Hi ppl! Today I was trying to figure out why my sites are not getting much traffic,and I started to think that maybe there's a limit where you can get without paying for ads/banners/adwords etc. And here's the question I would to ask you all: Do you think there's some limit in the traffic you can get with free/self advertising?Of course without spamming. Placing a link in forum signatures,commenting on blogs,link exchange with relevant websites, are all good things,but I'm starting to believe that the visitors you can get with them are limited.If you wan't to move to the next step(get really lots of traffic) you must start spending $$$... (And of course I mean without pushing traffic from your other websites.) Just a website from zero. What do you think from your experience?
Some websites need very little initial advertising before they take hold and basically advertise themselves (viral). It depends on the kind of websites you are doing... If it is a website which is about hobbies or some kind of interest, then try joining some groups or newsgroups related to it to get a buzz going. Once you have exhausted all routes, then maybe it is time to try paying, and if this fails, then maybe you have a dead site on your hands...
It all depends on the website (as metioned). Is your website unique (one of a kind)? If not, then most likely you will have to pay for advertising.
You're right guys.I know it depends on the topic of the website. I'm talking about websites that are not so unique. For example consider a proxy site which is starting from zero.There are thousands of proxy sites and there are not many things you can do in order to make your proxy differerent from the others.How popular could this site get without paying for ads. Or consider a blog about a country which is a popular destination for tourists,there many other websites that give information about this country.How much traffic could you get without paying for ads.And also consider that competitors have been around long before your blog. That's why I'm trying to figure out if there are,and what are the, limits of free advertising. How far have you got with free advertising?Do you think at some point it's necessary to pay for ads?
if the website have great quality content, added daily, it will be easy found by search engines, and others will put your link on their websites, you don't need to pay anything, put if you promote a tool, dorectory, or something like this, you should pay at least for some links.
There is no limit to how far a site can go before needing to pay for advertising. But there is a limit to what your current efforts can do. The trick isn't to suddenly start essentially "buying" visitors through advertising. It's in finding other marketing efforts that you either haven't tried, or haven't used effectively enough in the past. Using the travel / destination site you mentioned as an example... Build quality and unique content. Start a new feature, such as "weekly hotel bargains" at the destination. Send out a press release to the local media in that area, and contact the PR people at the hotels (or owners/managers if it's a smaller place), also with the press release... basically inviting them to promote their specials for free on your site by simply sending them to you weekly. There are plenty of similar things you can do. They give you unique features that will keep visitors coming back, industry contacts, maybe a media mention or two, and the hotel sites might even link to your blog or advertise on it. Jenn
Very interesting ideas jhmattern,thanks! In my case all my websites are stuck to 300-500 uniques/day.That's why I'm trying to find out if it's time to start paying for advertising.But in any case I want to hear others opinions and do some research first
w3bmaster that's exactly what I'm thinking when I'm trying to find out why traffic is stuck to certain numbers. But do you think money(paying for ads) can be replaced by hard work(using some methods of free advertising)?
there's no limit to what websites in general are capable of without advertising. I've got sites that get 500,000 pageviews a day and I've never spent a cent on advertising. there are however limits to how far an individual site can go without advertising.
"there are however limits to how far an individual site can go without advertising." disgust can you define that?How many uniques do think a travel blog could get without paying for ads?Especially when its competitors are paying for ads.
that depends on how good your content is, how good you are at search engine optimization, how good you are at other marketing, how big of a market the niche could be, etc. there's no way we can give you an absolute number.
I think it depends on your talents. If you are capable of writing good articles that people really want to read, or building tools that people want to use, then there are no limits. But if you aren't you will come to a point where you appear to hit a ceiling. Because no matter what you do to attract visitors through the search engines, other visitors will be leaving because they have either found all the information they needed, or lost interest.
I think you can go far without having to pay a cent for advertising. I have never spent 1 cent to get my banner on a site and I do just fine. I grow my list daily using articles and my new system of traffic exchanges. thanks, george christodoulou