24 Untapped Traffic Sources
For those of you who know me, you probably know that I’m a traffic addict...
I'm HIGHLY addicted to finding new traffic sources.
Finding new traffic strategies is like opening a shiny new present on Christmas day.
So in this report, I'm going to reveal some of my favorite traffic strategies. You'll
definitely want to add these to your marketing toolbelt.
These little tricks, tactics, and secrets are some of the most powerful, underused strategies
online.... IF you put them into ACTION!
Below you’ll find 21 high-powered traffic strategies for kicking your website into high
gear. Now, I realize that this report is pretty long. But I promise that it’s well-worth the
read.
So, without further ado, let’s dive in…
1. Submit your Blog to Content Aggregators like AllTop.com and 9Rules.
If you have a top-notch blog that regularly publishes valuable content (which you
should), then you can submit your blog to sites like Alltop.com and 9Rules.com. These
are content aggregators that aggregates the best content from around the web.
AllTop is the creation of Guy Kawaski. Alltop aggregates content from leading blogs
around the Web, allowing you to get the hottest new information all in one place.
As a blogger, Alltop can also be a tremendous traffic source if you can get your blog
listed. You can submit your site at:
http://alltop.com/submission/
9Rules.com is another top content aggregator online the pulls the best content from
around the web into one location. 9Rules accepts submissions throughout the year. You
can see when their next opening is at http://www.9rules.com/about/join/
2. High-Profile Content Syndication
As you probably know, article marketing is becoming less and less effective. Simply
posting your articles to sites like EzineArticles.com will no longer cut it.
There’s nothing wrong with submitting your content to article directories, but you’re
going to get exponentially more results if you start zoning in on high-profile content
syndication.
So, what is high-profile content syndication?
Well, instead of submitting your articles to article directories, you submit them to the top
websites and blogs within your market.
So, for example, if you have a blog about sports, you could submit your articles to
http://bleacherreport.com , one of the most popular sports websites online.
If you have a website about parenting, you could submit articles to
http://www.momsnetwork.com/submit-articles.shtml
If you have a website about finance, you could submit articles to
http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/submitarticle.html
If you have a blog about Internet Marketing, then you can submit your articles to sites
like Site-Reference.com, BetterNetworker.com, Startup.biz, and Mashable.com.
No matter what market you’re in, there are very popular websites that you could be
submitting articles to for massive traffic.
Another great place that you can submit your articles are Ning Communities. There are
thousands of Ning Social Networks online centered around almost every topic
imaginable.
Simply go to Ning.com and search for a community related to your target market. Find
one with over 1,000 members and start getting involved in the community.
Best of all, you can contribute articles within EVERY Ning community and they are
displayed on the FRONT PAGE. I hope you’re starting to see how incredible powerful
this is.
Ning communities are one of the biggest untapped traffic sources online.
3. Guest Blogging
Another great way to get lots of extra exposure and laser-targeted traffic is guest
blogging. Now, I can hear what you’re probably thinking… “Kim, that’s not a new
traffic source!”. But how many of you are actually USING this technique to generate
traffic to your website. I’m betting that VERY few of you are actually IMPLEMENTING
this EXTREMELY powerful traffic strategy.
Guest blogging is one of the best ways to expose your content to a completely new
audience. Best of all, at the end of your post is your name, your brand, and a link back to
your website.
So, you might be wondering how you get a popular blog to post your content. As always,
it comes down to value. You want to showcase your very best content.
Plus, you’ll also need to develop a relationship with the blogger that you want to guest
post for. Now, at first this might sound hard but it’s really not. Here’s what I like to do to
initiate the relationship with other bloggers.
First, I start making in-depth, insightful comments on their blog…comments that will
really stand out. After I do that for a couple days (maybe even a week or two), then I send
the blogger an email telling them how much I enjoy their blog. I also like to make some
sort of deeper connection as well. So I try and find out what their favorite hobbies are,
their favorite music, etc… and I look for something that we have in common so that I can
make a deeper connection.
So then I send them a personalized email, which is ALWAYS well-received. You can
never go wrong paying compliments, as long as they’re sincere. Plus, the blogger already
knows your name because you’ve been leaving all-star comments on their blog.
So now that you’ve developed a relationship with them, you can approach them about
doing a blog post and chances are that they will happily post your article (as long as it
contains extremely valuable content).
