10½ Super Easy Methods That Attract Tons Of Dedicated Visitors To Your Site…

You have a blog or a website and you want more traffic. But here’s the problem. You are competing with hundreds or thousands of other sites in your area of expertise. So what can you do without spending an arm and a leg to bring people to your site?

Here’s a list of 10 ½ easy, pain free ways to explode your traffic without pulling out your hair or spending a fortune. Where is the ½ come in? Read on to find out!

1. Hone your niche – For those who are not familiar with the term niche, let me explain. Your niche is a very specific audience. As an example, if your site is about fishing, the easiest place to start is with a specific fish. It’s easier to promote to Northern trout fishermen than it would be to attract fans of bass, catfish and trout and walleye and deep sea and all the other types of fishing combined.

Most people try to cast a wide net early on and they fail to attract an audience because of the competition. It’s much easier to cast a narrow net and slowly expand the audience as you conquer each niche. Back to fishing, think going from trout to bass!then one day conquering catfish.

Why this works: Think of yourself for a moment. When you search for something on the Internet, it’s likely you are looking for a solution to your particular problem. If you are looking for a solution to rhinitis brought on by trees and grass, you probably don’t want to waste your time reading about general cough and cold remedies. Your search would be for grass and tree allergies. The site focused on grass and tree wins your attention.

2. Write and post reviews – people love to read reviews. This is a fun and easy way to bring traffic to your site. Find some products in your niche and put them to the test. Since the products would be of interest to you, you are curious anyway.

The easiest way to write a good review is document your experience with the product as soon as it arrives. If it comes through the mail, take a picture of the packaging and take pictures of the installation and set up. If it is software take screenshots and be absolutely honest about your experience. If you are thrilled, tell your readers, if you feel ripped off, tell them.

Why this works: People want to get the most value for their money. If you can give an honest peek into what they are getting before they put their cash on the line then they’ll read what you have to say!likely every single word!

3. Create a forum signature in your favorite forums and post – find some Internet forums in your chosen niche (there’s that word again). Provide a benefit to the person for visiting your site. Don’t just say http://mygreatsite.com. Write a niche-quality signature. Example: All the secret Northern Trout locations you can possibly imagine! http://mygreatsite.com

Lurk and post helpful information. Try to answer other member’s questions. You’ll be surprised at the number of visitors your signature brings in.

Why this works: If you establish yourself as a helpful member of the forum then you become a local expert. People are likely to click your link to hear more about what this expert says. Besides, your signature is like a mini-ad that will compel some people to click anyway.

4. Create an e-mail signature – While we are on the subject of signature files. Copy your forum signature into your e-mail program. Every e-mail you send becomes an opportunity to promote your site.

Why this works: Everyone does e-mail. Since e-mail is both personal and impersonal, your associates will likely want to get to know more about you. Clicking your e-mail signature is a simple way to find out more.

5. Post comments to other blogs – If you find yourself on a blog and have an interesting or helpful comment, post it! I am not talking about blog-o spam like “great site!” Most blog owners (including me) delete these posts within 5 minutes.

Write at least one paragraph or more that addresses the subject of the post. The cool thing about blog comments is you can include your name, e-mail and webpage address.

Frankly, I am surprised at how many site owners neglect to make comments on blog sites. My blog has a Google Page rank of 5. The people who take the time to comment get an automatic high quality link back to their site. It’s just that simple.

Why this works: blogs allow for an HTML link in the Name area. If people find your comment helpful or insightful they’ll want to know more.

6. Trade links with other sites – this technique has gotten a bad rep over the past year or two because of the “trade links with me” spam. But if you have a reputation with other site owners out there as being a good part of the community, then it’s easier to ask for link trades. Read tip 3 and 5 again. If you help a site, you’ll get help in return.

Why this works: If you are a part of a respected site owner’s link partners, you are instantly credible. That site’s visitors become your visitors.

7. Create a free product that people can download – Create an ebook, small program or other “goodie” that will attract new people to your site. This should be directly relevant to your niche. A recent example of this is where Michel Fortin created a manifesto The Death Of The Salesletter. It became viral and his traffic surged as a result. I released Taskblaze productivity freeware last year and like Fortin’s manifesto, it went viral too. These projects take time and effort to create but are worth their weight in gold for traffic creation.

Why this works: Simple! People love freebies.

8. Place Adwords ads for your free product and most popular posts – This costs a little money but if you are ruthless about it, you can keep the costs down. Listen up – most people do this wrong! If you are going to run adwords that link to your site or blog, make sure it goes to something specific. A general link to your blog will result in people clicking away almost immediately.

Instead link to your free product and your popular posts. This gives people a benefit for reading what you have to say and will likely lead to them coming back. Here’s the secret. Look through your weblogs and find out what are your most popular posts. Those are the ones to run Adwords for.

Creating an Adwords is beyond the scope of this article, but here’s the general gist of a successful Adwords ad. Take the title of your popular (niche relevant) post and hone it down to a small title. For instance in my popular post How to Take A Caffeine Nap, the title should include the prominent words if possible. Take A Caffeine Nap should do it. Making your ad title match your post title increases relevance and lowers your costs.

The rest of your ad should give the reader a strong benefit for clicking.

Take A Caffeine Nap
Feeling tired? Wake Up Now!
Take a caffeine nap.

Why this works: Many Adwords ads are not pointing to quality content pages. It’s easy for a content provider to lower their click costs, hone their niche quickly and efficiently and bring in highly targeted traffic. Also, new site owners will attact much needed traffic. Give your visitors a reason to return and they will.

9. Insert a simple way for readers to share – As you can see, this site has a number of different social bookmarking buttons – Digg, Reddit, del.icio.us – these are handy-dandy ways for your readers to bookmark your stuff and for others to find it. Go ahead and try one of mine now. You know you want to

Why this works: People like to save time by going with “proven” sources. When it gets bookmarked at a social bookmark site like Digg, Reddit or one of the many other sites, that means you are proven worthy by at least one person. The more people who link the more proven you become. Make it to the front page and you may need a new server to handle all the traffic.

Bonus: If you write long content like this article people will habitually bookmark it so they can come back and read it later.

10. Get A Little Help From Your Friends - So you’ve got a friend who stays online all day and night, chatting it up on MySpace, AOL, SitePoint forums or the newsgroups. Get your bud to insert a signature file like you did for yourself above. Odds are if the person likes what you are trying to do and they don’t already have a signature, they’ll be happy to help you get the word out.

Why this works: There is always strength in numbers. If your friends are posting anyway with no signature, then what the heck, why not add a signature. Hint: offer to take them to lunch once a month as a “thank you”.
By the way, you may have found some helpful subjects on this blog over the years, you too can help spread the word. I’d be overwhelmed with joy if you’d consider putting a link to Achieve-IT! blog on your site or signature file. Something like Your daily dose of success and inspiration at the Achieve-IT! blog works for other friends of mine.

½ : Post a comment or send a Trackback to this post – Get started now! There’s no better time than the present to start with building traffic. So here’s an opportunity right here and right now to do it. Like tip #5, by sending trackbacks to this and other posts, you get highly relevant links on other sites. Some of the individual trackbacks I’ve sent to other sites have resulted in hundreds of new visitors and long-term readers. So if you have a blog that can send trackbacks!send em!

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