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How do you get traffic to your newly published website without any budget for publishing ads

Marketing, social media, advertising

speedbird

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Hi



Imagine you've just finished of a project/website and you're ready to deploy it. How would you help start getting users to find your website?



I thought that social media was a huge player and would simplify things a bit, but I discovered that this 'strategy' is not completely helpful at all (see RANT - Social Media Destroys Entrepreneurs. Grow Your Business Without It.)



However, I was also thinking about publishing a blog post about the use-cases of the site itself, and describe what it all is about, etc. But I presume that the post alone won't of course help and get me my first (daily) 100 visitors.



How would you tackle this issue without having a budget for placing (online) ads and promote your site?

(In my case, I'm specifically only targeting software developers.)



I would highly appreciate it if you could share your insights if you've experienced the same or went through these barriers! Thanks!
 
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bakhman

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I was literally about to ask this forum the same exact question. Want to tear my F*cking hair out. I have:

- built a very nice, 1-page website clean with Wix (paying yearly)
- with an email directly attached to the site
- advertised it with posters all over multiple college campuses ($50+)
- printed business cards and handed them out to plenty of people and cafes ($40+)
- used Google Ads to get clicks, got like 50 clicks/mo but zero leads ($60/mo)
- even used Craigslist to promote my service ($5)

The site is gatewayamerica.org for reference but it has been a dismal failure and thinking about just putting the project away forever since all it did was piss away money. Sorry for the negativity but it just feels hopeless in 2022 to startup an online service. In your case I would still try Google Ads, it's worth a shot and just see where $50 gets you. Posting it on software-specific forums would be beneficial too (though I don't know of any) i.e. putting it in your sig.
 

speedbird

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The best option is to research low competition keywords, write high-quality articles, start building links, guest posts which can help you to increase your website traffic massively.
Thanks a lot for your sharing this, so according to you Google Adwords is still the way?

Guest posts and building links are indeed a key in starting to get more visitors to your website

But there's still something unclear about the high-quality article for me. It won't take a lot of time to also implement a blog section on my website (instead of relying on third-party services) but where do you get the most reach? Should I still go for third-party services and hope that my article gets recommended to other users? I mean, I've never saw an ad that sends you to a blog post or so, most of the time, these type of articles are announced on social media (where you have to have a lot of followers) to have some atleast a decent amount of reach.

Thanks
 
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Last edited:

Speed112

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Over here, over there.
I was literally about to ask this forum the same exact question. Want to tear my f*cking hair out. I have:

- built a very nice, 1-page website clean with Wix (paying yearly)
- with an email directly attached to the site
- advertised it with posters all over multiple college campuses ($50+)
- printed business cards and handed them out to plenty of people and cafes ($40+)
- used Google Ads to get clicks, got like 50 clicks/mo but zero leads ($60/mo)
- even used Craigslist to promote my service ($5)

The site is gatewayamerica.org for reference but it has been a dismal failure and thinking about just putting the project away forever since all it did was piss away money. Sorry for the negativity but it just feels hopeless in 2022 to startup an online service. In your case I would still try Google Ads, it's worth a shot and just see where $50 gets you. Posting it on software-specific forums would be beneficial too (though I don't know of any) i.e. putting it in your sig.

Your value proposition isn't very clear... it took me quite a while to realize you're offering proofreading/editing services of some sort. A regular visitor is just gonna bounce immediately. There's no incentive to interact and upload a document.

I don't know how hopeless it is... a ton of people start online businesses just fine. Some people start a website, scale it up in a few months, then sell it.

Maybe the issue is with how you are communicating your solution to your audience's pain.

Why should a student hire you to help them out? What's in it for them?

...do your business cards make that clear?

How would you tackle this issue without having a budget for placing (online) ads and promote your site?

Organic traffic is "free", but it takes time and effort to rank for relevant keywords and get your site seen. If you target low search volume and low competition longtail keywords you can rank within 48 hours of posting (within the first 5 pages) and get some traffic. This should be a long-term investment though.

"A blog post" is not enough. Think 10, 20, 100. Or at least several high quality ones that can stand the test of time.

Alternatively, you can go in places where those who can benefit the most from the website hang out and get yourself seen/known with your website present somewhere. Facebook groups, LinkedIn, forums like this, Reddit, wherever. You shouldn't be hanging out there yourself, and careful not to be caught in the hamster wheel of content, but it can be something. For Software Devs maybe you can answer relevant questions that relate to your website on Quora or Stack Overflow or wherever devs look for answers...

If you're personally connected to the website, you could also look into public appearances on podcasts or Youtube collabs/interviews or something. Those are a great source of "free" traffic.

There's no such thing as free, though. What you're not paying for with $$$ you're paying for with time.

So the question is how you can best allocate the resources you have to get the best results. Cheaping out rarely works.

You should know the answers better than us, though...

