My Buy Essay

Posts Tagged ‘drive traffic’

Back in the late 1990s, “stickiness” was the big term; how to get web visitors to return to your site &ndash hopefully, again and again. Today, the strategy has evolved into “Outbound Stickiness” &ndash going out and pulling that visitor back in.

Going back in time, there were many sticky techniques including the hosting of tools, calculators, forums/bulletin boards, and of course &ndash my favorite &ndash “favorites”.

“Favorites” pre-dated good search engine results. Back then, you as a site owner would proffer your favorite links. Typically, they related to your industry and gave web visitors the opportunity to explore other related sites. Well, as the search engines of the day improved their results, the favorites section lost its favor.

It became very hard to become an authority site. Many a client of mine back then created a “lounge” or “portal” type of section on their site hoping to be the center of their respective universe. But web surfers soon preferred to get their informational direction from a Yahoo search.

Site stickiness never lost its allure. And now, new techniques have come into play in order to gain that coveted repeat visit. This time it’s an outbound effort. Content is created that travels out from the website to seek out users. It’s driven by RSS (Really Simple Syndication), and it’s used to distribute all kinds of information including news, blogs, and podcasts. We have evolved to Outbound Stickiness.

Currently, most blogs and podcasts revolve around time-sensitive events and writer opinion. However, they are just too darned valuable to be left to those noble endeavors. Businesses, big and small see (or will soon see), RSS and its related content as an opportunity to reach out and touch someone &ndash again and again.

This trend doesn’t bother me in the least. I’ve always gotten educated or stayed current on my industry by subscribing to informative newsletters, magazines, etc., be they of the printed or electronic variety. I even appreciate advertising as an information source in its own right. The difference is that now I have the convenience of having all of my sources being dropped into a central place for pickup. It’s on demand and I like many others are demanding it.

Outbound stickiness is going to include not only news of the day, but education on the tried and true.

In order to be credible, businesses are going to need to educate through these mediums as opposed to simply advertising or branding. If they want to keep you as a subscriber of their feed, value is going to need to be continually delivered. Something easier said than done.

This all presents opportunities and challenges on a variety of levels. First, there is creation of the content. Someone is going to have to acquire and consolidate the content. To get good traction with and grow a subscriber base, recycling someone else’s content will not do the trick for long (sorry, you can’t just steal it from the net).

Next, not all of us are writers or recording artists. Internal or outsourced resources will need to be hired to actually deliver the information in an effective style and format (e.g. blog writers, podcasters, video podcasters, etc.).

You’ll need information marketers to continually review the information that has been previously published for accuracy and relevancy. Because information created and distributed to the Internet is difficult to eradicate, it won’t be a matter of just deleting old files. New information will need to be created to supersede the old. And the whole cycle will begin again.

A credence of mine (that I obtained from somewhere now unknown), is “if you can’t get out of it &ndash get into it”. Let me tell you &ndash you can’t get out of this one.

If you don’t already have a strategy to deliver some Outbound Stickiness, get it going now. It’s just not for news-junkie/conservative/liberal/techie/egocentrics anymore.

My recommendation is to publish by series. If you sell paint, do a series of 5 blog entries, podcasts, etc., on color. Next, do a series on prep and application. Next, on design trends. You get the idea.

By publishing to a series you escape the pressure of continually coming up with and extending your subject. Also, if you need a break, take it between series’. Then you won’t look like you just jumped on the bandwagon, ran out of ideas, and fell off.

Additionally, mix time-specific information and opinion with tried and true educational content.

Good luck with it all! For some of you it will be liberating, for others it’s fingers on a chalkboard (by the way, we’re going to need to come up with a new idiom for that one &ndash who uses chalk boards anymore. Any suggestions &ndash email me).

If you want some advice or have any comments &ndash email me at jboulterbastioninternet.com or visit us at .bastioninternet.com. We’re a web marketing firm located in Southern California and are happy to help.

Webmasters every day are trying to get as much traffic driven to their own websites as possible. Some methods that they are using to attain high levels of traffic include search engine optimized web pages, purchased links, directory submissions, and of course pay per click campaigns, otherwise known as PPC. PPC campaigns take within Overture’s system or Google Adwords.

But what if there was a way to grow organic link backs for a minimal cost to you, the webmaster? Relevant link backs are showing to be the new holy grail in a time where search engines are devaluing purchased links and links of a general nature. But how does one gain these relevant link backs?

Two options: you can either approach websites within your niche and ask for a link to your site to be placed on theirs, or you can have them come to you, without requiring any kind of reciprocal link. One way links are much more powerful than reciprocal links.

Of course you would rather have webmasters come to you. Time is money! To effectuate this, use a good article submission program that allows your article (which contains a bio box with your link back- very important!) to be submitted to general and specific knowledge website article database directories. The reason being is that webmasters who are looking for new content to add to their websites go to these article directories and use new content submitted by people like yourself.

This is why it would benefit you to submit unique articles to article directories to be picked up by webmasters within your niche. When they add your article to their site, with bio box in tact, you gain the benefit of having your website link on their webpage. Thus, the organic link back is born!