February 03, 2004 | View Comments (20) | Category: Web Mastering
Summary: How to develop traffic for you site.
Developing traffic is a fine art on the web. Sometimes we get lost in the fact that just because it is easy to build a website it does not mean that it will be easy for people to find it. When it comes to personal sites, maybe it is not your goal to have a large amount of traffic come through your site, but for almost every other site in existence, the site will need traffic to survive. The question then becomes how does one go about developing traffic for their website?
The best way (and one of the hardest) is to get linked to by other sites. Once you are linked by someone else and that site has more than 2 visitors you will more than likely receive a small boost in traffic. However, keeping that traffic is another story altogether. Of course no one will link to you if it is not worth their time. They are trying to enrich the content of their site so if a link to your site does nothing for them, well then don't expect a link. If you really wish to see a large boost in traffic then do something that will get you linked by Slashdot. Just make sure your server can handle it.
Of course for someone to link to you they have to know that your site exists. So what are you to do about this situation?
These are not guaranteed ways, but they do usually provide some success. The first one involves simply commenting on other people's sites or in forums where signatures are allowed. The key here though is to post an insightful comment where people will be interested to find out more about you. "Awesome idea!" is the kind of comment that people will quickly bypass. Don't get me wrong, I love those kinds of comments, but the chances of someone clicking on your name drops.
The second method involves including links to other sites, be it within an entry or a blogroll. I can only speak from my own experience, but I often check my referrer logs and if I notice a new link pointing to my site I will always check it out. It's always fun to find that diamond in the rough on the web.
Many sites make deals where they will post each others links on their sites. This can be either good or useless. If the site linking to you gets absolutely zero traffic then a link might be useless and only benefitting that individual. Also if their link to you is in a place where no one will find it then it again becomes useless. When doing a link exchange do not expect the person to always be so helpful for you. Work a deal where both parties will benefit.
A technique that I have yet to try, but have been putting some serious thought into for the future on other non-web related sites is using traffic generators. An example of one can be found at Targeted Visitors. These types of sites guarantee that they will send you X amount of people for Y amount of dollars. If anyone has ever used a service like this I would love to hear your experiences with them.
Building and keeping a steady stream of traffic is not an easy thing to do. Getting people to click on a link to go to your site can be simple at times, but keeping that person coming back is another task all by itself. The key to success is and always will be content.
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The popup method is certainly no way to go as that would only piss people off.
Scrivs (http://www.9rules.com/whitespace/)
Not to mention the fact that most people nowadays have popup blockers, using something like the Google Toolbar or programs with that feature built-in (ie. Firebird, etc.)
I don't mind text-based ads, but pop ups ruin the experience ten-fold.
kartooner (http://www.kartooner.com)
I don't know if it's an ego thing with me, or what, but I tend to never ask anyone to link to my site. I figure they'll do it if they like my site enough. These days, 98% of all my traffic comes from search engines, with the occasional site linking to mine every blue moon or so.
With personal sites, it's hard to get linked to. It was much easier when I ran a news site. I'd post news, and if it was exclusive, I'd email other big news site and ask them to link to it, because it benefits their readers to link to my news post or article. With a personal site, how do you know it benefits another personal site? That's a line I'm still trying to figure out.
A lot of bloggers quit because they're not motivated anymore, because they're not as popular as they hope to be. That's why you see a lot of dead blogs out there, or dying ones. People should start a blog merely because they want to post their thoughts, not join a popularity contest. It's a nice motivational factor, but I don't think it should be the sole reason to post everyday.
Matt Burris (http://www.goodblimey.com/)
I also that you have to interest your
readers to make them come again. Post about topics you like and you know about. I think it's also good to state what's your blog about. There are many blogs out there just for the sake of blogging. I don't agree with this. It's much better to concentrate your blog on one or just few issues than try to cover
everything.
1. You won't be able to do it and
2. there is no community around everything.
Try to write about one issue and people intersted in this issue will come, read and eventually return.
dusoft (http://www.ambience.sk)
Funny, I was just thinking about this issue this morning but more from the standpoint of blogs. You can go to weblogs.com and see a ton of blog names but without clicking on them all and reading them, you won't have a clue as to what they are about. Sure, the blog name may imply something but you still have to visit it to be sure. Therefore, if my primary means of attracting visitors is via this weblog list then I won't be getting very many visitors and even more so, those that show up may not actually be interested in what I'm talking about and therefore leave immediately.
I thought there has to be a better way and then I clued in about posting on other sites to attract people. From a blog perspective, this seem totally logical. I think most people are blogging because they want to connect with other people and have conversations about things that interest them. Well, does it really matter if those conversations you enjoy are at your site or others? To me, I realized, no this didn't matter. What mattered was that I was in a conversation that mattered and interested me.
