Solution of Traffic (part-3)
Chapter 5Create a Traffic Monster—The Thrill of Going Viral
Ultimately, you will never earn “big” traffic unless one of two things happens: you get a
big following after years of building a loyal customer base, or two, you go viral and get a
little instant fame fast. Remember what Andy Warhol said about everyone getting their
15 minutes of fame? Well, when you create “viral” content online you can actually get
multiple sessions of 15 minutes. You can get literally thousands of unique visitors within
a few days, or perhaps even within a few hours if you hit it big.
Just how does one create “viral” content, the type of content that creates a media
sensation and causes the “snowball” effect? The snowball effect is essentially what
happens when friends share content, and alert more people to do so, and then
eventually everyone wants to see it because the world starts discussing it. And it has
happened countless times before, whether we’re talking about an adorable baby video,
a great article, a swell interview or even an urban legend that spreads all over the world!
Of course, it’s not so easy to simply create something “viral” and wait for the snowball
effect to happen. Very many pages have been created, sometimes according to the
formula of viral content and with every intention of creating a storm of controversy…but
then they were ignored.
It’s hard to predict what the Internet (and what a million of friends of friends) will find
interesting and what they will deem worthy of sharing. Bear in mind that no one feels
compelled to share anything, just because the content is there. In order for someone to
want to share interesting new content with other people, that person has to emotionally
respond to it.
To some extent, it’s reasonable to say that people want to share “unique content.”
Something that is new and hasn’t been seen a hundred times before does sometimes
get a big reaction. This is precisely why many people choose to create video content in
hopes of branding their image.
Video and Audio Content
The majority of business sites don’t have video and audio content, unless of course
you’re talking about corporate sites. As recently as 10 years ago, small to midrange
businesses usually never thought in terms of visual presentation or virtual face-to-face
sales. This is precisely why many businesses are now creating video content online—
because of the idea that no one else is doing it. Well, that was the attitude when the big
viral boom first began.
Nowadays, a lot of small business are getting into the act and are producing their own
instructional videos, their own video presentations, and even their little comedy skits
and short films. It all makes for great publicity. Even if you don’t “go viral” and get
millions of hits in a week, you may still make a lasting impression on your leads and that
may very well convert these leads into paying customers. A lot of paying customers will
make for a traffic increase, even if you’re not the next Dramatic Chipmunk phenomenon.
Audio presentations are also very big right now, especially if you plan on reaching
targeted customers on Smartphones, PDAs, eBook players, multimedia players and the
like. Some businesses have found great success in hosting a radio show or podcast,
and speaking on issues that are directly related to their business. Not only can an audio
show (or audio clips) help to improve listening traffic on your site (though you will likely
have to store content offsite…more on this in the next section), but you can also direct
the show’s listeners back to your website to push merchandise.
The most important things to remember when preparing video or audio content is:
• Keep it professional (rehearse dialog and prepare the scene with a director’s eye,
paying attention to detail);
• Use only quality cameras to shoot video;
• Keep all videos and audio content relevant to your business;
• Do not hard advertise; simply reflect your own professional values in the content
you distribute;
• Make the content informative or entertaining, not merely video covering familiar
or “done to death” subjects;
• Look for “niches” that have not been done yet; use a search engine to search for
existing videos of your idea. Create the most search-requested videos that don’t
exist yet; and
• Remember also to tag your content with text, or else your content may not be
searchable at all. However, it may surprise you to know that Google is already
promoting new audio search technology that may vastly improve in the near
future.
Where to Host Your Content
This is an easy step, right? Not necessarily. Many people actually do want to host
heavy video and audio content on their main site…they will definitely benefit from all the
traffic if the content goes viral. However, this will take up huge amounts of web space
and “bandwidth” (trust me…you don’t really have “unlimited bandwidth”) and you may
end up having to opt for a dedicated server (big bucks) sooner than later.
