25. What’s On Your Traffic Wishlist?

Stephanie 0:01

Tis the season for wish lists and goal setting. No matter the length of your traffic wish list, there is one thing that you should definitely keep in mind for 2025. Let's chat about it.

Stephanie 0:15

Hey there, teacher business owner. It's time to give your bank account a break and pause that ad campaign. I'm your host, Stephanie Royer, and I'm going to show you how to pay less for traffic.

Stephanie 0:26

Welcome back to the podcast. I cannot believe that December is here already and the new year is just around the corner. I thought that this month would be a great time for us to talk about our hopes and dreams for traffic in 2025 so let's just dive right in and talk about what is on your traffic wish list.

Stephanie 0:50

The beauty of a wish list is that it's an opportunity to dream. You get to put those dreams into words and think about what life would be like if those wishes were brought to fruition. When it comes to your own traffic wish list, I would love for you to take just a minute to think about what is at the top of your list. You could even pause this podcast and say it out loud to yourself. I think that most TPT sellers would say that they want to get more traffic to their shops, and as a result, more income from product sales. As with any wish, it's fun to think about what life would be like if that wish came true, and so think about that for just a second. What would happen in your life if you were getting more traffic to your TPT store? I mean, first, it would be so exciting to know that you are saving teachers from some of the overwhelm that you experienced in the classroom. And then, of course, the breathing room in your budget that you would have by getting that increased income from that TPT traffic. And then also it would all just lead to more motivation to keep creating. Because I don't know about you, but it's hard to keep the content creation wheel going when you feel like you're not seeing a return on that investment. And so by getting more eyes on your products, you just are more motivated to keep going. So yes, it's exciting to think about the reality of getting more TPT traffic, but if we want this wish to become a reality, we need to turn it into a measurable and attainable goal. It's just like the common saying, a goal without a plan is just a wish. And so let's chat about how you can stop wishing for more traffic, and how you can start making that a reality instead.

Stephanie 3:05

The steps to getting more traffic to a TPT store, it really can look different for everyone, because some people might focus on social media content in order to get more eyes on their products. Other people might drive traffic to their TPT store through blogging and pinning. And then other people might focus solely on just optimizing their listings directly on TPT, and then focus mainly on just getting attention from the TPT search bar. But if you were to ask me, I'd tell you that I am a firm believer that the ticket to more traffic in 2025 is consistent blog content. I mean, are we really surprised? But here is why. First, blog content gives you that chance to showcase your resources in a way that you just can't anywhere else. You don't really have the space in your preview on TPT. Social media, you don't have people's attention for that long. Blogging is just its own unique way to showcase your products, and this really can impact your TPT traffic, because when you send cold traffic straight to your TPT products, you know, just through a link, this leads people to visit that listing just to get basic information, and they might not end up purchasing that product. And ultimately, this can impact your conversion rates, and it can send the wrong signals to TPT about the quality of your products. And so that's like very cold traffic. But now let's look at a blog post which gives you the chance to warm up that cold traffic before they land on the product in your TPT store, because in that blog post, you can give them more details about what they would find inside the product, and you can also give them specific suggestions for how they can use that product in their classroom. So by the time they're ready to click on that link, they have a much better idea of what they're going to find on the other side, and they still want to take a closer look. And so traffic to TPT from that blog post is just going to be a bit warmer and more likely to convert to a sale, and that sends better signals to the TPT algorithm. Second, consistent blog content will help you get more results from Pinterest. Back in episode 18, I talked about the need for fresh content on Pinterest, and that continues to be true. The algorithm absolutely loves fresh, never before seen URLs. And so if Pinterest is part of your game plan for getting more traffic to your TPT store, then fresh blog posts need to be on your to do list for 2025. And then reason number three, that blog content is your ticket to traffic in 2025 - that's a lot of alliteration. Anyway, if social media or email marketing is part of your plan to get more TPT traffic, long form content can save you some time. A consistent blogging schedule will give you a steady stream of talking points for all of those other marketing efforts that you have. And so now that I've identified, in my opinion, the true ticket to more traffic in 2025 let's make an action plan to help you get there.

