Traffic Generation is hard, problematic, and confusing.
I WANT TO DEMYSTIFY THAT IDEA RIGHT NOW. THE ONLY REAL TRAFFIC GENERATING "SECRETS" ARE JUST METHODS YOU HAVEN'T LEARNED ABOUT YET. Once you understand the basic rules governing how people find Web Sites, you will never again be at a loss for traffic-generating ideas.
1) EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED - The internet consists of millions of Web servers. While not all of these servers are linked directly to one another, they are inevitably linked within their own "mini nets". What does this mean, exactly? Well, PEOPLE DISCOVER NEW WEB SITES IN THREE MAIN WAYS: by inputting keywords into a serch engine like Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc; by clicking on links in articles or advertisements; by word of mouth - online (e.g., mentions in forums or chat rooms) or offline (e.g, via business cards, stickers, classifieds, radio, etc.).
Almost everyone knows about google, yahoo, msn, ebay, and so forth. Those are some of rhe most popular search engines right off the top of my head. Most people have the addresses memorized and know how to get to them without searching for them. Sites like google and Yahoo are the first places people go when they want to perform a specific search. Sites like MSN and AOL are often set as "start pages" or "home pages" - meaning they are the first sites a person's web browser goes to when the get online. So these types of sites represent major hubs of internet activity - like the airports or bus stations of internet. A majority of people start from there but can pursue an unlimited number of destinations because these sites are heavily linked sources of information. You can click on news article, a search result, an advertisement... and suddently you find yourself at a site you may not have seen before. This "new" site will also be linked to other sites, which link to other sites, witch link to... you get the idea. You can start in a familiar place and keep clicking link after link until you arrive at a Web site you have never seen before.
2) IT IS ALL ABOUT LINKS - In order for someone to get to your site, they need to hear it, to see it, or write it down and then type it into the adress bar of their browser; or they could click on an active hyperlink (this can be a text link or graphical link) from another Web sites or from within an e-mail. It followa, then, that
what you need to do to generate traffic to your site is get your URL on many other sites as possible. You do this in the folling ways:
Advertising (buying text or banner adson other sites);
- Creating content (e.g., articles, press releases, viral reports);
- Networking with other site and list owners;
- Linking to your site within forums, newsgroups, testimonials, classified ads, product reviews, blog comments, videos, etc.
The possibilities are limitless. The key point is that there are opportunities all around. THERE IS ALWAYS A WAY TO GET MORE
LINKS BACK TO YOUR SITE. The more links you have out there, the more traffic you are going get.