I briefly mention contests a little earlier in this chapter. I bring them up here because contests are a great way to bring traffic to your Web site. Everyone loves a good contest, especially when the prizes are neat.
Deciding what the prizes are for your contest is very important. Think of what appeals to people who would be interested in your site. I mention earlier in the chapter that if your site’s about music, giving away copies of War and Peace just won’t cut it because such a contest wouldn’t target the specific people that you want to see your site.
When you’re considering the prizes that you should give away, consider what type of prize would draw the kind of person that would be interested in your site. If the purpose of the contest is to draw visitors to your site, the wrong prizes won’t help you at all.
Devising the type of contest to have is the next step. What is it people need to do to get the prize? One thing that many Web site owners do is require that users register for a newsletter, and then the winner is drawn from those who signed up for the newsletter. Bloggers often run contests where visitors are required to leave a comment on the blog.
After you create your contest, all you have to do is get the word out. Announce the contest on your Web site, blog, and any mailing lists that you have. Tell your friends and ask them to tell their friends. If the contest’s good, word gets around quickly.
You’ll see a spike in the amount of traffic that you have to your site during the contest period, but if you conduct it right, an overall increase will remain after the contest is over. Take the time to design your contest to meet the specific goal of creating traffic (especially return traffic) to your site, and you’ll see the benefits of this strategy the first time you try it.
Showing posts with label Improve your site traffiq. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Improve your site traffiq. Show all posts
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Referral Programs
Referral programs have a couple different sides. One side of a referral program is the side on which you make money. That’s for putting referral buttons on your Web site.
What if you flip that around and create your own referral program where you pay visitors to share your site with others? You can do that — and should — if you really want to build a sizable flow of traffic to your site.
Creating a referral program isn’t too difficult. The first thing you need to do is determine what you can afford to invest in the program. Typically, those who refer your site are paid anywhere from about a penny-a-click to as much as $5 per click or more. Some referral programs promise a flat fee for any referral that results in a purchase.
Your budget is the determining factor here, but remember this: The more you pay, the ore likely others will want to refer your site to their site visitors. They’re sending traffic away from their site to yours, so you must make it worth the referrers’ efforts.
Remember that for a referral program to be effective, it should also be simple. If you’re telling people you’ll only pay them a referral fee if they send someone to your site who then makes two purchases over a 60-day period, unless your site is truly amazing or the products that you offer are completely unique, not too many people will refer their visitors to you. It’s just too hard for them to earn a reward for that referral.
A referral program also has to make it easy for referrers to be connected to the people that they refer. A simple form that includes a Referred By box is okay, but it’s only as effective as the memory of the person filling out the form. A link that connects referrers to your referral program so that you can track who they refer is much more effective for the people who are spreading your name around.
Setting up an easy-to-use referral program might be more difficult on your end, but it’s worth the investment. The less work that someone has to do to refer people to you and collect a reward for that referral, the more likely he’ll use your referral program.
Amazon.com has a referral program that’s an excellent example of what really works. They provide all the tools that users need to refer others to Amazon products. All the user has to do is plug a piece of code into her blog or Web site. Amazon and the visitors clicking through the referrals do the rest of the work.
What if you flip that around and create your own referral program where you pay visitors to share your site with others? You can do that — and should — if you really want to build a sizable flow of traffic to your site.
Creating a referral program isn’t too difficult. The first thing you need to do is determine what you can afford to invest in the program. Typically, those who refer your site are paid anywhere from about a penny-a-click to as much as $5 per click or more. Some referral programs promise a flat fee for any referral that results in a purchase.
Your budget is the determining factor here, but remember this: The more you pay, the ore likely others will want to refer your site to their site visitors. They’re sending traffic away from their site to yours, so you must make it worth the referrers’ efforts.
Remember that for a referral program to be effective, it should also be simple. If you’re telling people you’ll only pay them a referral fee if they send someone to your site who then makes two purchases over a 60-day period, unless your site is truly amazing or the products that you offer are completely unique, not too many people will refer their visitors to you. It’s just too hard for them to earn a reward for that referral.
