How do you get your site visitors

They have: 7 posts

Joined: Feb 2009

I Was wondering how you folks went about getting visitors to your websites? Do you buy traffic from places like Google AdWords or try getting organic traffic? What about link trades and exchanges, have you or are you currently trading links with other site owners to boost your own traffic levels?

Do things like banner/button exchanges still work or do you think they are pointless using these days?

What about buying banner or button ad spots, do you think these are a good way to generate site visitors and if so, how do you judge where to pay for placements?

Those of you with an affiliate publisher program, do you use different methods of getting traffic to those than you do your regular websites?

Looking forward to seeing your responses Smiling

Brandon Hill
Publisher Support Manager
[email protected]
[url=http://www.intersharkmedia.com]InterShark Media[/url]

They have: 5 posts

Joined: Mar 2009

Almost all of mine come from search engines, people posting about them on forums (yay! free promotion) or direct (I'm guessing that's bookmarks?)

They have: 83 posts

Joined: Nov 2007

Me too targeting SE... what about yours traffic and earnigs... me not much and only little traffic.. but fighting

Megan's picture

She has: 11,421 posts

Joined: Jun 1999

Ours comes mostly through social networking, either directly or indirectly. We've been most successful with StumbleUpon, and a couple of our top articles have been picked up on Digg, Del.icio.us and Reddit.

Our organic search traffic is starting to increase, particularly long tail results. This seems to be bringing us better quality traffic as well.

We've never really considered buying ad placement or banners or things like that. Partly because we dont' think it would be effective for our audience but also because we think that focussing on good content and organic traffic is the way to go for our topic.

greg's picture

He has: 1,581 posts

Joined: Nov 2005

Never been a fan of Stumble. It may well give good traffic with the right content (articles etc) which perhaps makes it worth using, but the site is poorly designed and confusing at first.

Also, why would anyone want a "random page" within the FAQ section, which they provide Doh!

decibel.places's picture

He has: 1,494 posts

Joined: Jun 2008

greg wrote:
Also, why would anyone want a "random page" within the FAQ section, which they provide :doh:

Precisely because the concept is to "stumble" upon new finds - so why not stumble upon a FAQ?

I have worked a lot with random and pseudo-random algorithms for content, colors etc. It can be fun, of course it is only as good as the pool that is randomized.

Megan's picture

She has: 11,421 posts

Joined: Jun 1999

So what's your point? It's not a useful service because you don't like the way the site is deisgned? As a user you hardly ever actually use the site - everything is done through the toolbar. We actually don't seed any of our articles in SU - it brings us traffic without us even using it.

Although I do agree with you about the site being confusing, that doesn't mean that it's not a useful way to get traffic.

The quality of traffic from SU is debatable - you do get people interested in your topic but but, at the same time, they've probably got their finger on the stubmle button ready to move on at any time. On the other hand, they're probably more likely to take a look at the rest of your site than users from Digg etc. would be. I strongly suspect that the articles we've had on Digg/Reddit got there via SU.

As a user I like SU because it helps me find sites I wouldn't have seen otherwise.

richardworks's picture

They have: 31 posts

Joined: Jan 2009

I get my traffic from search engines, forums, social bookmarking sites, article directories. I don't think link exchange will give a decent traffic if they are not relevant of course. About the ad spots will only work if its visible to visitors eyes and also needs to be relevant to the content..

decibel.places's picture

He has: 1,494 posts

Joined: Jun 2008

My personal/professional site has a PR4 so it must have some decent traffic.

I have found that new posts are listed in Google search results in as little as 35 minutes.

I use Drupal which is very SEO friendly, I have a Google Webmaster account with a registered sitemap and I also have integrated the site's feeds with Feedburner.

I add content to my blog and/or site about 2-4 times a week.

I have used the "netsperience" name for over 12 years and dominate its use as a "brand." Another company beat me to the netsperience.com domain but they have come and gone - I plan to see about acquiring the domain, it's probably of little worth to anyone but me.

