I have heard ordinary people increasing their visitors manifold by advertising "outside" the web world. I have personally used some methods for increasing traffic to my chatting site. It would be great if we can organise some information here about the Offline or real world ways to market your website: What i have done is very simple stuff: Paying monthly to taxi drivers for showing my little banner near the taxi's roof Installing a board for my website on my friend's shop I saw some slow but steady growth in traffic after these. But i got a lot of visitors from my city only. I am sure there may be some better ways to popularize your website. And there might be many people who may have done that successfully. So lets share and benefit all.
I had a product for sale in my region and advertised it for sale in local newspapers and free second hand sites and free auction sites. Worked out pretty well. Will be doing a big project soon locally, hope that it'll work out greetz, jobic
I have tried several offline methods. I have one of my websites addresses advertised on the back windscreen of my car. I had quite a large car sticker printed on ebay. I drive a lot and this seemed like a good idea seeing as no matter what, the car behind you is always going to read the URL. Think how many pairs of eyes that is over the course of a day! I also had a lot of stickers printed and I stick them everywhere I go. Both of these combined have helped to bring in traffic.
The transport truck which goes from one part of the country to another, i think they may help you get 10 - 15 multicity visitors per day if there is a shiny banner pasted on them. Do u think thats cool? I am beginning to believe it is. I saw an ad of a website on a truck recently. Is there any website which helps you do just that?
That would be a good idea, how on earth to go about it i wouldn't know, let me know if you find out! Regards.
I live near a local university that has a lot of those "advertisement" boards placed around the campus. Every now and then I'll go and staple some flyers to them.
Word of mouth, Friends, Family, Counts a lot.. Helps getting more users. Never give up on advertising in your contacts.. Non-internet advertising helps like hell! :O
You can also try out giving ads on local Yellow Pages, Local TV Channel, Digital signage and participate in trade show or seminar.
I have paid too cheap. It was because he didnt realise what that was all about. I paid about $25 and he didnt remove my shiny banner for more than 2 months.
I saw something "interesting" on my morning drive to work this morning. Seems that someone (I won't mention the url name) has plastered cheap signs all over some local free-way on/off ramps. They are just small white signs with a large url printed on them...effective, but I consider it littering. For that reason alone, I won't visit that url. So be careful how you advertise - some may take offense to it.
Oh - thought of another thing: I have also seen a lot of cars with domain names on the back window or on a bumper sticker. Good free advertising if you live in a place with a lot of traffic.
Another funny way of promoting your website. I have seen cellfone companies and others do it. A large balloon atop a building in a crowdy area. What about your url atop that balloon?
This month, or in July I will be using dress shirts, like Polo, and with a different spin on it. Business cards, but I won't be wasting them by leaving them everywhere. A lcd sign on the back window of my truck. Possibly a video that can be heard on those times I go to the mall, or whatever. Car door sign. (I'm thinking about painting the whole truck as one big ad.) Submitting "how to" tips to radio stations across the U.S., and then eventually in Canada for them to talk about to kill dead air time. Speaking engagements. TV spots for 30 minutes. Rent space in businesses where its customers may like what I do, but at the same time it doesn't take away the owner's business. There are more, but I can't think on an empty stomach. Why in the hell am I always hungry when I'm on this board?! There are many ways. You just have to sit down with pen and paper and brainstorm. Always keep your brain hot, even at home watching "Seinfeld."
My friend established a community based site related to a popular product category. He tells me that he promoted it mostly using off the web advertising. He gained more than 4500 users within 15 days. He spent total $650 on the site and sold it after little more than a month for $1700 as the site had started giving him good adsense revenue, amazon, shopping ads income as well as the usual text link ads money. And he again tells me that he is going to do it all over again. And not going to sell it so soon now. I am not naming the site name here as he has asked me not to. He tells me that he is coming up soon with an ebook teaching exactly how to get thousands of users within a month and make the most of the web 2.0
Networking works very well for us since we provide a service. We interact with maybe 20-30 people at a business meeting and many of those visit the site. We also were written up in the business section of the local paper and that changed our business forever!