There are really only 3 ways to generate traffic to your website — you can:
1. Buy Traffic:
This includes things like buying text or banner ads, PPC advertising, renting opt-in email lists and more.
2. Create Traffic:
Article writing, search engine optimization, sending out press releases, submitting to directories, emailing your list, social networking and bookmarking and so on are a few of
the ways you can create traffic.
3. Borrow Traffic
Borrowing traffic encompasses things like trading ezine or newsletter ads, forming joint ventures, trading blog posts and so on. There really are hundreds of ways to generate traffic…
Some of the following methods may be widely used, others rarely see the light of day, some are a little funky and not for everyone, some are drop dead simple, some are quite complex and time consuming, some are free, some are cheap and some are grossly expensive… but they all have one thing in common – they generate TONS of targeted traffic. But it’s still up to you to test and track your results to find what works best for you and will always, or almost always, generate a positive return on your investment. Anyways, without further ado, here are the 247 traffic generation methods. It’s a monstrous list and I’d slap myself if anyone actually does all of these faithfully everyday. I don’t. Hope you find this list useful!
1. Write a press release and submit it to www.PRWeb.com.
2. Promote your site using cheap or free classified ads in targeted ezines or
newsletters.
3. Leave comments on other people’s blogs with a backlink to your site.
4. Advertise your website in the appropriate category on www.CraigsList.com.
5. Create a viral software program and give it away for free.
6. Send a free copy of your product to other site owners in exchange for a
product review.
7. Submit your blog articles to www.blogg-buzz.com (a Digg.com like site for
bloggers).
8. Participate in www.LinkedIn.com.
9. Write a book. The publicity, credibility and notoriety will practically lock
traffic on autofire.
10. Sell a cheap but extremely useful PDF formatted ebook on Amazon.com full
of links to your site.
11. Exchange reciprocal links with other related websites.
12. Find someone on eBay who is willing to tattoo your URL on a visible body
part. For maximum impact, the forehead is the most highly desired location.
13. Purchase advertising in popular newsletters or ezines.
14. Submit articles to trade magazines with a link to your site in your bio.
15. Submit your site to FFA (Free for All) sites (Warning: low quality traffic and
can be bad for SEO).
16. Buy text links or banner ads on eBay.
17. Start multiple blogs on related but slightly different topics to drive traffic to a
main sales site.
For example, if you’re selling an internet marketing product, you could have a
blog on internet marketing, another on email marketing, one on affiliate
marketing, another on search engine optimization and so on all to drive traffic.
18. Place a classified ad on Yahoo Classifieds – Yahoo receives more traffic than
any other website.
19. Find joint venture partners that will send you traffic.
20. Start your own newsletter or ezine.
21. Post some high quality targeted articles on the right sections of
www.Netscape.com with a backlink to your.
22. Make sure your website is highly search engine optimized.
23. Target your website to low competition niches using long tail keywords.
24. Find a JV broker.
25. Review related products on www.epinion.com.
26. Use www.OnlyWire.com to automate your social book marking and
automatically generate backlinks.
27. Offer a free email mini course or e-course.
28. Have a website with content that’s worth coming back to.
29. Add social bookmarking icons to your website or blog (use the sociable plugin
for blogs).
30. Promote your website on cheap ‘pixel advertising’ websites.
31. Advertise your site on ‘word cloud’ type websites. I’ve gotten lifetime PR 5-6
backlinks for as little as $ 2.5.
32. Become a member of the Better Business Bureau and get them to put up a link
to your site (PS: it’s not worth joining just for the link).
33. Network with other people at seminars or other live events.
34. Speak at seminars and give the audience a reason why the absolutely,
positively need to visit your website for a titillating piece of information.
35. Promote your website on the ‘thank you’ pages of other sales sites. Work out
a mutually beneficial commission for the site owner
36. Try using cheap or free newspaper classified ads. This is also a great way to
test the response of different headlines.
37. Pass out business cards with your domain on them everywhere you go.
38. Set up a kiosk or booth at community events and giveaway something free to
build buzz.
