I may literally be going insane due to lack of traffic.

This is a 100% serious post. I wish everyone would read it.

[CannoThinkOfOne]

Short story: literally no traffic comes, regardless of the time and efforts put in.

Here's what I and, I assume, most people without money do when launching a new unique website that took forever to carefully put together from scratch and which contains absolutely no advertisements or anything else that could be annoying and off-putting:

I pay $150 to test AdWords. I get ~100 clicks from bots or completely uninterested surfers who apparently clicked on the ads by accident, out of malice or because the ad matching was poor. A complete waste of money, unless the budget is at least 10x bigger and you can afford to do it daily. But with that kind of money, you can get real advertisements instead of feeding that Google scam…

I submit both the main URL and then each and every post to Digg. Zero votes, zero clicks and zero comments. Doesn't matter if I use the same account or different ones.

I submit both the main URL and then each and every post to Reddit. A handful of clicks, sometimes a couple of comments (ON REDDIT!) and mostly negative votes, seemingly out of habit/malice. Doesn't matter if I use the same account or different ones.

I tweet about it all. Always zero clicks from Twitter except from link checker bots.

I friendly manually ask people to visit my new site in a chat room. Ban and insults.

I friendly manually ask people in private to visit my new site. Insults and reported, then k-lined for spam.

I put the URL in the signature and post genuine, high-quality posts on major forums. Insults, harassment and virtually no clicks. Definitely not worth the effort either.

I write nice, relevant comments to major blog entries and discreetly add my site's address. No clicks.

I indiscreetly dump my site's address in random forms as an experiment, sometimes automating this in desperation. No clicks. Deletion of entries.

I manually spend hours upon hours of actively finding the correct e-mail addresses for news tips (or when unavailable, fill in their web forms) for all newspapers and news outlets in existence and ask them in a very friendly and professional way to write something about it. Zero response. Nothing written anywhere.

I make a YouTube account and upload attractive video clips to get many views and put my address in the "description" field and on the profile. Zero clicks. Account banned in a sneaky way by Google without stating the reason.

I always try to work on SEO, but since SEO, for all practical purposes beyond the bare minimum things you can do locally, depends entirely on the number and "quality" of in-links, no traffic comes from search engines either. People don't link to quality content at all, because they don't find it in the first place.

I keep polishing the site, add features, weed out bugs, create quality content, do all of these things over and over again, constantly trying new angles… until I finally give up and try something different. A clear pattern has now formed: it doesn't matter what you do.

It's as if there's a great party prepared where everyone's invited, but almost nobody shows up. That's exactly what it feels like after months of planning and executing all of this.

Then I check what's hot on random sites and I see links to spammy blogs full of ugly ads with copied and pasted content ranking #1 with thousands of upvotes, comments and praise from various communities.

There is something terribly wrong somewhere. I'm sure I can't be the only one in this situation, and I'm also sure it doesn't make sense to anyone who hasn't been there. The sad fact, however, seems to be that the quality of a product/service doesn't matter at all. It's all about knowing the right people, having the initial funding and plain dumb luck. There is no other way to explain it, and maybe it's obvious to some people… still, it's extremely hard to actually, truly "buy" that theory/fact, as it requires extreme amounts of cynicism.

The entire "system" that the commercial Internet relies on really is designed to stop people like me from ever getting their voices heard. It's a bizarre paradox to have such a huge part of the total human population connected to each other, yet it's more difficult than ever to get a message out. Sure, you can write as much as you want and publish it on your site, but nobody will read it. So in practice, it doesn't really exist at all. "If a tree falls and nobody is around, does it make a noise?"

I've read countless inspiring posts over the years by people who went from rags to riches, but it unfortunately doesn't seem to have anything to do with anything but pure dumb luck. That's what I have to conclude from this miserable life.

*checks site*

<sarcasm>Oh. Nice. The trusty old Googlebot has paid me a visit in the last few hours. I'm gonna be rich!</sarcasm>

[wheel]

You need to keep at it, and up your game.

