Have you ever driven down a road you’ve been down a thousand times, and just noticed a business that has been there for years? That business could use some better advertising.
It’s a similar situation for online businesses. Traffic steers, or is steered by search engines and referrals, right past your website to the competition.
So how do you get your website noticed in a sea of highly visible competitors?
Use someone else’s resources.
YouTube Video Marketing
According to Nielsen stats from April 2010, YouTube is the top online video brand in the world. Over 12 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute.
If YouTube were Hollywood, YouTube would release 240,000 feature films per month, or about 8,000 per day. So, simply adding a video to your channel isn’t the best way to market your business using YouTube.
Instead, use the Promoted Videos feature to display your ad alongside related content, and to make your video appear in search results for certain keywords.
Through YouTube’s marketing programs, you can stream video live to your audience. They also offer YouTube Mobile (m.youtube.com), which has 7.1 million unique viewers per month.
You can also purchase ads on the videos of others, or place a link to your website within your own video. For instance, say you want to sell Halloween accessories such as lawn decorations and zombie costumes. You could create a video of your costumes being worn and submit it to someone else’s account in a related niche, or make it a promoted video with a link to your website in a Flash overlay ad. See YouTube’s advertising overview page for more information.
The Money is in the List
Create a free report or some kind of tool people will find useful and ask other webmasters in your field if they will include your report or tool in their next newsletter. This is easy to do, and it will not take long before you see a major flow of traffic from the recipients of those newsletters.
Make sure to include a link to your website, preferably to a page related to your report or tool. For example, link to your report’s bibliography or the source code of your program.
Create a Useful Report and Sell It
Have you heard of Fiverr? You can create a report and sell it there for $5 with the stipulation that your contact information or URL remain in place, then continue to sell the report to others. You can also sell reports on various forums and sites similar to Fiverr. As long as the report contains interesting, non-duplicate content, people will be interested.
This is a way to further establish yourself as an authority in your niche, or in a sub-niche, and invite interested traffic. Traffic that is already interested converts better than traffic from visitors who don’t know you. The great thing about Fiverr and related sites is that you can ask for a review from satisfied buyers and use those as testimonials on your own website.
Quality Guest Posts, Videos and Comments
Contact other webmasters about posting content that will lead their readers back to your site. Make it clear to the webmaster that you know the audience when you pitch your idea to him or her. With both guest posts and video, do the best work you are capable of – the quality of your content should at least rival that of the website you wish to guest post on. Offer to guest post on blogs and websites that are high quality, because you want to attract engaged personalities and increase the number of active visitors to your own site.
Leaving comments on other blogs that are related to your own is another great strategy. If readers see you making an interesting comment about a topic they’re involved with, they will likely visit your site. Keep in mind that your comments should also be of high quality – don’t simply state that you agree or disagree. Raise a question, point out information that will enhance the article, or make a pertinent point that the author left out. Encourage discussion instead of just promoting your business or brand.
Use Forums and Directories
Web 2.0 sites are ones that provide visitors with outlets to have their voice heard and share information with each other. Place your articles in such forums and in active directories where people discuss topics related to your niche. Participate in discussions and link to your site when appropriate – such as when you have an article on your site that goes into great detail about a given topic.
Create a Landing Page for Interested Traffic
So you’re pulling in traffic from other websites, blogs, forums, and sites like Fiverr. What are the reasons those people chose to visit your site? Send your sources to landing pages related to the content that brought them to your site. Leave a simple greeting on the page with links to additional resources or research (some of those resources should be similar to the content that brought them to your page), offer a free report, and ask if they would like to sign up for your newsletter.
About the Author
Mitch O’Conner is an online marketer and writer. When he’s not busy testing sites, generating traffic or writing content, he enjoys spending time with his wife and kids, watching TV, playing games or going camping.