One way I drive traffic to my site is by good old email blasts. I have a "personal" list and a "professional" list each with about 150 personally collected email addresses (with some overlap so I only use one at a time). About 2-3 times a week I send out a Blast about some new content on my site, or sometimes I forward a Blast I have received if I think it is interesting and/or funny. Only two people asked to be removed from the list, I often get positive responses and thank yous. I would guess that some of the Blasts I send also get forwarded.

One topic I have "Blasted" 2 or 3 times are embedded YouTube video slideshows I made about Faith the two-legged dog who visits Veterans Hospitals and spreads hope and love. I also promote one of them on YouTube (like AdWords) with a .08% conversion, pretty good. The YouTube Insight Discovery tool reports that 20% of the views are "embedded" - most likely on my site, but perhaps elsewhere. For the past 6 weeks the video has been viewed an average of 45 times per day.

I also have a LinkedIn profile with my web site link and I am pretty active there in Groups and Questions/Answers. A few people have found me on LinkedIn, gone to my web site, then contacted me with my contact form or the Meebo IM widget on my site.

These are some ways to effectively promote a personal web site. I don't even bother analyzing logs or anything. But the PR4 indicates an average amount of traffic and backlinks.

They have: 3 posts

Joined: Mar 2009

I usually getting more traffic from forums, social bookmarking and article directories thro Search Engines.

They have: 7 posts

Joined: Mar 2009

Most of my traffic comes via Search Engines. However, I do submit my pages to Social Bookmarking resources to get initial page hits, and to help with Backlinks.

RTFVerterra's picture

He has: 109 posts

Joined: Dec 2008

I don't have a high traffic, but I catered about 300 visitors a day. This traffic is very low compared to yours but I am very happy with it. Before, I only receive about 20 visits a day, but it gradually increase day by day. Most of my traffic came from SE but now I receive hits from Wikipedia, looks like somebody link to one of my article that is related to that in Wikipedia.

They have: 5 posts

Joined: Apr 2009

RTFVerterra wrote:
I don't have a high traffic, but I catered about 300 visitors a day. This traffic is very low compared to yours but I am very happy with it. Before, I only receive about 20 visits a day, but it gradually increase day by day. Most of my traffic came from SE but now I receive hits from Wikipedia, looks like somebody link to one of my article that is related to that in Wikipedia.

This is good to know. I'm usually at about 20-30 visits a day, but I've noticed over months that the traffic is gradually increasing, especially with more visits from the search engines.

Now I'm just waiting for more people to pick up the content, and link to it more. That's great you got a link from Wikipedia.

So right now I'm posting in forums, using Twitter, and just trying to target a range of keywords in my niche.

They have: 13 posts

Joined: Apr 2009

1) Search Engines
2) Articles
3) Blogs
4) Forums
5) Link Exchanges
6) Directories

and more...

They have: 3 posts

Joined: Apr 2009

Search engines is the most important. Because i love natural traffic. So i did SEO for get that. And other ways like article, link exchanges, and ads follow the SEO.

They have: 83 posts

Joined: Apr 2009

Most of my traffic comes from Search engine,Social sites and forums.My site is a article submission site so i don't have to write article for that.So maximum of my traffic comes from search engine and social sites.

Brutal's picture

They have: 134 posts

Joined: Feb 2009

Post newsgroups, press releases, email to VIPs, article submission, reciprocal links, forum posting... Also tyr Social boolmarks its very helpful, you get traffic in small time.

thanks.

They have: 53 posts

Joined: May 2009

I participate on blogs and forums to attract visitors..

They have: 83 posts

Joined: Apr 2009

Most of my visitors come from search engine, social bookmarking, forum's and blogs.I go for organic traffic, don't like buying traffic and neither link exchange

They have: 1 posts

Joined: Jun 2009

I would say concentrate first on onpage SEO, so get all your content and keywords correct. HTML title, H1 tags and all that technical stuff correct. Alt tags for all pictures. Put links on you pages based on keywords that go else on your site. Make sure you keep it all readable and useful to visitors though.

Once you have done that, then I would try and get one way links with related sites. Maybe do a small tester adwords campaign, but go for the standard package and not starter so that you can set your own bids. SEO friendly directories are good for submitting site details and getting some links back to your site.

Dont underestimate the power of traditional marketing techniques.

Online website owner on a steep learning curve

www.watchfashion.co.uk

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