You: drop a link on a forum. Get deleted, no traffic.
Me: drop a link on a forum. I get traffic, and other posters start dropping my URL on the forum as a 'solution'.

The difference? I posted 1000 relatively garbage-free posts to the forum first.

The entire "system" that the commercial Internet relies on really is designed to stop people like me from ever getting their voices heard.

The entire system allows one person working on a computer to take on the Walmart's of their industry. That doesn't mean everyone can do it, but the opportunity exists. Certainly it won't happen these days though, not by doing what everyone else is doing. Walk your own path.

Or you can be like me, too stupid to quit. That works reasonably well. (or to look at it another way, success at adwords isn't success at adwords. It's a matter of repeated and successive failures until you've exhausted what doesn't work and you're left with slowly incremental things that do work. Most people quit long before that - I think you mentioned something about that).

[CannoThinkOfOne]

> The difference? I posted 1000 relatively garbage-free posts to the forum first.

Yeah, that sounds... worth the trouble. (Why would anyone care about what you posted before in deciding to follow a link?)

[lucy24]

Good heavens. Is that what people do? I thought you just made a site and let the googlebot run wild.

Someone lands on your page asking a question that isn't answered on the page? Maybe you could answer it. Had one the other day that I actually knew the answer to, just never thought of putting it on that particular page. Looked up a bunch of closely related questions while I was at it. Gave me a chance to get in a few nasty cracks about (long-deceased) missionary linguist. Heh, heh.

Whoops. Better go edit that other page where I describe sub-page as 99% information. Make that 95%.

Maybe you can't answer the question. Maybe you can't even fathom why anyone thought the page would answer the question. Possibly I need to re-enact the search and see where three words in juxtaposition would lead g### to get the wrong idea. (Or possibly the human visitor is just an idiot. You can't win 'em all.)

Why would anyone care about what you posted before in deciding to follow a link?

I really, really wish I could believe that was meant satirically.

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

Who are you and why would I want to visit your site?

That's a serious question you need to not only find an answer for it but you need to somehow convey this information to me within seconds when I visit one of your pages. You can improve the experience by working on YOUR site, not by working on your social profiles. That being said this is what I think...

- I'm not going to follow you on twitter if you send me links to every post automatically.
- I'm not going to give you a thumbs up on Reddit or Digg if you link to your own content.
- I avoid ads like the plague but I'm a webmaster so I'm biased to not making money for someone, or costing someone, simply with a click. Regular visitors are likely less biased, they don't know how much of the internet is driven by the cost of a click.
- Until I know what you're about, and find value in your written word, I won't interact with you because I don't talk to strangers about what THEY want to talk about. I'm more willing to share what I want to talk about though, are you listening?

[koan]

Yeah, that sounds... worth the trouble. (Why would anyone care about what you posted before in deciding to follow a link?)

The main scenario I can imagine, where your situation would occur, is one where your site is about a tired, old spammy topic no one is interested in anymore, with too much competition already, that offers absolutely nothing of interest to visitors, and your marketing approach is that of a spammer that's just in it for the quick buck that people can smell a mile away. Something like a get rich quick blog, how to make money on the web, fraudulent diets, casinos, viagra, recycled affiliate content, etc. Or maybe just trying to do a "me too" of a popular idea, like a "new digg", or a "new youtube", without improving the concept, just trying to ride their coat tails. If you think the whole world is mad and you're the only one sane... well you probably are the one that is insane. Me, me, me.. that's pretty much what I felt reading your whole post, instead of "this site is really great, once visitors discover it, they will instantly love it".

[viralvideowall]

The market is WAYYYYY oversaturated, folks. Dot com bomb #2 is right around the corner.

[CannoThinkOfOne]

Sgt_Kickaxe: Yes, I've read "How to Win Friends and Influence People" too.

koan: You couldn't be more wrong about that. :/

[wheel]

Yeah, that sounds... worth the trouble. (Why would anyone care about what you posted before in deciding to follow a link?)

