how NOT to drive traffic to your site

Paid traffic is the best but 99% will NEVER EVER EVER pay and maybe that is the secret why it's sooo good!

I think the reason you're struggling is evident in your first sentence about SEO...it's worthless if it's not great quality and unique.

It sounds like everything you've done was moving away from your own advice. You're right, nobody clicks on spam links in comments or pays attention to spam threads on social channels...that is the opposite of high quality and unique. The same can be said for guest posting, forum posting, and all the other methods you listed as well....make them stand out from the crowd and they will produce results.

The big picture here is that there aren't any shortcuts to capturing people's attention. All of the above things you complained about work nicely if you're delivering great content and original ideas, but you said yourself in the first few lines that you've done all the typical things marketers do. Well guess what? Typical marketers aren't very successful. So you have to rise above that typical standard to see exceptional results.

It's very hard to get free converting traffic these days!
The ones who make decent money from free traffic have already a base (Fans, Authority website, Subscribers..)
New comers will struggle unless they are really creative and can outshine their competition (Which will take lots of time and efforts)

The other route is Paid traffic, this one is efficient, but not easy!
You can keep paying & keep losing ... testing is the only key to get a winner.

And 1 advice: Don't ever buy the "Make $1000 PDFs" Internet is full of free stuff, you just need commitment, hardwork, and a slice of Luck would be much appreciated.

I'm so sorry to tell you this but I think you got this all wrong...

I honestly don't really have any worth talking about to help you besides the fact that you really need to understand that "Traffic" just means eyeballs.

So instead of focusing on what's wrong or right, just focus on getting eyeballs to your site. It will make a lot more sense.

It's interesting, I find that Video Marketing is my best approach for getting traffic, either if its for building my list or traffic for a CPA offer...

I think you have probably used the wrong approach when using these methods to get traffic.
SEO is not worthless, it's a gold mine if you know what to do.
Facebook is also great for driving traffic. But you'd have to make your posts engaging, just posting your offer won't suffice!
Blog commenting can't be useless, unless your comments are not on the subject. Would you approve comments that don't contribute to the topic or your articles?
It's not the methods that don't work, it's probably the approach.

I see that you act just like a typical spammer.
Thousands of backlinks,shares,FB posts,bookmarks,blog comments,forum posts and nothing.
This is the typical spammer mindset.
My advice is:
DON`T ACT LIKE A SPAMMER!!!
The first,the "GOLDEN" rule in IM is "Quality over quantity".Think about that.

on page SEO and quality content should go hand in hand! on page SEO is so easy, basically just write a quality, natural article about your topic and the keywords will surely make their way in naturally., then just compliment that by using Yoast SEO or All in One SEO to finish. simple.

You really seem like you just went to FB without a Plan or without being very educated on what you need to do.

I suggest you take a quality course because FB is more than just commenting and putting links within Fan Pages and Groups.

I think you need to really spend some time and learn some of the basic proven methods.



- Robert Andrew

Blog commenting should only be used as a networking tool and for a bit of referral traffic, leaving comments for backlink juice is a terrible strategy. Blog commenting done right has its perks, judging from Neil Patel's results:How I Generated $25,000 with 249 Comments


You can get a lot of traffic from YouTube owing to the residual nature of video views. Make sure your videos are actually about things your target market wants to know (and not what you THINK they want to know). Use relevant keywords in both your title and when tagging your videos. Also, give a strong, clear, and benefit-driven call to action to check out your link in the video description.

Just an afterthought, although product keywords can bring easy money they also bring competitors who will flag your channel (I know from experience ). Instead create content around questions your target audience asks on forums, social media etc.


Guest posting is a fantastic source of traffic and helps elevate you to expert status quickly. The key is to only post on high traffic and authoritative blogs. Refer to these sites for more info:
Why You Suck at Guest Blogging (and What The Pros Do Differently)
https://blog.kissmetrics.com/guide-to-guest-blogging/
How to write an effective guest post for high-traffic bloggers


That's the thing, you're not supposed to post about your business on discussion boards. Forums are a great way to network and create exposure for your brand.

Forum marketing done right can be crudely summed up as: Join relevant forum > add value to discussions > have link to your website in your signature > people click over due to seeing you as helpful/authoritative. There's way more to it than that of course but the idea is that you don't vomit your business over the threads, you attract people to your signature by adding VALUE.

This also applies to Facebook groups, I was once a naive spammer; I feel so ashamed now heh.


This is absolutely correct. In the eyes of Google backlinks are supposed to be indicators of good relevant content so context is crucial. Same goes for using links to sites to generate traffic.


I feel you here, I've noticed it's much harder to find reputable solo vendors outside of IM/MMO.


