What I have learned from about-a-month blogging experience is that building website traffic is not as easy as I thought. I found it very difficult to get my blog traffic over 100 unique hits per day so now I think it’s time to get seriuos as I don’t quit that easily.
To discover what the problem was I entered numerous search keywords in Google to find out what’s happening (e.g. Increase website traffic, blog traffic etc.). During my attempt to find new tips I encountered so much of them that I think It is worth posting so that you have ‘all’ the techniques in one place.
Before doing that let me give some hints that almost seduced me to desperately get new traffic eventhough it is not my style to do so:
- Buying website traffic
- Hiring an expert for SEO
- Paying for Articles
- Advertising my blog
Some of you might find that hints very useable but that traffic increase is not organic so it does’t have any meaning to me as I really want to build loyal visitors that like what I’m writting about.
40 Tips to increase website/blog traffic:
- Write and submit blogs/articles to article/blog direcories
- Write comments on other’s blogs
- Post on forums and leave a link in your signature
- Answer questions on www.answers.yahoo.com
- Advertise yourself on www.craiglist.com
- Submit your blog to numerous free blog directories
- Generate XML sitemap and manually submit it to search engines
- Optimize keywords with numerous free blog plugins and tools
- Add 404 error page that redirects to your home page (Usually it is already done that way)
- Use bookmark links to your pages
- Implement ‘tell-a-firend’ form
- Give away freebies to keep visitors coming back
- Add RSS feed to your blog (Implementing Feedburner is highly recommended)
- Create a software/application and give it for free if user signs for sth
- Have unique domain name (no domain names like www.mydomain.yahoo.com)
- Use domain names that go side-by-side with your content (www.myblogtips.com, www.cardiofitness.com)
- Start affiliate program
- Open several accounts on social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Bebo, etc.)
- Combine your social accounts and link them to your website (use lifestram plugins if using blog)
- Submit your video to www.youtube.com
- Use public surveys to involve users (e.g. polls)
- Patner with your online buddies and let them link to your site on theit frontpage
- Use links to high ranking sites on Google so that you get out of Google sandbox faster
- Start advertising campaign with google, yahoo, microsoft
- Advertise offline with visible web address (local newspapers, category related magazines etc.)
- Give away tips from your expiriences
- Do something controversial but be carefull how that affects you in long term
- Create your online profile on other websites related to your content
- Get yourself on www.squidoo.com
- Create a product and give it away for free with resell rights but bombard it with links to your website
- Advertise your site on personal assets (car badges, T-shirts,…)
- Start a newsletter (but use commercial solutions to avoid bad expirience for users)
- Write reviews on other products and leave a link
- Advertise free everywhere you can
- Use targeted advertising solutions as they will give you more important visitors (advertise geographically, demographically, place high bid and be creative)
- Give away free boks on signups (collect more data from visitors)
- Don’t spam and don’t lie to your vistors as you will be terminated on long term
- Love Google as your own mother otherwise your practically dead online (play by googles rules and you should be ok)
- Love what you’re doing
- And the most important: Write useable content and don’t pollute web space with copy-pasting
Matt Hanson
16 years ago
Good writing. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed my Google News Reader..
Matt Hanson