So you want the traffic but aren't willing to do what it takes to get the traffic.

Perhaps scoffing at people that have shown you what works for them will help?

[CannoThinkOfOne]

> So you want the traffic but aren't willing to do what it takes to get the traffic.

If writing 1000 posts just to get a few clicks (which makes no sense to begin with), then yes, that's definitely correct. Only a person with unlimited time would do that. It's a criminal waste of time and I frankly doubt that you did so. Perhaps you would've posted those anyway, in which case it kind of makes sense.

> Perhaps scoffing at people that have shown you what works for them will help?

I don't know what to respond to this. I haven't "scoffed" at you or anyone else.

[pageoneresults]

Wow! That's a lot of effort for little to no return.

koan: You couldn't be more wrong about that.

I read koan's response and based on your success to date, it sure sounds like koan is on the right track. Your outline above reads just like any other canned marketing approach to the Internet. Not only that, a good portion of what you have outlined is on the list of things NOT to do.

Account banned in a sneaky way by Google without stating the reason.

Let one of us look at the video(s) and we'll give you the reason why.

I indiscreetly dump my site's address in random forms as an experiment, sometimes automating this in desperation. No clicks. Deletion of entries.

WTF did you expect?

That's exactly what it feels like after months of planning and executing all of this.

Did you say months? And it's a new site?

I read the above outline of the work you've done and it reads like a Sweatshop SEO todo list. At least 50% of what you've listed is on most of our NOT todo lists.

What is it that you're selling anyway?

[CannoThinkOfOne]

> At least 50% of what you've listed is on most of our NOT todo lists.

Really? Oh, well... the other 50% didn't work anyway.

> What is it that you're selling anyway?

A service which is free to use and is very nice.

[pageoneresults]

Really? Oh, well... the other 50% didn't work anyway.

Let me opine further on the strategies you've outlined above.

Which contains absolutely no advertisements or anything else that could be annoying and off-putting.

You started off on solid ground. But then we get into this...

I pay $150 to test AdWords. I get ~100 clicks from bots or completely uninterested surfers who apparently clicked on the ads by accident, out of malice or because the ad matching was poor. A complete waste of money.

Do you know how much time is involved in setting up a "basic" AdWords account when dealing with a very small budget? If not done correctly, you'll easily burn $150 with little to no return. It also sounds like you had your ads showing on ALL networks.

I submit both the main URL and then each and every post to Digg. Zero votes, zero clicks and zero comments. Doesn't matter if I use the same account or different ones.

That's a strong indication that what you're submitting is NOT Digg material.

I submit both the main URL and then each and every post to Reddit. A handful of clicks, sometimes a couple of comments (ON REDDIT!) and mostly negative votes, seemingly out of habit/malice. Doesn't matter if I use the same account or different ones.

That's a strong indication that what you're submitting is not Reddit material. At least the Reddit folks are kind enough to vote on it and give you hints.

I tweet about it all. Always zero clicks from Twitter except from link checker bots.

I'd like to see the Twitter account. One look at your Followers/Following and I can tell you why there is little to no activity on Twitter.

I friendly manually ask people to visit my new site in a chat room. Ban and insults.

Unless you're part of the group that is "known" in the chat, dropping in and asking people to visit your new site is not the thing to do. Ban and insults are the expected outcome.

I friendly manually ask people in private to visit my new site. Insults and reported, then k-lined for spam.

Absolutely one of the worst things you can do. Unless you're known to those people, sending them unsolicited "private" requests to visit your new site is considered spam and will get you banned quickly.

I put the URL in the signature and post genuine, high-quality posts on major forums. Insults, harassment and virtually no clicks. Definitely not worth the effort either.

Sheesh, this is not the 90s! The year is 2011 and it sure sounds like you're following a 20th Century Playbook.

I write nice, relevant comments to major blog entries and discreetly add my site's address. No clicks.

Ah-ha, a Blog Spammer, just the reputation you want to establish when launching a new site. I wonder how many blacklists your IP has been submitted to? Unless of course you've been using a proxy to do all of this?

