Traffic Tips
There are several methods for generating traffic to your web site. One of the quickest ways to generate a traffic blitz is to use large, well-visited, highly-ranked sites to your advantage. Here are a few examples:
About what?
You’ve just put the finishing touches on your article about “How to Stretch Your Online Advertising Budget” or “The Coolest New Gadgets for Business in 2008” and you want to get it out to the public at large and generate web traffic from it. Take a look at “http://www.about.com,” one of the most widely used expert article sites on the Internet. At the bottom of the left hand column, click on “Browse by Topic.” Click on M for Marketing, you will see Marketing and the name of the guide who is in charge of the section. Click on the guide’s name and you will be taken to their bio page, from there you click on “contact” where you can now send that guide an email. In your email, properly introduce yourself, your business and contact information, then give a brief excerpt on your article with the article attached as a word file and the link to your blog (or wherever you’ve posted it) that contains the full article. Some guides post submission guidelines, so be sure to follow them.
The narrower the topic of your article, the easier it is to get published on About.com. Each guide on About.com is responsible for their own little corner of the web and they often search for new outside sources to post interesting articles from. This technique works for About.com because there are real people going through real information and it is their job to make sure they bring the latest articles to their readers. Should your article be accepted, be prepared for the traffic onslaught. It will be brief but high. Make sure your web site is prepared to capture the attention of your new visitors.
Digg me!
My client, “http://www.YankeesHater.com” goes through a lot of fluctuations in traffic. The interest in baseball is seasonal and passion about teams ebb and flow throughout the season. The idea was to keep readers’ interest even in the off season and to maintain a steady sales flow of caps and t-shirts. We installed a blog which the site owner is now posting to regularly. As an avid Red Sox fan, hating the Yankees is easy for him to be passionate about. Each time he posts an article, he clicks the “Digg” icon that was installed in the blog so his message can reach the sport masses. The site owner is also visiting other blogs and web sites related to baseball and sharing ideas, spreading more Yankee hatred wherever he goes. By making product photos easily visible from the now high-traffic blog, his revenues have increased significantly and traffic is steadier.
Are you Linked In?
Part of the fun and power of relationships is in seeing who else they lead to. Through web sites like Linked In, you connect your profile to your business associates and get to see who your business associates are connected to. Think of yourself in a room with 10 people you know standing around you. Behind those people you know are 9 other people who know them, and those 9 each have an additional 9 other people who know them. Suddenly your network of 10 people has expanded your reach to almost 500 people and you haven’t stepped out the door yet. The problem with the “real life” scenario is that we often can’t see those other connections. Linked In (“http://www.linkedin.com”) allows you to see those relationships and how far your immediate sphere of influence spans out. Looking for a particular service or product? Search your network. If what you need is within your reach, request introduction and connect directly to who you need. The reverse also applies. Make sure your profile clearly states what you do, and why and how you do it. Include all contact information, especially links to your web site. Make yourself easy to connect to and, before you know it, you’ll be landing a client halfway around the world who knows a guy, who knows a guy, who knows you.
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