5 Smart Ways to Get Traffic without Depending on Google
I was devastated when I read an article from Zac on John Chow’s blog recently about how Google is shutting down blog networks, the major victim being Build My Rank. I was already considering using Build My Rank when this happened, but what happened proved the importance of not relying on just one traffic source.
You might be thinking the problem is with Build My Rank’s approach to link building, but I can tell you from experience that even innocent webmasters are suffering from the many changes Google has been making lately in the name of “improving search engine results”.
Traffic from Google is great, especially if you can master how to get a lot of it, but on the long run it is important not to let your business rely on just one source of traffic. There are smarter ways to generate traffic to your blog, especially ones that will ensure you don’t have to rely on Google forever.
1. Work on Building an Active Mailing List
You’ve probably heard it several times over that the money is in the list, but the reality is that the traffic is also in the list.
Your email list is an asset, and you can use it to drive traffic to your blog repeatedly if you can cultivate a relationship with your list.
I’ve heard it somewhere before that it takes around 7 – 8 appearances of an ad for it to stick in the head of the viewer. The same thing goes for email marketing, and the more you get in touch with your subscribers, the more likely they are to check out your brand.
You can build your list using any of the other tactics I’ll be sharing below, and you can also build your list using Google if that’s what you want. But first, focus on getting the subscribers, cultivate a relationship with them and look for ways to drive them back to your blog.
Aweber is the preferred mailing list among most internet marketers and site owners.
2. Multimedia Marketing
SEO is the rage these days, and a lot of us are focusing only on ways to get our site ranked in the top search engine rankings instead of capitalizing on the untapped power of multimedia content.
It could be via videos, podcasts or even presentations, there are huge sites online with an audience waiting to be tapped into.
Youtube alone serves over 1 billion views every day, and there are several other video streaming sites with a huge market share. The iTunes directory is also being used by millions of people, and that’s a great place for you to get exposure for your blog.
Don’t just focus on the written text. Capitalize on other forms of content to get more exposure for your blog.
The good news is that Youtube is owned by Google, and multimedia content is being favored by the search engines lately. In other words, instead of optimizing your blog to rank in Google, optimize your videos and audios to rank well in Youtube and iTunes, and you will increase your chances of multimedia success.
3. JV and Partnership Opportunities
There are influencers in every niche, and there always will be.
Smart marketers learn to leverage the audience of others. The reality is that there are hundreds of people who have spent years and decades building their own audience, and these people have been able to grow over the years and get their audience to trust them.
You can get more traffic to your blog by looking for a way to partner with these successful people while growing your blog at the same time. The truth about this is that it isn’t always about money, but creativity. Some people won’t give you access to their audience no matter how much you pay, but they will repeatedly write about you if you’re creative enough.
Sometimes, you only need to exchange a service they really need with them in exchange for plugging you to their audience. Some people you can target are email marketers, bloggers with big audience, social media influencers, and interview based sites. Look for ways to contribute value to the lives of these people, and they’ll happily give you free exposure in return.
4. Write Case Studies and Tutorials
Look for magazines and company newsletters in your niche, especially those whose services you are using, and look for a way to help them solve some of their problems. Sometimes, a problem they want to solve is getting people to believe more in their services, and a case study on how you got great results from using it will be mostly beneficial. Sometimes, a problem they might be facing is with explaining how their services work to their users. You can solve this problem by writing a tutorial on how to easily use the service. Each of these problems present you with an opportunity to market yourself, and if you can capitalize on this they will end up calling you back to share your experience in the future.
5. Reply to Every Comment, Email and Social Media Comment
Engagement is the currency of the web, and smart people are discovering this right now.
The real key to business success is to get a lot of word of mouth marketing; otherwise you will keep on marketing for years and have little to show for it.
The key to creating more word of mouth marketing isn’t just to have a great product; it is to create a good first impression. Reply to emails and comments on your blog in minutes, focus on helping your readers as much as you can for free, and they will contribute so much traffic than money can buy.