39. Start and affiliate program and let your affiliates send you visitors.
40. Start a profile on social bookmarking sites such as www.MySpace.com.
41. Add as many friends as you can on MySpace.
42. Submit a viral video to www.YouTube.com.
43. Appear on a big time reality TV show like The Apprentice or Jeopardy.
44. Place ads on a local radio station. This is something I’ve actually used and on
the right radio station (preferably talk radio — much higher response rate) and
some kind of forced opt-in page (I offered a Caribbean getaway for personal
info… to monetize later), it can be financially feasible and even highly
profitable.
45. Advertise on TV. This is not as beyond your reach as you might think:
Something as simply as having your website sponsor the news on a local
station can put you in front of 10’s of thousands of viewers for as little as
$100.
46. Hire a public relations company or agent.
47. Blog – blogging is a great way to get free traffic from search engines, RSS
feeds, other blogs, blog directories and more. The following 35 tips will focus
on how you can grow traffic through the phenomenon that is blogging.
48. Write a variety long and short, timely and timeless posts.
49. Encourage readers to subscribe to your blog’s RSS feed.
50. Submit your blog to all the major blog directories, including
www.Technorati.com.
51. Participate in blog carnivals; this is very similar to submitting articles (use a
multi-carnival submission form http://blogcarnival.com/bc/submit.php).
52. Provide email subscriptions, this allows readers to be notified by email of new
posts (use the plug-in “subscribe2”).
53. Ping the blog directories and search engines.
54. Tag your blog posts.
55. Encourage your visitors to subscribe to your RSS feeds.
56. Rewrite some of your blog content and post it to article directories to develop
backlinks and traffic.
57. Find a hot topic on Technorati, post about it and then ping Technorati with
your new post.
58. Let visitors sign up to be notified when someone replies to their comments.
59. Give out blogging or top bloggers awards.
60. Send a personal thank you email when someone leaves a comment.
61. Link to your blog in your email or forum signatures.
62. Submit your RSS feed to other sites.
63. Use plugins to search engine optimize your side.
64. Optimize each blog post for a particular keyword or search phrase.
65. Submit your blog to any free and related niche directories.
66. Submit your blog to free review sites.
67. Use WordPress.
68. Link to other blogs that use a “blogs that link to mine” plugin, script or
widget.
69. Set up a feed on MyYahoo so that Yahoo keeps track of your blog.
70. Use trackbacks.
71. Participate in group writing projects.
72. Place a code on your site making it easy for other people to link to you.
73. Promote your blog on related newsgroups.
74. Join www.BlinkList.com and make a list of blogs with your blog.
75. Ask other bloggers to review your blog in return for a review of theirs or a
backlink.
76. Review other people’s blogs and tell them about it, so they’ll link to it.
77. Make a list of the top blogs in your niche, tell them about and ask them to link
to the list.
78. Connect with other bloggers at www.MyBlogLog.com.
79. Network with other people in your niche and other bloggers.
80. Analyze your logs or website statistics. Find out what’s working and then
duplicate it.
81. If you have staff, train them to market your business to acquaintances.
82. Barter with other sites for ads or content.
83. Pay an auto-surf company peanuts to get low quality traffic.
84. Put your product on www.Clickbank.com, www.cj.com and other affiliate
sites.
85. Manually submit your website to the major search engines.
86. Add your personal profile including pictures and website links everywhere
you can… this is especially useful for social networking sites. This is also
good for branding.
87. Join a safelist and promote your website, product or service to others.
88. Join a Yahoo or Google group and use it to drive traffic to your site.
89. Print your URL on large pieces of sticky back paper and then stick it on the
backs of busses and trucks — preferably at night.
90. Track everything, find out where your visitors are coming from and duplicate
it.
91. Plaster your URL all over your car, truck, van, SUV or bicycle if you drive
one.
92. Get a customized license plate for the front of your car with your domain
name (if allowed by law).
93. Add a robots.txt file to your site to ensure it’s crawled properly by search
engines.
94. Go to baggage claim at a busy airport and put an empty piece of luggage on
that has your URL on it. With luck, it will circle around and around as it won’t
be claimed.