So I thought, how do I find these conversations that interest and matter to me. Well, I started by browsing a few of the blogs that I usually visit daily and post on occasionally to see where their blogroll's or essential link lists lead. After a few clicks I ended up here, noticed this article, and now I'm posting about it because it interests me.
To some people, trying to attract people to your site this way may seem like a lot of work but look at how RealLife relationships work. Relationships aren't easy, they take time and a lot of work to grow and develop. For example, if you move into a new apartment in the big city and don't go out much, don't expect people to come knocking on your door to socialize. Instead you have to get out of your apartment, visit the surrounding community, interact with those people (i.e. visit the corner store), and let them get to know you. Once they do get to know you, the more likely they will stop by to chat, especially if you throw out the welcome mat for them.
Nollind Whachell
"People should start a blog merely because they want to post their thoughts, not join a popularity contest."
Matt, you've pretty much summed up my thoughts exactly. Likewise, when I started my website 4-5 years ago I never knew what exactly to do with it. For awhile, it was an e-magazine dealing exclusively with special effects and entertainment. Eventually it became a business site for my graphic design endeavors.. and then? Well, for the longest time I didn't know what to do with it.
Not until I found out about blogging. Posting thoughts, observations, reflections, etc. on whatever topic you desired appealed to me.
I don't have a thousand visitors a day, but I liken it to a Mom and Pop shop in the middle of nowhere (in this case the Internet). I'm happy with the occassional visitor, ringing the bell attached to the door -- dropping in to check out things and maybe leaving behind a comment (or two).
I blog for myself which keeps me motivated. I've got a daughter who I'm sure would love to read her father's thoughts someday (I keep an offline backup for this purpose).
Storing this information is preserving it for the future.. even if that means only the next 5-10 years.
kartooner (http://www.kartooner.com)
I like the analogy about moving to a new apartment.
Many people don't realize the hard work it takes to get a large amount of people to come to your site. If your goal is to become popular longer than your "15 minutes of fame" then make sure you are willing to put some work into it. If your goal is to have lots of people comment on your blogs so that you can engage in interesting conversations then make sure that you word hard to write stuff that interests people.
It all comes down to what you want from your site and if it matches the reality of how much you are willing to put into it.
Scrivs (http://www.9rules.com/whitespace/)
The techniques you listed here might work for a blog, but it's not really applicable to a business or client's site in my opinion. I mean you can't go around commenting on people's blogs just to leave a link to your client's site in the domain box.
But if you're trying to drive traffic to your personal site or blog, those are great ways to start...
Derek Rose (http://www.twotallsocks.com/)
They're not necessarily blog specific.
Depends on what the website is about. Find a blog or more likely a forum dedicated to it and comment with the link in your sig. If you're selling ipod accessories, go to ipoding and ipod lounge. If you're a business consultant, go to financial sites and business sites, and hell, sports sites to boot.
One big thing that was left out above was non-web ads... web address on business cards, print advertisements, commercials... sponsor public radio at a high enough rate that they'll thank you on-air with your web address. Contribute articles to magazines and ezines and newsletters in your field, with the web address displayed somewhere.
Re: linking... If you sell ski supplies, partner with a company that gives lessons and a place that sells ski racks for cars and a year-round ski slope and whatever else, linking back and forth not as ads but as valuable reference points in your text, inline links.
JC (http://thelionsweb.com/weblog)
I think for personal sites, the commenting method is a solid solution. Not only does it give people access to your site that will probably have something in common with your content, it also allows them to tie your site to a comment you have made at some point.
So if you are posting great comments that are intelligent and insightful, more than likely someone who visits your site will become a regular on some level.
Jeremy Flint (http://www.jeremyflint.com)
Like JC said the comment thing wasn't just for blogs, but it was more speicifically directed for blog owners. Obviously in most cases you would use your clients' apges for your own sig.
Scrivs (http://www.9rules.com/whitespace/)
I'm still working on the traffic of my blog, but I really don't mind it much. It's a good motivator when I see a sudden surge in visitors, but I'd keep blogging even if my site still had a mere 10-30 hits a day. Of course, I also try to produce content that people will find funny, informative, or insightful, so having visitors polls how well I'm doing at that, kinda-sorta.
Then again, there's no telling what will attract a user. On your previous post asking people what makes them comment, the answers were varied or carried little advice for how to start a discussion. It seems to be more or less on a random whim. It's particularly difficult to start discussions where there isn't one in the first place.
On sites like this, Asterisk*, Mezzoblue, and others, it's a little exciting to be the "first poster", because you know it's inevitable that many more will follow. Figuring out how to make discussion a normal practice on a site is difficult, even when posts pose direct questions to the readers.
