How to get traffic to your website

[Kaos]

Ok, I keep promising to put up some useful webmaster info and haven't because well, I'm so busy with clients its crazy! So I'm going to cheat :huh: One of my websites sends out newsletters to webmasters so I am gonna copy some of them in here starting with how to get traffic. This is a 14 part message though so I'll go one way at a time. Some are Duh! Everyone knows that. Others you may not have thought of. Who knows. Please ignoe the dorkiness of them, I don't pay attention to this site anymore (thankfully) its an auto-pilot members site. This is the first time I've looked at these in probably close to a year LOL So here you go:

Where's the Traffic!

I think everyone has one big question when they start there own website…
Where are all the people?

Getting traffic, the whole concept becomes an almost overwhelming thought; a constant distraction. It can make you
zombie like trying to find that one component that "missing link" shall we say. Well, I'm going to tell you about
14 ways to get traffic to your website.

Yes, that was not a typo, 14!

I highly suggest you take one method and develop that skill before moving onto another method. Some methods will be more
successful, depending on your niche but that's a whole different topic.

Today I will cover the first traffic builder, Blogs

Now, if you cringe at the idea, I agree. When I first heard about blogging I hated the idea. First you have to post everyday
to make an impact and be found, and frankly, I didn't know if I could come up with that many new ideas about my niche topic.

Blogging has become a phenomenon and highly attractive. People become loyal to good bloggers that write interesting, humors
and insightful posts. Blogs give you a chance to prove to others you're an expert in your field.

Ok, lets say your not into the whole blogging idea, it is time consuming, here is another approach. Find Blogs out there
written about your topic and post on them. A lot of blogs allow you to post on their site and there you will be able to
basically put in your two cents and give them the following, HIGHLY IMPORTANT LINE ending your post which should always
be in anything you write…

Do you know what it is?

"For more information go to mysite.com"

It may seem like a simple line but if you forget to put it in, you missed your chance to get targeted traffic to your site
for free! When people are interested in what you have to say they will look at your site for more information so it is
crucial that you have one HIGHLY IMPORTANT LINE in there.

I made this mistake way too many times when I first started out and had hundreds of posts and articles out there without
this line, and therefore I missed my chance. Don't make my mistake.

So consider blogging if you know a lot about your niche topic and feel confident enough that you will be able to put the
effort into it that it needs.

[popowich]

Digging unique and relevant content can help too!

Are there any services like digg that you use instead?

-Raymond

[esnagel]

What about Stumble-upon? I've only heard of it - never used it.

[Kaos]

I've recently started playing with stumbled upon, only because a bunch of us on another forum pounded each other to test the effects. My outcome was minimal personally. I think relevant blogs are a great way to get more targeted links and clients.

[THERESA]

Stumble upon (http://www.stumbleupon.com/)

[esnagel]

I just signed up today and "stumbled" my personal blog. We'll see if it gives any traffic.

[popowich]

Did you see any referral traffic from your stumbles?

-Raymond

[esnagel]

No, but I'm learning.

more stumbles you have more stmblers are coming

So signup, Stumble my site (http://www.netnagel.com/) and maybe write a review, too. I already did DNY (http://www.stumbleupon.com/url/www.discussny.com/nychat.php%253Freferrerid%253D12) (with my referral ID, of course!)

My website's page on Stumbleupon (http://www.stumbleupon.com/url/www.netnagel.com/).

[popowich]

So signup, Stumble my site (http://www.netnagel.com/) and maybe write a review, too.

Done!

(http://www.stumbleupon.com/url/www.discussny.com/nychat.php%253Freferrerid%253D12)I already did DNY (http://www.stumbleupon.com/url/www.discussny.com/nychat.php%253Freferrerid%253D12) (with my referral ID, of course!)


Thank you!

:yay:

[popowich]

We used to only have Yahoo and Google showing up, occasinally someone else.

I'm noticing an increase in the variety of spiders, and a jump in guests since the Stumbles started.

I've been stumbling everything I only used to digg.

See attached screen shot, or the bottom of the forum home.

-Raymond

[THERESA]

I was thinking about this thread on the way home from work while I was frantically texting my latest brainstorm to popowich. :p

[Kaos]

Does that mean I was helpful? I guess even a broken clock is right twice a day huh?:huh:

What made you think about this thread?(just curious)

[THERESA]

I think everyone has one big question when they start there own website…
Where are all the people?

Getting traffic, the whole concept becomes an almost overwhelming thought; a constant distraction. It can make you
zombie like trying to find that one component that "missing link" shall we say.


