In this article, I want to discuss 3 different approaches to generating traffic to your website; how each approach can help you promote YOUR website; and who REALLY benefits from these methods.
Question: What do the following sites have in common? StartBlaze; Trafficology; and TextMeFree.com .
Answer: In one way or another, they all provide successful ways you can generate traffic to your website.
If you are a keen follower of all things ‘website promotion’, you have probably heard of StartBlaze and you may well have heard of Trafficology, but you will not have heard of TextMeFree.com (but may well understand the concept behind it).
So let’s look at each website promotion idea on its own, explaining how it works and who really benefits…
=> Site 1: StartBlaze
* So, what is StartBlaze?
1. A free viral traffic building system that takes seconds to start.
2. Get free advertising doing something you would normally do throughout your day anyway. Open your browser and get traffic. Your friends open their browser and you get traffic, too.
Here’s a Quick Run Down of How StartBlaze Works: [It’s free and takes only a few seconds.]
1. Sign up and set your StartBlaze.com code as your home page.
2. Earn hits by opening your browser.
3. Earn more hits when your friends sign up and open their browsers.
4. Get hits when they bring their friends in, and so on, four levels down.
5. The more hits you have, the more times your site will show up on another StartBlaze member’s browser.
6. Get more traffic to your site — it’s 100% free and we do all the work!
(The above description is taken directly from the StartBlaze site. Let me just add, that for each 6 sites you visit, you earn one hit or visit to your nominated site.)
* Verdict on StartBlaze
For very little effort on your part, StartBlaze DOES DELIVER traffic to your nominated site. And if you are successful in referring other StartBlaze users, you really might see a LOT OF VISITORS to your site.
Remember, though, that most of the visitors will be more interested in promoting *their* site than exploring your site. Make sure your nominated site is suitable to such visitors, otherwise you will only get a few seconds of their time. (This is because a simple click on a browser’s refresh button and StartBlaze delivers another StartBlaze site, and another partial hit to the StartBlaze user!)
StartBlaze – 8/10
* Who REALLY benefits from StartBlaze?
StartBlaze is an easy way to get visitors to your website, but the site that really benefits from StartBlaze is…
Answer: Aesop.com (and associated websites).
Each website delivered by StartBlaze is framed by a top frame that contains a StartBlaze login panel AND an Aesop.com search box. (Aesop.com are the owners of Start Blaze.)
Also, and without boring and confusing you with the maths, for every 6 sites you visit, Aesop.com (and associated websites) gets AT LEAST 1 hit and may well receive 5 hits (if you have not been referred by another StartBlaze user).
Mark Joyner, CEO of Aesop.com, is a very clever man. He has created (and marketed!) a modest, almost unique traffic- generation system that many are keen to and promote (including myself – I’m even writing this article about StartBlaze!). And, as all of us work hard to generate more visitors to our sites using StartBlaze, we inevitably generate more visitors to Aesop.com (and associated web sites) too. Brilliant.
* The real website promotion idea?
Create and promote your *own* StartBlaze system!
=> Site 2: Trafficology newsletter
* So what is the Trafficology newsletter?
(Again, in their own words…)
Every month, we pay $1,350 in “cash bribes” to our readers for their BEST traffic ideas.
And every month, people submit ideas by the hundreds!
Frankly, a lot of them are lousy.
But invariably… a handful of them are GREAT web promotion ideas that I would have never thought of… and that I promise you’ve never heard of!
Here’s the best part:
We put all the BEST stuff we get in our newsletter and send it out FREE to our subscribers! Yes… FREE.
(Trafficology run an affiliate program! They pay out $1350 to the referrers of winning contributors, also!)
* Verdict on Trafficology newsletter
Trafficology newsletter is just that, a website promotion newsletter. Nothing too inspirational about that, then. However, because of the prize money involved you are BOUND to discover the very latest website promotion ideas, sooner rather than later. And you may well make some money too, if you refer a subscriber with a winning idea!
You still have to put the website promotion ideas into practice, though, so you may not actually benefit at all.
Trafficology – 7/10
* Who really benefits from Trafficology?
