Easy ways to drive traffic to your Web site

Whether it’s to learn more about what we do, show off our success stories, or buy our unique gadgets, we all want more online visitors. Check out this list of ideas on getting people to your Web site. All of them are easy to get started with and cost nothing!

Write and submit articles to online journals or directories.

Write articles in your area(s) of expertise and submit them to online journals or directories. Include a link to your Web site in an author information box as a footer. Check out the bottom of this post for what an example signature might look like.

Remember, you don’t need to be an English major to write an article. As an expert in your area, people will want to hear what you have to say.

Some suggestions for directories to submit to include GoArticles.com, ArticleBiz.com, Ezine articles, and Article Dashboard. Do a search for more Web sites where you can submit your articles by looking for your site’s keywords plus article directory keywords. For example, if you specialize in antiques, try a search like “free article directory for antiques” or “antiques articles online directory”.

Offer an opt-in mailing list.

Create a place for Web site visitors to sign up for your email newsletter or receive special offers over email.

You can do this for free, by creating a new email account for your mailing list and setting it up in your favorite mail application (Outlook, Mail, Yahoo Web Mail, Gmail etc.). From your mail application, you can compose emails in your normal fashion and send them to your group.

Take your mailing list to the next level with a polished and automated email application. You can do this with a low-cost web-based services such as Constant Contact. Or ask us about setting up an open source contact management system to easily manage lots of contacts and create professionally designed HTML emails.

With any of these solutions, follow mailing list etiquette and be sure to include a link (or clearly identified way) for people to unsubscribe from your mailing list.

Create fresh content with a blog — get it synced.

Search engines love Web sites with plenty of pages and freshly updated content. Blogs are a great way to achieve this.

Numerous open source or GNU General Public License blog software options are available to create a blog directly on your Web site, including WordPress which we used to create this one.

To set up a blog in a couple of clicks, without installing anything, you can use a ready-to-go blogging service, such as Blogger and they will host your blog on their site.

After you’ve set up a blog, list it on blog directories such as Technorati, Blogwise, blog catalog or many, many others. Set up your blog to “ping” or announce to these directories every time you have a new post.

Get involved in online communities.

Read and comment on other blogs or discussion boards that discuss services or products in your niche. When you write comments, don’t just write “nice post”. Write intelligent, useful comments and include a link to your site.

You’ve probably already come across quite a few sites you’ve found interesting in your area of expertise. See if any of these Web sites have blogs or forums where you can post feedback. Search for blogs of interest on Technorati or search for your keywords plus “bulletin board” or “forum” on your favorite search engine.

Add your Web site address to your email signature file.

This one’s super easy. Add a link to your Web site in your email signature file and set your preferences so that it will automatically be placed on all new emails and replies.

If you have questions or would like help in launching any of these ideas on your Web site, get in touch with us at Q Digital Studio. We want to hear from you>