There are many tactics for generating traffic to your web property. I am sure most reading this have read countless tips and tricks that will help a little here and there. I’m not disagreeing with them, and certainly website traffic does add up by following the basic tactics.
But what if you understand all the basics, have an optimized site, are following a a blog seo strategy, getting social traffic, and a good amount of organic buzz.
If you’re ready to go to the next level, this series is for you. Part one is a pretty simple philosophy, and it works rather well: focus while others play.
Here are a few ideas if you’re serious about web traffic and willing to sacrifice:
Publish during off-peak hours and be part of a smaller pool of shared content
Here’s the situation: just because it’s the weekend or a winter holiday doesn’t mean there isn’t demand for new content on the web. The established sites tend to throttle back during these times, but if you’re willing to work extra hard during times others are quiet, you position yourself well to stand out.
Prepare your best content while others play and be ready to go every Monday morning
Observant readers will note that is what I do here – I publish things that are extra sticky Monday mornings before beginning the day’s work. Monday is a hot day to publish because if your content starts to get shared, you can ride a nice wave of traffic throughout the week. There are enough people sharing content during weekdays if your content is good it will just keep getting shared throughout Friday. You’ll not only earn links, Tweets and Stumbles – you’ll help set the pace of the week’s discussions.
Are others in your niche being quiet (perhaps at a conference you can’t attend)?
If others in your niche are quiet because they’re too busy to add content, this speaks to an opportunity as the audiences themselves for content in any niche are never gone even if the major players are. In fact during these times audiences may grow thirsty for new material. While others are at things like conferences – don’t even give it a second thought if you can’t make it. Instead, focus twice as hard as there are always more people not at a conference than at a conference and there may be new readers for you to grab. As an aside, you’ll notice smart bloggers prepare content before going to things like conferences – as they’re keenly aware of the fact that they can attract new audiences by working in advance.
Realize the owners of the most popular sites don’t really see web publishing as “work”
I’m not saying web publishing is easy – what I am saying is that you are competing against those who are happy to sacrifice times when others are playing to create content. It inspires them, it’s their passion. That’s why if you’re not irrationally committed to your web property, you can’t ever really advance to the next level because your competition is always working while others are playing.
This will be an ongoing series, so be sure to subscribe if you are not already a reader.