OK, I own a reviews site. I dont plan on making money off it, but I also dont plan on spending any. Can anybody give me tips on how to drive reviewers, and readers to my site? The site is SEO friendly as well. Link: http://acereviews.org Thanks in advance!
Most forums do offer a "List site for review" so perhaps forums, especially game related as your site seems to be more geared towards, you might find a lot of people willing to contribute reviews. I would recommend free traffic exchange sites, but since you are truly looking for reviewers, this will get visitors to your site, but not necessarily ones that will take action. I wish you luck on your site. If you are looking to fill any of those advertising blocks on your site, check out my signature.
Since its related to websites, webmaster forums could be your great source of traffic. Participate on different forums, put your site link on signatures. Social networking could be another great way of getting traffic. I think you should encourage submission to SN sites.
Digg can be useful, but takes a lot of prep time to really get anything out of it. A lot of the other sites like Twitter are becoming more and more popular for marketing.
Kinda off-topic to what you're asking, but I gotta let it out -- as a reader, I really think you need to keep article content on the front page instead of providing hyperlinks. It'd make your page look more productive and people could read through all of your reviews without having to click around. To obtain readers, you need to network around gaming sites -- have a signature link set up when you post on IJJI's Gunz/Gunbound/Soldier Front forums, get people to check out your site on IGN, etc. As far as retaining your readership, you'll need to step it up with your content. That means more comprehensive reviews on what you're covering, along with pictures & visuals to make your content seem more enticing. If you want reviewers, give people an incentive to review stuff on your site. You don't need to offer money...perhaps you can offer adspace for a reviewer that can chuck out 10 quality reviews, a free backlink, 40 posts on that reviewer's forum, etc. Heck, I'll do reviews for you if you can make me an offer.
Huh, thats actually a fantastic idea! Is that incentive something I should put on the front page? Because the front page text is just the "About Us" text... I dont get what youre saying in your first paragraph... Very good ideas though!
Couldn't agree any more with you, mate! Let's not forget that one single post to SN sites could get you huge traffic. The OP has to make very interesting and thought provoking reviews, controversial if you will. SN users are skimming through gazillion post every day, if you write a mind grabbing post with interesting visual hooks you might be able to attract people and spread the word about your site. The next stage after you have lured some potential visitors would be to provide the bait that will keep the coming. This could be done via different methods. Providing incentives always works. I see that you have implemented something like that. You could create a comment system with an authority system integrated. People reading the reviews could rank or thank the reviewer if the review has helped them. This will rank each review and will distinguish the most authoritative opinions from the ones that are not good enough. Once you get the ball rolling the site will self-propel. Everyone knows how people love ranking systems and all that. This will urge your reviewers to write quality reviews every time. Good luck!
Im actually quite unfamiliar with Stumble. Can anyone enlighten me as to how it would drive traffic to my site?
Marketing a blog is not an easy job.. it requires time and consistent effort. I would advise you to promote your blog on sites/forums that is related to specific content on your site. Try this.. when submitting your post or putting your text ads on these sites try using a snippet of some of your catchy reviews as part of your signature.. I'm sure that would attracts genuine and responsive visitors that will not only visiting your site but contributing to any comments and activity.. Don't shoot your bullet blindly instead more to targeted audience.. Spend every single time you have on a meaningful marketing effort..
Thanks! Its not a blog. So, Im looking for readers and writers. Its sort of like a community. And, StumbleUpon.Com is a website, Im just not sure how it works in terms of generating traffic.
Referring to StumbleUpon.com - it's basically a way to get your website seen by making a site a "favorite". It gets added to a category that you choose, then people who use StumbleUpon will see it as one of the sites in that category. I've actually gotten quite a lot of traffic from StumbleUpon, and some unexpected sales too. I also recommend Del.icio.us.
This is a great thread, lot of stuff is here i recommend Networking Sites like MySpace, Squidoo, Apsense as they drive more traffic. ________________________ gibline.com/maryspromise
Ive heard alot about Twitter in terms of generating traffic. But, how will sites like Twitter, MySpace, etc. get me visitors?