Stephanie 6:58

So even though we've identified that consistent blog content is a ticket to more traffic, it's easier said than done. We all know this. It is really important to make a game plan that will help you create a blogging workflow that you can stick with. I would suggest identifying one of your biggest hurdles to blogging and then make an attainable goal, just one that will help you overcome that hurdle in the coming year. So let me give you just a couple of ideas to get the ideas flowing. So first, if you feel like the main hurdle to consistent blog content is just that you don't have the time to blog, maybe your goal would be to find the time to set aside a non negotiable window of time in your weekly schedule that you're going to sit down and work on your blog. And you can start small. It could be, you know, an hour or two per week. It can be 15 minutes a day, whatever it is that you feel like you could stick with consistently for the year. Go ahead and set it aside. Now, if you're on my email list, you know that I'm trying to revive my very much neglected blog, and the main reason I fell behind on my own blogging is that I started writing for clients several years ago. Now I still have a full client roster, nothing has changed on paper, but I am still going to try to revive this blog. And so the goal that I set for myself was to devote one hour per week as just an absolute bare minimum to my blog. If I do more, that's great, but I will always do one hour per week of some sort of blogging task, preferably writing new content. But my website is also very neglected, so there are other tasks that I need to take care of as well. Moving on to another example, maybe you have the time to blog, but you just have no idea what to write about, and you find yourself just wasting a lot of time going down rabbit holes of indecision. You know, you sit down at your desk to write a blog post, and then before you know it, you look up at the clock your work day is over and you don't have a piece of content ready yet. And so this was another thing that I did as part of my own plan to revive my old blog. I have a queue of blog post topics that are waiting for me, and these are based on keyword research that I've done, so I know that they're going to bring me traffic as soon as they're ready. And this took a few of my one hour time blocks to get sorted out, but now I know exactly what I'm going to be writing about when I sit down at my computer. If you would like to do something similar, be sure to grab my free blog post idea guide. Now this isn't just your run of the mill list of generic blog post topics. Instead, it's a list of my favorite places to find topics that will resonate with your audience and showcase your products and gain traction on Google. So I will go ahead and put a link to that guide in the show notes if you want to take a look. So let's talk about one more hurdle that could be standing in the way of consistent blogging, and maybe a goal that you could set for yourself to overcome that hurdle. And so this one is for those of you who feel like you don't quite have a handle on blogging and you want to know a little bit more about the best practices before you start just creating content that's subpar. You know, you don't want to blog just for the sake of saying that you blog. And I agree with you. There are some people out there who they're just putting a prompt into chat GPT, and then copying the blog post into WordPress, just to say that they have a blog post going out every week. These blog posts aren't going to rank well on Google just because chat GPT was prompted to write a post that was optimized and would rank well on Google. It's just kind of a waste of time to go through all of this trouble to blog when you're not going to see a return on your investment of time. And so I totally understand how that could become a hurdle. You don't want to get started because you don't want to have to backtrack significantly and fix all the mistakes that you might have made. If this sounds familiar to you, and you kind of feel like you're in that boat, then a goal that you might want to set for yourself going into 2025 is to learn about the best practices of blogging. That could be a course. It could be a mastermind group. Whatever it is, you can identify an opportunity to really nail down those best practices so that you can feel like you can blog with more confidence, knowing that you're going to see more of a return on your investment of time.

As I've said many times on the podcast, you know your business the best. So think about what is standing in the way of your traffic wish coming true. Identify one small thing that you can do this year to overcome that hurdle. Those baby steps are going to go a long way in helping you get more traffic to your TPT store. If you can only do one thing for your traffic efforts this year, I highly suggest that you choose something that leads to more consistent blog content, because that is going to serve your business in so many ways in the new year. Now, I know I mentioned my email list earlier in this episode, if you would like to follow along with my own baby steps to reviving my old blog, be sure and subscribe to the Tuesday Traffic Tip. There is a section in this weekly newsletter that gives you an update on my own traffic journey, and that does include income reports. So you can find that stephanieroyersolutions.com/tuesday-traffic-tip and you can also find the link in the show notes.

Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. If you enjoyed this conversation, I'd love it if you could share it with a teacher biz bestie. You have created high quality resources. Now let's help teachers find them. I'll see you next time.