This is a guest post by ZK is the co-founder of Web Marketing Blog.
If you want to guest post on this blog, check out my guest post guidelines.
Though search traffic is highly targeted and cost-effective, there are other options that should also be considered in web promotion. The following are strategies you can use to generate targeted and profitable web traffic.
Blogging
There are numerous reasons why you should use a blog for building an online audience. First, it is an ideal way of putting a face to your message. Secondly, it enables you to reach the market instantly with your message. Blog services such as Technorati can offer great traffic. Remember to be a valuable and active commenter in the blogs of leading influencers in your niche.
Podcasting
Just like blogging, podcasting is an awesome way of controlling your message and delivering it to the market fast.
Link Buying
Search engines frown at link buying. However, a good link can drive large volumes of targeted traffic to your blog.
Online Forums
Just like blogging, online forums are ideal for having personal interaction with your target audience while building traffic.
Social Media
Besides search engines, social media sites offer loads of traffic. Whether you are building a large presence on Facebook or Myspace, presenting yourself as an opinion leader on LinkedIn or promoting your content on Netscape, Reddit or Digg, social media is a channel that can build a large audience.
Video/Webinars
Webinars are great tools for building audiences in the B2B world. Just like podcasting, you can personalize your message and interaction with the audience. Video communities such as YouTube are great sources of traffic. Such channels have the ability to make your content go viral.
Online Press Releases
Press releases are probably the oldest and most effective traditional tools for media promotion. Online press releases are also as effective. You can take advantage of that by using press release agencies such as PRWeb.com.
Event Media Sponsorships
If your site can be considered a news site, this can be a great source of traffic. Almost every major symposium, seminar series or conference is seeking media sponsorships. Besides getting a link in the event’s site, you will also get the chance to market yourself with other promotional materials at the event itself.
Syndicate Your Content
There are many businesses that are unwilling or unable to write their own content. In addition, there are also numerous article sites which have good traffic. You could submit your syndicated content to such websites. However, make sure you get a link back to the original source.
Author Bio
ZK is the co-founder of Web Marketing Blog where accomplished writers and bloggers share their tips, strategies and stories. Follow him on Twitter at @webtrafficroi.
Andrew is a website builder and helps small businesses with their on-line presence…so they can grow their customer list and increase sales. That’s it! That’s what we do each and every day.
You must learn how to use each and everyone of these to maximize your growth.
“Black Seo Guy “Signing Off”
Very true!
Andrew
Nice tips ZK! For me, blogging and social networking are effective ways to increase the traffic in our site. It is just that we need to be consistent everyday so that we can maintain the PR. 🙂
Getting into a routine, habit…whatever you want to call it is key. I believe Google likes regular and consistent blog posts to be published.
Andrew
You’re correct that these are viable sources of incoming traffic and potential sales. I promote events regularly and we are always looking for sponsors and media sponsors. Those interested in sponsoring The Media Awards can contact me.
Great article Andrew. The best way for me was Social Media. It helps a lot specially since almost all people now have an account on different social media sites. And Forums, but starting one is kinda…slow. Thanks for the article! 😀
Daryl
I’ve never got into forums. I’ve tried them but they can suck you in and take up so much time.
Andrew
Great tips indeed!!! I’m new at internet marketing and your post just gave me a lot of new info to explore on my blog!!
Thanks!!
Larissa
You’re welcome – I’m glad it helped.
Andrew
Especially, If you are new to blogging or created a new blog, then this method is very much useful because search engines take time in indexing your blog or website. So, with these steps, not only you can generate relevant traffic, but also got some good backlinks for your website or blog which will pay you in future results in high search engine ranking.
Google finds news sites pretty quick these days. There is no longer the 1 or 2 week wait.
Andrew
Link buying should be done carefully of course. If you don’t know about the source very well and you got some bad guy, you could be penalized!
All the tips are equally important and effective but I’ve tried only a couple of techniques. So far I’ve received great response using the social media and videos. Videos helps me demonstrate my message more clearly and I also feel that the results depends on the type of techniques we choose to implement.
Gary
I agree…video is a great way to go. I need to do more myself.
Andrew
Nice list!
What about list building?
When you build your list and promote your latest blog post to your followers, you will get traffic to your posts that way too.
Timo
Timo,
Good share and you are absolutely right. Building a list is fundamental.
Andrew
>>Podcasting
Just like blogging, podcasting is an awesome way of controlling your message and delivering it to the market fast.
I am a huge advocate of podcasting. Making high quality audio recordings in your home or office is easier and more affordable than ever these days, and believe it or not what we now call “podcasting” is the future of “radio”. Websites with weekly or monthly podcasts create lifelong fans!
Fred,
I’ve never done podcasting. Perhaps I should!
Andrew
This is a great list with solid tips. Thanks for sharing.
well, all these work, indeed, especially guest blogging, if you write a good article, but come on, how many traffic sources compare to search traffic when it comes to targeted traffic? maybe paid advertising, but even that isn’t that good. I still think google is the best traffic source
Google is the best traffic source but did you read the headline?
We are only talking about non-search engine traffic.
Andrew
Hi ZK,
These tips are very important in generating traffic for one’s website. I have done most of these techniques, and I could say that the most effective so far for me are social media sites. Satisfied customers can easily and quickly relate their experiences through social media sites and it can convince others to try something (whether a product or service) from your website.
Thanks for sharing!
nice post
but please explain all these methods in detail so we can use it to generate traffic
This is one of the very honest blogs i have ever seen, during my early days on the net trying to generate traffic and make some income online, i was scammed by lots of different marketers, i have lost a whole lot of hard earned income trying to figure out how to drive traffic to my sites but i must admit this is one the very few tips that really makes sense and works and yet is free, i am really grateful. thanks
Without search engines, we can’t dead but the traffic is lower than. Another ways, you can try to getting traffic from another blog via reference, reviews, forums … etc.
Above tips are useful. But in my opinion, Search Engines is still a big source of visitors.
Minh
Search Engines do provide a lot of traffic but the post was about non-search engine traffic. You need to have plans for both.
Andrew
Each type of traffic has its own unique characteristics. Some distribution brings in more traffic, other types of traffic provides more backlinks, yet another traffic source will bring in more brand awareness. This test is an examination of the conversion rates by traffic source.
Traffic does Not Convert the Same: SEO vs PPC vs Press Releases vs Social Bookmarking
I have long suspected that not all traffic converts the same. While I had rough statistics to back it up (and very detailed statistics in some cases), I had never run a formal test to include ‘Social Bookmarking’ traffic to determine conversion rates and percentage of traffic.
I agree…different traffic sources will convert differently.
Testing is crucial if you want to pinpoint the best traffic source.
Andrew
there some other choice here
– use google adwords content
– use affiliate marketing
– post classified
When some one creates a blog or website then next aim to generate huge traffic on it.Because without traffic we can not get exposure from our created website.However there are lot of techniques to generate traffic on website but you explained top level traffic techniques in this blog post.
There are many people who are searching daily to get some tips about traffic increasing so I hope this blog post will do a great help to all webmasters.
Many thanks!