No wonder many business owners prefer to work through a free storage site, or perhaps
a social networking site that allows the storing of very large files. Some of the most
obvious sites for storage include YouTube (you can even create your own channel and
links and store all of your videos in one location), Facebook (you can store videos on
your own page) and a handful of other sites like Daily Motion, Meta Café and so on. (For
some reason though, Mega Upload doesn’t seem to work anymore…)
Besides these two options, you have a third one: host your large content on a storage
site and then simply link to it with your social networking page or your official website.
The good news is that a few cloud storage services (the biggest thing in online business
today) are free. Cloud servers are a great idea, as they allow you to remotely back up
your content so that data damage is never an issue anymore.
Some servers even have auto update features (meaning you auto save new files on the
cloud server just as soon as you save it to your hard drive), and the ability for a user to
access his content from anywhere and using any device. Some even allow video
playback!
Free cloud servers include:
• Drop Box (2 gigs free)
• Sugar Sync (5 gigs free)
• Zoom Drive (2 gigs free)
• Team Drive (2 gigs free)
• Ubuntu (2 gigs free)
• Drive (5 gigs free)
• Open Drive (5 gigs free)
• Simplicity (2 gigs free)
• Spider Oak (2 gigs free)
• SkyDrive (2 gigs free)
• Google Drive (5 gigs free)
Pretty Pictures
Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words…and sometimes a simple picture can
go on to outstanding viral success, perhaps earning a website or an individual’s
Facebook page thousands of shares, likes and reads. Just think if you could associate
your brand name with a popular picture that goes viral.
The million-dollar question is; how do you create an image that really captivates
attention and boosts traffic? First and foremost, make sure you have the proper
avenue. Do you notice that many of the pictures you find on Facebook have the same “group” name? These are actually groups created solely for the purpose of gaining a
following through picture sharing. They are found through Facebook’s search engine,
though they also link to one another and are shared among friends.
So, the first secret to using pictures is to find an audience that appreciates your images,
whether they are inspirational, funny, dramatic, controversial or witty. Rather than waste
time developing something that is brilliant, spend more time developing an image that
your customers will appreciate. Sometimes a picture can be something as simple as a
high quality photo of a new car (great for building an automotive readership) or perhaps
a witty saying that supports your company’s values.
Be sure that all of your images are optimized, in that they accurately reflect the
keywords you want to target. You can verify image SEO integrity by saving the file
name as the targeted keyword you want, and by providing alternate text that is a
keyword. You can also a caption stating the keyword. Last but not least, type the
keyword out in the article or on the social networking page, clearly stating what it is.
Prober labeling will ensure that your picture is either found on a search engine or
distributed across social media with proper identification. The same applies for all
videos; label them whenever possible.
Last but not least, try to tell a story with the video content you use. Sometimes a story
can be conveyed in images; a subject, a situation, a problem or a resolution. This is
how commercials on TV are formatted and it’s also how print publications approach
advertising.
More to the point, not only should you tell your audience a story visually, but you should
also try to address the “needs” of your audience in the image. Usually, when you think
of “needs” in marketing, it’s all about the sales pitch. However, it’s good to remember
that you can actually poke your customer’s needs in incidental marketing, such as in
creating images, videos or just through typical social networking interaction.
For example, consider the average “millionaire marketer” personality. He doesn’t really
sell his company when he visits bloggers, or comments on people’s pages. However,
he does talk about his lifestyle. You see, he is very subtly calling attention to the fact
that he’s happy and living the big life—something that others will definitely pick up and
want to know more about.
You can use the same concept when you create viral video. Tell a story and address—
however subtly as possible—the needs of your customers. Better yet, you could use a
site like Pinterest to link all of your images together and tell a continuing “story” of your
values, your company directive—the things, the images that matter to you. Even
though you’re blatantly advertising, you are saying quite a lot.
Unique Content
If you don’t have any ideas for video, or don’t see any use for video, then don’t bother
making any video clips. There are way too many boring, amateur and pointless videos
out there. If you would rather write, then write—but focus on creating outstanding
creative text pages that can go viral and earn you lots of traffic.