Not true, there are many marketers making money online simply because they can connect people to what they're already interested in without the use of spamming and through value-led propositions.


That's very noble of you, and I admire that! However, it hasn't escaped my notice that people don't usually value free things as much as something they pay for. If you have a means to help people then go ahead and share it but don't be afraid to put a price tag on it if you truly understand the value you're offering!



Hope my insights helped,
Daniel

I kind of disagree here especially when it comes to video marketing and forum posting. If what yu are offering to viewers is high quality genuine unique especially on a regular basis why would you think they would not want to watch or read what it is you have to say. If you providing quality content to the forums and Facebook you won't get banned now if your just in there spamming and providing Information that is of no use to the readers there is a chance you could be banned.

Hey Mu, you're a good writer. Get a little more focused and start generating some targeted traffic with content and then some $$$$

You are a spammer you post spam and get spam results (actually thats not true you are bad spammer). By your own admission you post poor quality and lie therefore:

As long at your attitude remains the same i wish nothing but bad luck and misery on your ventures

Have you question yourself on the quality of the service you're providing?
I think you must focus more on how to solve people problems and needs instead of the results you have.

What kind of results can anybody expect if they give low/bad quality efforts on his part?

Personally Facebook works better for me than Twitter for getting eyeballs to my blog. But with Twitter you can get really focused. Just type keywords into the search box and engage with the posts that show up. After a bit of chat introduce your solution to the problems of those you are engaging with. This way you will get targeted traffic instead of random traffic which obviously doesn't convert as well.

The bonus is that the more often you engage on Twitter the faster the list of people following you will grow plus the more often these people see your tweets/name and the faster they get to know you or your brand resulting in faster conversions.

It's all trial and error though and what works for one person may not work for another. Sometimes I wish that I was in a more exciting niche but, alas, my niche is very boring....but it helps solve peoples problems.

I'd also add that, after only 4 short months, it's too difficult to see amazing results. In order to drive traffic to a website, a lot of work needs to be put in and a lot of time as well.

If I can contribute my 2 cents to the conversation then I will say that the problems with lots of newbies or internet marketers in general is that they do not concentrate on one traffic source and master it. If you jump from one to the other you are not giving yourself enough time to see results. All these traffic generation methods have their plus points but it is crucial which is always the difficult thing to be patient as long you have a good strategy and you will see results

The likes received on Facebook that are paid are not helpful at all. That traffic might not be interested in your products. Paid traffic might not help always.

Ah, so all of that "fast" and "easy" and "instant" didn't work out that well?

Sorry - unfortunately online we need good doses of time in the chair and smarts. But we cannot avoid that time in the chair.

At the start anyway!

MU

I have The same Problem As your , before , But Slowly If u Keep Dig it More You Will Fine Your Own Way... Like Me I did it My way... So be Patien
" Help People From your Content you write and That can make you money "
And For Sure still many out There even they master - Still Get hard and harder To Bit Google be number one , Endless $$$ Money Talk !... But still some way can start on It !
http://www.warriorforum.com/off-topi...ud-myself.html

Thanks for sharing your failure here but thing is you don't grab 'Tips', you grab 'Lessons' so you can improve.

And if you've been reading a lot and when someone asks for "Hey how can I get traffic"? the typical answer is the following:

• SEO
• Facebook
• Blog Commenting
• Videos
• Social Bookmarking
• Guest posts
• Q&A sites
• Froum posting

And they are right.


Here are my thoughts ...ONE by ONE.

SEO

What you've found is... WRONG.

On-page SEO (the one you referred to) is NOT worthless. It makes your page understandable for Google to display it on the searche results. SEO is NOT just a bunch of metadata in the header of your page, and keyword/content. If you've studied and took time to apply it, you'd know that on-page SEO also includes readability, user friendliness and design and more.

And if you spent half of your time studying it instead of tweaking it, you would've gotten traffic. And yes Backlinking IS SEO. It's called off-page SEO.

But I'll talk about it later in this reply.


Facebook

4 months and hundred FB goups? It's no wonder you failed.

You don't post offers in Groups. You engage other members and create relationships (which I guess for you is too lame). And good job for noticing that NO ONE does pay attention to SPAM. it's just appropriate that the admin bans them for doing so. I mean would you like other people crapping inside your own home?

I don't thnk so.

Oh and ads, it works. PERIOD.

If you've spent $300 as you claimed, that would've gotten a LOT of eyeballs to your site - REAL people visiting your site (you couldn't have spent it without someone clicking it. right?) Unless you paid per impression then it's your Ad that's the problem. So if your offer didn't convert, why blame FB? You bought traffic and traffic you'll get. You didn't buy conversions didn't you?