Does that mean I was helpful? I guess even a broken clock is right twice a day huh?:huh:


What made you think about this thread?(just curious)

Ray and I are constantly bouncing ideas around about getting more members and traffic to the site. It is funny but true..you eat, breathe, and sleep the site and getting traffic and members. The wheels are always turning. Ideas strike at the oddest times so I always rip off a quick text so I don't forget. Today was High school reunion threads (http://www.discussny.com/showthread.php?p=9264#post9264) while I was on my way home from work. God am I getting old. :(

[Kaos]

OMG I thought my husband and I were the only crazy ones eat,sleep and breathing work 24/7. We have a screened in porch that we go down to, or used to when he worked locally, we would go down there at like 10pm every night (even in the freezing winter) let the dogs out and brainstorm. I miss those nights, but it is kind of crazy to think how committed you can become to new projects or improving current ones.

[THERESA]

It's fun seeing the site grow. I was member #9. It's exciting to see just how big it can get. There are days I am way more committed than others though I have to admit. When I have my girls here I am not on so much.

[THERESA]

P.S. I am still determined and hell bent on beating Ray at referrals!

[Kaos]

I agree with motivation issues with the kids around, although I'm teaching my oldest (8yrs old) to do graphics now for some client work, she loves doing the little things so atleast we can do those things together.

[THERESA]

Now that Ray is letting my oldest make her own website, she will surpass me in no time regarding knowing her way around the websites.


(if she hasn't already)

:hide:

[esnagel]

OMG I thought my husband and I were the only crazy ones eat,sleep and breathing work 24/7.

I get my best ideas in the shower. I need a waterproof notebook or something.

[Raven]

I dream of googling, does that help. :rockernana:

[popowich]

I'm noticing an increase in the variety of spiders, and a jump in guests since the Stumbles started.


Look at that, a new guests record was set 3 minutes ago.

:yay:

-Raymond

[THERESA]

You're going to owe me big for that link in my signature I put on there last night. Eventually that should get a lot of hits.

[popowich]

Is anyone else seeing their Yahoo Slurpies acting like they got into the candy cabinet this morning?

[Kaos]

I am typically google bombed more then yahoo slurpies, but this month the both are out of control IMHO

[popowich]

Really? I get a lot more yahoo slurpies crawling the site than google bots, but for searches I get far more referral traffic from google searches than yahoo searches. I thought it was the way their search engines were designed that yahoo simply had more active crawlers, and was a separate issue from actual search results.

-Raymond

[Kaos]

Drives me nuts just the bandwidth they eat up alone annoys me, here's my current stats for my local site this month:

Robots/Spiders visitors (Top 25) - Full list - Last visit
15 different robots* Hits Bandwidth Last visit
Googlebot 13119+36 274.91 MB 18 Mar 2008 - 10:11
Yahoo Slurp 2810+264 62.28 MB 18 Mar 2008 - 10:12

[popowich]

What program do you use to generate your web site statistics?

I use webalizer (http://freshmeat.net/projects/webalizer/). It does not generate the stats that you have though.

-Raymond

[esnagel]

I guess I use webalizer, although for my site (http://www.netnagel.com/), it says I get about 950 visits / day, while Google Analytics (http://analytics.google.com/) says only 43.10. I guess I get lots of bots coming, and people trying to steal my images.

[Kaos]

I have my own server with awstat in it for all my stats

[popowich]

Thanks, I'll check out the AWStats (http://awstats.sourceforge.net/) package later this week!

-Raymond

[popowich]

Redirecting in old and/or unused domain names. :D

-Raymond

[Kaos]

I do that alot too. I own alot of local names that get traffic that all point to my local news site. The best is when you pick up a name that has existing links out there already getting good traffic, but CNY names are hard to come by anymore well, .com atleast.

[popowich]

Is anyone else seeing their Yahoo Slurpies acting like they got into the candy cabinet this morning?


Yahoo has historically had a lot of slurpies crawling around.

Then there was the big surge.

Now I see 1 for the last 24hrs.

Are they behaving more like Google now going forward?

-Raymond

[popowich]

There are now digg and stumble icons under threads.

If you are viewing a thread that you think others would be interested in, digg and stumble them!

-Raymond

[Raven]

Ray directs my trafffic. :p

[THERESA]

Ray directs my trafffic. :p


HMMM Very interesting. :popcorn:


:p

[popowich]

Look under this post. Every thread has a digg and stumble icon under it. If you think is original, unique, original, or at least might interest someone else, please take a few seconds to digg and/or stumble it and help DiscussNY to grow!


:yay:

[popowich]

Blogging has become a phenomenon and highly attractive. People become loyal to good bloggers that write interesting, humors
and insightful posts. Blogs give you a chance to prove to others you're an expert in your field.


