It's my first time starting up a site for the general 'public' (ie. not a portfolio, personal, or fan site). I was just wondering if you guys had any suggestions on how to both drive targeted traffic to my site, as well as building a community/fanbase around it. My site is called the Minty Ferret and can be viewed here: www.mintyferret.com It's a Photoshop tutorial/resource/freebie site. So far, I've been trying to build backlinks by affiliating with similar websites. As well, I've submitted all my tutorials to various tutorial sites (some have gotten into good-tutorials which gives me nice spikes of traffic, however I'd like something that lasts a bit longer than two days). I've added an RSS feed and an email subscription. I've also allowed users to Digg some of the better posts. I've been writing unique content and tutorials, and providing free psd graphics and files. I am also trying to update on every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I've also been working on changing my writing style to be more casual and interactive, and have been trying to take out the 'dryness' that is commonly found at most tutorial sites. Suggestions for anything else would be great as well - how to monetize it effectively, for instance. As of now there's a pretty dismal (I think?) 0.50% Page CTR, even though the ads seem targeted. It might be too soon to experiment with different ad formats however, as I'm only getting 600-800 views a day. Thanks!
Very, and I mean, VERY nice layout. You design it yourself? AdSense placement can be improved. The posts that dont have pictures, add AdSense Injection to them to hover right like your pictures do. People see the 250x250 block hovering better than they see the bottom ads in a blog.
Thanks - yes, I did design it myself. The actual layout is a heavily modified theme from DoshDosh, but the colours, header, graphics, etc. is done by me, thanks for the kind words! Not sure what you mean by the 'posts that don't have pictures'? I did take a look at Adsense Injection, and I emailed Google about it, and they said that placing images like that was 'deceptive'. However what I currently have now (the shadows - I've actually just added them recently and have been experimenting) are acceptable according to them. I've actually been getting more (or equal) clicks from the ads at the bottom of each blog post (above the comments section) than all the other sections combined (top and sidebar!). So either I'm doing something right with the bottom, or something wrong with the top.
Yep, layout definitely looks good (also digged the first article since it happened to catch my eye ). I believe you should visit not only artists forums, but also check out webmaster / programmer forums: those people need free art - and if you can provide, the better. You might also consider a newsletter and give pack of free art for subscribers - should be good way to get targeted visitors which you can later then send stuff. I just wrote a thread about getting traffic, you might want to check out that too.
Very nice article! Ive just read it and I will probably implement some of your ideas. I have only been trying with Digg (thanks!) but I will look into branching out to StumbleUpon and other places as well. Thanks for the newsletter suggestion as well! I see you have used it on your site and it certainly catches my attention. I already have a type of "email subscription" thing going with my RSS feed, but I never thought to provide a freebie with it, I just might do that! Congrats on the success of your site by the way!
Good (remember to check out other articles about traffic/biz as well) Thanks you too, you have a really good looking site - wish you success.
I can help with this bit. - PPC (Use google, MSN, Yahoo - Only if you can afford it.) - Blog (make sure you tag and ping) - Articles - Forums - Directories - Jv's - Offline Ads **- Press releases (Great resource) but make sure you use PRWeb.com!! That should give you a very good start. Cheers Jesterx
Yeah, I just looked it up - seems to be a joint venture. It's probably not something I will be looking into, as I'm able to do pretty much everything for my site - code, design, invest, market, etc. If I run into trouble I can just hire someone. Thanks for the suggestion though.
If you live in a big city, pay a few local taggers to spray your website across the most visible spots in the city. It's unorthodox, and Im known for unorthodox market methods, but the lack of sprayed websites kind of makes the website stick to the person as they wait at a red light and see the website. They're compulsed to go to it. It's worked for my past sites that ive done it with. It was 1, I believe, but it worked quite well, and its cheap advertising.
I'm not sure if my website is geared towards people who would read/act on graffiti tags - that might be better suited to promote a band or indie/alternative type of website. As well, I actually have a pet-peeve against ugly graffiti (there are some nice ones around my city, but sadly more ugly than nice. ). Also my city has just recently (like last week!) passed harsher laws against graffiti, so it's probably not my best plan of action. I'm not even sure if I should even be looking into offline-promotion at the moment, given the content of my website. However I do like the idea, it's certainly a quirky one, and I'm glad it's worked out for you!
Actually, the site was art-based. I guess its not photoshop tutorials, but it was street art, and stuff, so it was the right type of promotion for that. I know Vancouver (my city) has around one million people, so I definately got lots of local traffic
P-p-p-powerbook! Very nice layout by the way. I agree with the first poster, it really looks incredible. I would suggest maybe adding a "stumble upon" link to all of the entries, as SU seems to get some traffic, more or less targeted.
Neat, I'm from Halifax and was there visiting a good friend at the beginning of summer. I wonder if I saw your graffiti. Haha, thanks. I do have StumbleUpon links actually, they open when you click 'Share This', however if makes me wonder - since it doesn't seem like it was so obvious - whether I should scrap that and just have text links? Maybe just three - StumbleUpon - Digg - Delicoius?
Stumble Ads might be a good idea too. Your content has the potential to go viral, so spending $20-50 on stumble ads might give it the kick it needs. http://www.stumbleupon.com/ads