Initial Startup Traffic

What do you guys do?

[JoeT321]

What do you guys do to jump-start your new websites? I just started a new one and I am using Arelis so far, and I linked it from my PR4 domain. I'm advertising in my forum signatures on other forums...

What do you guys do to start off your initial traffic?

[ska_demon]

Some people will set up a short PPC campaign with adwords or suchlike until their site starts ranking. Personally I am a skinflint so I don't use ppc much. Also my niche is very competetive and the CPC can be up to $5.

I just upload, sit back and wait. A few reciprocal links along the way tends to help with the spidering. Its going to take a couple of months to start ranking so there's plenty of time.

Ska

[trillianjedi]

What do you guys do to start off your initial traffic?

Inbound links, press releases and real world advertising (you can get that for free if you have an interesting/unusal site - call a few magazines in the niche and see if you can land a feature article).

The real long term benefit is in the inbound links, but some real world press goes a long way to getting those links.

TJ

[nzmatt]

There are many who believe inbound links will get your site sandboxed by Google. Also, they generally provide low amounts of traffic unless from larger directories and PPC.

For a site I launched a year ago I used Google Adwords to great success. I was very tight with the cost per click but made many many ads.

There are some good larger directories which charge for submission which will help.

Magazines and traditional marketing is good if you are within a specific industry...otherwise can be very expensive.

[trillianjedi]

There are many who believe inbound links will get your site sandboxed by Google.

Sandboxed and ranking later is better than never ranking.

Inbound links can actually bring a ton of traffic if they're from topical sites. Good quality traffic too.

TJ

[frenzy77]

Hey fellas:)

trillianjedi,

Q.1.For a newly launched site, would you say that they should not have inbound links pointing to them?

Reading about how having too many inbound links pointing to a site can cause the engines to believe you are trying to manipulate the engines makes me not want to place links on my site when i first launch it.
I was thinking of waiting awhile and then placing links slowly over time.

Q.2. If placing inbound links, how many would you say is a good number to start with?

Q.3. If you were to join a link exchange, will all those sites pointing to you be considered too many inbound links?

>>I found a site that says if you were to place their link on your main page, they will place your link on about 4,000 of their sites. Is this going to create too many inbound links and cause a penalty for a new site?
>>Is this a good idea for a newly launched site?

Thanks trillianjedi:)

All advice is welcome:)

frenzy77

[trillianjedi]

Hi Frenzy,

I always ignore any potential penalties that may or may not happen through linking.

I just go get links. For the record, all my new sites are now ranking very highly.

TJ

[JoeT321]

So I take it then you guys rely on all your traffic from search engines? On my PR4 website I only get 9% of traffic from search engines, all the rest from 1 or 2 of 400 good backlinks.

I started the PR4 site in January, but I rank highly in MSN and Yahoo. In Google I am ranked very poorly. Do you guys think I am being sandboxed? It's been 7 months sice I started that website.

[ska_demon]

Do you guys think I am being sandboxed?

I would say Yes!

400 Backlinks collected in 7 months is quite rapid. *IF* the sandbox is related to the number of backlinks you aquire in a certain period of time then I would think that would be the case. Your story sounds very similar to many others.

Ska

[trillianjedi]

Hey guys - let's not forget this is not the Google forum ;-)

I don't want this thread to drift into sandbox/Google zone.

Any further help need on that front, please post a new topic in Google news.

Thanks,

TJ

[crxvfr]

400 links in 7 months? Welcome to the sandbox my friend!
I've gone there almost intentionally with all my sites. Linking wrecklessly to anbody thatwilling, except porn, pharmacy, gambling, etc. To me, it takes some time to build a decent site anyways. Sandbox me, I don't care. I'll post My links where people are looking for the kind of info I'm generating by hand and become a player on my own accord. May as well have lots of inbounds after the smoke clears, right? (my experiment, not recommended for the novice) They're not going to be able to ignore me forever if I'm getting more and more and more traffic from on topic sites. Unless you're blackhat and intentionally pulling the wool over their eyes, which doesn't last long anyways, ranking a site takes time. Nobodies going to get serp 1 overnight.

[JoeT321]

Well I just have a good niche and a good website, I started getting links the first day I uploaded the site and other sites started linking me when they saw me on some bigger sites too. But I am pretty sure I'll be fine when I'm out of the sandbox.

What do you guys think of prize giveaways for traffic?

[physics]

There are many who believe inbound links will get your site sandboxed by Google.

Errrr... Don't get carried away worrying too much about that. You need at least some links to get anywhere of course!
You can get some good free links out there by looking for directory sites related to your topic (or sites that will trade recip links). There's a post somewhere in the linking forum about strings to use to find inbound link/link partner sites but I can't locate it right now...

[nzmatt]

Yeh...., of course you should get inbounds - just don't go to crazy too quickly, or it may prove counterproductive.

Spread your link gathering out nice and evenly over the next 6 months to a year. And then carry on gathering links as you carry on building content.

[nzmatt]

What do you guys think of prize giveaways for traffic?

Hard work.

In others words, what has been mentioned in this thread so far.

[physics]

Let's try to keep on topic and positive all. The question isn't "what should my linking strategy be for a new site to avoid the sandbox". It's 'what do you do to get startup traffic for a new site'.
People have mentioned so far:
PPC
Recip links and patience
Press Releases
Traditional advertising such as:
-Magazines
-Direct mail
Getting tons of links (and ride out the sandbox)
Prize giveaways (maybe good idea but get a lawyer I think)
Mini-directory submission - smaller, relevant directories that give one way or recip links

Other things I can think of:
Advertising in a related e-zine / newsletter
E-mail advertising (opt-in lists of course)
Relevant posts about your new site on relevant forums that you're a member of (that allow promotion, keep in mind that WebmasterWorld.com doesn't ;) ). Not necessarily for link value but for relevant exposure.
Buying links
Buying ads on other sites that aren't necessarily text links or even spiderable
ODP directory submission - fire and forget
Yahoo directory submission ... or does that fall under the paid links category ;)
Buy and expired domain for your new site that already has relevant traffic
Buy an existing site for your new site that already has a relevant user base.
Write articles and allow others to use if they give a link to your site
Write a cool app (same as above)
Froogle feed if it's an e-commerce site
Google sitemap especially for a large site
...