You're trying to help these people. Who are they? Where are they? How can you reach out to them so they can see you and your website? People, not traffic. Start by thinking about individuals, then build a network, and then worry about a wider audience, in my opinion.

It takes time.
 

GSF

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Hi



Imagine you've just finished of a project/website and you're ready to deploy it. How would you help start getting users to find your website?



I thought that social media was a huge player and would simplify things a bit, but I discovered that this 'strategy' is not completely helpful at all (see RANT - Social Media Destroys Entrepreneurs. Grow Your Business Without It.)



However, I was also thinking about publishing a blog post about the use-cases of the site itself, and describe what it all is about, etc. But I presume that the post alone won't of course help and get me my first (daily) 100 visitors.



How would you tackle this issue without having a budget for placing (online) ads and promote your site?

(In my case, I'm specifically only targeting software developers.)



I would highly appreciate it if you could share your insights if you've experienced the same or went through these barriers! Thanks!
Go where your target market is. If it's software developers then maybe indie hackers, reddit, product hunt etc. Also, find a similar site to yours, go to similar Web and analyze their site to see where their traffic is coming from.
 

bakhman

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Your value proposition isn't very clear... it took me quite a while to realize you're offering proofreading/editing services of some sort. A regular visitor is just gonna bounce immediately. There's no incentive to interact and upload a document.

Maybe the issue is with how you are communicating your solution to your audience's pain.

Why should a student hire you to help them out? What's in it for them?

...do your business cards make that clear?

Thanks for the unfiltered criticism.. I thought the website made it clear that I'm just there to edit their resumes, applications, theses, etc. That would be what is in it for them. If I have to switch some words around to hone that in, I can certainly do that.

The business cards are fairly to the point .. I did include group tutoring as well (as I try to target Asian market). 1 side for reference attached. Again, I'm convinced that the problem is simply over-saturation of the market. I'm competing with well-established sites with good SEO, Fiverr, Upwork, blah blah .. but even then, I thought I'd hook in a couple people a month. Not even.
 
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Andy Black

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I thought that social media was a huge player and would simplify things a bit, but I discovered that this 'strategy' is not completely helpful at all (see RANT - Social Media Destroys Entrepreneurs. Grow Your Business Without It.)
I don’t think reading an article should be classed as discovering social media is not helpful.

How did *you* get on with social media platforms?

Were you “posting content” or helping and engaging with people on the platforms?


At a higher level, look at the wording of your question:

“How do you get traffic to your newly published website?”

Here’s a tip: Stop calling it traffic.

It’s people, with the same hopes, dreams, fears, and worries as you.

Those people don’t want to “go to a website”, they want to solve a problem.

I think you’ll do better making it your goal to help people solve their problem.

What is the problem they’re trying to solve?

Who are those people?

What do they *already* pay for that indicates they’re trying to solve the problem you solve?


“Who already has your clients?”
(Jay Abraham)

Could you find those people in online communities? Could those people be searching on Google or YouTube? Etc.
 

Supa

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I don’t think reading an article should be classed as discovering social media is not helpful.

How did *you* get on with social media platforms?

Were you “posting content” or helping and engaging with people on the platforms?


At a higher level, look at the wording of your question:

“How do you get traffic to your newly published website?”

Here’s a tip: Stop calling it traffic.

It’s people, with the same hopes, dreams, fears, and worries as you.

Those people don’t want to “go to a website”, they want to solve a problem.

I think you’ll do better to make it your goal to help people to solve their problem.

What is the problem they’re trying to solve?

Who are those people?

What do they *already* pay for that indicates they’re trying to solve the problem you solve?


“Who already has your clients?”
(Jay Abraham)

Could you find those people in online communities? Could those people be searching on Google or YouTube? Etc.
Just wanted to drop in to say, that this post is awesome.

Don‘t chase money. Or traffic. Create value. Help others. You are dealing with human beings, not just a number on your click through ratio.
 

Andy Black

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Cameraman

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How would you tackle this issue without having a budget for placing (online) ads and promote your site?
I built my site entirely organically but it does take time for the SEO to produce volume. Around 6 years ago my site was doing ok with around 3,000 unique visitors a day for a niche topic. I won't go into the details but my hosting company managed to have my domain delisted from Google. After switching to a new hosting company and spending time building a new site I managed to get the site added back to the Google index.

I now run at about 50k to 100k unique visitors a month (humans not bots). Everything has been done using "How to" articles designed to appeal to my target audience. I publish one of these each week and they target keywords that I find using SpyFu. I used to pay for SpyFu but found I can get everything I need with the free service.

I don't use any link building techniques, advertising, promoting on social media or guest posting. Around 80% of my traffic is search, generated by the articles I post. The rest tends to come from links, word of mouth on forums, my YouTube videos and the books I publish. Incidentally, I use the videos in the articles which tends to keep people engaged on the page.