Blog Commenting

This really IS golden - if done correctly. If only 4 out of 250 comments were approved, that says a lot about your social skills.

If you took time to read the blog, connect with the webmaster and contribute instead of pitch or worse - include a contextual link instead of your real name, you would've gotten at least 200 out of 250.

Waste of time? No. But it WILL take a lot of your time.


Videos

"You certainly need a lot of videos, and if your niche is competitive you are likely going to get 0 visits from a video..."

TRUE...

But that is if you're using video like you're doing SEO. The KEY to doing video is consistency. You don't get traffic overnight from video - unless with some freaky stroke of luck or if you're a big named star. The more Video you put out there, the higher the probability that you'd get traffic. And you also have to keyword optimize them and such.

And about the ads, it's not the problem, it's your offer. You paid for ads, got a few visits, and you're blaming youtube because you didn't get a sale?


Social Bookmarking

This is NOT for instant traffic. Whoever said that to you clearly doesn't know what he's doing. This is used in conjunction of your link building strategy. Oh yeah I forgot, you don't have one.

Guest posts

"3 visitors a day and still no sales... " - Aren't you even concerned that it's your campaign that is the problem and not these traffic sources you mentioned???

And to get 300 visitors a day you don't need a lot of guest posts. You just need ONE strategically placed guest post in a high traffficked blog that offers a LOT of value to their readers and you can watch your site's bandwidth botteleneck because too much traffic.

And if you're paying for Guest posts then that's not guest posting at all. In fact, if you're doing it right, they should be the one paying YOU. Check this one out and you'll see what I mean: Guest Posts Wanted $100 for your eye catching blog post

They're paying $100 per guest post. Some sites even higher. So if you're really doing you're Math right ... why not pay for articles to be written and then send it to this blog instead?

You get your traffic PLUS a $100.


Q&A Sites

If you have time to do this, why not go find real people to talk to and answer their question? If you're having a hard time looking for people asking questions related to your product or offer, don't you think that's a sign that people don't need the solution that you're offering which explains you having no sales despite having eyeballs to your site?


Forum Posting

"Same as facebook groups... YOU WILL GET BANNED, again and again... no one is going to let you post about your business without paying... trust me NO ONE with a relevant forum."

I didn't know that. But thanks for the update. lol.

Backlinks, just for the sake of getting one IS worthless and not the strategy itself. It's a part of a bigger picture. Tier 1, Tier 2, contextual, PBNs, there are a lot of ways to build and strategically place backlinks.

Ok, so you gave solo ads a 'try'. And yes they are niche restricted. But when you said that it only works for the IM niche, I now know that you didn't even know what a solo ad is.

Try NextMark - Tools for Media Planning, Media Sales, and Ad Operations or even Advertising « Media Center « ArcaMax Publishing and you'll SEE for yourself that solo ads are for every other niche and not just MMO.

Whether it's info or service, people do make money online by selling. If someone doesn't sell MMO products, who would? Someone's got to teach it right?

And yes, some of them are feeding off your frustrations and dreams and uses each emotional trigger to their advantage.

Who wouldn't?

If you're product is half as decent as you say it is, then you should also trigger your prospect's emotion to influence them to buy. You're doing your clients a disservice by not making your offer/service enticing enough to be bought.

Look, your offer may not be bad but the way you must have presented it to your audience is. And if there's anything I want you to take from this really long post is that people don't acquire a product or service just because it can save them money. If it can solve a problem they have, they'd probably pay you 100 times more and still be happy about it.

.... and they keep buying PDFs it's because the offer was presented in a way that their problems were addressed.

It's a good idea to keep trying but take time to STUDY it first because if you're just going to haphazardly apply every secret loophole or technique you come accross with, you'll end up with the same results.

There is no secret. In fact, I just shared some important things in this post because we're a community of marketers - we share knowledge with others. But I'm almost 99% sure that you won't follow these things I mentioned.

That's just the way it is. Give something for FREE and they don't appreciate it that much.

So that's my reply. Not trying to be rude but most of the stuff you said are really off base.

As with everything in life really, you will only ever get back what you put in. If you take the time to cultivate relationships and provide those people with value they will naturally want to reciprocate.

People will respect you and value your opinion. How easy do you think it will be to sell something to someone you know already respects you and values your opinion. Or in the case of having your own blog - if these people that value your opinion learn you have a blog where you write frequently don't you think they will come running to see what you have to say?

When it comes to free traffic just forget about driving traffic and making money and focus on providing as much value as possible. This even applies to SEO. If you forget about "techniques" and just write informative, engaging content, you WILL rise to the top. Google will reward you.

