Forum Moderators: phranque
I just don't know how to get people to my website. I also don't have any ideas for useful content, but that is something I continue to think about, and can't be worried about right now.
My site has been online since 1998. In the beginning, I simply concentrated on delivering product information as best I was able. I learned at WebmasterWorld that "Content Is King", so I wanted to present my products in the best possible light and I wanted to do the job better than my suppliers.
I set about doing the following:
Once the products themselves were presented in detail and in the best possible light, I set about providing peripheral information for those interested in investigating further. I ended up with 18 more pages of good content and very good grist for the search engines.
Maps
As mine is a niche market travel site, I then decided I would draw detailed maps of each area. A total of 16 more pages ... all keyword targeted.
Eventually, I decided that since the maps were there, I might as well make them useful for anyone and everyone. I decided to link to all travel related businesses in each of these little areas.
Some may ask why? Well it was really just to give other visitors (who may not be interested in my products but managed to find the maps) a little something which they too may be interested in.
Why would I do that?
1) It gives people a reason to keep coming back.
2) It makes my site somewhat of an authority in my niche and in travel in general.
3) It gives people a reason to talk about my site on travel forums and to link to my pages when they are talking about specific things in specific areas.
4) It brings in traffic from people already interested in my part of the world.
5) Web site owners in my part of the world to whom I have linked think I am a nice person for having linked to them for free!
The maps became so popular, that I wondered how I could build upon the traffic they were pulling into the site and become even more of a minor authority site?
Photo Directory
The site was doing very well and I was happy with the traffic and income generated, but I was getting bored. Since the maps of each area were so popular, I wondered if photos of each area might not be just as popular or even moreso. I pondered it for quite a long time.
It occurred to me that many of the businesses in each of these areas are places my clients like to visit and patronize. I could make the photo gallery one huge and very detailed itinerary! I decided the project was a go!
I already had my little Olympus C730 which I used to take shots of my products, so I began taking days (usually weekends) when I could get out and about to get shots of each area.
The photo gallery is now 42 pages with 340 photographs. Each shot is another keyword or keyword phrase which has a direct relationship to my niche market. It has taken 7 months and every spare minute I have had. I am only half way finished. I figure I should be done sometime next August.
Net Result
My traffic has trippled and my income has nearly doubled in the last 6 months. Free natural links are coming in all the time and some pretty decent ones too!
Once I am finished with the photo gallery, I have a couple more ideas as to how I may further expand the site and my traffic.
A web site is a work in progress which continues to evolve ... and like a good Rum, it gets better with age!
Many will say, "Well, we don't have a travel site, we just sell fuzzy blue widgets." To that I would ask, is your site the very best web site in the world selling fuzzy blue widgets? If the answer is no, then you need to get to work making it so!
Content is King ... and I am its humble servant! :)
