Your new year’s resolution shouldn’t be to get more traffic, it should be to earn more traffic.
There’s lots of ways to earn more traffic, here’s twenty-five of them (in no particular order):
25. Upload presentations, reports, or white papers to sites like Slideshare or Scribd.
24. Follow basic on-page Search Engine Optimization (SEO) best practices such as using keyword in url, title, and H1 tags.
23. Place your newsletter opt-in or blog RSS in your site’s header so it’s viewable above the fold on every page (leading to more subscribers and more traffic).
22. Consider Pay Per Click (PPC) Ads. A Google Economic Report says that you’ll earn $2 in revenue for every $1 you spend on paid search.
21. Help people on LinkedIn Answers, Yahoo Answers, or relevant communities and forums in your industry.
20. Write an eBook and give it away for free. Ask for people’s contact info to generate leads, or don’t ask for any info at all to generate inbound links (great for SEO).
19. Create a blog calendar, and stick to it. Make your content shareable and promote your blog feed to your customers, prospects, fans, and followers.
18. Distribute social media press releases, including images and video, using a tool such as PitchEngine.
17. Promote others on Social Media 10 times more than you promote yourself. In turn, they’ll promote you.
16. Guest blog: it’s great for getting your name out there and creating inbound links.
15. Survey your customers and ask them about their 5 biggest pain points. Address them in a blog, report, or newsletter.
14. Follow the 3 “R” rule: Reviews, Referrals, and Repeat Customers.
13. Write better blog titles and headlines that highlight benefits of reading your blog.
12. Reward those brand evangelists who promote your business: word of mouth in the age of social media is everything.
11. Update, or start, your email marketing strategy as it’s still a very low-cost, high ROI channel. Focus on delivering great content, growing your subscribers, and integrating with mobile (SMS) and social media channels.
10. A video is usually the first piece of content someone will click on when arriving on a website and has a high “share rate”. Post your project on a video production marketplace like Wooshii and don’t forget to share on YouTube.
9. Create blogger “badges” for those who write the best content about your industry, complete with an image they can post on their site (and which links to yours).
8. Don’t forget alt tags on your images, they can help increase traffic when people search Google images.
7. Improve your email subject lines to increase the chances they are opened, read, and clicked. Place your key words within the first 50 characters (e.g., Save 20%, FREE Whitepaper, etc.) to make sure they appear in the preview pane, create urgency, and personalize with the subscriber’s name or a specific detail.
6. Gamification and using tools such as Badgeville is a great way to keep your customers, fans, and followers engaged while rewarding them for interacting with your brand.
5. Write “non-branded” blogs, or blogs that aren’t about your company but about your industry. Give value to your audience with specific tips and advice, and show them that you’re a thought leader.
4. Create a systemic, measurable referral marketing program for your business.
3. Reach out to the top 10 bloggers in your industry and ask them what you all can do to help each other.
2. If you have offline customers, such as a retail store or restaurant, give them incentive to subscribe to your email or blog, or follow you on your social media sites.
1. Conduct a series of workshops or webinars that give real value to people, and not just using them solely as opportunities to sell your products or services.