I think I will slow down my efforts to increase traffic a bit and get back some quality of life instead. It is really frustrating. I have tried everything, but I cannot get the traffic up. I have lots of good content, but only about 5-9k visitors a month. After all my efforts I feel its not worth all the time I put into this project. I have read so many posts here, about some people who got 2k visitors a day after just 6 month. Either most of you are just making things up, or I am a total failure. I have written some articles, I have submitted to directories, I have natural link exchanges, I have now started with LV (links still to be pushed), I have tried shoutwire and others. I have posted in some related forums ... I think shoutwire is corrupt, as my articles tend to get maybe 5-8 shouts after a few days, while other lower quality articles seem to get very high very quick. Sure, with all this going on I can see the traffic picking up, but if I extrapolate this, I don't see it reaching 2k/day anytime soon. I don't spend all day on this one site, but I assume most people here don't. What do I want, why do I post? Well, I have seen proof of 2k traffic but I haven't seen proof that anyone made it in 6-9 month (montly stats). I would like to find out how much time you spend on a site per day to get the traffic to those numbers? How do you get your articles on shoutwire's front page or into any of the sites listed here: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=70933 (except digg, I have only non-technical stuff) I read a lot about viral marketing. It sounds good, but how do you get it going in the first place?
Well don't feel bad... My little blog has not grown much if at all traffic wise in the nearly 2-years I have been messing with it... I only update maybe once a week and prolly should more often but I've been busy myself hanging out here trying to learn and signing up with all the directories I can... hehe
Maybe I shouldn't post when I am frustrated. Guess I should just take a week or so off and not touch my sites. I am sure it will do me good. Amazingly on my photosite I didn't do much and I had around 800 uniques a day. I think it was mainly due to the free Wallpapers. Since that section doesn't do me much good and the traffic is just from leechers, I haven't done much. Now it dropped by about 100 uniques, since I am not on page 1 on google for the wallpaper stuff anymore. But I don't care about that. Anyways, initially I was refering to another site. Guess I have to find that one thing that makes people come back over and over again.
Well you also got to remember it's getting nicer outside and people are going to be out and about more now...
Andr75, I know how you're feeling. I wouldn't be surprised if more than 75 % of people who get in this buisiness get out because of little or no sucess. Thats what keeps me motivated, if everyone succeeded there would be no money to be made. With the exception of a very small group of lucky people the internet is not a get ritch quick deal. There is a huge learning curve, it takes time to learn what you need to know to make the big money.
I am not trying to get rich. I don't have a single paid ad on my website, I don't participate in Affiliate programs and I don't have adsense running. I was doing this for the pleasure (yep, that really is true, you don't have to believe it), but I am loosing the fun. I guess I will let it run for a while and see what happenes, without putting too much effort into this. I will keep adding content for the people who actually do come and visit, because I enjoy doing this, but I will reduce my marketing efforts.
Hey Andre, just from looking at your site it seems you have an amazing eye for photography. I assume you are out there on the west coast, and I am really big in the "tuner" scene as it pertains to cars, I know there is a huge interest in photographers like you to do photoshoots for cars and at events. One of my friends here in Georgia is into photography like you and gets a lot of exposure through the "tuner" crowd. Heres a couple of photos he did of my car: People search far and wide for good photographers in this industry and I'm just throwing this out as a suggestion, you seem very skilled and very passionate about what you do, if anything it can become somewhat of another marketing avenue for you.
Thanks for the uplifting comments. Maybe I should go to some more car shows . The photos look really good. Nice car you have there ! Generally I am not interested in doing commission work, but I may just do some for fun to appeal to a whole different crowd. Its a good suggestion. I will think about what else to photograph. Never thought of the car tuners market like this, but I have been thinking about the sports market. I'd like to do some unusual sports photographs, but I haven't quite figured out how to approach this. I am thinking about mountaineering, base jumping, sky diving photos. Would be nice to get some good shots of some guys jumping off a cliff. With a fast camera like mine I could make a nice in-flight series. I don't know how to hook up with these guys though. I also thought about doing a video for youtube.com with my url in it, but its got to be really outstanding so people tell their friends about it. I don't do stock photographs and I am not planning to stell stock photographs. The market has been ruined by istockphoto.com and I am not planning to sell a photo that costs me a lot of money to take (travel, equipment, entrance fees ...) for $1. I'd rather keep doing what I am doing for fun