And you now have your content in front of thousands of new readers. Guest blogging is
one of the best ways to increase your traffic and exposure.
Great Resources about Guest Blogging:
Why Guest Blogging is a Powerful Way to Gain Exposure
7 Reasons Every Blogger Should Be Guest Posting
What Makes a Great Guest Post
How to Get Your Guest Post Featured on Bigger Blogs
4. Trackbacks
A trackback is an automated process of notifying another blog that you have linked to
one of their articles. Whenever you link to an article on another blog, Wordpress will
automatically “ping” the other blog, alerting them to the incoming link.
Trackbacks are an excellent way of letting another blogger know that you have linked to
them. Plus, trackbacks are also displayed in the comments section, so your link will
immediately show up in the comments section of that blog, which can lead to lots of
traffic (especially on a high-traffic blog like TechCrunch, ZenHabits, etc…)
Plus, bloggers LOVE it when you link to them… and out of gratitude, they will often link
back to you, which sends even more traffic your way.
Don’t underestimate the power of linking to other blogs. It’s a very powerful traffic
strategy that can also help you build relationships with other bloggers online.
Trackback Resources:
Link Karma: How Linking to Others Can Get You Lots of Links in Return
How to Do a Trackback to Get More Links and Traffic
5 Thinks You Need to Know about Trackbacks
5. Blog Commenting
Blog commenting can be an extremely powerful technique for building traffic to your
website. Click here to find out how one blog comment can bring 230+ unique visitors.
Unfortunately, most bloggers underestimate the value of blog commenting. Not only can
commenting bring you lots of extra exposure it’s also an excellent way to start building
relationships with other bloggers.
And these relationships can lead to guest posting opportunities, backlinks, interviews, and
more.
In order to optimize your comments for the most traffic, you’ll want to make sure that
you’re one of the first to comment. The earlier you comment, the more exposure you’re
going to get because your comment will be at the top of the page. And, as always, make
sure that your comment provides tremendous value. You want your comment to stand out
from the others. You do this by providing in-depth, insightful comments that ADD to the
conversation.
Now imagine if you do this consistently on several high-profile blogs you could drive
some serious traffic to your blog and build invaluable relationships with your fellow
bloggers.
6. Write Tutorials!
Tutorials are a HUGE untapped traffic source online. If you have a
website related to graphic design, wordpress, web development, SEO,
marketing, or programming, then you can use tutorials to send thousands of visitors to
your website. There are hundreds of websites online that you can submit your tutorials
to. One of the most popular is Instructables.com.
Here’s a more complete list of popular sites where you can submit your tutorials for tons
of extra exposure, traffic, and backlinks…
http://www.noupe.com/
http://www.tutorialized.com - (This one is one of my favorites because it has a section for
marketing and SEO.) This site alone has sent me thousands of visitors.
http://www.good-tutorials.com/
http://www.pslover.com/
http://www.pixel2life.com/
http://www.tutorialsphere.com/
http://www.tutorialkit.com/
http://www.rnel.net/
http://toxiclab.org/
http://tutorial-index.com/
http://designbump.com/
http://www.designfloat.com/
http://www.photoshoproadmap.com/
http://www.tutorials-expert.com/
http://www.cg-links.com/
http://www.fstutorials.com/
http://tutorialoutpost.com/
http://www.tutorialsgarden.com/
http://psd.tutsplus.com/
http://psdtop.com/
http://graphic-design-links.com/
http://design-newz.com/submit-newz/
http://woork.blogspot.com/2009/02/add-design-news-on-woork.html
http://devmarks.com/
http://www.dzone.com/
http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/contribute/
http://www.tripwiremagazine.com
http://www.webdesignbooth.com/
http://www.crazyleafdesign.com/blog/contributors/
http://psdlearning.com/
http://www.brushking.eu/submit_news.php
http://kailoon.com/
http://www.myinkblog.com/submit-news/
http://www.fuelyourcreativity.com/user-link-feed/
http://designm.ag/submit-news/
http://www.flashperfection.com/submit.html
http://www.tutorial-center.com/submit/
http://www.totaltutorial.com/
http://www.designshard.com/contribute/
http://www.knowtebook.com/publish
http://sharebrain.info/submit/
http://www.photoshop911.com/tutorial.html
http://www.cg-links.com/submit-link.php
http://www.tutorialsgarden.com/submit/
http://www.v7n.com/graphics/submit.php
http://www.tipclique.com/
http://gfxtuts.com/
http://www.tutorio.com/
http://designmoo.com/
http://www.zabox.net/
Additional Resources:
Tutorial and Article Websites That Bring Traffic
7. Video Responses
If you do any video marketing at all, then you should immediately add video responses to
your marketing arsenal. This is a very simple technique you can use to dramatically
increase your YouTube video views. I’ve used this one simple tactic to get thousands of
extra views on a single video.