A referral program also has to make it easy for referrers to be connected to the people that they refer. A simple form that includes a Referred By box is okay, but it’s only as effective as the memory of the person filling out the form. A link that connects referrers to your referral program so that you can track who they refer is much more effective for the people who are spreading your name around.
Setting up an easy-to-use referral program might be more difficult on your end, but it’s worth the investment. The less work that someone has to do to refer people to you and collect a reward for that referral, the more likely he’ll use your referral program.
Amazon.com has a referral program that’s an excellent example of what really works. They provide all the tools that users need to refer others to Amazon products. All the user has to do is plug a piece of code into her blog or Web site. Amazon and the visitors clicking through the referrals do the rest of the work.
Links and Linking Strategies
You wouldn’t think that the links on your site would make too much difference to the traffic on your site, but they do. The Web is an interconnected group of pages. The connection from one page to another comes in the form of a link. So, both on your site and from others’ sites, links are an essential part of drawing people in.
One of the easiest ways to begin building a linking strategy is to contact the owners of Web sites that you like and ask them for a reciprocal link. Reciprocal links are when you put a link to that site on your page in exchange for a link back to your Web site. Reciprocal linking strategies are very common on the Web.
Another way to get people to link to you is to offer something completely unique on your Web site. For some, that means adding a special download to the site that’s not available anywhere; for others, it means adding videos, podcasts, or some other element that’s completely unique. Whatever your draw is, keep it unique and fresh. A podcast or video can be effective for a few days, but after a while, it loses its effectiveness and needs to be replaced with something new.
When you have an intricate linking strategy in place (one that leads to other sites of interest and back to you from other sites), you start seeing the results of the strategy — more traffic. The linking strategy takes a little time to create, but it’s well worth the effort.
One of the easiest ways to begin building a linking strategy is to contact the owners of Web sites that you like and ask them for a reciprocal link. Reciprocal links are when you put a link to that site on your page in exchange for a link back to your Web site. Reciprocal linking strategies are very common on the Web.
Another way to get people to link to you is to offer something completely unique on your Web site. For some, that means adding a special download to the site that’s not available anywhere; for others, it means adding videos, podcasts, or some other element that’s completely unique. Whatever your draw is, keep it unique and fresh. A podcast or video can be effective for a few days, but after a while, it loses its effectiveness and needs to be replaced with something new.
When you have an intricate linking strategy in place (one that leads to other sites of interest and back to you from other sites), you start seeing the results of the strategy — more traffic. The linking strategy takes a little time to create, but it’s well worth the effort.
Dynamic Content
Everyone seems to be seeking the key to more Web site content. In today’s information-driven society, great, dynamic content is the key. People are usually online because they’re looking for something — relationships, information, products, or services. Content is the way they find what they’re looking for. Think about it. A decade or so ago, if you wanted to find information on anything, you had to go to the library or the bookstore to find that information. Today, finding what you seek is as close as your computer. Just open a Web browser, type a few words, and what you’re looking for is sitting right in front of you. Very little information can’t be found online these days. Here’s what makes one site better than another though. When I’m looking for information online, I click into and out of a site in the time it takes most people to take a sip of coffee. That’s because I know exactly what I’m looking for, and when I don’t see it, I move on to the next search result. When I do find what I’m looking for, though, I tend to stick around. I’ll read the article that brought me to the site and then I’ll click through all the articles that are linked to it, and I might even click some of the ads shown on the page if they seem interesting. When I’m done, I bookmark the page to come back later and see what’s new. That is what good content does for a Web site — it buys you time with your site visitors and it buys you return visits. If you don’t have content with that kind of stickiness, the first thing you can do to improve your Web site is to create that content. Just remember, don’t try buying it from a content broker — someone who commissions content from writers and then resells it to Web site or publication owners — if you really want something fresh and new because everyone else in your area is using the same content broker.
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