What’s more important is that we trust our friends more than marketers online, so if you could get people to recommend you to their friends you will be able to get more exposure than any marketing could.
This guest post was written by John Holt, a led lights wholesaler.
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It's really unbelievable. Needs to check out these smart way before putting them in us.
Hi Zac,
These are yet wonderful tips on the best ways to get traffic to your site. It's unfortunate what happened to Build My Rank and my guess is more and more sites will be shut down depending on what Google decides to do so yes I agree we should find more ways to get traffic without depending on Google. For me, the best way is still building relationships with the blogging community, great content that offer value and interacting with your readers as much as possible.
– Cristina
My recent post Depression and Alcohol: Is There a Link?
Yeah, I was devastated too when I heard Build My Rank had to close up shop. I think the amount of money some folks use to invest in a network like build my rank they could use that same money to develop their own safe private network.
Google is becoming very unpredictable so it's extremely risky to just depend on them for traffic. Thanks for sharing these different traffic alternatives. It will take a little time to build up traffic from these other sources at first but I think it's definitely worth it in the long run.
My recent post Beginner Electric Guitar Lessons Online – The Basics You Should Know
great theme on this post; loving this.
"You’ve probably heard it several times over that the money is in the list, but the reality is that the traffic is also in the list."<—-wow…
"Engagement is the currency of the web"<—-WOW.
"The real key to business success is to get a lot of word of mouth marketing; otherwise you will keep on marketing for years and have little to show for it."<—yep – because you're doing all the work. Instead of jumping from one tiny marketing effort to another (or very little effective effort), you simply do, the few things you do, REALLY, REALLY well; so people naturally tlk, and things go viral; right?
My recent post You may think it’s gone, but it’s always there ready to sneak up on you
And not a word about social marketing ?
My recent post Click one of the post titles above to include it at the end of your comment
Done it already in multimedia. Remember that YouTube is a social media site so it counts.
It's really smart ways, especially multimedia marketing because its always works.
My recent post How To Set Up My Own Agriculture Websites For Free.
Has anyone else noticed something special that makes a good list email?
For me, it's when they add some 'personalization' into it. When I'm on someone's list, I'm there because I want to know what they are thinking, doing and advise. I want to get to know them as a person.
By personalizing their emails, it makes me trust people more. I like to know that life for them is not always a 'bed of roses' nor do I want to know that they are stuck on the thorns. I like to hear about their failures too as well as their successes. To my way of thinking, this is an honest way of communicating and they are treating me with the respect I deserve.
Hey Zac. I agree with a lot of your tips you mentioned above.
I just think that the overall goal for EVERYONE is to get away from google traffic. With the way they are changing up their algo, it is not a stable business model.
The best tip I believe is the email list….build trust with them, then your good.
-Omar
Great resources, this post is really a god send for anyone interested in getting more people visiting his/her blog without depending on Google for traffic. I found your suggestions useful and thanks for them.
Zac i just read in most of your post about the Aweber.And now i am very excited to use it but i don`t want to invest even 1$..Can you provide some alternative to it.?
My recent post 2 Killer Ways To Generate Website Traffic Which You Don`t Know Before
Before try Awever, I've used Mailchimp..it is free until you keep a little subscribers list and send few emails to them
My recent post The Central Bank of China enters $ 34 billion of liquidity in the banking system
Point number 2 is great Zac. Until recently on my blog all I did was post blog posts and call it a day. Now I take that content and repurpose it on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, YouTube, and Slideshare to name a few places.
I find with just a little bit of extra work you can definitely get a lot more traffic to your blog instead of just being lazy and only doing blog posts.
Also it sucks to rely on Google for traffic as they can at any minute penalize your blog for something you’ve done with it even if it isn’t blackhat. If I could get all my traffic without having to rely on Google I would be pretty happy.