Trafficgenerationcafe.com: Slideshare Traffic Case Study: From 0 to 243,000 Views in 30 Days

t raf f icgenerat ioncaf e.com http://www.trafficgenerationcafe.com/slideshare-traffic/
Slideshare Traffic Case Study: From 0 to 243,000 Views in 30
Days
Slideshare.
30 days.
9 presentations.
Over 200K views.
Several f irst-page Google rankings.
1,400 clicks to Traf f ic Generation Caf é and my Facebook f an page.
Over 400 new Facebook f ans.

My second largest ref erral traf f ic source.
Want some? I don’t blame you.
Here’s how I did it.
Loved it? Embed this presentation on your blog
(just copy and paste the code below)

<if rame
src=”http://www.sli
deshare.net/slides
how/embed_code/
18185058?rel=0″
width=”597″
height=”486″
f rameborder=”0″
marginwidth=”0″
marginheight=”0″
scrolling=”no”
style=”border:1px
solid
#CCC;border-
width:1px 1px
0;margin-
bottom:5px”
allowf ullscreen
webkitallowf ullscr
een
mozallowf ullscree
n> </if rame> <div
style=”margin-
bottom:5px”>
<strong> <a
href =”http://www.s
lideshare.net/Meet
Ana/how-to-milk-
slideshare-f or-
website-traf f ic”
title=”How to Milk
Slideshare f or
Website Traf f ic”
target=”_blank”>H
ow to Milk
Slideshare f or
Website
Traf f ic</a>
</strong> f rom
<strong><a
lideshare.net/Meet
Ana”
target=”_blank”>A
na
Hof f man</a></str
ong> </div>
Update: Made it to Slideshare Homepage
One day af ter I uploaded my Slideshare presentation above, it’s now f eatured as the Top Presentation of the
Day.
And guess who’s right next to me?
Mauro D’Andrea.
You’ll hear more about him throughout the post…
Just goes to show that what you are about to read works!
How to Get Started with Slideshare
I’ve heard about Slideshare many times bef ore.
Everywhere.
But it wasn’t until Mauro D’Andrea published his guest post How to Milk SlideShare Homepage f or All the
Traf f ic You Can Handle at Traf f ic Generation Caf é that I gave Slideshare a second thought.
Sort of .
Since I knew that Mauro wouldn’t say no to me (it’s good to be the queen!), I asked him to create a Slideshare
presentation based on my posts about getting more f ollowers f rom Twitter.
Two weeks later, I had “my” f irst Slideshare deck published.
Loved it? Embed this presentation on your blog!

<if rame
deshare.net/slides
how/embed_code/
16409027?rel=0″
width=”597″
height=”486″
marginwidth=”0″
scrolling=”no”
style=”border:1px
solid
#CCC;border-
width:1px 1px
0;margin-
bottom:5px”
allowf ullscreen
webkitallowf ullscr
een
mozallowf ullscree
n> </if rame> <div
style=”margin-
bottom:5px”>
<strong> <a
lideshare.net/Meet
Ana/my-magic-
f ormula-to-
getting-more-
twitter-f ollowers”
title=”How to Get
More Twitter
Followers |
Traf f icGeneration
Caf e.com”
ow to Get More
Twitter Followers |
Traf f icGeneration
Caf e.com</a>
</strong> f rom
<strong><a
lideshare.net/Meet
Ana”
na
Hof f man</a></str
ong> </div>
Mauro did a f abulous job with that presentation and I reaped all the benef its.
And now that I had seen the incredible traf f ic potential Slideshare had, I had to try it f or myself .
I didn’t have to wait long f or inspiration: the Super Bowl, Colin Kaepernick, my husband’s love f or the San
Francisco 49ers, and his keen sense of humor brought about the f ollowing presentation:
<if rame
deshare.net/slides
how/embed_code/
16441391?rel=0″
width=”597″
height=”486″
marginwidth=”0″
scrolling=”no”
style=”border:1px
solid
#CCC;border-
width:1px 1px
0;margin-
bottom:5px”
allowf ullscreen
webkitallowf ullscr
een
mozallowf ullscree
n> </if rame> <div
style=”margin-
bottom:5px”>
<strong> <a
lideshare.net/Meet
Ana/twitter-
kaepernicked-by-
googleplus”
Not too shabby f or my f irst time, if I may say so myself .
How did I do it?
Keynote (Mac version of PowerPoint), every last tip I learned f rom Mauro’s How to Milk SlideShare Homepage
f or All the Traf f ic You Can Handle post, plus a night in f ront of the TV.
I’ve tasted the victory. And it was good. I was hooked.
5 Steps to Making a Killer Slideshare Deck
So you are brand new to Slideshare.
Where do you start?
1. Get the right software
If you already have PowerPoint on PC or Keynote on Mac, you are all set.
If you don’t, you can use download OpenOf f ice.org - the f ree alternative to Microsof t Of f ice (thanks for the tip,
Mauro!).
That’s it.