95. Host a teleseminar. Plug your site.
96. Host a webinar. Plug your site.
97. Create an ad ‘swipe file’ and use it for wacky ideas.
98. Submit a news story to www.Slashdot.com.
99. Get your website listed in www.dmoz.org, beg if you need to.
100. Review other websites on www.Alexa.com and include a link to your site.
101. Creatively connect a well-known celebrity to your niche.
102. Be the first to break a news story.
103. Get readers to Digg your blog posts or website pages.
104. Highlight some of your best articles or blog posts on your Squidoo lens.
105. Get PR 4+ backlinks to improve your search engine ranking.
106. Post your photos to www.Flickr.com, with a link to your site.
107. Linkbait: write about something controversial, break a news story or anything
else to virally build traffic.
108. Sign up to become a Google news source.
109. Purchase or ads or posts on high traffic blogs.
110. Create an online media kit.
111. Concentrate on a specific niche; you’ll get a lot more visitors from Google.
112. Become the go-to source for information on your niche topics.
113. Have a friend recommend your website or blog to his/her list in return for you
doing the same.
114. Print your blog web address on your business cards, letterhead, brochures and
all other printed material.
115. Install a translation script or plug-in and translate your website into other
languages.
116. Add a forum where your visitors can discuss topics related to your niche.
117. Break a world record and write about it.
118. Purchase the misspellings or variations of your domain name, or those of your
competitors to forward to your main URL.
119. Buy a domain name related to your niche that is already receiving traffic and
forward it to your site.
120. Barter for traffic with others in your field.
121. Cold call.
122. Hire an SEO company.
123. Volunteer.
124. Use a autoresponder or email campaign to keep people coming back to your
site.
125. Purchase ads on other sites.
126. Try direct mail including postcards (they’re cheap and effective).
127. Start a Podcast or Videocast and submit it to iTunes.
128. Get bonus traffic: contribute a bonus product to other people’s products.
129. Use co-registration to build your list… then send them to your website.
130. Create a killer WordPress theme which automatically includes a link to your
site on the blogroll and another on the bottom (in the footer) giving yourself
credit for the design.
131. Create a plugin or widget for WordPress with the download link on your site.
If it’s good, not only will people from all over the WWW will link to it, but
they’ll highly recommend or endorse it.
132. Do the same thing as above in number 131, except create a plugin for Mozilla
Firefox.
133. Solicit the help of a local reporter to write up a newspaper article on you
and/or your business.
134. Use the concept of integration marketing. What’s that you ask? It’s when you
find another business that you can integrate your products, services or web
traffic with.
For example, let’s say you run a carpet cleaning company… integration
marketing might be where you find a home renovation company and work out
a deal where your services are included in their sales process (also knows as
an upsell). In this example, the renovation company might ask their customers
if they would like to have their carpets professionally cleaned after the
construction process is complete. On the WWW, if you provide one on one
internet business coaching, you could seek out a company that offers internet
marketing seminars. Part of their sales process might be asking participants if
they’d be interested in signing up for ongoing one on one coaching after the
seminar is complete.
135. Go to the beach and as you’re walking along, drop stencils of your URL on
unsuspecting sleeping sunbathers. Then they’ll get a nice tan of just your
URL, and for the next week they’ll be walking billboards.
136. Create a buzz worthy post and submit it to www.Truemors.com. Don’t forget
to include a link to your website.
137. Train your affiliates and give them plenty of promo material.
138. Provide additional monetary incentives or prizes for top affiliates, most
improved and so on above the normal commissions.
139. Find a traffic broker and let them look after your traffic generation.
140. Use www.USFreeads.com to post classified ads and generate backlinks and
partially targeted traffic.
141. Find an expired domain that’s receiving traffic, register it and redirect it to
your website.
142. Write an article for a local or community newspaper that’s related to your
field of expertise and include a website link in your bio.
143. Do something viral.
144. Answer people’s questions on www.answers.yahoo.com.
145. Post in forums and have a link to your site in your signature.
146. Create a killer PDF ebook and report, then sell it cheaply with master resell
rights (and a link to your site) and allow others to do the same, as long as they
leave it intact).
147. Get some t-shirts screen printed with your URL or get a few golf shirt
embroidered with your domain name. Wear them everywhere.
