Generating Traffic to a Website

[KevinG]

Someone asked for ideas on another forum for generating traffic to a website.

In general SEO and search engine traffic is always at the top of my list, but here are some other ideas as well:

1. MySpace - even though I think it is one of the stupidest things in the world, it actually does help to have a MySpace page with content and links pointing to your regular web site. I have tested and proven it personally. Disclaimer: It doesn't work for everything and it is not as great as some would have you believe, but every little bit helps.

2. Blogs - Another web 2.0 thing that works too. Blogs can get good rankings that "regular" web sites don't. Having a blog on topic with your non-blog site with links poiting in can help too.

3. Forums - using outside forums and having your own forum on topic and linking in is another traffic generator. I consider this the old school comparison to the new school social networking crap like MySpace.

4. RSS Feeds - Offer rss feeds of your content for individual users to subscribe to and for other websites to publish.

5. Publish Outstanding Content - Some of the largest sites that have become "Authority Sites" got that way by making substantial investments in producing and publishing their own outstanding, high quality exclusive content - content that is so good that other sites can't help but point 1-way links to it. Bam! There's goes your click traffic and your SE rankings through the roof.

6. Viral - "Send to a Friend" links, function buttons to link to your content on other social retard sites like Digg, Stumble Upon, del.icio.us, and others.

7. Free Content for 1-way links - Offer a "Pic of the Day", Articles and other free content to webmasters in exchange for a link back. There are article syndication sites you can submit your articles to.

8. Affiliates - have an affiliate program where webmasters can promote you for a commission on sales.

9. Link exchange - the old fashioned link exchange still works, but only in moderation with on topic sites from "good neighborhoods".

10. Buy other sites - One of my "Secrets to Success" has been ocassionally finding another site in my niche that has built up content and traffic over time, but just never broke out into a full time job for the owner and they are ready to sell the site for a reasonable amount.

One example - I started with Cigar-Review.com and later bought CigarReview.com (without the dash). The site had been online for 8 years and had a ton of inbound links. I bought it for $500 and 301 re-directed it. Google PR, traffic and rankings went through the roof almost overnight.

11. Other things you can try are toplists, press release distribution and 4-page "Free Sites" submitted to link lists if you are in the adult content subscription business.