I indiscreetly dump my site's address in random forms as an experiment, sometimes automating this in desperation. No clicks. Deletion of entries.

I have a few choice words for you but since we're in a public venue, I'll refrain from using them.

I manually spend hours upon hours of actively finding the correct e-mail addresses for news tips (or when unavailable, fill in their web forms) for all newspapers and news outlets in existence and ask them in a very friendly and professional way to write something about it. Zero response. Nothing written anywhere.

At this point, I would have gotten the hint that maybe what I was promoting is not really "all that".

I make a YouTube account and upload attractive video clips to get many views and put my address in the "description" field and on the profile. Zero clicks. Account banned in a sneaky way by Google without stating the reason.

It must have been something serious. I don't see many people discussing YouTube account bans.

People don't link to quality content at all, because they don't find it in the first place.

Apparently your offerings are of no interest to the groups you've been targeting.

I keep polishing the site, add features, weed out bugs, create quality content, do all of these things over and over again, constantly trying new angles… until I finally give up and try something different.

Based on your statement that it has been "months of planning and executing all of this" it sure sounds like you've not allowed enough time and you've taken the wrong approach to online marketing of your service(s).

A clear pattern has now formed: it doesn't matter what you do.

It absolutely, positively does matter what you do. And, based on the above, you've been doing mostly all of the wrong things. :(

What is it that you're selling? "A service which is free to use and is very nice."

Okay, so you have no ads and you are providing a free service. How do you make money?

[CannoThinkOfOne]

> based on the above, you've been doing mostly all of the wrong things. :(

But then what am I *supposed* to do, which actually works?

> How do you make money?

I don't. I gave up the idea of making money initially (until it's become popular) long ago.

[pageoneresults]

But then what am I *supposed* to do, which actually works?

We don't know. We can rule out what you've been doing above so what does that leave you with?

I can tell you that any type of Social Media exposure, Forums, Chats, etc. are going to take a considerable amount of time to nurture. You don't just set up an account one day and then start Tweeting and expect the visitors to come flocking, it doesn't work like that. All of what you've done above takes time, strategic planning and continual maintenance.

Again, it sure sounds like your service is not something your targeted audience is interested in. You've taken a "kitchen sink" approach to marketing your services online. In the process, you've already tarnished your name and service in those venues where you've been banned, hopefully they weren't your targeted audience?

You need to establish some form of credibility with your "targeted audience". The path you're on now surely doesn't do that.

How do you make money? "I don't. I gave up the idea of making money initially (until it's become popular) long ago."

You know, I want to believe that your service is something that people would be interested in. Unfortunately the way you've outlined your approach, and the responses you've received, the service appears to be of little to no value?

[CannoThinkOfOne]

Regarding the kitchen sink: "(idiomatic) Almost everything, whether needed or not." <-- Sure... I tried everything, because none of them gave any results. Now it's been some time with barely any page loads at all. One thousand times zero is still zero, you know.

> the service appears to be of little to no value

I simply *know* that it has great value, but nobody gives it a chance and very few even know about it. The word is so incredibly difficult to get out.

I just don't know what to do except make something shallow and completely unrelated which becomes super popular and then use that to bring people to the site with the deep value. But that's easier said than done... of course. I don't have to tell anyone that.

[pageoneresults]

I simply *know* that it has great value, but nobody gives it a chance and very few even know about it. The word is so incredibly difficult to get out.

You need to define who your targeted audience are. Once you've done that then you need to come up with a strategy to become "part of the audience". You'll need to develop relationships with your audience. One way to do that is through Social Media connections, those take time to develop. Or, you take the quick route and hire a firm who specializes in Social Media to get the ball rolling.

This stuff doesn't happen overnight for most of us. There are exceptions to the rule but for the most part, we're all in this for the long haul. You need to find a community where your target audience is and invest your time there. You need to establish Social Media credibility so that when you Tweet something, your Followers are interested in what you have to say. You've been putting the cart before the horse up to this point, time to reverse that.