Unfortunately, I see very few people taking advantage of this powerful technique…
Here’s how you do it:
First, you’ll need to upload a video to YouTube.com.
Next you’ll need to find a related video that has LOTS of views. So, for example, if I
create a video about dog training, then I would look for a related video about dog training
that has lots of views.
Here’s a good example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CskvOzDOmbw
This is a great video about dog training that’s received over 100,000 views. That’s
definitely the type of video that you would want to post a video response to.
So you after you find a popular related video, you would then post a video response. To
do this, you’ll need to look underneath the video in the section called “Video Responses”.
On the right hand-side you’ll see a blue link that says “Post a Video Response”.
Click on that link and you will then be taken to a page where you can post a video
response.
Click on the link in the middle that say, “Choose a Video”. From here you will choose
one of the videos you have already uploaded on YouTube and click on the button that
says, “Respond with This Video”. You need to choose a related video to post a video
response to.
Now, once you have posted a video response, you can go back to the
video and you will now see that your video is listed in the Video Responses section.
As you can imagine, if you have posted a video response to a very popular video, you can
get thousands of views coming to your video from the video response you’ve just posted.
This is one of the easiest ways to divert traffic to your videos.
Don’t take this strategy for granted. It’s EXTREMELY powerful and it has
brought thousands of extra visitors to my videos. Simply find popular videos that are
related to yours and post a video response.
8. Tag Your Videos
Here’s another simple strategy for getting lots of extra views on your video. Simply find
existing videos on YouTube that are related to yours and have a lot of views. Then, copy
their tags to the video you’re uploading. This gives you’re video a very good chance of
appearing in the related videos in the sidebar, which can send you a ton of extra traffic.
9. Embed Your Video for Hundreds of Extra Views
There are lots of sites that allow you to embed your videos for further promotion. One of
my favorites is WonderHowTo.com. If you have a “How To” video on YouTube,
MetaCafe, or any video site that gives you embed code, then you can post it to
WonderHowTo and get hundreds of extra views on your video.
Some other sites where you can embed your video to include:
http://www.flixya.com
http://www.spike.com
http://www.instructables.com
http://www.myspace.com
http://www.uvouch.com
http://www.magnify.net/sites/categories
http://www.ulinkx.com/
http://www.myvidster.com
http://www.gemzies.com/
http://www.infectiousvideos.com/
http://www.videosift.com
http://www.vewgle.com
http://www.tagged.com
http://www.wonderhowto.com
http://http://www.maxior.pl
http://www.nowpublic.com
http://www.vodpod.com
http://www.mefeedia.com/add.php
It’s kind of like article syndication for videos! But 10x more powerful!
This is one of the easiest ways to get thousands of extra visitors for your video. I’ve seen
VERY few people taking advantage of this strategy, so I hope you start using it in your
own online business.
Extra Juicy Tip: You can also submit your video to any of the Ning Communities
online. These are social networking communities centered around niche topics
(everything from baking and parenting to biking and dog training). Ning.com has
thousands of communities on almost any imaginable topic. These social communities
contain thousands of users and you can submit blog posts and articles to all of them. Best
of all, those articles and blog posts will show up on the front page of the Ning
Community. Very Powerful!!!
10. How to Get More Views on Your EzineArticles…
As you probably know, EzineArticles.com is one of the top article directories online.
However, did you know that there’s a trick you can use to make it even more powerful.
Here’s what you do…
You’ll notice at the bottom of each article a section called “Most Viewed” and “Most
Published”. However, did you know that there’s an easy way to get your article into these
sections for tons of extra exposure and internal backlinks?
