Mostly Viral Top Traffic Alternatives to Search Engines

[Brett_Tabke]

The Mostly Viral Top Traffic Alternatives to Search Engines List
by Brett Tabke

As the search engine referrals continue to fall for most on the web, we are in a scramble to find alternatives. That scramble has become a panic for some that have traditionally relied on the now fading search engines for traffic and repeat traffic.

The following is a collection of ideas that are mostly viral in nature for acquiring new traffic and maximizing your existing traffic.

Recip Link Exchange
Both traditional and non-traditional link exchanges can work wonders. The biggest change has been the coming of "strategic alliances".

You sell forks, and the guy down the street sells spoons - there ya go. It pays to go out and find similar sites that sell complementary products to yours.

Directories: Both large and Topical
We all know about the Open Directory Project, The 'hoo, and Looksmart. Are you taking time to play the smaller directories? Although most smaller directories have taken some serious body shots from search engines because they are viewed as competition, most of the older ones have weathered the storm.

Take time to investigate the directory thoroughly as there are some real scams out there that are nothing more than loss leaders for megaspam. Stay far away from FFA's, Top 100 sites, "awards managers", and other "scam of the day" sites.

Press releases
Although a bit pricey for most sites, a good BizWire targeted press release can generate good prequalified traffic. It's important traffic to analyze prior to sending out a release, because you need to speak to that audience.

Contests
Can certainly be repeat traffic generators and good lost leaders.

Awards Pages
It's old, it's tired, it's dumb - sad to say, it still works. You know the drill.

Guest Books
Use 'em properly. View the site, say something nice, include your url if offered.

Launching an Affiliate Program
Got an affiliate program or affiliate program like gimmick? It's amazing how fast you can get your url onto a few hundred websites via an affiliate program.

Ecards
Similar in nature to E-A-Friend. You me and everyone else here think they are a has been dumb idea anymore. It's strange that they still work - but they do. Everything someone sends one, you url goes out with it.

Newsletters
You know 'em you love 'em. 'nuff said, but I included them for completeness.

Article submission
Submitting articles around the web to places that accept open article submission, is a great way "name brand" yourself. Letting other sites reprint your content has it's obvious rewards in link backs and name branding. Make sure to get the rules of distribution up front.

Check this out: I just looked up various viral promotion kw's in a search engine. In the top 100 results there was one article listed eight times from eight different domains that the guy had shared the article with! He viral marketed his viral marketing story - that's cool! He gets 8 links, and probably dozens of times the exposure. Viral is cool.

Check this out 2: Egads, they are paying $16.50 a click for data recovery on Overture! (think about it). How much are clicks to your site worth? Are they worth giving away some articles?

Mailing lists
Careful contributions to daily email lists can be excellent traffic generators. Check out the email list and see if it has a web archive. Not only contribute to the email list to get your signature file noticed by the list readers, but also to get your url onto that web archive for search engines to see.

Pete and RePeat.
How many times has a friend forwarded you the "joke of the day"? Ever found a "virus alert" from a friend? How about a simple, "check this out dude"? Viral email - think about it. There's traffic there for the right hot thing of the day. Remember the hamsters?

Don't forget the kids!
q: Why did the computer squeak?
a: Because somebody stepped on the mouse!

Kids are awesome at viral marketing. They are a little unseen army of traffic generators out there. They don't swap sack lunches anymore, they swap email and urls beamed from their Palm PDA's!

Usenet, Forums
Used properly, usenet and forums can be good traffic producers. Always check the TOS [webmasterworld.com] of sites to see what is acceptable and what is not [webmasterworld.com]. There is little that is more powerful that a good old profile referral [webmasterworld.com].

E-a-friend
Hey, pass it on would ya! In the classic free email style of promotion. Email-a-Friend scripts are widely available and some are quite good. In fact, if you look at the bottom of this thread, you'll see one in action. Hey, pass it on! ;)

E-A-Friend Specials
Give a discount for your regular visitors that refer a friend. Tell 'em joe sent you.

The Big Giveaway!
Who doesn't love a good web freebie? We know they come with strings attached. The beauty of a product give away is that they are your product - hence, your strings! Email signups, newsletter subscription - whoa, it's a builtin long term client base. Be sure to get optin permission for any mailings. (it's your strings, your product. Use em!)

Conferences and Trade Shows
Do you do b2b? Ever been to a trade show in your industry? If not, why not? Go to one, you'll go to them all. The contacts and promotion can be killer. Be sure to take some freebies to give away for their goodie bags!

Weblog
Got something to say that isn't quite appropriate for your site? Not pc to a general audience? Then start a blog! Carefully used blogs can drive a good deal of traffic and bring in prequalifed customers. Example: Scalizi.com [scalzi.com] daily column (similar to a true blog, but not quite). He's a writer that does a blog to both get it off his chest and show off his writing skills too -- win-win. Prequalified traffic at minimal expense.

Traditional offliners

Classifieds
Small ads in the local paper. Some papers filter out domain names, but others allow them inline with other ads. These can be quite productive. Tracking them is always a problem. You need to use the shortest url possible, which means you will have no idea where the traffic came from. You can get around it with a temporary domain used exclusively for promotion activity.

Trade Magazines
In the back of most trade magazines are small classified like sections. A simple well written ad can bring in prequalified traffic at affordable prices.