Oh, your work is cut out for you, all right. Basic texts and even fairly good articles don’t
go viral…they simply get occasional traffic. If you want to get loads of free traffic then
you have to focus on making your content thoroughly unique and dynamic in concept.
You want your audience to think that they cannot and will not see anything like this ever
again—and this will move them to share it with their friends.
That emotional reaction is pivotal. Not we’re not saying you have to write something
that’s going to get everybody misty-eyed. (Might not work very well if your goal is selling
beer) But the emotional reaction you are looking for can result from anything that the
audience sees as useful, including content that:
• Is useful in achieving their own ambitions;
• Is very entertaining; makes them laugh, or produces another positive emotion;
• Conveys important news or trends developing;
• Makes them think about nostalgia;
• Makes them think they are learning something top secret
• Helps them to be sociable and find other people with their niche interest;
• Identifies a problem and solution that has not been explained anywhere else;
• Introduces new ideas; or
• Shows something amazing, outrageous or hard to believe.
Of course, you have to be sure that the unique content you’re developing is both
relevant to your industry, and that it identifies a “need” that already exists. So be careful
about introducing new ideas that are not proven to have a need or a market yet. These
can oftentimes amount to time-waster pages. Great ideas…but no audience for them.
Social Bookmarking
Next, consider the topic of social bookmarking, a new trend in web surfing that is the
link equivalent to file sharing—an application that allows you to share website links and
website content, and also organize it, store it, manage it and search for similar content.
This form of social bookmarking, also called tagging, can help users search for niche
content all over the web and promote themselves, as well as others. It is similar to a
social network, as far as sharing goes, but is more focused on promoting good text
pages than merely interacting with others.
Descriptions are added along with bookmarks via metadata, so that context is
immediately understood upon loading the link. Users can also comment on the content,
vote on the subject, or vote on the quality of the article. Some sites even allow you to
keep track of all changes and statistics, including how their bookmarks are shared and
tagged by others. Bookmarks can also be emailed integrated with social networking.
Some of the top social bookmarking sites include Delicious, Digg, Reddit and
Stumble Upon. These are excellent traffic boosters as they can help you to go “viral”.
They are also content-centric, meaning they are less concerned with images, and more
concerned with articles of high caliber and of unique content.
You can submit your own writings to such sites to consider, but ideally, (and just like with
all the Web 2.0 applications we have been discussing) you want to help promote other
people’s content as well. Don’t blindly recommend things as a chore. Help to promote
content that you believe in—ideas your company can stand behind.
What is the most common reason why articles fail to go viral on these sites (which are
meant to draw huge traffic to individual web pages)? It is usually because:
• The content just isn’t that unique or interesting;
• The content is good but the information is too obscure;
• The content is good but the headline is not catchy enough to draw in readers;
• The description does not highlight the material as a must read;
• Bad formatting (i.e. long paragraphs) or a boring introduction;
• A bad choice of keywords;
• You haven’t made it easy for people to bookmark your site;
• You’re submitting on a bad schedule. (Usually, your content will only give you a
headline or front page coverage for 24 hours) The best time to submit a link or
an article is later than 10 AM central time, and as late as 3 PM central time.
Beyond or before this, the competition may be too great;
• Improper categorization;
• No profile (Maybe it won’t hurt your traffic…but what a waste if you can’t direct all
that traffic to your site!);
• Not reaching out to the community and joining a network of friends (like social
networking, social bookmarking is a waste if you don’t want to go out comment,
promote and interact with others);
Lastly, consider that social bookmarking and having a text page for “viral” can often
times be a deceptively easy task to accomplish. Many webmasters are excited to see
when a story receives thousands of hits in a day. However, if he doesn’t capitalize on
that success with a series of similar topics, all that traffic is just going to drop. It will be
15 minutes or fame. So decide if you want just 15 minutes or hours and hours in the
spotlight!