The Most Published section is easier to get into so let’s start with that one. First, you need
to grab the EzinePublisher URL for your article. You’ll find this at the top right hand side
of the page. You’ll see a list of icons with a printer icon at the top. Well, right below the
printer icon that says “Print This Article”, you will see a link that says “EzinePublisher”.
Go ahead and click on this link. Now, grab the URL for this link and paste it into a text
document because we’re going to be using this URL for a little while.
You see, in order to get into the “Most Published” section, you need to get the most
clicks onto your EzinePublisher link. To do this, we will be promoting the link ourselves
outside of EzineArticles by using social bookmarking, Twitter, and a few other sources.
So, first you will need to submit your EzinePublisher url to all of the different social
bookmarkings sites like Digg, Mixx, Delicious, etc.. You can do this semi-automatically
at SocialPoster.com.
Once you have submitted your URL to all of the different social bookmarking sites, you
can then send it out to all of your friends on Twitter, FriendFeed, and other
microblogging platforms.
By doing this, you will increase the views on your Publisher page, allowing you to get
into the “Most Published” section. Once your article has been placed in the “Most
Published” section, it will be placed on every single article within that particular
category.
This means extra exposure for your article. But more importantly, it means MORE LINK
JUICE. You see, the internal linking structure within EzineArticles.com is
EXTREMELY powerful for ranking in Google. These internal links are very powerful.
By getting your article in the “Most Viewed” or “Most Published” section, you are
increasing the number of internal links pointing to that article, which can make a huge
difference in how the article ranks in Google.
Do you see where I’m going with this?
First you need to make sure you’re using the targeted keyword phrases in
your article title and sprinkled throughout your article. Then, by getting your article
placed in the “Most Viewed” or “Most Published” section, you can dramatically increase
your Google rankings because your article now has more internal links pointing to it.
If you want to get into the “Most Viewed” section, you use the same
technique, but this time you will be promoting the URL of the actual article.
If you want to guarantee your spot in the “Most Viewed” section you can use
StumbleUpon advertising, which is just 5 cents per view. This is one of the simplest
ways to get your article in the “Most Viewed” section. Plus, by using StumbleUpon,
you’re also driving lots of targeted traffic to your article and increasing your exposure.
11. Cool Site of the Day
Here’s another interesting find. It’s called Cool Site of the Day. This site lists some of the
most interesting sites from around the web. Best of all, you can submit your site as well if
you think it’s up to snuff. Not only does this present an excellent link opportunity, but
Cool Site of the Day is known for sending thousands of visitors to their featured sites.
If your site is chosen, it will be featured on the homepage and announced to their email
list of over 150,000 subscribers.
Much like Digg, Cool Site of the Day also has a ripple effect. The featured sites are often
picked up by journalists throughout the world. Some of the previously featured sites have
been quoted on the BBC News website, featured in USA Today, picked up by radio
stations and quoted in a number of other media outlets.
Sites similar to Cool Site of the Day that you can submit to include…
YahooPicks
TopsiteoftheDay
AskMen
Blackstump
Family First
12. Coupons
Give away coupons and promote them in coupon directories. If your site offers coupons
of any kind, you can submit your site to hundreds of different coupon websites online for
additional exposure and traffic. Plus, you’re also creating valuable one-way backlinks to
your website.
Here’s a list of coupons sites you can submit to:
SuperCoolCoupons
CouponCabin
UltimateCoupons
FreeShipping.org
Deal Taker
For a complete list of coupon sites, go to…
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p4bAsllwd0FlMmPng37LvTA
Additional Resources:
Find Customers and Backlinks by Adding Your Site to Coupon Directories
13. Twitter Traffic
Since it’s launch in July of 2006, Twitter has quickly become one of the most popular
microblogging platforms online.
It’s a place to network, connect, and communicate.
Twitter is a powerful platform for communicating with your readers, building your brand,
driving traffic to your blog, and building relationships with industry leaders.
At it’s core, Twitter is about the conversation.
Twitter is like one giant cocktail party. It facilitates instant engagement with your
readers, fellow bloggers, and industry mavens.
Social media has created a fundamental shift in the way we do business.
“Anonymous” business people are being ignored. Personal brands and social equity are
becoming more and more important. Twitter allows you to share a more personal side of
yourself with your readers - whatever that may be. Quirky and Crazy, Starbucks Addict,
or Late Night Insomniac - Be true to yourself and people will love you for it. This is how
you turn your everyday readers into a community of raving fans.
