How to grow your blog audience without social media in 2024
The short answer: PINTEREST
Keep on reading to find out how I grew my blog traffic exponentially from scratch without any other social media or content creation platforms.
^Pin this article for later!
I’ve been blogging in other niches since 2018, but really felt called to create this new blog and formally launched xokatrina from scratch with NO audience, subscribers, or email list in this niche in March 2024.
With my other websites, I focused on solely creating written content that could be found directly and organically through search; in essence, relying mainly on optimizing SEO to increase blog traffic.
It’s not impossible to grow your blog this way, but as the internet/social media/digital product/content creation world continues to grow and become more saturated, it can be a LOT tougher and take a lot longer to grow your blog without additional purposeful marketing strategies.
At the time of writing, this blog is still quite small in comparison to many others, but I’ve seen MAJOR growth in traffic after implementing some specific strategies.
Oh- and this growth happened despite the fact that I use NO social media to market my business and have NO podcast or YouTube channel.
A sensitive introvert’s dream.
I don’t have anything against social media and can be an amazing way to grow a business online. But I’m choosing to forgo adding any sort of social media account into my marketing efforts at this time.
I know I might not be reaching as many people as I could, but it’s more important to me to grow this new business on a solid foundation without needing to show up posting and scrolling on social media every day. That just isn’t what I want in my life right now.
I know things can change and I may add social media to my business in the future (never say never!), but I definitely prefer the gentle and balanced approach to growing a business online at the moment.
In this post, I’ll go more into:
The content creation and upload strategies I used to increase my traffic
My actual Pinterest and blog traffic results over the course of 1 month after I implemented these strategies
Other ways to increase traffic to your blog without social media (and what I’m experimenting with next)
I hope this is helpful and inspirational to you if you’re just starting out building or growing your blog business!
Please know it’s not too late to start in 2024.
My Pinterest strategy
Pin creation workflow:
Created 50 Pins for each of my blog posts. I had 5 posts written and a free guide already live on my website when I launched and started pinning to Pinterest.
Uploaded 2-5 new pins each day. I preferred to schedule out pins all at once instead of posting a few new pins each day. I did this by scheduling the upload of a pin I created in Canva directly to Pinterest and by using Pinterest’s pin creator, both ways seemed to work great! Whether you post new pins every day or schedule them out ahead of time, either way is fine - just find what works best for you and your schedule and energy levels. I know a lot of people also use Tailwind to save time and schedule pins, but I haven’t personally experimented with this yet.
Optimized the keywords, titles, tags, etc. for Pinterest SEO (more on this later)
Try not to obsess over the numbers (impressions, clicks, etc), especially on new pins, while doing all of these things. The strength of Pinterest lies in playing the long game. If you have great pins, great content, and solid SEO and keywords, the most important thing you may need is a little patience.
But what about adding other people’s pins to your boards? Current Pinterest strategy recommendations de-emphasize the importance of repining other people’s content - there are a lot of nuances to this though. Especially If you’re starting out on Pinterest, know that it’s ok to repin other people’s pins that you really love, but don’t worry about bulking up your boards with too many pins by other creators. The current rule of thumb is to have more of your own original pins than other people’s pins (or your own pins repined on another board) if you can.
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Simple, but not easy
This all might sound pretty simple, and it is, but I know how frustrating it can be when nothing seems to be happening with your Pinterest and/or blog traffic and growth. I know how it is to feel unsure if you’re actually doing the “right" thing on a new platform. Especially when you’re just starting out using or getting serious about Pinterest.
I want you to be excited and hopeful, but I also want you to understand the realities of Pinterest so that you don’t get discouraged if it doesn’t seem to be working out for you yet.
Because the Pinterest platform is set up to promote long-term growth for you and your business, it’s unlikely (although not impossible) that your pins will go viral immediately. It’s much more likely to have low impressions and low clicks on your new pins. I want you to know and understand this because I KNOW it’s so easy to feel like your work is getting you nowhere and instead you need to try something completely new or like you should just give up.
Please don’t give up.
Pinterest and blog traffic after my first month with new strategy
^Massive Pinterest traffic in 1 month after applying 2024 Pinterest strategy recommendations
These awesome ORGANIC results (in a pretty saturated topic/niche at that) also were reflected directly in increased blog traffic from Pinterest itself AND from organic search.
I’ve learned that your Pinterest pins can also show up in normal browser searches (and not just within Pinterest itself), which is pretty cool and important for the continued growth of your blog.
SO, how did I do this?
What was this “new strategy”?
What I chose to prioritize in my business was:
creating eye-catching, unique Pinterest pins
optimizing my Pinterest Business account based on SEO and Pinterest algorithm
working smarter not harder with content creation and upload scheduling
BONUS strategy: experimenting with low-cost Pinterest ads (paid ads also increased organic traffic for other pins!)
I have to give credit where credit is due. I can’t give away all the info I learned directly from another creator, so please check out this up-to-date FREE Pinterest Strategy course that goes into much more detail to these processes.
I learned this and a LOT of other valuable information with this free course. But if you want to take your Pinterest strategy to the next level, I also highly recommend her Pinterest Rank Boost and Scheduling Shortcuts courses, which really helped me optimize the SEO strategy and Pinterest workflow so much better.
I absolutely love the graphic design and artistic process of creating pins, but all of the keyword research, SEO, and analytics I would much rather ignore some days. These courses were so valuable and really helped fill the gaps in my knowledge when it comes to the nitty gritty strategy of the Pinterest platform.
What I’m starting to experiment with next to increase traffic
I haven’t grown these very much to quite report my methods yet, so please don’t follow these suggestions blindly! But here are a few other methods you could consider implementing if they interest you:
Publishing posts on Medium
Seeking out guest blog post possibilities
Starting an Etsy store: I see my Etsy store as another way of growing my audience/email list, and not exactly a huge money-making endeavor. I’m doing this by including links to my other recommendations, resources, and website with every paid product. This is purely an experiment for me at the moment, so I can’t comment on the strategies I’m using for blog growth (or even income growth), but it’s been fun so far!
If anything in the shop strikes your fancy, use code FIRSTSALE12 at checkout or click the above Etsy store link for over 60% off your purchase as a thank-you for being a website visitor!
If you’re considering opening an Etsy shop of your own, don’t take my advice or current Etsy strategy (or lack thereof at the moment haha), but know that you can get 40 FREE LISTINGS with this link and a way to share that deal with others (wish I would’ve known about this sooner, I found out about this after opening my store and can’t get that deal anymore)!
And if you’d like to get our FREE Blog Business Roadmap guide and join our community of sensitive bloggers, sign up here:
Related posts you may also like:
Start a Blog as a Sensitive Person
Best Income Streams for Sensitive Entrepreneurs
Productivity for Sensitive People
Reaching Your Money Goals with a New Blog
Resources That Helped Me Become a Successful Entrepreneur
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