Applications, Games, Tools and Other Multimedia
If you’re all out of text and picture ideas, or perhaps you just want to diversify your viral
strategy then think about a developmental approach—creating applications, games
tools and other multimedia projects exclusively for your customers. This yet another
form of incentive and many, many companies are willing to invest hundreds or even
thousands of dollars in creating a tool that will be useful to their customers.
After all, if you host this tool on your own site, your customers will flock to it, wanting to
use the tool. Along the way, they will see your brand, your web design and your prices
and may be convinced to give your company a try. Giving just a little bit extra upfront is
a great way to recruit interest.
You’re probably thinking… “That sounds all well and good…but I am not a programmer!”
Of course you’re not. Most of us aren’t…but that doesn’t mean you can’t outsource the
job to a programmer or perhaps even download a public domain tool that you can install
on your own site and brand with your own name. This is truly outside the box thinking,
as it can cater to the short-attention span of many Internet viewers, or capitalize directly
on their stated need. (i.e. someone is looking for a calculator made just for home
financing…and bingo, they find your tool. )
The Secret to Creating Viral Pages
Lastly, we come to the secret of creating viral pages. The only secrets are consistency,
and having a pulse on what the world is thinking…a few days early. You have to be
consistent, because for every page you create that does go viral, you will have many
others that never find a massive audience. Keep sending them out there on a regular
basis and do your research. That way, you will know what “type” of content grabs hits,
and thus what type of future projects you should be planning.
It also helps to read up on the news as to what is happening around the web, including
viral sensations, as well as general interest news. Understanding what the world is
thinking about, looking at, and how they’re laughing it up at the moment, is always a
good thing to remember for when you create content of your own.
It is definitely recommended that you make time to develop viral content because this is
a great way to boost traffic without having to pay.
In our final chapter, we are going to consider some other great and not so great ideas
that might be free to low cost. Of course, we’re pushing the “free” in this book so just be
warned…
Chapter 6A Few More Great and Not So Great Ideas
We’ve discussed the best ideas when it comes to free traffic generation, SEO, social
networking, viral content and email marketing. Now we’re going to consider some other
avenues that might work well for your business—depending of course on the business
model and on your strategy. Remember, you’re looking for free here…and really, free is
the best to do, as all of the most effective methods we covered are free.
So the idea of paying for traffic, or paying for impressions, is not a great one—unless
you can afford it, and unless you can develop a budget and a strategy to make it worth
your investment.
Banner Advertising
Take banner advertising for instance. Usually, this involves paying a website to host
your banner ad, and when a user clicks on it, he or she is directed back to your site.
This is the relatively cheap cyber equivalent of a commercial—something that’s
relatively targeted (at least in demographical information; i.e. advertising baby products
on a site that caters to new moms) but still not as targeted as search engine traffic—
which actually penetrated the user’s mind, and uses the same keywords he or she is
thinking.
Of course, banner advertising does not have to be paid advertising. Here’s an idea:
create multiple sites (but do NOT duplicate content) and then place banner ads taking
your users from one site to the next. Or, you could barter with other websites in
exchange for a banner ad. Banner ads don’t really count in estimating overall links (the
stuff that gets you high ranked), at least not to the extent that organic SEO links can.
However, if you have an artistic or commercial design skill, you may find it useful to go
ahead and create a banner ad using fancy font text (still appropriate to your site theme)
or other decorative shapes or objects. In general, avoid GIF animation, and opt instead
for Flash or another dynamic technology. Of course, some users hate flashing banners
altogether, regardless of technology. Keep banners simple and make sure you convey
a message…not merely an attitude or a thought that leads nowhere.