[CannoThinkOfOne]

pageoneresults: I'm not saying that there is an easy answer, but you're being extremely vague. I'm sure you realize that, but I was hoping for at least some posts made by people who agree with me and who have found it more and more difficult to get heard. I can't be the only one who is nearly exploding out of frustration about this.

[wheel]

I don't know what to respond to this. I haven't "scoffed" at you or anyone else.

Yeah, that sounds... worth the trouble.

: Yes, I've read "How to Win Friends and Influence People" too.

If writing 1000 posts just to get a few clicks (which makes no sense to begin with), then yes, that's definitely correct. Only a person with unlimited time would do that. It's a criminal waste of time and I frankly doubt that you did so.

It's not scoffing then, it's disdain.

I frankly doubt that you did so.

Huh. Well, do the work or don't. Succeed or fail. Other than your mother, nobody really cares which one you choose.

[wheel]

But then what am I *supposed* to do, which actually works?

Apparently scoff at suggestions.

You wanted links and traffic from forums. I told you how. You complained.

Sgt Kickaxe told you to network. You scoffed with a comment about a stereotypical book. Yet networking is one of the best ways to get links and traffic.

You think this s*** just happens while you sit on your @ss dreaming dreams of butterflies and farting rainbows all day, because people think your content is swell? You're a baitfish in a pool of sharks, start acting like it.

[robzilla]

Since you've previously been inspired by those who've gone from rags to riches, and the solid advice given here doesn't seem to be reaching you, here's a relevant quote from Thomas Edison: "Results! Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results. I know several thousand things that won't work." How about Henry Ford? "Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently," he said. Both men had a connection with John Burroughs, who had this to say about failure: "A man can fail many times, but he isn't a failure until he begins to blame somebody else." I would suggest re-reading your first post with those thoughts in mind, then tell me: was it really and honestly the fault of "that Google [Adwords] scam" that your campaign was unsuccessful? Each and every one of those one-hundred clicks was the result of either a bot or someone clicking on your ad by accident or "out of malice", or simply because Google's "ad matching was poor"? Was it "sneaky" Google's fault that you were banned from YouTube because of those "attractive video clips", which must have been in violation of the agreement you signed before uploading? And those people who you "friendly" and "manually" contacted with the URL of your new site, via chat rooms and other channels, were they all just mean and spiteful individuals, or might they just have been genuinely (perhaps quite rightfully) irritated? I could go on, but I hope you've caught on by this point. You're stubbornly blaming everyone but yourself for your not succeeding. Koan's post is spot on, and you should read and re-read it until you realize there's a problem with your site, that is does not actually have "great value", and that your approach to marketing is awkward at best. I, too, have launched a new site in the past months. The only promotional method you've mentioned that I've used is Adwords, which, I'll admit, was no success for me either, but I learned from the experience and subsequently found more suitable platforms, where I could find my target audience more efficiently (in this particular case, it was Facebook). Apart from that, all I've done is ask the editors of relevant websites to link to mine. The score so far: 0 insults, 0 bans, 40+ one-way quality backlinks, 70+ interested followers on Twitter, positive feedback, and an average of 100 visits per day this week. I wouldn't touch any of your other methods with a ten-foot pole, unless the quality of my new site (indeed, the lack thereof) gave me no other option.

Mull it all over. If you're still convinced that you should have succeeded, perhaps you should consider giving up on the webmastering game. It should be an enjoyable experience, after all. Good luck, either way.

[spyjunior]

Without traffic, A website is indeed nothing. Traffic is it's life blood and the engine that keeps it running.

[tangor]

There's an old axiom "build it and they will come" which merely means that something worth coming to needs be built. If it isn't worth it, nobody will come.

Then again, there are a zillion hobby sites out there with very small niche interest which get indexed and visited every day.

Might want to take another look at what has been built.

