5 Different Traffic Generation Techniques
ByI signed up to Alex Jefferys ‘Marketing With Alex 3.0′ coaching program a few weeks ago, and one of the tasks we’ve been set is to try different techniques for driving more traffic to out blogs.
This is a summary of some of the techniques I have been trying.
Technique 1: Hold a competition
Funny enough, I used to use this technique before I even had an auto responder or a proper web business, so I thought I’d give it another try.
It brings traffic to your site, but not targeted traffic so it’s not the best technique on earth.
I made the prizes specifically related to Internet marketing to knock out as many freebie seekers as possible and added an entry level opt-in offer once competition entries had been completed.
Here’s the competition page.
I used Google Forms to create the competition form here.
This technique is responsible for the number 3 and number 4 best traffic referrals so far (1 and 2 are organic referrals and Google referals so it’s been a good deliverer of readers so far.
I think that if I listed the competition in a more IM oriented area this might do even better for me in future.
Technique 2: Use Giveaways
The new Giveaway Manager 3 script allows upgraded marketers to create an ‘About Me’ section and as The World Cup Giveaway is being held by a friend at the moment, and I got a full upgrade, I decided to try it out.
Basically this funnels Giveaway participants through my blog and Twitter page.
I’ve never tried this technique before and when I checked out Google Analytics, this is actually my 6th best source of referrals.
Nothing earth shattering you understand, but certainly worth the effort, and at least this is highly targeted traffic, the referrals coming via a site which caters specifically for the IM niche.
Technique 3: Using ads in Giveaways
I thought I’d give this one a try to see if it brings in any decent business, and the jury is still out on this one.
I haven’t been upgrading in a lot of Ultimate JV Giveaway hosted events recently because the quality has been fairly poor.
My promo is the one that says ‘Want to host a Giveaway?’
I’m delighted that David Walker and Paul Wilson have just launched their World Cup event as I’ve upgraded in this one and got access to text ads in what will be a busy event if David’s last one is anything to go by 
So, a promising strategy for driving traffic, but I’ll give it a proper whirl now David’s event has launched and see how it goes before Alex’s traffic challenge comes to a conclusion.
Technique 4: Forum footers
I have been going round any forums that I’m active in, making sure that my profile links clearly to my blog, especially in the footer text.
My Google Analytics stats tell me that this has been a particularly successful technique in the Alex Jeffreys forum, but also elsewhere such as JVNotifyPro where I am also quite active as a poster.
I think this is one of those traffic techniques that ‘part of the furniture’, it creates a steady ‘drip-drip-drip’ of traffic, rather than any great surge.
Incidentally, blog commenting is also working well for me, I’m getting a lot of clicks in from other blogs these days.
Technique 5: Driving traffic from my list
I’m lucky to have a list of over 4000 subscribers built up in Giveaway events, so I am experimenting with new techniques to engage better and offer more value.
I have recently been asking my subscribers to tell me what content they want to receive from me and this has been my most commented on blog post so far.
The post was called ‘What information do you want?‘ and as well as driving subscribers to my blog, it is also giving me invaluable data for either future emails or a ‘subscribers only’ report.
I have tried a similar thing with my recent blog post ‘How to hold your own Giveaway event‘ which has also been doing okay for comments, even though this is a more ‘Evergreen’ post ie it has a longer shelf life.
And on that subject, the blog post that generates the most organic traffic is one which I wrote specifically because I saw that other people, as well as me, were searching a for a solution to this problem and not finding one.
‘How to process GoToWebinar video‘ is proving to be a popular post and is my 5th most popular post now, with no promotion, just Google searches bringing the page back for specific searches
Conclusions
The best deliverer of traffic using these ‘alternative’ techniques is running a competition, but it’s not targeted traffic, so I need to do better there.
I think I’d say that all of these techniques accumulate to bring in steady traffic, so I wouldn’t discount any of them, they all play their small part in keeping the blog actives and regularly visited.
Please leave a comment below to tell me which traffic techniques have worked well – or failed – for you.
This page was part of a competition to win a free mailing to my list.
I selected a comment at random from those submitted by 8pm GMT on Thursday 3rd June 2010 and you can see the selection process in the short video below.
Julie Fletcher won the free mailing to my entire list, congratulations Julie!
What are your thoughts on the subject?
Facebook comments:
Hi Paul. Super post on traffic mate. I have never considered the idea of running a competition but with your awesome coverage and steps to follow I will seriously consider this strategy.
As for hosting my own giveaway event I’m not sure I have all the necessary skills to do that just yet…but hey, anything is possible!
Thanks a million for such an awesome post Paul
best regards
Peter Beckenham´s last [type] ..Traffic Explosion…You Can Do This!