I have been aware that creating an external blog that frequently deep links into the content of your web site is a good thing but never really got around to it. No excuses! I started the Discuss New York Blog (http://discussny.blogspot.com/) today. Anyone already here likely won't be interested in it since it will mostly be quick posts with links back to threads on here, but if you have any ideas for me to blog about such as a great original content thread that was posted and should be blogged (http://discussny.blogspot.com/), digged (http://digg.com/users/NickGlenn), and stumbled (http://www.stumbleupon.com/tag/new-york%20chat/), please let me know (http://www.discussny.com/private.php?do=newpm&u=8)!

-Raymond

[VinnyBrooklyn]

Ray I have been using a blog on the same server for my traffic. Sometimes the blog itself is the site leading people to the forum. Thats the way I have awesome set up, Since I use autoresponders everytime I post to the blog which is linked to an internal page it sends out an opt in email.

[popowich]

I created a DiscussNY MiniCity (http://discussny.com.myminicity.com/). :laughing6:

If it gets one new real member I guess it was worth it the 30 seconds of effort.

-Raymond

[popowich]

I started working on a MySpace page for DiscussNY (http://www.myspace.com/discussny).

I need some friends! ;)

-Raymond

[popowich]

There is also a DiscussNY Facebook Profile (http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1254361521).

-Raymond

[Big Dan]

Just subscribing to remind you to add you from my 3 Myspace profiles. ;)

[popowich]

Are you able to add me as a friend?

I was having some trouble making add a friend available to anymore and not requiring you know my last name.

Does that appear to be fixed now?

-Raymond

[Raven]

I have a couple myspace pages up, I will be your friend.

I started working on a MySpace page for DiscussNY (http://www.myspace.com/discussny).

I need some friends! ;)

-Raymond

[Raven]

Myspace I can't add you because I don't know my last name. :p

Are you able to add me as a friend?

I was having some trouble making add a friend available to anymore and not requiring you know my last name.

Does that appear to be fixed now?

-Raymond

[popowich]

I found the setting (finally). Try now!

-Raymond

[Raven]

I added two of my accounts on myspace.

I found the setting (finally). Try now!

-Raymond

[Raven]

Now you do a search on myspace for New York and add them.

[Raven]

Theresa will like this one. Dr. Phil wants to be my friend on myspace. :p

Now you do a search on myspace for New York and add them.

[popowich]

Now you do a search on myspace for New York and add them.

Already on it. :)

-Raymond

[Raven]

Thats my man. :kissing:

Already on it. :)

-Raymond

[Big Dan]

Ray I just added you from my OurDJTalk myspace account..I'll add you to my personal account later. :)

Raven can we be friends too? ;)

[Raven]

Why of coarse silly.

www.myspace.com/kidsdefenseteaminc

www.myspace.com/parrotbirdland



Ray I just added you from my OurDJTalk myspace account..I'll add you to my personal account later. :)

Raven can we be friends too? ;)

[Raven]

Not sure where in Florida you are, but here is a friend of mine that is a DJ. He is around the Daytona area.

http://www.myspace.com/perfectdj

He is like 25. I have known him for years. I met him once in person.
Tell him Slacker sent you. Thats what he knows me by.

Remind him that he has a boyfriend and not to hit on you. ;) Tell him I said so. He is a good guy.

Ray I just added you from my OurDJTalk myspace account..I'll add you to my personal account later. :)

Raven can we be friends too? ;)

[Big Dan]

I think I got everyone added now.. I just added DNY to my personal myspace and facebook.. I got Raven added to my both Myspaces and I just started a new myspace today for yet another website I'm starting.. Yippie!! :)

[Kaos]

Working on anything interesting for the new site? What niche are you going into now? Don't keep us out!

[Big Dan]

Me, I'm still doing music stuff you know me. :) I bought www.remixtalk.com (http://www.remixtalk.com) and installed vBulletin on it..it's of course music related, the only difference is the target audience is consumers and not business people (DJs). I started it a few months ago and have had very little luck doing anything with it as I'm either busy or couldn't tie up my friends computer. Now I got my wireless router and hopefully things will calm down a bit so I can get to promoting it and making the forum nice.

[Kaos]

Looks cool Dan. I like the "Giant Forum" posts for everything until we get up more forums LOL!

[Big Dan]

lol Thanks. I had put up one forum then a guy followed me over from my DJ board and started posting some crazy stuff so instead of moderating it I just created some forums. Hopefully this week I'll get to offically launch. I have to find a new style for it anyhow. Miner has a nice one that I really like but it's only for vB 3.6.. I guess I could update it myself. :eek:

[Kaos]

Miners work is kick ass IMHO. I just love his designs! Even if my last one was too graphic rich, I still loved his concepts. Looking forward to what he came up with now. I haven't been through his stuff lately. How do you always have vB license money? God, I really need to change my forum over to vB, just don't have the funds for it right now sadly. I'm so sick of the constant spammers I have bombing myBB one. They drive me nuts!