148. Rent out one of those moving advertising billboard vehicles. Get your website
written on it in large letters and drive around a busy part of town. For a greater
impact, honk your horn or play ice cream truck music.
149. Rent space on a roadside billboard or sign and give people a damn good
reason to visit your site.
150. If you have as store or physical location that people visit, put up a large sign
advertising your website both inside and another in a window so it’s viewable
to passers by. And if you’re really ambitious you can even put up a large neon
sign outside your store or office location.
151. Post a bulletin about a contest or other event on community bulletin boards
commonly found in grocery stores and community centers. Don’t forget to
include little ‘rip off’ tabs with your URL.
152. Put up little vinyl signs at stoplights along the road advertising your products /
services and your website.
153. Go to a construction site with wet cement and carve out your URL. You’ll fit
in better if bring along a hard hat and clipboard with the words “Building
Inspector” stenciled on the back.
154. Add a link in your email signature to your website. It’s a free and easy way to
get a little more traffic.
155. Make a custom 404 error page for your website redirecting people to your
home page.
156. Use PPC search engine advertising.
157. Add a “bookmark this site” link to your webpages.
158. Sponsor or donate money to a charity — they’ll often put you up on a page of
their website as a contributor and if you do it on behalf of your business,
they’ll also put up a link to your site.
159. Master the 7 second elevator pitch.
160. Put your website URL on your business voice mail.
161. If you have an ad in the Yellowpages, make sure your URL is a big part of it.
162. Put your URL in any other print or media advertisements.
163. Go to a book store and sneak a bookmark with your URL on it into all the
books that have anything to do with your business or niche.
164. This one is not for everyone, but I found it to be an interesting concept and in
the right online niche (of which there are lots) it could work well: Organize a
wet t-shirt contest and have all the girls wear t-shirts imprinted with your
URL.
165. When you post a project (only that you need completed) on freelance sites like
www.elance.com, www.guru.com, www.rentacoder.com and so on, include a
link to your website.
166. Add your URL to the company name on your PayPal account (ex. Your
Company Name – YourCompanyName.com).
167. Brainstorm: use a white board to come up with traffic sucking, off the wall
ideas and write the down before you forget.
168. Use a “YourName@YourDomain.com” email address — curious people will
check out your site.
169. Solicit a link from your local chamber of commerce.
170. Give away a freebie (e-book, report, e-course) to keep people coming back to
your site with a strong auto responder campaign.
171. Give an unbiased testimonial on a product/service that you have used in
exchange for a backlink to your site.
172. Optimize each page of your website for a particular keyword or search phrase.
173. Have a tell-a-friend form on your site.
174. Submit your site to any related niche directories on the net.
175. Participate in a banner or link exchange program.
176. Conduct surveys and publish them – they’ll make you appear to be an expert
in your field and if your stats are good, many others will link to them.
177. Send articles to ezine publishers that include a link to your website.
178. Hold a crazy contest and help it go viral.
179. Ask others for referrals.
180. Ask if you can put your business card in related retail or office locations.
181. Get customized post-it notes with a snappy saying and your URL.
182. Stand at a busy intersecton in a funny mascot suit (or sting bikini) with a sign
that reads “Need Traffic: www.YourSite.com.”
183. Advertise in your local ‘Welcome Wagon.’
184. Use www.StumbleExchange.com or www.DiggExchange.com and trade
Stumble’s or Digg’s with other users.
185. Use Bum Marketing.
186. Do something to encourage ‘word of mouth’ marketing.
187. Advertise on internet only radio stations. It’s new, it’s cheap and it can be
much more effective than standard radio. Remember talk radio is best.
188. Advertise in the streaming player used by many FM, AM or online radio
stations.
189. Promote your stuff at a trade show and hand out memorable ‘take home’ swag
with your site address.
190. Hire a hot air balloon or blimp and add a banner with your URL.
191. Find an airplane advertising company and have them tow a banner (with your
website address) promoting a contest, giveaway, star search etc. I would think
that flights along highly populated beaches would work best, but not having
tried this method (yet) I can’t give an expert opinion on the results you should
expect.
