If you’re a blogger you probably know by now how important it is to diversify your blog’s traffic sources.
But just in case you don’t, a recent development in Australia vividly illustrates why you need to do that ASAP.
What happened?
In a nutshell, Facebook has barred every Australian user from being able to view the posts and content provided by any news organization.
What’s more, Facebook users in other countries are being barred from viewing the content of Australian news organizations.
What brought this on is a dispute over a proposed law that would require Facebook to pay Australian news organizations for the right to publish their news content on Facebook.
Facebook refuses to pay those fees so they made the decision to block the content of every news organization from being viewed by its Australian users.
So how does this affect you and your blog?
The purpose of this post isn’t to take a stand one way or another concerning the proposed law and Facebook’s response to it. You’re fully capable of making up your own mind about that.
My goal here is to simply point out how quickly a traffic stream can dry up, or even go away completely.
Does your blog receive most of it visitors from Facebook?
How about Instagram or Twitter? Or perhaps Pinterest?
If so, what would happen to your blog’s traffic (and the revenue it generates) if that primary source of traffic decided to boot you from their site?
Countless bloggers and Internet marketers have literally lost their entire businesses overnight due to a single Google algorithm update. Social media sites have the power to do the same.
Never think it couldn’t happen to you, because it could – and at any time.
Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying you shouldn’t take advantage of the opportunities provided by Facebook, Google and all the other sources of blog traffic that are available to you.
You absolutely should take advantage of every legal and ethical opportunity that makes sense for your blog.
I’m just saying don’t fall into the trap of relying on a single traffic source to provide the vast majority of your blog’s visitors.
There are numerous ways to drive traffic to your blog. I strongly recommend that you actively work towards increasing the percentages of your overall traffic numbers that come from multiple sources.
That way if one traffic source dries up overnight your blog will still receive plenty of visitors from other places.
Here’s a little recommendation…
If you haven’t already done so, start building your own traffic source by creating a mailing list and encouraging your blog visitors to sign up for it.
As this post shows, a social media ban (or even a routine Google update) can immediately transform a river-like stream of blog traffic into a trickle, with no warning whatsoever.
And finally, always remember this…
Facebook can delete your page and/or boot you from their site altogether.
Twitter can shadow ban your profile to prevent most other Twitter users from viewing and retweeting your tweets.
But no one can take away your email list. It belongs to you, and you alone.
Yes, your mailing list management service could stop you from using their platform to send out your emails, but they can’t take away your list.
All you’d have to do is move your list to another service and you’d be back in business within an hour. And luckily, there are plenty of mailing list services to choose from.
Bottom line…
Don’t let the actions of one primary traffic source bring your blog to its digital knees. Start diversifying your traffic today to ensure your blog’s long-term survival.
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