You are ready to make your very f irst Slideshare presentation.
2. Find the right topic
You don’t have to reinvent the wheel here.
Just use one of your older posts that was popular with your readers or a hot topic that people just can’t seem
to get enough of in your niche.
Now that I’ve done this once or twice, every other post I read gives me ideas f or f uture
Slideshare presentations.
3. Make an outline
As I watched Mauro turn several sizable posts into a short concise presentation, something clicked: the outline
f or your Slideshare presentation should be similar to a bullet point summary of what you’d like to say.
Just compare his presentation on getting more Twitter f ollowers embedded above to my post that served as a
base f or that Slideshare:
Tweet Adder: How to Get More Followers on Twitter Fast
4. Find the right images
This is the most time-consuming, but also the best part of putting together a Slideshare presentation, if you
allow it to be.
Of course, you have to pay attention to copyright inf ringement – that’s something you don’t want to mess
with.
By the way, here’s a (somewhat) f unny story about my Slideshare copyright shananigans…
Mauro suggests, and I second that, to use sites like Compf ight.com to f ind images licensed under Creative
Commons.
Read this to learn more about Creative Commons.
Another f ree resource: PhotoPin.com (hat tip to Ryan Hanley); just make sure you include an attribution link f or
each image you use.
Here’s the thing: even when you use Creative Commons images, you don’t really know the origins of the image.
What if someone f inds a cool image somewhere online, uploads it to their Flickr account, and lo and behold,
the image shows up under Creative Commons, yet it was copyrighted by the original creator?
My philosophy on this: don’t overanalyze it.
If you can’t create your own images f rom scratch, do your best to f ind Creative Commons images and always
give credit to image sources in your Slideshare description.
Or you can attach a disclaimer to your presentation, like the guys f rom SlidesThatRock.com did it here:

By the way, SlidesThatRock.com is another great place to learn more about creating killer Slideshare
presentations, as suggested by Mauro in his guest post.
Just browse through their portf olio to see how they do it and do it like that, just better.
If someone does end up complaining about you using their image, C’est la vie; you’ll f ix it and move on.
5. Put it all together
I think Mauro did a great job describing how to put everything together, so I am not going into details on how to
do it here.
Bottom line: it’s not rocket science, I promise.
I’ve NEVER used PowerPoint or Keynote bef ore I created my f irst Slideshare just over a month ago.
I set down with it, f igured out how it worked, and now creating a Slideshare presentation has become a piece
of cake.
Let me share some very specif ic tips on how to make the most of your Slideshare exposure.
7 Slideshare “Good-to-Knows”
1. The size
Make your presentation 800 X 600 – that’s the perf ect size f or Slideshare.
If you don’t, not a big deal. It just won’t f ill the screen as well, like this:
Side note: this Slideshare presentation has a YouTube video embedded in it; see directions on how to do it

below.
This presentation is 1280 X 720.
You know why?
Because I originally made it as a video and that’s the perf ect size f or YouTube videos.
Af ter I published it to YouTube, I saved the slides as a PDF and uploaded it to Slideshare.
And that’s how you kill two birds with one piece of content – just how I described on this post:
Content Marketing Leverage System: How to Multiply Your Reach
2. The links
Did you know that you can embed live links into Slideshare presentations?
And not just naked URLs, mind you (like http://www.TrafficGenerationCafe.com/), but URLs with anchor text,
clickable images, etc.
So keep that in mind when creating your Slideshare presentations.
It’s good f or link building (since Google can crawl PDF f iles and f ollow links within them), and it’s great f or
traf f ic.
The only problem is many viewers don’t know they can click on those links, so you have to tell them.
And that leads me to adding a call to action.
3. Call to Action
A Slideshare presentation is no dif f erent f rom any other piece of content you create.
It needs to move your viewers to take an action as a result of watching it.
What is it you want your viewers to do af ter they are done going through your presentation?
Come to your blog?
Subscribe to your email list?
Like your Facebook page?
Follow you on Slideshare?
Share it with their social media f ollowers?
Whatever it is, rule #1 is to have one.
Take a look at the end of Chitraparna Sinha’s presentation she created f or her Traf f ic Generation Caf é guest
post 8 Unconventional Ways to Use Google Alerts f or Better Blogging (the presentation is embedded in that
post).