192. Buy and use a memorable domain name.
193. Do something controversial.
194. Create an Amazon profile and submit reviews for books and other products
that you have read.
195. Start a lens on www.Squidoo.com.
196. Produce an infomercial for late night TV – just make sure you have a strong
sales team with high ticket backend products in place or you’ll go broke.
197. Buy a pair of sandals; get your website engraved on the bottom and walk on
the beach, stomp in the mud or play in the snow.
198. Sell your stuff (and reference your website) on a home shopping channel.
There are also cheaper online variations.
199. Appear as a guest on a talk radio show.
200. Give speeches at churches, community or business associations or even your
best friends wedding.
201. Take a vacation. This one works great for me because I’ll come back
refreshed with all kinds of new traffic building ideas. You might also be able
to write part of it off as a business expense.
202. Put a link in the ‘about me’ section of your eBay profile.
203. Create and sell a product with resell or giveaway rights and include a link to
your site in it so others pass it around for you.
204. Start an organization, club or association.
205. Use a favicon for your site.
206. Participate in a WebRing.
207. Put up links on some of yout sites to some of your other sites.
208. Connect your site with other sites in your niche.
209. Host a forum or chat room on your site and list in the relevant directories.
210. Add an RSS feed to your Squidoo lens.
211. Endorse a celebrity.
212. Sponsor a golf tournament or other sporting event.
213. Go door to door to solicit traffic (only if you’re really desperate or sell
insurance).
214. Tip well and leave behind a business card.
215. Enter a business card into restaurants and stores that have free monthly prize
draws.
216. Send letters to local business that could benefit from your product or service.
217. Advertise in the classified section of a large newspaper, or take out a featured
ad.
218. Swap newsletter/ ezine ads with other publishers.
219. Improve your resource or author bio box.
220. Use unique Meta tags on each page of your website.
221. Write and submit articles to the article directories.
222. Sell or place classified ads on www.eBay.com with a link to your site.
223. Post free classified ads on any of the sites that allow them with a link to your
site.
224. Do everything you can to brand yourself and/or your business.
225. Use www.reddit.com.
226. Get awards.
227. Give awards.
228. Use ‘pay for rank’ search engines (please note: these are not the same as PPC
search engines).
229. If you feel you or your company is big enough, established and reputable,
create a page about it on www.Wikipedia.org.
230. Rent a one-time mailing from a targeted opt-in list.
231. Participate in a package insert program with local businesses. That means
cooperatively mailing a package of stuff (flyers, brochures, letters etc.) to
potential clients and splitting the costs with similar but non-competing
businesses.
232. Put on a free workshop at a local store, business, library, or organization.
233. Use reliable hosting. It’s amazing how many extra visitors your site will get if
you’re hosting is always working.
234. Use www.InstantBuzz.com to send visitors to your site.
235. Redirect all your parked domain names to one that you actually want to
receive traffic.
236. Become a virus within your niche – people will start talking and linking.
237. Create a free ebook and list in on the “free ebook” sites.
238. Use a traffic exchange (low quality traffic, but can sometimes be worthwhile).
239. Buy PLR products, break them apart and customize them into traffic
generation machines.
240. Get referrals form similar but non-competing sites.
241. Take out a classified or full page ad in a targeted magazine.
242. Use sponsor ads in newsletters or ezines – they’re inexpensive and effective.
243. Get some nice pens made up and carry them with you. Next time someone
asks if you have a pen offer it to them for keeps – it’s amazing how many
hands it’ll go through.
244. Email your list. If you don’t have one, get one.
245. Sponsor a movie and get your URL placed in the credits… or if you can
afford it, get your URL placed in a movie scene much like a can of coke.
246. Join www.43things.com and post your list of 43 things including links to your
websites.
247. Call in to the “Leo Laporte – The Tech Guy” Saturday morning radio show on
KFI AM 640 in Los Angeles (syndicated across the US) with a website related
problem or question. In conversation, Leo Laporte will always ask you what
the URL of your site is – giving you a free plug in front of millions of
listeners. Dial 1-88-88-ASK-LEO.
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"Starbuck Man"
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Starbuckman@gmail.com
Contact: powerman297@hotmail.com
Contact: 320-239-4537