Twitter allows you to create a dialogue with your target market.
But the key to winning in social media is to provide value. Whether this be in the form of
interesting links, cool resources, or encouraging quotes. The key to all forms of social
media is to focus on providing value.
Become a connector! Look for ways to be of value to your network. Help people connect
with others. Help people find good jobs, good VAs, good copywriters, good graphic
designers and you will quickly become an invaluable resource. By becoming a connector,
people will start coming to you as the go-to person in your market and they will spread
the word about you as well.
Engage at every possible opportunity. Share good content. Have Fun!
And if you want to automate your twitter marketing, then I would highly suggest using
TweetAdder.com.
TweetAdder allows you to quickly build up your Twitter following while you focus on
engaging your readers and providing tremendous value.
Great Twitter Resources:
How I Got My Blog Post Retweet by @problogger, @GuyKawaski and 250 more
How to Drive Traffic with Repeat Tweets
Go Viral On Twitter
16,000 Followers in 90 Days Without Steroids
5 Tips to Grow Your Twitter Presence
47 Twitter Power Users' Secrets To Getting Many Followers
5 Reasons Twitter is an Essential Social Media Tool
14. Su.pr - "A URL Shortener for Maximum Traffic"
When posting content to Twitter, you'll often need to shorten your URL using a URL
shortener.
There are literally hundreds of URL shorteners to choose from, but Su.pr is always on the
top of my list. You see, Su.pr is no ordinary URL shortener. Su.pr has built-in features
that will send even more traffic to your website. Here are some of the key features you
should know about Su.pr...
* URL Shortening - Of course, at it's core, Su.pr will shorten any URL.
* Post Scheduling on Twitter & Facebook - You can schedule your post to go out in
the future at any date and time, and schedule as many posts as you like. This allows you
to retweet your post at peak times throughout the day. Tweeting your URL multiple times
can be EXTREMELY powerful for generating extra traffic. And with Su.pr you can
automate the process. Just make sure you don't overdo it.
* Click Stats - You get detailed analytics, showing exactly how many people have
clicked on your Su.pr link.
You also get detailed stats on the number of retweets, top traffic sources for the link, and
StumbleUpon users who liked the page.
* Suggested Posting Time - Su.pr will also help you determine the best posting time for
maximum traffic and exposure.
* Bookmarklet - Easily add a Su.pr bookmarklet to your Firefox browser so that you can
post/shorten urls in a matter of seconds.
* Create customized short URLs on your own domain. The Su.pr Wordpress plugin
allows you to create search engine friendly short URLs with 301 redirects.
* More TRAFFIC - Su.pr is one of the few URL shortener that also helps your content
get even more exposure. That's because every Su.pr URL exposes your content to
StumbleUpon's nearly 8 million users!
Once people click on your Su.pr url, that's where things really start to get interesting. At
the top of your post, users will see the web-based StumbleUpon toolbar, which brings all
of the features of StumbleUpon, directly into the browser, which allows the reader to like,
dislike, stumble, favorite, or comment on your content. Plus, there are also options for
easily sharing the Su.pr link on Twitter, Facebook, and via email.
If you're producing ANY kind of content online, then I would strongly encourage you to
check out Su.pr.
Additional Resources:
http://melodymccloskey.com/?p=283
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/06/09/stumble-upon-supr/
http://www.stumbleupon.com/developers/Supr:Short_URLs_on_your_own_domain/
http://www.stumbleupon.com/developers/Supr:WordPress_Plugin/
http://www.dailyseoblog.com/2009/08/su-pr-url-shortner-is-impressive-gives-your-more-
options-than-other-url-shortners/
15. Ow.ly
Much like Su.pr, Ow.ly is another URL shortener that not only shortens your URLs and
tracks your statistics but it can also increase your traffic and exposure.
Ow.ly will frame your blog post with a toolbar positioned at the top that allows readers to
quickly and easily retweet your blog post. They also allow you to quickly bookmark and
share the blog post on Facebook, Delicious, Digg, Reddit, Mixx, FriendFeed, Stumble
Upon, Google Bookmarks, and others. Ow.ly gives your readers quick and easy tools for
sharing your content around the web.