I would have to agree that commenting on other sites (forums and blogs) really helps draw in readers that will be interested. If your posts are useful to other posters, your blog will likely be just as useful. One early post to an ALA article recently added a few hundred hits to my site. Of course, ALA articles aren't exactly the same as blogs, but the point stands.
Then, there's the added benefit that my site is now the top result for my name on Google, above a New Orleans musician, a clown magician, a cricket player, and many others. Same goes for my nickname, Dris, which I used to use for posting comments.
Chris Vincent (http://dris.dyndns.org:8080/)
I think there's also the "make something cool" category. It's not only writing that attracts people to a site. In my case, I made a comic. That proved to be successful. Sometimes a bit too successful. I stopped updating on a weekly basis due to excessive workload and now I get some people fixated on the next update demanding it. Sometimes it's just not fun anymore. Guess the same can happen with a blog.
I'm getting a very balanced mixture of linkage lately. It tends to be about 10% pointing to design, 50% pointing to comic (even with less updates) and 40% pointing to blog/writing. That's amusing.
sergio (http://overcaffeinated.net)
A tip if you want to be Slashdotted: just put Linux somewhere that it doesn't belong. ;)
I never realised how many clicks you can get from comments until I started commenting on things. I think it's a great way of crediting/rewarding intelligent commenters.
I'm finding a lot of great blogs relating to web design just by looking in the comments.
Jack (http://boxofjack.com/)
I'm Dan from Targeted Visitors. I noticed this blog in the referrer logs for the site (wondering where sales were coming from with all my ad campaigns paused).
The reality is that buying 10,000 visitors from a service like ours isn't going to be the same as 10,000 people coming from a blog like this or any other website link. I admit, MOST will close the window immediately (although those with popup blockers won't count towards the visits we send you, since they'll block before the page loads and counts). The fact is that enough will still view the site and in most cases enough are interested in the website that popped under to interact with it.
Compare the price of as low as $0.00195 per visitor to that you'll pay for any other advertising, and you'll see that the lower response rate can still add up to cheaper price per interested visitor.
Dan Grossman (http://www.targetedvisitors.info)
That sounds reasonable, but I hate popups and all that they stand for. In fact, when I find something in a popup that I actually like, I'll go out of my way to get to the site by other means, just so I don't have to support the method of advertising directly.
I'm sure there are several who might find this advertising to be lucrative and moral (according to my own thinking), so don't take this personally. :P I really can't imagine seeing a blog in a popup, anyway.
Chris Vincent (http://dris.dyndns.org:8080/)
>> I really can't imagine seeing a blog in a popup, anyway.
It's not like a mini window, that'd be useless to everyone involved.
http://www.targetedvisitors.info/example.html
Dan Grossman
"Build it and they will come"...
In my opinion, getting traffic isn't the problem. Getting worthwhile traffic is what counts (this is implied I guess, so excuse the pedantism). Getting repeat visitors who are also worthwhile traffic is, obviously, the holy grail.
By worthwhile, I mean getting visitors who will buy, or those who will participate, dependending on your site's purpose.
How is this achieved? I'm not sure that the aesthetics are as important as designers would have us believe. I am sure that usability and accessibility are, but you can still scrape by if these aren't up to scratch.
However, I am 100% certain that good content is the definitive bait needed to attract and KEEP visitors.
The websites I visit the most are those which offer me a measurable return on the time I invest in them. Let's face it, none of the following sites are drop-dead gorgeous:
http://www.amazon.co.uk
http://www.iht.com
http://www.wired.com
http://www.salon.com
http://perl.apache.org
But they all offer well-written, worthwhile content and are frequently updated. Furthermore, they all offer user/community tools, encouraging the visitor to interact.
This is what counts. I'd much rather have 10 repeat-worthwhile-visitors, than 1000 never-to-be-seen-again ones.
DarkBlue (http://urbanmainframe.com/)
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#1
You're kidding on the targeted visitors, right? I mean, they 'send' you visitors by making your site pop up when they're viewing another page... hardly a way to endear a potential reader. Not quite so bad when they use the abandoned domain tactic, but still quite thoroughly annoying. Sure, it'll inflate your hit count... but the window probably won't stay open any longer than it takes to close it.
If you have any kind of content worth viewing, you'll get real results from something like google adwords. Or whatever google ad thing populates adsense, if adwords isn't pulling from the same DB.
Link exchanges, when referring to sites whose sole purpose is exchanging links, are utterly worthless except as spam generators. Nothing wrong with exchanging links with someone whose site is of real value and does not have excessive links, though.
Comments are probably the best way, though, at least in this industry. Case in point; your blog. Though I found you through the communiblog on inmyexperience.com I think.
JC (http://thelionsweb.com/weblog)