VALUE! VALUE! VALUE!

This is all constructive criticism. Not even criticism, feedback ......

Thank you for sharing guys, but I have a question, I have website but I can't put content or article or other thing like this, how can I promote ?

Great post, and honesty. I almost completely agree with you. Your math however had one fatal flaw. Your value of click, is stated as if you KEEP buying them. A click is like a seed, that grows into a plant, that bears more seeds etc. One customer can turn into many customers over time. Word of mouth and media from one happy fan, can do wonders.
I suggest concentrating one getting ONE loyal fan. Just one, not hundreds, or thousands. Just one, then two, then three, etc. Think small and your delivery will get personal and powerful. Each ONE you get, overtime will bring in more for you. And if you can get one, then you can get two, and three etc.
John Krone
P.S. I enjoyed your entire post, and I wish more people could be as honest as you were.

In terms of getting free traffic seo definently has a learning curve, but it can be worth it. But honestly I find just buying a solo ad the way to go to produce leads.

You clearly got the attention of members with your thread subject line, which means that you do have an idea about "psychology" and hot to trigger interest.
all the tactics you've mentioned are worthy, if and when used properly. 10 years ago they were working for pretty much anyone, but these days, consumers are more aware of spammy tactics and stay away from them, not mentioning the blog/facebook and other social venues which hate being used by online marketers in a brutal way.
Each of the methods described are worthy. However, you need to adapt your content and the way you will bring up this content to the readers so you dont look and smell like spam.
i follow several blogs and get many newsletters on a daily basis. From time to time, they push some products/services (clearly advertised) and i take the time to read what they have to offer. Why? Because most of the content they send is relevant and therefore their "authority" gives credibility to the products they advertise.
Become an authority in your field, and people will listen. The only way to become an authority is to provide relevant content, in a timely manner and to the appropriate audience.

The one method I had some success with in the past, was with display ads. Actually they were a "buy now" type ad, that sold video. It didn't say "buy now", but it was not a freebie type offer or get to know you type offer. It was a direct sale. The "experts" told me, never try to make sale on first click. About 10 books later, I figured my ads, if made right, might just work after all. Even for me.

So letter by letter, I made a punchy little ad, A four word headline, laced with psychological kool-aid throughout the ad. They drank it and I banked. Me! It was my first real confidence booster that it really can work, even for an ordinary guy that never even had a bite on my line before that.

I did find my most loyal customers though, came from an ongoing live video feed service I had on my site. A few people came now and then, and I had two levels. One for free and another for paid per month, with a higher end feature rich format.
After some time I produced a full blown training video, and it sold to almost all of my regular paid and free followers. The sale was easy, because the relationship was already built.

When I finally decided to switch my business model, I cancelled my service, and I received a flood of emails wanting it back. I was surprised, because I had never really thought I was doing that great, in my eyes. It made me feel good that some others did apparently appreciate what I was providing. That was my second confidence booster.

Sometimes, learning what doesn't work, forces us to create new ways. Frank Kern, for example seems to look for new ways, because the old ways burn out. Being a multi-million dollar marketer, such as Frank, and according to Frank, came from doing things different than every one else. Being the first, is a hallmark to the greatest achievers.
***
Tony Robbins, he broke out as one of greatest psychologist of our time, (un-credentialed and un scholared)Though he did read, a lot. Finally he said "screw the experts, I got a better, faster way." A few hundred books later, Princess Diana, Hugh Jackman, Bill Clinton, Mother Teresa! and a red carpet list longer that would fit on a "certificate of Physchology" plaque, all come to him for his "expert-tise". He banked $400,000,000.00 too.

Things don't have to work the old way, in order for them to work the new way. Keep trying.
John Krone

Welcome to reality, and glad you nightmare is over. Frankly, I wish more people would read your post and wake up. Selling is hard work and there is low pay. Look at amazon commissions. Those are 4% and it is hard work to see items in this competitive market place that becomes more so every year.

This might help you.

For a competitive keyword, for each click I pay:

• $2 Google sad words
• 50 cents Bing
• 20 cents Blog Ads
• one penny Project Wonderful
• zero back page

Mu,
As you're hopefully seeing from the responses, you may want to raise the quality of your efforts. Still, it's the slow game. Some blog authors can be very gracious if you produce a quality article. If they offer to push it through their social media machine, you can actually find yourself with a burst of solid traffic and qualified leads. Back to relationships there, however. You have to start the dialogue, present value, and then present MORE value.

P.S. On your list, you forgot an essential "how NOT to drive traffic"--Fiverr: How NOT to Drive Traffic Using Fiverr

Keep fighting the good fight!
Matt