[Big Dan]

I just sold 2 licenses I wish I Would've known I would've offered them to you first. I bought like 5 of them in the beginning, sold 2 and the other ones I've had a few forums that didn't work out so I just move the license to a new domain. This forum is on a leased license though.. So if I don't start making a profile I'll convert to myBB when the license expires.

[Raven]

Can you sell PHPCOW license. I am sick of trying to figure it out. :rolleyes:

Miners work is kick ass IMHO. I just love his designs! Even if my last one was too graphic rich, I still loved his concepts. Looking forward to what he came up with now. I haven't been through his stuff lately. How do you always have vB license money? God, I really need to change my forum over to vB, just don't have the funds for it right now sadly. I'm so sick of the constant spammers I have bombing myBB one. They drive me nuts!

[THERESA]

I can't tell you how many times I have been in a situation where I was kicking myself for not having a DNY business card. I would see people picketing on the side of the road about things etc and think to myself, "man I wish I had business cards." I would have given them a card and encouraged them to post about whatever it was they felt passionate enough to picket about.

When you are trying to get traffic to your site, you want members that are passionate about something and firmly believe in a cause, their cause, any cause. Passion and emotion make for lots of threads and posts. (hopefully you won't get too many that are one track minded and only post loads of things about one topic.) Hopefully you will find a few that are like diamonds in the rough and they have strong opinions on many different topics. This is what you are after.

Of course, all members are important but you aren't trying to reach the ones that only post every once in awhile. (I don't want this to sound like a dig to the members that are only comfortable in posting once in awhile, it's really not) I'm just saying that it's the members that have a fire in them and have strong opinions that they want heard that will make your site explode.

I was walking down the street yesterday and there were people picketing and I said it out loud to RocCityDad (http://www.discussny.com/member.php?userid=273), "Man, I wish I had DNY business cards." He told me he could make them for me. You all get the sneak preview, here it is the order has been placed!

P.S. The reason why I chose (well Ray said I should) the title President is due to the fact that people that aren't familiar with forums don't know all of the lingo. (admin, moderator etc) Heck, I didn't even know what a thread or a post was the first time I read a forum. :) I have certainly come a long way baby! :)

:thanks: to RocCityDad (http://www.discussny.com/member.php?userid=273) for making these for me! (no my phone number is not blanked out on the cards :D )

[Kaos]

WTG RocoCity!!! Those are some nice looking cards. Give any out yet T?

[THERESA]

Give any out yet T?

Did you read my above post? :innocent:

:p

[Kaos]

I assumed you had some made already thats all

[esnagel]

http://www.vistaprint.com/sf/_langid-1/_/vp/images/nns/promo/top_vista_deals/FBC.gif (http://x.azjmp.com/1snGF)
250 Business Cards FREE
Choose from 42 business card designs and add your text. Full-color printing on 80-lb. card stock.

Note: they'll try to upsell you with lots of other offers, but stick with it & get 250 free cards (and it'll take you a while to get through 250 cards)

[harryn55]

http://www.vistaprint.com/sf/_langid-1/_/vp/images/nns/promo/top_vista_deals/FBC.gif (http://x.azjmp.com/1snGF)
250 Business Cards FREE
Choose from 42 business card designs and add your text. Full-color printing on 80-lb. card stock.

Note: they'll try to upsell you with lots of other offers, but stick with it & get 250 free cards (and it'll take you a while to get through 250 cards)

Yes they try to get you to upgrade your shipping cost to save time but their basic shipping does not take very long at all.

[THERESA]

I assumed you had some made already thats all

Just busting your chops. :)

[RocCityDad]

Well the cards came today. Theresa got them this morning. They came out really good.

BTW, these were through Vistaprint, I have ordered some before from there but never with an uploaded design. Vistaprint has changed some, now for 250 free cards, there is writing on the back with Vistaprint.com. That was 2.99 to remove. The cost of a custom order (upload artwork) was 3.99 for 250 cards. plus shipping which was 7.99.

Overall it came to about $20 bucks.

Hope you like them.

[THERESA]

Love 'em! :thanks:

[Kaos]

Very cool place to get cards...and now know the quality lives up to the cheap pricing! Go get em T! Start handing them out and lets get this place rocking!!!:rockernana:

[Big Dan]

My traffic is up on all my sites. I even noticed we've been busier here the past couple of days. It's like clockwork as soon as the weather turns cooler people are at their computers more. :)

[Kaos]

Let's hope so! I need Christmas money infusion soon from my websites LOL

[THERESA]

My traffic is up on all my sites. I even noticed we've been busier here the past couple of days. It's like clockwork as soon as the weather turns cooler people are at their computers more. :)

HMMPH!