Using Pop Culture Current Events to Drive Traffic | Bloggers Lair | Yakezie Forums

Hey Yakezie folks,

I was just wondering how often you guys use crap in the news to drive traffic to your site, and if so, how you do it?

I was having a conversation with my girlfriend about how Charlie Sheen got over a million twitter followers in a day, and how that's stupid. It helped me come up with my post today, which was "10 Reasons You Should Follow Me Instead of Charlie Sheen". It admittedly had nothing to do with personal finance, but I like to write funny stuff sometimes.

Anyway, I posted the link to reddit under the "funny" tag. My daily posts usually get about 30-60 page views in a day. This one already has 59 views and it's only 9:15 am.

I wanted to share for two reasons. First, I don't know if any of these people are going to stick around on my site and read anything else, but I have definitely seen a spike in traffic, so the "using pop culture" to drive traffic has definitely worked. Second, does anyone know of a different platform besides reddit where I could post the link and hope to get even more views?

So I've had more pageviews today than any day in the past month.

However, I've learned something about reddit. 99% of the things filed under "funny" are images. I think I'm getting massive bouncing because it's not an image, and I'm not gettnig any upclicks. Lesson for the future, pick a different category for blog posts.

I often write about current events in my blogging, but only finance related events. I generally shy away from pop culture on this one.

On the occasion that I get voted up in Reddit, I do see a big spike in traffic. Just remember that it is very low quality traffic. They are most likely going to leave quickly and follow their ADD to the next site on the list. They will rarely click through on an ad and even more rarely have any level of interaction on your site.

The spike makes you feel good, but remember that it is not as good as a few high quality visits that interact and subscribe.

The Single Saver said:

Kevin McKee said:

So I've had more pageviews today than any day in the past month.

However, I've learned something about reddit. 99% of the things filed under "funny" are images. I think I'm getting massive bouncing because it's not an image, and I'm not gettnig any upclicks. Lesson for the future, pick a different category for blog posts.

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I am not familiar with reddit… what can you tell me about this?
 

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It's a site that just collects links. Go to reddit.com. I've only used it a few times, but you can submit your link there, the community will see it, and if it's good they will vote it up. The more up votes, the more people will see it, the more clicks you get. I've never had a post voted highly though. I don't think PF is a real popular topic with that crowd.

Don't worry about your high bounces from Reddit.  It may be more to do with social media than with the fact that it's not an image.  I would say it's common to have visitors from social sites like Reddit or Stumble Upon come to the site and leave in a second or two.  If they don't find what they want (or it doesn't grab their attention) they're on to the next site.

 

It's not a statement of your content either, mind you, just more social media.