It usually starts with this question: “Tonya, how do I get more traffic to visit my website without paying a ton of money for it?” Well, let me answers that question this way, here are 5 ways to get other people to send you free website traffic:
1. Hold a contest – Create a contest that is not only fun and exciting to participate in but has a great prize too (I won an iPad by sending a tweet). A good idea for your contest is to have your participants use video as their entry. Part of the rules can state they must mention your website on their video entry. Next, include online voting so your list of finalist can be selected directly from your website visitors. This will encourage the participants to tell their friends to visit your website to vote for them.
2. Write a guest blog post – As a blogger, in addition to website traffic, you also need to get links (called backlinks) and exposure to your small business website. You can easily do this by writing content-rich guest blog posts. Find popular blogs (but specific) to your industry or target market that solicits guest articles. For example, my articles can be found on blogs like Social Media Today, SelfGrowth.com, The Business Monthly, Boomer-Living and Examiner.com. A great resource that will help you find bloggers who want content is Blogger Link Up. You’ll also be glad to know, there is never a charge to submit or receive requests.
3. Give a testimonial – Don’t under estimate how you can benefit from giving a testimonial. If you have a product or service you love or have received amazing results directly related to using it, write a testimonial. Here’s why, a well written testimonial gets attention. The recipient most likely will post it on their website with your name, company name and your website. Your testimonial may receive more exposure from websites with large amounts of traffic. One way to tell if a website is getting traffic is their Alexa Traffic Ranking. The lower the number generally less than 750,000 the more traffic the website receives. Side Hustle Tip: You can benefit from giving and receiving testimonials.
4. Conduct an interview – Experts and gurus love to have an opportunity to tell their story and talk about the success of their business.So don’t be shy with asking industry influencers or a small business owner getting results for an interview. The best part is you have many options with conducting your interview; use email, video or a teleseminar. The format does not matter as long as you post the final product to your blog. One of the best resources to find experts in any industry is the Help A Reporter Out (a.k.a. HARO) website.
5. Use social media buttons – I have lost count on how many websites or blogs I visited with really good, useful and informative content. These sites have unfortunately neglected the opportunity to leverage social media as a free way to massively distribute their content. What an opportunity! I’m not sure why this simple step is often overlooked by home based businesses and small businesses. That’s why it’s important; to make sure your website or blog is social media friendly.
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Great thoughts.
Great tips – especially #4. Do you find that the interviewees tend to promote the interview? Or does the interviewee’s name create an audience?
I think it depends… If the interviewee has a compelling story it can draw a huge crowd. Of course, if you get an interviewee with a big name like “Oprah” (I dream big!) that will definitely get a buzz going and draw a huge crowd too.