Jul 19 2009
A - Z to getting website and blog traffic
The wider you cast your traffic net, the more you future-proof your business. You probably won’t use every method listed here. Choose the ones which Best suit your site, your skills, your interests and your temperament.
All the techniques described here involve work - but that’s a good thing. Many of your competitors will be too lazy to do the work involved, so when you do it, your traffic will leap ahead of theirs.
To do one or two of the things I describe, you may have to go to eLance or Rentacoder and hire a programmer. However, the vast majority of the techniques are free and relatively simple. Most of them require time, not Money.
1. Submit articles to newsletters which are archived online.
Submitting articles to newsletters has been popular since the early days of marketing on-line. In the “Internet marketing” niche, publishers tend to be Swamped with offers to publish articles. Other fields aren’t so ridiculously competitive; you’re likely to have more success if you take the time to establish a relationship with a newsletter publisher. Also, if you’re prepared to write an article exclusively for one newsletter, your offer is more likely to impress. Subscribe to each newsletter and study it carefully. Study the on line archives. The article you offer needs to be genuinely useful.
2. Submit brief hints to newsletters and blogs.
A brief, useful hint published in an archived newsletter can give you a link to your site for many years - perhaps even a decade or more. You can also submit tips to blogs.
3. Include keywords in your online profiles.
Whenever you create an on-line profile anywhere on-line; on your blogs, on a forum or on sites such as LinkedIn - always use carefully chosen key phrases. This increases the chance that people will find you, either via search engines or, for example at LinkedIn, via the site’s search facility.
4. Get one-way links and a few reciprocal links.
Reciprocal links aren’t as important as they used to be. They should not be your major traffic-generating strategy. They are still very useful, especially when you’re getting a new site established in the search engines.
5. Publish articles on your site and invite other sites to publish them on their sites, with a link to you.
Some websites make it very easy for other sites to reprint their articles. At the end of each article on their site, they publish a note giving people permission to reprint the article providing the source box at the end is published, too.
6. Publish a lively, useful newsletter.
Let’s say you have 3,000 people a week - or month - visiting your site. Most of them are going to look at one or two pages and then disappear, perhaps never to be seen again.
You need a way to persuade them to return. Writing your own newsletter is an excellent way of boosting repeat traffic. A newsletter reminds readers that your site exists. To encourage repeat visitors, you can tell your readers about new articles you’ve added to your site. You can also remind them of articles they may have missed. You can tell them about a survey you’re running on your site, a special report, or interesting new posts on your forum. While you’re writing your newsletter, keep asking yourself, “Is this item useful? How can I make it more useful?”
If you’re not keen on writing, you can outsource the writing or simply publish Brief notes which let your readers know that your site has been updated. My Newsletters tend to be long, but yours doesn’t have to be. Newsletters enhance your reputation; add to your credibility and - best of all - Give you repeat opportunities to make a sale. Another advantage of publishing a newsletter is that when you want to launch a second or third website, you can give it a flying start simply by mentioning it in your newsletter.
If you haven’t published a newsletter, you’ll find that the technical side of it is much easier than you imagined.
A good, reliable way to publish a newsletter is to use Aweber to distribute it. Aweber takes the hassle out of newsletter publishing. Using a professional service like Aweber and a double opt-in sign-up Process gives you protection against spam complaints. Aweber has been around for years, has an excellent reputation and one of the highest - if not the highest - successful delivery rates on-line. It automatically handles subscribes and unsubscribes. It gives you a form you simply paste into your website to start collecting Email addresses, and it even provides newsletter templates. It’s a wonderful Service. I use it for two of my newsletters and highly recommend it. It’s much better than a more expensive distribution service I also use. It’s tricky switching one from service to another. Because of inertia, you’re Likely to lose a large percentage of your readers if you have to switch to a new service. So make sure you start with a well established, reliable.
7. Publish a mini-course.
This technique encourages visitors to keep coming back to your site. Publish a short (or long) informational email mini-course. Provide genuinely useful content. Starting gradually, after you’ve won the trust of your readers, weave relevant affiliate links into the messages. Also, give your readers reasons to visit your site, giving them links to related Articles on your site. These pages can contain both affiliate links and AdSense ads.
To retain your reader’s interest, at the end of each message, give them a little teaser telling them what they’ll get in the next message in the series. The auto responder service I use and recommend is Aweber. With only one subscription, it allows you to publish newsletters and Auto responder courses from different domains.
Some smart marketers using this technique don’t send the mini-course via Email. They just send out a memo announcing when each new part is On-line. Doing this helps you evade spam filters - the shorter the message, the more likely it is to get through. Also, it gives you an opportunity to get eyeballs in Front of the affiliate links or Ad Sense ads on your site.
8. Write testimonials that are worth using.
When you read an eBook or newsletter or some product which you find Useful, write a quick note to the author. Sometimes, your quick note will be published as a testimonial, with a link back to your site.
9. Make helpful posts in forums.
Join forums in your niche and promote your site in your signature. Be careful. Read the forum instructions first or you’re likely to annoy forum Moderators and forum members who have been there for years. Lurk and Learn.
Some forums allow signatures. Some don’t. Some won’t allow words like “See the link in my signature”. Tread carefully.
You also need to remember that many affiliate agreements specifically say that posting an affiliate link on a forum is regarded as spamming. Ignoring this rule can get you dumped from an affiliate program. You could lose any commissions you’ve earned. Build your reputation by posting genuinely, helpful, useful comments. If you think carefully of ways to provide truly useful content that people will talk about, you’ll automatically end up with lots of free, one-way links to your site as people recommends it without even being asked to do so.
10. Make useful posts to email discussion lists.
You can subscribe to free email discussion lists and participate. For Internet marketers, LED Digest is a good one. It has more than 40,000 Subscribers. The moderator, Adam Audette, won’t accept blatant Advertising, so be cautious. Lurk and learn before you post.