Great presentation, but what about the call to action?
Sure her blog link is clickable, but without a clear call to actually click on it, most viewers never would.
It’s a missed opportunity.
Let’s take a look at other examples.
Pay with a Tweet
This call to action is f rom Mauro’s presentation 12 Essential Steps of a Phenomenal Story.

It actually has 3 calls to action (CTAs), which is 2 too many, but the one that matters – Pay with a Tweet to
download the presentation is a great one.
Social Media Sharing
Here’s another one f rom Mauro’s 9 Steps to Make Great Presentations Faster.

List Building
A call to action leading to my Bite-Sized Traf f ic Hacks newsletter optin page; f rom Goodbye Google Reader,
Hello 10 Google Reader Alternatives.

Facebook Fan Page Likes
From How to Write Awesome Facebook Status Updates.
Read Blog Post
With some presentations, you simply want your readers to come back to your blog to f inish reading your post
on the topic, like I did in How Google Search Works: Why Crappy Sites Rank Higher Than Mine? presentation.

Talking about calls to action…
Loving the post so f ar?
Then you are going to love my f ree Bite-Size Traf f ic Hacks email series – concise, actionable traf f ic
generating hacks you can implement today and start seeing almost immediate traf f ic increase.
Plus, you’ll get my super-awesome value-packed “Mommy, Where Does My Traffic Come From?” traf f ic report
f or the rock-bottom price of FREE.
Just add your email to the f orm below and click “Yes, Send Me My Traffic Hacks“.
"Ana has a unique insight into running an internet business."
- Yaro Starak, Entrepreneurs-Journey.com
4. How to Upload
This is not really a hack, but I’ve had this problem in the past and so did some of
my readers.
So until Slideshare f ixes this glitch, you need to know this:
When you are in your newsf eed (that’s your def ault page in Slideshare), you’ll see two UPLOAD buttons.

Going through the lower button might result in an error, which you’ll f ind out about af ter waiting f orever f or
your presentation to convert.
Upload your Slideshare presentation through the top one to avoid possible delays.
5. Your Slideshare Slug
Slugs (part of the URL that comes af ter “.com/”) are very important to SEO.
You want your main keywords to be included in your slug.
Slideshare creates your slug automatically as it uploads/converts your presentation.
So how can you make sure your slug is to the point and contains your keywords?
Name your PDF f ile accordingly.
6. More about Slideshare SEO

Slideshare SEO elements are the same as on any other platf orm, including your blog.
Make sure to include your keywords in the slug (as shown above), title, and description.
It’s also a good practice to use your keywords throughout the presentation.
Not only Google will “read” your Slideshare presentation text, but also Slideshare itself will pull up the text and
post it as a transcript at the bottom of the presentation page.
You can choose to remove the transcript, but why would you?
Slideshare is a PR8 sites and carries A LOT of authority, which makes it a prime candidate to show up on the
f irst page of Google.
So if there are keywords that you’d love to rank f or, but they are too competitive and your blog doesn’t have
enough authority to outrank the competition, try to sneak on the f irst page with a Slideshare presentation.
My guess is Google takes into consideration not only the on-page optimization of your Slideshare
presentation, but also the user engagement it creates.
What are the user engagement factors on Slideshare?
views
embeds
comments
social media sharing
possibly downloads
You can track all these stats right under your presentation.

Just noticed that there were some f amiliar names, as well as new f aces that embedded my Goodbye Google
Reader, Hello 10 Google Reader Alternatives presentation; thank you, Danny Brown (DannyBrown.me), Brian
Hawkins (HotBlogTips.com), Corinne Rodriguez (EverydayGyaan.com).
7. Re-Upload
Unlike YouTube, Slideshare allows you to re-upload your presentations af ter they went live.
Why would you want to do it?
You notice a mis-spelling (or, more likely, someone will kindly point it out to you);
You want to change your call to action;
The inf ormation becomes outdated, but the Slideshare presentation is still driving traf f ic;
etc.
And the best part?
When you re-upload the presentation, you keep everything: the original slug, views, comments – everything.
4 Ways to Get Traffic from Slideshare
It’s all nice, Ana, but who’s got the time to make Slideshare presentations?
Is it really worth it?

