This is a very hot topic indeed.
Definitely one that everyone with a website should know all about.
To begin our journey we will look directly at the Traffic Generator Sites out there who – to be honest – are complete scams because all they really do is one of two things…
1.) Load your site into those annoying pop-under ad windows that users close immediately as they appear(not having opened them themselves)
2.) Use proxy scripts to load your website using many different IP addresses leading you to believe they are all “human visitors” when really all they are, are bots!!!
“Bots” you ask, what are they?
Well, bots are computer programs that go to sites to retrieve content for some greater good. Automation at it’s finest.
e.g. Google and all the other search engines use “bots” to scrape/collect content off of websites in order for their search results to appear relevant to what your typed in keywords are.
Anyways, back on topic. These sites claim to bring thousands if not millions of users to your site for a set fee per user or some “deal” they make up on the spot which is as useless as anything could possibly be.
The conversion rates of anyone looking at your site through this method is very very low and therefore we will consider this technique useless and we will avoid it like the plague!
Moving onto the other really common one, Commenting on Sites.
Commenting on another site’s articles or blog posts can work quite well, but there’s a point when it just becomes spam!
It’s best to avoid this other than when you are actually doing it yourself, as there are programs out there which allow this to be automated and while this sounds like a good plan, Google doesn’t really like it and your site could suffer the consequences of “spamming your way to the top”.
This does help quite a bit for comments on sites that are relevant to what your site does as well. It sort of “links everything within a network” if you will. Forming allies and building relevant back-links as you go.
The conversion rates for this are alright, but more than bringing traffic, it’s more of a general back-link builder. So we will say use this at your own risk.
It feels like it’s time we should explore the Blogging and Article Writing method which is probably the best of all the options, it’s organic and makes you seem like you’re worth reading, well, at least to search engines!…
You should focus on a niche idea that you understand quite well and are interested in, because you will be spending a very long time on it. By long time I mean at least a few months if not years. It’s hard to become a brand that people remember and come back to, even harder to remain up there as other people and sites gain momentum and start taking your valuable readers and clients you’ve spent so long cultivating.
Once you have written some honest and concise posts (preferably two a week as you grow) expand on what you are feeding your users so that they keep wanting more and return to look for fresh content.
By now you will have a somewhat captive audience reading your every word, which means it’s time for you to identify your competition and start building those back-links with them and things they write (as per the “Commenting on Sites” section above).
Before you know it you will have a following and you can start monetizing the traffic you have brought to your site.
The conversion rates for this are pretty good and we recommend giving this one a whole lot of focus to get it right – it’s also probably the hardest one to get right!
Finally there is the Advertising route which works wonders but costs quite a bit, so if you are prepared to spend some cash, this one is a sure fine winner.
Before you start jumping for joy remember that there is no way people will stay on your site once they get there unless you have something that they want to see and come back for. This brings me back to what you’ve just read above, which we’ve termed as the “Blogging and Article Writing” section. Make sure to write great content or have some service to provide that is unique and refreshing!
Make sure you have decent content for people to look at otherwise you would have just spent money on advertising and the bounce rates will be so high you could write an article about that!
The conversion rates for this are also pretty good because usually the traffic you receive can be geographically controlled to users with specific demographics that are meaningful to your site.