Hi all,

Looking for thoughts on alternative cost effective ways to get visitors to your site outside of search engines.

So far:-

Links from other sites - Idea is good but traffic levels low
Articles - again low return/effort
bookmarks / social neworking - again low return to effort
Affiliate schemes - again low return effort due to clcik fraud etv
leaflet drop entire region
Radio

Any other ideas?

The ones you have listed are good. I vote for the leaf drop myself.

How about adding a forum signature here and anywhere else you post with links back to your site?

Pay per click advertising
offline networking - add your url to all offline marketing

I think it really comes down to getting the word out you exist. Tell friends and neighbors and people you come in contact with when it's appropriate. Participate in the social aspects of the web. Leave comments on blogs, post more in forums.

Build relationships with people online who can later help send you traffic.

I have a website where 90%+ of my traffic come from non-search sources. Because the content is of such high quality (I have been linked to by Wikiedpia articles) other websites actually promote me. That's why high quality content is so important to a website. Not only does it get you high quality links which is good for SEO, but it offers you other forms of traffic with no additional work.

stymiee I completely agree and I think getting traffic from a variety of sources just means you can weather any algorithm changes.

Ok, so how do you know if you have good content? For example, if my site is a retail shop, selling high end home decor at a discount? I have articles and information on home decorating, such as decorating trends and design tips as well. How do I know if that is good content as far as the search engines go?

Thanks!

--Grayce
<link removed - you can add in your signature, but not in the posts>

You're trying to have good content for the people who visit your site. Think about your visitors first and above all else.

Quality is obviously somewhat subjective. I like to think the articles I write are good, but I am admittedly biased. Most people are.

There are things you can do on the page that are beneficial to search engines. Write a title that uses your keywords, use those keywords in your page headings. There are some who think it's important to mention your keywords in your first and last paragraph. Mostly though, write naturally for human beings. Search engines are getting much better at understanding things like synonyms and other related words.

For example a page that's about seo will likely also include the words search engine optimization, marketing, keywords, and other words related to seo. You don't need to mention seo over and over again to rank for that term.

Links pointing in to a page will end up being more important than what you do on the page itself and with links having good content will help.

You mention articles on home decorating, trends, and design tips. Lets say I work as an interior designer and have a site I might be looking to point my visitors to good articles about what makes for a good home design. If you write a good article there's a good chance I'll link to it. So by writing useful, entertaining, informative articles you have a better chance of acquiring the links that will help the page rank.

I have been considering auto responders.

Most efforts ultimately translate to quality links, relevant links, not necessarily hyperlinks.

I think the stuff mentioned is good. I have tried the leaflet drop, but to no avail. Most of them are just thrown out because it is a form of offline spam in the average persons mind. Just work on a lot of different avenues and it will all work out!

Adding to the list;

Blogging
Banner exchange,
Ads on car
Business cards
video marketing

me, I just plugged chat room to my blog

Ok.. is it better to have a blog on the site that you're trying to promote? or on a different site and point the links to the site that you're trying to promote?

Same question about article content...

Thanks!

here is another idea, email signature. Put your site details on every email you send out. I send at least 20 emails a day and i do get some click throughs from them. It takes 5 mins tops to setup an email signature.

Originally Posted by vangogh

The ones you have listed are good. I vote for the leaf drop myself.

This has worked for me. I think it really depends how you go about it. On somebody's windshield is never a good idea, but on the other hand, I've printed photos with my URL on them, and left them at coffee shops ... along with the dozen other fliers from locals. I'm planning to do it again.

Hi again,

Some great points and ideas so far. Lets try and open up this debate further, after all none of us want to be dependant on the three main search engines for traffic for life!.

If you can get good steady regular traffic from elsewhere to your site, you have it made.

Im looking at Radio again shortly to see what that pulls in but it can get expensive and im looking at increasing traffic whilst reducing the cost of it. I agree with the point about "links to good content" from wiki etc, all that has to help but there must be other good ways other than whats been discussed so far.

Links on sites with high traffic are great like myspace etc but its very expensive and inline with PPC so its not much of an advantage.

A friend suggested some kind of stunt. ie perform a stunt that has your website name on it hence press see it and cover it and bingo you create extra brand awareness and more visitors for a low cost.

Im still going to do some sort of leaflet drop because its cost effective but its hard to get the volumes you need and its very random regarding the effectiveness due to waste.

Also, i want to create high traffic volumes outside of search like 100,000 visitors upwards so thats a heck of a lot of leaflets to get the take up rate.
Other than this im thinking low cost sponsorship deals of some kind.

Any more thoughts anyone?

Rich

no one mentioning forums? ... & blog posting is a good place also.
directory submission to high ranked site help as well.

Forums can be effective - if you can get a static small button banner or link that can drive you visitors but just talking about your site in a forum has limited exposure i think. Also the busy forums are going to be expensive to advertise on.

Anyone tried these sites that will review your site and get people to comment on your site? Not tried it myself but i hear they can provide both back links (likely to be low quality) and visitors (likely low in numbers)

Its an old cliche but as Trump said:- "only 50% of advertising works, its just knowing which 50%"

Originally Posted by RichTC

Its an old cliche but as Trump said:- "only 50% of advertising works, its just knowing which 50%"

The guy who invented Woolworth said that. Donald Trump just parroted someone else's observation.