There are “standards” of banner sizes to consider. Here are standard sizes to choose
from:
468 x 60 Full Banner
728 x 90 Leaderboard
336 x 280 Square
300 x 250 Square
250 x 250 Square
160 x 600 Skyscraper
120 x 600 Skyscraper
120 x 240 Small Skyscraper
240 x 400 Fat Skyscraper
234 x 60 Half Banner
180 x 150 Rectangle
125 x 125 Square Button
120 x 90 Button
120 x 60 Button
88 x 31 Button
In addition to trading banners with other companies, networks or search directories, you
can also set up banners for affiliate network opportunities or even for self promotion. So
yes, it is a smart idea to create a banner now before you suddenly find out that you
need one and have nothing in the works!
Ad Swaps / Link Exchanges
Speaking of trading links, is it true that trading banners or text links with another
company similar to your own (or in a related field) is a waste of time? Not exactly. True,
there has been a lot of publicity lately stating, in so many words, that link exchanges are
not as effective as you once thought them to be. And this makes perfect sense.
Consider, that for a while, many poor marketers online were creating “mutual benefit”
link exchanges with each other in hopes of artificially inflating their external links—and
thus getting special attention from Google for being a high PR site. That’s not really the
same thing as a small company that actually works hard for its links by creating press
releases, blogs, articles for directories and other mediums.
So yes, many SEO “experts” were stopped dead in their tracks as Google and other big
wigs informed the world that link exchanges are simply not valuable in most cases.
Namely, when companies just use them as a means of leverage.
This is not to say that mutual link exchanges are always a bad thing. When there is a
good reason for a link exchange, as in a “blog roll” of authors who write on the same
subject, then the search engines will count that as a legitimate link. In some cases,
mutual link exchanges may work…but only if you prove to search engines that you are
actually working together (such as, guest blogging) and are not mindlessly exchanging
links for cheap traffic boosting purposes.
PPC Advertising / Text Links
PPC is usually not something associated with free web traffic generation…because by
nature it costs companies to use its technology. This is an alternative to SEO, and while
it does use similar logic to the search engine algorithm, it is more about whoever bids
the most per click.
Not only do you publicize your company through text ads, but you also benefit by
“impressions”, which are the number of times your company text (or banner) is seen by
an online audience. They don’t have to “click” to get an idea of who you are. PPC
companies (like as Google and Facebook, the two most well known examples) make
money not only by the total number of clicks you pay for, but also because they demand
a high impression count so that they continue to make money.
How does this concern you as a business owner going after free traffic?
First, there are free introductory PPC deals you can look into. Why, even some web
hosts are now giving away $50-100 of free text ads. There are also true-blue free PPC
sites out there, such as seen at Squidoo (a popular directory that lets you create
individual web pages).
Of course, “free PPC” is only a few steps away from “affiliate linking” opportunity (our
next topic to discuss), since both methods involve trading clicks and impressions from
one company to another. Of course, with affiliate networks, you also have the option of
making money or paying money.
Affiliate Programs and Joint Venture Campaigns
Affiliate programs, in this context, do not exclusively refer to an affiliate sales program
such as the one offered by Amazon.com; though some programs are interconnected
through a single network. Rather, it means that you can associate yourself with a
network and benefit from their traffic boosts—while also earning money for your traffic or
paying money to receive more traffic.
In essence, it is a glorified version of a link exchange, with some pivotal differences. An
affiliate program acts as an intermediary between web publishers (known as the
affiliates) and retailers who want to sell their products. You may choose either role if
you sign up with an affiliate…though you will only be able to work within the network.
You must also abide by the terms of the network as far as content goes, though you can
negotiate various issues such as banner sizes and placements, text ads, anchor text
ads and various other options.
You can benefit from the popularity of other websites within the network and enjoy a
blog-like community dynamic when you sign up for an affiliate program. The only thing
is, you have to consider questions such as: Does my site fit the theme of the other sites
on the network? (This is not only important for branding purposes, but also for traffic,
since you are only going to receive benefits if you can interest users from those other
sites.)
Basically, with an affiliate program you can expose your website to more traffic sources
and reach a larger, hopefully more mainstream audience. Of course, the retailer is only
interested in promoting the program to the publishers who are doing publicity for the
products.