[CannoThinkOfOne]

I've carefully read every post and in plain text, you are saying this: "You suck, your site sucks, and everything you've tried, which is everything imaginable, is madness. Your site has no value because nobody comes. This is a fact. It couldn't possibly be because nobody knows it -- it is because the service is useless. You should stop trying because you suck. We also think you're a newbie for some reason and because of this fact alone, we'll call not blindly trusting the first piece of advice you get (and a poor one at that) 'scoffing'. We are seniors and you are obviously a beginner. You suck. You're worthless. Good luck, but not really. We hope you fail."

As for the "stereotypical" book (your words; clearly you haven't experienced it yourself in any form or you wouldn't say that), it's actually got tons of really great advice which I've been trying to follow. The fact remains that people do NOT come just because you build something great, and nobody here has given one piece of solid advice for what to actually do, besides insulting what I have done, which makes no sense unless you are all looking for somebody to pick a fight with.

I'm not sure what kind of responses I expected, but I did imagine some successful, grumpy old men would berate me, a not successful, grumpy semi-old man, thinking I'm actually some sort of "get rich quick" kid who just put together his first site rather than the truth: a very tired person whose last attempt after over a decade of doing this bafflingly failed more than ever, in spite of seemingly correcting everything that was previously wrong.

[robzilla]

Why so surprised? You're on a webmaster forum and most of the promotional methods you've described are, in fact, methods of annoying webmasters other than yourself. Never in my life have I clicked through an obvious link-drop, whether on forums, blogs, social media sites or elsewhere, and found myself on a high-quality website.

If you've been in the business for a decade, you ought to know by now that the methods outlined in your first post are by no means "everything imaginable". How much time have you spent hand-selecting relevant webpages where you might have a chance of obtaining a link, then contacting the webmasters? Have you obtained any links at all? Submitted to a relevant category on the better web directories? Have your pages been indexed by the major search engines?

Supposing you have indeed built a decent website: is the service you offer truly unique? Does it fulfill a need that people other than yourself have? If so, how can you tell? You cannot "just know" that its value is great; some factor has to confirm it. Any particular service, even when free, I find much more difficult to attract users to than, say, an informative website. If the quality of the information is good enough, such a site will be indexed and might receive traffic even without inbound links. If you have spent so much time developing a service, but you don't have the budget or contacts or even a proper plan to push it into the mainstream, then you probably shouldn't have built it in the first place.

There's nothing left for us to tell you. I'm unable to believe your site is as good as you make it out to be, until actually seeing it proves otherwise. If you're up for it, feel free to send me the URL in private; but my response will be public.

[wheel]

and nobody here has given one piece of solid advice for what to actually do, besides insulting what I have done,

You've received at least two pieces of solid advice. You've berated both.

I've carefully read every post and in plain text, you are saying this: "You suck, your site sucks, and everything you've tried, which is everything imaginable, is madness.

I thought I posted how to get links from forums. You called me a liar

It's a criminal waste of time and I frankly doubt that you did so

and cast aspersions on my personality

, grumpy old men

OK, that one's probably fair enough.

besides insulting what I have done,

Ann Landers is out until Monday morning at 8.

[jmorgan]

Most websites take anywhere from at least 1 to 3 years (or more) before they really gain any traction. If you truly believe in your site, you need to persist and keep working on it until you do.

[tangor]

in spite of seemingly correcting everything that was previously wrong.

This is a significantly revealing bit of info... and I am here to tell you that Google, Bing (and in the old days Yahoo, Altavista, Hotbot, too, etc.) NEVER FORGET. If a "previous wrong" was egregious enough to get one booted, the ONLY way back into good graces was a manual review. Have you done that, yet?

[Lexur]

That's me in 2002!
I remember asking myself how those pathetic websites got visitors and mine not. Then, one day, I discovered that frames were not a good solution, and then, other day I learned my javascript menu was ruining my rankings; and the another day...
What a great thread!

[CannoThinkOfOne]

tangor: I must say that I don't understand what you meant by your post at all. You seem to have misinterpreted what I said.

The others: I'm still wondering what to respond.