I found that the best way to get GOOD UNIQUE traffic that STAYS on your website is by physically talking to people (via internet or in person). When you build a personal relationship with somebody they are more likely to stay on your website, contribute to it, and promote it for you. I talk to a lot of people on my Facebook about Photoshop/Etc. Help them out, refer them to my site. I give out my AIM/MSN on forums related to my niche and personally try to help people, and of-course refer them to my website. Does anybody else try to build personal relationships with their sites visitors/potential visitors?
It isn't hard as much as it is time consuming! Sure it takes a lot of time, but that personal relationship really does pay off, especially on beginner websites with not that much traffic.
Definitely, this is a good technique in getting a dedicated member. Though it is time consuming, I believe it could have better outcome.
I def. agree that what you do is very good and it will pay off. Building relationships with people helps build trust. And if you want active members on your site it is important to keep in contact with these people daily/weekly. I would also suggest you use an Email Opt in service such as Aweber. This way you can send out emails to all your friends at once, once or twice per. week. Make it sound personal and let them know they can write back if they have questions or need help! If they need help they will write you back. You can also add a chat box on your site. Make a new page called "chat" and let people know when you are going to be online to chat on your site. This will drive traffic to the page "chat". And people may browse around as well while waiting to chat with you!
Relationship first - money follows! I definitely agree! Building trust happens when you build relationships and this is essential in doing good in business!
Combine this method whit content that is life changing and you will have your own private army of loyal followers . I have about 20 loyal website fans and they provide most of the website income . Also their word of mouth brings huge amounts of traffic .
I agree. I find that the people that are most active/loyal to my sites are the ones that I talk to regularly. Another benefit is those dedicated users are also likely to talk to their "friends" online as well which will bring in more dedicated users since they have a friend on the site.
Its a good technique but I'm curious how far it takes you? Are you generating lots of sales by implementing this? What kinds of products do you have on your website? Just curious, if you don't mind answering I'd love to know!
Yes, this is what has worked for me. Creating a warm market the last 9 months is the only thing I have been doing to plug people into my website and its been really successful so far. The internet has changed a lot over the last few years that even if you get a lot of traffic to your website, depending on what you are marketing, so many individuals are more cautious to what they buy and/or sign up for on the internet. Seeing a real person answering their questions and having the ability to communicte with them makes it that much easier to make a sale, as it builds confidence in what they are purchasing from you. Now with that said, for me it has been very time consuming, especially because the service I offer is a little technical, so I spend a little more time with some individuals walking them trough it. Now if you ask me if its worth it, the answer is definitly YES. Am I going to be an internet millionair by next year, NO. But I see it as building my program, service, and website one person at a time