How to generate the INITIAL traffic?

[Orlsend]

Originally Posted by JeremyMorgan

as much as I hate to say it, sometimes you have to play the waiting game.

I was a "closet SEO" for years, meaning nothing about me being an SEO, or anything of the sort was online for anyone to read. Now, I've decided to create a blog. Not to sound egotistical or anything, but I know I am giving out really good info here, and I'm only getting a few hundred hits a day.

My strategy is going to be to wait it out until a lot of people discover it. I am submitting to major directories all over the net, and submitting my RSS feeds, but for the most part I'm just going to continue putting out good content until the people notice. Sometimes this is the best way.

Utilize directories, and social bookmarking sites as best you can. It's free, and just takes a little time. Eventually if what you are providing is good enough, people will come in waves. I have had clients who hired me for SEO, and I gave them counseling, directing their focus on the content, and watched them blow up. One of them literally had over 10,000 visitors a day after only being up a month and a half.

Focus on your content and making it best, and make sure your site is out there in the directories, and soon traffic will follow.

Oooh is that like the quite game? :lurk-2:

[AndrewPavelski]

Here's what I do, I hope you find it helpful!

Article: How To Increase Website Traffic

Originally Posted by rickyou

I think that the hardest part of starting a blog is to generate the initial traffic. I wonder what do you all do to generate that traffic. I submit my blog to social bookmarking sites, but it seems that the traffic is very low.

Rick

[clinky]

And here is what I do:

Blogging Diary Week 1

By the way that was a pretty interesting article Andrew!

Thanks

[southernbythegraceofgod]

When your blog is new, the one thing you want more than anything else is traffic.

There are many people at any given moment starting blogs, every minute of every day, in a vacuum as if there were nobody else out there to read their blog.

I want to try a little experiment in boosting blog traffic. Keep reading to see how it’s going to go.

Just Starting A Blog? Submit Your Blog Here for a Boost!

[sukosaki]

I think this is a pretty good list. If you can't get SOME traffic with these tips, take a look at other areas of your blog.

Good work!

[tomabbs]

Hi all, new member here, but would like to share some tips/advice with you since I saw a post about this below.

1) Stumble Upon
This is a great tool to get the initial surge of traffic to your blog. You can either participate in Stumble exchanges (the free option) or pay for some stumbles. I have done both in the past and it is perfect for the first few weeks of your site. Write a quality post and target stumble upon to it. Its a great start not only because of the huge traffic surge (Had 1000+ Uniqs. in a day in the past) but also because it shows you how your site is performing initially. You can see, with the aid of a stats program, which pages perform best and areas you need to improve (i.e. High bounce rate etc.).

2) Link / Banner Exchange
Those 125x125 buttons are all the rage at the moment so make the most of it. Get on the forums and exchange them! I recommend the Spottt scheme for initial traffic again I have had a lot of success so far with it on new blogs. They also bring exposure to your sites image and name. Also look to get some text links as they will help your SERPs in the future.

3) Youtube Marketing
This is perfect for celebrity/entertainment/fansite blogs. Get a high impact title or some famous names (See my Sig Video) and you will get the video views. Then all you need is the URL embedded in the video and in the description and the traffic will be heading your way.

4) Blog Comments (particularly Do-Follow)
Find blogs in your niche and get commenting. DONT SPAM as you will get nothing, but participate in a friendly way and people will click your link in your name/comment. You also want to look for Do-Follow blogs that allow SEs to index your blog from these links. A good place to find them is here:
No Nofollow | I Follow | DoFollow community @ BUMPzee!
Then look under your niche's tag.

5) Forums
Get on forums to do with your sites content! So if you write about Britney Spears then join a celebrity forum, or if you write about High end Graphics Cards join an overclocking forum. Then again its about posting quality content and NOT SPAMMING. After a few posts put a link in your sig, and people will naturally be intrigued to click.

These are just a few of the many ways to get that initial boost of traffic to your blog. Providing it contains high quality content you can expect people to return and the link developing you are doing all the time with this is also booting you up in the SERPs to get that long term sustainable traffic.
Hope this was useful to at least someone, and any questions I would be happy to answer.

[Bloggeries]

Thanks for bringing those up. I've done most of those but never really gotten into youtube at all and am going to be looking into that a little more.

Something I found crazy about stumble was that if you get power stumbled by a well ranked stumbler you'll get more traffic then if you paid say 5-10$. It's crazy.

I've always been a huge fan of forums but I'm sure a few of you could have guessed that.

Great tips,

[sukosaki]

Originally Posted by Bloggeries

Thanks for bringing those up. I've done most of those but never really gotten into youtube at all and am going to be looking into that a little more.

Something I found crazy about stumble was that if you get power stumbled by a well ranked stumbler you'll get more traffic then if you paid say 5-10$. It's crazy.

I've always been a huge fan of forums but I'm sure a few of you could have guessed that.

Great tips,

Speaking of getting stumbled. I had a top 10 consumer list on my blog stumbled and had over 12,000 views in 2-3 days!! I was pumped, but as we all know the traffic comes AND goes just as quickly. But the stumble was on the popular list for about 1 day so that helped a great deal!

here is the post.
Consumer Reports Top 10 Rips Offs | Sukosaki.info

[watdawat]

[quote=Bloggeries;12095]I'd make sure your blog is 100% ready for the general public then get aggressive. John Chow was talking about a RAMP to traffic. If you increase in small increments each month it could also decrease by the same as members come and go. Try and get on front page of a social media site or somewhere really high traffic o kick start it and then hopefully you can maintain the level you got to in a short time by making quality posts etc... Risky for sure but it's tough.

how is this done?