Thursday, April 26, 2007

The 8 Free Things Every Site Should Do

Rule #1: If you have a site, you want more traffic.

Rule #2: You don't have enough money to buy as much traffic as you need.

Rule #3: You've already made your site as compelling as you know how to.

So, what now? Read on for the (free) details.

1. Register with technorati

It helps track blog posts and site changes

It's free and it only takes a few minutes.
Technorati
You might need your tech person to hold your hand on this one.

2. Become a Digger

Digg is a site that lets the mob find the good stuff

Not only is contributing to the community a good idea, but it pays off in traffic back to your best stuff.
Digg
Once something you do gets "Dugg", be sure to link to that on your site, so that others can Digg it as well.

3. Build a Squidoo lens

Every blog, every organization needs one

A lens (you're reading one) is an organized directory that makes it easy for people to find your good stuff. It's free and you should have one... it will bring you credibility and traffic.
Squidoo
Or you can click the button on the top right that says "build a lens".

4. Get your team to spread the word

It's not a top down world any more, folks

It only takes a dozen or two people to post something to Reddit or other social news sites to get a lot of attention to your work. Stop worrying about getting listed in the New York Times and start talking to your friends instead.
Reddit
It's like Digg, but different. Great stuff rises to the surface, so make something great.

5. Issue a press release

But only if you have something to say

Press releases aren't just for reporters. News readers (like Google News) read the press releases for the good stuff. So if you've got stuff, issue it as press release.
PRLeap
There are plenty of other services... some that are even worth paying for.

6. Get a sister site for testing

When the IT folks complain too much

Most big organizations have a 'frozen' site. No testing, no little experiments, no landing pages. You don't have to fight them. Just get some low-cost or free hosting and experiment with some pages that come BEFORE your firewall.
GoDaddy
Not free, but close. So, you could build a page here with a different domain, run some Google ads to put traffic to that page and see if you can convert some of that traffic into clicks to your site. You won't know if you don't try, and this is cheap enough that you can try.

7. Google Analytics

You won't know what's working unless you measure

Google analytics
Useful and addictive and free.

8. Don't be boring

If it's so obvious, why are you ignoring it

Every single one of the hundreds of millions of web surfers has billions of choices. And they're not choosing you. Why? Well it could be that they don't know about you. But it's way more likely that they don't care.
Purple Cow
You have no right to traffic. If you're lucky, you earn some.

You'll earn it when you do something daring, interesting, useful, provocative, free, compelling, emotional or urgent.

Hurry.

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