This is a guest post by Brandon Connell from Make Money Blogging. It is being republished because WebsiteBegin.com has gone offline for good.
There have been a couple of times when I first began when I did not get nearly enough comments to make the donated article seem like it was worth the effort. In essence, it flopped horribly, and I consider it an embarassment. These days, the lowest I get usually is 20 comments. I consider 20 to be a flop because of my high standards, and the fact that I tend to average 50 or more.
The good thing is that even your old forgotten posts can become one of your most commented. How? By driving traffic to it in various ways with your established reputation. It also helps the blog that you guest posted on because you are sending traffic their way. Below are a few methods I like to use to drive traffic to those old posts.
Editors Note: I suppose the fact that WebsiteBegin has gone offline and you can now repurpose this guest post here is all part of your master plan Brandon?! Poor little Joe, what did you do to him? LOL
Great Post mate – think you guys will get a few typically helpful Brandon-esque tips here. Enjoy 
Oh, and just quickly – I was looking for an image to go with this post so I searched Google Images for ‘Guest Post’ and this is what I found! LOL. From now on anyone who contributes to this blog will get to wear this badge ALL day! (that’s 24 hours folks!) Brandon – I know you’ll wear the inaugural one with pride.
WTF? Where is the EY? At least they got the 'Great and Powerful' bit right.
#1. Reference Materials: New vs Old
One of my newest methods that I have started to employ is to link to old guest posts within new guest posts. If the old article is relevant to the new article content, then why not? Blog owners will not object to this because you are providing a quality reference for their readers.
The cool thing about this method is that you will get the interest of the blog owner where you previously posted when they notice where the new traffic is coming from. If you haven’t been in contact with them in awhile, your link-love will certainly remind them that you exist and may result in them leaving commentary on your new article, and your blog!
#2. Automatic Linking
I have used automatic linking on my site to get traffic to old articles, and to monetize affiliate offers. The free wordpress plugin I use is called BM Keywordlink and does an excellent job of linking whenever I use a specific keyword or keyphrase.
You don’t have to limit this functionality to interlinking or affiliate promotion. You can use it to link to old guest posts like you would with the “reference materials” method above. You also reap the same benefits as previously mentioned.
If you have the funds, you can use Ninja Affiliate instead of BM KeywordLink and receive additional functionality.
#3. Ebook Traffic
Ebooks are a great, and long lasting method of driving traffic to old guest posts. Even if your ebook were to be illegally circulated, you would still benefit in the end because there are links to your articles contained within them. You can also get the added boost of distributing your ebooks if you were to let the blog owners that you linked to them within them. They would be eager to promote your ebook on their blog heavily because they will benefit from the traffic.
#4. Make it your signature article!
If you aren’t aware, Digital Point Forums is one forum that allows you to change your signature that gets displayed with your posts, and it doesn’t change site-wide. What this means is that you can drive traffic to multiple links throughout the forum forever! You can take advantage of this by linking to two of your articles in your signature, and then posting a few threads or commenting on some to get some traffic to those articles. You can rinse and repeat the next day or two.
Not all forums do this however. Most of them make it default where if you change your signature, it will change the signature on all of your old posts as well. You can still get traffic this way, but it is more of a short term solution rather than a long term one.
#5. Sponsored Link
There is a technique that I love to use, and one I have written about a few times. That method is the sponsored link that I use when I release free web templates or themes. I release these designs under creative comments with a link requirement in the footer. When someone uses that template for their site, I get backlinks with my anchor text.
But what if you used this method to get backlinks to your old articles? I am sure the blog owner will be appreciative!
#6 Advertise!
You don’t have to go and rack up an expense to promote your old guest posts. I mean, why go and pay for an ad that brings another blog some traffic? Instead you can use that money to advertise your own. But you CAN use your own ad space to promote your old guest articles!
Let’s assume you have a free 125×125 spot open on your sidebar. You can design an ad which targets that article, and link to it. People click on these little ads, so why not use them to your own benefit rather than to push an affiliate product? If the slot is open, use it to get commentary on those old articles!
Conclusion
In the end, your goal is to get traffic and commentary on those old guest articles. If you employ the methods I mentioned, you are likely to have those old ones overtake the new ones by hundreds of comments! Share your methods below for driving traffic to your old guest articles.
Google+ it
BlogEngage it
Pin it
Kube it
{ 29 comments… read them below or add one }
HI Brandon & Alex
As always Brandon; some smart tactics here I didn’t know about:-) I have only done a few guest posts and I notice most days, they are clicked on in my footer where I display my Guest Posts. Also, I notice Rick has the GP he did on my site displayed with his other posts too.
Will try some of the other helpful hints you have shared and see how it goes for me. Thanks Brandon. Much appreciated.
And Alex, I mean Mr Whall, I see what you mean by the graphic. Too funny
Patricia Perth Australia
I remember back when you didn’t do any guest posts yet. I am proud
I don’t see you having a big problem with guehttp://alexwhalley.com/wp-content/plugins/commentluv/images/down-arrow.gifst post flops Patricia.
yes agree with you, we all want traffic. nice tips and tricks to generate traffic on our older post also… will try out these points.. thanks for the share….