16. How to Promote Your Blog Using a Facebook Page
Facebook is NOT just about hooking up with your old high school buddies, connecting
with friends, and finding out the class clown is now driving around in a BMW. Of course,
those are all fine and good.
But Facebook, when used appropriately, is an extremely powerful marketing tool. And
I've just recently discovered the power of Facebook when it comes to increasing your
traffic and exposure. Previously, like most people, I just thought it was a cool place to
connect with friends and find out about your old peeps.
Not anymore...
Facebook is about people. And in the same way, your online business is all about people.
Facebook allows you to interact with your community in a unique social medium.
The first step to increasing your exposure on Facebook is to create a Facebook Fan Page.
Your Facebook group allows your readers to connect with each other in a way that is
simply not possible on your blog or even inside your blog comments. It's an incredible
social medium that allows you to interact with your fans on a one-to-one level. And that
power of authenticy and interaction is HUGELY powerful.
At it's core, Facebook is not just a social network, but a communications platform.
Facebook fan pages allow you to build deeper connections with your readers.
Marketing is no longer a one-way conversation.
Additional Resources:
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2009/01/17/how-to-use-facebook-to-promote-your-
blog/
http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/24109.asp
http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-excellence-
and-a-side-of-fries/
http://www.allfacebook.com/2009/03/facebook-page-strategy/
http://mashable.com/2009/06/16/killer-facebook-fan-pages/
http://johnhaydon.com/2009/04/create-interactive-facebook-page/
http://statistics.allfacebook.com/pages/leaderboard?
cat=&fans=&dg=&wg=&sb=d&sbd=d&st=0
*** http://whyfacebook.com/2008/09/25/how-to-create-and-promote-your-facebook-fan-
page/
http://www.thekbuzz.com/casestudies/top40.aspx
http://mashable.com/2009/03/30/successful-facebook-fan-page/
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-promote-your-blog-using-facebook-pages/
17. Free WSO’s
This little strategy is a golden nugget for anyone in the Internet Marketing niche to
rapidly grow their list. The technique here is to post Free WSO’s in the Warrior Forum.
These are known as Warrior Special Offers. And a lot of people in this section of the
forum list products for sale. But what I do is I actually list Free WSO’s that point people
to a squeeze page where they can get my free report, free video, etc…
This allows me to quickly and easily and 100 subscribers to my list. Very powerful! And
something that people aren’t doing nearly enough.
Now, it does cost $20 each time you list or bump your WSO. But it’s well worth it
considering the kind of list you build using this simple technique.
You can also create what I like to call a “perpetual WSO”. I learned this particular
technique from Jason Paker. This is where you continue to bump your WSO’s each day
in order to keep them on the front page. So you can actually have one or two WSO’s in
rotation each and every day, which will automate your list building process and add
anywhere from 25-50 subscribers to your list each and every day.
When you initially launch your Free WSO, you can get anywhere from 100-300
subscribers. And then you can start bumping those same WSO’s to put your listing back
on the front page, so that you can start adding people
to your list on autopilot.
18. JV Giveaways
Another great way to build your list quickly is to enter Giveaway events as a contributor.
A Giveaway event is basically a site where multiple marketers contribute a free gift. This
can be in the form of free ebooks, reports, videos, audios, etc…
Then, all of the contributors promote the Giveaway Event to their list, which puts your
offer in front of thousands of people. Your offer is listed among all of the other
contributors. And when people come to the site, they’ll see your offer. If it’s something
they’re interested in, they’ll click on it, go to your squeeze page and get signed up for
your free report.
Giveaway events allow you to piggyback on the traffic of other marketers, allowing you
to quickly add a couple hundred subscribers to your list.
Giveaways are a great way to start building your list quickly. They’re also one of the best
ways to build your "seed" list for future ad swaps.
By contributing to giveaways, you can quickly build up a list of 500 subscribers, which
you can then use to start exponentially growing your list through the power of ad swaps.
If you want to grow your list quickly, then I would look to contribute to at least 1 or 2
giveaways per month. At the same time, you don’t want to burnout your list promoting
giveaways. You must continually keep a careful balance between promotions and giving
away valuable content.
It’s critical that you provide your subscribers with TREMENDOUS VALUE and focus
on building a relationship with your subscribers.
