If you are an internet entrepreneur looking to increase online traffic to your website then in this article I'm going to discuss 6 ways to accomplish this. They are all simple methods that are free to implement and require little or no specialised knowledge, meaning that you can get started today with a little bit of time and see results swiftly.
1) Blog Commenting
Locate blogs of a related topic to your website using Google's Blog Search tool, Technorati or IceRocket and add useful, on-topic comments to posts that you find that are of interest to you. In experiments, I have regularly found a single comment on a high-traffic blog to produce 5 or so visitors per day, so 100 comments strewn across a range of blogs could lead to several thousand new visitors to your site each month.
2) Forum Signatures
Use Google once again to search for forums in your niche by simply typing in the broad keywords associated with your niche followed by the word forum (such as "cat forum"). Once you have found a number, register for them and spend time there to offer information and advice to users. Make your answers genuinely useful so they add value rather than spamming forums with pointless posts and add a link to your website in your signature file if the forum allows it.
3) Yahoo Answers
Whilst Yahoo is the best known "question and answer" website there are a number of others out there. In Yahoo answers, users can ask questions on any topic they like. You, equally, can search for unanswered questions based on keywords and try to answer them yourself, linking back to yourself once again in your signature file.
4) Classified Ads
Sites like USFreeAds, Craigslist and GumTree all allow you to post free classified ads to their sites. Find the right site area and place an advert for your website ensuring you use your main keywords to attract the right sort of visitors. If you have a small amount of money to spare, consider trying Ebay's own classified ad service which offers you a powerful interface to create colorful, attractive ads plus loads and loads of potential customers.
5) Testimonials
Another great trick to increase online traffic is to email people whose website or product you particularly like with a testimonial about how great you thought their ebook was or the content on their website is. Tell them they can post that comment on their website to increase sales if they like - so long as they include a link to your website.
The beauty here, of course, is that all sorts of websites will be sending them traffic - pay per click advertising, affiliates, search engines and more - and there's your link front and center on their page.
6) Submit Articles
As a last suggestion in this article on how to increase online traffic, consider writing articles specifically to give away to other websites or blogs. If they get enough visitors, let them use it exclusively in exchange for linking back to your site. If they receive less traffic, you're well within your rights to offer the same article to a number of sites to try and get the best results possible from your efforts.
Marketers seem to be attempting to gain control of an audience by thinking that he who yells the loudest will get heard. This philosophy can get misconstrued easily because people seem to feel manipulated by shocking ads or obvious messages to buy buy buy! What people really want is related to. Consumers want common life ads not outlandish claims.
What catches modern consumer's eye is an ever moving target, as the escalation and arms race between ways to insert ads, and the ways to avoid them continues. Television commercials are omnipresent - they used to be zipped past by viewers watching on their VCRs. Now, they're edited out completely by TiVo and DVRs. On the Internet, pop up ads can be easily blocked; more customers are abandoning hitting web sites because they can get the content delivered by RSS feeds without having to shut down pop over and pop under ads.
So the real question is "How do I get my message through the clutter? That's part of your online traffic formula. How do I get heard without trying to shout down a football stadium?" The answer is relevance and concomitants. People are cynical of marketing claims, and have been for years. Instead, they're looking for people who are like them and making actual recommendations about products they've used. Here's an easy litmus test - do you read online product reviews? If so, how do they influence your buying decision?
Conversely, on your marketing site - how do you handle the occasional negative commenter? The smart answer is to let them be. They're looking to get a rise out of you, to get a debate going and to generate traffic to the links they're posting. The old Usenet adage still applies: Don't Feed Trolls which is key part of your online traffic formula.
That isn't to say that you shouldn't read negative posts. Negative posts are a filter. They're being put up by someone who cares enough about your message to tell you what didn't work about it for them. If you make or design a product, this is the most valuable feedback you can get. Remember not to attack back - just thank them for their input, and if you can, offer a few suggestions, in the form of "In the interests of making this work for you, how do you feel about options A or B?"
Nothing kills your sales faster than getting into an argument in a public forum with a customer, or a detractor. Sure, it gets you attention but you're not six any more, and you know that negative attention isn't what you want. The more you argue, the more you drive customers away - always keep your missives positive, and win the argument by out-reasoning the other guy.
Always try to connect with your audience, acknowledge that a negative reviewer has a valid point, and then try to solve their objection. Your online traffic formula aim is to provide a benefit for your regular readers to come back to your site repeatedly, and the way to do that is to rise above the fray.
In Amazon's system, let's take books for an example. When you pull up an item, they list other similar and relevant books relating to the keywords you typed. They also have what other consumers bought along with it and reviews. All these methods are successful in use with the online traffic formula.
Both Richard Adams & Trisha Frauenhofer are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Richard Adams has sinced written about articles on various topics from Travel and Leisure, Quit Smoking and Computers and The Internet. Discover the advanced techniques we use to leverage small websites into major players in their industry and . Richard Adams's top article generates over 1830000 views. to your Favourites.
Trisha Frauenhofer has sinced written about articles on various topics from Affiliate Programs, The Internet and Marketing. is an online marketing professional who loves sharing her most potent online secrets including the. Trisha Frauenhofer's top article generates over 18100 views. to your Favourites.