How do I get more visitors--on a budget?

Discussion in 'General Marketing' started by oneawesomeguy, Apr 19, 2008.

  1. #1
    I started a site at the end of 2007 and it has been doing pretty good. I have been getting about 200 unique visitors a day without social media.

    One problem is that nobody posts comments. How can I get people to post more comments?

    Another issue is that I need more visitors. How can I increase the number of visitors to my site without spending huge amounts of money on ads? I would have at most a $200 budget to do marketing.

    Thank you.

    P.S. Here is the site: www.collegebeing.com
     
    oneawesomeguy, Apr 19, 2008 IP
  2. Shawn Jackson

    Shawn Jackson Peon

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    #2
    Hello Oneawesomeguy,

    What have you implemented so far? Have you submitted articles to directories (i.e. back links)?

    Shawn.
     
    Shawn Jackson, Apr 20, 2008 IP
  3. TravisReynolds

    TravisReynolds Guest

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    #3
    Hey bud,

    well if you want more comments, I haven't done this yet, because my site is young. But you can have a monthly give away. Like put a plug-in that shows the top commenters (people like to see their name on the web, plus if they have a website it will help there traffic so they will want to comment) then at the end of the month, you can do a give away of whatever you want to them, just announce the competition.

    Then for more visitors, I am just going to talk about advertising. I have used stumbleupon, and it works great, I got about 200 visitors for about $10, the only problem is not a lot of them decide to stay because they are "stumbling" on to your website. You can also try adwords, and something I would recomend is to go into the buy, sell and trade section, and buy an adword vouture, like you can buy a $20 or something adword vouture for half price
     
    TravisReynolds, Apr 20, 2008 IP
  4. GameOver

    GameOver Well-Known Member

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    #4
    If you want comments then build up a loyal reader base and change your writing style by asking questions or asking visitors to share their opinion on controversial topics.
     
    GameOver, Apr 20, 2008 IP
  5. TravisReynolds

    TravisReynolds Guest

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    #5
    he's right, I do the same thing on my blog and it works. Here is a perfect example:

    Http://www.Glennwolsey.com - Look how his readers always answer the questions
     
    TravisReynolds, Apr 20, 2008 IP
  6. Chrissy17

    Chrissy17 Peon

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    #6
    Are you earning any money from the site?
     
    Chrissy17, Apr 20, 2008 IP
  7. PlateFish

    PlateFish Banned

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    #7
    If you have great content on your site - enough to attract visitors, then I suggest you use a service to promote your most competetive key phrase to the front page of google.
     
    PlateFish, Apr 20, 2008 IP
  8. Nixies

    Nixies Peon

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    #8
    Want more comment? Allow Do follow comment links, get listed in all the SEO link building places and sit back ad wait for thosands of comments. 90% of which mwill be pointless spam. the other 10% will put some effort in.
     
    Nixies, Apr 20, 2008 IP
  9. dd4w2000

    dd4w2000 Peon

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    #9
    i also have this problem with getting my users to interact and post comments. Any one with any tips?
    regards
    dd
     
    dd4w2000, Apr 20, 2008 IP
  10. PlateFish

    PlateFish Banned

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    #10
    I really don't advocate such ways to increase visitors and posters. If you want loyal members who provide great content which will then passively expand your forum, going about it in a way that encourages spam is probably the last thing you want to do.

    I think you should use Nixies advice as a last resort.
     
    PlateFish, Apr 20, 2008 IP
  11. Codythebest

    Codythebest Notable Member

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    #11
    You may try a daily budget for adwords. You cn set it a $1/day budget or $3 and so on...
     
    Codythebest, Apr 20, 2008 IP
  12. oneawesomeguy

    oneawesomeguy Peon

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    #12
    Thanks for all the replies everybody! My daily users keep going down slowly... :( I am getting about 180-200 a day right now, but it continuously keeps dropping.

    Hello. The only things I have tried:
    • Spending about $150 USD on Text-Link-Ads during a month shortly after I first started my site
    • Trading links with blogs on similar topics
    • Having a top commentators list, but I got rid of that a few months back

    Hello. Do monthly give-a-ways work? I do not have a lot of money to spend on something very valuable so it might not be too interesting for many people.

    Do you also buy those stubleupons in the Buy, Sell, and Trade section? And, can I buy many adword voutures for the same account?

    Yes, I am earing about $65/month on Text-Link-Ads. I should get some more advertising on there since I do not think I am up to my potential.

