Are you a blogger or publisher looking for new ways to drive traffic to your website? Have you considered using Flipboard, the content curation and discovery platform?
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll show you how to leverage Flipboard to get a massive influx of high-quality traffic to your site.
Table of Contents
Why Flipboard is a Game-Changer for Publishers
Unlike other social media platforms that are hostile to external links, Flipboard is designed to help publishers succeed. Its entire purpose is to help users discover interesting content and drive traffic to the original sources.
Some key advantages of Flipboard for publishers:
- It’s the only major social platform that actively wants to send traffic to your site
- The demographics skew more male compared to Pinterest
- A wide variety of niches and topics can do well, from finance to entertainment to food
- Traffic quality is very high, with strong engagement, time on page, email signups, and ad revenue
- Evergreen content has a long lifespan and can be re-shared repeatedly
Getting Started on Flipboard
Create an Account and Engage
The first step is to create a Flipboard account. Start by being an active user – follow accounts and topics you’re interested in, engage with content, and build out your own profile with at least 10 magazines covering the key topics you write about.
Flipboard values community engagement. The more you participate authentically as a user, the more likely you are to be accepted as a publisher later on.
So take the time to be an active “citizen” of Flipboard.
Apply to Become a Publisher
Once you’ve spent some time on the platform, apply to become a verified publisher on Flipboard. This allows you to connect your site’s RSS feed so your content is automatically added to your magazines.
The publisher application process can take a few months. But don’t wait to start engaging on Flipboard – you can add content manually in the meantime. Publisher status is helpful but not required to succeed.
Optimizing Your Flipboard Presence
Create Niche Magazines
Organize your Flipboard profile into niche magazines centered around your site’s main topics and categories. If you write about personal finance, you might have magazines on budgeting, investing, credit cards, etc.
Add both your own articles and quality content from other sources into these magazines. Aim to provide value and build a resource, not just promote your own links.
Use Strong Visuals and Headlines
On Flipboard, users discover content primarily through images and headlines. Make sure you have engaging, high-quality featured images for your articles.
Write intriguing, curiosity-driving headlines. Aim for a compelling mix of informative and emotional elements. Tools like ChatGPT can help generate headline ideas if you get stuck.
Add a Flipboard Sharing Button
Make it easy for Flipboard users to share your content by adding a prominent Flipboard sharing button to your articles. If your social sharing plugin doesn’t include Flipboard by default, ask your developer to add it.
Leverage Resharing and Reflipping
Flipboard makes it easy to reshare and reflip content onto your profile and magazines. Take advantage of this to:
- Share your evergreen articles repeatedly over time
- Reflip your content into relevant shared magazines with larger audiences
- Curate and reflip quality articles from other Flipboard users to provide value
Clone and Tweak Articles for Flipboard
For maximum Flipboard traffic, consider cloning your articles and optimizing them for the platform. Some tactics:
- Rewrite the headline to be more emotional/engaging
- Swap out the featured image
- Add relevant captions and descriptions
- Canonicalize the clone to the original URL to avoid duplicate content issues
You can also tweak articles to capitalize on trends and seasonality. Turn “10 recipes for a summer BBQ” into “10 recipes for your Super Bowl party” and reshare at the relevant time.
Join Shared Magazines and Group Flips
Look for opportunities to contribute to shared magazines and group flips with larger built-in audiences. These include:
- Official Flipboard-run “exchanges” around topics like food, travel, photography
- Popular shared magazines run by influencers or brands
- Reciprocal group flips where everyone agrees to reflip each other’s content
Participating in these not only drives direct traffic but helps you gain more followers for your own magazines and profile.
Be Patient and Consistent
Building a Flipboard presence takes time. Focus on providing value, being an active part of the community, and consistently sharing quality content.
Aim to spend at least 10-15 minutes per day engaging on Flipboard and reflipping content. Make it part of your daily routine.
Results likely won’t be immediate, but within a few months you should start seeing traffic grow as your follower count and authority build on the platform. Some publishers are able to drive hundreds of thousands of monthly visitors from Flipboard within 6-12 months.
Flipboard For Traffic
Flipboard presents a huge untapped opportunity for publishers to drive engaged, high-value traffic. By optimizing your profile, actively participating in the community, and consistently sharing great content, you can turn Flipboard into a top traffic source for your site.
The key is to provide value, be patient, and have fun connecting with other users on the platform. Get started today and see how Flipboard can help your publishing business thrive.