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I'm a little stuck...

Discussion in 'General Marketing' started by Hudsonkraft, Nov 10, 2014.

  1. #1
    I have a site that is rather unique (I think). I started this site out of pure love and continue to do it out of love/passion but I feel that there's a whole load of people missing out - people I'm not reaching.

    I've never really tried to gain traffic, I've just though 'well if its good content then traffic will come' I do get spikes in traffic but it doesn't really sustain. One week I had over 70k uniques (in Feb)

    Not thinking about money at the moment, I just need to reach out to this 'niche audience'

    Can anyone help me?

    You can see the site by searching 'vandog'
     
    Last edited: Nov 10, 2014
    Hudsonkraft, Nov 10, 2014 IP
  2. Mattingley

    Mattingley Greenhorn

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    #2
    Good content should result in good traffic, sadly that isn't always the case and most of the time, your website is going to need a little push in order to get the ball rolling. When i first read the thread, I couldn't work out what 'vandog' could be out, but after checking out your website, it's actually a topic I'm really interested in myself and I've thought about converting a van quite a lot and it's something I would really like to do next year.

    Spent a little while on your website now, the website is great, it's full of useful content, your writing style is great and you've packed it out with high quality photos and just so you know, I'm going to be a returning visitor, but anyway now onto helping you. How do you currently promote the website? Do you literally just rely on 'my content is good, people will share my website'? Your going to have to start promoting it, as often as you can and there are tons of different ways which you can do that, I noticed you've got a FB page, that's a good start, what about other social media? Twitter? Instagram? Pinterest? Youtube?

    One thing I noticed your website is lacking and it's something which is really holding your website back, is it's SEO structure, that's the main thing I would look into improving if I were you, getting traffic from search engines is going to be the best way to get new visitors to your website

    Feel free to send me a PM
     
    Mattingley, Nov 10, 2014 IP
  3. qwikad.com

    qwikad.com Illustrious Member Affiliate Manager

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    #3
    Vandog is bringing up all kinds of sites. Hard to suggest anything when I have no idea what your site really is. Is it vandogtraveller? Or van-dog?
     
    qwikad.com, Nov 10, 2014 IP
  4. Randall Magwood

    Randall Magwood Active Member

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    #4
    You should start doing some paid advertising. This is the fastest way to gain more traffic to your site. Have you tried it yet? If so where?
     
    Randall Magwood, Nov 10, 2014 IP
    qwikad.com likes this.
  5. Slikk Cybernaut

    Slikk Cybernaut Greenhorn

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    #5
    @qwikad I searched vandog and it was the top one. vandogtraveller.com I wasn't too sure either so I looked for his name Hudson and then realised it was the one he was talking about.
     
    Last edited: Nov 10, 2014
    Slikk Cybernaut, Nov 10, 2014 IP
  6. sweetpea69

    sweetpea69 Active Member

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    #6
    I'd take some pointers from Nomadic Matt . Haven't read through his blog in awhile...but I remember him being fairly open + honest on how exactly he runs his blog + money (~=traffic). Anyways, your site + content are awesome. Reiterating what Mattingley said...social media...and some on-page SEO wouldn't hurt. But that you'd have to learn a little bit about. Easiest way for now, w/o sacrificing writing ~purely for traffic...start commenting on travel blogs similar to yours, and build up a relationship w/ the authors + their audience. I'd start w/ the one linked above...or whatever similar blog you like the most. Just google around for other ones. That van looks awesome btw ;)
     
    sweetpea69, Nov 10, 2014 IP
  7. Diana Wallace

    Diana Wallace Member

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    #7
    Your social media networks are looking good. Continue your passion.
    When it comes to reaching more of your target audience. It depends what target audience that may be. You got a lot to join in. You can join in photography, travel, vacation, lifestyle, etc. Join to these communities and discussion boards/forums like here in digitalpoint. But focus on your target. Interact with top "Influencers" in Twitter that has the same niche with yours. Have them retweet your tweets or share your posts for their followers and fans to see. You can do a lot in social media.. Why not start your own instagram and pinterest too! Good luck!
     
    Last edited: Nov 10, 2014
    Diana Wallace, Nov 10, 2014 IP
  8. nameless7

    nameless7 Greenhorn

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    #8
    Really nice site and a lot of quality posts, so you just need to promote it. SMM is the best solution for your niche
     
    nameless7, Nov 12, 2014 IP
  9. nanmal

    nanmal Greenhorn

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    #9
    Your site is really awesome and what a great experience. You really could use a little SEO work done on it. Google has a fairly helpful guide at https://search.yahoo.com/search?p=search+engine+optimization&ei=UTF-8&fr=chrf-yff29. You could also maybe change your home page to cover a little of each of your pages and build links in. Maybe make your home page something like "Have you ever wanted to live in a Van". Then put just a little about your van conversion like when you bought you van and started converting it and read more and add a link, then some about van life and write a little about it on your home page and add another read more with a link to that page and so forth. Hope this helps. Then you can also do a google search for forums on travel and make some posts there referring back to your site. If you're going to do forum posts be sure and add useful information. Hope this helps a little
     
    nanmal, Nov 12, 2014 IP
  10. Hudsonkraft

    Hudsonkraft Member

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    #10
    Thank you everyone for the input. I asked to search the term 'vandog' because I didnt want to look like I was spamming. Sorry if it was a little vague.

    One thing I struggle with is constantly telling/annoying people and saying 'hey look at me, look at me'. I don't want to show off and I don't want to make people jealous... or annoy them. I just want the right people to find my content.

    Well I'm glad you've found the site now, if you want to do something similar.

    I always thought writing was my weakness so it's good you like the style. I promote the site (if you can call it that) through SM mainly. Reddit, Pinterest, Twitter and FB - although I could put more effort in. Oh and I did make a YT video (which made it onto an American TV show actually). See it here

    I am up for learning anything and am pretty persistent.

    I need to know more about what you mean by the SEO structure holding me back. Do you mean the actual formatting/template of the site? or the way articles/content is written? I will PM you

    Yes! It's one blog I keep forgetting about. I will now compile a list of my favourite blogs. I intend to be completely transparent about any ads or affiliate links. Thanks for your input

    Cheers! When you say 'have them retweet' my tweets, do you mean by asking them? Its very difficult to get people to share/retweet etc. Sometimes I really doubt myself and my content. I do have Pinterest (a recent thing for me) - It's a great, maybe my favourite SM app.

    Thank you

    What did you check to know that I need to do some SEO work? I am currently reading the MOZ guide. Thanks for your help. Reaching out to blogs/forums make sense
     
    Hudsonkraft, Nov 14, 2014 IP