Even after doing this, there are no guarantees. Probably 80% of my article traffic comes from less than 20% of my articles. There are a few big-hitting articles that consistently pull in the bulk of views and I will expect you to experience the same. That's why it's important to plan and identify these potential articles in advance.

If you want to try to grow organically I would recommend having an initial target of 20 keywords with reasonable search volumes (100 - 1000 searches each month but you can aim higher later). Now research the existing articles that rank for those keywords and create articles with greater value and more appeal. Publish one new article a week for the next 20 weeks. After that, find the next 20 and repeat. It's probably going to be 6-12 months for your traffic to kick in.

After 2 years, don't just publish new articles. You should be looking back through your old articles to refine and republish them. If you don't, they will probably drop in the rankings; I know mine do. It's also easier to update and republish old articles.

I'm sure there will be others on this forum who have faster/better ways, but this is what's worked for me.

By the way, I'm assuming you have the other basics in place like a well-designed site that's responsive, easy to navigate and is fast. People landing on your pages want answers fast. You need to make it easy for them. If you don't, it doesn't matter how much traffic you drive there, it won't do you any good.
 

Andy Black

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I built my site entirely organically but it does take time for the SEO to produce volume. Around 6 years ago my site was doing ok with around 3,000 unique visitors a day for a niche topic. I won't go into the details but my hosting company managed to have my domain delisted from Google. After switching to a new hosting company and spending time building a new site I managed to get the site added back to the Google index.

I now run at about 50k to 100k unique visitors a month (humans not bots). Everything has been done using "How to" articles designed to appeal to my target audience. I publish one of these each week and they target keywords that I find using SpyFu. I used to pay for SpyFu but found I can get everything I need with the free service.

I don't use any link building techniques, advertising, promoting on social media or guest posting. Around 80% of my traffic is search, generated by the articles I post. The rest tends to come from links, word of mouth on forums, my YouTube videos and the books I publish. Incidentally, I use the videos in the articles which tends to keep people engaged on the page.

Even after doing this, there are no guarantees. Probably 80% of my article traffic comes from less than 20% of my articles. There are a few big-hitting articles that consistently pull in the bulk of views and I will expect you to experience the same. That's why it's important to plan and identify these potential articles in advance.

If you want to try to grow organically I would recommend having an initial target of 20 keywords with reasonable search volumes (100 - 1000 searches each month but you can aim higher later). Now research the existing articles that rank for those keywords and create articles with greater value and more appeal. Publish one new article a week for the next 20 weeks. After that, find the next 20 and repeat. It's probably going to be 6-12 months for your traffic to kick in.

After 2 years, don't just publish new articles. You should be looking back through your old articles to refine and republish them. If you don't, they will probably drop in the rankings; I know mine do. It's also easier to update and republish old articles.

I'm sure there will be others on this forum who have faster/better ways, but this is what's worked for me.

By the way, I'm assuming you have the other basics in place like a well-designed site that's responsive, easy to navigate and is fast. People landing on your pages want answers fast. You need to make it easy for them. If you don't, it doesn't matter how much traffic you drive there, it won't do you any good.
Have you tried Dynamic Search Ads (from Google Ads) pointing to the pages on your site? It can bring in visitors from Google for search terms you might not have realised people are using. You could then target those search terms with articles written just for them.
 

Cameraman

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Have you tried Dynamic Search Ads (from Google Ads) pointing to the pages on your site? It can bring in visitors from Google for search terms you might not have realised people are using. You could then target those search terms with articles written just for them.
Thanks for the suggestion Andy.
No, I haven't tried them. In fact, I've never used any Google Ads. I've made a note of Dynamic Ads though as I was going to look into advertising next year. This is the year when I need to republish several of my books, revise my website and double my YouTube watch stats.
 
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Speed112

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Over here, over there.
I thought the website made it clear that I'm just there to edit their resumes, applications, theses, etc. That would be what is in it for them.

Don't think you're getting what I'm saying...

Imagine you're a student who has just started adulting. You've never worked a job. You've never faced the world and the pain of being ignored because you had some typos in your cover letter and some random gatekeeper thought "this guy is retarded... in the bin" you've never met real competition for grants or opportunities...

So why would you hire an editing service?

You don't know what the standards are, or what the benefits of having a well-edited resume are.

"Oh I can write/edit it myself. Eh there may be a couple of typos I'll just give it a 5 minute look-over, should be fine"...

The people who take it seriously don't need your service. The people who don't take it seriously don't want your service.

You need to make them realize the importance of what you're offering or else they won't even bother inquiring.

"Editing" is not a benefit. I have a piece of text. After I work with you, I have an edited piece of text. So what? It's still a piece of text. Why is what you've done to it valuable to me? What if you ruin it? How does it make my life better?

...

There's no such thing as oversaturation. Only poor competition.

