Best way to get traffic/contributors to a funny image site.

I have a funny image site that I have created and I'm trying to get people to visit my site more regularly and also interact with the site (upload their own content, liking images etc) but I'm having a bad time with ways to get people onto it.

My site isn't just like any other funny image site as it does not have defined categories attached to the image. You just simply go to the website and press "next image" to get a new image and if you like it, you can add it to your favorites (if you are logged in)

What is the best way for me to get traffic to my site? I've tried facebook and twitter but they are both incredibly hard to get "likes" on the pages when starting from scratch and most of the other methods require me writing articles and using keywords etc but as you may know, image sites don't usually have much text on them.

Here is my site if you are intrested - http://ezlulz.com

Thanks

 

Buy "real" facebook likes!

 

Just checked your site out. It's not quite user friendly. I think that's the reason why you can't get people sticking around or posting images. You need to WOW people when they first come to your site. Right off the bat you should show different categories with a bunch of images.

Then, when users click on an image it should have something like NEXT >> thing next to it, so that if users want to browse through the images they could do that easily. I know you have NEW IMAGE button at the bottom, but it's so obscure it took me a while to figure out it was there. Same is true for the social media buttons. They should be on the right hand side, rather than at the bottom, so that they could be easily accessible.

I took a few minutes to visually illustrate what I mean. Hope you'll find it helpful:



The bottom line is, your home page should be filled with categories/images if you want visitors to stick around.

 

I would start by joining and actively participating in forums that discuss funny images online or entertainment. Try and think where people that would be interested in your website would hang out online. Then go there and interact with them.

 

I don't quite understand how you say it's not user friendly. That's the most common type of feedback I get as people always say it's easy to navigate around due to the fact that it's pretty straight forward on what to do. Also to the categories suggestion you had, that would make the website more generic. I'm not trying to mimic a typical humor image gallery website such as 9gag or tickld as the entire point of this site is for you to go on it when your bored and look at a few images with minimal effort then navigate away from it when you are satisfied.

I also like your idea on the placement of the share buttons and the previous/next buttons so i will probably look into that.
Also what browser did you use to take that screenshot? It looks different...

Thanks for your two cents, I appreciate it

 

I was using Chrome. Just clarify: I removed some of the buttons and added the comment window just to illustrate my point.

As I mentioned it previously:

I think that's the reason why you can't get people sticking around or posting images. You need to WOW people when they first come to your site. Right off the bat you should show different categories with a bunch of images.

I still believe that would help you get more people interested in what you have to offer.

You're welcome and thank you for your response!

 

One thing to definitely look at is Pinterest.

It's a great method to share images that have the ability to go Viral.

Also, start sharing them on social networks if you recognize that you could make one of your images make sense.



Just my $.02

 

I will recommend share your link on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and etc for the huge traffic.

 

The idea is to get people who are interested in your content or niche.
Most of those bought likes do not come from people who are interested in your niche or product.

The idea here, is to get likes from real people who are interested in your content, service or product.

If you buy those likes. They will not take you anywhere.

Genuine likes are not easy to get. It takes time, patience and real good content to get them.

Many people are not willing to spend the right effort, feeding their audience with the right
content they are looking for.

If you want likes, give your audience over the top content they deserve.

 

I got around to doing changes to EzLulz and I took in your layout suggestions.

You can view them now http://ezlulz.com

 

I really like it. Way easier to browse the pictures. Everything looks handy now.

I tell you what, people on facebook and g+ are constantly looking for funny pictures for their posts. If you could somehow get noticed by those people your site would go viral really fast. Seriously, if I were you I'd try to target all major social media sites.

 

By the way, I've just noticed, you don't have a g+ button on your site. You most definitely need to have it.

 

Put the images on Pinterest and have a link to your site in the caption.

 

I see this type of site being promoted via Twitter tweets. Can't speak for others but I often check them out.

 

I didn't really think the photos were that funny. It might help if you put some controversial photos about recent events. Find current photos and they will spread through social media fairly easily if you push it in popular areas on the web.

 

I hate the fact that the back/next buttons wiggle up/down based on the image height. They should have a fixed position.
If I don't like an image, I want to get to another one fast, not spend even more time looking at it while I'm trying to hit the damn NEXT button.

I also don't like the fact that the only colors on the page are found in an isolated area. You get this all-gray page and then BAM right under the image there's "Submitted by X" with a green background and then right next to it you have favorite/random/report.
Another thing about the fav/rand/report: they should NOT be together. The random button should be the most accessible of all and also with a fixed position (refer to my next button ) in case I want to just see random stuff, the fav button should be accessible but not as a priority (how often do you "favorite" stuff?) and the report button should be the least accessible, tucked away somewhere.

 

While I agree with buying likes just to get the " ball " rolling - but we are going to need more information than that.

One of my strategies is buying Facebook updates from popular fan pages within your niche. For 1 million fan pages, it will range around $15 - $25 and it is very effective (for me so far).