Go where the people are

Posted by Jeremy L. Knauff

Do you ever feel like you’ve done everything right with your website but you can’t seem to get the traction you’re looking for? Do you wonder why you don’t have more visitors for the countless hours that you’ve put into developing original and informative content?

You’re not alone. This is a challenge most people go through, but most give up before they realize their mistake. They are talking to an empty room.

For years, we’ve been fed the lie that “content is king.” From a search engine’s point of view, fresh content is great, but search engines are not your customers. People are, and if you want to get them to your website, you’ll have to connect with them first. Just as giving a sales pitch in an empty room will not produce any revenue, neither will posting content to a website that has no traffic. So what’s the solution? You need to find out which websites your potential customers are likely visiting, and reach them there. Some approaches you could take are:

• Offer to guest post on relevant blogs that have a larger following. Keep in mind, the idea is to provide original and useful information for the readers, not a press release extolling the virtues of your company. A few sentences or so at the end of the post is where you will mention your company.
• Interview people on your website. It’s a great way to connect with prominent people in your industry while getting exposure and creating fresh content.
• Participate on relevant forums, and be sure to include a link to your website in your signature. The key here is to add value to the conversation, rather than just trying to get in as many posts as you can.
• Answer relevant questions on LinkedIn and Yahoo Answers.
• Submit content to high-traffic article directories. Remember the 80/20 rule though; there are hundreds of thousands of article directories out there, but only a handful will create any exposure for you.

While you’re doing all of this, don’t forget to keep up with your own content. You want to make sure that your new visitors have an incentive to stick around.

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