Five simple things I did to increase traffic to my website.
When I started thisismyurl.com I didn’t have a loyal base of visitors, in fact I barely had a trickle of traffic. For the first month, I only received a couple visitors each day but now, five months after launching my website I receive a few hundred unique visitors everyday. Still not huge numbers but it’s a start right?
I follow five simple rules that I believe helped me build a successful website, five rules that everybody can follow.
- I posted simple, honest content. Most the content on my website is designed for people with little technical expertise who need to solve a problem. This is an easy way to generate traffic, find a problem and help people solve it.
- I posted content often. While I was building my website traffic I often posted content twice a day to help establish new visitors, then once I knew people had taken the time to read my posts I began posting less frequently but with more focus on content.
- I posted what people wanted. I spend a lot of time looking at the stats for my website and I know what articles people read and which are worthless. The articles people read inspire me to write more (better) content on similar subjects while the less popular posts are reviewed and improved.
- I posted different kinds of content. When I started out I made a lot of mistakes (and still do) but by testing different content styles, I’ve learnt the proper length for many posts and how to make them more readable for the audience.
- I posted what I knew about. Instead of trying to chase trends or break news stories, I posted content designed to help business owners make better websites, a lot of it is still pretty technical but it’s getting more ‘people’ friendly everyday.
What I’ve learnt over the past five months is that people love free stuff. My post popular page by far is Fundraising Thermometer Plugin for Wordpress a free plugin for WordPress designed to help charities display their current fundraising level. My second most popular post is another WordPress plugin called WordPress Plugin to automatically update the copyright notice., a simple post to allow the display of copyright details on a post. Other popular posts on my blog have been:
- How to center content with CSS and HTML
- No More Frames Plugin for WordPress
- Code Free Pong
- How to make awesome 3d icons in Adobe Fireworks
- How to create a reflective website image in Photoshop
As a website owner, the best way for you to increase your website traffic is to understand what people want and give it to them. This might sound like common sense logic but often times we as business owners (because my website really is a business) forget that serving content is about the reader, not the writer.
Happy five months of reading my website, I look forward to another great month writing.
“I posted what people wanted.”
Pretty simple really, but devastatingly effective.
there’s little point posting content people don’t want to read! :-)
Very honest post here, Chris. Posting frequently and no BS to my audience are the best approach for me.
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I am in the same situation. I started my website last month and started writing good stuff which people want to know. I also included few funny but meaningful blogs. Although i do not get more than few visitors on my blog, i do see more visitors on my main website page.
Bottom line.. keep on providing value to your readers and they will come.
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Sounds interesting. Posting contents too often is a good idea. But, too often will make us look like a spammer in google’s eye.
Atniz’s last blog post..Page Rank Ying Yang
“I posted what people wanted.” That’s why I’m subscribed to ya Christopher! :o)
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The rules are really of great value,they are experienced and checked out.I like the post and the site as well.This year the most interesting stuff for me was about polar bears.
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i like this post and as well as your blog.this post is really informative and valuable.
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Thank you this was really helpful
By the what would you recommend for blogs that do not have a specific niche, but rather talks about many different things?
Dylan’s last blog post..Damian Hirst + Supreme = Clash of Worlds
we all try as a blogger to do as you and follow the same steps you do but it need time to get that good traffic so you will see the results of your work .
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What’s great is that you don’t write the same old content everyone one else is writing. You keep it fresh.
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Those five simple rules really are the formula for success when it comes to generating traffic. Thanks for sharing them and for keeping things simple.
Your work is great! Keep it up and good luck!
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Some of your apps sound intriguing, especially the free pong one :D
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and what inpact did that have on your traffic?
Thus creative use of these new content types can definitely open up a new way to express yourself and your online business.
Did you notice a peak in visitors when you started posting more frequently?
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Great steps to increasing traffic. I think it’s pretty clear that those steps work. I need to get to the point where I update my blog daily. Right now I just don’t have the time, but I feel like I’m not getting the traffic that I could because of it. Thanks for the tips and motivation.
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These are the golden rules: Unique and fresh content. Better to have just a post every other day with good content, than 5 posts a day with no-good content. But “good” content is a try-and-error approach: figure out what posts brought in the most traffic;)
You’re absolutely right casper. It’s hard to figure out what “good” content is. I remember my very first blog I learned that. I’d workout these great posts I pored a lot of energy into to find that no one was interested. I did one on the fly and it was my most popular one. It’s all about connecting with your readers.
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Does anyone know a good wordpress poll that works?
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try this one :
http://lesterchan.net/wordpress/readme/wp-polls.html
nica and clean design. Check the demo page to see it :)
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@Casper, thanks I was going to recommend the same poll toll.
Good suggestion! I’ll try it!
I bet if you created some sort of “Top 10″ list and submitted it to the major bookmarking sites and worked on promoting it a little, it would be your most visited page in about a day :P
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Your idea of simple content really worked out. The people who start out are the people you want, as those are looking for mentors and will look up to your site. It’s far harder to convert people who already have a preacher.
I wonder how much time you spend on your blog!
Quality contents make loyal visitors and increase readership. I do believe in that case.
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All five points are great … but I especially find #3 to fuel traffic and subscribers … post what people want. When I started watching my stats, I’d find clusters of interest. I have built on that interest to attract repeat visitors and referral traffic. Thanks for all the great info here.
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I will consider your suggestion and try it out.
Yes! Unique and fresh content is key! You know what else is key? freaking proof reading, I’ve stumbled across way too many blogs lately that have mountains of spelling and grammar errors. I can’t even read a post like that. But I digress, great tips. Anyone could benefit from this. Stubmled.
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@Mike (CSS Perk) LOL, for a minute there I thought you’d found a big error on mine :) btw, could you please add your name (ie Mike@ CSS Perk) to your title? Thanks
The ideology ‘find out what people want and sell it to them” has been around for a long time in direct sales. Good salesmen used it to great affect. Sadly today there is less of that and more “convince them that this is what they should have and sell it to them”. Thankfully I am no longer in direct sales.
Also! you can have a site with the best content in the world but if people don’t know about it you wont get any traffic.
Great content is the key to having people return again and again to your blog. I also find that capturing people’s name for an ezine and having that go out regularly helps remind people from time to time that you are still there!
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These are really very nice tips. almost everyone know these rules but they never realize it until someone point it out.
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Saw an interview with Chris Brogan the other day on his content development ideas. When asked about a tip for successful blogging he mentioned that you need to focus on telling people how something can help them, and then following up with how. Not simply listing a set of tools or techniques.
Think you’ve done a good job of following this advice with your blog, Christopher. Real, applicable tips for people to put to use right away.
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