Of course, revenue sharing and Cost-Per-Click or Cost Per Impression models are not
of prime importance to you, not if you want to earn traffic the fastest and most effective
way. The bottom line is that you can take your website and your stats directly to
advertisers and make more money without any content restrictions or other annoying
rules that you might encounter at an affiliate network.
Many entrepreneurs have worked with affiliate networking programs and passed their
minimum traffic requirements…only to realize that there wasn’t much money to be
gained besides a few pennies a day. That, together with the fact that only hanging large
banners on your site seems to increase revenue—and that this may be in violation of
new search engine standards—make this a questionable opportunity
Joint Venture opportunities are similar to link exchanges and affiliate marketing but only
involve working with one or more large companies and establishing your own sort of
mutually beneficial “network”. Once again, this will only prove effective if you focus on
joint content development, or perhaps guest blogging. Keep things interesting and don’t
let the links do all the talking. Make sure you including some interesting text and anchor
text along with your links.
Giving Away Free Stuff
If worse comes to worst, you could always offer direct incentives to your audience in
exchange for their visit. For example, free giveaways, free coupons, free meals and so
on. Honestly, it is a good and fast way to boost popularity and website traffic—
especially if you’re giving away something truly amazing. (The best way to do it is to
start the fire on your social networking page and then direct them to your homepage for
contest details and entry forms) Big traffic all around with this approach.
However, don’t fall into the trap of paying for traffic—as in spending more money on
gifts than you actually make. What many web entrepreneurs and store owners are
trying right now is the gift of knowledge—the gift of viral content. It only costs you time
and that could be cheaper than giving away a lot of expensive prizes.
Then again, if writing 10 free articles costs you more in time than buying a few
customized company hats, then maybe it’s time to reevaluate the situation.
Local and Mobile (Free) Advertising
Lastly, we come to the next big thing in traffic: local and mobile advertising. Who would
have thought that computers and the almighty Windows OS would play second banana
to cell phones, Smartphones, and Linux and Apple-based operating systems?
Indeed, many people are using Internet ready cell phones, e-readers and multimedia
players…and are ditching their computers entirely. (Or at least keeping them locked
away in a distant armoire somewhere). Take advantage of this. Chase your audience
wherever they go—even if they go mobile.
Mobile marketing exclusively focuses on mobile device users, and involves creating
content, links, apps and text messages for traveling users. Much of this effort will be in
creating text messages for marketing (which will be similar to social networking status
messages), since users on the go don’t really have time to read articles. (Although
some websites do find it advantageous to create a mobile app or a mobile version of the
site for better loading time)
However, it combines the theory behind email marketing as well, as you are focusing
attention on subscribers to your texts. (And you also want to use the double opt in
system for this, since people will NOT appreciate SPAM text messages)
Lastly, consider the new technology of local marketing, made possible through mobile
devices which can localize all of your Internet information. The biggest local sites to
consider for your mobile marketing campaign include
• Google Maps
• Facebook Places
• Google Places
Signing up at all of these sites can help you to reach the attention of people within your
local vicinity. Google Maps takes advantage of localization features and can actually
direct local web traffic using mobile devices to your company because of your close
proximity.
One of the newest Google algorithm updates, Venice, helps to increase the SERPs of
local companies in the area who are creating content for local customers. Google
Places and Facebook Places are search engine giants for local business, and can help
direct mobile traffic and regular web traffic towards your company based solely on
where you (and the target customer) are located.
Conclusion
We have learned a lot about earning traffic for free throughout this articles. How great it is
to know that you don’t have to spend thousands of dollars, and be subject to the whims
of a publicity firm or marketing company just to reach your targeted audience. In fact,
you can reach out to your local or national community simply by using the free Internet
tools that are available to you.
The key to success is being active and being ambitious. Stay persistent and connect
with your wonderful world of reader for the best success. Thanks for reading!
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