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Paul,
The easiest for me has been adswapping and then there are links to my blog in one of my giveaways so that brings some traffic to my blog.
Cheryl
Cheryl Jones´s last [type] ..Ranking on Google
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hey Paul
only just embarking on the IM journey so can’t yet share my efforts for driving traffic but i sure appreciate your quite exhaustive tips that i can now use
thanks
allan
Allan *OzzyAce* Riley´s last [type] ..Building a List
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Hi Paul
You’re a very creative guy and it’s very refreshing! I love the way you use interaction, fun, rewards, prizes to involve your visitors. It adds a great persepctive to make learning more entertaining and two-way. I really learned a lot from visiting your blog and I’ll be back soon!
Thanks
Jaycee
I’m MAKING it my business!
.-= Jaycee´s last blog ..RELAXXXXXXX =-.
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Hello Paul,
Wow, what a great and informative blog you have going here.
It’s good to finally meet you (Sort of) I’ve joined many of your give away events or through your link.
I’ll have to come back tomorrow and finish reading your traffic posts but from what I’ve read so far, if I would have come over here at the beginning of the contest, I would have done much better for the MWA 3.0 contest.
Thanks again for the great traffic posts,
I am learning as much if not more than visiting other members of MWA blogs. Problem is , I spent too much time reading them all..LOL, Knocks me off my precious schedule.
Come by and say hello anytime,
Douglas J Gregory
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AWESOME FOR JULIE ON WINNING!
Paul, you have gone above and beyond for the readers of your blog and fellow IMers from MWA. I really hope that Julie gets a kickin’ good response from your mailing for her. Keep up the good work!
Jerry
.-= Jerry @ TheOnlineSuccessProgramBlog.com´s last blog ..IMREPORTCARD.COM Insights =-.
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Hi Paul,
That’s an extremely generous offer mate.
Nice work fella!
I must say, your blog is smoking hot mate – really is. I notice you promote Site Build it. Is this blog a product of their teaching? I was seriously looking into their services a while back.
Anyway, traffic generation.
Not being on AJ’s 3.0 course, I’m not part of the traffic competition so have been concentrating on trying to drive traffic to my content niche sites for the last couple of months – with varying results.
My main focus has been keyword research, article marketing, spinning and drip feeding them to multiple blogs and dirctories using “Unique Article Wizard”. I’ve managed to get at least 3 sites on page 1 using this method.
I’m now concentrating more on my own blog.
BTW, according to google analytics, I’ve received 12 visitors to my blog, who have been refered from paulteague.com!
Not sure how that happened but thanks anyway
Best wishes,
Cliff
.-= Cliff Truss´s last blog ..I Need Help! =-.
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Hey Paul,
A very in-depth report on your traffic actions and I gathered some great inspiration from your list and the referring results. Not having a list yet I can mail to I have tried something similar as you have done though and asked my followers on twitter what their biggest problem/question with internet marketing was.
I got very little response for a big list of followers (22K) – namely 1
But that one was fun to deal with as it led to an interview. The guy interviewing me that is!
The thing about twitter is that one has to pay attention to the time one is sending out the tweet about the survey. I didn´t do that which was not really professional. But I have realized that and will change it on the next occasion.
Paul, thanks for the opportunity to participate in this “list lottery” which is a brave thing to do. But if I should be the lucky one I´ll promise to deliver something of good value for your list. Just like you are providing a boat load of valuable information on your blog.
Talk soon and keep on rocking
Mirko
P.S. Can you help me with this problem…your plugin doesn´t seem to be able to draw my latest blog post or do I have to get rid of the tick in the box “No last blog post to return” ?
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You have some great ideas there that I haven’t thought of such as using ads in giveaways. I have had a competition before but yes I did get the freebie finders and not people who were targeted as future readers.
Good post and thanks for sharing it.
Pauline
.-= Pauline´s last blog ..Making my first video presentation for you =-.
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Man, winning this contest would be ideal for me! My birthday is on June 5th and I plan to release my first product at that time. This would be a present that’s worth more than a million dollars! Please, please, please pick me.
Now about the post…;->
Paul, I have been trying to participate in GIveaways, yet keep getting downgraded because even though I promote the events, nobody responds.
What am I doing wrong? I have a list of 78 subscribers, yet they aren’t very responsive– and latey my open rate is about 5% with no click throughs. I even created a survey to find out how I could help them, yet received no responses…
That’s why I changed focus, and decided to create a product. I want get JV partners to promote it, and I’m trying to figure out how to do that.
God bless, and remember…piiiiicccckk mmeeeeee:-)
.-= LaTonya Johnson´s last blog ..Weight Loss Challenge: Who’ll be the Biggest Loser? =-.
