Boost Traffic With Mailing Lists
Email lists, however, are quite legitimate, and are often
terrific traffic-builders. An announcement newsletter, which
allows you to send email to visitors who sign up for the list,
can be used to notify customers and potential customers of new
features on your site, special offers, etc. A discussion list,
which allows any list members to post messages, can be a
valuable resource for members, and can be used to plug your
site. For details of how email lists can be used to build
site traffic, see the article,
Mailing Lists for Web Sites.
Whether you have your own mailing list or not, participating
in appropriate discussion lists and online forums can be a
good way to increase awareness of your site, and build
traffic. Be careful to use proper netiquette, and obey all
the guidelines of any group that you participate in. Most
lists won't tolerate blatant advertising, but see nothing
wrong in sneaking in a plug for your site here and there, in
the course of contributing meaningfully to the discussion.
Conclusion
If you pursue each of the traffic-building strategies
described above, you should have enough work to keep you and
a couple of grunts busy for years. And this still does not
exhaust the list of things you can do to promote your site.
The most important traffic-building secret of all is simple:
offer a good product. Make sure your site is packed with
useful content, and update it often. Money spent on updating
your site more frequently may actually pay off better
than money spent on marketing. If you're selling a product,
make sure your site presents all the information that
customers need. If you're selling ads, make sure your site
offers good content that people can't easily find elsewhere.
Make sure your site is well-organized, make sure it loads
quickly, and please make sure everything works. The best
marketing in the world can't help you if your site is buggy,
badly organized, or outdated.
