I have a magazine website that is not doing so well right now. It has a forum and an online community but both are failing miserably. I have tried every trick in the book and nothing seems to be working at all. I can't get enough traffic on the site. When I do manage to have people on the site, the feedback about the site and magazine are great; so I know it's not the content...people love it when they finally read/see it but its getting them to read/see it that's the challenge...I have at least 5 queries everyday from potential advertisers who want to advertise on the site and they want to know hits we get a day and i can't even take on ads because I dont have the hits. I am so fed up because I strongly believe in this magazine but can't seem to get other people to buy into it. I need ideas on how you build an online community and how to get traffic for your website...I am really reaching breaking point because it is now weighing heavily on me...
I agree with what was said above, run a contest. People love 'free', so if you can offer something to them for participating, you can build up the interest on your site. Doesn't have to be something expensive also.
Are you sure enough people are interested in the subject matter? Have you looked to see how many people search for keywords related to your site? Rgds Accel
Add site to social bookmark sites like digg and stuble upon. Run some ads for site and add to directories
Advertise like a free subscription to a magazine if need be. Also make sure that there is plenty of media on the site for viewers to stay attracted.
All due respect to the two posters...do NOT have contests. Your goal is to make money, not give it away only for them to keep on walking. "I am really reaching breaking point because it is now weighing heavily on me..." This is why I like helping some people. http://www.thelist.fm/marketing-advertising.shtml Print it out and study it. Don't JUST read it! Take out highligher, paperclips, and get to work. Just like you were back in school. Give it up to six months, really work it, and you will be able to quit your job. The now big sites did it, so can you. What's your URL???
yeah, stumble, digg, del.icio.us, reddit that would help you gain more traffic. you could put a short text there "if you like this website, please stumble it" or bookmark our page. as for community, maybe you can give free e-mail adresses @yourdomain.com in a contest.
Thanks so much for all the responses. Yes, there's enough content on the website - music interviews, reviews, feature articles - there's lots to keep people engaged. I wasn't doing so well with updating it before as the focus was on the magazine itself but I've started to update the site three times a week now and there's lots of content on there. I can PM you a link to the site if you want to have a look....I have been thinking about the contest too. I do run contests in the magazine for books and CDs but maybe I need to run more expensive contests like an Ipod or a holiday or something...I will need to look into this. I don't know how to find out from google who's searching for my keywords...we do come up on the second page when people search google for 'youth magazine' but somehow that's just not enough.
Depends on what kind of magazine...But get it stumbled, buy some bulletins on myspace, get ranked higher in search engines for your specific keywords. Buy advertising from google or Adbrite does great too or here.... Good Luck
Yes, we have RSS feed set up...it's not getting dugg because it's not getting the traffic - in total, the magazine has been dugg three times.
Take a step back from the entire project - maybe even take a few days off to regather your thoughts. Based on my experience, this website is either failing from lack of content, or lack of proper advertising. Refer to my article if you're after more information as to why your website will fail. Would you be willing to post or even PM the site address, and I can pick things apart and offer you some specific advice? Thanks
I just had a response from someone who checked out the site saying that there's not enough info on the homepage
Do some reading up on SEO - work out what keywords are relevant to your site and create your site content accordingly, see: http://www.webref.eu/search-engine-optimisation.php Rgds Accel
It could very well be my internet connection, but for me your site seems to show up very slowly. Is anyone else getting this? For starters, the website template is absolutely gorgeous, and I beg to differ with the above - I think there's just enough information on the main page, especially if you're targeting youth culture. In my opinion, the reason you're experiencing slow growth is because you've got yourself a rather unique niche, which may be a little bit harder to market than the average website. I think you'd be one of the websites that'd benefit from MySpace and Facebook marketing (as evil as it may be ). I'd also suggest finding some forums similar to your niche, and participating in discussions there with your link in your signature. If you're after some branding then I'd also suggest purchasing some banner space on those same forums or even on a site in your category. You might also benefit from some offline marketing, maybe through the use of flyer distribution. The only hard part is finding an appropriate and targeted location to send these out. Another idea I think would be awesome, would be the placement of a few video articles instead of your standard text based ones. Would spice things up a little bit. Good luck with your site.
I don't think anyone suggested this. Sorry if they did. What you need to do is create a video of the content of your forums. People would much rather watch a video than read about a service. Then, find every video site imaginable and submit the video under a name that relates to your business. Put your link in your description and make the title keyword rich. This will get you some very good results.