Additional Resources:
Where to Find the Best Giveaway Events Online:
http://www.bestgiveawayevents.com/
http://thegoldengiveaway.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6405644093
http://www.giveawayriches.com
19. Hosting JV Giveaways
I would also strongly encourage you to host your own JV Giveaway. This will allow you
to add thousands of people to your list instead of just a few hundred.
The key to hosting a great Giveaway event is to have lots of good contributors. To do this
you must already have a sizeable list of your own that you can promote the Giveaway to.
So whenever you approach a potential contributor you can say, “Hey, I will be promoting
this Giveaway to my list of 10,000 subscribers so you’ll be able to get plenty of
exposure.”. I would recomment that you build a list of at least 10,000 subscribers before
you start hosting your own Giveaway Events. This gives you lots of leverage when
contacting contributors, because you now have something of value for them. And that’s
the key!
Once you have that seed list that you can promote to it’s easy to get people involved in
your Giveaway Events.
20. Ad Swaps
Once you’ve built your subscriber list up to 500-1,000 subscribers, you can then start
buiding your list exponentially using ad swaps. Ad swaps are hands-down one of the
fastest ways to build your list.
But first, let’s talk about exactly what an ad swap entails…
An ad swap occurs when two list owners each agree to mail their list on offer from the
other list owner. This is usually a free offer placed on a landing page in exchange for
someone’s name and email address. As a result, they are both adding hundreds of
subscribers to their lists.
The most effective ad swap occurs when two list owners endorse the other person’s
squeeze page offer, which gives away a free report, video, or some other content of value.
Even if you just have a small list, you can still leverage that asset to swap ads with other
list owners - helping you to grow your list at a rapid pace.
Ad swaps are a little-known tactic that all of the big internet marketers are using to add
200 to 500 subscribers per day.
So, once you’ve built a “seed” list of 500-1,000 subscribers, it’s now time to go out and
start looking for potential ad swap partners.
Here are some places online where you can find other list owners who are actively
looking to do ad swaps:
http://www.imadswaps.com
http://www.warriorforum.com/warrior-joint-ventures/
Once you have found some potential JV partners, contact them and propose to do an ad
swap with your lists. Keep in mind that it doesn’t matter if your potential JV partner has a
bigger list size.
For example, let’s say you want to swap ads with someone who has a list that has 10,000
subscribers and you have 1,000 subscribers.
Not a problem! The person with 10,000 subscribers would just send your ad out to 1,000
subscribers of their 10,000 person list. So they would just send it to a segment of their
list. Problem solved!
Here’s a powerful tip that will increase the chance of your potential partner agreeing to
do an ad swap…
Go ahead and set up a squeeze page that is specific to the marketer you’re swapping ads
with. So at the top of your squeeze page (directly under your headline), you would have
some text that says, “This is an exclusive secret download page only for Bob Smith’s
subscribers)
This makes it a lot more personal. Not only are you going to get a more
positive response from your potential partner, but you will also get higher conversions on
your squeeze page because it’s targeted directly to their subscribers.
Here’s an example… http://www.buzzblogger.com/Jay
Do you see how I personalized the landing page just for Jay. I also created a customized
URL for him. Not only will this improve your chances of getting more ad swap partners,
it also converts better because you’ve personalized the page specifically for their
subscribers.
Ad swaps are one of the best ways to grow your list quickly without spending any
money.
This is some of the very best traffic you can get because someone is endorsing your free
offer to their list of subscribers.
Plus, the really cool thing about ad swaps is that you can do them MULTIPLE times…
with the same people!
Since both of your lists are growing all the time you can do an ad swap with the same
people on a monthly basis by sending the ad swap only to your newest subscribers.
I hope you’re starting to see how powerful this is.
21. Use a Contest to Double Your List Size
Here’s a little-known technique that will double your list size… Contests!
I’m always surprised at how few people use this technique.
Clayton Makepeace, one of the smartest marketers online, has used this technique quite
effectively.
With a contest, you are simply leveraging your existing list to add thousands of additional
subscribers.
There are 3 keys to creating a successful contest that adds thousands of extra subscribers
to your list.
1. First, you need a value-packed incentive. You must have some killer prizes lined up for
your readers if you want them to actively get involved in your contest. Some great ideas
to offer as prizes include your own free products, other people’s products, and one-on-
one coaching time.