    Any suggestions on the service? Do you just mean hire an SEO guy or buy some ads for SEO purposes?

    Nixies idea sounded nice, but you are 100% correct on further thought. Thanks.

    I did not know I could set a daily budget. I will go do some adwords soon then.


    P.S.: Anyone have opinions on whether I would be worth me hiring someone to write some articles on the cheap--just to have a more constant stream or articles for my site (my goal is always five articles per week, but usually it comes out to two or three)?
     
    oneawesomeguy, Apr 21, 2008 IP
  13. add_cents

    add_cents Peon

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    #13
    Find a message board that has a lot of posters. See if they have an off-topic board on there.

    Your content seems perfect for that.

    By the way, you should seriously consider doing affiliate marketing on your blog. You have a way with words, and I think you can sell products with that.
     
    add_cents, Apr 21, 2008 IP
  14. PlateFish

    PlateFish Banned

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    #14
    There's a lot of things you can do that doesn't involve paying a lot of money for an SEO company to do it for you. However when you are growing and earning a small income it is advisable that you do use an SEO service as this will maximise your conversions and increase traffic.

    Here are things you can do:

    - Submit to directories. Use DigiXmas it's a great free tool and can be used in 15 minutes.
    - Create articles and submit them to EzineArticles.
    - Hold contests on your blog for posters.
    - Update your site daily or every 2 days and KEEP at it. Don't ever give up, you need to put a lot of effort into a blog if you want it to be successful but that effort will pay off.
    - Think about going into partnership with a friend or family who is dedicated if you are finding the work load tough to deal with or need more money for investment.
    - Create good anchor text for your site. Focus on a key phrase and try and get it to #1 on google. You can do this by anchoring all your links with the text that you are trying to get high up in the searches. I.e on my site I focus on the competetive term Poker Forums and so I link the text "poker forums" to my site.
     
    PlateFish, Apr 21, 2008 IP
  15. TheCrusader

    TheCrusader Peon

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    #15
    Hi, there are a few powerful techniques which are free:

    1. Article marketing

    This is a longterm traffic driving strategy. Even if you spend the $200 on articles, it can get you at least 40 great articles.

    2. Social Bookmarking

    Do so for link popularity and ranking.

    3. Blog Comment Posting

    Post at Do-follow blogs for ranking as well as traffic. Target those top blogs in your niche.

    4. Forum Marketing

    Be active in forums related to your niche.
     
    TheCrusader, Apr 21, 2008 IP
  16. Chancey

    Chancey Well-Known Member

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    #16
    If you want people to post some comment. Try giving them something to comment about like asking a question to your audience. I'm sure that this will work because I have tried it before and it is proven.
     
    Chancey, Apr 21, 2008 IP
  17. oneawesomeguy

    oneawesomeguy Peon

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    #17
    How do I find blogs that don't have the no-follow for comments?
     
    oneawesomeguy, Apr 21, 2008 IP
  18. hamish31

    hamish31 Peon

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    #18
    Umm what I would do is start Social Bookmarking, Creating Videos, Article Marketing, Positioning yourself as the expert and offering prizes for different competitions. All of these a free ways of attracting traffic.

    I can't go into this because I don't have much time but I'll go briefly into each one for you.

    1. Social Bookmarking: Find the most popular social bookmarking sites and bookmark atleast 3 sites a day (they don't have to be related to your niche) and don't just bookmark your own stuff. The bookmarking sites and search engines can tell if you are just bookmarking your own stuff.

    2. Creating Videos: Create some videos and upload them to youtube, its that simple just offer some good content that keeps the viewer coming back for more. Videos are one of my main ways to bring in the traffic.

    3. Article Marketing: Article Marketing just do the same sort of thing but write articles obviously. Give away some free and unique content. Don't just try to get them onto your site, at the end yes you can advertise your site with a brief paragraph or sentence but don't go overboard. Submit them to sites such as Squidoo, HubPages and Ezine Articles.

    4. Position yourself as the expert: Even if you are not an expert in your field portray yourself as one, all you need to do is be one step ahead of your target audience who are viewing your content. It's that simple, answer their questions and guide them to success. They will see you as an expert and they will follow you and feel like it's their duty to help you.

    5. Offering prizes: This is self explanatory just create some competitions such as most posts/comments without spamming, most people referred and im sure you can think of many others.

    -- Hamish
     
    hamish31, Apr 21, 2008 IP