So what if there are a million businesses targeting 1000 people? If you're better than all of them, you'll carve your niche.

You can do better...

Would you rather work with someone who "is just here to edit their resumes" or with someone who "will take your dime-a-dozen resume and level it up to extreme professionalism and effectiveness so you can stand out from the crowd and wow any recruiter, giving you the best shot to land your dream job?"

I know which one I'd choose.
 

speedbird

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I don’t think reading an article should be classed as discovering social media is not helpful.

How did *you* get on with social media platforms?

Were you “posting content” or helping and engaging with people on the platforms?


At a higher level, look at the wording of your question:

“How do you get traffic to your newly published website?”

Here’s a tip: Stop calling it traffic.

It’s people, with the same hopes, dreams, fears, and worries as you.

Those people don’t want to “go to a website”, they want to solve a problem.

I think you’ll do better making it your goal to help people solve their problem.

What is the problem they’re trying to solve?

Who are those people?

What do they *already* pay for that indicates they’re trying to solve the problem you solve?


“Who already has your clients?”
(Jay Abraham)

Could you find those people in online communities? Could those people be searching on Google or YouTube? Etc.
Hi mate!

Yes, you're right, I'm sorry for the incorrect use of the word 'traffic'. I'm not a native speaker but with traffic, I actually meant people to discover my website and have that as an option in mind whenever I can assist and help them with their issue (getting my website more known)

I'm mainly targeting software developers, and I've got some very helpful answers on my question, just like you said, I should go where the developers mainly are (dev forums, reddit, stackoverflow, ...) and start from there

Thanks! And my appologies again for the misunderstanding
 

speedbird

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I built my site entirely organically but it does take time for the SEO to produce volume. Around 6 years ago my site was doing ok with around 3,000 unique visitors a day for a niche topic. I won't go into the details but my hosting company managed to have my domain delisted from Google. After switching to a new hosting company and spending time building a new site I managed to get the site added back to the Google index.

I now run at about 50k to 100k unique visitors a month (humans not bots). Everything has been done using "How to" articles designed to appeal to my target audience. I publish one of these each week and they target keywords that I find using SpyFu. I used to pay for SpyFu but found I can get everything I need with the free service.

I don't use any link building techniques, advertising, promoting on social media or guest posting. Around 80% of my traffic is search, generated by the articles I post. The rest tends to come from links, word of mouth on forums, my YouTube videos and the books I publish. Incidentally, I use the videos in the articles which tends to keep people engaged on the page.

Even after doing this, there are no guarantees. Probably 80% of my article traffic comes from less than 20% of my articles. There are a few big-hitting articles that consistently pull in the bulk of views and I will expect you to experience the same. That's why it's important to plan and identify these potential articles in advance.

If you want to try to grow organically I would recommend having an initial target of 20 keywords with reasonable search volumes (100 - 1000 searches each month but you can aim higher later). Now research the existing articles that rank for those keywords and create articles with greater value and more appeal. Publish one new article a week for the next 20 weeks. After that, find the next 20 and repeat. It's probably going to be 6-12 months for your traffic to kick in.

After 2 years, don't just publish new articles. You should be looking back through your old articles to refine and republish them. If you don't, they will probably drop in the rankings; I know mine do. It's also easier to update and republish old articles.

I'm sure there will be others on this forum who have faster/better ways, but this is what's worked for me.

By the way, I'm assuming you have the other basics in place like a well-designed site that's responsive, easy to navigate and is fast. People landing on your pages want answers fast. You need to make it easy for them. If you don't, it doesn't matter how much traffic you drive there, it won't do you any good.

Thanks for sharing your experience! I find it very helpful to get to know about other peoples experiences who faced the same issue

I will make sure to get some well written articles out there, and, of course, I compeletly agree with you on the design and responsiveness of the web app. Optimization will be done later but throughout the design phase, I've spent a tremendous amount of time to make thing very easy to read and understand and make it far better so that my users find what they were initially looking for, fast and without any unnecessary delays.
 
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Move the chains

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The best option is to research low competition keywords, write high-quality articles, start building links, guest posts which can help you to increase your website traffic massively.
This ^

Also, can you connect with some relevant sites where your product/service complements them and either offer to write something for them to publish or is there an out of date / broken link that they can replace with something quality from your site.

I know it's work but when you don't have cash equity, it's using sweat equity instead to get the ball rolling.
 

Speed112

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Over here, over there.
Yes, you're right, I'm sorry for the incorrect use of the word 'traffic'.

Heh. It's not an incorrect use. It's the common use. Most people refer to people coming to their website as traffic, but what Andy's pointing out is that this way of looking at things dehumanizes those you're trying to help.

They're not JUST traffic. They're people. But they are referred to as traffic by marketers.

If you understand this and adjust your messaging to account for that, you'll have a great advantage!
 
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