2. To enter the contest, your readers will need to do things that spread the word about
your newsletter or your free offer. You need to get your subscribers pointing people back
to your squeeze page. To do this, you can have them make videos about your free report,
basically giving a testimonial for your report and why it’s so great.
You then have them post the video on YouTube and post the link to their video in the
blog comments.
You can have them send a promo to their email list and then post the email in the
comments.
Or have them make a blog post about your free report and then have them post a link to
their blog post in the comments.
3. For each of those activities, you will need to give your readers a prize. Now, you can
either give a prize to the best blog posts, video, and email. Or you can give a prize to
everyone who makes a blog post, video, or sends an email out to their list. Of course, the
latter is going to be a much bigger incentive and get you a lot more exposure.
You can see an example of how this is done at:
http://www.makepeacetotalpackage.com/wendy-makepeace/urgent-deadline-midnight-
tonight.html
I suggest doing a contest every 3 to 4 months. Not only are you engaging your readers
(which is EXTREMELY powerful), you’re also able to double your list simply by
running a contest. This is one of THE best ways to leverage the power of your existing
list.
You see, once you’ve built a list of at least 1,000 subscribers, it becomes much easier to
start growing your list exponentially through the use of ad swaps, contests, Giveaway
Events, and JV partnerships.
22. Amazon Mechanical Turk
Many of you have probably heard of Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Mturk allows you to
hire people to do a wide range of simple tasks.
But many people do not realize it’s potential marketing power.
You can have people on Mechanical Turk do almost anything… vote for your video on
YouTube, post comments on your YouTube videos, submit your articles to social
bookmarking sites, etc… All for just a few pennies.
So, for example, let’s say you wanted to get your article on EzineArticle.com into the
“most viewed” section. Doing this would allow you to get a ton of extra exposure and
hundreds of internal backlinks within the EzineARticles website itself.
To do this, you would simply go to Amazon’s Mechanical Turk and setup what they call
a HIT (Human Intelligence Task).
You would then buy hits for people to view your article. But you’ll want to do this
slowly. (approx. 25 or so per day)
You would pay about 4 cents per hit. Also, do not republish the hit. Simply make a big
one and say 200 hits and then pause or re update the hit. This way the same worker won’t
redo the hit.
And of course, this is just the beginning of what’s possible with Mturk.
You can use it for Stumbles, Diggs, YouTube votes, YouTube comments, etc…
23. SocialElves
Have you ever wanted to get on the Front page of Digg? Well,SocialElves.com can help
you do just that. SocialElves is a social media marketing agency that can help you build
conversations around your brand and drive huge traffic to your website or blog.
They are one of the first to offer truly organic marketing campaigns on Digg.com. If
you’d like to get more exposure on your content WITHOUT having to spend months
developing power profiles on all the different social media sites, then I would highly
suggest you check out SocialElves.com
24. Buy Existing Websites - I’m always surprised how few people are buying existing
websites online. You can easily buy an untapped website and quickly turn it into an
automatic lead machine for pennies on the dollar.
There are lots of webmasters online who simply do not realize the full
potential of their website. With just a little bit of marketing knowledge,
you can maximize the site’s potential and start generating hundreds of
subscribers per day.
Here are some of my favorite places to buy websites:
http://marketplace.sitepoint.com/
http://www.viperbusiness.com/listings/ - pricey but these are golden gems that are
already generating large profits. (Many of them even come with an existing list of
subscribers.)
Another very powerful technique is to go buy underperforming sites on Clickbank and
PayDotCom. The majority of products on Clickbank are getting little to no sales per
month. Either they did a big product launch and now things have sizzled out or they
simply don’t have the proper marketing knowledge to get things rolling. Either way, it’s a
HUGE opportunity for you.
You can easily come in and buy entire products for pennies on the dollar. You can then
either use your marketing knowledge to immediately increase conversions and traffic and
bring the site back to life.
OR, you can use the content inside the product to build a huge plot of juicy content real
estate online. Many of the products on Clickbank have up to 200 pages so you can take
that content, split it up into articles and then drip-feed it to your website.
Or you can syndicate the content around the web. Turn it into video and submit them to
all the top video directories. Break the product into multiple ebooks and submit them to
all the top ebook directories online.
The possibilities are endless. You can use that content to easily generate thousands of
visitors by repurposing it into podcasts, viral reports, blog posts, videos, and articles that
you can syndicate around the web.