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Hi Paul,
I never thought about holding a competition either, that’s a great idea. For now, what’s been driving traffic for me is what you mentioned about forum footers or signatures and commenting on other blogs.
It’s a good idea to try as many traffic tactics as you can but pace yourself as it can become a bit overwhelming. Then look at the results of each to determine where you should focus on.
Thanks for sharing your tips with us!
Anna
.-= Anna Haller´s last blog ..Contest for Alex Jeffreys Coaching Students =-.
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Hi Paul,
Great post, you have some techniques that i had never even considered.
I have been mainly concentrating on video marketing. I am currently working on a set of basic how to videos to try to help people with the more basic stuff ie keyword research, domain names, hosting etc. It’s all things i struggled with.
I am also working on a traffic report specifically to give away at giveaway events. They are new to me but i think worth a try.
Best of luck
Pete
.-= Peter Carr´s last blog ..Flexibilty 2 Theme For WordPress =-.
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Hi Paul
You’re a very creative guy and it’s very refreshing! I love the way you use interaction, fun, rewards, prizes to involve your visitors. It adds a great persepctive to make learning more entertaining and two-way. I really learned a lot from visiting your blog and I’ll be back soon!
Thanks
Jaycee
I’m MAKING it my business!
.-= Jaycee´s last blog ..RELAXXXXXXX =-.
[Reply]
Hi Paul,
Lovely post, thanks for the info.
Re the 4000 mailout…pick me, pick me, pick me!
Good luck with MWA 3.0…
regards
Joe
.-= Wayne Evans (Joe)´s last blog ..How To Start In The World Of On-line Marketing =-.
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Paul Teague Reply:
May 30th, 2010 at 12:39 pm
This made me laugh Joe, and took me back to my brother’s 40th birthday when we first saw the Shrek film
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Hi Paul,
If you don’t mind I’ll hang out a while on your blog and explore. Full of fabulous content!
So far, leaving my signature with URL on forum footers worked best for me… as I haven’t tried any of the other ones.
A “good” source for traffic has beenTwitter BUT that traffic does not convert when I sent it to sales pages. I am currently changing it and have started sending to a review of the product and from there to the sales page. Still waiting for results to come in.
Keep up the great work, and thanks for your comment on my blog.
Max
.-= Max´s last blog ..Review: Easy Cash Webinar – Hype, Scam or Real? =-.
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HI Paul
Firstly can I just say that your offer alone for that lucky person is outstanding. Not many people would offer a mailing to their large list with nothing in return (lucky for me especially as I only have 12…LOL) I have read your post and since joining Alexs course have been learning loads. I will be revisiting your blog for more info once I’m more accomplished. But in the meantime I would love the opportunity to work with you at some stage, maybe with some guidance from you about giveaways and OTO as I havent got a clue yet?
Anyway, thanks for being there!!
Nick
http://www.workfromhomeideas-nickstentiford.com
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Hi Paul
5 great techniques!
I had never thought of doing a competition on my site but that’s a good idea, and I hadnt heard of google docs either, must try that one!
I am already doing giveaways, I joined David Walkers World Cup one yesterday, upgraded and sold an OTO within an hour so I think that will be a very good one.
The new Giveaway Manager 3 also has banners (Guidos World Cup one does anyway) so I have tried that as well, only a couple of clicks so far!
I have also started sending my list to my blog posts to try and build up a relationship with them and even held a survey about giveaways.
Thanks
Julie
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Paul, that is so good!
I never thought of doing a competition in that way, I think it was because I never thought I had a gift that was good enough.
I had never even heard of Google forms.
Thanks for sharing that idea, sometimes you cant see the wood for the trees!
Sally
.-= Sally Neill´s last blog ..In It To Win It Blog Traffic Update =-.
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Paul-
Isn’t it amazing all that Google can do for you….for free?!?!?! The Google forms are great…in fact most of the office type things from Google can be quite helpful.
I am in the process of using the text ads in giveaways to see what happens. I too will be quite interested!
I think I need to install more analytics to see just what is happening where for me. You push me to go farther to see what can happen next! THANKS!
Jerry
.-= Jerry @ TheOnlineSuccessProgramBlog.com´s last blog ..Traffic Tip #8 – Advance Your Search Engine Rankings =-.
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Paul, that is so good!
I never thought of doing a competition in that way, I think it was because I never thought I had a gift that was good enough.
I had never even heard of Google forms.
Thanks for sharing that idea, sometimes you cant see the wood for the trees!
Sally
.-= Sally Neill´s last blog ..In It To Win It Blog Traffic Update =-.
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Hi Paul
Nice alternatives, although running a competition may be somehow scaring for a newbie, at least for me.
But I’ll keep that in mind.
I’m waiting for the result of the lottery on the 3rd of June
Cheers
Jorge
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