The Absolute Best Way To Generate Web Traffic
By: Robert Henegar
If you run a website, then you need web traffic. After all, what good is a website with no visitors? The question is: What is the best way to drive traffic to your site?
There are numerous techniques for generating traffic. Sometimes it seems like
there's as many techniques as there are websites. Some techniques require a lot of manual labor on your part, some require very little. Some techniques are expensive, and others are free.
What we need is a way to generate traffic that offers high volume in relation to the amount of work and money involved. In my opinion there is only one technique that can provide just that.
Let's be clear, I'm not talking about search engine optimization or page ranking or any other such measure of site popularity. That is a completely different topic. In this article
I'm talking about methods of generating raw traffic. You can deal with search engines later. Right now we need people!
Let's take a hint from the retail world. Most retail businesses rely on huge sales to bring in hordes of shoppers during special times of the year. Sales generate large crowds of people, which hopefully turn into a steady stream of shoppers throughout the rest of the year.
A website should follow that example. You need a way to create a giant initial interest in your site. You should find a method to draw large numbers of people to your pages in a short amount of time.
Obviously you will need engaging site content that will hopefully keep them coming back, but
it's this initial surge of traffic that we're trying to get.
So how do you do it? First, ignore link-exchange and directory submission. These two techniques are very popular, and are valid. But they
don't draw people in bulk. They're good for maintaining a steady stream of traffic down the line, but weak when it comes to raw numbers.
You should also ignore pay-per-click ad campaigns. You tend to spend way too much money compared to the number of clicks you get. The click to cash ratio is too high for the type of initial traffic generation
we're looking for.
We need something that's in between these other techniques. We need something that can draw a big chunk of visitors in a short amount of time, but not be cost prohibitive. Is there such a beast? I think there is.
The answer is: Link Auction Sites.
I'm talking about sites such as LinkExperiment.com and KingOfTheBill.com. These sites sell direct one-way links from their site to your homepage, and the links are usually permanent.
At most of these sites, you can usually get a link for very little money (between $5 and $10 in most cases) when the site is fairly new. Sites like this generally draw a huge initial crowd, mostly because the web owner usually buys a link or two to his site from other Link Auction sites.
They usually have a huge traffic pattern, and rank extremely high on traffic monitors like Alexa, even though many of these sites have little or no page ranking on other search engines.
Most of the visitors to these sites tend to browse all the links out of curiosity. That means huge traffic for you.
It's not uncommon to get 500 to 600 hits per week or more on your link.
That's a great return for spending about the cost of a Happy Meal.
Obviously, this traffic will start to dwindle over time, which is okay. By then you would have easily drawn enough traffic to warrant the few bucks you spent. At that point, you could easily find another link site and begin again.
The link site is the best value for the money. On just about every link site, your link is permanent, which means
you'll be getting some traffic on it for quite a long time.
Keep in mind; I'm not talking about the "pixel"-type sites like MillionDollarHomePage.com and Pixelotto.com. Many of these sites charge $100 or more for a 10 x 10 icon that gets buried in a sea of graphic garbage. You put way too much money in the web
owner's pocket in relation to the number of hits you'll get.
I'm talking about sites that clearly display your URL or banner, or your witty marketing text. These sites are marketing gold when it comes to traffic.
So what's the game plan?
Find a link site that's still "young." That means finding a site
that's still selling links in your price range. If you spend $40 on a link, once
you've passed 1000 hits -- which usually doesn't take too long -- you'll have cut your per-hit costs down to
ARTICLEBODY .04 cents per hit. That's cheaper than most PPC campaigns. Plus your link continues to run on their site permanently. If you can get in for under $40, then
it's even more cost effective.
So find your site, buy your link, and wait for the hits to roll in (which they will, usually very quickly). Have some captivating content on your site to entice them to return. Then sit back and laugh at everyone else
who's still submitting to directories and link exchanges. And if you need more hits, then simply go out and find another young link site.
One other tip: When searching for a link auction site, try to find sites that
don't hide your URL behind a referral or counter page. Some sites like to direct the clicks through a referrer page or counter page before going on to your site. You lose the visibility on your link, which means search engines
won't pick up the fact that the site is linking to you. Search engines usually smile on one-way links, so you definitely
don't want to have your link hidden behind a referrer URL. Find sites that directly display your URL along with your witty sales repartee.
Stick with link auction sites. You?ll wonder why you ever tried any other technique!
Robert Henegar is a 25-year veteran IT guru with many successful websites under his belt.
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