YES.
If I haven’t convinced you by now, here’s my last shot: how to get traffic from Slideshare.
1. Get on Slideshare Homepage
This is something Mauro discussed in his guest post at TGC as well, but he and I learned a f ew things since
then.
There are three ways to get on the Slideshare homepage.
The f irst one takes the least ef f ort, but won’t yield as much traf f ic.
The last one is unpredictable, but results in killer traf f ic.
1. Get Featured in “Hot on…” Section
This is the bottom third section of Slideshare homepage.
It f eatures presentations that are currently hot on either Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, or all three.

I do not know the exact number of shares required to be f eatured in this section.
From my experience, if I get a lot of shares on any one of these platf orms (I f ind Twitter the easiest), the other
two will catch up.
So share away!
If you want to learn how to promote the heck out of your Slideshare presentations, I highly recommend you
pick up Kristi Hines’ “Blog Post Promotion: The Ultimate Guide“.
By the way, why LinkedIn?
Slideshare is owned by LinkedIn.
2. Get Featured in “Featured”
“Featured” is the middle section on Slideshare homepage.
How do you get f eatured there?
Read the section below.
3. Get Featured in the “Top Presentation of the Day”
“Top Presentation of the Day” is the top above-f old section of Slideshare homepage.
This is PRIME web real-estate.
This is where you want your Slideshare presentation to end up.
How do you do that?

Mauro and I have been watching the homepage like hawks f or days and weeks, trying to f igure out
how Slideshare algorithm works.
Our initial assumption was that the amount of views was what did the trick.
Yet, we saw plenty of presentations with a lot f ewer views than others make it to the ”Top Presentation of the
Day” section.
So what was the secret?
The secret is that there’s no algorithm to become a ”Top Presentation of the Day”.
From a post on Slideshare blog:
We’d like to correct an assumption made in another recent blog post (Mauro’s guest post at Traffic
Generation Café) and referenced by Mauro.
The “Hot On” sections reflect the traffic and activity of presentations on the various social platforms.
But the “Featured” and “Presentation of the Day” presentations are hand-curated every day by the
SlideShare editorial team.
In order to be featured on the SlideShare home page, keep creating well-designed, useful, relevant
presentations.
Your content and design will catch the team’s attention.
That’s it.
Those sections are hand-curated.
That’s the good news and the bad news.
The good news: it’s a level playing f ield. Whether you are a blogging superstar or a newcomer, you are egual (in
theory anyway) in Slideshare teams’ eyes.
The only thing that matters is how great your presentation is.
And that’s the bad news.
It HAS to be great. Be remembered.
But then again, anything worth doing is worth doing right.
By the way, the Slideshare presentation you see in the Top Presentation of the Day above is this one – my
most popular on so f ar (over 107K views):
<if rame

deshare.net/slides
how/embed_code/
16720047?rel=0″
width=”597″
height=”486″
marginwidth=”0″
scrolling=”no”
style=”border:1px
solid
#CCC;border-
width:1px 1px
0;margin-
bottom:5px”
allowf ullscreen
webkitallowf ullscr
een
mozallowf ullscree
n> </if rame> <div
style=”margin-
bottom:5px”>
<strong> <a
lideshare.net/Meet
Ana/how-to-write-
awesome-
f acebook-status-
updates”
title=”How to
Write Awesome
Facebook Status
Updates”
ow to Write
Awesome
Facebook Status
Updates</a>
</strong> f rom
<strong><a
lideshare.net/Meet
Ana”
na
Hof f man</a></str
ong> </div>
2. Get Embedded on other blog
Another way to bring Slideshare traf f ic back to your blog is by getting your presentation embedded on other
sites.
Embeds bring traf f ic. You saw it f rom the screenshots above.
How do you get your Slideshare presentation embedded on other blogs?
Two ways:
1. Either by getting f eatured on the home page and catching attention f rom other Slideshare users or
2. by embedding the Slideshare presentation on your blog and encouraging your readers to do the same.
You saw me do it in this post.
Each presentation I embed at Traf f ic Generation Caf é is f ollowed by a handy box with the embed code
enclosed; all my readers need to do is to copy and paste that code in their blog post.
Making it easy goes a long way.
3. Get ranked on Google
We’ve talked about Slideshare SEO above.
Once again, it’s much easier to create a powerf ul Slideshare presentation around competitive keywords and
rank it on Google than wait f or your own site to gain enough authority to compete with 800-pound gorillas.
Your call to action should do the rest.
4. Make your blog content more viral
Slideshare presentations embedded in your posts make your content more interesting.
Interesting content is much more likely to get shared and linked to.
Popular content drives traf f ic and Google rankings.
You see where I am going with this?
You might not even know that it’s the Slideshare presentation that’s making the impact on your rising traf f ic
numbers, but trust me: if your presentations are good, your website traf f ic WILL increase.
Outside-the-box Way to Use Slideshare
Did you know Slideshare is not f or presentations only?
Another great way to use Slideshare is to convert your blog posts into PDFs and upload them to Slideshare as
documents.
Why?
Links