A guest post can also flop if its poorly written or just not suitable for the blog audience where the guest post is published. In this case you should check out other blog posts on that blog and their comments in order to make sure that the blog is the right fit for your article.
I don’t really see that being an issue. I mean, what blog owner would allow a guest post that was not suitable for their audience? The same thing goes for a poorly written article. I am not saying those things don’t happen, but they don’t happen often.
Some awesome tactics Brandon.
I’m using Digital Point Forums from a long time and have great success with it. I love that signature feature it has. DP is one of my top traffic source also.
Sponsored link is awesome idea. It is one of the great way to get traffic and quality backlinks.
Anyways, Thanks for sharing this great article brandon.
~Dev
I need to interview you about forum marketing I think Dev – you are definitely the man when it comes to getting traffic and kudos from these sources!
You are on forums today like I was 7 years ago. That was back when I didn’t have a whole lot to do. I do remember how much it helped me get traffic though, and should use it more often than I do now. Digital Point is great, but the one that I was using was WebProWorld.
I didn’t know I was offline, Brandon… I thought WebsiteBegin still was offline. Coulda’ fooled me. (:
Hahahahahaha Them’s fighting words right there!!
Et Tu Brutus?
Man, I don’t even know if what you said made any sense. HUH?
Great post Brandon
I though I would add to the DigitalPoint forums tip. They also have an add-on where you could link your account to your blog feed, which will display your latest blog entry next to your username on all of your posts.
I find it a really great way of building backlinks to your latest blog entries
I have also used that feature. It does help bring in traffic because your topic might catch someone’s eye.
Hi Brandon and Alex,
You mentioned paid advertising Brandon, I have been experimenting with Fiverr.com. Most of the people that offer Social Bookmarking and Twitter sources are internet marketers/bloggers looking to earn extra cash. I paid my $5 several times to get people to tweet my e-book, it could also work for old content. The last run I did, I got 15 opt-ins and about 180 new visits to my blog for $10. So it is not to be overlooked.
Pete
Alex, I learned very useful techniques from this post by Mr. Brandon Connell.
I am using LinkWithin in some of my blogs which automatically lists related posts with thumbnails under each post. From this way I am having some traffic on my old posts. Linking your previous articles to relevant keywords in new posts is also a popular method.
Nazam Warriach
You can’t go wrong with this tips. I mean using your guest posts to posts links to other guest, that’s mind boggling (I guess, Brandon planned all this from the beginning writing all the guests posts as a continuation of the last), and not only does that help you because it practically creates a link-wheel but also helps the blog owners because they get the attention of other bloggers where you posted your articles.
P.S.
lol, Alex, when I say your ‘call to guest post’ banner and read Whall I immediately thought at Wall-E (in case you don’t know, wall-e is a character from a animated movie from Pixar)
50 comments on a single post on some niches is really so much
, though I know a niche where I am getting around 500 to 600 comments per post..
First, that title is super! Got me following the link from famousbloggers.net looking for some tips on packaging some great guest post but I quickly discovered that we are talking about promoting already written post!
Thanks for the tips and I think I’ll need to do something about my guest post though I’ve done very little.
its hard to fix your guest post. The perfect way to drive traffic use forums like DP and comments on other blogs to get more and more audience.
getting traffic from older post. nice work.. the tips told by gonna defiantly help a lot. i liked the point where you wrote for giving reference of older post.
This past couple of weeks I have been reading a lot of successful blogs and it’s been really amazing finding great tips. My next goal now is to guest post. I’m glad this article is very timely. Thank you, guys.
Seeing how forum marketing was my very first foray into this world, #4 really caught my eye…any idea what software they use for those unique signatures?
Hi Brandon & Alex
Highly informative an article. The article has covered all grounds to increase traffic – the main aim of any blogger.
Thanks for the same
Best Regards
Lakshmi
So I guess the way I’ve been thinking about e-books is probably off. I was thinking e-books were just a temporary format until they got picked up by a publisher, then they would turn into physical books, but it sounds like if you’re relying on links in the e-book that you wouldn’t be able to translate those easily into a physical book – or at least visiting the link wouldn’t be as easy. Do you ever write an e-book thinking it may go to print?
Hey Alex,
#1, #4 and #6 are some pretty neat tricks I’ve never heard or done myself before. Interesting that you could use the benefit of your old guest posts to build links and getting traffic for the blog owner, its like killing 2 birds with one stone. It’s been ages since I’ve been on Digital Point
but hmm, worth trying the trick
These are some great traffic generating tips you’ve given here Brandon. I really like your tip number 2 on automatic linking. A lot of people underestimate the power of interlinking.
I have been meaning to get the Ninja Affiliate, but I will just try out the BM Keywordlink plugin for now and see how it goes. Thanks for the tips and introducing me to the plugin. I can always use another method that will bring me more exposure.
You can’t go wrong with these tips. The graphics are quite refreshing too.
Good reading, gives even more for thinking about driving traffic to posts… Thanks!
Content is king, one that relates with guest posting. This is still one of the best techniques in SEO and as well as internet marketing. Safe and sure.
Thanks for the detailed info and tips Brandon.