TLDR version: they don't use double opt-in, they did some A/B on not having sidebars and use Slack and Trello. I'm not sure how these have much to do with growing traffic.

So I guess their actual strategies are click-baiting headlines and beefed up filler content with as many excuses as possible to cross-link to other articles in your blog and the service you want to sell.

(Apologies for the negative tone)

I'm the author and just found out this had been posted in HN. (Via, as I've come to expect from this audience, someone from HN pointing out the misuse of it's vs. its in the comments...classic).

Your snark is a result of you completely missing the context of this post. This post didn't exist in a vacuum. We had an audience and community built at this point, and an entire series of monthly updates on our traffic growth, and they kept asking about what tools we use, what tools we use, what tools we use, so we finally wrote it up into a post. For them "16,000" was less relevant in the title than "$52/m"

Here is 7 POST SERIES on our traffic growth: https://growandconvert.com/top-content-marketing-articles/#t...

And for good measure, here's a separate article just about promotion, which is probably what you were looking for: https://growandconvert.com/content-marketing/community-conte...

Let me know if those are "beefed up filler content".

Also, btw, when you run a blog it makes sense to link to a bunch of your other posts, so new people can quickly get their bearings and find your key content easily without hunting around.

I'm with you… article needs a good edit to actually get to the point

This article's headline is wrong and it doesn't get to the point

It's not wrong. The point is about tools, not the traffic, you guys are all missing the context of the article, it didn't get published in a vacuum. Please see my comment above.