Answer: Trafficology AND (maybe) you.
Trafficology becomes the ONE website promotion newsletter everyone reads, because of the excellent content. And you get to read some excellent website promotion ideas; you simply have to put the ideas into practice (hence the ‘maybe’).
* The real website promotion idea?
Probably contained in each issue of the Trafficology newsletter.
=> Site 3: TextMeFree.com
* So, what is TextMeFree.com ?
A worldwide guide to free SMS text messaging services !
(You’re looking puzzled, I can tell!)
…And as such, TextMeFree.com will not help you promote YOUR website at all. “So why do I mention it in this article?” I hear you ask. I’ll explain in a moment.
TextMeFree.com is also an example of a theme-based or niche site, designed around a high-demand/low-supply concept – free sms.
* Verdict on TextMeFree.com
Okay, I admit it, TextMeFree.com is a site I created; more as an experiment in building traffic than anything else. But get this! I finished the site at the end of June 2001, and it is already receiving over 1000 page views a day, in the middle of July. Yes, one thousand per day!
(Are you starting to get interested, yet?)
I have created enough websites to be impressed with 1000 page views and 200 unique visitors per day. (Especially when the site is less than a month old, and after only the most basic of website promotion on my part; no money spent.)
How can a guide to ‘sending free text messages’ help you?
TextMeFree.com is irrelevant, in itself. It is simply an example of a site that meets a high demand – free SMS text messaging services – with little or no supply. It is simply an example of a theme-based site that gets word-of-mouth and repeat traffic, and will soon get search engine traffic too!
And if I can create a ‘TextMeFree.com’, then you too can create a site with high demand and low supply; a site that focuses on a niche, or theme; a site designed around so-called ‘profitable’ keywords. How?
Visit Wordtracker and use their free keyword suggestion tool!
Wordtracker determines keyword ‘profitability’ based on keywords that you choose, and measured against the Alta Vista search engine. For each keyword, it calculates a Keyword Effectiveness Index or KEI (invented by Sumantra Roy of 1stSearchRanking). Generate keywords with a KEI over 100, like ‘free sms’ or ‘mobile phone ringtones’ and you have a site concept worth developing.
(The paid-for Wordtracker service determines keyword profitability against all the major search engines and directories, including the pay-per-click search engine GoTo. It costs less than $10 for one day!
I also confirmed my results using SBI Manager, part of Site Build It! – an innovative all-in-one system that lets you convert your passion into a theme-based, search-engine-friendly site, no HTML required. http://buildit.sitesell.com/shopping101.html .)
TextMeFree.com or high-demand/low-supply niche site – 9/10
* Who really benefits from TextMeFree.com?
Answer: You benefit.
You don’t benefit from TextMeFree.com in itself, but you will benefit from creating a site like TextMeFree.com – theme-based, focussed on in-demand keywords, with few competitors. (Believe me, it’s a lot easier promoting a site that people *want* to visit! You’re simply doing people a favour, half the time, when you tell them about it. And then people genuinely *do* tell their friends.)
* The real website promotion idea?
Create a theme-based or niche site, about an in-demand subject with few competitor sites. For more information and ideas, visit: – http://www.nichechallenge.com – http://www.minisitesell.com
So which website promotion idea works best for you?
StartBlaze offers a quick and easy way to get (low-quality ?) visitors to your site, but is a great way to promote Aesop.com (and associated websites). Trafficology newsletter lets you learn from the best, but there is no guarantee of success. And TextMeFree.com will not help you promote your website, but is a great example of getting traffic when you simply ‘meet a need.’
Why not visit the sites, and see for yourself!
PS As I finish writing this article, and after publicising the site recently in a press release, TextMeFree.com is now receiving over 2000 page views per day. (Now if only I could convert some of that traffic into income…!)
STEVE M NASH is the author of the ebook: “3 Super-Tips To
Build, Promote And Profit More From Your Website.” Download
your free copy now! http://www.wise-buys.info/bonus.shtml
He’s also the author of many popular articles aimed at
webmasters, affiliates, even complete beginners. Read them
here! http://www.wise-buys.info/webmaster-articles.html
