Generating traffic: spending time on content vs promotion

[elgringo]

Does the "if you build, they will come" adage ring true for websites?

I have so much time dedicated to my site each day and unsure how to best utilize it. I've created enough content where my site looks okay. But there's a lot more content I could be adding - I could spend everyday doing nothing but that. However, the effort will all be in vain if no one sees it.

Should I keep plugging away improving content and creating value and hope that traffic will gradually pick up? Or should I be doing tons of "promotion" (which is vague to me - I'm new at this)?

Cheers.

[alexjones]

Hmmm...every site owners' concern!

[elgringo]

Originally Posted by alexjones

Hmmm...every site owners' concern!

Well, come on experienced people... Help this newbie out with some hard earned wisdom!

[Dulma]

How to Build a High-Traffic Web Site (or Blog)

[elgringo]

Yeah, I've seen that. It's clear to me that Steve leans heavily towards content; focus on excellent content and let the traffic take care of itself. But that can't be completely true. You'll never get your first backlink unless you do a little promotion and you'll never get indexed by google without backlinks.

Also, let's assume I follow that advice, sit back focusing on content and let the traffic take care of itself. What sort of timeline should I be expecting growth to take place over (this is a question for people with experience building websites)?

[Agota]

Guest posting is the most effective strategy to generate traffic.

Focus on creating great content and write one good guest post a week or every two weeks.

[Clint Cora]

Content is king but you do have to spread the word about it too. If you specifically want to know some of the programs/strategies I use for traffic, just let me know here and I'll point you in some directions.

[nzmegs]

I am in a similar position to you. My blog is growing very slowly (just four weeks old at the moment) and just a few regular readers. But i am not sweating it too much.

From reading around it seems to be that six months is a good amount of time to wait for your site to take off. But you shouldn't just sit back and wait for the readers to come - they won't.

I know that the days I have worked hard to find readers are the days my readership figures are high. So commenting on forums (like this one, problogger and the warrior forum) or leaving comment on blogs is a good place to start.

I am also looking into guest posting, but I have also tried blog carnivals. I am listed with technorati and will be getting on to some other directories as well.

At the same time i am producing at least 4 posts a week. Two longish well researched ones and two short and interesting ones.

it is tough, because i think my site is well worth a read for those interested in freelance writing. but finding those people can be challenging.

Try the problogger site for more tips.

[azmat]

Hey elgringo,
I think there are stages in how you build your traffic. The first stage is building enough content. That means aiming for between 30-50 QUALITY pages. Once you have that many, you should shift your focus on getting more inbound links to your site.

I say this because I have seen lots of competitive sites in my niche that had less content than me but were way ahead of me in terms of search engine rankings. The only reason I could determine was that they had a lot more backlinks. Content is very important because once people come to your site, they have to stick around. Otherwise you won't get your most wanted response (ad clicks, affiliate sales, lead generation etc).

For the past few months I have not written that many pages for my site. I think overall 7 pages in the last 5 months. I have been concentrating on getting backlinks and it has paid off. My traffic has gone up 300% and now I am on the first page of google.

Content is important but so is building links to your site. Once you have enough content try submitting to some of the major directories (Yahoo, BOTW,JoeAnt,DMOZ). Most of these cost money but in my opinion if you are trying to have a sustainable online business, it's totally worth it. You can also do article marketing if you can't afford the major directories.

Building content is the easy part because we all love to talk about our niche. According to steve, he didn't have to spend any money on marketing. Word of mouth took care of it. I think that's true because steve's blog is really unique and original. It has a built in viral quality to it. However, most niches do not have this quality, mine certainly doesn't.
There are very few businesses that can simply rely on word of mouth. This isn't to suggest that you can't have the same level of success. I just don't want you to get discouraged and wonder why your not getting traffic. So build quality content AND quality links. Hope that helps. Best of luck.

[elgringo]

Thanks for the advice. One thing I'll point out, my site isn't really a "blog" (even though I've built it on top of wordpress). So it has less of the potential for a page going "viral".


I actually I my best day yesterday, the first one where I had visitors besides myself and friends who didn't bounce immediately; mostly came from another forum I post on related to my site.

I also made an article on Squidoo but it only got two views so far (kind of a waste since it took 3 hours to make).

Looking forward to learning more and sharing my experiences on here.

[danthony]

I'd say if you're just starting out and you have a blog, try to post good relevant articles almost daily for around 3 months. Then post a few times a week. Also, spend a fair amount of time on promoting your content. Enter some blog contests on other blogs, post comments with link back to your blog and so on. Traffic will grow organically that way.

Blogging great John Chow once said, if he could do it all over again, he would post even twice a day when he could and he has one of the most heavily trafficked blog in the make money space.

