Ways to increase traffic and market your web site or blog
Posted in blogging, podcasting, seo, videos on February 10th, 2008
1) Write articles: Well-written, relevant articles can net quite a bit of activity to your web site. Don’t forget to add your URL in your byline. Articles should be 500 to 2,000 words in length.
You can send articles to sites like: Article City, GoArticles, Submit Your Articles and Ezine Articles.
2) Social bookmark *everything* - and I do mean everything - you can bookmark each page of your site and each blog entry you post. While this might seem tedious, it’s worth it. You’ll see a strong increase in traffic if you social bookmark each page on your site and each of your blog entries
3) Get yourself listed at: DMOZ dot org – it’s not easy to get listed there, but worth the effort. I have never been able to do this, but I wonder really how often people go to DMOZ
4) Review: if you can review hot new products or books within your market, head on over to Amazon and start positioning yourself as an expert. In order to do this effectively you’ll want to create an Amazon profile and make sure and sign each review with a reference to your URL (your web site). You can also go to Epinions and Revoo to review products as well.
5) Offer a freebie on Craig’s List: you’ll be amazed at how much traffic you get from a single Craig’s List ad. The key here is to send people to a page on your site and make sure
they have to sign up for something (like your email newsletter) before they can grab their freebie. That way you’re not just getting traffic, you’re also building your list.
6) Create a “recommended by” list on your Delicious . You can add a link to this page in your email signature line or on your web site.
7) Create an email signature
Lend a helping hand: you can be an answer person at Yahoo Answers – you don’t have to spend hours on there, but maybe a few minutes a week. Make sure and include a link back to your site following your answers.
9) Set up a social networking site using Facebook, LinkedIn, or Squidoo. There are heaps of others to join. It’s free and easy to do, just don’t forget the all-important link back to your site!
10) Make sure your blog has an RSS feed so if you capture a reader you don’t lose them if they forget to bookmark your site or blog. Use RSS submit to add more feeds to more sites
11) Add social networking widgets so your visitors can add them to these sites. My blog has a bookmark widget at the end of each post.
12) Join relevant groups at Yahoo groups.
13) Podcasting is another great way to drive traffic. Start a podcast by going to Audio Acrobat. There are other programs you can use, but I love Audio Acrobat. You can record the podcast over the phone quickly and easily and then hit the “send” button on your computer once it’s recorded and the system will syndicate it to 27 podcast directories including iTunes. It’s a great way to let people know about you and your web site! I also use My Podcast
14) Start a blog and then once you do, start commenting on other people’s blogs, linking to them from your site or adding them to your blogroll.
15) Inbound links: don’t squander your time (or a perfectly good link) on smaller low-traffic sites. Instead spend your time going after high traffic, high quality sites. Good sites should have a PR (page ranking) of 4-6 depending on the market. You can find out what a site’s page ranking is by downloading the Google toolbar which comes with a PR feature built in.
16) Start an email newsletter
17) And speaking of offline efforts: if you’re ever quoted in a magazine or other publication, make sure and mention your URL as it’s appropriate to the topic. Don’t be too pushy about this, but do not forget to tell folks you have a web site that may be a great resource for the topic of your interview.
18) If you have products to sell, why not get a store on eBay? This site gets a tremendous amount of traffic and on your sales page you’re allowed to list your URL. It’s another great way to get an inbound link and a way for people to find you.
19) Load a video on YouTube and 57 other video sites (the rest listed on Red Hot Internet Publicity blog).
20) While this isn’t a tip per se, it’s still important. If you’re going to go through all the trouble of getting traffic to your site, make sure your site is converting this traffic into something. Get folks to sign up for something, your newsletter, the RSS feed on your blog. Whatever it is, getting their email address will help you remarket to them when the time is right. Studies show that visitors landing on a site often don’t buy the first time. That’s ok! You want to get them into your marketing funnel so you can market to them again and again – not in a way that’s obtrusive, offensive or downright annoying, but in a way that is helping them with their own mission.
21) Go to forums and create a signature. Help people out. They will want to see your site if your advice is good.
Adapted and edited from a post by Penny C. Sansevieri, from


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