions there daily. (I had almost given up!) The bounce rate was a little high at 75%. But the traffic has really started to ramp up and continues in 2024.
Quora Sidenote: Do not put links in all your answers. You can get banned from Quora. I saw Neil Patel once got banned there so beware! He since has been reinstated.
3. Using Social Automation Tools
Not only do these social automation tools save you time sharing content on the big social networks but some can produce some results for you. You must choose the right ones though!
You may remember what happened to users of CoPromote last year. It is very important to see what is happening to your content once you use these types of tools.
There is no sense in using these tools if they produce a 100% bounce rate. That will only hurt your blog or website. The folks over at The Buffer just did a post if these 3rd party tools hurt engagement or reach.
Their results showed it really depended on the content itself more than where the shares were coming from. Love to know what you find in your Google stats – please let me know in the comments below!
The Two Easy Ones For Re-Sharing
Viral Content Bee – This is another site similar to the old JustRetweet where you share others’ content and they share yours. You can search by category and more. The bounce rate I had was 78 % in past years.
I have found it improved over the past few months with more users on board. It appears they recently eliminated Twitter which was a big draw and source of traffic for the blog.
Blog Engage – This blogging network is a great place to share your content and others. You can also pay to have them share it on their social networks. A great way to extend your reach in the blogosphere..
Share Biz Sugar – One of my favorite networking sites with other small businesses. A place to comment and share content.
4. Social Media Sites That Drive Results To Your Blog
X/Twitter – My favorite social network X/Twitter drew my 3rd largest source of traffic to the blog here. It followed direct and organic traffic. The bounce rate was just over 70%.
Facebook – This one followed after Twitter and Flipboard but at a 92% bounce rate. If you saw my notes above, the rate was lower from the Business Facebook vs personal. Interesting that we can now see that in our google analytics.
The other stat I saw was the regular Facebook from desktop had a lower bounce rate for the business page – Inspire to Thrive at 66%. Does this mean Facebook doesn’t like us using our personal pages to promote our blogs or businesses?
Pinterest – I didn’t start out strong with this platform in the past but now using the right vertical images it has increased a lot. You can see how many views I’ve been averaging a month on that social platform below. Not only that but it brings targeted traffic to the site.
The Instagram Surprise That Drives Results To Your Blog
Instagram – This social site came in at a lower bounce rate – at 50%. This one was a surprise to me since I didn’t promote the blog on Instagram. That changed when stories came about and I was able to add links to them.
If you missed Dexter’s post on getting started with Instagram here do read it. He has it filled with some great Instagram tips to get you started if you haven’t jumped on.
One more new note: You can add link stickers to your Instagram stories! That has been a game-changer along with reels.
Other Surprises in Driving Traffic to Your Blog or Website
LinkedIn – My #14 source of traffic with an over 80% bounce rate. I did not post too many articles via LinkedIn Pulse as time was of the essence for me. But if you have time I would recommend it. It did help draw some decent traffic back to the blog.
This is a great way to drive results to your blog if your post there regularly as I’ve seen Ravi Chahar and Anthony Gaenzle do.
5. Other Digital Sources To Drive Results To Your Blog
These sources don’t drive a lot of traffic but some do generate results for the blog here. Furthermore, most of these don’t require any work after you have them set up, others do.
Feedly -50% bounce rate. Another surprise for me to see the results from this one.
Alltop – This is an old one I’ve had since the beginning of Inspire to Thrive. It’s a website with topics that one can search for and various blogs show up in the search. It has a fairly low 50% bounce rate. If you are not in this Alltop directory I would recommend it. They are known for “All the top headlines from popular topics around the web”.
Medium – 66% bounce rate, a few from the traffic. It’s a great way to network with others that have gigantic blogs on Medium. Recently I published about my decade of blogging.
Medium has changed their membership to a paid one now but you can still use the FREE one. I’d love to know in the comments if anyone is using that new paid subscription there.
I have gone with premium for 2 years so I can read and comment more on Medium.
And More Places To Drive Traffic to Your Blog
Listly – I used to like this site but it didn’t generate much traffic but when it does it’s a nice 33% bounce rate. List.ly could be another one to reconsider in the coming year. In 2023 I’ve used it more and it’s been generating a little more traffic with a paid subscription.
Bonus Tips To See Results – Gigantic Blog Or Not
Guest posting on other blogs – This is one of the ways I found that did not directly drive much traffic for me. But it did help to drive results to my blog. It did this by helping me reach more people than if I had only blogged here.
It also helped me to grow my presence on many social networks. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor contact me today.
Use a child theme for Your WordPress Site – Enstine explains here why this is important for your blog.
Do you still think web traffic slows down in the summer? You may be surprised to learn summer does not affect blog traffic as it used to.
Here are 7 weird and wonderful ways to get your business noticed today in the competitive landscape.
Final Words: Small Blogs Can Drive Traffic Just As Much As Gigantic Blogs
Your blog doesn’t need to be gigantic to drive traffic. You can have a smaller, newer blog and still drive traffic especially if you SEO the right way. Recently I purchased SEMrush and it’s made a big difference in the traffic to my blog here and my newer small blog as well.
It’s never too late to get started.
Your Turn
Finally, I’d love to know in the comments below how you drive results to your blog or small business website. Do you believe you need a gigantic blog to drive more blog traffic?