TV and Radio
Got budget to burn? Depending on the size of your local market, radio ads can range from $20 each to a several thousand for short commercials. This is where it is important to have an easy to type domain name. There are so many options here, that tv and radio is best left to traditional offline marketing firms.

Something New
When it is time to move on - move on. VR is just hitting and should continue [vrcast.com...] . Same is true with new OS's and platforms - don't wait. Build pages early and often.

On the other hand, simply sponsoring a segment or feature on the local news can be very cost effective. I know of one local company in a 200k viewer market that sponsors the local tv weather for $30k a year. Works out to be pennies on the dollar for them. At the bottom of several weather maps is their domain name.

<example>
Pssst Hey! You like this article? Then hit that email-a-friend link at the bottom and let ten of your pals know that you are a pal! To be a friend you got to e-a-friend ;)
</example>

[europeforvisitors]

i say never use email for press releases. it will be dealt with as nothing more than spam because in reality, that's all it is.

I run an editorial content site, and I get a lot of press releases. I prefer e-mail releases to printed ones. It's much quicker to glance at an e-mail message and, if necessary, delete it than it is to tear open an envelope, unfold the press release, see what it says, and toss it into the recycling bin. Also, if I use anything from the release, being able to cut and paste in Windows is much more convenient than typing.

I don't like to get press releases as file attachments, though. Having to double-click on an icon and wait for Word to open just adds an unnecessary step.

[dfrancis]

Great information. When you refer to FFA's and top 100's, can you describe these a bit more? What differentiates these from some of the smaller, yet useful directories.

[weisinator]

When you refer to FFA's and top 100's, can you describe these a bit more?

Oilman didn't like the top 100 example I gave simply because of the pop-up hell (sorry about that), but it's the only one I have run across. I'll try again with an explanation...

A top 100 breaks down like this: you list yourself and you provide a reciprocol link to the list. When a user clicks your link to the list, you get bumped up in the rankings.

The downside? You start at the bottom. If you don't have traffic to begin with, the link won't do any good, and the only help given is to the sites in the top three positions, not to mention the pop-up hell that the list itself spawns. :)

[Brett_Tabke]

>>As the search engine referrals continue to fall for most on the web...<<

Is there any evidence to support that claim?

Real world only. I think most in this biz have found that referrals from se's continue to fall. The same positions across various se's don't pull like they used at all. Even composite groups of sites equally (or better) positioned than they used to be - don't pull.

To me, it's obvious that surfers have settled into routines and "home team" pages. People don't randomly surf the way they used to. It's a hostile web and not worth the effort for many to wade through it. Over blown pages by 100k, gratuitous flash, difficult to use DHTML, slow loading pages, viruses, bait and switch, popups, interstatials, trick links - it's all had the effect of surfers giving up the sunday cruise surfing-for-fun activities.

It's why I think the most important tip in this thread was Rogers. I never used to care for the "bookmark this page" since it was so incompatible, but it works. Once they bookmark it, they might be back.

[papabaer]

It's a hostile web and not worth the effort for many to wade through it. Over blown pages by 100k, gratuitous flash, difficult to use DHTML, slow loading pages, viruses, bait and switch, popups, interstatials, trick links - it's all had the effect of surfers giving up the sunday cruise surfing-for-fun activities.

Right! Which means that when new visitors DO arrive at your site, can you say you've done all you can to make their visit pay-off? Now more than ever all the priciples of "useability" and "sticky-ness" need to be utilized if you have any hopes of building traffic.

Do this and the VIRAL part will take care of itself...

[fathom]

To me, it's obvious that surfers have settled into routines and "home team" pages. People don't randomly surf the way they used to. It's a hostile web and not worth the effort for many to wade through it. Over blown pages by 100k, gratuitous flash, difficult to use DHTML, slow loading pages, viruses, bait and switch, popups, interstatials, trick links - it's all had the effect of surfers giving up the sunday cruise surfing-for-fun activities.

And you don't want the random searcher either. The old surfer was redundant traffic "oh this is COOL!" Oh sure you could say "I had a million today!"... "What dollars in sales?" ... "No! don't be so foolish, visitors!"

We are a species made from routines, preference, likes and dislikes.

The other fact is that no two routines are identical.

I don't need a new computer every day, or a new web site, snowsuite, software, or game every day. And this is the routine.

However, the web is slowly becoming the media of choice when that routine "needs" to change (I need a new ... (any of the above)).

When that need is there, the impulse is there. And most often, in this world of "scams" people are more likely to seek out the best buy or the best value. Customer loyalty is now more than ever based on "the best for the buck" than "well, I always go there"!

Routinely people stay with familarity but they also routinely break from routine.

Another deep thought from Fathom

[pleeker]

One thing I would add about advertisements in traditional media. We always tell our clients to make sure to include their URL in any advertising they do. Duh.

But we also encourage them to run an advertisement in which the focus is their web site. Rather than run a regular old boring ad that mentions the URL as an afterthought, change the ad to focus entirely on a sales pitch for using the web site.

Some real estate agencies in this area have run some great ads that don't mention a word about the experience of their agents, the number of listings they have, their services for home buyers, etc. -- the ads only promote using the web site(s).

[Brett_Tabke]

*kick*

/ someone asked for it.