[elgringo]

Originally Posted by danthony

I'd say if you're just starting out and you have a blog, try to post good relevant articles almost daily for around 3 months. Then post a few times a week. Also, spend a fair amount of time on promoting your content. Enter some blog contests on other blogs, post comments with link back to your blog and so on. Traffic will grow organically that way.

Blogging great John Chow once said, if he could do it all over again, he would post even twice a day when he could and he has one of the most heavily trafficked blog in the make money space.

Thanks danthony, sounds like good advice.

For the past week or so, I've been focusing heavily on backlinks - submitting my site to directories, making insightful comments on important blogs and reading about SEO. My site is somewhat different in that it's not a blog, so I can't just add new pages without upsetting the cohesiveness of it (it's a series of travel guides; three, to be exact). Nonetheless, I see the value of being able to add fresh material regularly (it'll at the very least give me something to tweet about) so I'm adding a blog to the site this week. Cheers.

[AngelDonovan]

Originally Posted by elgringo

Does the "if you build, they will come" adage ring true for websites?

Hey there,

I've been running my site 2 years and it has a strong following, so here are some humble pointers that I learned a long the way.

1. Content quality is worth 100 times more than content volume (Spend 2 to 5 days on one piece of good content, not 2 days on 50 less useful pieces - not exact numbers, just to communicate the idea)
2. Content distribution vs. promotion: Personally I feel that we only alienate people through promotion - and it also isn't very rewarding as a pass time - so it is more about content distribution. You've created quality content that helps people, so now focus on getting it distributed well. Good SEO, Social Media - Build systems that make your content accessible in as many places as easily as possible.

Hope these help.

[gene2009]

Content is king, but without strong backlinks it's nothing. Spend a day on writing and the next day on linking.

[elgringo]

Originally Posted by AngelDonovan

Hey there,

I've been running my site 2 years and it has a strong following, so here are some humble pointers that I learned a long the way.

1. Content quality is worth 100 times more than content volume (Spend 2 to 5 days on one piece of good content, not 2 days on 50 less useful pieces - not exact numbers, just to communicate the idea)
2. Content distribution vs. promotion: Personally I feel that we only alienate people through promotion - and it also isn't very rewarding as a pass time - so it is more about content distribution. You've created quality content that helps people, so now focus on getting it distributed well. Good SEO, Social Media - Build systems that make your content accessible in as many places as easily as possible.

Hope these help.

Kickass looking site man. It must be a GRRRREAT feeling when you see the traffic start to pour in!

[danthony]

Don't forget to do good research for your blog posts and get friends on facebook and other social media to 'share' it for you.

[clove]

Originally Posted by AngelDonovan

Hey there,

I've been running my site 2 years and it has a strong following, so here are some humble pointers that I learned a long the way.

1. Content quality is worth 100 times more than content volume (Spend 2 to 5 days on one piece of good content, not 2 days on 50 less useful pieces - not exact numbers, just to communicate the idea)
2. Content distribution vs. promotion: Personally I feel that we only alienate people through promotion - and it also isn't very rewarding as a pass time - so it is more about content distribution. You've created quality content that helps people, so now focus on getting it distributed well. Good SEO, Social Media - Build systems that make your content accessible in as many places as easily as possible.

Hope these help.

Nice. I am trying to break into roughly the same group as you. I was originally planning to do something similar to you actually: review dating systems and point out their scientific misconceptions, correcting them. But I felt this might make me enemies; thus, I am taking a more "positive" route.

I plan to make money simply from Adsense, though I may write an ebook in the future. Assuming I don't use social media, what advice would you give me for promotion? How did you get your site so nice-looking, by the way?

[ScottCofer]

Here's my experience. It took me a while, but my site now ranks on page 1 for one of my main keywords - "self improvement tips".

I did it by focusing 50/50 on good content and generating backlinks ...

Since you've already put up a decent amount of content, I'd suggest you find large communities where you can share your best content ... reddit is an excellent place to start.

Also, check out submitedge. It's a service I have used in the past to build foundational links in directories, etc.

And as stated earlier, guest posting on relevant blogs works extremely well as far as generating traffic and links.

Hope this helps ...

[Hulbert Lee]

Originally Posted by elgringo

Does the "if you build, they will come" adage ring true for websites?

I have so much time dedicated to my site each day and unsure how to best utilize it. I've created enough content where my site looks okay. But there's a lot more content I could be adding - I could spend everyday doing nothing but that. However, the effort will all be in vain if no one sees it.

Should I keep plugging away improving content and creating value and hope that traffic will gradually pick up? Or should I be doing tons of "promotion" (which is vague to me - I'm new at this)?

Cheers.

Why not do a balance of both to see which method is better? You could spend one day doing nothing but building content, and the next day doing nothing but promotion, or you can spend one week building content and the next week promoting your website. After you get a taste of both worlds, you'll get a better idea of what you want to do based off of your own experiences.