HOW TO GET TRAFFIC TO YOUR SITE?

Paul scol ‏@pscols: I’ve just started a website for a small photography business. What’s are some good ways to get traffic to the site?

Answer:

There’s maybe an entire post for this now that I brainstorm on it.

There’s like a ladder that starts at quality and ends with quantity. Let’s brainstorm the steps in the middle.

1) Quality. When I started Stockpickr.com I wanted a lot of traffic for it. So I did what no other site in the financial space was doing. I put up no news but non-stop ideas for stock picks. And I based the picks not on my opinions but on the opinions of great investors like Warren Buffett, etc but also other investors in the community. And I kept adding features. Like we added a Q&A (sort of a “quora for stocks”) that drove a lot of traffic. So it was a quality site. For my blog, as another example, I try to follow these two rules: quality writing + it helps people.

2) Everything else is quantity. It’s about choosing yourself rather than letting other people choose you. I used to think “If only the Wall St Journal published my articles then I would be happy” but nothing could be further from the truth anymore. Now the truth is: you need to be in charge of your own destiny. The big, bad media companies may reach down from the skies and choose you but they will do so on their terms and not yours, even if it’s against their own best interests to build your brand. Only you will build your brand.

So here’s how you choose yourself.

A) Comment on every blog related to your site. Sometimes link back to your blog but usually don’t. Don’t be annoying. Instead, become a trusted source and friend on every blog you comment on.

B) Syndicate material and ideas to the top blogs in your sector (in your case, the photo biz)

C) Put your photos all over Pinterest. Follow everyone you can on Pinterest so people follow back.

D) Create fan pages for different topics related to your photos on Facebook. Use my techniques I describe here to get 100,000+ fans for each page. Then put your photos on the page so it appears in the newsfeeds of your fans. Photos on Facebook get the highest engagement and will improve the “EdgeRank” for all your pages so they get on more and more newsfeeds.

E) You have a really great photo? tweet it. Pay to promote the tweet.

F) Write a book on photography. Self-publish. Give it away for 99 cents or cheaper if you can. Here’s my tips on self-publishing.

G) Answer questions about photography on Quora

H) Link with other photographers on LinkedIn.

Over time you will have created a platform. And it will take time. but you will build your base and it will be as if you have your own television network that you can broadcast out your message to. But, of course, it all boils down to step 1. Make you you have the greatest message in the world to broadcast.