51. Are You Working Harder for Your Traffic Than You Need To?

[00:00:00] Stephanie: Do you feel like you're stuck on a hamster wheel of content creation, working harder for your traffic than you really need to be? Let's talk about some common mistakes that could be standing in the way of passive traffic for your business. Welcome back to the podcast. I hope you're enjoying this episode from a relaxing summer break, and if you're not quite there yet, that you're super close.

[00:00:37] I'm ready to dive into this month's content. I'm really excited about it because one of the best parts of marketing your business through blogging and pinning is that you can see more results for your business with less day-to-day effort. And so this month we are going to be focusing on building a passive traffic machine, and this is something that's going to allow you to spend more of your summer relaxing by the pool while this machine hums along in the background, bringing you traffic and sales.

[00:01:12] This week we're going to answer the question, are you working harder for your traffic than you need to be? In the quest for more passive traffic and income, I notice a lot of teacher bloggers making at least one of three mistakes. Let's talk about these common hurdles and how you can overcome them so you can see more results from your marketing efforts.

[00:01:34] Since we're now in peak park going season, I thought I would add a little playground analogy to our discussion of these hurdles. We're going to liken getting traffic and sales to keeping a little one entertained at a playground. I don't know about you, but when my kids were little, my heart always sunk when we got to the park and they set their sights on the merry-go-round. When they were younger, they weren't quite old enough to push it themselves and honestly, it was safer if they could just stay on the  merry-go-round and let me push.

[00:02:06] But that meant I had to run around in a circle, trying not to fall down, and get this big clunky merry-go-round moving. And then once it did start moving, the thing would go around one, maybe two times before I had to repeat the process and keep it going. If I wasn't actively pushing this merry-go-round, it really wasn't moving.

[00:02:32] And I liken this to short term traffic sources, like social media and email. If you are not actively creating the social media posts or writing the emails, you won't get traffic from those sources. And this is the opposite of what we're looking for when we're building a passive traffic machine. So going back to the playground for a second.

[00:02:55] I loved when my kids would opt for the swings. I knew that it would just take one good push from me, and then my kids would take it from there, pumping and swinging to their heart's content. And this reminds me of traffic from blogging and pinning. There is work that needs to be done right out of the gate, but then it can just do its thing.

[00:03:18] But just like I wouldn't force my kids to only use the swings and ignore the merry-go-round, I'm not saying that you should never incorporate short-term traffic into your marketing strategy. In fact, the opposite is true. Social media and email marketing can be powerful sources of traffic and income for your business.

[00:03:38] But if you put too much time and energy into that hamster wheel, you'll have less time to create content for the more passive traffic sources. Balance is the key. And speaking of balance, that leads me to the next hurdle or mistake that we need to overcome when we're building our passive traffic machine.

[00:03:59] But first we need to go back to the playground analogy. If you've ever tried to entertain a wide age range of kids at a park with just like one small little play structure you know what a challenge it can be. It's much easier to keep everyone happy at a park when there are lots of options, particularly if those options include a balance of the classic winners like swings.

[00:04:24] And then park specific highlights, like the spinning ladybugs at this park or the zip lines at this park. With this balance, you'll be sure to keep your kids entertained no matter what they're in the mood for that day. And I liken this to the balance we need to keep between evergreen and seasonal content.

[00:04:47] A common mistake and hurdle is when those two are not in a good balance. So let's look at evergreen content. This is an essential part of a passive traffic machine because evergreen topics are the things that people are always looking for. They're the classics. From a teacher blogging perspective, these might be solutions that teachers could look for at any point of the school year,

[00:05:14] you know, maybe like classroom management tools. They aren't necessarily tied to a specific season or event. If your website only has evergreen content. It might feel like, well, that's great because it will get traffic all year. But the teacher space is really unique. Evergreen content on a teacher blog, you will most likely see your traffic slowly die off for most of the school year.

[00:05:43] And the reason for this is that even though a topic is evergreen, teachers are often looking for those things at the beginning of the year. They wanna get all of their things planned out and in place. So they cruise Pinterest over the summer, they make plans at the beginning of the school year, they make their purchases and all the things, and then they're busy.

[00:06:04] They don't really come back to Pinterest and websites. And so that's why it's so important to balance out your evergreen content topics with seasonal topics. And this is especially helpful if you use Pinterest to market your blog posts because seasonal pins do exceptionally well on Pinterest. Because teachers will often turn to Pinterest throughout the school year, and it's usually for a seasonal thing, like we have Halloween coming up and I need a quick Halloween printable for my class, or I need some ideas for parent gifts around the holidays.

[00:06:41] So these are the types of blog posts that teachers are accessing on Pinterest. And so it's great to have that kind of content on your website in addition to that evergreen content that does provide, you know, trickles of traffic throughout the year and a huge influx of traffic during back to school season.

[00:07:02] So by striking a balance between evergreen and seasonal content, you'll be able to keep that steady flow of passive traffic coming to your website throughout the year. The final hurdle that could be getting in the way of your passive traffic machine humming along is that you aren't maintaining the assets you've already created.

[00:07:21] Because blogging and pinning is not a one and done kind of venture. Let's go back to the park one more time. As much as we'd like to take our kids to a playground, plop down on a bench, and then check out for an hour, that's not really the reality, at least it wasn't when my kids were younger. In order to make sure that the park fun can last as long as possible.

[00:07:45] We monitor our kids to avoid injuries and arguments. We show them how to use unfamiliar playground equipment so that they can enjoy it and have fun. We also give them the occasional underdog on the swing set. The same is true for your blogging and pinning efforts. It's important to monitor your website and Pinterest account to make sure everything is humming along as it should.

[00:08:10] Blog posts need to be updated. Links need to be checked. Fresh pins need to be made. By giving your passive traffic machine a little bit of regular attention, a little tuneup, it will continue to work well for your business on autopilot. So to recap, there are three things that could be making you work harder for your traffic than you need to be.

[00:08:33] First, you might be putting too much effort into short term hamster wheel traffic sources. Second, you might need to strike a better balance between evergreen and seasonal content. Third, you might need to pay more attention to the content you've already created. So for the remainder of the month, I'm going to share some additional things you can do to create a passive traffic machine that can be working hard for your business while you're poolside enjoying the sunshine.

[00:09:01] Be sure you're following the Pay Less for Traffic podcast, so you'll get a reminder when the next episode in this series is live.