Traf f ic
Brand building
Granted, this strategy won’t insanely increase your website traf f ic on its own, but in conjunction with publishing
quality Slideshare presentations, it will.
You can learn more about this strategy in this post:
Be Everywhere: How to Convert Blog Post into PDF in Under 60 Seconds
By the way, af ter I published that post Ileane Smith f rom BasicBlogTips.com asked me the f ollowing question:
That’s the kind of question that deserves an in-depth answer in a post of its own.
And here’s the answer to Ileane’s question; agree? disagree? Let me know in comments.
When “They” Steal Your Search Engine Ranking and Traf f ic…
Slideshare: Free or Pro?
Yes, Slideshare has a premium option.
The plans vary f rom $19/month to “?” (the sky is the limit?).
I could certainly make good use out of some of the f eatures:
Uploading larger files (although so f ar, I haven’t had a problem with my presentations the way they are);
Uploading videos (although you can still embed YouTube videos in your existing presentations);

Live links in descriptions (available with $49/month plans and up – although I think you can get more
traf f ic with a great call to action within your Slideshare presentation);
Collecting leads (although you can get only up to 30 leads with no geo targeting at $19/month, 75 at
$49/month – imagine how many leads you can collect if you simply direct your Slideshare traf f ic to an
opt-in page?).
In other words, I’ll remain a f ree member.
The choice is yours, of course.
You can learn more about paid plans and PRO f eatures here.
More Slideshare Features
With a site as extensive as Slideshare, there bound to be more f eatures than can be covered in one post,
right?
Here are the ones that I recommend you check out:
Add YouTube video
When in “Edit” mode of an already uploaded video, one of the options you’ll see is “Add YouTube Video“.
Just like I did with this presentation:
Add Audio
The “Add Audio” tab is right next to the video f eature.
You can upload an mp3 audio f ile f rom your computer to go with your Slideshare presentation.
It can’t be a music f ile; only recordings of a presenter talking are allowed.
Here’s an example of a Slideshare presentation with an audio added:
5 Tips For Finding The Best Guest Bloggers from Ileane Smith

Browse
Another way to get in f ront of Slideshare users, as well as see what kind of content works best on Slideshare,
I highly recommend you use the “Browse” f eature.
Learn more about Slideshare
The best way to learn more about Slideshare and how to use it best f or your business is Slideshare blog.
See some of the best-perf orming Slideshare presentations in action; f ollow us on Slideshare:
Ana Hof f man on Slideshare
Mauro D’Andrea on Slideshare
More helpf ul posts about Slideshare:
1. How to Use SlideShare to Generate Leads - Jason Miller, SocialMediaExaminer.com
2. The Marketer’s Guide To SlideShare - Mauro D’Andrea, KISSMetrics.com
3. SlideShare Cheat Sheet - Marketo.com
Why You Shouldn’t Use Slideshare
It might sound like I am blowing my own trumpet here, but it’s true: when it comes down to sharing my best
traf f ic generating inf ormation, I am generous to a f ault.
I don’t know how to hold back or charge money f or holding back.
Thus, you get the best, most timely and in-depth advice on how to increase website traf f ic – either here at
Traf f ic Generation Caf e or in your inbox through my Bite-Size Traf f ic Hacks newsletter.
If you were to actually use these tips, you would be unstoppable.
Then I’d have to compete with you f or traf f ic, which is really too much of a headache.

So I am sharing these superb Slideshare traf f ic generation tips quietly hoping that you won’t do much about
them and let me continue dominating Slideshare.
Like this (this screenshot was taken a couple of weeks after the one at the top of the post – 2 weeks +77K views):
Of course, in the end the choice is yours.
Are you going to let me have all the f un and Slideshare traf f ic?
If you like this post and think it would be valuable to your f ollowers,
share the ish out of it f or me, would you?

Trafficgenerationcafe.com: Slideshare Traffic Case Study: From 0 to 243,000 Views in 30 Days

Trafficgenerationcafe.com: Slideshare Traffic Case Study: From 0 to 243,000 Views in 30 Days

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Trafficgenerationcafe.com: Slideshare Traffic Case Study: From 0 to 243,000 Views in 30 Days