how did you get so big?? (unofficial poll)

[Steve_S]

Hello TheObeseNinja and welcome to the Forums. I hope the following tips work in this order and help answer your question.

1. A real domain as opposed to a free host will produce better results

2. Design the site. Fast loading with great "usability"

3. Fill the site with content. Lots of content before you open

4. Promote first via SE and also exchange links with similar sites. Items 1-3 should be in place before you do this.

5. Lots of hard work in todays market for 2-4

Also, could you please refrain from using terms/slang, language, tone, and profanity which are innapropriate for these Forums. Don't hesitate to contact me via our BB Feedback Form and only this form if you have further questions on our procedures or need further guidence.

Good luck and thanks.

[Jan]

Welcome to the forums Xshare

[Dave-AHFB]

There is a short and easy way, and there is the long and hard way.

The short and easy way usually involves signifigant cost and little in return, sometimes cheating the engines, joining popup exchanges, or paying $39.95 for 5 billion hits. These sites are seldom around long then they start over with something else. Traffic must start over also.

The long and hard way, always involves hard work, honesty(dishonest- see short and easy), hours hand selecting those to trade links with or whom you choose to sponsor your site, profesionalism in your discussions(remember, when you post to a forum all of us are potential visitors and customers, make a bad impression on forums and you have already lost visitors), research, research, and more research. These sites build a loyal base as you are too viewed as loyal. Sometimes these webmasters are able to crack a faint smile as they continue to grow and well, maybe prosper.

Dave

PS did I mention research?

[gbrott]

in my opinion, search engines are the key to the game. master google and win.

My terms aren't nearly as competitive as some though - especially you guys with free picture sites and freebie sites.

[ccole]

My site currently gets on average around 10,000 hits/day, and while I did quite a bit of work on the list that Steve just mentioned, I attribute a lot of it to pure luck. It also takes time to get the site around...don't expect 25,000 hits within the first couple of days, or probably even the first couple of months.

[Xander]

Well, there are two things I see on your site that could be a problem for search engines.

1. Most of your pages have dynamic URL's.
Some search engines don't index these.
Try using Search Engine-Friendly URL's to maximize the number of indexed pages.

2. Create a unique <title> for every page!
This is very important as this tag is probably the most important for search engines.
You're losing a lot of traffic by using the same title for every page.

Do some keyword research for each page and use these keywords in the Title, meta-tags, headings and body text of that page.
Use tools like Wordtracker and the Overture Search Term Suggestion Tool for finding these keywords.

If you work on these things, I think your site will do better in the search engines and it will get more visitors.

Hope this helps.

[dRD]

For us, it took two years to actually see the site to grow "BIG" (in terms of our own specific niche). After a year full of daily updates, promotion, etcetcetc (no advertising tho, this is 100% hobby) we got to around 150k page loads a month. Second year passed and we were around 500k pageloads a month. Now third year has almost passed and we're at 2.4M pageloads a month. It takes forever -- even google doesn't give you good results unless you spend countless hours to build your "rep" -- to get Joe Average's linking back to your site from their personal websites, etc. You might think that this is pointless idea, because they send around 2-10 users to you a month from their geocities' pages, but trust me, it's not. Google _loves_ sites that have thousands and thousands of sites linking to it, even that majority of those small sites aren't necessarily related to your niche.

But hard work (and I mean 70-100hrs a week), tons of luck and interesting niche -- that's our recipe, even that we're still far, far away from becoming an "actual company" with employees, etc (with current ad rates, it would require maybe 10x the traffic we have now -- or one ad sales guru :-).

[dRD]

Originally posted by AleR

As a professional designer I must say, that colors are nothing. I've read a lot about colors, their impression, psychological effect, etc... And have own expirience about it.
Most popular sites on the web has white background color.
Everyone has his own favourite color. Most of people like blue. Why? Because it is the color of sky. All peoples like sky and sun of course.
Yes, if you use blue it gives you + 1-2% returned visitors. ...but it is too little, as for me.
(example- google.com)

Just one thing - don't make your site absolutely red or yellow cause it's hard to our eyes.

Actually colors do matter and they've been studied quite a lot -- not by web developers, but by retailers and such (just like muzak what we hear in supermarkets, etc). Best example is definately McDonalds who uses mostly orange as a main color in their restaurants. You would think that it is because of their logo or so, but actually orange is a color that makes you "rush" things -> people finish their meals faster and make room for new customers. I think that nowadays they're changing this slightly, I assume that they've found that if people stay longer, they take bigger Coke and larger fries which are the core of their income (profit margins from french fries are much higher than from sandwiches :-). Just heard this stuff few years ago when I implemented one European McDonalds intranet and it sounded so funny/clever that I'll always remember it :-)

[dRD]

Originally posted by Xshare
I actually share the same problem with the beginner of this thread. I rarely get over 200 visitors a day, and usually much less. I have no idea what to do next. I've been working on the site for weeks now.

"for weeks now"... No offence, but :-) It took 10 months to grow from 50-150/day to 500/day. After that things started going pretty rapidly. After you reach a certain point, when people start finding your site -- I would say that this takes anything between 6 and 12 months -- you can easily see growth-% of appx 100% a month until your traffic "matures" and slows into normal level, maybe around 5-20% growth a month (which obviously needs daily and constant updating of the content, site maintenance and promotion).

[Sara]

=====================
so i get on here and read again about this chick who feels like a failure cause she "only" gets 25,000 hits per day.

=====================
ha ha ha,

I'm that "chick".

I came to this category looking for tips and found this great thread (with lots of helpful info).

It is all relative I think. I remember when I was getting 3000 page views a day and thought it wouldbe so GREAT to get 10,000, then 20,000. Now I get 30,000 and hear of people getting 250,000/day and want that. If they can do it I can do it, I have a high quality site, with a lot of content.

I find that updating my content daily really increases visitors (and i advertise the new content on my main page)...but that is hard to do....timewise, and difficult to find (or write) relevant, high quality content to add.

Getting media mention is helpful too. But that tough...and a whole other thread. (but I'm no expert).

Sara

[EvDeon]

No.... Colors are nothing. Content rules the Web. You should try to get maximum percent of returning visitors. They will never return to see your colors again - they will return looking for a new information, new content. You need to update your site as often as you can. It is a main key to success...

[avman33]

I've learned, through my experiences, that a great forum keeps the visitors coming back. When you have a great community people will come back and tell their friends.

We've almost reached the 1 million visitors/month mark, after four years.

[SWD]

that works for me! the link exchange to get better rank at google + highly new trafifc from the search engine.

[ws2002]

Link exchange with every site you can. If one site only brings 10 hits a day, no problem, just repeat that 1000 times.

[AleR]

Google gives me tons of new visitors, also I like to use link exchange (it gives me higher position in google, and some visitors every day). And other search engines, of course.
But google is the best.

People visit you site again and again (advice your site to their friends) when you have:
1. Frequently updated content.
2. Useful content.